Research/Script for CCR #3

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Research and Planning:

The first thing we had to do for this project was research and planning our steps. I think this was the second hardest step because there was so much to choose from. There are like 100 genres and subgenres! It took us a few hours of research when we had to do the blogs for genre research, I think that was the most annoying part. Some of the information was too old or it didn't answer my questions. I'm so glad that part is over (it has been for a while). I had planned to watch a few movies to really analyze the genre, but I didn't end up watching the 10 movies I wanted to... Hopefully I can watch them over spring break which starts next week!!!! Also I plan to absolutely finish this project before Friday the 13th, so hopefully we can keep grinding and get this done!

 The hardest was definitely the planning in my opinion. Not the planning like the schedule, but planning the actual plot and story. It was especially hard because both my partner and I are very indecisive people. We hadn't established the genre until about the fourth week, we planned to have it by the second or third week, but we just couldn't decide. It took us a few days to actually get an idea of what we wanted to do. Honestly I think the gambling idea was very random to add to a film opening, but it we had gotten inspiration of the game show from Squid Game and Alice in Borderland. 

                                                        Squid Game: watching a horse race

Alice in Borderland: Survival Games

Any changes?:

I don't think I can remember all the changes because honestly I think we changed everything from our original idea of any specific thing. However, we definitely had some major changes for our storyboard. Since we finally decided on doing a drama, I was thinking of doing a coming of age drama, since that's what we can make most realistic. I told my group in my first group meeting that I did that I was 100% doing a coming of age film, they gave me many great ideas, however, my partner was talking to her group about doing the game show gambling idea. And I think you can guess what we ended up doing...  

                                            This was from my Group Meeting #1 Blog! (2/3/26)

Past Projects:

For all my past projects I've been doing it with the same exact people/person! Honestly I'm so glad I got to sit next to them and partner up, especially Marisa (my partner for this project)! The other two, Alana and Debra are doing it alone since they had wanted to do different genres. They kind of like doing things last minute which is little scary for me because while I do procrastinate, it's not as bad as theirs... I think it's because they are seniors (senioritis!) and because they are busy with their drama shows! They're both in drama, Alana is one of the actors in Mama Mia and I think Debra does the technology. I really wished I could've gone to see their shows but I've been kind of sick this week :( 

Okay I think I've spent too much talking about my partners instead of the projects we did...

So the projects I've worked on with the three of them is the Music Video Project and the Mise-en-scene project, which I don't think I posted a blog about but no worries because I'll include a few pictures!

(edit: I lied there is a blog.. Oops!) 

Mise-en-Scene Project: https://lellylemons.blogspot.com/2025/10/mise-en-scene-blog-post.html

I think this project was kind of very chaotic, we wanted to do everything by hand for some strange reason... I have no idea why, but it was a TERRIBLE idea... everything kind of looked wonky even though we spent HOURS on it. I was in charge of making the actual model of Cameron Lee, our character who is a very outgoing person and a movie lover. I had this strange idea of making her out of paper...This is very random, but I had a fever while I was finishing the model and I almost wanted to jump out my window because nothing was staying on properly... I still think we did better than most people in our class though... sorry! I just think that the rest of the project were a bit confusing or didn't answer the questions. We graded each project by how well we could get to know the character and we were definitely confused for a lot of them... I think we also had about a month to complete this project, and unfortunately, we did procrastinate... but it's okay because we got it done and a good grade! You can go to the link near to see more info on it, but I think I summed it up pretty good. 

Music Video Project: https://lellylemons.blogspot.com/2025/12/blog-for-my-music-video.html

If I have to be honest, I don't remember doing any research for this project... I only remembered the fun parts... Which was filming! It kind of wished we could redo just that part because I we were kind of just playing around all day... I think only like 60% was actually filming... We also kind of procrastinated this one... but for this portfolio project we 100% are going to finish it before it's due. I also enjoyed making the presentation. I really like making Canva/PowerPoint presentations for some reason... Someone said I was weird for that ... Oh well. I also enjoyed coming up with a band name and fan name. 

Here is the full project that we turned in! : 

https://browardcountyschools-my.sharepoint.com/:p:/r/personal/0613128490_my_browardschools_com/Documents/Music%20Marketing%20Campaign.pptx?d=wf116f06a6a9345af9db6cdc958c1e8a3&csf=1&web=1&e=tlBQ1j

Reflection:

I think these past few projects taught me that communication is important and time management..! In past classes, I used to just let my partners do what they want, because I didn't really feel like asking them about their opinion on my ideas, but I never really had fun. I'm very grateful to my teacher and my partners for always asking for my opinion and including me. It's made me feel like my ideas and opinions matter and I think that's what made me enjoy these types of projects so much, even though they stress me out a little. Communication is also important for when you feel like something is unfair. In one of our past group projects, the two of us felt like the other half weren't doing their part really, they kind of had a valid reason (work and family things), but we felt like it was unfair because even though we had already planned everything out and were almost done with our parts, they haven't finished yet. My very brave partner decided to message them to let them know how we felt and thankfully they were very understanding and got to work as soon as they could. 

Research/Script for CCR #2

Question 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how it would be distributed as a real media text?

Target Audience:

• Ages: 17-50

I think 17-50 is the perfect age range. At 17, people usually are in high school, which is when they are procrastinating and not want to do anything adults tell them to do. This could be used to influence them into not being lazy and start listening to their parents. Although the game part might not be very believable, it could technically be based off a true story because there are definitely people who were like Alea Punter, who regret what they did. For anyone above the age of 18, which is the legal age in the US to buy lottery tickets or participate in horse racing, it could help persuade them to not start gambling, or if they already are to stop. Also, the reason the age range goes up to 50 is because the average age for gamblers are actually in their mid-late 40’s. 

• Gender: not gender specific

Studies show that gamblers are usually males, however, it is a 2:1 ratio of men to women gambling addicts. Also, both genders in high school usually are lazy and don’t want to listen to their parents so there shouldn’t be a targeted gender. 

• Location: USA, UK, Australia, anywhere where English is the primary language
• Income: Lower class, lower middle class

People with lower income are more likely to start gambling

• Interests: Betting, gambling, high-stake trading, drama

Distribution Plan:

• Create a social media for Dollar Studios (Instagram, Tiktok, Facebook)
• Marketing only online, saving money
• Posting teasers, trailers, posters
• Digital and online distribution because it’s more cost efficient than distributing in theaters
• Only Dub in English to save money
• Work with largest streaming companies (Netflix, Hulu, Prime Video)
• Focus more on sponsored ads on Netflix

Production Choices & How they effect the audience:

• Story/plot: The lesson of the film would most likely attract older audiences or because they relate to it in a way. They could also influence their children to watch it for the lesson. The gameshow part of the story would attract the younger side of the audience, who enjoy the suspense of the story. 
• Set design: A messy apartment, shows the laziness and carefree nature of the character
• Lighting: Little to no light, represents the character trying to avoid reality. Also represents the bed rotting trend on social media.
• Camera Techniques: many close-ups and mid shots to show emotion on face

                                                                            Close up

Messy Clothes

Sources: 

World Health Organization. 2024. "Gambling." World Health Organization. Retrieved March 7, 2026 (https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/gambling).

Luminate. 2024. "Netflix vs. Everyone Else." Luminate. Retrieved March 7, 2026 (https://luminatedata.com/blog/netflix-vs-everyone-else/).

Editing Day 3

    My partner has been working on the film opening recently, it's almost done, but here's what she's done so far: 

So first she had to go through the film openings to shorten any that were too long, and I accidently put in a clip twice (my bad), and she fixed it. It took her about 45 minutes to reduce the original length of 3 minutes, down to 2 minutes and 16 seconds! She removed a lot of Alea just walking around since it didn't add much to the plot. She also added some slow zooms for scenes in which the audience should pay attention to the subject in. 

After that, she added the blue-gray hue to the whole film by adding a rectangle over the video footage. She said it was difficult to find a good way to put it over the footage because it made the video look very low quality. She played around with the transparency to fix that.

Research for CCR #1

 I can't believe we're already on CCR's, but there's no time to waste so I'm starting to gather all my research and start my presentations. 

The first question that I will be researching is:

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

So, our film won%, follows drama conventions. Our main character Alea Punter, struggles with an internal and external conflict, which is very common in dramas. Our film opening also uses low-key lighting, which follows the drama conventions for technique. 

Our reasoning for following these conventions is because of the emotion and message we wanted to send, but also because we liked the plot and idea. Through her struggle of keeping up with bills and her gambling addiction, her situation represents a small percentage of the American population (unemployed with a gambling problem). Unlike most people living in poverty, they are hardworking and didn’t grow up with a middle class family, Alea was just lazy, she never listened to her parents, and would always rather take advice from other people (like the random Reddit person..). 

I think this would make a great film to send a message to people who take for granted what they have. I always hear my classmates talk about how they will just Chat GPT all the classwork, even the simplest things, like a 12 word vocabulary assignment, or putting a news article in order. I also hear about how they would use AI for all their assignments the previous year, and only start studying right before the end of year exams… I don’t mean to be rude, but it’s always the people who want a professional career, like a doctor or something, and I’m always wondering how would they survive? I also think of my future doctors, hoping they didn’t cheat their way through med school somehow… 

Anyways, another technique we use in our film opening is pacing and rhythm to build tension and using close-ups. There is a specific scene in the beginning of the film where Alea is on the edge of her seat and you start to see the panic in her face because the team she has bet on and rooting for might be losing, but suddenly the microwave beeps and she needs to go get her popcorn! 

Sources: 

University at Buffalo. (2014). In areas with the highest poverty, the death rate is 27 percent higher than in those in the top fifth of economic advantage. https://www.buffalo.edu/news/releases/2014/01/001.html#:~:text=In%20areas%20with%20the%20highest,top%20fifth%20of%20economic%20advantage.

- FarjanaTahmin. (n.d.). *Conventions of drama films* [SlideShare presentation]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/conventions-of-drama-films/9837149

- Cooper, M. (n.d.). *Codes and conventions of drama* [SlideShare presentation]. SlideShare. https://www.slideshare.net/slideshow/codes-and-conventions-of-drama/15481222

Production Post #2

     Today I added the last part of our film, which makes it 3 minutes, so unfortunately we have to figure out what to cut out or what to make shorter still. I was going to add this to the first production post, however I think the school has blocked me screen casting, not sure why but EVERYTIME I used the Snipping Tool to screen cast, it would disappear after a minute. I had to refilm 5 times because I thought it was a me problem. Thankfully, my partner told me I could use Canvas to screen cast, I never knew until today that we could do that.. Anyways here's the video of me editing in the last parts: 

My partner is going to work on the audio this weekend you can check that out on their blog (mediaandmee.blogspot.com). I will also be posting about it on Sunday though!

Production Post for Editing #1

     Hello! I decided to finally switch out the parts that didn't look good or we had to refilm today and I took a screen recording of me doing it. All the clips I used to replace the bad ones were filmed on Sunday, the second filming day. The video was originally 10 minutes, but I used Clip Champ to make it 5 times faster so it's easier to watch. Here's a screenshot of me editing a video of me editing my portfolio project: 

                        

    Also when I was editing some other parts, I accidently deleted the whole project... Thankfully there was an undo button. I didn't realize I had the whole thing highlighted. This won't be the only editing I do of course but this was just a short clip of how I usually do it.

Group Meeting #2

     Today in class (right now, were still in class), we had another group meeting, with different people. We talked about our film script and a little of out CCR’s because we forgot about those until the end. 

    Many of them haven’t finished filming or started, there was only two of us who had finished! Which was kind of surprising since it’s due in two weeks and we still have to edit and do our CCR’s and edit that! Many of us are also doing some type of thrillers. Me, I’m doing a game show and four people in my group are doing a thriller/murder. I bet those fake blog companies are making a lot of money. Also, someone in my group, Guillermo, had professional camera’s which were so cool to see, because all of us are using our phones. This is his blog check it out!: https://guillermo1834.blogspot.com/2026/02/. I’m most excited to see his final product, we were stuck on his script/plot for a bit because we were all confused what type of shot he was explaining.

   The other two in the group are doing romance and coming of age dramas. I wanted to do a coming of age drama, but I decided to do a thriller drama instead. I’m also really excited to see the CCR of Kylie’s because she’s getting inspiraton from the YouTube show “Hot Ones”, where they eat spicy wings and get interviewed. This is her blog! https://kyz12345.blogspot.com/

                                                                 Group Meeting #2!