Wrapping up

Its finally over. I say it as if it is a bad thing but I am relieved to be wrapping up the production of my opening scene. I just filmed the rain scene, it was very simple. Ziya wakes up in the grass and looks at the sky, visually confused on how she got there (this will be explained later in the movie). This part was filmed so late because it never rained!! I waited weeks on end for there to be a storm and during that time I finished editing the parts I did have. Today, it finally rained and I ran outside as quick as I could and lay down on the grass. Some stills of the unedited pieces are featured below. 

But before I did this, I sent a rough cut to my teacher with only the shots so they could be analyzed. Before I edited, I wanted to make sure that the material I was working with was at least alright. After reviewing, I gained better ideas and some changes to make. 

So I found that the rain scene and sunny scene did not fit together. They were inconsistent and I couldn't just jam them together. To make this scene blend with my former shots, I edited a blinking effect. So Ziya is listening to Maahi yelling about how "the place, the people" are all good but then her eyes start blinking and they open to the thunderous sky. The blinking effect was difficult because I had to add an adjustment clip and then merge the eclipse node and then per every 5 frames, change the height and blur of the mergence. In the end it definitely payed off and elevated the complicity of my opening scene. 

Also I was iffy about what type of music to add. The sound chosen was a mix of nature sounds and white noise. I did not want to add lyrics of any kind because there is so much dialogue in my film and the scenes without it are short. I needed something that was natural and my rough cut helped me realize this. 

While finishing up my opening scene, I had to also be thinking about my creative critical reflection (CCR). This is where I could really explain my story and why I made the choices that I did. I focused on the 4 questions provided by Cambridge but also included experiences that were individual for me. The filming layout will look like this. I will start off with a synopsis of the story while sitting on a chair with the outdoors behind me. Then I will break down where my story falls in the social issues/ stereotypes category which will be filmed as an voiceover with insert shots of the final video. Next I will cover the specifics of production as a walk through of me talking about the tools and materials I used. Then another voiceover of my past projects like the music video and swedeing scene. Lastly, I will finish with distribution and exhibition in the same chair I started in.