The Santi Show Season 2 Part 2 (CCR #4)

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

So how much tech did we use in our project? Short answer is all of it.

My group and I worked with different cameras and editing softwares, like for shooting we used a Canon Mark IV, and a DJI Osmo Pocket 3. The camera was from our school's television program, and I owned the DJI Osmo. Using these cameras was really important for our film, and a tripod was very important, since we would be using VFX, so it's a lot easier when the shot is steady than moving around.

For post-production, we used Premiere Pro, Blender, and After Effects to edit and add visual effects. Like I've said before, I used Blender to create the planet, but after that, it was 90% After Effects which was used compositing the planet into the actual shot, and these were later imported into Premiere Pro for the final line edit.

A quick note on the planet: trial and error are bound to happen when working with VFX, so we had to move the planet around until it looked right, but the final shot is really cool.

First instance of the planet shot. Changed because the planet looked small and too fake.

Final shot without color grading. Planet is bigger and has more atmospheric haze.

Multiple views of 3D model of the planet. Here I'm figuring out the lighting for the title shot.

Without the fancy software, we wouldn’t have achieved the final product we were thinking of, so it's great that we were able to use them (also shoutout to Blender for being completely free and open-source).

Until next time, Santi :)

Script for CCR 1

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

Here's the script for my first CCR! (click the pictures for high quality)

I was inspired by the sometimes offending obnoxiousness of talk show hosts, think Ellen.
Until next time, Santi :)

The Santi Show Season 2 (CCR #3)

 Hi guys, it’s me Santi,

Ok so this is question 3 and it's also my second CCR, where it'll be the same talk show but another season, so things will be different! (don't ask how yet). So, how did my production skills developed throughout the project? Before starting AICE Media, I had some experience from film and TV production classes, but this course taught me a lot more about the WHY, like why am i shooting wide instead of close or close instead of medium, that sort of thing. I'm usually a fast editor (not to brag but I edited a full-length short film in under 48 hours as part of a competition in NYC), but because of that I don't put a lot of thoughts on why I make cuts in certain places or other editing techniques. It was hard but I think through the course and this project I've been able to slow down a bit and actually think about why I make the decisions I make in the edit. 

Another major area of growth for me was leadership (It's not a technical skill BUT it's very important in productions since usually they're with a team). I’ll admit, I’m someone who likes to control a lot of things, but with my team I had to trust my group to take on their roles while still guiding the overall vision of the project, learning to balance leadership and teamwork made the experience much smoother and honestly more rewarding, and I think for future projects I'll be better able to work with other people, since I'm so used to working on things by myself or having creative control over a project. And again, not a technical skill, but i think it's still very important to note.

Until next time, Santi :)

The Santi Show part 2 (CCR #2)

Hi guys, it’s me Santi,

So today, I wanted to talk about question 2 of my CCR about how Ataraxia engages with audiences and how we’d distribute it, so let's answer it!

Since our protagonist, Halley, is a teenager, our target audience is also teens, and even though Ataraxia has a sci-fi element, the drama aspect is really what drives the story, which is able to resonate with both teens and a broader demographic who might be into sci-fi films (think Lilo & Stitch). Halley is going through a really rough time, as she feels lost, alone, and detached from the world around her after her incident with her friend (her friend died). A lot of teenagers experience feelings similar to Halley's, and we wanted to be really intentional about representing that feeling accurately. During a meeting, we talked about how if someone is acting like Halley does in Ataraxia, that’s a sign that they might need help, and people watching can connect with her and feel seen or those who know someone like that might be more inclined to help.

Speaking of people watching, how are they gonna watch it? If we were to distribute the film, it would probably release digitally on Amazon Prime Video, since it's not that hard to publish something there. But besides just being online, it’s also going to be submitted to many film festivals for student films, and even locally at the Cypress Bay Lightning Film Festival happening at our school and submitted to Shortcuts, a Broward County student film program. If it gets chosen, they’ll share it on their social media and other platforms, which would be a really cool opportunity for more people to see our work.

Screenshot of the submission page of the "Lightning Film Festival" through FilmFreeway, a site for film festivals.

Anyways, I should get scripting my first CCR, and also figuring out the other 2 questions.

Until next time, Santi :)

I did another group meeting

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

...I did another group meeting!

Picture from the group meeting.

I got to see how my classmates’ film openings were coming along. It was really cool to hear about their projects and also get some feedback on mine, and seeing how far along everyone else is gave me some new ideas for my own project.

A lot of people have already finished filming, which was a little stressful to hear since we still have one more scene to shoot, but we’re scheduled to film next week, so we’re still on track. Plus, I have plenty to share about the outdoor footage, which is looking great, I’ll post more about that soon, and then some people have even finished editing already, but that makes sense since our project has a lot of post-production and VFX work, so we expected our timeline to be a bit different.

One project that stood out to me was from a classmate who was doing a 1970s-style film, she was having trouble making it look authentic, which I found interesting because we initially planned for our film to be set in the early 2000s but ended up scrapping that idea because the setting of the gas station with the screens and the modern cars made it too difficult to capture a true early 2000s aesthetic, though we kept the vibe in our character.

I also noticed that another group ran into the same issue we had with filming at night, they had to shoot on a second day because the lighting changed too much during their first shoot. I think we’ll be fine, though, since I’m putting a lot of work into color grading to make everything look consistent.

Overall, the group meeting went really well, and I hope everyone I talked to ends up with a great final project!

Until next time, Santi :)

The Santi Show (CCR)

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

I want to talk about another part of the project that I need to complete which is the CCR (Creative Critical Reflection). This is a video I’ll make after the project, where I explain my thought process and how everything came together, and basically it answers four questions:

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

We have to present the CCR in a creative way (as the name suggests), so I’m thinking of doing something like a talk show where I interview myself! It’s simple, can be done quickly, and leaves room for humor if I want to add some (i want to add some). Plus, I love late-night talk shows, so I’ll probably take inspiration from that.

what i'm envisioning (except for the complex set because I have no money)

For the first question about how we challenge conventions and represent social issues I think our film opening definitely touches on important themes, particularly teenage depression. The story highlights the importance of having someone to rely on, but we express this in a nontraditional way by incorporating a massive planet and sci-fi elements, as they serve as a symbolic representation of how Halley feels, like her world is falling apart.

It’s not that her world is literally ending, but rather that she feels powerless, like nothing she does matters, and after experiencing a traumatic event, she loses all motivation to care about her remaining time. That’s why we introduce this other character to challenge her mindset and give her someone to lean on, and by blending sci-fi elements with a very personal struggle, we’re taking a different approach to representing this issue.

Until next time, Santi :)

We'll fix it in post...

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

Something we just realized during editing is that many of our shots include the branding of the gas station where we filmed and since it’s a real brand, it doesn’t quite fit the look we’re going for in the opening, and we also didn’t get explicit permission to feature their logo but just to film outside the station, so we might have to replace the logo. Thankfully, it’s an easy fix, and I’ve done it before, so we don't have to reshoot or anything along those lines.

Now we just need to come up with a name for our gas station! it won't be anything crazy, it'll probably be something simple like just "Gas Station," which might sound silly, but plenty of movies have done similar things. For example, "The Substance" had a talk show in the film literally called "The Show", so keeping it generic wouldn’t be too out of place. 

In other news, our team has been working on color grading! One of my team members shared some preview images, and the graded footage is looking great. The main challenge is balancing the lighting, since we shot over an extended period, and it got darker as the day went on, so we’ll need to adjust for that in the color grade, but overall, things are going well!

Some roughly color-graded footage.

Until next time, Santi :)

Edit time (for one half)

Hi guys it's me Santi,

We’re now starting the editing process, at least for the outdoor scenes, since we still haven’t filmed the indoor scenes due to the issues I mentioned in my previous post. Rather than waiting until everything is shot, we decided to begin editing the outdoor footage and working on the effects for those scenes, this way, once we finally film the indoor portion, we can simply add it in, making the process much more efficient.

Part of the line edit from another team member.

Right now, two of my team members are working on the line edit and color grading, while I’m focused on the VFX for the planet. I’ll go into more detail about that in future posts, but I’m really hoping it turns out well, i’ll be using Adobe After Effects and Blender to make the planet look realistic and like it's integrated into the scene. It’s definitely going to be a lot of trial and error, but I think I can pull it off.

For now, I’m diving into the VFX work while my team continues editing and color grading the shots that don’t require the effects, once we have the indoor scene filmed, we’ll bring everything together and finalize the edit!

Until next time, Santi :)

Katty I will find you

 Hi guys it's me Santi,

For the past few weeks, I’ve been calling different stores, trying to find one that would allow us to film inside, and the store where we shot the exterior scene wouldn’t let us film inside that day because the manager wasn’t there, and they needed approval. I asked for a contact number to reach the manager directly, but they couldn’t provide one, however, they told me the manager’s name was Katty and told me to ask for her the next time I called or visited.

The outside of the store as seen in the opening.

So, I started calling multiple times, but each time, I got mixed responses, some employees said they didn’t know a Katty, while others said she wasn’t there, so all of that has made it difficult to secure the location, and we’re still searching for an indoor space to film. It’s a bit stressful since we’re pretty far into production, but thankfully, this scene is only the first 15 to 20 seconds of the opening, so it shouldn’t take too long to shoot once we have a location.

In the meantime, the team is making progress in other areas! we’ve started working on the visual effects for the planet (which I’ll go into more detail about in a later blog post), and the line edit is underway with other members of my team, so overall, we’re still on track with our schedule, and I’m confident we’ll get everything done in time (hopefully)

Until next time, Santi :)