Opening Scene to Behind a Pretty Face:

Here it is guys!
Hope you enjoy :)

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Creative Critical Reflection:

Here is my CCR, explaining in detail everything behind the project!

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Reflection:

Hey guys, so I am going to quickly talk about the key moments, changes, and other important things about my project:

Some of the key moments for me were the group meeting that we had during the production of the film. During class, I was put into groups with other kids in our class were we all shared the progress of our project and our input. Some of the people in my group suggested to make the main character a girl so they could finally see something different. I thought it was a great idea for that reason we chose Lucia to be the main character and show some representation of women in the thriller genre.

We faced some adversities while making this film. For example, the day it rained on us we had to change the time and a little of the location of where we filmed. Also, we did not anticipate that my bed would not allow us to shot all the different angles we wanted, but we fixed it by creating and editing zoom ins and outs, which created suspense and helped the overall presentation of thriller.

Finally, I just want to lastly mention how much fun it was to work on this project. My partner Lucia did an incredible job acting, and I feel we both collaborated on this project amazingly. We would meet up even during spring break to film and edit the video together. I am so glad I picked such an amazing partner. I cannot wait for you guys to see the final product!!! :)

Our Target Audience:

Hey guys, many of us watch thriller film, but did you know that the age group that mostly consumes this media are 15-21 years old?
Which made it our target audience for our film as well. This was one of the main reasons we chose my partner Lucia to act as the main character. She fits in the age group and young woman killers are not seen every day on the big screen, which made us want to add her to create representation and challenge conventions.
I believe it was a nice twist making the main character so different to what is seen in normal thrillers films, this way it makes it more intriguing and interesting to watch

Conventions of Thrillers:

In order to create a piece that really embodied our genre, Lucia and I needed to do a lot of research to understand the conventions used and how to portray them in our opening film. For example, based on our research thriller films always have non diegetic music playing in the background, which helps set the scene.

This is one of the songs we used
for the film.

For this reason, we specifically looked for music that gave that suspenseful feel and it was not too upbeat, so it would not disrupt the flow of the film. This music continues throughout the entire opening scenes in order to maintain the same tone.  Also, silence is a very important aspect in thriller films. So we decided that the first few shots should only be diegetic sound of the leaves and wind, consequently, keeping the mood of creepiness and making the audience uncomfortable about not knowing what is going on. In addition, based on our research, many thriller films do not add music and have a lot of silence in order to make the viewers anxious and keep the "on the edge of your seat" feeling.




Furthermore, another convention important to the thriller genre is the lighting. Most thriller films use cool tones and dark rooms to create a sense of creepiness and the stereotypical believe that comes that in the dark bad things happen. For this reason we shot before the sunrise.

Also, many thrillers show the weapon of choice of the killer, we also incorporated next to the pink chair that the main character sits on, which is the bow and arrow. This is a subtle hint of how she kills the victim. Most thrillers also show a lot of violence and blood. However, we did not want to do that so we wanted sho show that message through the very red lipstick the main character puts on.

Finally after researching close ups and zoom ins are very important to create suspense in thrillers. That made us want ti choose a series of close up as the beginning and add a slow zoom in and out when the main character is looking at herself in the mirror.

We tried to incorporate as many thriller conventions as we could, but also giving it our own twist :)

Citations:

Keating, D. (2015, May 07). The weapons men and women most often use to kill. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/05/07/poison-is-a-womans-weapon/?utm_term=.6a77bf3eb767

Mac, L. (2016, April 14). Conventions of the thriller genre. Retrieved from https://www.mindmeister.com/685037204/conventions-of-the-thriller-genre

Summerfield, D. (2013, January 01). Target audience for a Crime Thriller. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/DanaSummerfield/target-audience-for-a-crime-thriller

Almost There:

It is almost done!!! After a lot of days of hard work and editing I am very excited about this project. Lucia and I have put a lot of effort on it. Between going to sleep late editing, waking up early to film, or paying subscriptions to editing and animating application to make our opening scene as best as possible. I really hope all of this has payed of when you guys see the film opening.

In addition, I wanted to mention that we came up with a name for a movie. The movie will be called Behind a Pretty Face, which I believe it is very appropriate. The thriller (as mentioned before) is about a girl who is burying what it looks like the body of a person, then it changes to the same girl in her room getting dressed and ready to go out. One can see the contrasting images between these two scenes, and one can see that this girl that portrays herself as innocent and girlie has another truth and is none of those things. For this reason, this name gives the audience an insight about what they will learn about the main character throughout the movie. They will learn that behind that pretty face is a murderer.

I am excited, nervous, and sad to see this project come to an end. It had been quite an adventure to take on, with many challenges and fun memories.

Music:

With the help of my partner we were able to find music that we were both happy with. Finding the right music was very difficult specially since our film opening had a voice over. We needed to find music that gave the film that suspenseful creepy tone, but also not distracting so it would not override the effect of the voiceover. After careful research, Lucia and I found some music that was royalty free, and fit the scenes perfectly. Lucia recommended Purple Planet, which is the website that allows you to use royalty free music. If it was not for Lucia that she had previously used that website I am pretty sure that the process for finding the music would have been much longer and harder.

We plan to incorporate the music as soon as the viewer sees the main character, the first few seconds of the film will be sounds of leaves and trees to allow the audience to know the setting better. Also, once the main character is in the bedroom the music will change again to another suspenseful piece.

I truly recommend checking this website out, it was really helpful for me:

https://www.purple-planet.com/

Second Day of Shooting:

The second day of shooting as eventful... to say the least. The day right after we shot the scenes in my room we went to a park nearby called Peace Mound Park. Lucia chose this location because she knew the place, and she knew not a lot of people went there, which was perfect for us since we needed to be in a place with a lot of trees at night.
Before going to the park we made sure that we checked the weather and the time the sundown was. However when we got there around 8pm there was still a lot of light outside so we waited in the car. Around 8:10pm we got out with the tripod, bag, and shovel, and started walking towards an area that we had previously seen.
Lucia was carrying the bag and shovel when a woman passed by and saw us, she was so freaked out (as anyone would be when seeing someone carrying a shovel and a big black trash bag), so she actually started running away from us. Lucia and I just bursted out laughing because it did seem like we were doing something wrong, and that is a moment I will remember forever.

A picture of inside the car waiting
for the rain to stop

Anyways, when we got there we filmed the first shot and it immediately started raining :( . We ran back to my car and waited for around an hour, but the rain did not stop. Defeated, we went home. We decided that instead of filming after sundown, we would film before the sunrise. The next day, I picked up Lucia around 6:30am, and we went again and finally finished filming.

During this process I learned several things. First , to even though you check the weather, it can be unpredictable, and always have a back up plan. Also, to make sure to waterproof your equipment (the tripod and my phone got really dirty and wet). In addition, we learned how to adapt our film to the adversities we faced. In the end, I really like how the opening was shot during the sunrise because usually in most thriller films about homicides a murderer hides the body at night.

Props:

Hey guys, so I want to talk very quickly about the props that we used for the project. I have already mentioned a little about this during the mise-en-scene post, but I wanted to specifically explain each prop used. In the beginning of the film we used a black trash bag filled with pillows that Lucia will be carrying. This is to infer that she is carrying the body of the victim. In addition, on her other hand she will be carrying a shovel which will allow her to hide the "body". In the second part of the film, Lucia will be putting on red lipstick, this is meant to represent the blood of the victims. Since we decided to not show any blood, we thought the red lipstick would be the perfect item to symbolize blood. Then, the bow and arrow next to the cute pink chair is supposed to demonstrate the contrast of her two personalities.

First Day of Shooting:

So I wanted to share my experiences during our first day of shooting the film. First of all we decided to shoot the second part of the video first since it was easier because it would be in my room. In addition, Lucia would play the main character and I would be the director because Lucia has a little more experience on camera since she previously had a youtube channel, and also because I was the one who know how to work the tripod.


We decided to put the tripod in a way that we could film the mirror and Lucia, and the mirror would not be seen. At first it was hard finding that position, specially because my room is somewhat small, and I have a very big bed that takes up a good portion of the room. As I was filming Lucia sometimes I had to jump back and forth on my bed to get the shot and angle that we wanted.  Also we had to rearrange my room a couple of times so we could get the mise-en-scene just how we wanted the room to look like.

This is me getting the camera in the position that I wanted to film the scene

I think that this first day was very helpful because I got comfortable shooting and using the tripod and directing Lucia what to do, and Lucia got comfortable in front of the camera.