CCR

Once again, I am truly sorry for my accent.

I leave my script just in case there was something you didn't understand.

Something that came up during my plot creation, was the idea of establishing a woman as the killer, which would challenge the traditional conventions of thrillers. Nevertheless, women usually murder based on a passion affair, cheating for instance. Even though I could have challenged this aspect as well, I wasn’t comfortable doing it because of all the topic of empowering women, so I thought that putting a woman as a homosexual killer would be taken the wrong way. Therefore, I continued with the traditional men killer but I added the homosexual victims to be critical of the issues that the country is facing. I specifically located the time of the events near the presidential elections since none of the candidates ever stated any policy that they would pass regarding this issue. 

Even though everything started as a creative plot, I included the issue on my website as well. To both market and force people to analyze homophobia, I included the fake protests in North Carolina and the creation of the hashtag #NoMoreClosetKillers. This hashtag would create a link between the director and the viewers and provide a way for my target audience, Gen Z, and Millennials, to feel involved since they themselves would be the protagonists of this campaign which would take place on twitter and Instagram. The website also states the screens of the short film in some festivals; even though right now this is fake, this would be the idea to distribute it. To get people to go to the festivals, I would use all my social media. In the case of snap chat, I discovered recently that it now provides for an option to see nearby stories. So for example, people who live in Miami would have stories from Ultra. So this would be useful for people who live nearby the festivals, so people in Cleveland, Ohio, New York, and Ft Lauderdale. Related to this, I could create a filter from my short film to appear to people who are nearby the festivals. At the same time, it would be useful to create a discover of the festival and people would post stories at the festivals and the information would pass around. 

For the creation of all my components, I used the same fonts and the color scheme. My postcard is characterized by a sort of royal blue and white, which are included all throughout in my website’s layout. The font Strange Path is the only font used in the postcard and in the title for the website. On the website, I tried to use a friendlier font for the text but, since my OCD attacks sometimes, the body text in every page starts at 244 in the y – axis; therefore, everything is uniform and the consumer understands that it’s on the website of my short film, even though it has different pages. So when it comes to the film, it established that dark tone and of course maintains the same font for the title. As a plus, my social media contain the same elements and advertise the short film, the website, and of course the no more closet killers campaign. 

Lastly, Canva, Wondershare Filmora, Pixlr, and Wix were my friends throughout the creation of this project. Canva and Pixlr for my postcard, Wix for my website, and Filmora for my vlogs and of course my short film. While editing my short film I encountered some problems. The biggest one being the lack of footage that I had, I guess I never learn. For some scenes, I had extra but for some others, I didn’t. That’s why in some scenes I had to repeat shots, or used shots that were not filmed for that scene in particular. At the end, even though not perfect, I liked the result of all my three components. And even though, a stressful journey, I enjoyed every aspect of it. And now I say thank you and goodbye...

Sources:

"New to Canva? Sign up!" Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software – Canva. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

"Pixlr." Photo editor online - Pixlr.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Snapchat. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

A Level Project

Finally, here you go, my three components:

• Short Film:

• Website: 

www.celestevelazco.wixsite.com/breakinshort 

• Postcard:

Front

Back

Last one.

Before I post my final project, I wanted to say goodbye. 

I entered this class by coincidence. I was new in my Sophomore year and had no idea what AICE classes were, but something in the name of the class attracted me; plus, I needed an elective. I remember 1 week in, I was telling my friend that I was going to change it for another class, I've never been a media creator/analyzer and this was not going to be my thing. My friend convinced me to stay, and thank God, she did.

I understand that my projects are not that outstanding, especially during my AS level, or that I'm not very talkative in our class's discussions. But I enjoy it, and everything that Mrs. Stoklosa has taught us has been useful for me in other classes or in my life outside of school. Looking back to my AS level, I laugh at my project because I feel that it's so bad as a difference from what I've created this year; but that's the beauty of it, the fact that I feel that I've enhanced my skills in this field. 

This class has also provided me with the opportunity of meeting amazing and creative people that I would never have met if it wasn't because all of us were in the same class. I think it's great how we see something in any social media related to some class discussion or our projects and we send it to each other. 

I don't know who's going to read my posts and watch my vlogs, but this blog has been so useful for me. Even though some weeks were stressful to write 3 posts, I am glad that I did. It always helped me establish what I had and what I needed and it also lent me the chance of taking a break from all my process and just write about it. 

Next year I won't have this class, and God knows where I will be studying, but I will always remember it and I'll be grateful for everything that it taught me because I know that I would never have this opportunity in Venezuela. And I hope that those who take it will feel the same. 

Thank you.

Short film

FINALLY, this blog post. As I mentioned in some previous posts, I had two days of filming. For my editing, I used Wondershare Filmora, wich, in my opinion, it's easier than iMovie and provides with the same or even more tools. 

I started with placing the scenes as I wanted to progress the narration. My problem here is that, even though I had a second day to fix this, some scenes needed close-ups or I still had some continuity problems, so I had to play with the shots that I had. For some scenes, I played shots backward, for others, I cut the screen or cut their length to send my message across. At this point, I thought that my short film was awful, I hated it. 

BUT WAIT, I was still missing the sound effects.

For door sounds, light switches, steps, I used the ones that I recorded or the ones from the video itself, because they were really good. I got the suspense sting from the Youtube's Audio Library. 

• Impeding Doom Film Trailer 
• Horror Music
• Earthy Crust
• Deep Horrors

I thought about recording the birds sound of the end but it was going to be so messy, so I just went to Free Sound and got the sound out of there.

After I added all these sounds, I started to like my video more and more; the magic of sound! 

I added the title at the end because most of the short films I watched have it at the end as well; also, I didn't like how it looked in the opening scene. 

OH! At the beginning, I added my producer's logo from last year.

Lastly, I added some credits and done! 5 minutes and 25 seconds. 

I know that it's not perfect and there are a few corrections that I should make but they're out of my hands. However, I do hope you enjoy it. 

Sources:

Horror Music by Audionautix is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)

Artist: http://audionautix.com/

YouTube. YouTube, n.d. Web. 15 Apr. 2017.

Freesound.org - Freesound.org. N.p., n.d. Web. 16 Apr. 2017.

Website

Here it goes my second vlog, I didn't realize it was this long when I was recording, but oh well. At least I hope you find it entertaining. And once again, I am sorry for my accent. 

So far, this has been the most difficult task for me, yes, even harder than recording sound effects and placing them in the exact second. I created my website with Wix and it provided me with so many choices for fonts, layouts, elements, etc, and I wanted to use them all at the same time. I think I made the right decisions at the end. 

Here you have a couple of pictures from the posters I made for my ''protests'':

Here it goes my screening for the website from The Conjuring 2 and from The Babadook:

Sources: 

THE CONJURING 2 – Official Movie Site – Own it on Digital HD 8/30 and Blu-ray™ 9/13. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Apr. 2017.

Discover the Babadook. N.p., n.d. Web. 14 Apr. 2017.

Where, when AND Why

I'm excited to announce you that I finished my postcard this weekend. I understand that this is a minor component but the fact that I have a part of my final finished releases a small portion of stress from my being; plus, I'm satisfied with the final result. I won't be showing any pictures of how it looks until next week but I wanted to write a little bit about the decisions that I took on the development of it and, furthermore, the why of these decisions. 

Let's start with the where:

I started the back of my postcard by doing research on short film festivals. I didn't want to choose a fancy and unrealistic festival (Cannes, for instance) but instead something more... attainable? But I didn't want a ghost festival either. I chose Sundance Film Festival because I believe it has the characteristics that I previously stated. Plus, its color (yellow) matches with the colors from my poster.

The when:

Submissions to this festival start in May and the dates for the 2017 Festival have not yet been released, so this created kind of a problem for me. But fear not! I found this calendar from the 2016 Festival:

Following the dates from last year's, I decided that my short film would be shown on January 20th, 2018 at 6:30 pm, just like the short program at the Redstone Cinema 1.

Now, let's go to other decisions taken:

• My catchphrase is going to be:

Did you look your door?

Because I want something short, concise, and related to both the poster and the plot. By being directed to the viewer, it creates a relationship with him/her and it's more impactful as well.

• Social Media

I created accounts on Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat because of my target audience (which I'll talk more in website post), as well as my website, and placed the usernames/URL on the back of my postcard. This way, people who receive it can go into their smartphones and read more information about my film.

To add the accounts in a colorful and dynamic way, I included the apps logos. I was worried about doing this because I didn't know if I'd violate some copyright or something. Nevertheless, when I was googling the pictures, I discovered that Google has an option to filter the usage rights.

Even though it wasn't easy nor fast, I was able to find PNG pics for my 3 Social Media (thank you Google). 

With no further explanations, I'm really thrilled of showing you this component and I hope you like it as much as I do.

Layout

Now that I have the picture for the front side of my postcard, it's time for me to fill in the front and back side with information. It was very frustrating for me to look for case studies for this section because there are not numerous examples of films postcards; but after an extensive day of looking at pictures and searching for movies in specific, I found some examples that are useful. 

• Case Study #1

This one actually was shown to me by Mrs. Stoklosa. She told me that the postcard would be something like the one in the middle but double sided. So basically, just include the important information from where and when the movie is going to be presented. 

• Case Study #2

This postcard is even more complete than the last one. It not only states when and where but also how much and for how long.

• Case Study #3

Finally a double sided one! I know it's in Spanish, I'm sorry. But basically, it just states the name of the festival and the date where Paura was presented. This is what I imagine for my postcard but I would add the room where my film is going to be presented as well as our social media.

• Case Study #4

My last example is from a Venezuelan movie, which rumor has it it's really good (sadly, I have not watch it). Anyway, I understand that this is an invitation but it still has the layout of what I have to do for this component. I will not add any references from newspapers because I don't have any and I don't want to come up with one; same way with awards since it's not real. 

So to start with my layout I copied the blue color from my main picture and put it as the background for the back side. I used Pixlr to get the color's code, Canva to create the postcard and Wondershare Filmora to film my screen and for the music.

Sources:

"Film Festival Poster Template." StockLayouts. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

"PAURA FESTIVAL INTERNACIONAL DE TERROR." Paura Festival Internacional de Cine de Terror. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

"Desde allá (2015)." IMDb. IMDb.com, n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

"Myrtle Beach Film Noir Festival." Bradley Harris. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2017.

Postcard II

As soon as I had that idea in my mind, I knew I wanted to recreate it. So I waited until it was dark enough, I opened my entrance door, moved my lunch table to the center and took the same knife that I used for the film and placed it on the table. I also added a little bit of ketchup (yes, ketchup. I'm sorry Mrs. Stoklosa but I didn't have time to buy the ingredients for the fake blood mix) to the knife to see how it would look with the light. 

Also, remember the pushy light that I used for my filming? Well, I had two this time and they were really useful. 

This is basically how it looked when I set everything

The one on the right I took it with the outside light on, while the one on the left it's with the light off. That's why the left one is darker than the other one. I used my mom's iPhone S6 to take the pictures and on her screen, it didn't look that bad. However, when I passed it to my computer, it darkened but I guessed that I could fix the light. 

Nevertheless, every time that I'd increase the brightness, the light over the knife would look weird. So I just decided to work with the other one. I edited in Canva and this is how it looked:

Picture A

I increased the brightness and the contrast while also adding a blue tint. I absolutely loved the outcome, it has both blue and a little bit of orange which were basically the colors that I chose for the film. But also has that mysterious and spooky tone that every thriller should have. I started showing it to my peers to see what they thought about it and I received diverse opinions; some loved it and others not so much. One of them perceived the fence as an obstacle and as too bright for the whole picture. So I edited it on Pixlr and tried 2 outcomes, in one I lowered the brightness only on the fence and in the other one, I deleted the fence completely. After that, I added the blue tint.

Picture B

Picture C

However, I didn't like it. I feel that the white from the fence gives life to the picture. It also works as a nice place where to put the title. I exposed all the options to more people and they all chose picture A.

Btw, I downloaded the font from dafont.com.

Because plurality rules, I decided to go with picture A. I also put the title more transparent so it wouldn't be that bright. The final outcome is:

I sill have to add the basic information and do the back side of the postcard. I'm really excited because so far everything is turning out to be so well.

PS: my cat also wanted to be in the shot, so she just stepped in. And shout out to my mom for holding two pushy lights for half an hour.

Postcard

As I previously stated in my vlog, I was a little confused about the postcard layout. For instance, I didn't now if it had to be like a real postcard with the lines for people to write on them or just like a flyer in a postcard size. But I asked my teacher and she clarified this doubts for me. So I decided to start my research on horror/thriller posters as well as on Film Festivals postcards.

The majority of movies in these genres depicts their main characters in their movie posters. 

Split (2016)

Split (2016)

These two posters from Split (2016) are great. The one to the right shows Kevin as having 4 different shadows, which would be his different personalities. The second one shows a clearer representation of what's going on in Kevin's mind, as each personality tries to ''come into the light'' and be responsible for Kevin's actions/thoughts. The font used in both of them also conveys the meaning of the title as it appears to be cut or ''split''.

Don't Breathe (2016)

While Split shows the attacker, Don't Breathe (2016) focuses more on the victim. This poster shows the audience the lead actress and two man's hands that try to prevent her from breathing.

The Strangers (2008)

The movie poster from The Strangers (2008) shows a mixture of the last two. It depicts the attackers facing the camera and the victims showing their back, this is part of the last scene of the movie. The fact that they show their attackers completely exposed to the camera doest not create an issue for the movie's plot since they wear masks in both the poster and throughout the whole movie.

Nevertheless, due to how my film is going to develop (the audience believing the killer is the house's owner) I can't show any characteristic of my killer nor my victims. Moreover, since he doesn't wear any mask during his act, then the last poster is not an option either.

Therefore, I will be focusing more on symbology/actions/objects than in my actors.

Even though the movie poster from A Cure for Wellness (2017) also depicts a movie character (I haven't see the film so I have no idea who she is), it also shows a little bottle of an elixir (??) which would be symbolizing the cure. But the one from Lights out (2016) only shows a light switch which symbolizes the most important element of the movie, keep the lights on and the characters will survive.

A Cure for Wellness (2017)

Lights out (2016)

So thinking about my own film, I thought about having a knife and a closet but since I'm not really showing the closet in my film, but instead implying that the killer keeps their victims there by the news report audio, I didn't want to show it on my movie poster. That's when I came up with the title Break in and I visualized a house's door opened at the end of the picture and a knife on a chair/table. Something like this:

I will comment more about my process taking and editing this picture in my next post since this one came out to be a little long.

Sources:

"Split Movie Poster (#3 of 5)." IMP Awards - All the Latest Movie Posters. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Split Movie Poster (#4 of 5)." IMP Awards - All the Latest Movie Posters. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"DON'T BREATHE Poster." Movieposter.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"The Strangers Movie Poster (#4 of 10)." IMP Awards - All the Latest Movie Posters. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"A Cure for Wellness Movie Poster (#1 of 5)." IMP Awards - All the Latest Movie Posters. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

"Lights Out." PicPhotos. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2017.

Insert title here

After a whole weekend of deep thought and research of fancy words, I came up with my title. As I stated in my post about my killer's nickname, I wanted a simple word or set of words that wouldn't give too much about my film. Consequently, the option of using the nickname as my title was out of the table. 

Mrs. Stoklosa advised me to look for synonyms for ''cut, stab, knife'', etc', but I couldn't find anything that could convince me. Some peers suggested me to use ''Closet'', but I'm not exactly focusing on the closet during the duration of the movie, but instead inferring its significance through the audio from the news reports. I kept looking and thinking and throwing ideas but nothing would satisfy me enough to be my title.

I talked to my best friend about this problem and she mentioned ''Come in'' and I really liked it; I even visualize the front of my postcard (which I'll talk more in depth in my next post). Nevertheless, after repeating it numerous times, I realized that it implies an invitation, which is clearly not given in the film. But thanks to it, I thought about another title and it convinced me.

So, with no further talk, my title is (although subject to change):

Break In

What I like about it is that it's simple, quick, just like other thriller/horror movies; titles like ''Split''. ''Scream'', ''The Conjuring'' are the ones that stick with people. Also, I can continue with my idea for the postcard with it. 

Quickly updates in my other components:

• Filming will be finished this Saturday
• Postcard process has been started
• Website will be started in the following days

Follow the tendency

So a couple of my friends did vlogs for their media blogs and I didn't want to do one, but` I thought that it would be easier to show how I made all the sound effects. Thus, yes, I am following the media flow.

I  tried to make it as entertaining as possible, so I hope you enjoy it:

As I explained in my video, I didn't record all the sounds but I will when my crew and I film the rest of the scenes. Here's the exact list of what I need to do: