Film Opening: CCR Script

 CCR Script 

    Today I wrote my script for my creative critical reflection. I'm sure it maybe exceeds the time limit but I want to time it when I get home and then maybe rephrase it to make it shorter.  

    I timed myself reading the script patiently and fortunately I was no over the seven minute mark. I don't plan to memorize the script but go along with it to make sure I say whats needed.

Script

Summary: Heya, my name’s mia. But I go by Blast too. So recently, I had this long period project where I had to film and edit an opening to a film that I wrote. The main character, Violet, disguises her voice while playing video games and streaming to avoid hate and sexism online. Unfortunately during a stream, her power randomly turns off and she disconnects from the game. Whilst returning to the stream and game, her voice changer seemed to be broken or deactivated, as she apologizes for the random leave, her friends and viewers point out the change in her voice. It was then her secret was leaked to the community. 

First: I chose the drama genre though it can also be seen as coming-of-age. The main character is supposed to go through hardships whilst trying to achieve her dream to be a full-time streamer/gamer. As a woman who is greatly involved in video games, I've seen all sides to the gaming community and a huge issue is sexism; I’ve seen it happen to others just as much as it happens to me. There are times where my own teammate sabotages me and throws the game just because I'm a girl instead of a guy. According to Sirine Bougacha in her article "Gaming: Hidden Sexism and Harassment," about "40% of female gamers have experienced some form of abuse from male gamers while playing online." Sirine also mentioned that 59% of females in the US, Germany, and China hide their gender to avoid abuse or sexism.  I chose to challenge this issue of sexism. I chose a girl as my main character to share the struggle of being a girl in this industry. 

Second: My target market consists of 12-25 year old girls who enjoy playing video games, specifically those that are team-based. To address an issue in the community, one needs people to relate and realize this issue exists. Whilst focusing on girls, I want men to see this as well and see that it is not okay or moral, thus my second part of my target audience which is males who play video games that have female friends that also play. I chose a popular game between men and women known as VALORANT. This game is a team-based first-person-shooter game. Much like VALORANT, other FPS games include sexism and misogyny. VALORANT currently is the most popular at the moment and everyone has seen these issues arise in their games, not many address it though. I chose to upload my film opening on google drive or youtube whilst sharing the link on social media and in games. 

Third: During the whole process, there was a lot of anxiety. Research and planning were done right away. Later, I had nothing left to plan. I had it all typed down. Eventually I couldn't blog about what I was doing, I simply wasn’t doing anything for the project. I took a break between planning and production. A break filled with anxiety and nervousness. I don’t know why I exactly took this break, I sure I was simply too busy with managing school esports teams and tournaments, managing the girls lacrosse team, and my Tier 3 VALORANT team. Everything was too much all the time and I shut down. I bounced back right after spring break, I filmed and edited in a matter of a few days, I started blogging again too. I started this project with excitement and now I end it with relief. 

Fourth: To make my project happen, I used several different hardware and software services. For camerawork, I used my cell phone camera, for lighting I used a bluetooth LED light bulb, a neon sign, my TV, and my PC’s rgb lighting. For recording sounds I used my FIFINE mic. The softwares I used for editing is Adobe Premiere Pro. Whilst planning I used Notion (an app for organizing). I also used StreamLabs to record my gameplay and dialogue between me and the other character. I learned new effects in Premiere such as title transforming and effects. I played around with the audio as my clips taken from my phone camera were unusually loud. At one point my project had an error and I couldn’t open it, however I made sure to have autosave files ready if needed and the problem was solved. 

Ending: This project was a great experience for me, I had fun laughing with my friends as we failed to get the dialogue right. The best part was seeing my idea come to life. However, I will not lie and say I’m not relieved it's over, as mentioned before I'm a pretty busy person. I’m glad this weight has been lifted. During this project, I learned effects and have gotten a little bit more interested in editing. Learning how to manipulate clips and sounds into entertainment was an extraordinary experience. If I could do it all again, I wouldn’t take a break and would head straight into filming even if it's one clip a night. Next time, I will focus and start without hesitation.

 

Film Opening: Editing Day Three

 Editing

(Day Three)

    Today is my last day editing the film opening, I added the clips of my friend gaming and started adding credits as well as transitions. Its crazy to think all that's left is exporting the project and doing the CCR. With about five days left, I wish I could do it all over again. See what I'd change during the film production process. Most likely I'd start filming earlier just so I can finish without the due date around the corner creeping as if its a monster hiding in my closet. 

    Though the project was new and exciting, it was constantly running in the back of my head along with major anxiety. I feel a sense of peace and relief now that its almost over. As much as deadlines scare me, its a part of life, I'll have to live with, this project taught me that. 

Film Opening: Re-Filming

 Re-filming

    Today I showed my teacher my film so far and asked for some advice as I felt a little anxious. She told me to add some more dialogue between the side and main character to develop more of the plot and what's going on. 

    

    Taking her advice I asked two good friends of mine to help me out.  As I am a girl, I physically cannot sound like a guy and make it seem like I'm pretending so, I asked my friend Baethal to speak for me in game. Baethal and I, as well as a mutual friend of ours, Nick, will all play a game together and record our conversation accept my mic will be muted until we reach the scene where my character disconnects from the game. When my character joins, it will be me specking instead of Baethal, this is where Nick will ask what happened to my voice and I don't respond as to show I'm in shock. 

Film Opening: Editing Part Two

 

Editing

(part two)

    In this second day of editing, I filmed a clip to establish a setting. The clip includes the typical "KEEP OUT" sign on the door of a teenagers bedroom. I recorded some clips of my keyboard and mouse clicking. Today, I inserted those clips as well as some clips of me playing the game.

    In order to make some sense of what is happening in my film, I screen recorded leaving the game and downloaded the sound of leaving the discord call. I inserted those to make sure the audience knew that Violet left in shock of how they found out about her gender. 

 

Pictures of how recorded my keyboard and mouse.

Film Opening: Editing

 

Editing

    Today I started editing, I retrieved all my clips from my phone and transferred them to my flash drive that's holding my project. I started searching for a song that's non-copyright on YouTube with a good beat that I can edit my film to. I'm not sure how I feel about it just yet, I enjoy the beginning but I'm not sure if the rest of the song matches the opening. I and converted the song to mp3 and downloaded it. 

     

After opening my project and putting all my clips in order I needed a certain clip from a few days ago. The clip was of my friends and I playing VALORANT, the topic that I was a girl came up as I was streaming on Twitch; right there the perfect opportunity showed itself. My friend, with all of his amazing acting skills, loudly asked "wait, you're a girl!?" And my twitch chat didn't miss a beat, they started saying things like "I've been lied to," and "UR A GIRL??" I ended up retrieving the video to my stream and clipping it to that moment and added it to my project. 

    

    I'm not done editing however, I still want to include one more clip, some voiceovers, and some foley of my fingers hitting the keys of my keyboard as well as clicking my mouse.

Film Opening: Filming

Filming

    

    Yesterday night, I started filmed my project. There aren't a lot of shots I need that I couldn't just set up the camera on a surface and press record, thus it was easy. Other shots such as close-ups on the setting were a little trickier as I had to keep my hand steady. Though I knew I should film everything in one sitting as to be completely sure of my shots, I had my storyboard with me in order to make sure I recorded all the shots I needed. 

    During the filming process, I made sure the setting looked the way it needed to. I cleaned my room and the main area I would be filming, which is my PC setup. I then placed some video game plushies and figures in noticeable areas to get close-ups of them. I, then focused on my angles starting with an establishing shot and some close-ups. The trickiest shot was the blackout scene as I had to get out of my chair to turn off the lights and then get back in my chair whilst making it look like it wasn't me turning everything off. To beat this challenge I set my camera down and press record, I sat at my desk for a minute then got up and turned everything off, as there was no lighting it was easy to cut the clip into three parts and delete the section where I'm turning everything off. This way it looks like I never got up from my chair at all. 

Film Opening: Representation

 Representation:

A key concept in my film is addressing the rejection, harassment, and negative stereotypes women face in the gaming world.  In many friend groups female gamers rejected from playing with them as on of the males in the group has a problem with her being a girl.  According to Sirine Bougacha in her article "Gaming: Hidden Sexism and Harassment," about "40% of female gamers have experienced some form of abuse from male gamers while playing online." Sirine also mentioned that 59% of females in the US, Germany, and China hide their gender to avoid abuse or sexism. 

Some negative stereotypes of females in the video game industry are that girls cannot play games as well as men if not better. This stereotype has been debunked several times as women's league esports became. Other stereotypes include that gamer girls only play for male attention. This can be true for some cases but not all of them. 

In my film, I'd like to address these two stereotype and debunk them once and for all. Over the course of the film Violet would go through having her identity revealed; this will bring her back to step one of proving herself to the community. Her skills of playing games and her connection to it will ultimately prove the stereotypes wrong.

Film Opening: Color Schemes

 Color Schemes:

The main colors portrayed in my opening will be purple, blue, and green. I decided to use these color as they are most seen in the gaming community with their RGB lighting. These colors give off a lighting that feels and looks surreal.  The cool colors make a peaceful, melancholic, technological environment.

 

The main character's color will be blue. Most of her costumes will contain blue. Blue represents this melancholic aspect to her, she's happy but sad at the same time. She's living her dream but hiding her identity. 

Film Opening: Target Audience

 Target Audience:

For my target audience I want to incorporate the gaming community as I present and important issue within the community.  I want my film's message to reach the community and help them realize that it's not ok to treat women like that. 

    

    My main audience will be males from ages 12-25, who enjoy playing video games and watched female streamers.  My secondary audience will be females, ages 12- 25, who enjoy playing video games but are too scared to use voice chat and communicate. I want the males to see this is what they put us through in the community and its not okay. The harassment leads most of us to hide our identity and never use game chat. I want females to build confidence and use game chat comfortably.

Heres an example of the type of harassment women get in the gaming community:

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