During the visual narrative unit, I learned how to tell an effective and complex story that conveyed emotion and messages to the audience. Using a variety of genres of media such as graphic design, film, and music, I was able to present the audience with a well-structured story using the narrative techniques I learned in class.
The visual narrative unit really helped me progress my storytelling skillset past surface level. This unit focused on the importance of HOW to tell a captivating story and what makes a well-executed narrative well executed. All the subjects we learned in English ultimately transferred to my Film and Digital Media classes and helped me create original narrative material from scratch.
Adobe Illustrator was a huge focus in digital media during the narrative unit. One of the things we were tasked to do in illustrator was creating our own images to become stickers or printed on clothing. I chose to make a sticker depicting popular musical artist Frank Ocean’s face.
The inspiration for this project was how much I love the popular music artist, Frank Ocean, and how little merchandise is available on the internet for a low price. I really wanted to have something physical with Frank Ocean’s face or brand on it and this was a great opportunity to think outside of the box and create something I really enjoy.
I grew my Illustrator skills a lot during this project. I think there is a lot of problem-solving required to do this project because it’s not just following the instructions of Mr. Florendo, it’s using the skills he taught me to create something original. I didn’t have Mr. Florendo’s hand to hold through this project so it pushed me to be creative and try new things. If I could go back and change something, I would make fewer stickers but make them bigger. I’m super proud of this project, I like the earrings especially. The subtle gradient on the earrings is so cool to me and I think it adds so much to the little detail.
This project will definitely influence my future art because I got really good with the pen tool. I can use problem-solving skills that I learned along the way to not only apply to my future work in Digital Media but in my life as well. Creating digital art is definitely hard to do and even harder to get good at. This perspective has definitely provided me with greater respect for graphic designers.
During learning about music production, we were tasked to make a parody of a pre-existing song of our choice. I chose to work with Jack Dees and together, we created a parody of the song “Industry Baby” by Lil Nas X and Jack Harlow. We called the song “Shac and Dees Baby” because that’s both of our last names. As a film student, music production really pushed me out of my comfort zone and made me try new things that I wasn’t necessarily used to. I focus so much on getting the perfect shot and perfect camera angle that focusing more on the audio portion was like opening Pandora’s Box (in the best way possible). This really helped when making my future films because I was thinking more about audio than I was before and instead of just slapping a sound effect onto the clip and calling it a day, I thought about how could really make the sound effect sound real.
In order to create the parody song, there was a lot of pre-production Jack and I did together. We first had to pick a song we both wanted to parody and this song was an obvious choice for both of us since we both loved it. Next, we had to write the lyrics, a process that was really enjoyable and difficult because even though we were both writing funny and random things, coming up with words and phrases that match the number of syllables in the original song and rhyme too was harder than it may seem. When I wrote the lyrics to my verse, I wanted to talk about myself in a funny and boastful way. The purpose of my verse was it’s supposed to be humorously braggadocious. Once the lyrics were written, we needed to make the instrument. We did this by playing around with the original song and isolating the vocals. We then moved the vocals in a way that almost eliminated the vocals from the original track so that we could perform over the instrumental. After these steps, we were ready to record in the studio! Jack and I did about three different takes recording all the way through so that we could choose the best takes when we were mixing the vocals and so that we would have an extra take in case we messed up a certain portion of the song. Recording in the studio was probably my favorite part of the music production mini-unit because Jack and I really got to cut loose and sing our hearts out. I felt like there was a lot of energy and chemistry when we performed our song in the studio.
Lyrics
Baby shac, ayy
Couple macs, ayy
Couple paintings on him
Couple packs, ayy
That’s a fact, ayy
Eat a snack, ayy
Eat a snack, ayy
And this one is for the cavemen
I ain’t ate since I began, yeah
Funny how you said it was the end, yeah
Then I went and got a tan, yeah
I told you long ago, on the flo
I got what they waitin’ flo
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
You was never really hating on me anyway
When I’m eating all my lunch I wanna hear you say
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
Uh, need to, uh
Need to get this album done
Mr.Flo been waiting some
Need an A on this track
Mr.Flo has our back
Tell a rap kid, “I don’t see ya”, ha
I’m a pop This song like I’m Beiber
I don’t fail assignments, Mr.Flo I don’t need ya
But these other kids also feed ya
Yeah, yeah, yeah (yeah)
Ayy, oh, let’s do it
I ain’t fall off, I just ain’t release my new parody
I blew up now everybody tryna be with me
You call me jack, but the hood call me back, yeah
And this one is for the cavemen
I ain’t ate since I began, yeah
Funny how you said it was the end, yeah
Then I went and got a tan, yeah
I told you long ago, on the flo
I got what they waitin’ flo
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
You was never really hating on me anyway
When I’m eating all my lunch I wanna hear you say
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
My handwriting so clean
They couldn’t wait to just pass me
I must be gettin’ too flashy
I’m playing tag and they catch me (woo)
It’s too late ’cause I’m here to play
Don’t eat crab cuz it’s nasty (mmm)
I went to visit Spongebob but
Saw Patrick cuz he’s Sandy
Price drop and we compromise
At McDonald’s I supersize
I wish I did it at Five Guys (yeah)
I breathe so well as you can tell pass polygraph while I’m telling lies
Eat crab while I’m swatting flies
Stole the song and I made it mine (what?)
I don’t make up rumors (ayy)
I just make em truer (Ayy)
I’m done using facebook cuz it’s made for baby boomers
Turn my haters to consumers
I’m in high school I’m a junior (juniors)
I flew to boring state booked a flight to Oklahoma (mm)
You know that I’m shorter (mm)
I’m just a late bloomer (mm)
I’m gonna be 6’4 and then I’ll dunk on all the shooters (woo)
All these social networks and computers
Kids are picking Apple products over scooters (losers)
I told you long ago, on the flo
I got what they waitin’ flo
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
You was never really hating on me anyway
When I’m eating all my lunch I wanna hear you say
I run from muffin dogs
Run from boulders call me Indiana Jones
Yeah
I’m the shac and Dees baby, mm
I’m the Shac and dees aye
Yeah
Narrative was a super fun and exciting unit in film. During this unit, we opened our eyes to the methods and tactics filmmakers in Hollywood use to create an effective narrative-style film. Whether it’s a huge part of filmmaking like how to make the audience feel suspense or something so small and such common film practice that it goes unnoticed unless it’s not present in the film, we learned it. A huge part of this unit was using camera angles and film techniques to evoke emotion in the audience. We practiced our newly acquired skills over time with small activities leading up to the big Junior Narrative film.
Griffith’s Pattern was developed by the renowned director D.W. Griffith in the early 20th century. You see this string of shots at the beginning of almost every scene of every movie and TV show ever since it was created. Griffith’s pattern is used to establish the location in which the scene is taking place as well as the important characters in the scene.
Suspense is one of the most important concepts and film techniques to know how to execute properly. It’s a way to get the audience to be more engaged with the film and leave them at the edge of their seat wondering what’s going to happen next. Our class watched “Rear Window” directed by the one and only Alfred Hitchcock, the king of suspense. We analyzed how Hitchcock created suspense and what seeds were planted in order for the audience to feel that suspense. In doing this, we got a better understanding of what makes things suspenseful and how we can implement these techniques into our own films.
Chase scenes are one of the most common types of scenes seen in movies today. In this activity, we learned about valuable film concepts such as the 180-degree rule and shot pacing. What I liked about this activity is it was an opportunity to exercise Griffith’s Pattern and suspense before moving on to our narrative film. Various different camera angles were required to execute an effective chase scene and Mr. Taylor really showed us how to make it feel like we were in the protagonist’s shoes during the scene. I took this as an opportunity to be creative and push my boundaries to make n aesthetically pleasing “Star Wars” themed chase scene, starring my brother and my neighbor.
Narrative Film
All of us pitched an idea for a potential narrative film and had the class break down and rebuild the idea to the best it could possibly be. After we all knew what each other’s ideas were, we were instructed to pick one idea that we loved and wanted to do for our narrative film. Because we were picking partners based on the ideas we wanted to make our film about, it created a lot of partnerships with people that weren’t very familiar with each other. My partner was Taylor and we hadn’t really spoken before we were partners but ended up becoming really close friends by the end of it. This was the opportunity to show what we had learned through the activities prior and take the next five months ahead to make a short narrative film.
Synopsis
Act 1:
A couple is walking down a neighborhood street. They see a woman walking down the street with a scarf on. Right after this, they see a man putting up missing posters of a woman (unknown to the audience). As they’re examining the posters, the girlfriend sees a car coming and pushes the two of them into a bush, saving his life. Later, in the following scene, they have reached home the girlfriend helps the boyfriend make his clothes look nice so he can leave. He walks through the hallway out of sight from the girlfriend. The girlfriend walks into the other room to her boyfriend pushing a box into the closet. The boyfriend notices her noticing that and quickly leaves, clearly shaken.
Act 2:
After the boyfriend leaves, the girlfriend curiously goes to this box to investigate what he could possibly be hiding. Inside the box she finds items corresponding to the missing person from before and the women they passed on the walk (a very bright red scarf). As well as this, numerous photos of missing people. Suddenly, the doorbell rings. Outside the door, we see the poster hanger from before. Now, holding a new missing poster, corresponding to the woman that they passed on their walk. In the background, the girlfriend has left the box lying open with the scarf visible. It grabs the attention of the poster hanger who bursts inside, inspecting the scarf. He was previously suspicious but now is convinced her boyfriend is a killer. To protect her boyfriend, she grabs a vase from near the door and knocks out the poster hanger. The boyfriend later comes home. He walks in to see the girlfriend cleaning up the mess of the murder he committed. He is at first surprised/shocked but then begins to help her. Their connections and relationships become stronger/deeper.
Act 3:
Similar to the start, the couple is on a walk but this time it’s a lot more tonally joyful. The boyfriend rips the new missing poster off of the poll and shows it to the girlfriend. The missing poster shows the flyer guy who the girlfriend killed. They hug as the film comes to an end.
Pre-Production
Planning was one of the longest, most tedious, yet most important parts of the process. Creating a storyboard, a shot-by-shot illustration carried out by hundreds of notecards, was a huge help on set. Taylor and I used the storyboard to plan what camera angle we used at specific times in the story and essentially mapped out the whole film before we got on set so we were prepared to film and didn’t need to do much brainstorming while we were there. Once Mr. Taylor approved our storyboard, one that we received criticism from the class for and individually by Mr. Taylor for, we got to move on to the production part of the process.
Production
Production was extremely fun. This is the part where we got to film the whole movie and work with our actors and sets. My grandparents were kind enough to lend us their home to use for the location of the film as well as provide us with some important props used in the film such as the vase that was broken over Dominic’s head. All of the actors volunteered to be in our film and commuted over to my grandparents’ house independently while Taylor and I got there early to set up shop. We made sure to keep things professional and efficient on set while still having fun with our actors. All of us had a lot of fun during the production stage and we managed to take people with little/no acting experience and use film techniques and insistent direction to immerse the audience into a convincing reality.
Post-Production
Post-Production is my favorite part of the film journey. For this film, I handled the vast majority of editing with pleasure. I want to do some sort of post-production work in the film industry in the future so I really enjoy challenging films like this one. Mixing sound effects, choosing appropriate music, cutting up shots for continuity, shot pacing, and many other film concepts are things that have to be carefully considered while editing. This is where you really see your vision come to life and it’s always super exciting seeing your work come to fruition.
Lavender by Eric Shachal & Taylor Ewan
Lavender is an exciting look into a woman in a relationship with a serial killer. Upon discovering that her boyfriend is a serial killer, she gets caught by a man handing out missing posters for one of his latest victims. How far will she go to protect her boyfriend? It’s one killer short film! Both Taylor and I really love horror movies so when I pitched the idea for Lavender, we knew that we were a good pair to tackle the idea. Using our knowledge from previous narrative activities and watching too many horror movies, we were able to effectively convey a sinister plotline with the corresponding emotions. In doing so, we were able to depict the origin story of a Bonnie & Clyde-type relationship using no dialogue.
This unit helped me develop my filmmaking skills as well as better my personal life. I learned a lot of valuable film techniques that I can carry over to every film I do in the future. With the help of Mr. Taylor and the class, I was able to take criticism and build off of it to create a better film. I also created a couple of friendships along the way and saw some friendships blossom on set as well.