A Level Media Blogs

  Critical Reflection Questions How do your products represent social groups or issues? Our film, “Deception” lays into the ideas of complicity in our society. We all seem to just go along with everything around us without challenging anything. In our film, Alex and I wanted to make the audience step back, and think about how they are living their lives. Are they just playing into the illusion of control like our main character, Elle, or are they breaking boundaries and trying to go the extra step to living a unique life. At the end of our film, it is shown that Elle’s whole life was just a simulation being run by scientists, which is how Alex and I feel people are going about their lives now. How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’? All of our methods of promotion, such as the website, social media, flyers, and poster all come together to capture and deliver the overall mood of the short film. Deception is a mysterious movie with a twist at

         Looking back on the work we have completed during this busy project, I realized my partner and I never really completed our website to the fullest potential. We went back and added the important mentions that our audience may be curious about. I'm going to format this blog as what tabs will be on the website. 1) Release date of the film               January 12, 2021, 12am EST 2) Where will it be released?               The film will be shown at the Infinite Abyss Theater for the premiere. 3) Film Reviews "Very good storyline, the concept was immaculate" New York Times "Riveting! An extremely entertaining film" Rolling stones 4) Film festival                 Miami International Film Festival                     5) Contact Information               954-543-5238               deceptionthefilmPR@gmail.com 6) Cast and crew               - Emma Young               -Alex Kuroda               -Ailish Donoho               -Ryan Brooks               -Ella Keith

     We filmed in serval locations for this short film. For each new location, we made sure to make use of several different camera shots and angles for variation. We even used some drone footage. For the first couple of scenes, we had to find a parking lot where we could film the actors "afterschool". We decided to use a parking garage near Alex's house. We made s ure we were six feet away from any people walking around so we could safely film. After we had to decide which house we were going to use that would match our vision. we were able to get access to our friend Ella's house. It was perfect because she had the letter E on her wall which is the same as our main characters. Also, she has a two-story house that matches our script. When it came to filming the classroom scenes, things got more complicated. We are unable to film in the classroom. Alex was able to get access to a family friend's classroom to film in. In the scene where Elle is taken, we drove to a

 While looking over our film, we noticed some stuttering in the dialogue between the characters. So, we went ahead and refilmed the opening scene and Elle's argument between her and her mom. Since these are the more dialogue-based scenes, we had some difficulty nailing lines. First, we went back and rehearsed. Simply just sitting and repeating lines to each other. We found it is so hard to not giggle! After a few tries of that, and when we thought we had mastered the lines themselves, we went to go practice on the scene.  We started with the scene at home. We practice the lines again with my mom, who was acting as Elle's mom in the scene. After a few shots, it seemed as if we got the perfect shot. We noticed we were able to get the scene to flow more and get some more drama out of it. Then we went to film the opening scene. Alex and I practiced for a little while before. Because of our practice, we actually were able to finish the refilling of the opening scene quite quickly. F

 For the second phase of editing, it was time to add in the titles and sound. You can add the titles all through the opening scene of the film, in a sp ecific order. I referred to my Opening Scene project from sophomore year to try to remember how I incorporated the titles. For that project, we also were doing a horror-thriller movie. So, it gave me the inspiration to do similar titles to add to the mood. In my opening scene project, I started off with an establishing shot of the house being filmed at, where the title of the film was displayed. This gave me some inspiration to maybe go film some of these "filler" clips to be able to add better titles. We also added some soundtrack to the film. During Elle's car ride home, we added some low-paced alternative music to establish to the audience Elle's mental state. The low music over the bustling city around Elle shows how crowded her mind is at the moment.  After som e final touches of editing, it seems that Alex and I

    We also started the beginning of our editing journey. I think editing is the most fun part of creating a film. For the first round of editing, I just put together the pieces of the film in the correct order and decide which clip will fit perfectly for each scene. When you go out to film, it takes multiple tries to get a shot that seems reliable. The next thing you have to do is watch through the film and fix the seams. When you watch through a rough film, you will see inconsistencies that you will need to clip out or shorten. Even with background noise from the surroundings around filming will have to be adjusted and quieted. Creating a seamless film, and ridding the film of any gaps or errors makes the film more enjoyable to watch overall. During the first round of editing, I also played around with editing the brightness of the film. Due to certain circumstances, while filming, the lighting can vary due to the exposure on the camera. This can be tampered with on Imovie though. E