The CR: Our final challenge arrived!

 Here's CR for you! I answered a few questions about the film "Knock On Wood" and myself.

CR Finale

This is the end, it was amazing making this and I had great fun. Thank you for reading through these blogs, though I believe this may be my last movie. Unless someone sees my expertise and decides to hire me or something. I have also copied and pasted my CR below in the case that it doesn't load through the link. Overall, I hope you enjoyed and have an amazing day, month and year. This was a fun project for me as a writer and I hope you continue watching me if I ever continue.

CR Finale:

 My group and I made a short film which is a creative product that overall presents an idea made by us. The film Knock On Wood, is such a film. Knock On Wood is a comedy, following the main character Lucky who I acted as, as she goes through both good and bad luck due to an accident. The idea of the film is to entertain with meta jokes, modern humor and dramatic scenes. Through the use of cinematography, sound design, and narrative structure; Knock On Wood both engages with the audience, and goes against the traditional comedy genre ideals. Overall showing multiple different social groups, distinct branding and a lot of superstitious research. 

         To show social groups, Lucky is introduced as a character who grew up in superstitious communities and reflects the issues of those who group up in those communities. Lucky who does actually have bad luck due to the mirror break, has it in a dramatic way very different from traditional ideas of bad luck. The film is a comedy and so bouncing off the bad luck phenomenon, there were comedic scenes partnered with it. Which introduces Charmy, a character who represents a social group of people who don't believe in bad luck. As some films may show superstitions as odd little things, our film shows the superstitions to be correct with a funny twist. Instead of Lucky being a person who eventually realizes that all her bad luck was fake, made up or something. She is instead right about her superstitions as soon as the time of her bad luck ends, she gets a large amount of good luck possibly piled up from all the years. Furthermore, Charmy doesn’t get in trouble or chastised, instead getting to be beside Lucky when the good luck hits and being awarded alongside her. Both characters play a very important role, with Lucky feeling their entire life and problems resolve around the mirror she broke 7 years previously. Charmy is sensible and believes that the mirror break had any effect on Lucky’s luck. Said previously as other movies would use Charmy as a sensible one, my group and I used her as a foil for comedic reasons. Presenting the fact that Charmy was obviously in the wrong, as you can see Lucky’s bad luck head on. Essentially, switching the role between both sides on a superstitious film, as keeping the message instead covered in a comedic shroud. It is shown within constant call and response between Lucky and Charmy, as both ideals clash. Proving that there is a power struggle between who is right and who is wrong, the context surrounding how I reached for a more nuanced representation while writing.

          Knock On Wood has elements that would enforce a strong branding presence. Using themes, ideas, and styles that I added into my writing. Giving a strong sense of branding, I made sure that every scene has a style and gave the feeling that time was passing in my film, giving a semi-cohesive style. I say semi-cohesive as using comedy was good but it's important to have serious moments, where you can see the seriousness break in between scenes. 4 out of 7 of the scenes use happy and upbeat music. Each was a choice made by me to help the film flow and work with my writing. Each song gives a little more context for the scene, if it may be good or bad luck. However, due to the overall set tone, it was easier to have a serious moment and have a quiet background sound after all the upbeat music. Though I needed more elements to fully brand myself, which is why I added more scenes throughout the filmmaking process. Of course I discussed with my partners the changes, but it was to help make it more suspenseful and give more build up. In the end I did make the movie different from others in its genre, even better. The promotional materials were the website, instagram account and card, which you could follow to see info and our steps. Keeping vibrant colors was key in a sense, showing the joy, kindness and innocence of the character. While other colors like dark greens and purples alongside more neutral colors show the officialness of the business. Through the use of personability, I believe my group and I reached a state of our branding.

         The target audience is more juveniles which are some older individuals. They would be able to recognize the number of superstitious elements in our film. Though not fully out for the younger audience, that's why we agreed upon using the vibrant colors less. Instead switching over to cooler darker colors, scenes even taken in dark rooms or outside at night. For the scenes that did have brighter moments like the very end, was to show the film's natural visuals. Over all, it resonates emotionally and humorously with the age group due to the scenes. It was also quite easy to do camerawork, using many close-ups and reactions to help with comedic value and fully engage our audience. Alongside how I paced the film and built up suspense was good for attention grabbing in a short film. Using the power given as a writer to my best ability, I made sure to engage watchers best in the film. Happy to say that Knock On Wood keeps watchers engaged throughout and fully invested while watching the film.

         Before starting my writing process, I went through multiple comedic short films. They helped me understand what would be needed in the film and what mostly entices the audience. These films, although not written by me, were comedies like Knock On Wood. Usually films in this genre had cutaway jokes and a diegetic audience, allowing you to even hear the audience at times. However instead, I included different music, transition scenes, and reactions in the moment to express the comedy. Looking into multiple superstitions online and figuring out peoples cultures and beliefs in these superstitions, helped. Searching why people believed in them, helped me create better scenes and add emphasis to different moments. Using this knowledge helped me shape the two main characters, especially Lucky. As it overall went into how superstitions could affect a person and how it then affected their daily life as well. Research and reference of multiple other films were easy, looking into other comedic ideas that were modern at the moment. Giving multiple funny twists and making Lucky as goofy as possible. Taking these many pieces and emphasizing them, as I enjoyed each moment. Showing how looking into new places to help create a new idea, can turn a plain film to an amazing one.

       Knock On Wood was an amazing project. My team and I worked extremely hard on it, each person taking an important role. Helping back one another up, when a mistake may occur and covering for others fall outs. Creating comedic genius isn’t easy but creating and covering the idea of superstitions were fun. Especially talking about how it may affect a person's life, I made the film my own in the end using my own writing brand. Knock On Wood sends a wonderful message, sewn through our own creative way; dodging and adopting conventions.