CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

     And along with the film opening of course comes the Creative Critical Reflection.  I decide to make the first part of my CCR a sort of director's commentary, and the second part a podcast which I am the host of.

    Here they are.

FILM OPENING

     The time has finally come.  All these weeks of blood, sweat, and tears are finally amounting to something more than themselves... or maybe not I don't know.  You tell me.  Here's my film opening HYPNAGOGIC.

    Hope you enjoy.

Group Meeting 2

     Today in class we were put into random group meetings with others from my class again.  Honestly I think the first group meeting might've been more helpful.  

    We were all still in the pre-production phase so there was more room for peer critique on our ideas for stuff we can actually change before we do it.  But now that we are all in post-production, it feels like the only thing we can do in group meetings now is tell each other about what we've done and say "oh that's cool", because no one is really asking for or taking suggestions anymore.  

    Although, it is of some use because we started to get more comfortable in the discussion to ask for advice on elements within the project moving forward.  The group gave me some suggestions for a title since I expressed that I wasn't really sure what I was going to do about that.  I also gave some advice to the group about copyright free music and how to find music that fits the exact vibe you're going for.  My friend Michael produced an original song for my project, but at other points in the video I may end up wanting to use a different track and turn to copyright free music.  I suggested that the group search for specific genres and inspirations when looking for copyright free music because a lot of the general songs that first pop up after a search are too generic and over-used.

    So even though this meeting wasn't the most helpful for me personally, I still got to know about other people's projects and see their progress which is cool.

Fear and Loathing in Adobe Premiere Pro (2023)

     I am pleased to announce that I have begun the editing process!!!  During filming I was kind of scared to get to this stage because, again, I feared that I would realize that this project wasn't going to turn out the way I wanted it to.  But as I've began to edit, my faith in myself is starting to be restored and I'm remembering that I do know how to do this and it's going to be fine.

    I started off by just throwing a random closeup clip of Vincente on the timeline and playing around with effects to see how I could make this opening sequence more visually interesting.  I decided that obviously the raw clip wasn't doing enough for the surrealist tone I'm aiming for, so I threw on a lens distortion effect and turned the curvature all the way to -100 and was awarded with the image to the left.  I actually really like the way the effect looks with the colors and the closeup.  Oh speaking of colors, I took the clip and duplicated it and put on the RGB effect and turned up the greens, and then I threw that clip on top of the original and put it on an adding blend mode.  So now there are slight hints of green which is definitely a very subtle touch, but I love the way it gives the shot more dimension rather than just being flat blue.  So this gives me hope that I can make the other shots look just as cool in sequence (even if it'll only be up there for a split second).

    

    The other thing I started on was implementing the music.  I put down the track that Michael created at the very beginning, but I felt that it went on for too long before the beat drop, and I wanted the beat drop to happen basically immediately for the title graphic I plan to put.  I knew exactly what to do because I've had to do it before, but I just cut out the part that I didn't need and timed the cut with the beat as best as I could, and then I just added a constant power so the cut went a little more unnoticed.   I think it sounds good enough and I can definitely work with it.  

    So until the 29th I'm just going to grind editing.  Hopefully the rest goes smoothly!

Real Issues or Just Overthinking?

     As I've been on my break from both school and this project, I've had a lot of time to think about the logistics of my plot and how I want the audience to interpret it.  I've mentioned this before, but one of my biggest fears going into this project was actually making the plot understandable.  I want to make sure that I don't give away the actual twist of Amon only being a materialization of Vincente's subconscious this early, because after all this is only a film opening.  But at the same time, I want to make it understandable enough that the audience can tell that their is something off, without any of the techniques I use being too goofy and on the nose.  

    I already came to the conclusion that I was going to introduce Amon in strange ways, like them popping up in the scene without any explanation to stick to that surreal essence.  I'm just afraid that it's not going to come across the way that I want it to.  I think while editing, I might need to amp up the techniques that are going to work together to make this piece actually surreal, so that the viewer questions the entire piece, and not just Amon's strange appearances, so it feels like it has more of a point rather than a random technique that sticks out like a sore thumb.  

    I'm excited to start editing now that I think I've found a solution to this probably imaginary problem.  I think if I really play into the camp and avant-garde aspects I wanted to from the first place without fear, then I'll succeed in having this piece come out in the way I want.

SCOREEEEE

 Wow I'm jumping for joy!!!  Ok like not really but I have some cool news.  My friend Michael Orlando has agreed to compose original music for my film opening!  I asked him a few weeks ago but my man has finally delivered with two tracks I can choose from.  I gave him a few songs that he could use for inspiration along with a few key words like "surreal" and "Gregg Araki-esque" and that he definitely did give me.  

He actually only specifically composed one track for me, that has a nice riser at the beginning so I plan to use that song to open the opening (lol) and put my title graphics over it. The other track is a track that he originally composed and is letting me use, but he didn’t originally make it for my project.  Both of them are really cool songs that fit the vibe of my project so well and I’m very glad he was able to help me out.  I would attach the songs here but I kind of don’t know how to do that so I guess you’ll just have to wait and hear. 

Ok so like what is my title gonna be

     Hi poops.  Spring Break just ended (unfortunately) and I've come back from all of my trips and its time to get back to work.  I took kind of a break for my TV trip to California (absolute nightmare btw), so it's time to get back to werq.  

    Something that I've been thinking about recently has been: what the h*ll is my title gonna be???  I haven't really put too much thought into it because I always just thought "oh it's ok I have time and it's not that important right now."  But then I realized this project is quite literally due in a Week so maybe I should start thinking about that.  

    Someone in my Media class asked me what my title was, and I didn't have an answer.  This kid was pretty helpful though, and suggested I call it "surreal" or something like that because it relates to the themes of my project.  I thought that it was a cool suggestion, but it was a bit more on the nose than I would like.  But that did kind of help get me started on thinking what else I could name it.  

    I started by literally looking up synonyms for surreal, which I kind of just did as a joke, but it actually gave me some good results.  It gave me words like "avant-garde" and "bizarre", but none of those felt right either.  I eventually did some more research and came across the term "hypnagogic" which I found intriguing.  I found out that the word refers to the transitional state between being awake and falling asleep.  While in a hypnagogic state, one can experience hallucinations, usually visual, due to the abnormal brain activity.  I felt like this was a really cool term and concept that perfectly fit with the plot of my project.  Vincente is constantly in an almost sleep state due to his self destructive behaviors, and also experiences hallucinations due to this.  

    I came to the conclusion that I am definitely going to use this term within my title.  I was thinking of something goofy like "Hypnopompic Hypnagogia" because it has a more fun sound to it and Hypnopompic refers to the transitional state between sleeping and waking up, similar to hypnagogia.  I was also thinking of something longer like "His Undivided Hypnagogic Attention" but I feel like that might be too much of a mouthful and a bit difficult to market to less of a niche audience.  I think I've decided that I am just going to go with "Hypnagogic."

Hypnagogia