Charles Meng Li

 Here is my Creative Critical Reflection for my film opening! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slu4dguhUF8

 Here is my group's final video for our film opening! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NViPQilLsWc

 My idea for my Creative Critical Reflection is to film a 15-minute-long video of me playing basketball with my friend Ethan. I did not really have any other ideas to do my CCR on, so I kept it simple and just had a background video of me playing a sport I like. I also did not plan on doing a script for my CCR and decided that I am going to freeball it and come up with the answers as I am recording. The basketball session was very fun, and I enjoyed using it as a video for my CCR.

 I learned a lot throughout this entire filming process. I learned the various ways to employ camera shots, angles, and movement, as well as editing techniques to help develop a film opening. This process was enjoyable as I had a fun experience with Matthew and Tyler filming and editing our film. I enjoyed editing the cutting-on-action shots and adding in the sound effects, and it made me very proud to finally finish the film. I think our film turned out extremely well and left on a cliffhanger, which entices the audience and creates suspense. I think our title fully encapsulates what occurs in the film and how it may continue to tell a deeper story. I am glad I took this class and worked with Matthew and Tyler to create an amazing film opening.

 We had various ways of communicating as a group. For one, we discussed our filming process and planned in our AICE Media Studies class in the third period. Most of our film discussion was in class. We also used text messages to individually text each other, which we then moved over to a WhatsApp group chat, which was much easier. We also used an app called Discord to communicate at home to join voice calls, especially to help my group and me edit our video, since I could screen share my activity.

 We decided to incorporate various sounds to help create a more realistic scene for a kidnapping film opening. We included the ambient sounds of Tyler's AC in the background to show that it is not completely silent and that you would still hear normal sounds in a house. We also added a phone call sound in, which we recorded in the garage at the same time, to make it sound as if the phone call was there in the filming. This was so we could overlay the audio of the phone call, so we did not have to time it with the scene, which is what we were doing before, simplifying our editing process. We then planned to include hitting and punching sound effects found on YouTube into our choreographed fight scene to make it realistic and emphasize the hits being performed. We also added in the sound for me running outside and saying "How did they know?" since the viewer could hear me running on the grass, so we recorded a separate video of me saying that and overlayed the audio over th...

 Today, I finished editing the first portion of the film, added it to the finished opening, and adjusted the scenes to fit under the 2-minute mark. This portion only took around 20 minutes to edit since it was short. The film's opening was originally 2 minutes and 8 seconds long after adding this portion, but I cut down on various parts and even removed some scenes, such as a previous scene where Matthew and Tyler slapped me when interrogating me, as it did not flow with the film and was unnecessary. I also added the text message sound effects and the pop-up texts on the screen to make it flow smoothly, as well as created an invisible cut when the screen turned black to flow into the next scene. I added the final title card of "Two-faced" and finished the editing of the film with 1 minute and 58 seconds.

 Earlier today, Matthew and I were hanging out and we were having a friendly conversation with many jokes. I then decided to joke around and say that he is "two-faced" when our friend Sean comes around, as I said that he "switches up" his personality. I was obviously joking and saying this to make him mad, but this moment was pivotal for later today when I decided to come up with the title for our film. We joined a voice call later to complete the editing from yesterday, and finally finished, but were stuck on the title portion. I came up with a couple of suggestions, such as "Betrayal", but the names had no ring to them, until Matthew brought up the term I used earlier of "Two-faced". I told him this title was great, and this is what we decided to stick with for our film opening.

 Today, I finished editing the second portion of the film. I was the one who was editing in CapCut on my computer, and Matthew and Tyler were in a voice call with me, assisting with which shots and edits I should be including. The editing process took about 2 hours, and the film's opening was 1 minute 42 seconds when finished, however, I did not finish it as I did not include the first portion in which I was kidnapped. I uploaded this rough draft to YouTube to submit to my teacher and decided to finish editing tomorrow and include the first portion. Our group also has not decided on a name for our film yet, so it is going to be called "The Kidnapping" for now.

 The duration of the filming took much longer than expected. There were various reasons why filming took from 8 PM to 10:30 PM, in which we originally expected it to be around only an hour. For one, I kept laughing at the scene where Matthew was supposed to hit the paper out of my mouth, and that part alone took 30 minutes to film. There was also another scene where our cameraman, Brian, had to scream "Go" since Matthew and Tyler were behind the door and needed to walk in, so they could hear the sound cue. I kept laughing when he did this, and this part also took 20 minutes. The fight scene was also choreographed as we did it, since we realized it was much harder to plan out the scene than we thought. We made sure to plan out the exact shots we needed, as well as to include cutting-on-action shots that make the film opening more exciting to watch. The rest of the film was much easier to film since it was simple and did not require much, especially at the final scene where Mat...

 To ensure uniqueness within our film, we decided to employ many usages of camera shots, camera angles, and camera movements. For camera shots, we used establishing shots in the beginning to set the scene, a long shot as I was walking, a close-up, and mid mid-shot to show my body, and also a POV shot for my phone. The unmasking in the garage was a POV shot that transitioned to a focus pull when Matthew and Tyler walked in. We wanted to implement as many shots and angles as possible, so we did this. We also used a tracking shot for when they walked around me, a shot/reverse shot for the conversation, and cutting on action as Matthew walked back. We utilized a low angle for when I escaped the rope and chair, a tilt shot, and then various cutting-on-action and continuity shots throughout the entirety of the fight scene. We then use a camera shake to emphasize the punches and also a pull-out during the choreography. The final scene showed a tracking shot where it showed Matthew on the ...

 In the interrogation and fighting scene of our film, my group and I decided to include dialogue to ensure a realistic approach to our film. We first included the grunting sounds I made when I had the paper towel in my mouth. We wanted to portray a real kidnapping scene with me being very frightened at the idea of being tied up in a chair, so I made those sounds. We also included dialogue for the interrogation and questioning of me by having me ask, "What do you want?" to the characters Matthew and Tyler are playing. They then follow up by saying, "You are never going to get away with this, tell us the truth now," to develop suspense for the viewer and create an intense mood. The phone call then caused Matthew and Tyler to not pay attention and have a short dialogue talking about me being tied up, and then it led to me saying how I can easily escape.  The next dialogue was when I ran out of the house and said, "How did they know?" which creates a sense of ...

 We decided to maintain the dark and dim lighting for our film to continue to establish our atmosphere. The lighting we used was dim to represent the suspenseful scene of a kidnapping, to set the mood for an intense scene that is going to occur. We also decided on costumes that would perfectly fit the atmosphere, being all black clothing for Matthew and Tyler, and my continued casual clothing for my character. Matthew and Tyler also wore makeshift bandanas with black T-shirts to represent a kidnapper hiding their face and identity. We utilized the props of the rope, the chair, a mouth cover, and a phone to develop our established meaning for the film and properly execute a kidnapping scene. The inclusion of a garage as our setting also makes it seem more realistic, as kidnappers would most likely keep their victims in a confined space indoors, and we showed the background of me running out of Tyler's house to represent me escaping an actual house.

As we arrived at Tyler's house on Thursday at around 8 PM, we deliberately started planning what we were going to do for the remainder of the film. We started by coming up with an invisible cut from the first scene of me being kidnapped and then being unmasked. After that, we planned on doing an interrogation scene with Matthew and Tyler asking me questions while incorporating L-cuts and various camera angles. We also planned to do a fight scene to incorporate action and suspense, and we choreographed the fight while filming it at the same time. We then developed our final scene of me running out of the room and saying, "How did they know?" and then showing Matthew ending the phone call from his "boss" and then ending on the contact name from the introduction scene.

 Last night, on Thursday, 4/10, we finished the filming portion of our film opening. I drove and picked up Matthew at around 7:15 and then started heading towards Tyler's house to film the second scene. We then got situated and planned out each scene as we were filming it, and began at around 8 PM and ended around 10:30 PM. We utilized our script and had to improvise some scenes as we realized some things were unrealistic, so it extended our filming time. Overall, our film turned out very well, and hopefully it will look good after we complete the editing portion this weekend. We will start to edit tonight and hopefully finish most of it.  

 Before moving on and talking about the filming process, I want to mention the props we used for our film. On Tuesday April 1st, we purchased rope from Home Depot to use for our kidnapping scene. We then brought this rope to his house after we filmed the outside scene and then will continue to film today. For Tuesday, the only prop we used was a hoodie to pretend to put over my face and act as a bag. Then today, we arrived at Tyler's house and prepared the required materials: we used the rope we bought, an old chair we found in his garage, and a mouth cover made with paper towels and a rope tied over it. We then realized we also needed another person to help us film, so we asked our friend Brian to come over and film for us, in which he filmed mostly every scene in the garage. After getting our props, we got to planning the film and filming. 

 For this specific scene, we play on including the ambient sounds in the video that you can hear, of the crickets and the quietness of the nighttime. This allows the scene to feel calmer but more suspenseful at the same time, as the lack of music shows the expected outcome of what is to come. We are also deciding to implement a text messaging sound when I send the messages to "Alex," as well as a text received sound from him. I might add a very suspenseful sound, like a riser, as I get kidnapped to show the severity of the situation and develop suspense, but I have not really looked into a proper sound yet. Our group will implement these non-diegetic sounds of the texts as well as the anticipating sound of a riser during our editing portion of the film process, after we finish filming our second scene.

 For our first scene, we had to effectively plan our filming location and think of a perfect spot to obtain a proper vibe for our film. We decided on the neighborhood, Monterra, as stated before, since I knew it had the lighting necessary for a kidnapping-type film and long roads to create suspense. I also decided to dress in a casual outfit with a white shirt, navy blue shorts, and Crocs to ensure it looks realistic. We used the hoodie to pretend to kidnap me since we did not have a bag at the time, so we had to improvise and use what we had. Tyler was not shown in the scene, but he is wearing a black shirt and black leggings, which is also what we plan for him to wear while filming our next scene. We made sure to film under a street light to add emphasis on the silence and eeriness of the surroundings to create further suspense. 

 The filming process took a lot of improvising as we realized that some scenes and shots would cause our film to be too long, so we cut it as short and concise as possible. We changed up our script and reduced the number of shots in general for this scene. We also realized other ideas we planned on executing may be harder than we thought, such as a simple POV shot we used while I was texting, but we messed around and found a method where Matthew records from the side, and we slowly walk forward. Overall, this filming session allowed us to learn what to expect for the rest of the filming process and gave us insight into what new ideas we can implement to make our opening more unique. We plan to finish the filming portion tomorrow night and complete the editing process by Thursday night.

 Today at around 8:00 PM, Matthew, Tyler, and I went to Home Depot to purchase rope for our kidnapping scene. We bought some rope for 5 dollars and then went on to our filming location in a nearby neighborhood called Monterra. We filmed for around 45 minutes and ended at around 9:15-9:30 PM and finished the first portion of our film opening where I am walking on the sidewalk texting and showing the contact name on the phone. We then filmed the last part, which is when the bag gets put over my head and I get kidnapped. Overall, this filming session allowed us to learn what to expect for the rest of the filming process and gave us insight into what new ideas we can implement to make our opening more unique. We plan to finish the filming portion soon around later this week, if everyone is available to film.