Gus-Regents Media
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Creative Critical Reflection 4
This is my response to the Creative Critical Reflection 4 question
Creative Critical Reflection 2
This is my response to the CCR2 question.
TRANSCRIPT:
Creative Critical Reflection 1
This is my response to the Creative Critical Reflection 1 question
Media Language
This is an analysis of the Media language I used in my film opening
Camera - Extreme Long Shot: We used an Extreme Long shot to show Mark Choi Riding his bike towards the Boss’s House. This made him seem isolated and alone as he is a lone wolf who is after revenge from the Boss who had wronged him as well it made him seem stronger as he doesn't need help from anyone. The extreme long shot as well helped show the Boss’s house and how big it is which connotes that he is very rich and powerful. | |
Comedy - Parody Celebrity Names This was originally a placeholder from the editing process but we stuck to it as it added to the comedy of the film opening. As well it acts as a cultural code as these names reference popular celebrities and only people that recognize these celebrities will get the joke. For example Candra Hemsworth is a parody of popular australian actor Chris Hemsworth. | |
Diegetic sound - Dialogue: Here the Mafia Boss says “So we meet again, Mark Choi.” after recognizing Mark after he enters the room. This connotes that this isn't the first time they've met and this as well acts as a hermeneutic code as the audience wonder where and how they’ve met before was it on good terms bad terms etc. and makes them also think about the relation between Mark Choi and the Mafia Boss. | |
Mise en Scene - Boss’s Office Scene: When we first see the Boss we get this striking impression of him; he is sitting in this relaxed way with his legs up; this connotes that he is not afraid of Mark Choi and is calm and nonchalant. Behind him is hung up cloth similar to a Japanese Noren but with Balinese motifs this acts as a cultural code as only people familiar with these motifs will know that the Boss is actually Balinese. As well the motif/symbol on the cloth is the crest of the organization as traditionally shop keepers added their family crest or shop names on the noren. As well the table cloth on the Boss’s table is Red and gilded with gold accents this is a symbolic code of the Boss’s opulence and luxury and the red could also represent the bloodshed he had committed throughout the years and he leads a criminal organisation. On the table also lies another status symbol the orchid in many cultures orchids are known to represent good tastes and wealth. The Boss also enjoys a glass of liquor this makes him more manly and follows genre conventions of a criminal boss as they often sip from an alcoholic beverage. | |
Comedy - Door Opening In these shots we wanted to create a comedic scene where Mark fails to open a door which contrasted the previous shots where Mark was shown as this confident, powerful and cool character riding bikes and climbing up walls and yet he seems to struggle to open the door. This as well connotes that Mark might not be the sharpest tool in the shed though he has brawn he may be lacking in the brain. In combination with editing and sound where the song abruptly stops which brings attention to this scene and may even be a silly fourth wall break again adding to the comedy of this shot. | |
Low angle Long Shot Silhouette In this shot Mark is walking down confidently down the corridor. The use of the low angle made Mark look more powerful and menacing whilst the long shot was used to show Mark’s movements (Walk) in his environment (balcony Corridor) and the silhouette acted to conceal Mark's identity making the audiences ponder this character's identity as a hermeneutic code. | |
Editing - Cut to Black: This cut to black happens in the perspective of Mark and implies that Mark has been knocked out and lost the fight. This sudden loss is also a surprise to the audience as Mark has always been represented as strong and confident and shown in low angles but now the roles have been reversed and now the boss is shown as the one in power and shown with a low angle. As Well, as this subverts common action movie tropes where the protagonist defeats the antagonist this adds to the audiences surprise which may make them want to keep watching to see what happens. | |
Close up, High angle: Here we used a close up to focus the audience's attention on Mark Choi’s bloody wounds and pained facial expressions and in combination with the high angle paints Mark in a weak position as he is cornered and about to be defeated. This also contrasts previous representations of Mark as he is usually shown as confident and powerful using low angles but now he is weak and defeated. | |
Pan to Reveal Boss To add more intrigue and mystery we used a pan to slowly move the camera to the right to reveal the antagonist. This also is a hermeneutic code and made the audience be filled with suspense as they wonder of the true identity of the antagonist. This suspense also has the effect of making audiences more hooked and thus want to keep watching. | |
Editing - Cut to Beat Cutting to black screens on beat adds tension and builds suspense similar to strobe light or rolling drums in a dance track and as well the on beat cutting makes the cuts seams uniform and immersive as we expect a change every bar. As for song selection we choose Livin on a Prayer by Bon Jovi. It is a hit song and easily recognizable. It is also a hard rock song meaning it had a lot of energy with drums and electric guitars which made it perfect for a fight scene. As well this may attract fans of the song to watch the movie. | |
Editing: Fast Cuts during Fight Scene Fast Cuts add energy into the scenes and makes the scene feel faster and allows for more camera angles and perspectives which make the shoot more dynamic. |
Monday, March 10, 2025
New Research: Title Cards
These videos are compilations of diffrent movie title cards, they give an idea of how movie title cards look like and how they are presented.
These are title cards which are from movie that we share a genre with.
Production: Reshoot
This blogpost explains our decision to reshoot multiple times and the ways, we improved on our footage. It also addresses key difference between past revisions and our final video and why those decisions were made.
Shoot: 1
Shoot: 2
Monday, February 3, 2025
Screen Test: Audience Feedback
This post explains how we showed a rough draft of our film opening to some members of our target audience in order to receive helpful feedback. The questions were made together. Data collection was made done by Maha and Candra and the blog/analysis was done by Gusde
The purpose of a screen test is to gain audience feedback about our work and see if their are any improvements that can be made. We decided to use Google for to create a survey to share with our audience because it's easy to use make a forms from and has all the features we need such us uploading videos, and a variety of question types. Here are our questions:
1.Which of these options do you think fits our movie title the best?
2.What do you think is missing in our movie that could be added or improved?
3.Which of these typefaces/fonts would fit the title?
4.How well do you think we portrayed the characters in this movie and how can we improve the representation of our movie?
5.Optional : what song or score would fit our fight scene? (Please Mention name of song and artist.)
We chose these questions because these were the areas that we needed the most feedback and outside opinions for We showed the clip to 4 members of our target audience to ensure that the feedback we receive is appropriate. Finding people for the screen test was easy/difficult because well four people is not alot of people some may not be motivated to watch a short film then answer questions which sometimes aren't multiple choice. Here is the draft that we showed audiences for the screen test:
Here are the results from the audience feedback:
From the feedback we learned firstly on the negative side we needed to improve our editting which is fair but we hope to soon fix this by using Capcut premium which has more unlocked features which gives us more creative. Also the sound was a bit bad as we didnt have proper mics our sound equipment in the location and our sound effects also need to be improved. Lastly one participants aswell commented about the supar video quality probably due to the use of phones as the lack of light in the location. But on the good side people said our acting was very good and as for the questions about the type font people choose Zenaida and for the title people liked Mark Choi: No Mercy.
We are going to change the use of forms as due to it being online peoples responses were minimal and lacked more information. I think next time well use focus groups instead as it allows for more indepth data collection which can give us more feedback and opinions.
This screen test was a useful part of our process because it gaves us feeback to help us improve and gave us a second opinio which helped settle decisions for us.
Reflection: The screen test was fun to make and it was fun to show people our work and it helped us settle decisions and get feedback on what to improve. and next time we will use focus groups.
Type face development : Title and Credits
This is our process and prototypes of the creation of our type face and font. Made by Kenzo and Gusde
Post Production: Editing
This is a blogpost outlining our editting process. This was made by Maha
This is our first shooting for the Opening Scene
- More camera angle
- Give music
- Better cut
- Typeface
Reflection:
Production: Organising our footage
This is how we organised our footage between the drone shots and camera shoots. We used whatsapp to preview and send clips and communicated and google drive to save videos in high quality. This blogpost was made by CANDRA
organising our footage
The apps we used to edit are :
we used this app as a way to control the drone and transfer footage from our drone. A problem I encounter was due to connection issues controlling the drone would be hard as there was a noticable delay which made it hard to do micro adjustments and keep the drone in a good position. To solve this problem I had 2 solutions: A I would get a controller and be able to use DJI’s proprietary wireless solution instead of wifi from my phone to the drone but that would include buying more expensive equipment. So instead I trusted the drones ability to fly and track targets autonimously but this meant I had no control over the drones actions. Aswell during the transfer of the footage the drone would often disconnect from the phone which meant it had to be reconnected to continue the download, again the only solution to this was to get a remote as it could transfer faster and would be in the form of an SD.
Google drive:

Google drive is very useful to store videos as it keeps the resolution of the video the same unlike other apps which might reduce the quality of the video , this helps us to organise which clips do we use and which typeface and fonts we use we put it in the google drive , however the time needed to upload the video into the drive is a lot , which makes it longer to share videos through the files , our solution is to use other device first so that we could use time as effective as possible
whatsapp :

Whatsapp really helps us communicate long distance , also we are used to using this app which makes us easier to communicate with each other , also this app has a call feature which helps us communicate through call so that we can have better communication between each member of the group , however when sending videos or photos through whatsapp the quality of the video or photo would be bad , so we use google drive to share the videos and other important things related to our project .
Reflection:
Production: Behind the Scenes
This is a collection pictures taken "behind the scenes" of our production process. This was made by Kenzo.
Creative And Arts Crew:
Storyboard Writer: Kenzo
Set Design: Kenzo, Gusde
Make-up artist: Candra, Maha
Camera and VFX Department: (The tech people)
Lighting Technician: Gusde
Editor: Maha
Camera Operator: Kenzo (stunt cameraman), Gusde (drone operator)
Above the line: (The one in charge)
Director: Gusde
Assistant Director: Kenzo
Pictures of Behind the Scenes (taken by Kenzo):