Click below to see the post card and final short film.
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1IIEh_PqhHfogOUZkjiA15nodmYZGXchc?usp=sharing
Check out our social media too!
https://www.instagram.com/officialintertwined?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet&igsh=ZDNlZDc0MzIxNw==
I have been involved in film for as long as I can remember. I used to produce stories that I wanted people to care about, or think were important. I had this mindset all the way up to this year. That is until my teacher made me realize why I should care so much about whether people think my film matters, or if it is important and transcending. The only reason I got into film was because it was genuinely fun. My eagerness for other people's validation made me forget the reason I have invested so much time and energy into this "hobby". I made it my goal this year to not make the same mistake, and to create something I am genuinely going to have fun with. Surprisingly enough, it was a romantic short film.
Now, I cannot lie, this short film has not been easy, working on other people’s schedules isn't easy, especially when there's a due date. We have had so many issues with last minute call outs on actors, unexpected weather problems, and just juggling school in the mix. But my partner and I finally made it through.
An emotional roller coaster is what the short film Intertwined intends to bring to its viewers. The movie aims to portray the life of teens, particularly those who live in the suburbs. We decided to have our film target teenagers because all the actors in the cast are teenagers. As these things are usually linked with young adulthood, we attempt to portray the blissful summers, typical get-togethers, the intense arguments of intense love that is common in teen relationships. The perception of teenagers these days is not great. Teenagers are portrayed as damaged, dependent, and toxic everywhere in social media and in films like waves. I absolutely disagree with the depiction of teenagers, being a teen myself, I would much prefer being productive and participating in self-care, rather than doing drugs and being irresponsible. My partner and I both agreed that it would be best if we showed teens just having fun without being involved in illegal activity. Connecting back to the previous example of waves, not every toxic relationship, has too involved physical abuse, and this idea is especially important for other teens to understand While some troubled and rebellious teenagers exist in the It is not appropriate for it to represent all of society. It is vital that we keep conscious of it and to show teens' diverse perspectives in movies.
To create a successful short film, extensive research was required in marketing and branding. It was clear to me from my research on films like "Anyone But You" and "The Kissing Booth" that the branding of those films is more targeted than I had thought. Initially, I noticed that Instagram was the most popular social media site for romance movies. The main thing that I observed in both romance pages—as well as many others—was that the social media sites used bold wording to attract the interest of page reviews. I noticed that I was not as interested in this as I was in movies without captioned pictures. Using bold text lured me into the post, so I had to either watch the movie or keep looking. Getting people to watch a film is the main goal of social media for all films. For that reason, we used this strategy on our own social media platforms.
Reaching one's target demographic needs interesting posts, but connection is even more crucial to guarantee that people will follow, watch, and remain. For our admirers, I made posts with questions on them. These posts not only have interactive questions, but they also have a clear connection to our movie, which can persuade social media users to watch it. "Who is the better boy?" is one example of a posting like this, as it pertains to both love interests of our protagonist, while using graphics and funny pictures of the actors. A further instance of our audience interaction is a post where we inquired about the audience's favorite season. This will intrigue viewers on why even seasons are depicted in the short film.
Also, since social media trends bring up new interesting takes for postings, they really attract the focus of viewers. For instance, I discovered that "Anyone But You" performed an ASMR, when looking through their Instagram social media page it could be seen that it was a hit. A significant part of today's entertainment sector consists of ASMRs. They are on almost every platform out there. This marketing was very clever and would appeal to fans of ASMRSs. We included current trends like relationship advice and a well-liked movie trend from the iconic Scarface. Since advice is readily available these days on all platforms, I thought that using relationship advice was beneficial for both people looking for guidance and love, in addition to being appropriate for our genre. In this case, the phrase was prominently visible along with both love interests. Given how current this trend is, it may draw in fans of Scarface in addition to others who may just find it funny.
In the end, I tried to add pictures of the cast looking joyful, in love, and having an exciting time together. Since those are things that people never seem to dislike. Showing people who are in love together helps to develop the love trope and sparks viewers' curiosity in seeing their spark in the movie and real life. The movie was marketed on social media like we intended—as a lively, enjoyable romantic movie. Since most elements took influence from prior romance movies, no traditions were broken. The movie itself benefitted from these traditions.
The postcard, which was also shared on social media, was the final item we made. We had a wonderful time making this component. The good news is that we both had experience with this from making flyers for the school clubs we promoted. Since my partner and I wanted the postcard to be unique and had an idea of how we wanted it to look throughout the class, we did not do as much research for it as we had done for the other components. we had every piece of information needed to make this postcard from our teacher's class and the notes we gathered think it was crucial to share the postcard on our social media platforms to let people know where Intertwined will be available for streaming., it presents the data clearly and loudly for people who were unaware that the information was also available or who don't want to view the Instagram bio.
Thus, I am happy for what I have accomplished in this project, and having worked alongside Natalia Szabo, made things a lot easier, and a lot more fun.
This editing process has been much more than I expected, and I honestly think the project would be way better if we hadn't had so many audio problems. But with a little Denoise and a little Adobe AI i tried my best with the audio in some parts. I also asked my friend how to achieve a more cinematic look and they sent me a youtube video that tells you step by step how, and It honestly helped so much. I really liked how it turned out visually.
Unfortunately, our original plan had to change because the sun was sinking earlier than we had anticipated. Nati and I decided to watch the movie together to discover what the most significant, minuscule change could be. Upon examining every scene we had filmed along the shore, we came to the conclusion that a significant portion of the movie had been shot at night. After the volleyball match, the friends strolled along the boardwalk, as shown in this scene.
Nati and I decided that in order to maintain our large grouping, it would be best to remove an unnecessary piece and make a few small changes. We changed the sequence where the friends are walking on the boardwalk and Howie notices that Nati is lagging behind, so he passes her and they leave the group. bit by bit, Howie will win Nati over to taking off their friends following the volleyball diversion when she quickly runs to grab water after promising to be quick. The movie would pace faster as a result, which I understand was necessary. It seemed like an extended filler scene, the walking/noticing part.
We have had many problems when it comes to social media. For some reason instagram. kept logging us out of our intertwined account and every time we would log back in, it would say that it was incorrect even though it was. I think we created about two other social media accounts just because it kept logging us out, and the worst part was, that we would lose our progress every time.
One thing that did concern me was the girl on the left, when we talked, hadn't even started filming. However, she did finish her CR, which I for one am not excited about.
Another thing I found alarming was the guy in the back, said he would most likely have to re-film, and change his entire story, but keep the same idea of having a family-oriented film. He essentially told us the acting and cinematography were just something he was not proud of, since his actors were very disinterested and unhappy to participate in his film. So i do wish him the best, and can really relate to not being proud of something and not sure to try and make it work or just rushing to make something new.
I also provided some help to my friend Morgan (sitting right next to me). She had some trouble with the editing portion of her project because she has never edited something on her own like this before, and does not have much experience with the software. She was asking how to make two separate audios seem seamless when placed together and to make the cut of the audio unaware to the audience. I told her to use constant power and to play with the audio gain of the clip to adjust to her liking and to make it sound as seamless as possible.
As I indicated in my previous blog, we arrived to film a little later than anticipated because of a few circumstances involving our actors (got off work, traffic, problems at home, etc.). We had to shoot until nightfall because of this. We still have curfews because we're all under the age of eighteen, especially when we spend the night in a public place thirty minutes away from home. We only finished the group work, therefore we will need to do the love scenarios on another day. Sadly, Howie's schedule prevented the new day from arriving as we had hoped. His sole available date is Wednesday, April 3. As a result, we were hoping to film the final two sequences on Monday, April 1. Even though, I believe that two days have an important effect on all of the tasks we need to complete. I worry it might clash with our other priorities, like editing and social media.
Our plan for Wednesday
-To give ourselves more time to set up and record the restaurant + dancing scenario, arrive about 6:30 or 6:30.
-Film till 7:30 or 8:30
Probably one of the main things that is frustrating me right now is this. It was intended for our summer scenario to develop from dawn to dusk. We were unable to follow the script because of our late arrival, thus filming at night was needed. The restaurant scene can stay the same, but it will be more challenging to film the dance in the sunset sequence at night on the poorly lit beach. I'm at a loss for what to do and am torn between altering that entire section of the script.
