Chess Film: A Queen’s Vengeance

 Creative Critical Reflection: Vlog

Creative Critical Reflection 

2.  How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

If my film was distributed as a real media text, marketing would go a little like this. First, we would make advertisements like trailers and movie posters. Those will then be advertised in local public areas that our demographic, teens and older, frequently visit. We would most likely do most of the marketing on big social media platforms, like TikTok, Instagram and Twitter. We will record data of the times that content is mostly consumed throughout the day and week, that way we can determine around what time we would get the most views for our ads. Additionally, we will keep track on current trends and publish relatable content a that regards our film to get people excited about our film.  As a teenager who frequently uses social media, I have seen that other people, especially in my age group, get intrigued about anything if it is aware and taking part in trends usually done by ordinary people. We can also publish the entire film on TikTok as it allows you to publish videos as long as an hour. We would most likely distribute it to a media streaming company like Netflix, Hulu, or HBO max etc. 

3.  How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My production skills have improved significantly throughout this project. As a director there are a lot of responsibilities that I had to take on. I already had leadership skills, so learning how to lead and direct my crew was not a challenge on my end. A bigger issue was learning how everyone’s dynamics work so that no one was clashing with anyone dung production. Everyone had a chance to speak their mind during pre-production, ensuring that we all were on the same page. However, learning how to make decisions as a director really changed throughout the film. Since I was struggling with making decisions before, I decided to do some research about how to make the best decisions as a director. Research is so important, especially if you are taking on a role as big as the director. By the end of production, I have realized that I do not need to carry all he expectations of my crew coming for me for directions, I can also work together with decision making and we can all rely on each other. Directing the film became easier and easier each production day, as expectations were adjusted from day 1. Additionally, I learned that organization is key; it is important to keep a planner to track exactly what we should be doing and what we have done each day (this includes pre-production, production, and post-production). Even keeping a digital and paper version of the shot log on hand was very important and I had to learn that the hard way . Forgetting what exact scenes and shots need to be done resulted in certain things getting mixed up and our shot log desperately needing a revision. Fortunately, I was able to work around that and have a smooth production and post-production phase.

How to make decisions asa director YouTube video

4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project.

To film our production, we used the sound designer's phone which is an iPhone 15, a newer generation of iPhone. This was decided as she had the highest quality, larger storage for containing the footage, and fastest data base. Although, we sometimes used my iPhone 14 when there were some last minute decisions. Due to this we had no issues, like lack of storage, loosing footage or producing crappy quality. Furthermore, we used BlackMagic to film everything, which served us great as we had no technical issues, like a glitchy or non-responsive camera during production. For editing we utilized Adobe Premiere Rush, which had its ups and downs. For the most part we managed to edit everything fairly easy as the features were rather assessable; however, we did experience some shots coming out as glitchy and laggy and had to reboot the app many times. Another issue that we experience is that the application was not working on the schools laptops, therefore, we had to resort to editing on my editor’s phone; which was kind of challenging as the screen is significantly smaller,  certain options for editing was not available, as it would only work on bigger devices. However, we still managed to work around the issue as my editor did the in depth editing at home and brought the finishing product on a hard drive for exporting.

 

Post-Production: Wrapping up!

We were met with another issue during editing, our final scene that is the "winning scene" would glitch at random times, whether it would glitch in adobe rush or after being exported. We tried restarting the app, taking the clip out and putting it back in, and even restarted the device but somehow it would still glitch. This was a big issue because the "winning scene" represents the Black Queen or villainess conquering in Chesstopia, and it also shows that the game has concluded. We also tried very hard to achieve the scene so it holds plenty of value. Fortunately, we had a second take of that scene that basically showed the same thing, except it is less dramatic than the first take which was the better one. Oh well beggars cannot be choosers, so in order to keep the "winning scene" included in the film, we had to use the second shot that actually worked. 

"Winning scene" take 2, the original

                                                    "Winning scene" take 1, the replacement 

Besides that, sound designing was completed today, the final day of post-production. All we had to do is fix up audio placement as most of the work was done by the sound designer by herself the previous day.  Everything came out smoothly and we were able to finish before the deadline. I am very proud of my team for working hard, and having our work payed off in the end. I am excited to see everyone's film and excited to see what our classmates think of ours. 

 Post-Production: Achieving horror/thriller

If you have read my previous blog "attempting to achieve horror/thriller", you would know that my crew and I struggle to get the idea of horror/thriller in our film because certain important shots were on the brink of getting cut out. Fortunately, today my editor and I had the time to re-access this issue. In order to have enough time for both shots (the villainess staring into the camera & the villainess walking towards the camera) we had to remove another shot that was deemed less valuable. Luckily for us, we only had to remove one shot that we were able to replace without effecting our time.

                        The shot we removed, also discussed in the "redundant shots" blog 

More about this shot and why we removed it is discussed in my previous blog, "redundant shots"

Now that the two shots can exist in our film, we were able to reorganize the shots following after, reordering the "winning" scene from the end of the "playing chess" scene to the end of our whole film. By doing this we were able to allow the viewer to understand how the Queen strategically moves both in the fantasy world, Chesstopia, and the real world as a chess piece. My editor was able to do a smooth transition between both scenes, making it seem like the Queen or villainess moving towards the camera was the same thing as player 1 moving her queen, capturing the opponents queen, and winning the game. This provides a jump from fantasy to reality. 

                             The "winning" scene

Additionally, by using lighting altering filters, we made the environment of the fantasy world, Chesstopia, seem gloomy, dark and rigid, almost like the air quality was stifle and poor. I desired for this look because it strongly reminds me of a dystopian world and that's exactly what I wanted for our film. We also made the look stand out by making the real world with the two players, have normal and bright lighting. This shows a jump from reality and dystopian, and makes it more obvious that we switched worlds without looking at the establishing shot.

                         A screenshot of the filter we used to add gloom to the environment

Finally, we depend on the sound designer to add sounds that pull the horror/thriller genre together, like a bow on a wrapped present. We will continue to be in touch and refer to the script and figure out what shot should have what audio. 

                                                            a screenshot of our script  

Post-Production: The "zoom shot"

 

The "zoom shot", originally a shot that was discarded in our first evaluation, quickly became an important shot in the "playing chess" scene. 

                                               The "zoom shot" in the "playing chess" Scene

During our first rough draft we realized that we were over the limit and believed that many of the shots in the first few scenes were redundant, showing almost the same thing. When we were going through what shots we should cut from the film, we were confident that the "zoom shot" of the "playing chess" scene was unnecessary and did not prove much value to the scene compared to the other shots.

 However, after meeting for the second time during post-production, we noticed that it does have a good purpose in the scene. Therefore, we placed it back in the film but instead of its original spot, we placed it at the end of the "playing chess" scene, utilizing it as a transition from the "playing chess" scene and the "queen's command" scene. After doing this, it set a path for us to easily figuring out what other shots are less valuable and throughout the entirety of the film. 

 Post-Production: redundant shots

Many of our shots are quite redundant, facing us with another issue, figuring out which shot is more valuable than the other. My editor and I are together, sharing ideas and working through the entire clip, basically reconstructing our previous draft. We found out that removing some shots actual made the scene more meaningful and easier to understand. 

For instance, we had a shot where it was a close up on player 2 and her facial expressions portrays confidence. 

the close up shot in question

At first I thought that this was a very important shot for the "playing chess" scene because it tells the audience that she has came up with a good plan to potentially help her win against her opponent. However, after much consideration we realized that without the shot, the scene actually went smoother rather than feeling cluttered. To ensure that the point is still being put across we asked a classmate what their first thought of the section was. We received feedback with them saying that it seems like player 2 thought she would win but in the end she did not. It is important that we are still providing the same message even when cutting certain shots out. 

 Post-Production: Attempting to achieve Horror/Thriller

During Post-production, my group mates and I came across a problem with our shots, with all the shots that we took taken into consideration the film was 1 minute and 45 seconds. This is a big issue because the limit is 1 minute, everything after will not be taken credit for. To solve this we had to decide what takes we need to cut completely from the film to shorten time. Unfortunately, this negatively impacts our film as certain shots work together to portray a thriller genre. For instance, the shot where we create suspense by focusing on the villainess will not give the same energy if the following shot, where the villainess is walking towards the camera, be removed completely. A lot of our shots in these scenes work together to get the point across, therefore, without one shot, the whole scene is thrown off and would confuse the viewer. I hope that during our next time of meeting my groupmates and I are able to access this issue. I want to suggest taking time to cut down excess breathing and pausing in the takes, rather than removing important shots such as these, to my editor. As the director I need to get one-on-one with my editor to ensure that they are not on their own making these decisions. Although its their job to edit and not mine, I still feel the responsibility to chime in to ensure that the issues will be resolved efficiently. 

A screenshot of the villainess walking towards the camera

                                A screenshot of the villainess staring at the camera to create suspense 

Other than that, editing the lighting and decisions from our sound designer should hopefully carry us to our goal of thriller/horror. I will be in constant communication with my sound designer making sure that the more effective sounds are being chosen, however I have much faith in my sound designer and I trust her judgment.