AS Level: Creative Critical Reflection

Creative Critical Reflection

AS Level: Film Opening

Crooked Teeth

Filming is done!

Filming is done! My partner and I actually managed to finish filming the school scene in two periods, and the opening in a few hours. I used my partner's camera to film; since it isn't the camera I usually use I accidentally took some pictures and thought it was recording, whoopsie.
When we started filming, I was very impressed and pleased with the fact that the actors we chose were so committed to their part and had all the lines perfectly memorized. We started editing as soon as we felt we had enough shots. Mrs. Stoklosa was right, you need to over shoot. I ended up editing the Opening with iMovie, because I was most familiar with it. I initially started with Adobe Premiere because it has so many other options to edit videos, but when it came down to editing in a timely manner, iMovie was the way to go.

Four days until filming

We will be filming next week! Wooo! I'm very excited and nervous... so anxious covers it. I want to make sure we have enough shots so we will obviously have to overshoot on Monday (during school and after). We have decided to film the opening at my Mom's house and use my room as if it were Kit's, the one problem is that my room it styled to my personality, not Kit's. So after consulting with my partner today, we have thought of a plan to decorate my room to match Kit's personality, this will not only help  the actor to get into character but make the opening more realistic. My partner will be bringing a plethora of rainbow stuff (the symbol of the LGBT+ community) as well as other posters that Kit (if she were a real person) would like.

4 days until filming! 

Opening Film Details

Details are everything, especially in films. Growing up, when I would watch movies with my dad, he would always pause a movie and tell me to take note of something, it would sometimes be a prop or the lighting, anyway after he would tell me to look at it and then he would rewind the movie and show me how it was misplaced or just magically appeared from one shot to the next. He told me that although most people don't notice the little things, the details do matter. So when planning filming and actually editing the Film Opening I want it to be free from silly simple errors.

One thing to think about is costumes. Since the actors go to our school we need to coordinate the outfits they wear and make sure that their hair is the same way and even make them wear the same socks! or at least have them bring them to school, if we do end up having to film more than one day. But one thing that's awesome about the actors we chose is that their styles are perfect for the part, and my partner and I actually based the idea of Wes off the kid at our school who will be playing the part. 

The Secret Life of the American Queer

While researching the LGBTQ+ community I came across a saddening infographic

As well as the fact that many LGBTQ+ kids have homophobic parents and are more likely to have mental health issues, like depression and social anxiety, due to the fact that they don't feel accepted by the people they love, or have to keep who they are a secret.

Since I want the film opening to be a light hearted comedy, my partner and I have decided to look at the 35% of LGBTQ+ students who haven't heard remarks like fag or dyke; the 70% that feel comfortable to go to school everyday; the 15% who haven't been verbally harassed in the past year, to inspire us to make a quirky film that doesn't associate queer with a hardships that the LGBTQ+ community has to deal with but rather something normal that any person regardless of their sexual orientation or gender can go through. That is why the plot of this opening is of a girl having a crush and not knowing if her crush likes her back. This may not be the conventional approach to a 'gay' movie but the point is that this it isn't a 'gay' movie, it's a movie about a girl who just happens to like girls.

I have a few gay kids in my classes and I talked to them about this project, as well as asked them for any advice they have that could help me properly portray a lesbian without being stereotypical. When I asked one of them named Hunter, he actually laughed and said it would be a little hard considering that some of the stereotypes do fit some lesbians [just not all], and that media usually depicts them in only that way [that way being the pixie hair cut tomboy look], and it's the viewers who make it a stereotype for the whole population, it's not necessarily the media's fault, although it does play a part.

So with that in mind, Kit (the protagonist in my film opening) will be an average Joe, just with a little more rainbows in her room than a typical girl.

Homosexual Representation in the Media

After reading a variety of articles on homosexuals, including some of how they are represented in the media I came to the conclusion that media, for the most part, will portray a homosexual as a middle-class male with good fashion (feminine) who is rather liked by his colleagues, as well as successful. In the comedic show Modern Family gays are represented by the couple Mitchell and Cameron. Mitchell is the representation of the more masculine of the two and Cameron the more feminine; what this show does so well and effectively is not linking the characters to strictly one stereotype but a variety of them to be able to more accurately represent the same-sex couple. " Over time, Many Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning (LGBTQ+) and other sexual minorities found earlier models of gays too narrow in focus." (Click here to access article.) So when filming my partner and I want to aim more towards Modern Family's representation of gays, we don't want to tie our character down to one set of stereotypes that may not be true. To ensure this, I have asked a few of my LGBTQ friends for an interview regarding the project. Interviews coming soon!