Starting Fresh

Our film is finally complete! The process definitely had its ups and downs, but I am glad that our film is finally ready for release. In regards to branding, we chose a red and black theme. Our social media posts incorporate a red and black theme to signify danger and horror. Our link tree is also red and black. Overall, we chose dark colors and a dark ambiance for our film to represent the thriller and horror aspect. We also branded the protagonist and antagonist a certain way. Iman, the stalker, is seen wearing red and black in her opening shot. This is a subtle way of foreshadowing to the viewers that she is a villain. Ainsley, the good love interest, is seen wearing a light colors in her opening scene. We used light to represent good and darkness to represent the bad at the beginning. We purposely did not stick to this theme for all of their clothing because we did not want to make it too obvious and throw it in the face of the audience. We also chose to refrain from using too much...

Our social media campaign is finally complete! We are positive we have gained a large audience from all of our advertising. Here are the links to all of our social media accounts: Linktree: https://linktr.ee/rememberofficial2023 Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/official.remember2023/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/RememberNetflix Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@RememberOfficial23 We have used Canva to create many flyers and posters for our social media. For example, here is a poster we made for our Instagram: 

Here is the final product...we are so excited to share our film with you after months of hard work put into it! Click here for our film! Here is a little bonus behind-the-scenes photo for your enjoyment: Ainsley and I were laughing uncontrollably between takes! The energy on set was amazing and so warm and fun!

 Here is a postcard advertisement of our film!  Here is the front: Here is the back:

Lately, I have been watching more shows and films. I have noticed that with the love interests, the guy is usually more obsessive in an unhealthy manner. For example, I recently watched New Girl and one of the main character's Nick has been constantly calling his ex-girlfriend and refusing to accept that she broke up with him. It is important to show men that taking no for an answer is important. Women are allowed to have their own feelings and can choose to not want to be in a relationship. The gender performative theory guided our work. Our product represents the social issue of viewing women as possessions. Our main character, Brooke, is stalked and kidnapped by a male who views her as something he must have. We are showing that possessive and obsessive love does not win in the end. At the end of our film, the kind and respectful guy ends up with Brooke, so we are setting a positive example of what love should be like. We have gone with a red and black theme for our posts to sig...

The filming process has been a lot tougher than I initially envisioned. My partner and I had to completely remove the three friends we were planning to use as actors from the film because they have such busy schedules. Nobody's schedules were able to line up. We ended up finding a new person willing to film whenever, but now my partner and I must act in the film. So, my partner and I will take turns filming and acting. There are certain scenes where she will act and I will  film and vice versa. This has certainly been a setback because we had already started filming so we had to go back to square one again to film with new actors who had more flexible schedules. Here is a clip from a scene we filmed with our old actors: Another challenge we faced is finding the perfect music for our film. At times, we have the perfect sound in our head. However, we have difficulty finding copyright music that we like. We ended up just listening to a bunch of sounds on copyright ...

We have started advertising! We have posted on Twitter and Instagram and have been gaining followers. We recently made a youtube video and are in the process of uploading behind the scenes footage with the actors!  Here is our Instagram account and its first post! Here is our Twitter where we announced the release of the movie! We have started filming the college scenes. We have taken some candid shots “on set” and will be posting those on Instagram as well. Here is a shot of my co-director filming a scene! Exciting news: we have our full cast! We have three actors. Since we could only find female actors, two of my friends have agreed to play the role of boys.  We have started to film the first two scenes that are set at the college. The only editing we have done thus far is cropping the length of scenes. We will edit all of the scenes together once we film more. We have had no issues using our phone cameras. Using our phones has made it easy to film since they are small and p...

Here are updates on the progress of the elements of my film! Mise-en-scene- We have three major filming locations: a college, a restaurant, and Brody's home. For the college, we will be using our high school. For the restaurant, we will visit a local restaurant and film in the outdoor seating section. As for the home, we will use parts of my home and parts of my partner Ainsley's home to film. We will film so that the rooms in our houses look like one big house because certain elements of each of our houses fit how we envision Brody's house. Cinematography- We chose to have the scenes in Brody's house with dark lighting with dull lenses to create eeriness and depression. The beginning scenes with Dexter and Brooke are supposed to be magical to show the two in love, so we will use a lot of light and bright lenses. Editing- For editing, we have planned transition shots, tracking shots, close-up shots, medium shots, and wide shots. My favorite transition shot is when our m...

As far as advertisement goes, we are utilizing Instagram, Twitter, and Youtube. We will also be printing physical posters and displaying them in popular public spots around the city.  There are some concerns that we have regarding advertisement. We are worried that physical posters will fly away or be vandalized. We live in a rainy city and the posters might get ruined in the rain. We will laminate them to ensure minimum damage. We are thinking of putting up the posters in inside locations, like malls and grocery stores. However, we are concerned we will not receive permission to advertise in these locations. For our social media campaign, we are concerned we will not get enough views and following. To counteract this issue, we have created hashtags that we will utilize, so that fans can constantly retweet and repost using the hashtag. With a trending hashtag, our film is bound to get more traction and notice. For Twitter and Instagram, we also have devised a plan of posting twice ...

Click here for the link to my screenplay Writing my screenplay was more challenging than I expected it to be. It is difficult to determine transition shots and what shots should be used for each scene. It was easier to write the dialogue and actions of the characters. I thought I would struggle with writer's block but my partner and I came up with the ideas quickly. My movie contains three characters. The three actors who will be playing the roles are my classmates. While two of the characters are supposed to be guys, I could only find girls. So, we will use hoodies and men's clothing to portray the girls as boys. Besides using men's clothing for two of the characters, the girl character will wear normal everyday clothing from the actor's closet. The men's clothing will come from our brother's closets. Brody's house in the play is the main location for filming. We will use parts of my house and parts of my partner's house to film. Additionally, we will f...

I learned about many different media theories recently! When I learned about active-audience theory, I realized audiences consume media differently based on their own life experiences. I have now become conscious of the fact that I am interpreting media in a way that may be different from the way my friend interprets the same media. I also learned about representation theory. I now understand that the representation I see on screen is just a reflection of the views and bias of the producers. Everyone has their own idea of a group so there is no one true representation. I learned not to draw conclusions or base my feelings of a group based on the bias representation I see in the media. Through the agenda setting theory, I learned that the content I see is what the media wants me to see. Media companies post what they feel is the most important. When I see news that is publicized, I just assume it is important information because the news is supposed to showcase relevant information. How...

Audiences are drawn to certain brand names. This winter season, I found that audiences are loyal to specific franchises. Avatar and Marvel movies remained top ranked in November and December. Audiences want to watch movies made by the companies they love. Additionally, I think audiences love action-packed films. Black Panther and Avatar: The Way of Water had adventure and thrill. Violent Night, a movie in theatres this December, ranked high and it was an action-packed thriller. Glass Onion was another drama and thriller in theaters All the successful movies had a common denominator of thrill. Audiences want excitement when they go to the movies.  Audiences tended to stay away from romance movies.  Family comedies and romance movies tended to rank low in the box office this winter season. This can be attributed to advertising. Thriller movies have more action in the trailers, which looks more exciting to viewers. Viewers will not be inclined to watch a boring love story if ther...

Netflix is the production company we wish to work with for our short film, "Don't Forget Our Love." Our film involves romance with drama and horror. This is perfect for Netflix because  drama accounts for 10.4% of the most popular Netflix films in the United States and thriller and romance genres each account for approximately 8% of the most popular genres of Netflix films for the United States watchers. Netflix has distributed many successful films in a similar style and genre! 1. The Secret Obsession This movie received o ver 40 million views within 3 months of the release, contributing to Netflix’s successful 2019 year with $1.87 billion in net profits. The film is about a woman who suffers memory loss. She is manipulated by her stalking coworker, who makes her believe the two are together. The women slowly gains her memory back, and tries to fight her stalker back. 2. The Roommate This movie received a worldwide gross of $40,492,652. Another similar film is The Roomma...

My film plot: The opening scene of our film is Dexter and Brooke, two third-year college students, in history class. Brooke is the protagonist. She is a cheerleader and the main love interest. Dexter is another protagonist. He is Brooke's football player boyfriend. During class, Brooke drops her pencil and Dexter grabs it for her. This marks the start of a blooming friendship. The two get to talking and discover that they enjoy each other’s company. After class, Dexter and Brooke are seen walking together in the hallway where Dexter asks Brooke out on a date. Brooke happily agrees to meet him at a restaurant tonight at 7. Unbeknownst to the two of them, someone overheard their conversation at college and was not happy to hear so. Dexter and Brooke are seen on their date having a nice time while laughing and chatting. Their waiter takes their order. The waiter is Brody, the one that overheard their conversation earlier. He is only posing as a waiter. He brings the two water but he d...

With my poster, I created a more modern look to emphasize the technological and futuristic aspects of the movie. The poster caters to audiences who enjoy thriller horror films. The poster also includes the ratings to show a sneak peak of the technology and basis of the movie without giving too much away. Overall, the design is simplistic to still leave some mystery but clear enough where it is evident what the genre and topic of the film is. I also created a twitter account for the movie. The twitter handle is @NosediveNetflix. By associating the film with Netflix, the film is associated with a credited name because Netflix is a popular producer and streamer. I chose to emphasize the cast because the main character, Lacie, was played by the famous actress Bryce Dallas Howard. I tweeted about her because her fans will likely watch the movie because they like her work. I posted for followers to use the #Nosedive when tweeting about the movie so that the hashtag can go in the Twitter tren...

My partner and I initially decided that we wanted to do a coming-of-age story. However, we then decided we wanted to do a thriller film. We wanted to add elements of suspense and horror to our film to help make the plot more interesting. We gained inspiration from the film "Obsessed." Obsessed had a stalker come between a happy couple, which is part of our movie. The movie poster highlights big names in the film industry to entice viewers to watch. The colors are dark and ominous to show that the film has suspense to come. Another film we gained inspiration from is "Secret Obsession." In this film, one of the characters has memory loss. Another character takes advantage of this to convince her that the two are a couple. The girl slowly regains her memories and runs away from her obsessed stalker. In the movie poster, the girl with memory loss looks distressed while the stalker looks angry. The faces of the characters reflect their roles in the movie. We also see the...

My name is Iman Ahmad and I am a senior taking AICE Media Studies A Level this year! Last year, I was introduced into the film production world when I took AICE Media Studies AS Level. I now feel more knowledgable on filming and editing techniques. I struggled last year with minimizing my film opening to two minutes. I think I planned out too many scenes in advance and did not realize that I would need to cut down a lot. This year, I plan to be more conscious of the time restraints so that I am not struggling to cut down when editing. I am happy with the costumes and film setting last year. I feel that my props and location made the film opening realistic and I am going to pay close attention to these details on my film this year too. This year, I am glad we get more time to film so that we can tell a full story rather than just a short opening like last year. I am super excited to start brainstorming filming and marketing ideas!!

 Here is my creative critical reflection where I give insight on my thought process :)

 Phew!! Finally done!! I did end up making a few changes from the original screenplay to the final film. I changed where I put my credits because I wanted to put them in spots where I had blank areas or stops in my film where the credits would have emphasis placed on them. I also cut out some scenes that I felt did not add to the story and ate away at my time instead. I added scenes that helped the story flow better, such as a time lapse from night to day to indicate the time change. I am happy with the end result of my film. I hope you love my film opening as much as I do!

Changes to the film My final film changed in a few ways than I had originally pictured it would be. Firstly, I had completely different actors in mind. One of my friends had an emergency the day we were supposed to film, so my other friend had to fill in for her. The friend who was originally supposed to play Bella has blonde hair while the friend who actually plays Bella in the film has brunette hair. I had bought a jet black wig because it was a clear difference from my friend's blonde hair. The brunette and jet black hair did not show as big of a difference as I would have liked. I also did not originally intend to end my film opening on a humorous, suspenseful scene. I added a sound effect that made Bella opening the door funnier because her face was shocked with her jaw dropping. This, alongside the change from upbeat music to a suspenseful soundtrack added a more lighthearted tone because it indicated the person at the door ruined Bella's plan that she thought she had got...