Critical Reflection

 

The concept of “the ballad of bobby the blob” developed in a way that I was not expecting to come to me at all. Even though at first, I was stressed between different ideas, choosing to challenge myself through new ways of making art and exploring a concept and genre I am not really familiar with makes me feel like I have grown as a filmmaker. Through my research, I did not just learn about the concept of animation including how frames affect the motion of your subject and how detailed things need to be in order for the animation to run smoothly but it also helped me understand characteristic of the genre I was working with.

For example, while studying Pixar films such as Soul and Luca, I considered the fantasy aspects of both films, as both have this sense of adventure, which was something I wanted to include in my film.  
    In addition, within my research I realize that with the main characters I was writing needed to have different perspectives of Earth, not just because they come from various places and have different experiences but because they have different motives for their actions. In my research I knew that I wanted to make Bobby like Luca, where he was curious and ambitious to learn about our world and how much he enjoyed the little things like learning how to put on a seatbelt correctly. With Julia, I realized I wanted her to be a mix of 22 and Alberto, where they have fun and enjoy their world but there is something inside them that makes them wish things were different. I feel that my research did not just help me understand a different type of way to make film but learn how important it is to understand the goals and values each character holds, which is something I wanted to spread with my audience throughout the film.  

    For the promotion of this film, I mainly researched the Instagram of the Pixar movie Luca as it was one of the main films I was researching for this project. My target audience from the beginning was from ages 12-19 but once the development of the film started it made me realize that my main target audience were kids between the ages of 9-18. Since this is more of a fantasy storyline, I realize the main people who would be interested in this would be kids who are part of the middle class, adventures, and ambitious.

My social media helps to attract this audience as it keeps a consistent theme throughout the page but also has engaging post for the audience to learn more about what the film is about. For example, in a specific post I posted a still of Bobby in the film which got a good reaction from the audience as they seemed excited about Bobbys personality and character. Our postcard, I feel that it engages with audiences because it provides the opportunity for people to learn more about this film through our social media, check it out at different screenings in one of the biggest theaters in the country, and get in contact with me if they have any questions about my work.

    However, I feel that for the branding of this film I could have done a lot more to promote it and engage more people to see it. What I liked about the three components is that it had a consistent color scheme throughout the film and the social media. The use of purple is not just a comforting color, but it also holds a lot of power within color theory. But I feel that my film could have been more engaging if I had put in the extra effort to get special posts with actors and have them talk about the film itself to get viewers more excited about the coming of this film. I also feel that because this is not my usual type of filmmaking as I like to tell more stories on the realism side instead of formalist side, not being extremely confident that people will appreciate it compared to other films I have done kind of puts me in a weird spot with the film. However, one thing that I want to spread through filmmaking is appreciating the effort and time people put into their craft and art so slowly I am becoming more attached and growing more love for this film as not only did I challenged myself and tried something new, but I got to learn from this experience and understand more of the stories I like to tell and the type of filmmaker I am. I feel that this film has developed a new branch of my brand and gives me more opportunities to explore a fantasy brand within film.  

    That said, exploring this brand of fantasy in film and developing this story also gave me the opportunity to bring the realism side of film and incorporate issues that mean a lot to me. While I was developing this script, one of the main critiques I got with my advisor was that during the scene where we learn that Julia lives in an abusive home with her father, Bobby’s actions at the end of the story are very crucial to his character as it demonstrates how I need to spread the message of being kind is within the film in a specific way.

     Representing this issue within the film was important to me as I know people who have experienced this type of treatment and I feel should know that they are not alone within the world. Some might say that the concept of an abusive household is basic and overdone, but I feel that it’s important for people to understand that these are ongoing issues that still happen today and as a society we should do more about it. I feel that I represented this group in a successful way and gets the message across of how regardless of how people may be treated, you should aways be kind to one another because you don’t know what people are going through. Overall, this was a really great learning experience, and I can’t wait to see what I make in the future.  

This is the project?

 This is it!!

    Here are the links to every element of my project, hope you enjoy :)

Social Media:

https://www.instagram.com/theballadofbobbytheblob?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==

Postcard Front:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1dlUU-jlgRfdXMq2C4TlvPcuQhvV14j9n/view?usp=sharing

Postcard Back:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SWYjosqLjsIGOJMXMDsPLCW3dCf8ZEjZ/view?usp=drive_link

Short Film:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1h9794ey0C6mTGJuRCM6w0SstnW6y6A7L/view?usp=sharing

The end is near?

 Sadly, yes.

    It's the last week of our portfolio projects and it deeply saddens me how fast this project has gone but how excited I am to share with people. 

Updates:

    Lately I have been wrapping it up with editing adding little adjustments whether it's audio issues, color grading, or any other special effects that I feel could be better before releasing the film, but my main issue is the social media. 

    Currently I have 14 posts on the social media, and I have been running out of ideas for my Instagram account. Recently, I posted a meet the actors post to give the audience more of an idea of who my cast is and their enthusiasm for the release of the film. 

    I have also been looking at my peer's social media and checking out social media from past years and I came to the realization I could maybe post a teaser or part of the film to get viewers more excited about the film. I was looking through different parts of the film and I thought the best part I could post was the little montage of Julia and Bobby enjoying their day at the park. 

   

 

I will also be doing a picture collage for the final post like this example here:

How was your weekend?

 Honestly, a lot.

    This past weekend as mentioned in a previous post, a personal project of mine was selected to the Orange and Blue Film Festival at the University of Florida. Over the last couple of days, I have been in Gainsville attending the event which included screenings, workshops, and so much more. 

    Attending the festival was such an amazing experience as not only was I so inspired from the talent within this festival which ranged from college films to high school films but, I had the major honor of receiving a distinction in my film for "Excellence in a Dramatic Performance." (The gator I'm holding is actually the overall trophy, the director of the event was nice enough to let me take a picture with it because he loved my film so much).

    This event also just re-sparked my creativity since I have just been in a slump in the last couple of weeks but today, I have been spending the last couple of hours trying to wrap up the project and continue to make posts on the social media in order to keep people engaged with the production of the film.

Editing:

    I didn't realize how much sound design actually goes into editing of a film until I finished editing the animation part of this project. I started by looking for music that matched well for the beginning in fesliyan studios, I was looking for something like the song in the Pixar film Soul with the scene of the secretary looking of Joes file at the Seminar. Then, I went in to add the voice over of the actors played by my friend Armesto, Yoav and I. You can kind of tell the difference between the mics because of how they sound but it's also not a huge difference. Then for the scenes to flow better I added risers in certain parts to transition between different cuts of the sequence. 

    Once I was done adding all the sound effects, music, and dialogue that was needed I moved on to look for a song for the dad scene. After a while I finally found of song that I feel builds the suspense I really want within the scene, so I was very happy that I took my time to find it and time it in order for it to match the course of events within the film. 

    I wanted to add this special effect where text messages would come up into the screen to show how upset Julia's dad was that she was away from home. Because I'm not a special effects person I asked my friend Santi for help, and he explained to me to how to make this cool pop-up of messages. 

    Once he finished helping me make this, I added it to adobe premiere pro as an overlay to the original shot and it blended in perfectly. I'm currently still watching and rearranging certain parts of the film which makes me happy and sad this project is coming to an end!! 

You Should Take a Break!

 No! I Have to Edit!

    So, as you can tell I have been editing! I know right! So fun! But seriously, I have been trying to finish the edit of the film within the next couple of days so I can start focusing on my critical reflection of the project. 

Lately, I have been trying to work on the animations of the film since I have finally been able to import them into Adobe Premiere Pro. To make things go a lot smoother though, what I have done is slowed down the animations and duplicate some of the drawings in order to have to spend so much time having to draw every single frame of the animations. 

    At first, I was scared that if I slowed the animations down it would look funky and weird which would mean I would have to stay up super late at night in order to finish the animations for the project. But once slowing some of them around 80% and 70% it actually doesn't make a huge difference which I was pretty happy about! 

Music:

    I have been struggling to find music for the scene of the dad with Julia and Bobby towards the end of the film, but I am determined to find the perfect song and if it does not come along, I have a great plan. 

In the past I have used Garage Band as a great tool to make music for my own personal films whether it was for school or a personal project that I had been working on. The app has a tone of resources as it sometimes has already built in tracks for you, you just have to play around with the different instruments in the app including piano, drums, guitar, and more. The platform has helped me so much to the point where the song I made for a personal project got selected to the Orange and Blue Film Festival at the University of Florida this weekend. All in all, Garage Band is amazing, and it might be a resource I will turn to if I don't find a song that fits best into the scene.  

Social Media:

    

    Lately, I have also been working on the social media A LOT. I feel that I still don't have enough posts on of the characters so this weekend I will definitely be making more post but, I thought it would be a really cool thing to show the audiences a little bit about the crew. I started off with the director and will probably post both actors tomorrow. I might also be posting more stills of the characters to demonstrate their personalities and the type of people they are. Stay tuned!!!!

Plan for Today?

 Group Meeting

    

    Today during class today, we had our last group meetings of the school year, which was a little sad, but I was glad to speak to my peers about their projects and provide as much advice as possible. We went around the group and talked about our projects one by one. First went Bailey, who is doing the Music Promotion Project and then we jumped right into my project, and my group helped me so much.

Pacing:

    Due to the fact that we are supposed to stay under 5 minutes, but my film is around 7 minutes long and it was originally a 13-page script I feel that the pacing of the story was really fast and the story was being rushed. But after showing them the film they didn't really have issues with the pacing of the story expect for one part. 

    In the film, the part of the story where Julia and Bobby get to Julia's home and meet her father feels rushed. I asked around the group to discuss ideas of what I can do make things better. I asked my friend Luisa specifically since she has a lot of experience with making films and videos. She thinks that it was best to add music under the scene to build more of the suspense within the scene, so it doesn't feel rushed.  

Postcard

    During the meeting I also mentioned to my group that I was having issues with the final post card for the film. I explained to them that the reason why I had two options for the front was because Althea is such an important character in this film, so I wanted her to be highlighted. They also agreed but told me to move over the animations a little closer to the right and make the text bigger. For the back of the post card, they actually had a lot more suggestions. 

    The postcard on the left was the original postcard I was planning on using for my final project but after discussing it with them I made some changes because they had a good point that it felt really cluttered, and they think that maybe taking out the tittle since I already have it in the front would help. So, I played around with the back and showed them this version and got their opinions. They thought it was a lot better from the first one as it is better to read, and it also matches the colors of the front of the post card. 

Extra Updates!!

     I officially have rights to an Original Song!! By a real artist!!! Martin sent me this last night and I got so excited since he is super talented, and I am so happy to put him as part of this project. But stay tuned for more social media posts, and the final version of the film!!!