Question #4 (CCR)

 Now, the very last question of the CCR, how did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, and online - in this project? To me this is a pretty cool question since it helps understand, at least to me, the different technologies go into making a a film.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT:

• Discuss any type of technology
• Different types of hardware: cameras, lighting, mics, etc.
• Any software: planning, editing, animation, tools, etc.
• How were these technologies used?

CCR#4 SCRIPT:

    Through the process of making a film, there is one thing that gets written out of the equation. What is thing? Well, that would be the technologies used to make these productions. That's why when understanding the production of, Pushover, technologies are quintessential. 

HARDWARE: 

    The camera used in the film was obtained through Brennan and his connections with the TV production crew at our school. The camera was phenomenal and had a microphone attached to it which was very important when recording the dialogue. 

    Lighting wise, we didn't have much control in the park scene, but in the tracking shot of Asher at his house we used the natural lighting in the house and ring lights that helped tone the film down. We also played with the lighting in the editing software, but that'll be talked about more later.

SOFTWARE:

    For the software used in the planning and post-production, there was a nice amount of helpful tools. For example, websites like StudioBinder were very helpful in research and planning processes like the storyboard. 

    Editing wise, we used Adobe Premiere, which was provided to us by the school. This site is great in terms of productivity and was a key tool in the lighting due to it's tone changer. It's also very helpful with it's advanced but simple interface. 

HOW WERE THEY USED?

    While, at times some of these technologies were tedious to work with, the understanding from me, Vanessa, and Brennan worked together in a interesting and interactive way that glued everything together. 

CONCLUSION:

    I tried something a little different in the script for this CCR and that will probably will be reflected onto the script of the third CCR question. It's likely that both CCR's will change a little when coming up with the production ideas, but for now this is what I'll be working with.  

    

Question #3 (CCR)

     As previously mentioned, both CCR #3 and #4 are going to be composed in the same production. Because of this I'll be making a script for CCR #3 today. This CCR asks, how did your production skills develop throughout this project? This question is great and gives a reflection of how a person grows over time.

TOPICS TO TALK ABOUT:

• How have your skills evolved throughout the production
• How it began and how it ended
• Research & planning
• Approach towards production

CCR#3 SCRIPT:

    This script involves me answering the CCR question, although there's a good chance that for the production I'll have more character and idea built into it. 

    For the production of, Pushover, I had previous experience in several other film productions from film classes in the past. Some of these projects were really short films, music videos, and even stop-motion, but I've never done a project with so much thought and energy until this one. 

    During the previous projects for my film classes I didn't necessarily research or plan anything out. By not doing this, the end results were not so good. But, unlike those productions, this was one was the complete opposite. I thoroughly researched many different topics, techniques, and ideas that elevated my work a lot. This was evident while researching for my genre, because beforehand my knowledge on thriller was limited and by researching I understood things within the conventions of the genre that helped give a blueprint on how to make thriller. This leads me to my next point which is planning. Planning was also something that I had lacked in previous projects, but while filming this project it was really helpful, especially as a guide. Also, planning through storyboarding was great, since it lead as a visual representation of what scenes were to look like. 

    By incorporating these tools, it lead to approach the production in a more professional and concentrated way. Meaning that with the brains of three people, we discussed ideas in a mature manner. If we didn't agree with something we would speak up and adjust our views. This was something that guaranteed me certainty that I was both growing as a film maker and as a someone who could overcome difficulties.

    As the project developed it gave me time to see the steps of where we as a group started and how we at first struggled creatively and how we then ended up as people that can create something meaningful and entertaining. 

CONCLUSION:

    Just how I mentioned earlier, this is just a blueprint of my answer/script to CCR#3. When I come up for an idea for this production I'll be sure to add a creative aspect that helps generate a less boring product. 

Question #2 (CCR)

     For the second CCR it asks, how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? This question has two major parts that are very important towards how audiences interact with the film. Smaller films normally don't have huge budgets since they're either independent or not directly supported through a big production company. Meaning that for this CCR I'll be focusing on the way that Pushover is going to be distributed through its small budget. 

    Also just as a little update, I wanted to say that I'll be making a piece of production for questions #1 and question #2 and another production for questions #3 and #4. So, in the script shown I'll be talking about both question #1 and #2, just to clarify any confusion. 

SCRIPT

CCR#1

    Hello everybody my name is Jean Paul Hernandez and today we are going to talk about the opening scene for the highly recommended film, Pushover, from Briggs Productions. The films opening follows the sequence of the murder of Austin, a teenage boy that plays the role of a "bully." In the opening he gets killed by the protagonist, Asher, a strange kid that has mental problems. In just the first two minutes of the film, it already uses conventions within the thriller genre. The suspense that is built through both Asher's and Austin's interactions hooks the audience instantly and perfectly demonstrates the blueprint that thriller films convey. With the use of these conventions the film also stays focused on thriller by representing different social groups that are evident in both Asher and Austin. The way in which Asher physically portrays himself acts as a mask for his true psycho mentality building up the mysterious sense of thrill. Now, Austin's appearance acts more as a reflection of what Asher is and helps develop their characters at deeper level.

CCR#2

    Now, that we have settled the films narrative its time to take a look at how this low budget film is being distributed for people to see. From what I've been told Briggs Productions is independent and due to money have limited ways to distribute their film, Pushover. That's why they've decided to self-distribute and release their film through the Thriller/Suspense Festival. This is an online festival that accepts submissions from all over the world. Meaning that it's a great way for production companies like Briggs Productions to distribute and embrace their films. Through this festival, films are recognized and can get awards like, Best Performance, so it creates an engaging stage that also grants the audience a way to become involved in how the film pushes its popularity and success. 

CONCLUSION

    This is pretty much a completed version of my script for both the first and second CCR, but honestly when filming the production for these question I'll probably add a bit more character to give the "review" a bit more personality. 

Provost, R. (2025, January 13). What is film distribution — The ultimate guide for filmmakers. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/film-distribution-guide/

https://filmfreeway.com/ThrillerSuspenseFestival

Question #1 (CCR)

     For the first question of the CCR we are asked, how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? For this specific question t here are many different things that can assumed for a film. This would also be the case for my opening, due its representation of thriller and identity.

    Because our film's genre is thriller I researched a lot on conventions within the genre. A lot of it is based suspense and intense atmospheres. Some films that represent this are in the John Wick series and Inception (2010), that have a bases surrounding thrill. One of the sub-genres within thriller is revenge thriller, which illustrates a protagonist experiencing and solving a problem that is personal to them. 

    Immediately when being introduced into Pushover we are given thrill, which is a use of one of the films conventions. As Asher gets harassed and demeaned by Austin, it fuels Asher just enough to kill Austin. This scene alone showcases the suspense within this genre it also captures the dark atmosphere that lingers. Within this scene, a sense of revenge is captured through Asher that the audience is yet to understand. It perfectly demonstrates the genre through a short period of time, that is efficient through the fact that a lot of these thriller films have a way to hook the audience instantly. Hence, the reason why we decided to not really challenge the genre's conventions since it's already a blueprint that works well in itself. By being able to appropriately follow these "rules" it helps tell viewers what the film is meant to be about in just the opening alone. It's a great way to develop meaning too, between characters and their traits.

    These conventions that the thriller genre has, is a perfect way to introduce social groups and issues. Both Asher and Austin can be characterized immediately just through the limited time they have in the opening. Asher faces a truth that is demonstrated by his appearance and work. He appears to follow the stereotypical architecture of a person that only focuses on school. Then once, the suspenseful scene where Asher runs to kill Austin, it causes there to show the mental struggle he faces at home due to his home life. Now, for Austin his clothes show the constant variable where baggy clothes and tough character represent a person that faces issues at home. Both of these characters are very similar in a way as both struggle at home, with relations, but their appearance tells another story. Through Austin's death the conventional use of revenge identifies issues that Asher has and also his emotions.

    The use of conventions, while repetitive at times, is a form of setting a base and establishing what is to come. This gave me and the group a grounding as to what the film's opening was to show. Personally, I think that films that are thriller based, need to have it established immediately to apply a more tone driven piece.

Post-Production #2

     After talking about an issue that we had as a team last blog post I want to try and elaborate more on how we overcame this. After Brennan sent a draft of the opening me and Vanessa noticed somethings that we felt we could improve on. 

    First of, when editing I feel that we made the clips cut too fast, especially the establishing shot. Personally, I feel that when introducing a film the first shot of the movie should be around 5-7 seconds so the story could be introduced naturally. Which leads me to our next problem that involves the lead up to Asher's killing. Here it felt that a lot of the clips were also cut too short, which is an easy fix since we took over 100 different shots in total. The reason why I think this draft was not up to par with what our group wanted, was honestly miscommunication between the three of us. That's why we decided to talk about these things in order for us to have a more accomplished blend up of our ideas.

    Then for our second issue was using the incorrect clips for certain parts. This is understandable in a way due to us having an immense amount of clips and also because during this part Brennan was editing on his own time and we weren't with him to have all three of us agree on the right clip. Once again, this was just miscommunication within ourselves and it's just another easy fix that just needs to be revised. 

    While, this blog post isn't very long. I think out of the majority of my blogs this one is a very important one. I believe that it's easy to blame a person but not to blame yourself. In this situation I think a lot of the reasons why me and Vanessa weren't so happy with the draft was because of miscommunication between all of us. On my behalf, I think that not speaking up or voicing my opinion cost us time and work. So I'm really hoping that for the sake of the team we can better communicate with each other in order to satisfy our artistic opinions and have a polished project by the end.

Post-Production #1

    For our first editing session we wanted to focus on the lighting and sound. Obviously while doing this we were composing and bringing together all the clips so we could get ahead of our work as well. 

    In this film we wanted the color be a very important factor involving the films tone. Lighting is very important in terms of how a film develops, meaning that this could give us a way to add significance to the overall feel of both the outside and inside scene. The very first scene in the opening is outside, which means that the natural lighting of the film is more vibrant than what we want. This means that for this specific scene we want to change the lighting through the Adobe Premiere. Using this software we were able to change and add tints to the film layer creating a cooler less vibrant ambience to the scene. While doing this we experimented with different cool colors like blue and green to see what fit best in terms of the visuals. As everyone in the group discussed, we landed on a blue tint that would adjust the color to a more preferred tone of ours. After settling, we applied this tint to every layer and were successful in creating the vision we had. 

    The audio just like lighting is critical in developing meaning, especially during post-production. We added tense music to add suspense, but to be completely honest I'm not sure if I really like it. Here are where things between the group are getting tricky. As Brennan was editing he did a lot of the work himself, which is perfectly fine, but through this he used audio that me and Vanessa aren't too sure of just yet. Also when editing and looking back at draft pieces we noticed some of the dialogue didn't get picked up well so, we are either going to find a solution within the software or do a voiceover. With this voiceover I'm not sure it would seem natural in terms of what the audience sees so I'm really hoping we are able to fix this issue. 

    Now, that we have these issues with sound, tomorrow me and the group are going to call and see areas that we could improve on, not just from lighting or audio, but also from the editing aspect of things involving shots and timing of cuts. I know this is a not a very lengthy blog post, but I felt it was necessary to talk about the amount of editing we did and also the problems we face as a team, good and bad.  

Some Hurdles

     Now, that me, Brennan, and Vanessa got done with all of our production we are now transitioning into our editing phase. With that being known, I want to focus on some of the obstacles that we faced when filming for Pushover. 

    First of, right when we arrived at our desired spot there was a lot of people, obviously since it's a public park at1-2 PM, and I'll admit that this was definitely a miscalculation on our end since we didn't really take that into account. Luckily for us we noticed that on the other side of the park there were two tables under a little tent, almost exactly like where we originally planned to film. However, there was a lady there and when asking her if she could move to the other tables, she said no because she was there a while already and didn't want to move, understandably, but I kid you not even 2 minutes later the lady leaves. Which was good for us, but had me a little confused not going to lie. 

Original Spot

New Spot

   

    That was our first problem, now for a second problem we realized that we we're somewhat unprepared. Like for instance, when filming some of the shots especially the one's containing dialogue I did not identify different shots when making the storyboard and instead just did one, and we felt that this would make the scene boring. So, it lead us to have some artistic freedom for that part in specific, but at times we had no guideline to tell us what shots we should shoot. This was really annoying since it delayed our filming, which was not ideal especially due to the heat. Although, after sometime we were able to adjust and get the shots we wanted.

Storyboard

    Our last major obstacle was when filming the tracking shot in the house. During the filming of this scene we had to retake it about 20 times. Each time we filmed, we found a new issue or way to improve the shot itself. When entering the house we wondered how Asher (Brennan) could walk inside and close the door without me (the cameraman) and Vanessa (who was holding up the mic) being in the way. So here we adjusted by making it seem like Asher forgot to close the door and here we would sneak in behind. Then after this we realized that there was a mirror that could showed me filming; so once again we had to change things up a little bit to make sure that part looked good. Then another issue we faced during this was the lighting. When Asher would walk to his room the scene was extremely dark due to the closed curtains, so we decided it'd be better and more natural for Asher to turn on the lights as he enters his home. That's pretty much the major issues and hurdles that we faced during our production.

    A lot of it was fun, but it definitely was tedious at times when we we were lost artistically and technically. For now, I'm just hoping that when editing there's not as many problems concerning the footage.