CR Blog

  How do your products represent social groups or issues? 

Our short film is a part of the LGBTQ+ genre, it tackles and highlights LGBTQ+ relationships and issues that many people in the community face on a daily basis. Our film is based around a young girl, Cassidy, who struggles with her sexuality. When we first meet Cassidy, she is in a straight relationship that is going great until she meets Jade, a girl she quickly gains feelings for. This makes things much more complicated for her as she has to deal with discovering her sexuality, maintaining her relationship with her boyfriend, and facing the question of if she wants to continue that relationship and along the way she starts to discover herself. We wanted our film to show to people who might be going through the same issue of sexuality, that many people face this issue and that they are not alone and show others what people can go through in situations such as this one. We hope our film can influence people that it is okay to be in the LGBTQ+ community and that being heterosexual is not the “normal” way. Although in the end, Cassidy does end up with Jade, this will probably not be the end of her journey regarding sexuality. We hope that viewers realize this but are still inspired to explore their own sexuality bravely and not be afraid of backlash. We chose the LGBTQ+ genre because we want to inspire people to be themselves and to not be afraid of embracing themselves and not worry about what others may think. We want to show people that straight relationships and being heterosexual is not the only way and that, just like Cassidy, they too should not be afraid to explore their sexuality. 

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

When having the discussion about the film my group and I made, it’s not just about the actual video. I am discussing everything that makes this film unique and how we are getting it out to people. When making a film, the goal is obviously for people to see and enjoy it. In order to get our film out to people, we have to do a few things to guarantee that people will be informed of its release. This is known as branding the film. When making our film, we also were assigned to make multiple social media accounts along with a website, a poster, a postcard, and more. Doing all this and spreading it to the world was our way of telling people our film is coming. These forms of advertisement are similar to when a movie is coming out and there is a trailer that is released, telling you what it is about and when and where you can watch it. On our social media and website, we give information about the film, this includes the pitch and when you can watch it. We also created a postcard that provides the usernames and handles of the social media, the website, and a quote that is from the film. All of these forms of branding have the same colors and a photo of the diner to give a subconscious link of connection. These similar colors and photos show a theme throughout our film and forms of branding. We hope that through our social media, website, and more people will find out about our film and will be excited to see it. 

How do your products engage with the audience?

Our film engages with audiences on an emotional level. Watching our film, audiences will feel different emotions towards all of the characters. While watching Cassidy struggle with her sexuality, some viewers may relate and feel the same way. The viewer may form a connection to Cassidy and feel safe seeing that other people go through what they are going through. They might like and appreciate Cassidy for being brave and exploring her sexuality, especially if the viewer watching is scared to explore theirs. We hope our film can influence others to be brave and explore their sexuality and that being heterosexual isn’t “normal,” any sexuality is “normal.” Viewers can also feel for other characters. For example, viewers might feel bad for Aiden seeing as he loves Cassidy and she is starting to not reciprocate those feelings. This is one way that people watching our film can feel for other characters. The audience might also like the character of Brian and Paige because they are kind of the comedic relief and they are there for Aiden and Cassidy. Viewers might also like Jade because they appreciate what she represents for Cassidy. Not only did she help Cassidy explore her sexuality, but she was there for Cassidy too when she felt alone and when she had no one else to talk to. All of these emotions just serve to help our film engage with audiences on an emotional level. People can emotionally relate to the main characters and feel for them in some way. 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

When doing a project, it is important to know and research the genre and the products associated with it and this is no different when producing a film. Research during a film is very important to make sure that the film is not too different or too similar to any other film in that same genre. When researching the LGBTQ+ genre, we noticed that the characters were usually teenagers, usually someone struggling with their sexuality, and the color correction was usually bright. We followed these conventions in many ways while still keeping a safe distance from them. This being a highschool student film, the characters were all teenagers and the plot of the film was the main character struggling with their sexuality. We also had everyone wear colors that were bright and the diner and room we mainly filmed in were full of color. We did, however, also challenge conventions in some way. For example, the angles used in LGBTQ+ films are mostly mid shots and are two-person shots. We did include these but we also did scenes with only one person and scenes that were close-ups and we did from different angles. High angles are not a convention of the LGBTQ+ genre, but we still used them. We also challenged conventions because the main girl starts off in a straight relationship, where this usually doesn’t happen in many LGBTQ+ films. We wanted to challenge some conventions to set our film apart, making more people want to see it. We did however follow some of the conventions because we wanted people to tell what genre the film fit into. 

Short Film Package

 My Short Film Package:

Moonlite Diner (our short film)

Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dg3NsRM8-jw&t=2s

Link to website: https://joaquinaort2004.wixsite.com/mysite

Post Card:

(Front)

(Back)

Refilming the short film

 When editing the film, I noticed that a few of the scenes we needed to re-film. Some of them got cut off or we were talking too fast or the sound wasn't that good so re-filming would get us the quality that we wanted to make our film as good as we could make it. Luckily for us, all the scenes that needed to be re-filmed had to be done at Joaquina's house. When preparing to go to Joaquina's house, we all had to make sure that we put on the exact same outfits and looked as similar as we could to the first day we filmed. We did not want to mess up and have different outfits and make the film confusing when scenes from the same day had different outfits on. We had to re-film the scene of Jade, Cassidy, and Paige on the bed talking. When we originally filmed this scene, we were talking too fast and not loud enough so we couldn't hear it well. We re-filmed this scene and we tried to make it look more natural. We re-did it twice and then watched them both to make sure you could hear us. We also had to re-film Cassidy and Jade in the bathroom. We accidentally cut the scenes off too short. We had to re-do the scenes and film them a few seconds before and after we started talking. They did this because when I was putting the scenes together some of the scene got cut off so we wanted to make sure that none of our talking got cut off. It was annoying that we had to re-do some of the scenes because they were really good and the acting was perfect but we didn't want any talking to be cut off, so we did it. We were worried that if the talking was cut off that the film wouldn't be as easy to understand and we wanted everything to be clear. We also re-filmed the end scene where the girls are about to kiss. We did not have to re-film this scene but we did it just in case. The first time we filmed, when we were filming this scene, the girls kept laughing. We wanted to re-film it just in case the scene ended with them laughing accidentally. After we re-filmed, I put in all of these scenes and the movie was almost done. I am finishing some final touches and then the movie will be done and I'm so excited to see the final product. I can't wait for you to see it too!

Making the Postcard and keeping up with social media

 Hi, welcome back to the blog! For this next part of the film, we just had a lot of little things we had to do to keep up with our film. Now that we were pretty much done with filming and editing, there were still a few things that needed to be done. For example, we had to finish a postcard. The postcard was fun to make. I love being a part of digital design so this was fun to make, especially with my friends who are also creative. We decided for the front of the postcard we would do a picture of the diner. We decided that this was best because it was the front cover of our film and the name of the film was based on the diner. This diner is also significant in the film because it is where the love interests first meet. The front also included the name of the film, of course. Joaquina said that we should include that it was a short student film and from ABJ productions so we also included that. We all worked together to decide what colors and we chose the same colors as the website. We decided to have the back have all the social medias. This included the Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, and Youtube handle. I suggested a small burger at the top right to go along with the diner theme. We found a very cute minimalistic one and added it. We used the website Canva to make the postcard. The next thing we had to do for our film was keep up with the social medias. We followed all of the artists that allowed us to use their songs. We also followed some more people/accounts of student films. Thank you for reading this blog, go on to the next blog to see more updates about our film. 

On to editing

 Welcome back. We're finally done with filming so we're moving onto editing. With Covid-19, editing was going to be a little more difficult to do. Usually, we can edit at school together and take turns, but none of us are at school. Although editing would be difficult to do together, we were going to figure out a way to make it work. The first part of editing we had to do was choosing through all the clips. This was actually really fun to do. We watched all of the clips and "favorited" the ones we liked best. We usually "favorited" two clips of the same scene in case we liked one better than the other. I enjoyed watching the clips and thinking of the fun we had filming. After choosing our favorites, we then looked through those and only chose one clip for each scene instead of two. When we shot a lot of the shots, we recorded for longer than the scene was in case we needed extra time. That meant that when it was time to edit, we had to shorten these scenes. So, that was the next thing we had to do. We all did it together and I let the group know where to end it since he would be doing most of the editing. Joaquina and I did most of this since I would be doing a lot of the editing. I can't believe we are so close to finishing our film. I'm really excited to see our final product because we've worked so hard. Read my next blog to see what happens next. Thanks for keeping up, see you soon! 

COVID and Editing

 This is my second time being in Media Studies, being in A level now. I did AS Level Media Studies last year and unfortunately Covid-19 affected the end of our year. I am telling you this now so you know that Covid-19 has affected my time in Media Studies for two school years. This year for school, I am doing school online, so obviously some changes had to be made when doing school and working with a group to film/edit/plan. We all had to make sure before we agreed to be a group that our parents would be okay with us being together to film or do any other steps. It wasn’t too difficult to plan our film because we could do that over the phone. We all did certain parts of the storyboard and script and worked together to make the film fit all of our visions. The script was a little difficult to work on at separate times because we wanted to make sure we all agreed on it. To reduce the trouble, we made sure to read over it together after it was done and make changes together. The next thing was the storyboard, which was easy to do with the script. Filming was a little difficult because we had to make sure that the restaurant we wanted to film at would allow us with Covid-19 and social distancing. We also had to make sure that parents/families were comfortable with people being in houses. Luckily, all the parents/families and the restaurant were okay with us filming. In the restaurant, we wanted to film when it was less busy, however, because we did not want to have our masks on during the film. Editing was difficult just because we would not be able to all edit since only one person had the software. I did most of the editing, whereas Joaquina and Amy did most of the acting and planning. This worked for us because it highlighted all of our strengths. As you can see, because of Covid-19, a lot of changes had to be made. Because we’ve been living in this “covid world” for a while now though, we were able to make it work. I’m extremely grateful that my group was able to get together to film and that we worked so well together. Thank you for coming along this planning/filming/editing journey with me. I can’t wait to show you the final product.

the begining of editing

 We're finally starting to actually edit. As I said before, it would be a little more complicated to edit because we could not all be together. Joaquina and Amy chose the music for me to use. We emailed a few people but only two responded. King Princess's manager and Danger Incorporated's manager gave us approval to use their music. From King Princess, we would be using the song "Cheap Queen" and from Danger Incorporated we would be using the song "Diamonds." Although we had other songs that we wanted more, we were glad to get approval from any of the artists. The next thing I wanted my group to do was tell me how they wanted the film to be edited. Joaquina and I both agreed that we wanted it to be edited similar to how many young adult/lgbtq+ films are edited. This means that there were little to no transitions. It also meant that the editing made the film look very smooth, with not a lot of cuts. Just like everything in our film had the conventions of lgbtq+ films, we wanted our editing to be the same. We hoped that even without the plotline, it was obvious our film was in the lgbtq+ genre. Through our editing, clothes, young characters, and dialogue, we hoped to achieve that. They also told me that when we watched the film, we wanted to feel a sense of contentment and excitedness for the characters. My group told me that if I could do that with editing, it would be great. I said he would try to make it happen and that I had the same vision as them. It's great that our whole group had the same vision and was excited to see our project come alive. I told My group that there would be no exterior shots because we did not have time, which was the only thing that we missed with the conventions. We're finally done with our film and I'm so excited, I can't wait for everyone to see it. Stay tuned on the next blog to see how Covid-19 affected filming, editing, and more.