Creative Critical Reflection A-Level

Link: https://youtu.be/DU3YoYTU6LU

Minimalist Short Film Package

Link to Short Film: https://youtu.be/wtZIcVYwd_I

  Website: https://minimalistshortfil.wixsite.com/shortfilm

Front:

Back:

Reflecting

This project is finally over and I’m pretty proud of what I made. There were definitely some ups and downs but I learned a lot and put in a lot of work.

I started off really rough since it was incredibly difficult to land on a decent story. Once the story was found, a microscopic villain named Coronavirus decided that my original idea did not deserve to get made. I made a pretty impressive pivot and I honestly believe the idea that I came up with during corona season is probably way more personal and I had way more fun than I would have ever had making a different film.

I have never tried to make a film all by myself and it was a pretty enlightening experience. It is pretty unique to have complete creative control over your film and there is no time wasted trying to explain your vision to other people.

I like to get fancy with camera movements or blocking, but since I was alone I had to add a little more flavor to the film by messing with other aspects, mostly sound and graphics. I would have never made a film that included a time-lapse, stop-motion, and changing aspect ratios because I am pretty vanilla about those kinds of things. I usually don’t like to distract from the film with obstructive editing techniques.

Aside from editing, I did also balance out my inability to move the camera with extensive production design. I spent a couple days creating a perfect set. It wasn’t too difficult because it was just designing the set to fit two extremes: an empty room and a cluttered room. That being said, moving heavy furniture for days on end is a strenuous workout.

My biggest issue, as always, is sound. I simply do not have the patience to create a good soundscape. My ears are really not designed for it. I added a lot of music to keep a fast pace, but aside from that, I just let the white noise play. My microphone that I plug into my camera also broke, so I was left with many clips that had no sound. I could not be asked to do foley because it is impossible in my house. It is very difficult for my family to understand that even if they are talking softly or lower the volume on the TV, my sound recorder can pick it up easily. 

The title cards are probably the thing I am most proud of. I spent a couple hours designing my “minimalist” font and cutting it to the beat of the music.

Ultimately, I am proud of what I accomplished because it was literally all me (though I didn’t create the music), so this is a product of my own creativity and hard work.

Website Design

I created my website. Wix is supposedly the most user-friendly website builder, but it is incredibly annoying to try and maneuver.

Website it available at https://minimalistshortfil.wixsite.com/shortfilm

The top of the page is a still from the short film with a title above it and a caption that the short film was made by me.

I also added a screenings tab and a gallery of still photos from the short film. The screenings are there so people can know where and when to go watch the movie in a festival/theater. The gallery is to give viewers a taste as to what the movie is going to look like (even though it is all-over-the-place at times).

The bottom of the page is just a wee little logline describing what the short film is about and then a little about me and what Minimalism means to me as well as detailing the fact that this was made during the pandemic.

Postcard Final

I found a really good slideshow that showed great examples of conventions for postcards for film festivals.

I learned some great stuff but it was mostly common sense. I checked out some of the sample projects that my teacher posted and noticed many people followed the exact same format.

I decided to go with the same thing, but with a 'minimalist' twist. Making this postcard was probably the easiest part since the premise of the film is to have as little detail as possible.

Front:

Back:

The Minimalist Title Cards

I wanted to get real fancy with the title cards because I had a really good idea. I am going to have the title cards change from a complex/fancy font and dumb it down to basic shapes.

Unfortunately, I could not find a free 'minimalist' font, so I used basic shapes to create my own font on Canva.

As you can see, there are two different fonts and the jagged, broken one is the one I created. This came out exactly how I wanted it to and will make an incredible addition to the film and serves to tie the topic of the film to even the titles.

I'm starting to edit the title card now and it has a very Birdman feel. I would show you, but exporting would take too long.

Editing

Editing time has come around and I am very organized. Finding disappearing files is an absolute nightmare, so I always keep everything in one folder that is broken up into more folders.

When I go to import into Premiere Pro, all the files will be sorted the exact same way and help me stay organized while editing.

After editing a bit of the film, here are the problems I have encountered so far:

• I have to stack many layers of clips, which causes a lot of lagging
• I created an adjustment layer to switch up the aspect ratio. This adjustment layer is constantly moving and I have to make sure it doesn't move and overwrite other clips.
• Sound is basically out of the picture. While reviewing some clips. I noticed the microphone was not working. I think the microphone I connected to my camera is broken.

Clean up time.

I made a mess. My house looks like a literal crime scene. I basically stuffed everything from my sisters' room into our tiny hallway and my room. I also just threw all the clothes that I used in my scene on the floor of my room whilst I was filming the other scenes.

This is the aftermath. I had a lot of cleaning up to do and I took a time lapse of me trying to reorganize my room, but ultimately I had to end it because I was tired and needed to sleep.

I spent the next day (today) finally making sure that everything was back to normal. I finally got some help from my dad who is so bored, he wanted to move furniture around for a couple hours.

F I L M I N G

I spent a couple of days prepping and shooting this film and it was honestly extremely exhausted. I got way too ambitious and I should have just come up with a dumb story that I could have shot in an hour, but instead I came up with a dumb story that took about a week.

The setup for each shot took a very long time, but about halfway through I decided to speed up the process and started using the Panasonic Image App. I explain my process the video:

Overall, the shooting process was quite annoying and inconvenient. Having to do every single thing and not being able to delegate any task is so irritating. I could only really do a couple of shots a day before the sun went down. I ended up cutting out a good chunk of the shots I had originally planned to do because I literally don't have the time to try being Edgar Wright.

I was also waking up at 1:00 PM but that is besides the point.

I wanted to open and close the film with a push in and back out of me in an empty room, but it became apparent that was not going to be possible. I slapped my camera onto a tripod and then stuffed the tripod into a suitcase. Suitcases have the smoothest wheels on the planet, so I was sure it would work. The only problem is that the wheels turn. I took two kebab skewers and tied them to the wheels to keep them from turning and it didn't work. Ultimately the moving shots came out shaky and gross.

I am so incredibly upset with myself. Every time I make a film, I forget to have a photoshoot at the end or something for thumbnails and promos. I promised myself I would not forget to take pictures because I knew that I needed it for the post card, but I forgot anyway.

I will just have to make do with the stills that I have from shooting. I think this still works fine and I can use it for a postcard or the website.

4K and a slow computer

Hi. I have a pretty old mac with about 7gb left of storage on the disk and 8gb of RAM. I'm not a computer nerd and I don't pretend to be, but every single online support and internet forum says that these conditions are extremely difficult to edit with.

I knew that I had a very slow computer, but I thought... you know what? I'm going to shoot this film in 4k anyway. I really like how the 4k looks on my camera. I shot my AS-Level project in 4k and loved how it turned out. The image is impeccable, but it takes me probably 4-5 times longer to edit in 4k than normal 1080p.

I did a little research and it turns out the answer is simple: just create proxies. Proxies are apparently lower quality versions of the 4k file that are easier to edit on. PERFECT! All I had to was shoot in 4k and then proxies would save me.

I shot my first day entirely in 4k and I was so impressed by the results.

Here's a shot. No color correction/grade yet.

I ended up with about 18gb of footage, which really was like 5 minutes of footage. I wanted to start editing to get an idea of what the film would look like and I started to ingest the videos and create the proxies. 

I thought these proxies were going to be a quick and easy fix, but Premiere Pro estimated about 5 hours to create the proxies then crashed after 20 minutes.

4k is out the window. I will be reshooting most of the shots from my first day in 1080p. 

Production Design AKA Trashing the House

This took way too long. I wanted to shoot in my sisters' room because they are gone and they have white walls, which will look super cool for when the character gets rid of everything. The big problem with shooting in my sisters' room is that it has essentially become a storage unit for all kinds of stuff we don't want. 

I had to breakdown a bed and move a bunch of mattresses and other furniture. Also the bookshelf needed to be tweaked because I don't actually read books. I hung up a bunch of random stuff on the walls to make the place feel very full and cluttered. There are little bits of symbolism here and there with some of the posters and props that comment on politics, consumerism, etc. and it makes it seem like I know what I am doing, but really they're just happy accidents.

I was planning on drawing out a design for the room and meticulously placing things, but it would have been a waste of time to do that so I just started throwing things around that felt right.

It took about seven hours because I had to figure out where to store all the extra stuff that was now out of the room. The battery on my camera died several times and I found out timelapses are hard.

Staying Organized

As much as I would love to just get started with shooting the film, the logistics needed to be worked out first because there is a lot of moving around of furniture. I once heard someone say that 90% of independent filmmaking is moving around heavy furniture, and they are definitely not wrong.



I want to use my time as efficiently as possible and also I need to make sure I keep continuity for certain shots. I needed to get organized, so I started by numbering all of my shots.

Some shots are virtually the same and only require me to change outfits quickly and then do the same shot again so I would label them like "8, 8.1, 8.2, 8.3.



Then, I took all the shots and put them into Excel into a shot list. I've used a template before that I stole off of Celtx or StudioBinder or something. I'm not a big fan of it because there is so much going on and most of the columns are made very clear on the storyboard. This stuff is more for big shoots with a crew, so everyone is on the same page (especially the script supervisor.)

I created my own simplified shot list. It helps me understand how long it will take me and check off when I finish them.

This project is quite the undertaking because of the immense number of setups that I have to do and the fact that I have to film myself. The total time that it should take to shoot is about 1035 min or 17.25 hours. That time includes set up times but it doesn't include how long it should take me to design the "set" which is going to take probably a day or two.

I divided the shoot into four sets with different shots to maximize efficiency and then split the sets up over three days.

Storyboard

I went a little crazy with the storyboard. There's some stop motion, timelapse, fades, etc. It's really disorganized but I understand it.

A funny thing I did, which I mentioned a bunch of posts ago was about messing around with my aspect ratio. I plan on changing it about three or four times, switching between 4:3, 16:9, and 2.35:1.

For example, the opening shot and closing shot are the same, but it opens in Cinemascope and closes in Academy ratio. It de-romanticizes his Minimalist lifestyle at the end because the small field of view takes the focus away from his environment onto the character himself. This is supposed to be a really pretentious way of hitting on the themes I discussed in previous posts.

I labelled a shot at the end tricky because I'm not sure I will be able to pull it off because there's a bunch of mirrors involved, but if my logic doesn't fail me, it will be a really cool shot.

"The Minimalist" Script

I finished writing the script for my idea and gave it a really on-the-nose title: "The Minimalist." I'm pretty proud of the way it came out and I'm excited to get to work on the storyboard.

I named the main character Ricardo because nobody watching will actually know the character's name, I'm acting in it, and the film is largely a critique on myself and my own stupidity.

I came up with a pretty cool idea while writing (in my head, I'm certain nobody will find it interesting). Ricardo at one point gets rid of instruments in his room. I thought it would be cool if while he is getting rid of them, the music starts to lose the instruments as well. So, when he gets rid of his drums, the drums in the score also abruptly disappear. I'll probably have to become a sound engineer overnight to pull this off...

I am unsure of the ending. I like how it ends visually because it really hits on the theme.

The "theme" or "moral" I am trying to get at is that Minimalists believe that in our consumerist society we are told that buying more stuff will make us happy. Minimalists argue that having less will make you more happy. My argument with this film is it doesn't actually matter because both sides of the aisle still place too much emphasis on materialism. The character in my film got rid of everything he owns, hoping to feel complete and enlightened, but we find out he doesn't. He cares about whoever the person in the photo is and their absence is what makes him feel incomplete.

Showing the main character alone in an empty space but still holding on to the photograph is pretty powerful and I feel like it could be tainted by the voiceover. However, if I do not include the voiceover it may be a little too ambiguous as to what the photograph means to the character.

The Art of the Voiceover

I felt like my script required voiceover narration. I'm drawing additional inspiration from Matt D'Avella's YouTube videos because they usually tend to have voiceover narration. I find it strange that I am trying to take conventions from nonfiction videos and trying to fit them into a fiction piece, but I think it will work really well.

If there's one thing I hate, is when voiceover is essentially like the narrator in a book. I like when people have fun with narration. I recently watched two movies that had pretty creative narration techniques:

1. Ferris Bueller's Day Off

This movie always comes to mind when talking about breaking the fourth wall, and it works perfectly. It's playful and exposes the inner-workings of Ferris's mind. 

2. Y Tu Mamá También

This is one of the beautiful uses of voiceover narration I have ever seen. It caught me completely off guard the first time I saw the film because I was on my phone and everything fell silent for a split second before the narrator spoke. I thought my headphones had disconnected or that I was getting a phone call. It was pretty trippy and it serves as a way to keep the narrator away from the story being displayed. The narrator would talk about random stuff that did not actually narrate the scene but give more context to the characters, setting, and history. 

I want the voiceover narration to be pretty unique. I don't think I'll come up with something as groundbreaking as what Alfonso Cuarón did but I can try.

I was thinking about making the narrator himself a Minimalist. Saying the least amount of words he can to get his point across. That would be an interesting way to give it more personality, so instead of saying something like, 

"I got rid of everything I didn't need. I searched through hundreds of papers I never read and blah blah blah"

He will say, 

"No value. No point in keeping"

That was kind of a stupid example, but that's the direction I want to go in.

Doing a 180

As mentioned In my last couple of posts. I have to pivot because of the

 

So  I came up with a new idea:

It's about a guy who learns about Minimalism and starts getting rid of virtually all of his stuff in his house. At first, it could start off with him getting rid of his old clothes or cleaning up his closet or something simple. Then it can escalate until he is left sitting in an empty room.

I had a good idea for a visual where we can have an overhead shot of the main character sleeping on his bed and then him saying something along the lines of "I don't need a bed this big" and then jump cut to a smaller bed. Then he says "The floor is not that uncomfortable" then the bed completely disappears and he is left on the floor with no pillow. Then he says "Who needs a pillow when I have my arm." And the pillow poofs out of existence.

This demonstrates how much his Minimalist lifestyle is getting out of hand. It might seem a little crazy to get rid of your bed, but I have done this before. I still have a bed, but for a good month I just slept on the floor and it wasn't that bad. It helped out with some back pain and I always felt well rested. I could definitely see myself just not getting a bed if I ever have my own place because I seriously consider it to be an unnecessary luxury.

After we see him get rid of his stuff, he stumbles across one thing he didn't get rid of and it's a photograph of a girl, which we can assume he has some kind of emotional bond with and she is no longer in his life. We see him try and get rid of the photograph, but he just can't get himself to do it.

This is the criticism I'm trying to make. I equate adopting an extreme Minimalist lifestyle almost like running away from your problems, the same way that Minimalists describe consumerism.

Research on Minimalism

I'm a self-diagnosed Minimalist. I don't buy things I don't need. I'm constantly decluttering my life. I dress the mostly the same everyday. It's a pretty joyless life... sometimes.

I don't blindly adhere to every principle of Minimalism, and I definitely have a lot of criticisms of the movement. I really want to make my short film about this subculture and expressing, in a way, my own experiences with this lifestyle.

I rewatched the documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things on Netflix to prepare for writing the script and it gave a lot of valuable insight into the Minimalist subculture.

This quote really sums up the entire premise of the doc:

"People will inevitably come up to us and they'll be like 'Now I'm not a Minimalist like you. I have this book collection, and I love books, and I've got this nice big library, and I love the way the books smell, I love turning the pages, I love how they feel, I love lending them out to my friends...' and I'm like 'Hey. Keep your books. It sounds like you get a lot of value out of your books.'"

Minimalism is about making sure that you keep things that give you value. My criticism of the Minimalist movement has always been that getting rid of stuff will not make you content the same way that buying a ton of crap won't make you happy either. Minimalism isn't the magic potion for fulfillment that it is often branded as, but rather, a path towards it.

I turned to the director of the documentary, Matt D'Avella, who is an incredibly popular YouTuber, for some visual inspiration.

He is part of the "Self-Help" genre of YouTube videos, which I usually equate to scam artists and phonies, but this guy seems pretty genuine and I really dig his style. 

His most popular video 'A Day in the Life of A Minimalist' is quite literally the core of my inspiration for this.

He opens with a satirical depiction of a morning for a Minimalist. He shows an empty bedroom, no toilet paper, a kitchen drawer with just a fork, knife, and spoon. He then proceeds to say "This isn't what my day actually looks like. I'm not that much of an asshole."

I loved that line, and I thought... what if I make the film about a person who takes it way too far and becomes the person Matt is poking fun at with the segment. I would not have to leave the house, so it is perfect for Corona season.

Website Ideas

I understand that the website is a huge component of our final project, so  I decided to do some research to get some inspiration for our website.

Here are the films I researched and the takeaways:

1. Indefinite: Short Film    Genre: Romance

I saw this short film two years ago when it was screened at the 'film festival' we had at our school. I really enjoyed it and it fits into virtually the same genre and style that I was going for, so  I checked out the website. There wasn't anything too unique about the site, but I am definitely looking to steal the idea of adding a page to explain who the cast members are and their stories. Ideally, I would get the cast members to paint their faces or something and point out what these painted faces mean to them and tell their biographies in that way.

2. The Lobster: Feature Film     Genre: Sci-fi / Romance

This film is about a dystopian world where single people are forced to become animals of their choosing. It's quite whacky and bizarre and the website definitely sells that. When I first opened the page, I was greeted with a quiz that asked me a serious of personal questions to let me know which animal I should choose to turn into if I end up alone. 

This would be amazing to include into my website. A kind of interactive quiz that could tell you what kind of designs the user should paint on their face to symbolize their personalities. Or perhaps, something more crazy, like if the user could upload an image of themselves and we digitally 'paint' their faces. It is unfortunate that this is beyond my level of expertise. I am not a programmer and Wix will definitely not allow me this kind of freedom with my website design

3. The Florida Project: Feature Film       Genre: Coming-of-Age

This film's website stood out to me because it is incredibly simple and let the film speak for itself.

It includes just clips of the film being played behind the title with a small quote underneath it. The bottom corner says watch and the top left has a menu page. I really like this design because it isn't littered with so  much information and help draw the viewer into the film. I absolutely hate the font though. 

I am most likely going to replicate The Florida Project's homepage design and add details about the characters in an "about us" page.

Corona Time

The Coronavirus has officially become a major hurdle in this production. There is a possibility that we be may be placed on quarantine and locked inside our homes for several days or weeks.

Our school has been shut down for the next two weeks, which means my partner and I could not meet up for one last discussion in class. Getting people on board to act and being able to shoot in public areas has now become harder and more unlikely given that the government could shut down public areas at any minute now.

We will probably have to create some sort of back-up plan just in case our planned locations go under. Hopefully, we get an extension on the project because if not we're going to make some big changes and fast.

We might have to do a complete shift and change our idea to be about one character locked inside their house so we can feasibly make a decent short film given the time constraints. This is worst-case-scenario and we are waiting to hear back from our teacher and our local governments.

Location Scouting

When I was coming up with the idea I imagined that the location would be a beach similar to Venice Beach in Los Angeles. I have been there only once and it was also a location in the movie Nightcrawler.

\

I loved the liveliness and the colorful buildings. The south Florida equivalent of Venice Beach is the Hollywood Beach Boardwalk.

This setting is perfect because there are tons of people there and it is quite a scenic place to shoot. I have been here many times and I knew it would be ideal, but I still wanted to be completely sure that it was the right place. I visited Hollywood Beach and also a couple of piers in Fort Lauderdale and Miami.

This is one of the piers I visited and honestly none of them are like Hollywood Beach. Because of the wood, it looks so stale and there isn't much people or a scenery. Hollywood is really colorful and is the perfect choice. 

I looked up permits for shooting in the city of Hollywood and the process is quite daunting. They require insurance plans and a lot of paperwork. We might run into issues over permission to shoot at the boardwalk, but I'm willing to just risk it. Usually security or the cops have no problem at all with you being there as long as it doesn't look too "professional." If it is just me, layla, and two actors with a tripod and DSLR, it shouldn't be a problem.