Week 8 Post 3: Topspin GO WATCH IT!!!

 Here it is guys, the greatest movie in the world... TOPSPIN!!!

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/14TQrZETwBy17W5qM1ZUmfTifyt7ukUpm?usp=sharing

the instagram handle is @topspin.epic.movie

it is important that the posts are viewed from the first post-last post

Week 8 Post 2: The Critical Reflection😟

     A lot of people will look at me and what I make and just assume "oh goofy robbie at it again, gee there's no deeper meaning here" and while that may be true for some of my last projects, it's not for this one. Let's go.

I’d like to start with the branding of Topspin, since it is probably the first thing that sticks out when you look at all the components side by side. My goal was for it to be apparent that the film was a comedy, and that events in the movie weren’t meant to be in a realistic world. I chose bright red and orange to be colors that carry through nearly all aspects of the project, as they are

recognizable and fit the coloring of the film. The red and orange contrast well with the bright blue skies and green grass that are present in the film. The vision I had for the look of the project was a highly saturated picture, which is why for a lot of scenes, I chose to have them outdoors. This made filming especially tricky, having to wait for clear skies to begin shooting. Originally, I thought I’d try and have the vibe of the film tied to a specific genre of music, but as production went on, I put a multitude of kinds of music in the film, all having a certain edge to them that matches the branding. Similar to this, I didn’t stick to any certain pattern of social media posts, rather having a wide variety of posts. I chose to start the social media as the personal instagram of my main character as representation of the film as a whole. The social media shows that there is always more to something that meets the eye, something especially true for my film. 

The issue I chose to represent in my project was the issue of identity. The dilemma between tennis guy and evil tennis guy represents the constant search for identity in our world. How others perceive us is something that can consume us, and some will even go as far as to be untrue to themselves in the search for approval. I’ve spent a large part of this year desperately trying to build myself up to be seen as someone with a respectable amount of talent amongst my CBTV peers. In going to STN, I saw my skilled and experienced friends go up on stage and be awarded for their hard work in their respective categories. And in those moments, I so desperately wanted to be just like them. I wanted to lead a team to victory. I wanted to be just like all of them. Later that weekend, my good friend Matias gave us some unforgettable words of wisdom. He told us all that we shouldn’t aspire to be just like the people around us, but rather aspire to be the best version of ourselves. In that moment I realized that my journey has been unique to anyone else’s, just like anyone else’s is to mine. With tennis guy, I showed that he didn’t need to follow his father’s footsteps to feel satisfied in life. This detail of his character is what evil tennis guy fails to realize, eventually leading to his scheme failing. He assumes that money means as much to tennis guy as it does to him. But as we see, the one thing tennis guy truly values is his friends and family. This aspect of tennis guy is also why tennis guy doesn’t see evil tennis guy as actually evil. He sees that, similar to him, evil tennis guy has experienced loss in his life. This leads tennis guy to give evil tennis guy a chance at redemption.

The audience. Arguably the most important part of any movie. Because, does a movie really exist if no one has seen it? If a tree falls in an isolated forest, did it really fall? Is it really a tree? Or is it a giant DVD of Topspin, falling to the ground in a forest of forgotten movies. Anyways, I wanted the audience to feel connected on a deeper level to tennis guy. I characterized him to be like a good pal that we’ve all got in our lives. In social media posts, tennis guy directly addresses the audience, creating a relationship between the two, adding a level of sincerity to the film. And this isn’t just a hypothetical. The comments on the posts show genuine interest in the film. My audience is practically counting down the seconds to the release of Topspin, and I don’t blame em, its a pretty good movie.

Conventions, ya love em, ya hate em. They’re pretty much inescapable when it comes to filmmaking, and it's fun! Let's start with the stuff I chose to incorporate. Most notably, the awesome training scene. Not sure where it started but Rocky certainly pioneered it. But, I added my own flair to it, with the aspect of tennis guy not really doing anything impressive. It’s a level of laziness that I drew from myself. More importantly, that aspect showed that it wasn’t his tennis skill that makes tennis guy special, but his heart. If anything, his name should be upstanding guy. But that doesn’t roll off the tongue as well. In researching this movie, I looked at comedies like Step Brothers and Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, admiring the kind of writing and storytelling present in those movies. With Step Brothers, I admired the look of the movie, having strong coloring and a teensy bit of grain. The costuming is amazing as well, with the two main characters wearing humorously perfect shirts.

evil goon

In terms of tennis guy’s wardrobe, I wanted him to look like the movie itself, with his colorful Hawaiian shirt. It’s such an unwearable shirt that tennis guy ends up looking pretty unique without being over the top. In other research, I saw that movies will typically give the antagonist a goon to yell at when their evil schemes don’t go their way. I decided to utilize this convention.

And thats it, my final words in this journey. Bye guys!!!

this is how it feels writing a critical reflection

Week 8 Post 1: and thats a wrap🥹

     Welp, that's it. The fish has been fried, the deed has been done, the elephant is in the room, i freaking did it! I'm so proud of what I've done here. Its been a long run here in tstok's class but I'm happy to say I learned a thing or two.

I really do think that Topspin is a movie that is emblematic of me, and only me. I did it all myself. I didn't need a big group to collaborate on something. I crafted a piece of art from nothing but my own brain thinking thoughts. I am GOATED!!!! That's all the reflecting I feel like doing.

On a side note, I got permission to use a song in my movie that I mentioned earlier. 

TOPSPIN

GO WATCH IT!!!!

Week 7 Post 3: the uncreative critical reflection

 alright so theres 4 questions to this critical reflection, cool

So I'm gonna use another Tree song in my movie, this time "Homefront". I haven't gotten permission to use it yet but Dave Tree is a chill dude and he'd probably say yes. But anyways, the song is about the IWW (Industrial Workers of the World) labor union from 1905. I chose this song because it kicks ass, and cuz it fits thematically with my movie. Because the underlying message of my movie is that the elite can't oppress people if they go against the grain and fight back. Tennis Guy represents the workin' man, and Evil Tennis Guy represents the elite, taking the hard work of the workin' man and using it for their own profit, stepping on the workin' man along the way. I'll talk about this more in my CR.

fire ass font

In terms of branding, I've been using that same fiery font with the red and orange in all the social media stuff and in the movie and postcard. oh and speaking of the postcard were gonna shoot the pictures for that this weekend. I chose that font cuz it looks like a font you'd see on a nascar car, and that's the kind of vibe of the movie. I did the coloring of the film in this warm, sweet tea look that I think looks really cool. I was inspired by the coloring of the movie "The Surfer" which Ms Stoklosa did not like but I don't know why. Anyways, the coloring of the movie made it feel like it was hot as balls on that beach, and thats kind of what I was going for, just less hot as balls. 

So with engaging with audiences, the social media will incorporate this with a "answering your questions" post, as well as a post with Tennis Guy meeting fans at Cypress Bay High School. I'll think of some more stuff for this. Also in one of the posts Cooper starts it by saying "Alright Fans..." so that's something

Research........... gosh I don't know.

On a side note the end of Chapter 1 reel is so freaking good I can't get over it. 

Week 7 Post 2: this is where we lock in

here's the social media outline

It's genuinley hilarious how back in week 1 i thought i'd be done filming my week 5 😂😂😂

for the back of the postcard it's gonna be tennis guy and evil tennis guy recreating the shot from the goku vs majin vegeta fight in dragon ball z during the Buu saga. 

FILMING

Oh my god we filmed something. We got a heck of a lot done today and it all came out awesomely spectacular. We did the car scene and the markham park scene and the training scene. All that's left is the reshoot of the confrontation scene, the opening scene, and the tournament scene. We also got one of the social media posts done. 

We had to use the camera that I borrowed from Jim for the social medias and use it for everything cuz Pedro's camera wasn't recording sound. Despite this setback, I was still able to succeed. I won't dwell too much on filming so to make things brief it couldn't have gone better.

SOCIAL MEDIA

Chapter 2 baby!!!!!! I genuinely

im so goated

cooked on these two posts, go follow @topspin.epic.movie on instagram for some tuff ass posts. 

THE COMING DAYS

Alright, I'd like to try and wrap up filming Saturday-Sunday. The rest of the week will be CR + the gram.

me when pedro's camera genuinley dies

Week 7 Post 1: omg another group meeting!!!

 Ok so I know im behind but I'm actually not. I have pretty much everything planned out extensively and Im super goated. I couldn't film anything yesterday cuz the weather was genuinely terrible. I'm gonna detail everything I'm doing this week in chronological order now

So on monday (today) I'm driving up to BECON TV to pick up a green screen and a DSLR camera to use for chapter 2 and 3 of the social media. Since I've got a lot of testing n stuff today through wednesday I won't be doing much production wise but I will plan out stuff. 

Thursday I don't know exactly yet, once I get people's schedules I'll write more here.

Same for friday

Saturday and Sunday depend on what happens thursday and friday

I'm also gonna work on 

I've got a backup plan for if the tiki bar place isn't available to film there. If they say no we'll have the two friends walking down the street talking about the same stuff that they do in the scene. The tiki bar isn't really necessary i just wanted that night time lighting with some lights. I'm thinking about it right now and I think we might film it at that park that's on the big trash mound. If we can go there at night it would look pretty cool

I'm also thinking about cutting the drive thru scene, it's not entirely necessary but i think its funny and i'd like to keep it but it might make it too long. 

i'm gonna be posed up like this on the social media

For chapter 2 of the social media I wanna do a "meet the cast" post and a "meet the crew" post. Since i'm doing most of the crew things i'm gonna make up names like "John Editor" and "John Cinematographer". For all the photos of me im gonna have my face taped over pictures of bodybuilders. I think the only crew member that isn't me is my boy Pedro, the equipment manager.

 For the "meet the cast" post I'm gonna have all the actors in tuff poses. I want the poses to reference poses from comic books and anime n stuff

For the other side of the postcard I wanna have it be tennis guy looking through a hole in a tennis racket. Cuz cooper has a busted up tennis racket and we're gonna use it a scene and I think it's cool symbolism for his character. I also wanna use that imagery for the profile picture for the social media once we get to chapter 2. 

Week 6 Post 3: editing and filming at the same time ooooh yeaa💥

me rn

 theres one shot at the end of the doorstep scene that is slightly out of focus and i might end it all. Other than that, the editing of the doorstep scene is coming along well. I should probably tell you guys about my brilliant plan. So I was thinking about how the filming is spread across several days and I realized I can edit the project bit by bit as we film more and more scenes. So thats what Im doing!!!! 

Here's a better mockup for the front of the postcard, 

Today we're gonna film the tournament scene and then maybe one other scene depending on how we do in terms of time.

 That's all for today I'll write more here after shooting.

Okay we didnt end up filming on thursday cuz people were busy and no one can film friday so were gonna do stuff over the weekend