My CCR!

 

My CCR for Attention, Attention

    Throughout the duration of this project, I have learned a lot about the film process and what it entails. Taking AICE media studies last year, I did have a clue as to what was expected; however, it is very different making a short film than it is making a film opening. One of the first things that I started out with was determining what themes and inspirations that I would like to portray in my short film. Some of the inspirations that I had that I researched thoroughly were films like La La land, beef, Hunger Games, and other pieces of media that tend to have a more twisted and ominous journey. This is something that I particularly enjoy and wanted to partake in my short film.

One important social group that I wanted to aim for was gender. This is seen a lot in the different films that I've watched, and I really like it because I get to really twist the gender norms and make unique characters, like the character that I have in my film. One show that I felt show this dynamic that I wanted to represent was Beef on Netflix. I really like how the roles were essentially reversed between the couple and this continued throughout the film and worked with the other social group of classes playing in to it. This is something that I mentioned in my elevator pitch video because I believe that this sort of dynamic is commonly played out in certain production groups such as A24 productions. In my film, the main character is a woman who has different feelings and thoughts to that of a more conventionally portrayed female in cinema. Like the joker, she has a darker outlook on life and feels the need to be evil over being a hero. In addition to challenging gender roles, I also feel that my film touches on certain mental health issues. The character feels the need to have attention and has a sort of compulsion that is hard to control and leads her to do bad things. This is an issue for many people in society, in which they are unable to control certain urges that leads them to do frowned upon things in society. Although this is not directly stated, I wanted to relate the title of attention, attention to a common hyperactivity disorder called ADHD and which sometimes it's hard to control impulses, and although it doesn't lead to often to this extreme, the principle of what the woman is doing in the film is indicative of this. Thus, my film represents social groups and issues such as gender, mental health issues, and more.

    One of the first things I did in order to produce my film was to make a script, and write down as many details as I could in order to be able to picture the film in my head it helped it come to life but. One thing that I learned from last year was to ensure I was making it as detailed as possible with stage directions, locations, and more in order to ease filming the day of. This is a problem last year because I did not make my script as detailed and once I got to the day of filming, some things are harder to do because I did not have it laid out for me in advanced. The next thing I did was to make my social account, to start my media campaigns my social media of choice was Instagram, due to the ability for a vast audience reach, and the accessibility of the app itself. Given that I do not use social media, it was a little bit of a learning curve to learn the different ways that I could utilize the app features to my advantage, but once I did I was sure to use it throughout the duration of my media campaign. Some of the posts that I had on my media campaign were fun dances, because these are able to gain a lot of traction and also help to raise anticipation for the film release date. I also included some many interviews with friends, and cast members to see what their favorite part of the film was. Lastly, I made a lobby card, and used snippets from the actual film in order for people to see updates, and a little sneak peek of it. I do believe that I could have been a lot more consistent with my posting, but given that I'm new to Instagram it was not at the top of my mind and I will be sure to improve that for next time

    The camera work and editing were the next two parts of the process that took up a large chunk of time. One of the largest problems that I faced was finding actors to act in my short film. Due to this, the date of my filming with a little delayed, which left me a little less time film, and edit. I had to travel about 3 1/2 hours in order to get to someone who was able to film, so was it a bit of a time crunch during the time of filming, so I was not able to reshoot certain parts. A benefit  to this is that i was able to explore a new area, and get some really unique shots that I was able to include in my film. I used a couple different objects to film, firstly being my iPhone 13 pro Max. I was planning on using my camera, it was very rainy, and I did not wanna risk my camera so I decided to ultimately use my phone. I did have a gimbal that I was able to use in order to get some more steady shots. For the overhead shots I was able to use my drone, and this allowed me to get a lot of landscape, and other really cool shots that it was included. I do feel like some of the camera shots were a little rush, however, the quality I feel is very nice and how was able to change up some of the lighting within the shots to make it look better. During the filming process, I purposely used a lot of jump cuts, the kind of indicate a more rushing feeling to help show more of the character and her personality. For example, one part where I use a jump cut is when she was reading the book, and I cut to another angle of her reading. This was to introduce the next scene in which she checks her phone, and also to introduce the surroundings and how she was kind of alone in her thoughts, and
reading this book that eventually is a context clue. The increased movement in my shots was also intentional because I feel it helps to show her character and how she is constantly moving, and how her mind is racing. This is portrayed in the shots with the constant switch ups, and just overall quick movements. I also attempted to portray this in the editing, by cutting some parts out to make it look more like this. A struggle I had with the camera work and editing was matching the drone parts and the shots filmed on my phone. This is because they both look a lot different, and I had to color match them both to my best ability. I do feel like now it is a more unique shot because it kind of feels like an overhead shot of someone watching them, which helps to add to the ominous view I was going for.

Overall, my film helps to challenge social conventions of gender, by portraying the killer as a woman rather than a man. I was able to portray her increasing insanity, in character bye using a series of various jump cuts, and also a more shaky appeal to the camera. In addition, I use diegetic and non diegetic sound to help keep the viewer in entertained, well also helping to reveal more about the characters. The dialogue part and specific helps to show the thoughts of the character and the reason for her actions. By establishing a presence on social media, I was able to anticipate the release of my film by creating fun videos, posting stories, and also making many interviews with the cast and others. If I were to release my film, I would release it to theaters first in order to maximize views, then release to a streaming platform to be consumed on longer scale. I learned a lot from the overall process, and I am proud of my film Attention, Attention.