Brainstorming CCR

Hey Cambridge!!!

Little update on the project!!! Today I started planning out my Critical Reflection. I’m still figuring everything out, but I wanted to write down some ideas so it’s easier later.

These are the questions I have to answer:

• How do your products represent social groups or issues?

• How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of branding?

• How do your products engage with the audience?

• How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

Today, I’m just brainstorming some ideas on what I can write for each question. For representation, I can talk about how my film shows a teenager trying to do good things, even when everything keeps going wrong. 

For branding, I can explain how everything connects through the same colors (red, yellow, white, and blue) and the coin, which serves as the main symbol. For the audience, I can talk about how the humor and fast pacing make it entertaining and also include things like the Instagram page and my filming day.

For research, I can mention how Skipped influenced my idea, especially by using visual comedy rather than a lot of dialogue. I’m still figuring out how I want to organize everything, but this is helping me get started.

Filming day!

Hey Cambridgeee!!!

Today we finally went out to film more of our film, and it was such a fun day. We started at Weston Town Center to film the opening scene of our film. Everything turned out pretty good, but we had to deal with people walking in the background of our short film, and my shadow showing up in some shots while filming our short film... Besides that, it was a really good start to our short film. David brought two of his friends, Eddie and Miguel. They acted in some of the scenes of our short film, which helped overall.

We also made content for our Instagram page for our film. We are doing a "meet the cast" post, so we got some clips and pictures of Eddie and Miguel. I feel like this is going to help make our Instagram page look more cohesive.

After that, we went to Everglades National Park to film the teleportation scene, which was probably my favorite part of the day!!! It was sooo cool seeing the alligators so up close (I even got some videos of them). I also filmed some clips of the park itself, just to have some extra footage.

The only difficult part was having to wait for the boats to pass because they were soooo loud. We made it work! In the end, we got good clips for our short film, so I’m really excited to start editing soonnn.

Overall, today was a good filming day!! It felt like such a productive and successful day. I am probably going to organize and put everything in order in the next few days, so we can start editing next week. And hope I have the same luck on Sunday!!

Ideas for Postcard

Hey Cambridge!!!

Today I started working on the print component for my film, One Flip Away. I'm making a postcard to give out at a film festival. I want it to be consistent with the Instagram page, so I'll use yellow, white, and blue colors ( Again). During our photoshoot, we’re planning to take close-up pictures of the coin so we can use that as the main key art for the postcard.

 
The postcard is an ad for a film festival screening. I need to add the title, the director, the date, time, place, and social media page. I want it to be easy to read and look intriguing. I’m trying to keep the design simple but eye-catching. I’m going to use fonts that match the Instagram page and the film, so it keeps the brand consistent.

Here's a sample I made (clearly it's not done yet, and I might end up changing the whole thing). I need to actually take the time and make it look good, but I still need the pictures from the photoshoot we are having next week.

Planning the Social Media

Hey Cambridgeeee!

As I mentioned in my last post, it has been raining so much that we can’t film... Since we can’t control the weather, we decided to focus on things we can do at home, like working on the social media component for our project!!

Today, I started planning out the Instagram page for the short film. This is one of the parts I’m most excited about!! I love working with social media pages and marketing overall, so I know I am going to have fun making it. The Instagram page is really important because it’s what people will see first and actually get interested in the film.

For the account name, I wanted something simple but still professional, so I am thinking on having the username be @oneflipaway.fim (I still haven’t made the page, so hopefully this username is still available). It clearly shows what the page is about, and it looks clean and put together. For the bio, I didn’t want anything too long, just something simple but catchy. Right now I’m thinking something like this:

Short Film

Comedy

Coming soon…

In terms of the overall aesthetic, I want the page to feel really bright, chaotic, and fun, just like the film. I’m going to use colors like red, yellow, white, and blue, based on the main character’s outfit. The red hoodie will stand out the most, and I also want to use bold text to grab people’s attention.

For the layout, I want the page to look organized but still interesting. I am planning to rotate between film clips, behind-the-scenes content, and interviews so the page does not feel repetitive.

For the content, I am going to post film clips like the first coin flip, teleportation moments, and the scenes where the kind acts go wrong. The film clips will be short and fun to watch. I also want to include behind-the-scenes content from filming in London and Madrid so people can see how everything was made. This will be really cool to see.

I am also thinking of posting more about the character, like a photoshoot and some interviews with the actor. I think people will like learning more about them. I want to post a lot of things so the page stays interesting and people keep coming back to see what is new.

We are also planning to do a photoshoot on March 25th after school to get pictures for both the postcard and the Instagram page. We want to take a lot of photos, so we have enough content to post on the Instagram page regularly. We are still deciding on what day we should film the interviews with our main character for the Instagram page.

I think this will be a fun part of the project. I am excited to start actually creating the posts for the Instagram page and seeing how it all turns out.

Filming Progress #1

Hey Cambridge!!!

So, a quick little update from spring break filming!!

David filmed the scenes in London and Madrid, which is actually so exciting (I wish I were there…). He filmed right in front of Plaza Mayor in Madrid, and his mom helped record some of the shots. He told me more about how everything went, and it sounded pretty successful to me!

We did realize that we don’t have as much footage as we originally hoped, but we both think we can still make it work. That just means that when we film together, we’re going to have to get a lot more shots and really make up for it.

Another issue we’ve been dealing with is the weather. It has literally been raining all week, which made it very hard to film. We had to move our film date, which also complicated things because of our work schedules… so Thursday, the 26th, it is... It was kind of stressful, but we figured out a new plan.

We’re still trying to stay on track!! We’re planning to start editing that same weekend so that we don’t fall behind. David sent me all the footage he got so I could get a better picture of how our film is coming together and what we still need to film.

Overall, even with the small setbacks, I feel like we’re in a good place right now, and I’m really excited to keep going with this project.

 

Project Update: Title and Costumes

Hey Cambridge!!!

Little update on the project!!! After finishing our full script and really understanding the story, we decided to name our short film “One Flip Away.” We both felt like it fit perfectly with the whole idea of the coin and all.

As I mentioned in one of my previous posts, David is going to film some scenes while
he’s in Europe, and then we’re going to film the rest together once he’s back. We planned everything out so we could ensure that it would match our vision.

Today, we worked on costume design. We took a lot of inspiration from... You guessed it, Skipped!!! We noticed that the main character really stood out against the background. In that short film, the use of white against grey backgrounds made it super clear who the focus was. We wanted to do something similar where the audience’s attention goes straight to our main character.

We decided our main character is going to wear a bright red hoodie with blue jeans. We wanted something simple but also really eye-catching. I actually looked into color theory (I literally googled what red meant in color theory and then realized I took notes about costume design and colors in class... ), and it ended up helping a lot. Red can represent danger and courage, which connect to our character and the situations he ends up in. Red naturally grabs people's attention, so it works perfectly for making him stand out in each scene.

 I am a very artsy person, so I LOVEEEE Canva, so to help visualize everything, I also created a mood board with the colors and overall vibe we’re going for in the film. This really helped us make sure everything feels consistent and matches the tone we want.

Overall, everything is starting to come together, and I’m really excited to see how it all looks once we start putting the scenes together!!!

print components

Hey Cambridgeee!!!!

Today, I started looking into the print component for my project. For the short film package, I will be creating a postcard advertisement to promote my film. I researched different short film covers so I can get inspo for the postcard. The picture and words need to be easy to see and understand right away.

To get inspiration, I looked at the covers from Skipped and One-Minute Time Machine.

For Skipped, one of the covers has the character in an office. The background had different shades of grey, which made the office feel a
bit boring... The title was bright yellow, but the guy was the main focus. The other cover had a background with warm colors. The guy sitting in the chair wore a red tie and a white shirt, creating a contrast. The bold yellow title also really stood out. I also saw a cover with film festival laurels. It made the cover look official and professional. 

One-Minute Time Machine had two characters on a bench. The cover described the short film perfectly. The bold yellow title, along with the time travel device in the corner, really stood out.

For my project, I want to do something like this by using a picture of the coin or a crazy teleport moment and big bold words that fit the tone of my film. This helped me figure out that my postcard needs to be simple, look good, and be easy to understand quickly.