Portfolio Project

WEEK TEN: FINAL POST

Film and postcard: https://we.tl/b-HPw3rqlVdY

Instagram: @bornblinkgone

signing out,

ms spielberg

Portfolio Project

WEEK TEN: CRITICAL REFLECTION

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

The message around born, blink, gone. is that memory is a difficult concept. There are parts of our lives our bodies won’t allow us to remember simply because we don’t want to. I like to think that my film represents the people who miss out on certain parts of their memories for whatever reason might be. In this case, it was trauma induced. For others, it might be because of pain or medical reasons. I wanted. to create an abstract way of expressing the feeling of not knowing what you don’t know. 

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

The component of my film that ties everything together is the color scheme. I went with a dark but bright-colored theme, such as Jaxson’s ice cream parlor, because I thought it would represent the genre perfectly. By using these colors and editing for each social media post as well as in the postcard and the film itself, it brings the tone of the short film straight from the screen to the audience. The brand it creates in turn causes more attention to the film and a more memorable marketing campaign. I also used the font times new roman for every post and text in the film. This sophisticated font paired with the overall essence created a very specific look that I kept consistent throughout the entire project. 

How do your products engage with the audience?

The main way I engaged with my audience was through social media. My posts were very mysterious and vague, which created a sense of curiosity to see the film. Each post contained the same “logo,” which consisted of the title of the film as well as the director's name. I also made sure to include the date of release and any upcoming events, such as the film festival showings. My Instagram did look a bit hectic. In the future, I think I would create an alternating feed of types of posts so it doesn't look too repetitive or clustered.

The postcard I created promoted these film festivals. The goal was to be able to pass them out and create an audience to view my short film live. I included the dates and times of each show as well as the names of the festivals. I chose stills from the film that I knew would catch the eye of participants at these festivals and also included the Instagram handle, so they can interact with that as well. 

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

I focused my research mainly on case studies of other films. Choosing films in the post-modern, coming-of-age, and thriller genres, I essentially created a mood board for what I wanted my project to look like. One thing I struggled with was my plot. I wanted to create something for young adults but with an underlying meaning that would more relate to them when they were older. I do wish I could have developed this better in my film, but through my research, I grasped the concept of using a more mature concept for younger audience members. Personally, I don’t think my message got through as I would have wished it to. This is a flaw in a combination of components, specifically writing, and editing, and I completely think that I have used this as a learning experience to try and successfully execute this in my next project. 

While looking at the film Mid90s by Jonah Hill, I discovered the font Times New Roman. This is the font I used across all three components: postcard, social, and film. As I looked at the Mid90s Instagram, I learned that this font was exactly what I needed to use to relay my tone. This shows the power of not only marketing but little aspects of media such as the singular font you use. It can change anything from your target audience to tone to the quality of the film.

Overall reflections

This was a big learning experience for me. This was the first project I completely worked on from beginning to end by myself, so for that I am proud. Certain components of this specific project are definitely clearer in hindsight. The first is that I need to take several angles of the same scenes. At some point, I started rushing and as I edited, I realized the angles of the shots did not flow well and looked extremely messy. I also wish I used more camera movement instead of using all still shots to eliminate the montage feel. My biggest learning point though is in myself. From the beginning, I hyper-fixated on this film and that every detail needed to be perfect. Rather than choose a smaller concept, I tried to "go big" and ended up having a broken plot that was all over the place. Regardless, this was definitely a turning point in my future career as a filmmaker, so I am proud of born, blink, gone.

Portfolio Project

WEEK TEN: THE FINAL WEEK... or like 5 days

WELCOME TO THE LAST AND FINAL WEEK OF THIS PROJECT!!!!!!!!!!!

As sad as I am to see it go, I have to admit I am happy to not have the constant stress of finishing this. Let's just say I have a lot to write about for my critical reflection...

First of all, I would LOVE to update you on my musical journey. Thankfully, as anticipated, my colleagues (have dmed me back once), The Moss, have gotten back to me with a lovely answer. 

Wow, I love them. Totally recommend listening to their music!! #promo But seriously, artists helping artists is beautiful and I am really thankful for their support :)

As I’ve
said before, a big barrier in my filmmaking career is my janky laptop which cannot do more than one thing at a time. As we get closer to finishing, I am nervous that this will become a major problem when I download my final project. It has already shut down on me multiple times while I’ve been editing, so honestly it’s not looking too hot. Will definitely keep you guys updated. 

Vane and Is date went really well. I finished editing, for the most part. It’s really cool how just one other person can push you to be that much more productive. She gave me a lot of criticism as well as reassurance, so I do feel a bit more confident in my results. 

I'm going to stop this blog here because I feel like I’m rambling. I would like to mention that I am glad I gave myself those two free weeks to edit, because I DEFINITELY needed them. Time may not be my strong suit. 

See you guys later,

ms spielberg 

Portfolio Project

WEEK NINE: VANE YANES

If you were here from the start, you probably recognize this name. Vane and I are extremely similar. Our journey to discover how absurdly similar we are began in this course and has only gotten weirder since. We have frequent meetings throughout the week (lunch, class, and the walk from this class to our cars) to discuss our weekly topics, and recently they have very much been centered around our projects.

During our virtual meeting this weekend (constant texting) the concept of procrastination. We both struggle with the want and need to do certain components of our project, but can't bring ourselves to start them... so whack! At first, I thought it was just a me thing. But after talking to Vane, I realized we were feeling similar feelings. 

The main shared vibe we have is the anxiety of beginning a new concept of the film (or trailer). Personally, I know what I have to do, and I know I need to get it done, but when I sit down to do it, it stresses me out too much so I start another component. I have started every singular piece of this project, and the only part I have come close to finishing is the postcard. Vane is doing the trailer, so she is really struggling with editing.

Our solution is a date! Vane and I are gonna grind out our projects together @ Panera on Wednesday. I think a little support is going to get us a long way. Especially cause we have a very fun, chaotic energy, whenever we do work together it's almost as if our chaos drives us to our end goal.

don't worry, we will definitely be blogging with our caffeinated lemonade and bread bowls

ms spielberg

Portfolio Project

WEEK NINE: #BORNBLINKGONE

I hate social media. The amount of other feature, short, student, professional, basically you name the film social media pages I have looked at makes me almost want to throw up. I like to diagnose myself with posting anxiety. I prepare the posts and I want my page to be full, but the stress of writing a caption and clicking post leads me to put it off. This common disorder is found it those who work frequently with media, such as marketing which I do for a nonprofit that basically has taken over my life.

Like I said in my social media blog, I loved the look of having the name of the film centered at the bottom of most of my posts, like in Mid90s. This is what I have created so far:

I love how they look, but obviously, if these were the only type of content I were to post (i.e. stills from the film with the "logo") it would get quite boring. I want to also add stills with quotes such from the film, as well as short clips. I won't have time to make a trailer or other more complex videos to post, but I am going to post the blooper reel as the last post of my social media page.

I also updated my postcard. It seemed too busy with the location and the title, so I tried to create an easier style where you would easily read the information.

Choice A

Choice B

I am definitely leaning more toward choice A. It is more interesting to look at, and not as boring as B, but B is easier to read. I am going to talk to my classmates and get feedback. The back is staying the same.

I wanted to create a post that announced born, blink, gone. would premiere at Reality Bytes since it would form continuity from the postcard to the social media page. This is the hypothetical post:

Not sure why it's such bad quality.

The only issue is that after I posted it, tagging @niurealitybytes, I realized they would be informed about my post. I didn't want them to think I was pretending to be a part of the festival or that I believed I was in it when I wasn't. My game plan is to either message them and tell them what I am doing to avoid any confusion or just not tag them in the post, neither account of a hashtag, but I don't want to do that. I will talk to stok about this also.

This is the current state of the page:

I want to announce Reality Bytes before I post anything else, so once I have that approved I will post the next 5 or 6 posts.

starting to feel a bit behind, but loving the rush!

ms spielberg

Portfolio Project

WEEK NINE: SECOND TO LAST WEEK

Here we are, in the final weeks of our project. We got a lot to do so let's get into it.

I have been working on editing, and I'll definitely be done by the end of the week, maybe Monday of the following.

I just messaged The Moss if I could use their song "Blink" in the film.

For those who are thinking "Hannah, do you really think this band is going to respond to you?" The answer is yes, and for various reasons. The first is that they are not very big. They currently have 36K followers, which seems like a lot, but for reference, Justin Bieber has 285 million followers...so... Another reason to believe they will answer me is I am a loyal fan. I followed them when they were at 10k followers, so loyalty! The final and most important reason is that they have answered me before.

This is me telling them I wanted to go to their concert but my parents wouldn't let me fly to Texas.

So I will keep you all updated on the music.

I finally finished picking which scenes I wanted and which I didn't. I do get emotionally attached to my content, so it took a lot of difficult decision-making and heartbreak, but I did do it. As I went through the scenes, I noticed a few mistakes, so I checked in with Sofi to see if she would be available for possible reshoots (there were no issues with Alexis' scenes). She has her school play but we worked out possible days preemptively in case I wanted to, but I am trying my hardest to work around them to not waste time. The issues were mostly minor, such as the elevator being a mirror and you can see me in it or eye contact with the camera when there was not supposed to be.

Next up for editing is cutting the shots and editing color. Crazy how we're almost finished.

See you guys later for some insta-updates,

ms spielberg