Creative Critical Reflection

Trey's Split (Film Opening)

 Here it is! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IqqNgFyo6Ys&ab_channel=Kaktus

Portfolio Reflection

THE LAST HURRAH :(

After spending so much time on this project, I've come to learn a lot more than just production and Photoshop. I finally understood my background and where I came from when I first came up with the idea to make this film. Middle School was never the problem. My interests, hobbies, and whatever else made me feel happy was never the problem. Everything that made me feel like "me" was and will never be the problem. No matter what, you have to embrace YOU. Nothing matters more than how you enjoy your life. It's already so short, you might as well spend it doing the things you love. 

Production wise I learned how to communicate my ideas to others while also gaining some directing experience as well. Overall, I had a lot of fun working on this project. I was able to improve my editing skills while also obtaining a new perspective on my culture. I would do this five more times if given the chance.

Trey-ffects (PART 2)

 

Because the bully scene was filmed on a different camera than the rest of the shots, the raw portion footage looked jarring in contrast to the rest of the opening. To mask this, I used my halftone effect in Photoshop and overlayed it over the footage using the opacity controls in Premiere. To make it look good, I had to resize the images and keyframe the position. The overlay made the speech bubbles/text boxes look much better as well.

The action words were created using the BiffBamBoom font from Adobe Creative Cloud.

Without further ado, here is the rough draft of Trey's Split!

I'm going to give it to Drew so he can do some touch-ups, create a title sequence, and add more effects. I plan to continue working on my CCR.

Trey-ffects (Part one)

 I decided to make the mise-en-scene comic-based and imaginative to implement Trey's interests and dynamic perspective on the world around him. This was tough because I couldn't use external sources, so I had to create all of my effects in Photoshop from scratch. I began creating the text boxes using the shape tool. I added a black stroke along the lines of the boxes to give it that classic 2D feel. I wanted to add a shadow to them to make them look more cinematic but I decided against it.

The font I used for the text is called "Captain Comic", which is prominently found in Graphic Novel prints and other comic book works. I typed the text and sized it precisely so that it would fit within the shape. 

 Next, I created a halftone layer in Photoshop and placed it above the textbox, creating an image that looks like it came straight from a comic book. I did this process with three other images.

Because the bully scene was filmed using a different camera, I decided to mask it in a really creative way using the halftone overlay. If you wanna find out more, catch me in the next post! 

Trey's Sound Effects

 TREY'S SOUND EFFECTS

We decided to get most of our sound effects from a sound base provided by Mrs. Stoklosa, and we recorded dialogue from a booth. I recorded raw audio of my bike moving as well as the sound of the brakes at my house.

I layered multiple tracks under the Basketball scene to capture the ambiance of the park, as with the bully scene as well. For the majority of the opening, I decided to leave out sound effects as it would drive attention away from the V.O. 

To properly sound bridge between scenes, I used a constant gain effect to make the transition sound subtle and smooth. If I left it out, the audience would hear a quiet "pop" noise, which could be immersion-breaking. Audio is everything when it comes to film. If the film has bad audio, then the audience will not be engaged.

If you thought that was cool, just wait until you see my comic book effects! Stay tuned for the next episode of Trey's Post-Production Z Kai! (Much better name if I say so myself)

TREY'S SOUND

TREY'S TUNE

To illustrate Trey's varying interests in cultures, I decided to use a rock song and a rap beat. A band I discovered many years ago called "Good Kid" actually has DMCA-free music.

 

Thus, I downloaded an instrumental for my favorite song, Slingshot, and imported it into my timeline.

Finding the rap beat was fairly easy. Many producers post their music on YouTube to gain notoriety, and many of them are free to use and DMCA-free. I found a free "Kanye-Type Beat", downloaded it, and imported it into the project. The music fits well with the opening's aesthetic.

Rock music is meant to symbolize Trey's unique side. It's music that he resonates with the most, while those around him wouldn't appreciate his tastes. The music is played over by dialogue where Trey provides information about his background, his interests, and his personal feelings. The rap beat is slow and mellow to match Trey's feelings of isolation. Whereas the rap beat is played over by dialogue where Trey talks about his disgruntlement with society as a whole. Rock symbolizes passion, while Rap symbolizes conformity.