It's a Wrap

March 2nd was the last day I have set for filming, hoping that we would be able to get everything production wise done. Here I will just be reviewing every aspect of our production phase in terms of actors, narrative, mise en scene, sound and implementation.

Actors:

We had a lot of rough trials with picking the actors, I had to make the decision based on who would fit the role better, who could actually act, and who would be available to commit for our film. Some actors had to be dropped due to scheduling complications, however, quick and suitable replacements were made and we were able to continue with the film without changing any actual character. The biggest challenge was learning how to schedule with all the talents. We had many set backs with production, having to extend our production dates longer than expected. If I were to give any advice to next year's students, I would recommend having a film staring a very small amount of actors, making it way easier to manage everyone.

Still of all the main actors

Narrative:

I could say with confidence that my film does not look the same as it started. I changed so much narrative in my film that it is almost completely different than the film I had in mind in the pre-planning phase. Changes were made until the last day of filming, so most changes were made as we go. Mostly, the changes that were made were to accommodate upcoming issues like certain actors not being present or not having enough time. Although I made so many changes, I still kept the same representation that I stated during pre-production research phase, even though I added more representation. I wanted to represent teen girls that often go through the phases of awkwardness and uncertainty in oneself, trying to find herself in a world that she is unfamiliar with, and going through the phases of Ego, Superego, and Id. I am glad to say that if this entire film existed, I would be able to pull that off.

Still that shows the concept of Ego, Super ego, and Id, which I discussed in my representation

Mise en scene:

My crew and I had a fun time playing with mise en scene in our film, whether it was for setting, rule of thirds, costumes, or symbolism. Choosing locations, Mise en scene through costumes: Main character Dariah/ 3 mean girls, House party scene, The mall montage, The 3 mean girls, and The Live, are all blog posts where I discussed different ways we utilized mise en scene. My favorite aspect is how I used mise en scene during the Mall Montage scene. I enjoyed how we took advantage of our surroundings to amplify the narrative, when Dariah was discussing her past lifestyle.

Sound:

Because I took the job of the sound designer, I had an interesting time trying to figure out how my film will utilize different types of sound, diegetic and non-diegetic sounds, stock audios and voice over audios. Post-production is when I will fully take in the job of a sound designer.

Implementation:

By using Mean Girls and Clueless as my model films, we were able to implement a lot in our film, in terms of narrative, mise en scene, cinematography and sound. We took the idea of the 3 mean girls from Mean Girls and ran with it, that was the biggest way we implemented our model film in our film. Character's narrative, costumes, camera movements and angles, even dialogue was inspired by Mean Girls. For Clueless, we stalked and studied the montage opening scene to figure out how we were going to create ours. I feel that we did an amazing job portraying that Dariah had an amazing lifestyle before she moved schools. We also looked at other films for smaller things like Young Royals for lighting, Hannah Montana for Dariah's narrative. I looked at multiple teen dramas and video analysis of certain teen dramas to help me follow the genre to my best ability. All the research I did in the preliminary phase like for the genre, and other opening scenes, representation and techniques allowed my film to be the way it is now. I see the cycle and how everything is now brought back to my heavy research made beforehand.