CCR

Aja: Hi everyone! Welcome or welcome back to my cooking show! Today I am joined by a very special guest, and my friend, Sophia! 

Sophia: Hey everybody, today I am here with Aja, who just came out with her new movie, Gunshot. I am here today to ask her some questions about the film while we make cookies!

 

Aja: Alright let’s get into it! I’m going to start off with brown butter, the secret to a delicious cookie!

 

Sophia: Alright so our first question is: How does your product use or challenge conventions AND how does it represent social groups or issues? 

 

Aja: First of all, great question. I think that the main convention that my film challenges is gender misrepresentation. Something very unique about my film is that it is an all-female film., It is so rare in the history of the industry to have a film that is truly made of all females, from the writers and creators of the story, the actors, the extras, the filmers, the producers, and editors were all females. We do also have a decent amount of diversity among the crew. Our film included actors and crewmembers of Mexican, Chinese, Jamaican, Serbian, Jewish, and Middle Eastern descent. We also have bisexual and gender fluid actors. It is so important to have representation of as many people as possible in a film, to show the normality of breaking societal norms. We can show young viewers that it is OK to express your gender identity as well as sexual identity, and hopefully help some feel comfortable in their ethnic skin. I think the biggest social groups that we represented would be the entirety of the female population. Women and girls have historically been discriminated against for as long as I can remember and probably for as long as most people can. Some people think of women as in capable of doing certain jobs that have been stereotyped to men. Some people think that women do not have the brain power to put together a film such as the one that I have created, and to have a woman play every part in a movie. My film shows that a woman could play the protagonist, the main character, the villain or antagonist, they can be extras, they could be technological crew, they could be the writers of the story, they could be the editors, they could be the filmers, and whatever else their heart desires.

 

Sophia: Wow, excellent answer. As a woman, I agree about the importance of representation that you mentioned.

 

Aja: Thank you, it is so important to show young children, especially girls, that they are capable of anything.

 

Sophia: Yes. Onto the next question. How does your product engage with audiences AND how would it be distributed as a real media text?

 

Aja: Another great question. I think that this film could reach to any variety of ages, but it was mostly intended for the teen aged and younger audience. Especially due to the genre of the film being a thriller/horror, this type of film is more engaging to teenagers, and they are more likely to watch it. I would give an estimated age range of maybe 12-18. I think that my production company, Masri-putz productions, could distribute this throughout a variety of social media platforms. This includes TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter, as these are the most prominent social platforms for viewers in the intended age range of my film. if you were who sees an advertisement or a trailer of the film and likes it will be more likely to watch my video. Hopefully the advertisement will share and gain interest rapidly so more people will watch the film. This film will be distributed mainly on YouTube, but possibly on other platforms or in theaters.

 

 

Sophia: Awesome! I would love to see this end up in theaters! Now, I know that you have done some other projects in the past, but none as big as this one. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

 

Aja: Wow, I think I probably have the most to say about this one. My first film project was an advertisement/commercial for running shoes. I had known very little at that time about what it takes to make a film, and how to put one together and to edit. I am always proud of all of my work and would not publish it if I am not, but I definitely believe that my production skills have improved greatly. My first project was a bit of a challenge for me especially in the editing process, and in writing the commercial. I think that the flow of the scenes could have been better. I was still very grateful for the opportunity to work with the Nike brand. In my second project, I found a music video for the song cheap thrills by Sia and Sean Paul. I was also extremely excited to work with the both of them. Again, in this film I think that my skills improved a bit from the first project, but I was still not at my full potential. The filming for this one was quite a bit more enjoyable than the first project. I was able to work with some of my close friends, and we were able to film at the beach since we live in South Florida. We filmed on a beautiful day with a beautiful sunset and we were able to have so much fun, as that was the vision for the fun and free flowing music. I was able to edit my first montage for this video, which could have used some work, but I was still very proud of it. Again, this wasn’t the best work that I have ever done, but I still enjoy the opportunity. My current film gunshot was much more carefully planned, and well executed. I think that my acting as well as my costars, improved so much from the previous projects that we had all worked on. The level of emotional intensity and focus that we put into her acting had improved quite a lot. I also think that the scenery for this film was spot on. The filming for my Nikki commercial was on the track field of my school, which was a very fitting spot, and the scenery for my second film was very matching to the vibe of the music, but the abandoned warehouse location that I had found for this was probably my favorite scene of all three. I also got to film on the University of Miami campus, which was very beautiful, I was able to take a small tour of the campus while we were there and visit some of the amenities. to begin with the writing and the storyboard, from film won to film three, we had a lot more planning, and a lot more storyboard to draw. I think that our storyboard had the same amount of detail, but much more careful and detailed thinking. It took us a bit longer to think of ideas for our film for the third project on the first one. When I heard about the Nike commercial, I immediately envisioned the running on the track in my head, but my partners and I had to brainstorm a lot more for this film. For the filming, we had to film over a much longer period of time for the third film than the first one. We were able to shoot the entirety of the first film in one day, which is much more acceptable for a commercial. Our filming for the second project only took us two days. The filming for this project took us around four days, and we spread out over the span of weeks. We were able to access much more camera angles movements and shots in our most recent film, as we gained more knowledge of media terms. I also think that my editing skills improved greatly. I found my editing on the first film to be quite amateur, and the most basic amount of editing required. I believe for the first film I only cut my clips and sped up when necessary, then I added the proper transitions and added filters and music. For my second film, I also edited the size and speed of my clips, added a filter and music to the clips necessary, but I was also able to make my first montage. This took quite a bit, and the editing took me 2 to 3 days, in comparison to the one day that it took me to edit my Nike commercial. This film also took me around two days to edit, but I did a lot more than the first two films. I first adjusted the size and speed of the correct clips, then added the necessary music, but this time also edited in sound effects, and also created my own Foley sound for aspects like the footsteps. The sound effects that I used the most were footsteps, gunshot, and creepy music. I also added a bit more different types of music in the necessary areas. This was my first time working with diegetic sound, but also adding in tonal music. I did not add in any filters for this project. One new challenge was the title sequence. I found a font quite easily, as it caught my eye. The second I saw it I knew I had to put it in the film. It had such a sleek but sinister look, and I loved how fancy and classy it looked, especially with the word “gunshot” written in it. Overall, I do believe that there is still more to improve on, but I am very proud of my progress.

 

Sophia: I love that you are able to gage your progress without reflecting negatively on your past work. A final question from the viewers-How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? 

 

Aja: Technology was obviously a very important part of this project. One very important use of technology was the web browsers, such as Google and Safari. I use these heavily to help research and find ideas for my film. I was also able to find title design inspiration online and through various websites. My group and I found a lot of very inspiring ideas this way. We also frequently used YouTube. Mostly, this was to find sound effects and royalty-free music as well as some background music to put in the film. It’s a very useful piece of technology. obviously, the most essential part of filming, is actually pulling out the camera and recording. I used my iPhone 13 Pro Max to do most of the filming for this movie. It gave me the best quality of film possible, and I was very pleased with the quality of my content. I also used my iPhone, as well as my MacBook to edit these clips together, and edit in my other effects. On both devices, I use the application called iMovie which is my personal favorite, and the best one that I have found this far. In addition to this, I also need to use other apps for certain things, once again, I used YouTube to find my sound effects, and I used an application called Picsart to edit any clips visually. I then uploaded it from my phone onto my computer, and then onto YouTube. The use of technology was insanely important in my film and helped me out so much.

 

Sophia: Alright well these cookies are looking amazing!

 

Aja: Yes, thank you! Now we are going to pop these in the oven at 350 for around 6-7 minutes and we’ll be right back!