CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

Here it is! Enjoy!

Click here to watch the CCR for Panacea.

PANACEA.

 This is it. I can't believe it's done.

Click here to watch Panacea!

THE END IS NIGH

Wow, it's been a journey. And it's almost over, too! Since the next two posts won't be the customary type, I figured I would use this one to reflect upon the process leading up to this point, now that the project is done. 

It began with an idea - and not a very well-developed one, at that. I had a vague clue of the direction my film opening was going to take, but no concrete information that would help me begin the quest. By researching into the genre, I was able to gather more points to be incorporated into my project, and, about a week into the study, inspiration came to me. This is all illustrated throughout the first week of the portfolio assignment, of course, and available for any reader who comes across this blog. 

Over time, the polishing of what once was a rather unclear goal was aided both by my own investigations and feedback from classmates. In comparing my product to others', I could see what mine was lacking, and devised ways to fill in the gaps. Thus came the idea for the character, who, until now, had remained both nameless and faceless. 

Throughout the process, the overarching concept never left my mind: I wanted to do a descent into madness. Looking back, I see I may not have followed my own advice in some aspects, namely, holding back on the "madness" aspect. Still, knowing that an actual breakdown scene would be much more dramatic and powerful than the one included in the end of the opening, there is still room for more chaos. That is, the frustration in the opening passes as just that: vexation, but a well-based, motivated one. Still, it foreshadows that something much worse is about to come. 

Though I do have some issues with details in the final product and in the overall process - I definitely should have timed myself better, and maybe chosen a better time of the day to record - it is a satisfactory outcome, in my opinion. Additionally, the mild complications that arose along the way only helped me better understand the technologies I have been working with (you can accompany my marvel at the camera app in one of my old posts).

Well, this is it. You can expect Panacea to be posted within the next two postings. Until then... 

Farewell, my dear readers.

LAST MINUTE DECISIONS

There is no clearer example of impulse decision than what I just did. I'M SCRAPPING ALL THE FOLEY OUT OF THE OPENING. Now that the project is done, I finally took time to carefully watch every second of the piece and... I found the added audio quite distracting. I had known from the start that the Foley would have to be toned down in order to allow "space" for the soundtrack, but even at 35% of its original capacity, the sounds take away from the overall feel of the piece. Here is a comparison of a scene with and without the Foley:

I did try to incorporate more of the sounds towards the end, but, if they aren't used throughout, they seem out of place. Thus, the only bit of "homemade audio" left is the door closing at the very end, which puts an end to the entire sequence. This is also much more symbolic, as it represents the end of this crazed research session and the jumping into the actual body of the movie.

And with this, I conclude the making of Panacea. 

FONTS

In order to give a more "academic" feel to the whole piece, the font I plan on using for the titles is inspired by the one commonly used for old science textbooks, Bookman. The font is also seen in papers about alchemy, a topic that is present in my opening.

Bookman typeface

Sadly, iMovie only has a couple of fonts available, and the closest I could get to the old Bookman typeface, which appears to be the font used in such writings, was Baskerville Italic. At least it also gives off the academic tone, and seems professional. 

Baskerville Italic

the "science feel" I was talking about

FOLEY AND FINALIZING

There are few edits left to do! I still need to put text and adjust some stuff, but, overall, it is manageable. I've been using daytime to edit and record sounds, and nighttime to film (since I can only manipulate light in the darkness). The bright side is that much of the sounds I intend to use don't need to be "invented" - the actions shown in the recordings actually do produce the intended sounds. Still, I intend to use some asynchronous sounds to imply actions and act as a sound bridge (maybe). One example of this would be the sound of crumpling the paper before the paper ball is seen rolling on screen, then some of it while the image appears. The only other sounds I intend to use are grunts and sighs, which will have to be included as voiceovers.

I have been recording in my room (or my sisters', depending on the time and which is the quietest). I've also been using my sister's iPhone to capture the sounds as videos, then turning them into audios on iMovie.

The schedule is tight, and I have had complications with reshooting since we needed to use the dinner table (the "desk" in my opening) for Passover. But as long as I don't fall behind even more than I already am, I can still produce something worth watching.

A MUCH NEEDED BREAK

Ah, spring break. No other time in the year would have been most proper for this much-needed break. With one week of "no school" (the assigned homework and readings make the quotation marks a necessity), I was able to catch up on filming, and finally was able to get someone to collaborate and hold the camera while I dictate which shot is next. That said, a lot more was done than simply shooting - if that could even be the adverb, knowing the amount of work that went into planning each shot. I also revised the storyboard, adding bits here and there as was judged appropriate. Additionally, some planned images did not work so well, and had to be scrapped. What aided me in the production process the most, however, was overlapping with the post-production: nearing the end of filming, I started to edit bits together to see what worked best. Upon noticing some segment that did not fit - either in tone or sequence-wise - the narrative, I made a note to reshoot each one. In the place of each soon-to-be re-recorded fragments, black squares were left, resulting in images such as the one below.

Overall, the production process was quite fun, although it required a lot more thinking than I'd previously judged. For instance, to get the right lighting and angle for a shot, I had to figure out a way to position each component such that the end result was satisfying enough. Eventually, solutions came as a response to my many failed attempts (the image on the right is a result of trial and error - many experiments were made until the idea of perching the lamp on my shoulder finally came to me).

There is still a lot to do, but I am content that at least editing is underway. Of course, that also means that Foley, text, and many more necessary edits are approaching too. But that will be a subject for my next posts.