Start of my CCR

           In this blog, I will be talking about the first day of working on my Creative Critical Reflection. I'm super excited to start working on my CCR because it keeps on reminding me that I'm almost finished with this huge project. 

           I made a blog a couple weeks ago talking about a lesson I had about the CCR and learning how to make one and how to answer the given questions. During the discussion and later also while writing the blog, I was already thinking of what I could make with my CCR's since they have to be creative and unique.

           Currently, I have 2 main ideas that I want to use, however, I also have some easier back-up ideas that I could use instead if I have trouble with my main ones. 

White Tape CCR:

           In my first CCR, I'm planning on answering the first 2 questions through a popular trend on a YouTube channel. In this, a celebrity holds a white cardboard paper and they have "Google's most asked questions" about them. Basically it would say, " how does (name) do ......". In this case, the dot dot dot are real words covered in a white line of tape or string or something. The celebrity then pulls the tape off and it reveals the question which they then answer in depth before moving on to the next question.

           This is the idea I am more worried about since so many things can go wrong. However, if I do end up using this idea, I would break up each of the 2 questions in to a couple more that way I'm not answering 2 big and detailed questions, I'm answering shorter, quicker, and easier to understand questions while still making sure to answer the 2 questions I'm leaving for this CCR.

           In case you're still confused, below is an example of a YouTube video from the channel who I'm inspired by doing one to a famous streamer a content creator, KSI.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2C0nEXiAbY

Forest Chase CCR:

           My idea for my second CCR is more to relate to my actual opening scene. In this CCR, I will be planning on acting like I'm a victim in the movie and I'm running away from something or someone in the woods. The main problem about this idea is that I can't really have a script with me, but that's why I'm leaving the simpler questions for this CCR, so it's easier to remember my answers while filming.

           I do know that I can't be running the whole 3 to 4 minutes while recording this CCR, but I can be pretending to hide from someone most of the time. This CCR will also require me to do my makeup of being beaten up or something from whatever's in the woods.

Back-up Ideas CCR:

           One idea I have that's simple but works, is if I just did a vlog basically talking to the camera about the process of making my film, basically like a directors commentary. This is a safe bet as it doesn't require too much work, and it could help me if I'm low on time.

           Another idea that I don't like as much is pretending to be a commentary YouTuber acting like I'm commentating on how the opening scene was made. In this, I can easily answer questions in the form of statements and it would be a simple way of getting the information and answers to the questions out there.

Progress:

           Other than come up with specific ideas for my CCR, I've also put in some work to create something else. Yesterday, I decided that making a short breakdown of the questions, how I will organize them, and what I want to answer in each CCR would be a great stepping stone. My notes and ideas created yesterday, are shown below.

Running in the Woods Questions:

1st question

- What is my genre

- Explain the genre

- How did I challenge or embrace the genre

- Representation of characters

- Cite

2nd question

- What is my target audience (age #, gender, likes and dislikes).

- What did I do to engage with my audience

- Distribution plan (YouTube, specific film festival for horror)

Peeling Tape Questions:

3rd question

- Reflect on the whole production process (research, planning)

- How did I approach the project

- Challenges I encountered and overcame

4th question

- What tech did I use (camera, tripod, lighting, drone, microphone)

- What editing system (Google blogger, canvas, celtx, copyright free sites, Adobe premiere, and other online sites)

- How did tech solve my problems

- What new tech did I learn how to use (feel more comfortable with adobe)

- What obstacles with tech.

Final statement:

- What was learned

- What I would improve or what was different than what I wanted.

Conclusion: 

           Basically, for my main ideas, one of them is more pleasure related and the other one is mainly for relating to the actual film opening.

           Tomorrow in class, I will be making my scripts for my CCR's. Even if I can't be physically reading the script as I am filming, making one could also just help me retain the information I want to say when recording. 

Finishing Touches

           In this blog, I will be explaining the process of finishing the editing portion of my project and going through the issues and final details that have to be fixed. This blog will most likely be covering a smaller range of things since the main thing I have left is adding the credits and the title to my opening scene.

Planning:

           The main thing I had to do today was the credits and the title. In the last blog I posted yesterday, I explained at the end that I had been trying to do some credits so I could get a feel of my editing software's Text format. So, although what I did yesterday wasn't a final draft at all, it definitely helped me reduce my time editing and getting comfortable with my software.

           The first thing I thought of while trying to create my credits and title was where I wanted to put them. I do recall mentioning in earlier blogs that I was thinking of putting it in the running sequence, however today, I changed that idea.

           I decided that the credits would look better and more appropriate if they went on the second half of the project instead. But before I chose where I wanted to put them, I still had to decide how the credits and title would look and how I would make them. Since I can't do two things at once, I thought starting on the credits would be an easier way to feel more comfortable with Adobe Premiere instead of starting with the title.

Font:

           Before starting to mess around with any of the settings, I knew that the first thing I had to do was choose the font I wanted the credits to be in. Since Adobe Premiere has a big variety of fonts, I ended up having to scroll through all of them or almost all the fonts to make sure I had selected the font that fits the best with my story and plot.

           Although I didn't have a specific font in mind, I did know I wanted one that stood out and felt strong, so after searching for a long while, I came across one font that caught my attention. It was named "Poor Richard" and after trying it out on my credits, I knew it was the perfect font - fitting exactly what I wanted and my criteria.

           Although this font wasn't scary, or creepy, and didn't give any horror feeling to the film, I thought that the font fit exactly what I was looking for in strength. Basically meaning that the font was portraying an intense and strong feeling I was trying to reach.

Final Text Editing:

           So, after making sure this font was the one I wanted, I went back through the text editing settings and changed some of the other settings to further accommodate the intensity. One of the things I did include making the text all uppercase through the "TT" button shown in the above picture to give the credits a bolder and more significant feeling. 

            The picture below shows an example of a credit after finishing editing it.

           Once I had finished changing the font and settings of the text, I made sure to add all of the credits before changing where they are located or anything else. After adding all the credits I needed, the next step was to choose where I wanted to put them in my opening scene. For this, I not only had to make sure they fit correctly and were shown for a good amount of time, but I also had to make sure they weren't too big or blocking anything important that is on the screen.

           After finishing placing all the credits in appropriate places, I still had to figure out a way to make them flow better with each other. I ended up putting a video transition called cross dissolve at the beginning and end of every credit clip to make them glide smoother in and out.

Title:

           I kept in mind that I also had to do the title, so I went back to the fonts and scrolled more to find a good one for my title. After a while, I found a font called "Pristina". To be completely honest, I didn't love the font that much, however, none of the fonts really matched what I was going for, and "Pristina" was one of the closest to what I actually wanted.

           I thought it would be cool also if I made the title red to represent blood and gory even though the credits are white. I also thought the red could pop out and separate the title and the credits through color.

           After changing the color, making it uppercase, finalizing my title name, adding everything else it needed, and finding a spot and size for the title, I thought I finally finished. Keep in mind that I may do some last-minute changes next week and alter how the title looks, but for now, the title is staying the same.

Last Minute Sound:

           I watched my whole opening scene before calling it a day, however as I was doing that, I felt like it was very stopped at the end and wasn't leading into anything. So, I decided that even though I was basically done by this point, I would go back and film one last bit - a phone call.

           I thought that adding a phone ringing at the end with the visuals being a phone being called by an unknown called would be secretive and make the audience wonder who it could be and if they know anything. I also thought this would be a nice way to end my opening scene. 

The new phone addiction is boxed in white on the right.

            -Dana

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IivTCX69f_E (The phone ringing sound)

First Day of Editing

        Today, I started editing my project. Since I had already completed filming, all I had left to finish my opening scene was the editing. I already had a new project open on Adobe Premiere Pro for this Opening Scene Project because of the pre-editing I did late last week.

        Before starting to edit anything, I first had to send my PC all the clips I had recorded yesterday so I could access them. After importing them into my project, I knew I had a lot of work to do since I had many clips. 

        Before actually beginning to edit anything, I decided to lay out all of the clips on my workplace to see what they would all add up to before cutting anything out. This ended up adding up to over 4 minutes.

        While most people would be extremely worried that they were going to have to cut down a lot of content, I thought 4 minutes was even maybe a little short. That's because whenever I film anything, I always make sure to think ahead and film a lot of extra clips. This also helps me because when I start to edit, I always delete, crop, or change most of the clips resulting in much shorter footage.

Cropping With Colors:

        I started by just cropping the clips from the first time I filmed (the forest chase scene). Without deleting any clips or anything and just cropping the clips down to the only thing I would actually show, changed the time by a lot already. I decided that if I wanted to "delete" any of the clips, I would instead just move them farther down on the editing timeline that way if I change my mind, it's easier to access.

        Something else I also really like doing when I edit my projects on Adobe Premiere Pro is color coding. Coloring my clips in really helps keep me organized and also just gives me some fun colors to look at. In this case, I made the first part of the chase scene an orangey mango color and the second half of the chase scene a pinky rose color.

        Once I color-coded the clips, I decided to move on to the other half of my project. Though I knew that I definitely wasn't done with the other part, I thought switching gears and starting on the other half would help me get ahead and get my editing done faster.

        Starting on the other half was hard. Not only because it was way longer, but also because the shots were more important and more meaningful to the actual plot of my film. So, I did the same thing I did with the beginning of my project: I started by cropping out the unusable parts of each clip, then going in and separating away the shots I didn't find necessary or useful in the final production.

Sound:

        After that, I thought starting on the hard part would be best rather than leaving it for the end. In my opinion and my case, sound was the hard part. Some of the raw footage had people talking in the background and others had nothing at all, not even environmental sounds.

        So before doing anything, I thought to myself: "What sound do I really need in this piece?" I remember I made a blog about how I was going to make the main character listen to music, but I turned away from that idea since I didn't love it and I forgot to film with earbuds in any way. So, the next thing I thought about was the scream. The one that transitions the two halves of my project.

        I know I could've recorded myself screaming into a microphone, but I knew it wouldn't have come out nicely. Instead, I went on YouTube and other copyright-free sound websites to find any horror screams that could fit what I was going for.

        I ended up finding one video in specific that stood out to me on YouTube as I was scrolling through it. It was called "Woman Screaming Sound Effect / Horror Scream Sounds". Before watching the video and getting my hopes up, I decided to check the description, and thankfully, it said it was copyright free. So, I added in the scream to my project and edited the rest of the clips.

        After thinking that was enough work for one day, I decided to watch it entirely, and I was at a loss for words, and not for a good reason. It was really really REALLY bad. The audio was terrible, the silence was extremely awkward, and it looked like a 5th-grader art project. I couldn't bear leaving it like that overnight. So I decided to edit just a bit more.

        However, I was kind of out of ideas, so my next bet was to ask my friends in my same AICE Media Studies Class. And wow, I was so thankful. We exchanged videos of our projects and gave each other feedback. Although I couldn't get over how good her project was, she gave me some very good tips and ideas that I could use to make mine flow more smoother.

        One was adding a background sound such as a little suspense climbing music moment. I decided to search on YouTube some more and not to long later, I came across a video shown above.

        Yes, I checked again and it was copyright free, however, this sound effect was exactly what I was looking for. I added it to Adobe Premiere and began to edit, adding more and more sound effects and techniques I learned. After a couple of more long hours of hard work, I ended up with a MUCH better project than before and I left feeling pleased.

        Also, the three clips on top of all the rest are some test trials I created for the titles and credits to see how they would look and where I should put them to make them fit in but still stick out.

            -Dana

Sources:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MOOSfsP-vfM

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-zvQoPyY2XE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bSvHGtqStSM

Finally Finishing Filming

           After getting home late last night, I knew I had to get in control and really start focusing on this project since I have just over a week until the due date. So, instead of waiting around more time, I got to work.

Preparations:

           I woke up early this morning (around 7:30 A.M.) so my mom could help me film the second half before she has to head off to work. Thankfully, she works at home, so I didn't have a huge rush, but she did have a meeting at 9:00 A.M. so I couldn't be playing with my time. 

           I very quickly got dressed into the outfit I was going to film in (black sweatpants and a black hoodie). I then did a little makeup: basically just putting a little brown eyeshadow under my eye and a little "dirt" on my face. I also decided to use a toothbrush and splash my face with fake blood so it could look like I just killed someone and their blood splashed onto me. Finally, I put my hair up into a messy bun and headed downstairs to start to film.

Pre-Filming Planning:
           Before I talk about my filming process today, I wanted to also add what I did as a pre-filming addition yesterday. Even though I did get home very late last night, I decided to brainstorm a bit and think of ideas and elements I specifically wanted to add into my filming for the next day.

           This ended up helping me out a lot because I ended up needing a whole lot more time than I thought I would've needed. This brainstorming also helped me because I didn't have to worry about thinking of what I should do when I was filming since I knew what I wanted it and how and all I had to do, was film it and be done.

           The whole video was over 3 minutes long without being sped up since I tried to cram as much information and details into it as possible. Technically, you could call it a mini-vlog I made so I could move on to the filming stage smoother and easier.

           I do know that I already made my storyboard and I already planned out what I wanted these scenes to look like earlier. However, editing my storyboard and rethinking my ideas after I finished filming the first half of the project is a great way to keep my project feeling fresh, updated, and overall better.

           After getting my props set up and ready to be able to film with, I called my mom down and we started to film around 8:50 A.M. 

Actually Filming:

           The filming started out well, I just had to adjust myself to feel more comfortable and at ease in front of the camera. The first shot took me a while to do since I was still warming up to my phone and I had to show my mom what angle I wanted to use and how I wanted the scene or shot to look.

           After grazing past the next few shots easily, I got to a section that was particularly hard compared to the rest of the shots. One where acting and good camera work really came into play. 

           As shown below, it was a shot where I walk into a bathroom, while the camera is focused on the reflection of me on the mirror while I wash my face and then take a few steps back. Although now when I look back at it I could've done it differently to do it better, I think I still managed to do a decent job and succeeded in making a sufficient scene.

           After filming a couple more scenes and shots, I encountered a section I thought was very boring. Not in the sense of the plot or what you're actually seeing, but instead, I thought the shots and angles I was using weren't advanced enough and didn't look cool enough.

           To fix this problem, I decided to make a change of focus shot where I changed the camera's focus from a phone to a backpack. To do this, I started with the phone where the girl in the video had just sent a text and she then dropped the phone on the couch. I then made the camera focus on the keyboard part of the phone which gave it a very cool effect.

           The camera then tilts upwards slowly and it then reveals a black backpack laying on top of a stepstool across the couch. While no longer being able to see the phone below the camera's view, the girl in the footage walks towards the backpack, swings it around her shoulder as she picks it up, and finally walks away and out of the shot.

           Lastly, I also ended up adding a cool shot at the end that looks down from high up towards the girl walking out of the house. Not only does this show how in her normal life she's smaller and more kept to herself, but it also shows how inferior she is to her nighttime persona.

           By this time, it was already 9:00 A.M, so my mom could no longer help me. Thankfully, all I had left was this shot where all I had to do was lean my phone on the window at a certain angle and hope it stays there until I run back upstairs to pause the recording. 

           This shot was filmed from a window on the second floor of my house that looks down and out to the front of my house. The window also shows the walkway leading up to my door from the mailbox which gave me a very wide and long cool high-angle shot.

           Thankfully, this window didn't have any mesh covering the view so I didn't have any trouble positioning my phone correctly to get a clear shot of the girl walking from the door to around the tree on the left of her. 

            -Dana

Sound

Why Is Sound Important:

Using sound aspects appropriately in movies or tv shows is vital for a well-made film. Sound is what mainly engages an audience through dialogue, environmental sound, scores, music, etc.

        Sound helps viewers understand and absorb the story and messages the film endeavors to portray. Sound can also build an emotional response by emphasizing and reinforcing the mood and tone of what's happening on screen.

        Changing the use of sound can cause the viewer experience a wide array of emotions. Just by adding something as small as some sound effects can completely change the effect the film evokes. Using silence, scores, or even a specific song or music genre can create the same effect.

        Though understanding body language is always important in a film, using dialogue or sound effects can add so much more detail towards a specific character, setting, or situation. Many people also  consider sound as one of the most important, relevant, and understood form of displaying information.

Sound in Horror:

        Sound is extremely important in all movie and tv show genres, however, horror movies aren't the same without them. 

        Sound is what is mainly used to frighten audiences in a horror movie. It can stimulate a psychological effect that intensifies the horror and scare. Whether you realize it or not, sound is the highlight of horror movies, making it just as or even more important than the actual visual aspect.

How I Will Use Sound:

    

    To make my opening scene more realistic and well-made, I will have to incorporate several methods of sound. In the first half of the opening scene, the forest chase scene, I will be using various forms of diegetic sound such as leaves rustIing, trees blowing in the wind, and running on terrain. 

        For those sounds, I can use some of the original sound from the footage, however, since I did film during the day on a weekend, the park I filmed at was crowded and there is also background noise. So in some cases, I will be finding my sounds on other online platforms.

Sound Platforms:

    

    While researching for this blog post, I came across a couple online platforms I could use as bases for copyright free sound effects. One of them is the audio library in YouTube Studio.

        The audio library is home to many sound effects and a variety of music. Everything on the audio library is also copyright free, so I don't have to worry about being copyrighted by anyone.

        Another site I found while researching was called freesound (https://freesound.org/). I have used this site before on a previous project and it was extremely helpful and useful. It is a database full of a magnitude of sounds ranging from a cow mooing to a waterfall splashing. Anything I wanted to find, I could find here all copyright free.

        Though I still have to look through them to find the exact type of sound I am looking for, these sites will make the editing sound process a whole lot easier.

Other Sound Aspects:

        Another form of sound I will use is heavy breathing. This is an extremely important part in my project as half of it is a running sequence. Without heavy breathing, the movie opening wouldn't be the same. This however, is different than the other sounds I need as this is a more personal sound and I will record it myself. I will use a microphone and record heavy breathing. I may even do this outside or in a foresty atmosphere as the breathing could sound more realistic and natural.

   

                      -Dana

Sources:

Budka, Luke. “The Importance of Sound Effects.” TopLine Film, 20 June 2022, https://toplinefilm.com/blog/the-importance-of-sound-effects#:~:text=Sound%20is%20important%20because%20it,can%20elevate%20your%20video%20dramatically.

“Why Sound Is so Important in Horror Movies.” Psychology Today, Sussex Publishers, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-we-love-horror/202209/why-sound-is-so-important-in-horror-movies#:~:text=Horror%20movies%20use%20sound%20to,of%20such%20biologically%20potent%20sounds.

Pre-Editing

        I made a blog post a couple weeks ago, creating a schedule for myself. When I made myself the schedule, I thought it would be very straight forward and easy to follow on time. However, not everything always goes according to plan.

        I have been extremely busy lately, with personal things, school assignments and homework, and extra practices from my extracurricular activities since competition season is coming up soon. On my schedule, I was hoping to be editing this week already, maybe even finishing editing by this week, but because of my busy schedule, I haven't even finished recording yet.

Pre-Editing:

        You might be thinking that I should just film the second half of my project and then start editing, but I'm also out of town, so I can't necessarily film here. However, I did bring my computer with me, to make sure I can finish my blogs and get other work done. One thing I can do on my computer right now is edit. I know I said I can't edit because I haven't finished filming my second half of my project yet, but I have an idea.

        I decided to do some pre-editing. I don't even know if this is a real word (it is, I searched it up - Pre-editing real definition) but I'll explain what my definition is, I'll explain. 

        Basically, it's preparing for once I'm ready to fully begin to edit and it can also help me gage how I should film my ending portion. I'll elaborate more later on in the blog.

Starting the Pre-Editing:

        I started by emailing myself the clips I had already recorded in the woods. I've had some bad past experiences when trying to connect my phone directly to my PC, so now I just email myself the clips I filmed.

        However, this time, some of the video clips were on the longer side, so I had to cut them down and shorten them before sending them. This was because there is a limit on how big a video can be when you send something on email. Thankfully, this was pretty quick to do and wasn't at all a burden.

        After downloading all the videos off my email and saving them onto my PC, I opened my editing software, Adobe Premiere Pro, and I imported all of the clips into the platform.

        Once I imported all of my content. It didn't take me too long to realize I had a ton of content and clips. Too much almost. So the very first thing I did was look through every single clip repeatedly.

        All I was doing was thinking to myself over and over again, "is this clips really necessary", "do I really need this clip". Honestly, this technique really helped me eliminate a decent amount of clips that weren't really that useful or needed.

       

Almost Editing:

        I didn't really want to switch my pre-editing stage that I made up into a real editing stage, so I didn't actually cut down any clips yet. This is because I know that once I finish filming, I'm going to have a completely different idea and I would've thrown a lot of work in the trash.

        Instead, I decided to just stay with the idea of helping my future self by making sure I only had the necessary materials and clips I would need in the future editing stage. What would also help me is deciding what clips go where in the video, so I also set this time to create a short timeline and put every clip in chronological order and fit them in where they were needed.

 

        After this, I squished all the clips together. Obviously, I knew that I was going to change it up when I get to the real editing stage, so I didn't want to put too much work in, however, I did try to cut some parts of the clips. For example, on a couple clips, you could see the camera tilt downwards at the very end while I was trying to end the recording. In that case, I just edited that out because no matter what I wouldn't want that in.

        I was trying to do my best editing possible without actually editing. This was because I wanted to get as close as possible to the actual time stamp so I could know around how much footage I would have to film for my second half,

        In the picture below, you can see that when the clips are smooshed together, they add up to over a minute. Obviously, like I said before, the beginning scene won't be anywhere near that long since I haven't cut out everything I've wanted to yet and I haven't edited anything.

                -Dana

Sources:

Eurolanguage. “Pre-Editing: What Is It, and Where Will It Lead? - Eurolanguage - Translation.” Eurolanguage, Eurolanguage Https://Www.eurolanguage-Translations.com/Wp-Content/Uploads/2018/09/Uebersetzungsbuero-Eurolanguage.png, 30 Aug. 2021, https://www.eurolanguage-translations.com/en/pre-editing-en/.

A Distribution Plan

In this blog, I will discuss the importance and how I plan to distribute my project if I were to make it into a full movie. This blog will also help me out later on when I begin to work on my CCR. 

What Is Distributing:

        Film distribution is what allows any movie or tv show to be shown to the viewer - how and where the audience sees the film. Every movie or tv show goes through some sort of distribution technique and they all attempt to choose an appropriate distributor. 

        Distributing a film is a process consisting of choosing a medium and a distributor to make your movie or tv show available to the public. Every different platform will alter the succession of your film, so picking the correct medium is vital to make it available to your audience.

How To Distribute Appropriately:

Finding the correct distributor is based on a number of elements. One of the most important aspects of choosing the correct distributor for your movie or tv show is knowing your target audience. Different audiences can be reached far easier through certain platforms since many stick to a couple platforms they rely on to watch their favorite films. Knowing your target audience also helps to choose a platform since many specifically focus on a certain age group, gender, favorite genre, preferences, etc.

        Another important tip is to not limit your distribution to one platform. This means exploring different social sources and distributors to create a variety of access to your film. However, choosing too many distributors can be overwhelming to your audience and will be a waste of money Instead, of choosing to distribute on too many platforms, try to focus on ones that fit the best with your target audience. This will help you gain a bigger viewership and a bigger profit.

        Knowing your target audience is extremely important to distribution techniques since many audiences specifically watch and get shows recommended to them on certain platforms. For example, trying to reach 10-year-olds on Facebook would be an irrational decision.

My Target Audience:

        Right off the bat, the first thing I had to do is figure out who my target audience was. Most horror movies target younger audiences since newer horror's tend to include more jump scares or gory scenes, attracting a larger group of a younger audience. Horror movies also tend to lure in teenagers or young adults between the ages of 15 to 25 who are mostly male.

        After thinking of the typical horror movie target audience and how it fits with my plot, I decided that my target audience would be young females aging from 15-29. 

        Obviously, this target audience doesn't mean that males can't want my movie, however, I think that my plot and my story fits more with something a female would like and relate to a little better. Though my opening scene doesn't show much (since it's only 2 minutes), I had to base my target audience off of what I thought my plot and story would be if I made this into a full movie.

        The whole movie would be about this girl who is trying to overcome her nighttime urges. The girl is going through a very tough emotional time and what she does while she sleeps is physiologically and mentally breaking her from the inside out. I think that my story would fit females who like horror movies more since they are more likely to sympathize with the girl and understand her struggles and sadness while males would most likely look past it.

My Distribution Plan:

        Figuring out my target audience also helped me think about how I plan to distribute my movie. First, I thought about what platforms my target audience frequent. This then helped me narrow down the possibilities and then figure out exactly what platforms would fit.

    I would first distribute my movie on Netflix, as it's a very accessible platform and its target audience is younger people who have a device. Since 230.7 million Americans have Netflix, I thought it would be a goo platform to start distributing my movie.

        After letting my movie sit on Netflix for a month or so, I would attempt to also distribute it to Hulu and Apple TV +. Both of these platforms target audiences who have devices in between the ages of 18 and 34. These platforms are also very popular for Americans and are a great way to get my movie onto 2 new big platforms. 

   

        Though it doesn't make a big difference, I would try to first publish my movie on Netflix around late September or early October, that way when I distribute my movie onto the other two platforms, it will be around Halloween time. This could also drag in a bigger audience since many people like to watch horror movies around Halloween time. If my movie starts to get popular, I would most likely post it on other platforms such as Blumhouse and Amazon Prime to increase the size of my audience.

            -Dana

Sources:

“All You Need to Know about Hulu's Self-Serve Advertising.” DASH TWO, 7 Nov. 2022, https://dashtwo.com/all-you-need-to-know-about-hulus-platform/.

Arun, Rahul. “A Case Study on Netflix Marketing Strategy: Simplilearn.” Simplilearn.com, Simplilearn, 14 Feb. 2023, https://www.simplilearn.com/tutorials/marketing-case-studies-tutorial/netflix-marketing-strategy#:~:text=in%20the%20market.-,Netflix%20Target%20Audience,entrepreneurs%2C%20working%20professionals%2C%20etc.

Business of Film: What Is Distribution? - Script Magazine. https://scriptmag.com/business-widget/business-of-film-what-is-distribution.

Kevin Hall Read more by Kevin Hall. “How Film Distribution Works.” Video Librarian — Film & Documentary Reviews for Collection Development, 8 Aug. 2022, https://videolibrarian.com/articles/essays/how-film-distribution-works/#:~:text=Film%20distribution%20is%20a%20process,models%3A%20leasing%20and%20profit%20sharing.

Lack of Interest in Apple TV+ Content Is a Big Barrier for Subscribers ... https://www.fiercevideo.com/video/lack-interest-apple-tv-content-a-big-barrier-for-subscribers.

Ruby, Daniel, and About The Author Daniel Ruby Content writer with 10+ years of experience. I write across a range of subjects. “Netflix Subscribers 2023 - How Many Users, Stats & Insights.” Demand Sage, 27 Feb. 2023, https://www.demandsage.com/netflix-subscribers/#:~:text=Netflix%20has%20230.7%20Million%20Subscribers%20as%20of%20the%20fourth%20quarter%20of%202022.&text=Netflix's%20Subscriber%20growth%20in%20the%20beginning%20of%202022%20wasn't%20great.

Crediting

        Though I haven't gotten to the editing stage yet, I thought making a blog about credits would be important to do. In this blog I will explain the importance of credits, what they are, and where and how I will incorporate them into my opening film project.

A credit's Importance:

        Credits give recognition to every person who worked on a film. This includes the people that aren't on camera, meaning directors, writers, producers, editors, etc. This shows the extreme importance of crediting everyone on set to make the audience know who put in hard work to make this movie or tv show. Credits also give the viewers an opportunity to recognize their favorite actors or filmmakers or ones they recognize from other films.

Though ending credits list every person and company that worked on the film, the opening credits are made a different way for a different reason. Opening credits typically only show the most important actors (main characters or famous, well-known actors), the director, writer, producer, cinematographer, and editor. Opening credits resort to a more focused and specific view of the "most important" people who worked on a movie or a tv show.

My Credits:

        When I was making my storyboard, I tried my best to keep the credits in mind while creating it. This helped would help me in the future (present time now). Because I already had my mind on the credits, I made sure to adjust my filming adequately to match where and how I wanted to add my credits.

        In my case, I decided to add my credits at the very beginning of my film opening. In the background would be the victim running away and nature/setting shots. This would make it so that when I added the words, the background wouldn't be too distracting from the credits themselves. I also decided that I would most likely make my credits fade in and out slowly. 

My Title:

        Though this blog is about credits, I decided to dedicate these paragraphs specifically to the title. As opening credits are often paired with the title, I had to think about where to put that as well.

        My first idea was to put it on a bathroom door when the main character closes it. I didn't love the idea, however, when I suggested the idea to my teacher, she thought it would look too, much like a "coming-of-age" film. After thinking about it for a while, I completely agree since it would've made my film look very off-putting in my horror genre.

        My second and final idea was just to put it after the opening credits. Though it's still up for debate (with myself), I think that adding it right before the chase scene in the woods climaxes would make the title seem very strong and scary as right after would be the time when the victim sees the killer and dies.

            -Dana

Sources:

Peerspace. “Everything You Need to Know about Movie Credits.” Peerspace, 18 May 2022, https://www.peerspace.com/resources/movie-credits/#:~:text=Why%20are%20movie%20credits%20important%3F&text=End%20credits%20give%20acknowledgment%20of,their%20favorite%20actors%20and%20filmmakers.