IRON PUNCH

 This is the moment we all have been waiting for!! Here the link to the YouTube posting of Iron Punch!! Hope you enjoy!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mcbmAue66aU

CCR

 CCRs have been completed!! actually way more fun that I thought it would be, really liked the idea of being a famous director talking about his film. Here is the link to check it out!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/12JUDdpxEK3GeiUQWwT3BZD8d6a2ZhJEP?usp=sharing

Day 23

 Now it is time to do our CCRs. This part of our project is about us looking back on our work and production choices. There are four questions:

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

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

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Although I won't be answering these here because it just kind of goes against the whole point of the CCR, I will be discussing how I am going to do these. For two of my questions I will be doing a podcast in which directors go to talk about their films and answer questions, which is exactly what I will be doing. The other two questions I will be answering via a pre-recorded presentation in which I will show some images of what I am speaking about so it is just not a boring presentation. I already have the podcast done and I am pretty happy with it, I tried my best to sound "podcast like", like not too formal nor too casual and I think I nailed it personally. Hope the people who see it think the same honestly. Here is a little sneak peek at it.

Day 22

 Today in class we were put into groups with other people to discuss our projects and how far along we were to compare. I ended up showing Iron Fist and people actually liked it 😁😁 so that's always very good. I consulted my group mates as I did not know how'd I would find a platform for music that we could use. I came down to write some of these down and they were purpleplanet and the YouTube audio library. People also agreed with the decisions we had made for the project which actually made me very happy as Cyrus and I had been doubting ourselves about if people would enjoy our opening. The meeting was productive and I got to see some other pretty neat projects which is motivating at the end of the day because you see where your classmates are and you push yourself to be better. 

Day 21

 As I had mentioned before, we were missing the credits and the font we were going to use for them. So we worked on it this week as we were trying to look for something that would be noticeable but not distracting for the opening. We had sat down and analyzed multiple different fonts but we ended up sticking with the one that we had on before. We just changed it up a little to make it seem more "professional" as we gave Cyrus and "actor name" and gave ourselves a production company name: D&D Productions, for De Castro and Dhabhar. 

Day 20

 Andddd that's most of the editing done. We spent the whole weekend editing the video but we did take a turn. We had used both Adobe Premier Pro (how I had said we would use) but also iMovie because we wanted to see what we worked with the best. We found it to be more convenient and as efficient to the extent that we can use Adobe at. The editing process was actually a lot better than we thought it would be. We had to add a few transitions in the "montage" because some of the shots would just cut awkwardly into each other but its slight transitions to just make everything smoother and look less choppy. Cyrus couldn't really improve his boxing in one day because I don't blame him, he's not a professional boxer, so we sped up the latter clips in the movie to show the progression of Aizen as we see him train. We did this to speed up the push-ups and two punching bag scenes.

We also trimmed and slightly sped up this video of Cyrus jumping a rope since he is not particularly skilled at it, he learned that same day. 

Day 19

 SHOOTING IS FINISHED. Thanks to Cyrus' brilliant location scouting, we found a great gym that was empty and allowed us to film the project. We took shots from both outside the gym and inside as we had previously talked about how we would start the film. 

This is a capture of the behind the scenes one could say. We ended up using a handheld technique because it represents Aizen's journey and how he is unsteady right now as he has to train and still has a long way to go. With that said though, we did use a tripod that can be seen in the picture above for some of the other shots as we agreed it would look better. In our opening scene we also played around a little with the camera lens and made it blurry as the car approaches the location and then as it slowly comes to a halt, the camera focuses. 

We also followed up with a sequence of training shots in different locations to show the passage of time, we used Cyrus' backyard, our local park's volleyball courts, and the boxing gym. We filmed the "clips" in different tempos because we wanted to show that as the movie progressed, so did Aizen's abilities. and although it is in a short span of time, little improvements can be seen, especially on his push-ups and his speed when he is running. 

Day 18

 Cyrus and I had to make a last minute decision for the sake of the film and decided that Cyrus would be the actor portraying Aizen. We were having difficulties reaching out to our friend Tannirkhan so we went with Cyrus instead. He fits the role great as well as he has previous boxing experience and also has Asian roots which brings up that Asian representation we were approaching with Tan. I got back from my trip a few days back so now comes the fun, the filming. We are going to give ourselves 2 days to film as we have our location now (a boxing gym near our houses) and are finally ready to shoot. We set the goal to finish this by Thursday the 30th as it will allows us to have a week and a half to shoot + edit + fix anything we might think needs fixing. 

Came back to this a couple days after I posted it to give you guys a sneak peek at Aizen Smith. 

Day 17

 In the most anti-climactic way possible (in my opinion) the big week took an awkward turn. Nothing went wrong with filming or anything, but my parents did surprise me with a family trip to California for a week (spring break) which coincidentally is the weekend Cyrus and I had postponed to. That’s not an issue though, I spoke with Cyrus and we planned ahead as he would try finishing a chunk of the filming with Tan (Aizen) so when I got back we’d either be fully done or mostly done so then the next week we could focus on the editing. Cyrus has the ability to judge what looks good and matches the story and what doesn’t so I’m not as stressed as I usually would be leaving one person to kind of do both of our roles. We talked once more about location before I left and he told me that he wanted to see if he could maybe find a boxing gym where he could record. Sadly, we still have no answer from A$AP Rocky’s label so we’re going to fix the music problem very soon as we’re going to keep on communicating and finding the right replacement. 

Here’s a cool picture I took of the Golden Gate Bridge!

Day 16

 After researching our song and finding the ideal one for the opening, we had to scrap it. Turns out that the person we had contacted had re-posted the song on YouTube so the permission that we had gotten for the song wasn't official so we can't use it yet. Cyrus started researching other songs that fit in and we can use and I worked on contacting AWGE, A$AP Rocky's record label. The e-mail was longer than what the screenshot could capture but the website wouldn't allow the snipping tool to the all of it. We made it clear that we would not benefit monetarily because of the song and informed them that it was for a school project. 

Day 15

 The editing software that we will be using to edit our film is going to be Adobe Premiere Pro. We have not started our editing process yet as we have not finished filming but we do have previous experience with the software thanks to this class and previous classes we've taken in our high school and middle school years. 

A very good thing about this software is the fact that although it is very good at what it does, it is also very easy to learn and be able to use it effectively. We look forward to layering our audio and how well we can use the fonts that we discussed earlier this week as titles and subtitles will become a lot easier to use on this software. 

Day 14

Cyrus and I have been discussing fonts that we could use for the opening, specifically the title and the credits. We always talked about how the “Raging Bull” title and font caught our attention. However, unlike how Martin Scorsese used a red font to display a message, the red font wouldn’t do much for us. We still really liked the font type though. 

We spent 2 class days scrolling through the web trying to find something similar to what we wanted. We found a website called HIPFonts. In this website we would common formats that are used in sports/action films which was very helpful as we could now start to narrow down and be “pickier” with our fonts. We really liked the “Scout- Athletic Type Face” font. this font was very engaging, eye-catching, bold, and in a way just looked very sporty which was exactly what we were looking for. 

Another font that had caught our attention was that used in the popular film “Creed 3”. The font in question is called TX Manifesto. This font and the previous have many things similar like both being bold, engaging, sporty, etc. 

For the color of our font we want to go with something like white or black as it can create an easy contrast with the background which will make it easier to read for our audience. We’re not sure though, we might change it to something chrome or gold to maybe hint at how our main character will reach gold or glory. We talked about having our title show in the beginning of our opening as Aizen starts to warm up, we thought of doing this because it would be a good way to implement our title in an engaging way without it taking away too much attention from the scene.

Day 13

    I decided to do some digging and research regarding boxing movies because at the end of the day the last thing Cyrus and I want to make is something that stands out from the rest of the group.

    A great boxing movie is one that not only captures the physical intensity of the sport, but also explores the emotional and psychological struggles of its characters. It should have well-developed characters with relatable and compelling storylines, as well as top-notch cinematography and choreography that immerses the viewer in the action. A successful boxing movie should also highlight the sense of determination and resilience that boxers must possess, showcasing their unwavering commitment to their craft. Moreover, a great boxing movie should leave the audience feeling inspired and moved by the grit, heart, and triumph of its characters, whether they win or lose in the ring. Ultimately, a boxing movie that strikes a balance between captivating storytelling and gripping fight scenes can truly stand the test of time and become a classic in its own right.

    Another good thing I was able to pick up from this article was that
the movie didn't have to fit the stereotypical boxing movie with the excessive fighting and training. Rather than that we could resort to a "Raging Bull" type of boxing film which would focus on Aizen and what happens outside of the ring rather than focusing on what happens on it. 

source: https://www.avclub.com/what-makes-for-a-great-boxing-movie-apart-from-sweaty-1798251063

Day 12

 We have been working on planning our film opening by organizing our shots list. In the list we wrote small descriptions about what the opening would look like. We want to have everything planned out so when we shoot we just have to do the filming and possibly change a thing or two. We allowed ourselves some wiggle room with how the story goes as we might feel that something is missing or something might have to be deleted. For now we just want to have our base established for everything to run smoothly, how I had mentioned in an earlier blog, we do have our first scene planned out.