The Final Products (!!!!)

 After all the hard work that I've put in to my project, I'm pleased to present to you the following components:

TRAILERS:

-Pleasantville, USA Trailer #1

-Pleasantville, USA Trailer #2

POSTER:

Link: Poster Link

SOCIAL MEDIA:

-Pleasantville, USA Instagram

[@pleasantvilleusamovie]

I honestly don't even care about the score I receive from this. I'm proud of all the work that I've put into this, and it really is a reflection of my state of being at this time. After everything that has happened, this was something that I could always use as a catharsis, pour my heart and soul into when all of my other cups were overflowing. 

I want to say thank you to all of those who helped in the making of this project and contributed. Especially Cathy and Ryan, you never had to spend those hours helping me out, but you did and I'm eternally grateful. And a big thank you to my class, everyone that has made Media Studies this year absolutely amazing. I can't forget about you, Tstok! I don't think I can formulate a sentence that would cover how much I appreciate your teaching and support. 

I love that I produced something tangible that I can always watch, to remind myself what this period of my life was like. I'm really glad I could make something to share with my family in Ukraine. A huge part of my motivation for this project came from them. I don't know if I'll continue posting on this, but I might create another blog. I kind of like sharing my thoughts in this forum. 

I can't think of a better way to leave off than: Glory to Ukraine!

The Critical Reflection

 The trailers for Pleasantville, USA promote the deeper themes of the actual movie in a more cryptic way (as is conventional for trailers), utilizing the conventions of the psychological thriller genre. This engages the target audience with the ideas in an entertaining way so as to promote future viewing of the film. Pleasantville, USA seeks to ask the questions of how stark the difference can be between appearance and reality, as well as to whether escape from the past is truly achievable. 

For this production, I decided that it was absolutely imperative that I use conventions. The conventions for psychological thrillers, ironically enough, lie in the unconventional - otherwise known as the supernatural or the macabre. After watching the trailer for Last Night in Soho, I decided to make lighting a key tool for my production. One of the conventions for the psychological thriller genre is to play with lighting, especially the contrast between the dark and the light. I watched a video that showed certain lighting techniques designed to either emphasize the subject that is being illuminated, or how the director and lighting team can emphasize the darkness as well, playing with proportions to show the conflict between the dark and light. I also wanted to develop a lighting motif, just as Soho did with its neon lighting. 

That lighting convention carried over to the other components of the projects. In the poster, the darkness is supposed to be engulfing the main subject, with those small lights offering a weak protest against it. The lighting technique carried over to my Instagram posts as well, as I made it a priority of mine to play around with the lighting for every single post. I had to adjust the lighting a lot manually for the majority of them.  

Moreover, I determined that the brand that I had to create for this project had to be compatible with my genre. The core of my brand is dark and introspective questioning, so I had to build aesthetics and my tone around my central themes (appearance versus reality, escaping the past). To do so, I toyed with lighting, as mentioned above, and I also employed dark and caustic humor. This can be seen through my Instagram captions and posts, especially when it came to my mascot Bones and my other behind-the-scenes shots. The Instagram accounts for Jordan Peel’s thrillers such as Us and Get Out also tend to use dark humor, so does Soho. Mine is a little more on-the-nose, but I wanted that to be a part of my brand. 

I also had to utilize my genre in order to captivate my target audience. I watched the trailer for A Quiet Place for inspiration for auditory design and conventions for thrillers. I came away with a lot of inspiration, especially in terms of the supernatural-sounding stings in order to captivate the target audience. So the thriller stings and other elements of my suspenseful sound design, paired with the lighting elements, served to engage my target audience within the trailers. I should have incorporated the horror sound elements more for the Instagram page, because the posts with that emphasis on sound design made my audience interact with the account more, especially since my target audience is typically younger (in their early 30s or 20s) and is more interested with the sound design aspect of thrillers when it comes to marketing.

However, the project did hit some snags in terms of casting and representation. The original trailers were going to have a more diverse cast of “townspeople” (aka demons), but, due \to scheduling conflicts over break and during the school week, those shots weren’t able to get filmed and there were others who had to fill in the roles. The original plan was to get the look of a homogenous suburbia through costume design and the seemingly perfect appearance of the setting, but the lack of diversity actually does strike a topic that this film explores (based on the shots filmed for the trailer, at a more surface level): the dark past behind a lot of the “utopian” suburbias in the United States. One of the original inspirations behind the setting and idea of Pleasantville, USA - besides the actual suburban town of Weston, FL - is its movie namesake Pleasantville. One thing that was very noticeable in Pleasantville was its lack of representation (its glaringly all-white and nearly homogenous cast). This was purposeful for that film, as after doing research, the entire setting was based around the actual urbanization and homogenous society of the United States during the late 1940s and 50s. That film did offer up its critique of the homogenous nature of that society (as much as it could for a comedy/fantasy), but Pleasantville, USA strives to take an even darker approach, using a more sardonic lens through the genre of psychological thriller. I researched the history of Levittown, nicknamed “America’s First Suburb”, and the racist policies that went into making it the ideal residence for the conventional white family. Many suburbs in the U.S. had similar policies, adding to racial and ethnic de facto segregation. So though not ideal, this less diverse casting adds to the tense, uncomfortably homogenous feel of the setting and adds a historical layer to the theme of appearance versus the dark reality. 

Upon reflection, after my weeks-long commitment to this project, there are some things that I look back on and know for certain that I could have improved. There were some shots that I could have taken to make the setting even more imposing (including the wide shot of the robotic demon townspeople). I think there is also too drastic a shift in tone of the first trailer. I might just have been better off jumping straight into a tense, unsettling tone after the first 30 seconds rather than taking about half of the trailer time to do so. While I do like how the trailers and the social media page turned out, I do think my poster is a little bit devoid of that sardonic and almost caustic humor that I chose to be a pillar of my brand. Even then, I definitely learned a lot working on this piece and I’m really proud of what I created.

Almost Done!!!!!

I'm making headway into my second trailer, and I'm really pleased with how it's turning out. I want to spend a significant portion of this blog talking about the song selection and that process (which took surprisingly less time than usual) and how I managed to come away with two really great choices. I'll get right to it. 

"Dead Forest" was a great choice for the back end of my trailer. It automatically brings to mind "thriller", so it fit my genre really well. I really lucked out in finding it, because it's not too dramatic, and it doesn't feel too rushed. It brings in tons of suspense and has a more natural sound to it, so I can contrast it with some unnatural sounds for the demons and the demon transformation. I was about to disregard it initially, too, so I dodged a bullet by actually clicking on it to listen. My only critique of the song is that the name is misleading (it doesn't really feel woods-y). It also is almost perfectly timed with my clips already. Pretty much all of the beats fit in perfectly, and I don't have to adjust much. This is one of the few times where I actually like my music selection, so that in itself feels like an accomplishment. I should mention that I found it on the YouTube Audio Library, and that's what this is here. I listened to a few other options on this page and the next few pages (the YouTube Audio Library has a lot of options) and nothing else came close to "Dead Forest" in terms of feel, tempo, and clip compatibility. Again, this is for the latter half of the trailer (yes, I'm splitting up the sections again, but this time it's a little more cohesive). This part of the trailer is where all the best  thriller and horror shots are at. I'm hoping that it'll really be mind-boggling, and I want my music to reflect that. 

Here's the song that I chose for the beginning portion of the trailer:

"Oman Groomer" (great title, by the way) is not as dark as the other song, for sure. Though it's listed as classical and calm, it really does have a lot of hints of suspense. It has the juxtaposition of the higher melody with the darker notes of the upright bass. It just seems as though something is off, like it's telling you not to trust what you see and hear. Which is perfect for the first part of y trailer. For this one, there's pretense of happy atmosphere. It's straight to the creepy and the off-putting. I wanted my two trailers to be distinctly different in their feel, and this goes a long way in helping me achieve that. And for once, I had fun finding the music. That might be because I didn't have to search as meticulously as usual, because I found the songs I wanted pretty quickly this time around. I just fell in love with the two. 

I'm already putting in the other stings and sound effects, I have them all imported, I just need to actually put them in to my sequence. I'm having some trouble picking out other demon noises I can use, just so I don't have to reuse the demonic woman scream. Again, I don't just want to copy my first trailer. I might keep you posted on that, or I'll just leave it as a surprise for later. 

I'm also adding more transitions and correcting more of the audio. With the actual songs picked out, I can do that easier. I've already corrected most of the audio, I just have to finish up with the transitions. I still want to see if I can do something a little more creative with the transitions, or find some way to make them a little more stylized. I want my trailer to include this special sense of style, not just with the lighting, but the transitions, too.

I've also added some markers to remind myself where exactly to put the text cards:

There's some places where I'm still a little hesitant to put them, but I have a more detailed plan now. Unfortunately, I've been changing the text that I'm putting there around so much that I might just scrap what I already have written and start again. I'm beginning to hate text cards. I just don't want it to come off as tacky, but I know that some psychological thrillers use them to present an idea or theme. They might make my target audience more interested, so I'll try to figure it out. 

This is basically it for today. I really should get back to working on the media component and do a little more editing while I'm at it. Really excited for you guys to see it, and I'll be really relieved when I'm done.

 

Editing the Second Trailer

To start, I am extremely tired, so if some of this sounds like complete gibberish, I'm really sorry. Weird way to start, I know, I've just gotta dive into this while it's still fresh in my mind (plus I'm busy later). My first trailer is pretty much set, save for a few things that might need to be corrected, or they might not (that's what happens when you over-scrutinize your work). For my second trailer, I wanted to pick up the pace. Rather than it having that peaceful introduction and trying to confuse the audience as to what genre it may be, this trailer will fully dive into that suspense. The beginning will still be off-putting because of the sequence in the house coinciding with the more mysterious music, but it includes some more traditional elements of thriller. I'll also be trying to stylize it a little more, I wasn't able to do it this round of editing.

And just like the first trailer, this round of editing was dedicated to just putting everything together and correcting some shots. This is some of the stuff that I've worked on so far:

As you can see, I've gotten far along. The second photo, the one right above this text, is actually a shot that I'm really proud of. Just filming it made me uncomfortable, so I'm hoping this one will really please my target audience. I've also started adding effects to the clips to make the transitions smoother or just stylizing them a bit. I still have to do a lot more in terms of stylizing, and I haven't added the text cards yet. I might just completely rewrite them anyways, but I've marked off potential places they should go. There is still one clip that I'd like to fix (make sharper) and it's this one:

And like last time, I still need to do a lot of audio editing. I don't have any stings yet, nor do I have the main music/score to go along with the trailer. I was originally thinking of splitting the trailer into two distinct sections according to the main music like my first trailer, but I might just try to keep it more cohesive and have less noticeable auditory transitions. I'll try to incorporate even more stings in this one, especially towards the end where it gets more intense. I also have to level the clip audio, especially the dialogue. I'll try to pick the main trailer song first so I can fix that accordingly. 

In other news, I'll get that teaser ready soon. I originally planned on just cutting down my first trailer into sections, but I might just do an even more chaotic teaser, to really get that thriller element. I still have to mull it over some, and I'm trying to find even more inspirations. Wish me luck on my search.

Sorry if this is a little short, like I said, I'm drained of all energy and I still have more stuff to do. Catch you next blog post.

Diving Into the Editing Deep End

 I'm pretty much done with the editing of the first trailer, save for a couple of things that I want to adjust. The audio is by far the thing that I wanted to get right. For a lot of psychological thriller trailers, I found that the audio (especially the main song playing and the stings) were important in developing that tone and genre. I still have to fix some of my clips, maybe add in some more effects, so I'll put off my long discussion about audio for now. 

Some of the clips that need to be corrected really aren't bad, it's just that I want there to be more tension within them. I feel like maybe adjusting brightness levels or even adding a little fade or blur could really help. There's one clip in particular that I'm thinking of, and it's the one of Val seeing the first demon appear at TC. I had to adjust the cropping of the shot just a bit as well as the saturation/darkness levels, but I still think that there needs to be something more to really build that tension that's important in that moment, especially because the very next clip is one of the other demon that comes closer. 

I also don't know if the pace of my trailer is really there. I found that a lot of the psychological thriller trailers I watched didn't feel as though they pushed the pace. They more so built tension until it finally reached a breaking point, so that their target audience could get hooked and could really pick up on a few of the themes that the films would present. I don't know if some of my sections are too slow, or if I just stared at my trailer for so long that I'm anticipating every shot and I'm numb to the tension I've created. I told y'all I hate editing, and a part of it is because I pick apart every single little thing to the point where the trailer just feels dull to me sometimes. I might have to take more breaks when editing so I don't just burn myself out and hate the final product that I really liked a couple minutes ago. Maybe I'm just really tired. Either way, I'll probably just down more caffeine before I go to work editing my second trailer. Yeah, you heard me, that's coming out soon. 

Anyways, one of the last things that I want to adjust is the lighting for some of my clips. This might be a bit nit-picky since the lighting actually looks really good for most, I just think that a few could be more accentuated. Maybe get more of a red tint or something else that could make it look really good.

Before I go on to the sound editing, I have one thing to complain about - the font choices available on Adobe Premier. They didn't have the knewave font that I used for the poster title, so I had to choose something similar. But really, they don't have as many options as I wanted them to have. I also am confused about why they include wingdings, as though that's going to be a popular font. I'll see if I can make my title card a little more true to my original poster, and add in some more effects.

Now that I'm done with my little font spiel, time for sound!

I mostly used Chosic to look for good stings, but I also used the YouTube Audio Library, which was helpful as well.  There were some of the choices on Chosic for horror and thriller stings:

I used most of these sound effects in my first trailer. I may have to rely more on the YouTube Sound Library for my second one, just to add in more flavor to the second trailer, especially because it's the one that showcases most of my film's thriller elements. I'm just lucky that a demonic woman scream was one of the stings available. Makes my life just a little easier. 

I just have one problem with the sound editing, and that's choosing the song that's going to play for the tranquil section. I picked out the best one that I found from Chosic, and it's more upbeat and happy right from the get-go. Problem is, my original idea was a song that's more classical rock, happy and energetic but also not completely upbeat. I wanted it just to be a little more tame. I found a song on the YouTube Audio Library that was good for that. Now, I have to decide which would be better, as I've gotten used to the Chosic song in my trailer, but the classical rock song might just add a little more nuance to the beginning half of the trailer. I guess that's what I'll work on now.

My next post will probably be about me starting the editing for the second trailer. I might link the final product of my first trailer as well, I'll just have to decide later. Peace.

Finalizing Filming and My Progress Editing

 I am happy to announce that I am pretty much done with filming!!!! I had a fun time filming with my friends, even if shoots were hard to schedule over break or had to be pushed back for some unforeseen circumstances. I got the majority of the shots that I wanted, with one or two exceptions. I'll go into that a little bit later in the blog. I want to talk about what it means for me to be all finished with the filming first, and then I'll go into editing. I have already started editing the first trailer, so I want to update you guys on how that's going. But before that, filming!

I don't know if you noticed on my Instagram page, but my production now has a mascot: Bones! He's pretty cool. Might be a little small, I wanted the dead and decayed body to be a full-grown adult (the woman in the picture). That would be her dead human form, and now she's just roaming about town as a demon. Getting back to the point, Bones is a little small for that, so I had to play around with the angles to make him appear larger or at least not be as small as he really is. But, he apparently looks somewhat realistic in some lighting, so I would say that it's a success. And I have a feeling it would be a little less worrisome if the skeleton still looked somewhat fake. Just for the sake of those watching and wondering where a media student got a realistic skeleton prop for filming. 

I also got the perfect lighting for my shots at the Graveyard of Souls (and Memories). The shots look pretty and ominous at the same time, which is what I was going for. I also had to park illegally to film there because that site was closed off for cars at the time, so that was thrilling. I may have to adjust the lighting for a few shots, just to make them appear darker and more foreboding, but I really don't think I need to do that much to improve them. Just a few tweaks. 

Moreover, I finished my actual thriller/horror shot sequence. I wouldn't say they are absolutely mortifying, but there are some that are genuinely a scary good time. And that's what my target audience wants, so I think I'm on the right path. And I got to play a lot with the lighting for all of them, and I'm happy how they turned out. Set with some spooky background audio, I think they would really get hit that tense and frightening tone right on the head. Once I put the demon makeup on my lead actress and gave her a knife, I couldn't stand within five feet of her. I was anguished while filming her do her specific staircase scene. Again, that bodes well for the project.

I'd show a few clips, but I want to talk about editing. Before I do, I have a fee qualms that I'd like to share, just about shots that I couldn't get over the break. I still want that shot of the townspeople (aka demons) staring at my lead as she walks by. And I tried to recruit people while filming the Graveyard of Souls shots, but they were looking at me quizzically and I decided to drop it for the sake of not bothering them any further. I may just have to walk around in my neighborhood with my lead Cathy and ask random people to stare at her. It sounds weird typing it out, but that's probably what I'll do. Hopefully it looks good, because I'm vehement about including that shot in the second trailer. The shot that I want to get is a demon running at Cathy, but that's much easier to get (I only need to recruit one person for the role).

Now, let's talk about editing!

This is my least favorite part about this project by far. Staring at a computer screen for hours at a time hurts my eyes, and I can barely sit still for over an hour. I get antsy and excited, plus I need to stretch occasionally. Me being a slow editor tends to exacerbate that problem. I have OCD, so I might just review something ten times over, change it, then review that change ten times over. It gets exhausting, and it just makes me lose just a little faith in my project, if I'm being honest. Watching the clips over and over makes me realize more imperfections in said clips and it blunts some of the impact, especially in my horror clips. This has been my little rant, I need a little catharsis (venting my frustrations and all that jazz), especially because I'm going to edit right after this.

I'll be a little more curt in this post, just because I'll go more into depth about the editing process in my next posting. I've already arranged and formatted all the clips to my liking in the first trailer. I still have some revisions to make, but I have my core structure done. I've also gotten started on the audio editing, so I'll most likely finish that today (and by extension the trailer). I might have a finished product for you by next post. Maybe. Here's some photos as evidence of my progress (in case you don't believe me):

I'll remind y'all that I'm using Adobe Premier courtesy of my awesome teacher, and though I like DaVinci Resolve, Premier is still the more polished editing software. Especially for sound editing, which is something that is going to be important in this trailer. I've already started on my sound editing, but I still have a little bit to go. I've already found this on Chosic, so I've been pretty happy so far with what I've found:

This means I might not have to make my own demonic scream after all (I still might just for fun), and I don't have to worry about creating this supernatural effect with audio. This is plenty creepy and unnatural, just wait until I link my trailer to a post. 

I'm going to stay mum about the rest of the editing process for now, just so y'all don't have to read any more of my writing for the time being. Plus, I've got a trailer to edit, so wish me luck.

My Thoughts on the Near Future

 These are going to be my final thoughts for the week. This will be my shortest blog post by far because I have some other things I need to sort out and catch up on. This will be a good way for me to just collect my scattered thoughts a bit and really see what I need to work on next. 

Shot Thoughts:

So, to start, I want to clarify that I am almost done with filming! I have a lot of the things I need already, and the only things left are really the horror montage shots, which should be the most fun to film. The mirror shots are most likely going to give me the most trouble, but I can work with it and I should have more time to mess around since I don't need any specific lighting other than dark. I might also just mess around with the mirror angles before then just to see what works. Also, I have to figure out which mirror to use. That's going to be interesting, because I have a few options. I originally wanted to do it in a bathroom mirror, but that might be more challenging on account of my reflection with the camera being more visible. Again, I'll just have to mess around with angles and mirrors until I see what works best. 

Another shot that I still want to get is that of Val at the Memory Graveyard. I have a plan for what I want the setting to be (not an actual graveyard). I'm planning more around this area:

It's this bike path that runs along the Everglades, and there's a few spots where people park and fish along the side. There might be some risk to doing this (it's gator season), but I also know that it could make for a really great shot. And it would work well for a Memory Graveyard, juxtaposing the natural (and unnatural) with the comfortable and the urban. It also means that I'll have to drag my Halloween skeleton there, and that might get me some suspicious looks, but it could also serve me well. Who knows?

There's a bonus shot that I've been wanting to get for a while but I neither really need it nor is it really feasible. I talked about it some time ago in a blog post - it's the one where Val is getting stared at by random strangers (really demons). I think it would be really cool, but would require me to film complete strangers who would have to cooperate with me. So, yeah, not that feasible. I'll see if I can talk some friends into it, but this is a busy time of the year, and I still have to figure out a good setting for it. 

Social Media Thoughts:

I really have no clue what I want to post on my account in the coming days. I've thought of maybe having a post that says I've entered into a fake thriller film fest, but I still have to work that out a bit. I might also have a post where I introduce this guerrilla marketing tactic of setting up a sort of "treasure hunt", where I leave a clue on my social media telling of where the next clue is located, so on and so forth. This would ultimately lead to the locations where I was shooting. It could also be a good way to introduce my audience to more of the plot, without revealing too much. 

I'm also planning on making the teaser soon. The only problem is that I don't really know what I want to include in it. I have a lot filmed already, I just haven't figured out my teaser yet, I've been more focused on the trailers. I'll do some more research and watch other thriller teasers. I might just do small thriller montage, or just focus in on Val herself and her transformation. I'll get back to you when I've figured it out. Until then, this is it for the week. I have a lot of stuff to do and little time to do it, so peace.