Overcoming Difficulties: Part 1

In a recent blog post, I make mention of all the trials and tribulations that I faced as I wrote the first draft of the script.  In it, I state that I want to keep the conversation between Joseph and Father Peter, yet I need to edit it down as it will take up way too much time in the final piece.  Additionally, I wrote that I was at a loss on how to end the production. Both of these were problems that I was struggling to solve.

After giving it some thought, I'll be removing the conversation between the two characters, and instead making the entire production surround Joseph and his internal dialogue.  Although it pains me to do so, I came to this conclusion for a plethora of reasons:

• Location scouting!!!  For Father Peter's office, I would need a semi-large, 4-walled room with a desk, shelves, decor, props, and crosses.  Although I'm willing to compromise on a lot of things, I would still need it to look like a semi-believable office, and I simply don't know where I would film this.  Although I considered renting an office room for a day, I would need to bring in props and hang crosses on the walls, which is too much of a hassle.  By removing this scene, I'm also removing the problem.
• Acting.  When including a dialogue scene between two characters, I feel like the acting is just as important as the writing.  I don't consider myself to be a bad writer, but, it being one of my first times ever writing dialogue, I'm definitely not confident in my abilities.  Now, adding on to that the fact that none of my actors have ever done this before, I believe that I'm taking on too many risk-factors at once.
• And, finally, the scene is too long.  I tried cutting it down, but when I do, I end up just adding more.  I'm already dealing with a very short amount of allotted time, and, at the risk of it sounding rushed and half-developed, I don't want to shorten the dialogue any more than it already is.

Having considered these points, it left me with no doubt that I would need to get rid of this scene.  However, being a little too attached to this idea, I came up with a way that I can still incorporate the priest.  As previously mentioned, I was on the hunt for ways to end my production.  I wanted the end to shock the audience, and provide a sort of lightbulb moment. 

I've decided that the last scene will be a shot of the counselor's door opening, revealing a smiling priest who greets Joseph before telling him to come in.  I want the ending to be clear, yet I don't want to explicitly state it to the audience; I want them to work for their meal.  Throughout the production, Joseph's internal monologue will represent the struggle that he is dealing with when faced with his religion and his sexuality.  Yet, at no point will I mention conversion therapy.  In the end, when the audience is face-to-face with a man wearing full preacher attire who is welcoming Joseph into his office, the two will be connected.

 However, discarding the conversation scene and replacing it with monologue also brings with it its own set of issues.  For example:

• My production is now too short.  I would need to add 1:30 minutes worth of additional writing, which might bore my audience, or just end up sounding phony.  After all, I can only be philosophical for a limited amount of time.
• Considering I do expand on Joseph's monologue (which I most likely will), I would need B-roll footage to juxtapose the voice-over.  Here, I'm at a loss for what I could film.  If the production begins with him at church and ends with him at the counselor's office, should the middle be the realistic in-between time, or should it be flashbacks?
• I still have no idea how good of an actor my friend Joey is.  I want the character of Joseph to sound pained, betrayed, and carrying emotional baggage, so I'm a bit worried considering that Joey sounds like a Californian surfer bro.

Regardless, this seems like the best course of action.  Having taken so long to decide on the final plot progression, I seem to have fallen behind.  This following week I plan to write the final draft of the script, so I can move on to storyboarding, finalizing the cast, scouting locations, and working on the shooting schedule.  Until next time!

"No One Wants to Be in a Cast"

I have decided that my production will follow two characters: Joseph Farley, a 16-year-old devout Christian who also happens to be gay, and Father Peter, an older, cheery gentleman who is the head counselor at the conversation therapy camp.

Although I've spent time fully exploring Joseph's character, Father Peter remains something of a mystery.  Yet, I kind of like this turn of events.  In the movie, we view life through Joseph's perspective; what Joseph doesn't know, the audience doesn't either.  Therefore, I don't plan on expanding on Father Peter's background, motives, or thoughts.  He's a sort of enigma, and that's what makes him so frightening to Joseph.

Yet, the fact remains that I need to find someone to cast as the priest.  Joseph Farley, who will be played by my good friend Joseph Coste, has been already cast.  Now, suffering from an acute lack of old men in my life, casting the priest is proving to be a little more difficult.  Naturally, my first option was to turn to my father.  He's very naturally cheery and optimistic, which is something that I want reflected in the priest's character.  To test out his skills, I decided to run through some lines with him.

Immediately, there were some issues.  I had told him that I wanted a bright and extroverted character, and he took this to mean 'eerily happy and uncomfortably smiley.'  Additionally, he was putting on a phony American accent, which was working in no-one's favor.  All that aside, I don't want to sound unappreciative; I admire his commitment.  Still, the fact remains that we need to work on his acting methods a little more before the final scenes are filmed.

After some more brainstorming, I considered casting my dad's friend John.  John is an older and more soft-spoken gentleman.  Although I'm very fond of John, I don't know if his gentle nature will work well with the idea I have of the priest in my mind.  Although, it would make the conversation scene a bit more sinister.  

Additionally, John also has some characteristics that would work better with the character than if he were played by my dad.  In contrast to my Latin father, John is Canadian.  Although I don't think that my dad's accent will hinder production by any means, he seems hell-bent on adopting American speech patterns, which makes him sound comedic.

Currently, I'm torn between these two men.  Both seem like viable options, as they both have their different pros and cons.  Still, I'm skeptical of both men's acting, but I'm at a loss for who else I can look into.  I plan to work on this problem over the weekend, and come to a solution by the next week.  Updates to come!

Encountering Difficulties: Part 1

Hello again!  It's been a few days since my last blog posting, so I thought I'd check in again despite not having many updates.  I've been working on my script these past few days, and it's been pretty difficult to say the least.  Although I have a pretty solid idea and a decent plot progression, I can't help but to over-write.  After writing most of it (except for the ending, as I'm not entirely sure how it'll go yet), I decided to run it through a speech time calculator.  

This, however, proved to be completely demotivating as my dialogue exceeded the allotted time, and I still need to factor in pauses and short moments of silence.  Thus, it has become clear to me that I need to cut down on the writing.  I could easily remove the beginning monologue scene and work with the rest of the script, but I'm strongly against the idea.  The monologue sets the scene for the rest of the production, and I feel like it offers imperative insight into Joseph's mind.  So, my problem here is that I don't know which dialogue lines to cut out from the conversation scene, as they are all fairly important in the overall production.  Another difficulty I'm facing is that I don't know how to end the scene.  The last line must shock the audience and work to set up the premise for the movie, but I have no idea what it could be.

I've changed a few things about the production since I started.  Namely, Joseph's devotion to his religion.  At first, I wanted Joe to be deeply dedicated to Christianity and it's strict rules.  He knows that he's had gay thoughts, but he considers them to be wrong, and wants to change.  Yet, after some consideration, I decided to change this.  Although the idea of having Joe be in a constant battle with his psyche is appealing, its also hard to execute in the short amount of time that I have.  Instead, outward conflict is easier to write in conversational scenes.  I still decided to keep a little bit of the 'internal struggle' idea, and I implemented it in a voice-over scene instead.  I find v.o. to be a little cheesy, but I think that under the right circumstances, I can pull it off. 

I wrote the monologue scene somewhat quickly with the intention of it being a placeholder.  However, after re-reading it a little later, I quite liked what I had written.  The writing is definitely still subject to change, but its not at the top of my list.  Anyways, here it is in all it's glory:

I've been writing my script on Celtx, as I have experience using this software, and I enjoy how easy it is to work.

As of now, my main concerns are figuring out how to end the production, as well as shortening it.  As I continue to work on this, I also need to begin to consider casting and location scouting.  More updates to come on that.  For now, wish me luck as I take on the extremely strenuous and back-breaking task of adding two extra lines of characters talking!

Giving Myself a Headache

Today marks the beginning of week two of consistent blogging, and week three of working on my portfolio.  To summarize last weeks' posts, I'm writing, filming, and editing a two minute long movie intro as part of my final Cambridge assessment.

I have decided to flesh out the story of Joseph Farley, an Orthodox Christian teen who comes to struggle with his identity after realizing that he is gay.  Joseph's family forces him to go to conversion therapy, which is where the story will begin.  As I mentioned previously in my plot overview post, I was originally planning on including three scenes in the final production.  However, I came to realize that I will not be able to execute this with my 2:30-minute-long time limit.

After discussing with my teacher, she told me that I should focus on establishing character (specifically, Joseph's sexuality), and use that to set the scene for the rest of the film.  When I mentioned that I wanted to include a scene in the conversion therapy counselor's office, she warned me of getting too ahead of myself, and to remember the time limit.  Yet, its a scene that I can't shake off.  

Without the introduction of the anti-gay therapy, my story lacks substance.  Still, its true that a full conversation here might be too long for my allotted time.  Plus, there is the issue of setting.  I wanted the office to include a comical amount of crosses on the wall, which means that I would most likely have to design the set myself (I also wanted the walls to be minty green, which I know I can't realistically include, but the defeat still stings a little).

If I can't include a conversation between the counselor and Joseph, then I thought that I could at least include a scene of them meeting for the first time at the office.  However, this scene can only realistically take up to 10 seconds, and now I'm faced the opposite problem of not having enough content to fill up the time.  As a solution, I'm beginning to write the script as follows:

• Joseph's voiceover over scenes of him at mass
• Cut to him at the counselor's office, meeting for the first time
• They have a brief conversation which establishes why Joseph is there
• It ends; title appears

Once I finish, I'll read over what I wrote to make a pretty accurate assumption as to how much time it will take up.  If it goes over the 2:30 minute limit, then I'll go back to the drawing board.  Regardless, I'm pretty optimistic about this new plot progression. I'm looking forward to executing the concept, except for the location scouting and set design aspect of it all... Well, I guess I'll deal with that once I get there.  Until next time!

"Gay and Alone"

Joseph Farley is a (somewhat unconventionally) normal 16-year-old boy.  He's nerdy, introverted, private.  Joseph doesn't have many friends, but he's okay with that.  He's never been the social type, preferring instead the comfort of his own reserved group of friends.  Joseph was born into an Evangelical Christian family, a religion that, while many around him rejected, he embraced.  To him, going to church was less of a chore than a moral obligation.  He believed in God, worshipped the word of the bible, and prayed daily.  

However, conflict arises when Joseph's sexuality comes into question.  After having a brief romantic encounter with another boy, Joe's family is left with no choice but to send him to anti-gay conversion therapy.  This is where the film will begin.

Creating the character of Joseph wasn't too hard.  Due to his religious background, I thought it would be obvious for him to have a biblical name.  After some serious researching (I even asked the Christian girl in my math class for her opinions), I was left to choose between Adam, Jonah, John, Matthew, and Joseph.  After narrowing it down to just Matthew and Joseph, I ended up decided on the latter (it had a nicer ring to it, and it wasn't too douche-y).  Using this last name generator, I narrowed down my options for Joe's last name to these three:

• Joseph Farley
• Joseph Brewer
• Joseph Garner

I ended up going with Farley, although I might change this later on during the production process.  

Ironically, Joseph is also the name of my friend who I have decided to cast in my production.  I'm not too convinced about his acting skills, but he does owe me a favor, and he matches the mental image I have of the character.  Yet, Joey (my friend, not the protagonist) is unlike 'movie Joseph' in basically every aspect apart from looks.  I fear that this might prove to be a bigger problem when it comes to filming, but we'll deal with that when it comes time.

Asking Joey to take on the role of a gay character took less convincing than I originally planned it would (toxic masculinity loses yet again!).  Instead, Joe's biggest concern seemed to be that of who will play his boyfriend.  When I informed him that the character doesn't have one, he said, and I quote, "Duuuude, I'm gay and alone?"  Absurdly, I thought that was a pretty good summary of Joseph's character.  

However, "gay and alone" doesn't quite lead one to a full understanding of character background, motivation, fears, inspirations, etc.  So, I began working on a mood board instead.  Mood boards are visual collages that help develop character, mood, background, setting, and more.  Here are two that I made for a previous project that I quite like:

When thinking of Joseph, I focused on the conflict between his personal life and his belief-set.  For his background, I wanted to include religious symbols as well as a picture of the American suburbs, which is where Joseph is from.  By splitting the background into these two images, I wanted to emphasize the division inside of Joe.  On one side, he is his authentic self, but on the other he is forced to change due to cultural norms.  As a bonus, I used a picture of young boy that I found on Pinterest, as I thought that it went well with the theme of euphoric childhood evolving into troubled adolescence.  Here is the finished product:

Joseph Farley mood board

How to Write a Script on Something That I Know Nothing About

Okay, yes, I know that centering my Cambridge final on an experience that I have no familiarity with is a challenge to say the least.  This is especially so when considering that my production will be heavily led by dialogue, and so it must be accurate and convincing.  To accomplish this, I turned my research onto articles written by former conversion therapy patients.

In an interview with Alexa Tsoulis-Reay for The Cut, which you can find here, former patient Deb Cuny explains the typical conventions of the community she was raised in.  She was a devout Christian from birth, explaining that she would even go as far as to "pin classmates up against the wall demanding they give their lives to Christ."  In this community, it was constantly reinforced that homosexuality was a sin.  Cuny describes coming to terms with her sexual orientation, coming out to her parents, and getting a girlfriend upon going to college.  However, after being broken up with, she describes feeling lost and disoriented; "I felt desperate, like I had become what my parents had warned."  Because of this, she enrolled herself into conversion therapy at her parent’s behest. She describes feeling guilty, stating “I thought I was being bombarded by demons.”  This deeply rooted religious trauma and fear of sinning is something that is very interesting to look into.

Once at the conversion camp, she was made to fast for 36 hours.  Then, she was taken to an isolated room where two priests began praying over her, begging the ‘demon’ to get out.  This process lasted over 6 hours, with the priests growing increasingly violent as the time wore on.

In another Time Magazine article written by James Guay, found here, he discusses his ‘hellish youth’ in conversion therapy.  Like Cuny, Guay was told from a young age that gay people were “an abomination to God, worthy of eternal damnation in hell.” Guay describes finding out that he was gay, and that he would pray obsessively for God to cure him.  Unsurprisingly, no amount of religious repression changed him.  Instead, he “was taught by pastors, parents, and peers to hate [himself].” 

While reading, I took note of certain key phrases that were used frequently, and I plan to include these in the final draft of the script:

• "Demons inside of you"
• "Accept Jesus into your heart"
• "You have chosen this path"
• "Struggling with same-sex attractions"
• "Abomination to God"
• "Corrective and healing relationships with Jesus Christ"

Additionally, I plan to speak with people who have experience in these overtly religious communities in order to make the dialogue as realistic as possible. As of now, I plan to speak to my friends as well as one of my teachers.

The main problem I face is having to condense this all into a 2:30 minute long film opening, which must not come out rushed or under-developed.  Because my original idea consisted of 3 scenes, it’s highly unlikely that I would have been able to include them all in a concise manner.  After discussing with my teacher, I plan on reworking my idea to focus mainly on establishing character in 1 scene instead.  To accomplish this, I’m thinking of perhaps including a voiceover.

As of now, my current plans are to rework my original storyline, and get started on the script as soon as possible.

Plot Overview

Recently, I conducted some research on coming-of-age film standards as well as certain techniques used in stories that revolve around conversion therapy.  I found that coming-of-age productions tend to be characterized by an overtly emotional plot-line.  Unlike other teen flicks, these movies prioritize seeking an emotional response from the audience.  While they may still be light-hearted or comedic, producers wish to activate that sense of wonder about the world, and allow audiences to follow the characters' as they make their way around the world.

My film aims to establish many of these same conventions.  Because the story follows a religious teen boy as he comes to terms with his sexuality and is sent to anti-gay therapy, it is imperative that the script adheres to these genre guidelines.  However, subject matter alone is not enough to guide an emotional response in viewers.  Thus, dialogue and cinematography will be very important.  I will begin to write the script sometime soon, and start work on my storyboard once the former is complete.  As of now, I have a pretty comprehensive rough draft of what I want my final piece to look like:

• Begins with a production company logo.  This will be relatively simple white text on black background, but I wish to incorporate some simple animation to engage audience.
• After logo, we see a black screen.  J-cut of a preacher giving a sermon.
• We never see the preacher.  Instead, we cut directly to the boy as he stands and sits again during the mass.  There is a lot of movement, and he looks tense.  I want to use a handheld camera for these clips, as it furthers the feeling of stress and restlessness.  As the tensions grow, the sermon begins to get increasingly drowned out as it is replaced by a ringing noise.
• The scene is cut dramatically, and we now change settings to the church's bathroom.  We see the boy fling open the bathroom door, where he begins to have a panic attack.  I want to use jump-cuts to establish the panicked feeling.
• Previously, I was going to have another boy walk in to the bathroom, encounter the protagonist freaking out, and place a comforting hand on the boy's shoulder.  This was going to trigger a memory in the protag, and further establish his disgust at homosexuality and his own feelings.  However, I think that I'll be changing this to a shot of the boy's mother finding him bent over the sink and remarking to him that its time to go.
• The final shots will be filmed in the counselor's office at the conversion center. Here, the boy will explain that he has sinned, and the counselor will state that they are here to cure him.  I want the office to be covered in crosses and religious symbols, so it is likely that I will have to set up this location myself.  Additionally, I want there to be a sense of symmetry in the shots.
• This last scene will be entirely led by dialogue, and will surely be a pain to write.  Yet, it's the most important scene of all.  I want to create a slow build-up that leads to a pin-drop moment, which is when I intend to cut away to the film title.

The film seems easy enough to write, but my major setbacks are that I have no experience with conversion therapy (that much is evident), and that I have no religious background whatsoever.  This seems to directly contradict my teacher's "write what you know" advice, but I'm pretty confident that I can pull something together.  I plan to overcome this by researching conversion therapy practices and reading articles written by people who have experienced it, as well as discussing first-hand religious trauma with people who grew up with the church.

Exploring Genre

I have decided on the final storyline I will pursue for my film opening.  My film will revolve around the life of a young Christian boy who was raised in an overwhelmingly religious community, and is of strong religious faith.  The film will explore the consequences of the boy's homosexuality, including his own afflictions as well as that of his family.

I have already began to plan some filming, editing, and sound techniques, but I want to focus on researching the film's genre before I get too involved in production.  Because the film follows this boy on his journey of self-discovery and acceptance, it will naturally be a coming-of-age movie.  However, because of the taboo nature of homosexuality in the church, it will ultimately be a drama as well.

As I've made very clear in my previous exploration of genre characteristics, I thoroughly enjoy slice-of-life productions.  If I were to make my intro into a longer film, I would definitely follow slice-of-life conventions.  However, because the into is only 2 minutes long and must accomplish the goal of creating intrigue, I want to make more action-packed and emotional series of scenes.  With all that being said, I begin my research.

Boy Erased (2018)

The first movie I began to research was Boy Erased (2018), dir. Joel Edgerton.  This film is branded as a teen biographical drama, and it follows the life of Jared Eamons after he was outed to his parents as gay and forced to attend conversion therapy.  Because both of our films follow the same overarching storyline, I thought that this would be a great film to base my research off of.

The film is an adaptation of Garrard Conley's memoir by the same name, yet the film is more dramatized to achieve lasting audience impact.  The film was marketed using dramatic posters that allude to religious motifs, trailers that focus on Jared's strained relationship with his parents and the conversion camp, and through social media and websites.  The film, although described as "admirable, but [missing] a sense of the texture and complication," and "a summary of it's noble intentions" by A.O. Scott's New York Times review, still grossed $11.4 million dollars and was nominated for 23 awards (winning 5).

Regardless, Joel Edgerton did a great job of branding Boy Erased as a queer coming-of-age drama.  Like most movies under this genre, Boy Erased deals with Jared's internal struggle and the hardships he had to overcome in order to grow and mature, and be comfortable in his own skin.

The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018)

Another coming-of-age movie about conversion therapy that I researched was The Miseducation of Cameron Post (2018), dir. Desiree Akhavan.  This movie, although described by Google as a "drama/romance," also fits the exact requirements of every good coming-of-age film.  The production focuses on developing characters, creating a "realistic depiction of [the teenage audience's] own lives," and fighting "against [the] zealous oppressors," according to A.O. Scott's review.  The film revolves around the protagonist Cameron Post, who is outed as gay by her boyfriend and subsequently sent to a religious conversion camp.

In the first 2 and a half minutes, The Miseducation of Cameron Post achieves all of its goals.  It begins with a scene of Cameron at worship with a group of young kids around her age.  They listen, although probably unattentively, at the middle-aged preacher.  While the man continues to preach, an L-cut allows us to move on to another scene of Cameron and her friend biking home, where it is then revealed that the two girls are in a relationship.  The juxtaposition of the man discussing sin ("And you think, 'Oh, just this once, just a little longer...' Click. It's gotcha") and the shot of the two girls kissing does the perfect job of setting up the rest of the movie.

Meanwhile, Boy Erased begins with home-movie recording of young Jared that is paired with a sweet, melodic song.  The reminiscence ends and instead we are confronted with a family eating breakfast in the darkness, with Jared stating that he wishes that none of this had ever happened.  Although I prefer the former intro, this one does accomplish a sense of intrigue.

When planning how I will execute my film intro, I hope to do something similar to Cameron Post.  I love the slow buildup that leads to a pin-drop moment, and I love how it is led by dialogue.  Additionally, I love the over-lapping speaking with other scenes.  I wish to do a similar thing by implementing a J-cut at the very beginning, and perhaps another J-cut a bit later into the production.

a new era

We are starting our media portfolio, a giant conglomerate of a project that will take us 9 weeks to execute from start to finish.  This project, which consists of creating an original storyline and script, as well as executing it through filming, editing, and sound production, will be worth half of my final Cambridge exam.  As such, I wish to be thorough and methodical to achieve the end goal of producing a piece that not only meets the Cambridge standards, but also that I am proud of.

As of now, I have begun to conceptualize an idea that I quite like.  My goals are to create a character-driven, dialogue-led production, as I believe writing to be my strength (when compared to my directorial techniques).  Additionally, I plan on creating a script that requires as little actors and setting changes as possible, in order to facilitate filming and scouting.  

I plan to spend this week researching and finalizing my ideas, so that I have a head start when it comes to actually filming.  I’ll be documenting my process on here, so stay alert!

Axel Hayes: Wrapped

At long last the media marketing project is over... We have single-handedly experienced the rise and fall of Axel Hayes.  Now that we have concluded researching, filming, editing, and presenting, I'm ready to put him away in the deepest corners of my brain forever.  But before I do, here's a concise recap on everything Axel Hayes:

One of the first things we did was to research similar alternative rock bands in order to gauge their marketing techniques, including social media usage and cross-media convergence.  After focusing our research mainly on Papa Roach and Arctic Monkeys, we realized that they embraced a lot of social media.  Specifically, both bands were very active on MySpace during their earlier years, and later transitioned to Instagram and Twitter.  Additionally, both bands received a lot of attention (specifically from younger audiences) after having their songs go viral on TikTok.  Since we knew that Axel's target audience was young adults, we made sure to incorporate the use of these apps into our marketing.

Instagram account

We would use the accounts to spread important messages, go live, interact with fans, post demos and audio clippings, and just post regular pictures of Axel being himself.  Through this, fans can get more content, interactive experiences, and get to know him as if he were a friend.

Creating a marketing campaign for Axel didn't require much brainstorming, as most of it came naturally.  As with any up-and-coming artist, we wanted him to have a strong fanbase before releasing music.  Thus, we decided to create build-up by first creating social media postings, releasing demos, and making sure that the audience can get to know a little about him.  Only then will we release his debut 'Sail.'  After, we plan on promoting his work through articles, ads, and collabs.  We chose a collaboration with Adidas, as Axel embodies the aggression and masculinity of rock; something that goes hand-in-hand with Adidas' athletic and perseverant branding.

However, our most grueling and time-consuming task was definitely that of filming and editing.  We met on three separate days to film, and even still a lot of the shots were unusable.  Although only three out of the four of us were able to meet up and film the first day, it still ended up being a very productive day.  We recorded essentially all of Axel's individual scenes, as well as the final fight montage with Juan and Julian.  

Although there were very noticeable errors in the footage, we worked with what we had.  For example, there were shots in which my shadow was very noticeable, and others which were entirely over-exposed.  I worked with this by attempting to lower the exposure and color-grade in post-production, but even still it did not entirely serve as a remedy.

Here, my shadow is very noticeable

Another problem I encountered while editing that I had not originally accounted for was that many of our scenes were too long and did not fit with the rhythm of the music.  As a result of this, I ended up incorporating jump-cut scenes all throughout the first 16 seconds.  However, this did help us in that I had accidentally gotten a clear shot of the building's  entrance which read my city's name, and it did not fit the video's aesthetic. By using jump cuts, I was able to edit this out easily.

This entire scene is overexposed

The next day, we met back at the same location for the second day of filming.  Now having Federica, we were able to do the flashback scenes of Axel and his girlfriend, as well as the scenes including her and the 'new boyfriend.'  These proved to be the hardest to film, as the awkward scenes prompted laughter, and many of the shots had to be discarded.  After the second day, I began editing together all of our footage.  The main problem that stood out to me were the discrepancies in the time of day.  Having originally filmed from 5:00 to 6:45, the first batch of shots featured 'golden hour' lighting and ended at nighttime.  However, as we filmed at 3:00 the next day, the skies were cloudy and the sun was bright.  Although I tried to fix this, again, by lowering the exposure, it wasn't easily fixed.  Another problem that I noticed is that there was a lack of clarity in the music video, and there were several plot holes.  Thus, I put together a list of shots that we were missing, and our team got together again to finish recording them.

List I made to send to my team

These shots, although mere milliseconds long, made the music video look infinitely better.  With these shots, we were able to establish that Axel’s girlfriend had broken up with him, that she was with a new dude, and that Axel was in his car watching them.  Additionally, we got a shot of the new couple saying goodbye, which explains why Julian’s character was alone when he was attacked.

The filming process, although somewhat long, went along smoothly with very few problems (namely, actor’s cooperation).  The editing process (which was also lengthy) went along pretty well.  Editing on Premiere Pro, I added the "Matrix Blue" color filter over the scenes depicting the present, and the "Golden LDR" filter on the flashback scenes.  I had originally thought of differentiating the scenes using blue/red overlays, but I adapted this after I realized that the "Matrix Blue" filter best fit Axel's vibe.  

In the part where Axel supposedly floors the gas and is soaring through the streets, it was clear to us that we couldn't capture this on film.  Instead, I editing a fast zoom on the shot of him in the car, a technique which I hoped would represent motion.  In the fight scene, I slightly blurred the footage and sped it up to mask the actors' smiles and their careful movements in order to create a more realistic 'fight.'  The blurring ended up being unnecessary, as the video's quality went to shit as soon as I uploaded it (sigh).  Regardless, I am satisfied with the final product.

Before our presentation, my team divided up the slides which we would be presenting.  For the most part, we decided that we'd each be discussing the slides which we had written.  This left me with a big workload, and my nerves made me rush through the presentation and forget to mention much of the information I had previously rehearsed.  Still, I think that it went pretty well, all things considered.  We experienced technical difficulties when it came time to show the music video, something which was out of our control, but still slightly infuriating.  Addressing questions from the class was another nerve-wracking element, but I mainly dealt with it by diverting attention away from the question and to some other aspect of the campaign when asked something that I did not have an answer for.  The worst part was definitely when I lost my train of thought mid-way through answering a question, something that a few people later pointed out to me happened at the worst moment.  Regardless, I think that it was managed pretty well.

Overall, I cannot say that I particularly enjoyed this project.  The stress that comes with taking on this entire project by yourself was too much, and it led me to create a watered-down marketing campaign which is not up to par with what I can create by working with people who I trust.  Although I can't say that I'm proud of the work here, I think that it's pretty decent under the circumstances.  My main take-away is that I re-discovered my love for editing, and I would gladly take on the responsibility of editing the Cambridge portfolio together.  I also came to the conclusion that I should take more time to plan out the exact shots that we plan to film, so that we can avoid last-minute shooting.  Finally, I hope to go more in-depth with my research on future assignments.  Despite the setbacks, I did enjoy some of it, and I'm excited for future projects.  I also anticipate to be posting on here a lot more often these coming weeks, so, see you then I suppose. Finally, here is the finalized music video.