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

Week 6 Post 2: we did some social media😎

 alright i'm writing this paragraph on tuesday and so far in terms of scheduling were doing the markham park scene and the car scenes on friday. And If Democratus is available for thursday we can do the tournament scene.

ok so chapter 1 of the social media went well. We got all ten posts done and they all fit the character. the instagram username is @topspin.epic.movie go follow right now. As me and cooper went around getting the posts done we discussed the characterization of tennis guy. We determined that his drink of choice is a blue raspberry C4. 

I'm gonna write about my plans for shooting this week here

Alright so shot-wise the car scene will be pretty simple. The bulk of it will be doing the car dialogue a couple of times, with different shots. and then getting the drive thru scene we'll have the shot of the talking box and then the two guys in the car. 

Week 6 Post 1: ive got a plan😎

 okay so today Im gonna get with Cooper (tennis guy) and we're gonna get a bunch of the posts done. here's the outline.

so the instagram is going to be split into 3 chapters

CHAPTER 1: The Illusion

So these 10 posts will be made as if its the main character's instagram, and then at the last post of the segment he's gonna be like "i tricked you guys i'm a movie character" and he waves around the script. 

CHAPTER 2: The Big Leagues

So he's gonna go around town promoting the movie in silly funny ways, I'm also going to sprinkle in some sneak peeks at scenes. Not too much of that though since I don't wanna spoil the whole darn thing. 

CHAPTER 3: The Red Carpet

Were gonna use a green screen and pretend Cooper is on the red carpet signing things and taking pictures. And then he's gonna get into a fight with the paparazzi and go to jail. And it's gonna end with a post from the production company saying that they no longer associate with Cooper. 

here's a rough draft of what the final post would look like

also the script is done------------> click on me!!!

Week 5 Post 3: AAAAAH I HAVE TO DO A SOCIAL MEDIA

 Okay so my plan for the social media is for it to start out with it looking like tennis guy's personal instagram page, and then there's gonna be a post where he's like woah it's all a movie. 

Im gonna do all the stuff where its his instagram the day we film the scenes in markham park. 

Also.................................................................................. i got my camera mount to stick to a cabinet door.

this is what the instagram will look like

it for today

Week 5 Post 2: were NOT filming today

 Ok so we're not filming today cuz pedro my equipment guy is not available. I wrote a scene in the movie where tennis guy argues with a guy in a fast food drive thru. uhhhhhhh what else. Im thinking about changing the title of the movie to Superstar, but idk. yesterday I helped mateo with his aftershock segment. yea thats it for today

Week 5 Post 1: wow its week 5 already

 Alright, as I'm writing this its tuesday, Were shooting the first scene tomorrow sometime after 1:00. Pedro my equipment guy has his BECON TV interview and he'll pick up the boom mic then. Pedro's camera might be over 11 pounds which is the max weight for the suction mount. The mount can stick to my belly. If Pedro's camera doesn't work I'll borrow Nikita's camera. Were shooting the car scene tomorrow btw. Thats it for today

Alright now its the 18th of wednesday and its also my girlfriends birthday yaaaaayayaa!!!! So to begin today I went out to best buy to get an sd card. But when I went there they were all a bagillion gigabytes and all a bagillion dollars so I left and went to walmart. At walmart they had reasonably priced ones so I bought those and went home. I finished editing a video of my little brothers youtube channel which you should watch and subscribe LINK LINK LINK.I think the thumbnail of the video alone is enough to get you to watch.

And then I gathered up the crew and we all went to Cooper's house to shoot the scene where tennis guy confronts evil tennis guy. Also we couldn't do the car scene cuz my actor for the friend couldn't make it. Cooper shaved his head last night so I guess my main character is bald now. I don't think it detracts from the film. I actually want to incorporate it into the opening credits. I want him to have "A Robert G. Collings Film" written on the back of his head. now that is a good idea. Pedro's camera is very good, blogger wont let me put in any videos so you guys are gonna have to trust me. but yea thats it for today stay tuned for more blog posts. 

Week 4 Post 3: Lets get printy!!!

 So for my postcard I think it would be funny if the postcard had a bunch of sponsors on it like a nascar car. I'm gonna run this idea by Ms Stoklosa because with my ideas, there's a fine line between brilliant and stupid, and I can't tell where this one is. I googled "short film postcard" and amongst all the posters for movies titled "postcard" the actual postcards I found felt lackluster. I want mine to be interesting. 

back

Alright so this is the little mockup I did, I might switch up the front but I like the back

front

the back is a reference to this dragon ball z manga cover. I chose this to implement some postmodernism into my thing, specifically a little bit of parody. 

Week 4 Post 2: Shooting Schedule

 Okay so my interview for my BECON TV internship is on tuesday so I probably won't film that day. I also messaged Short Cuts on instagram and asked what boom mics they had to check out. I've got most of the equipment I need covered with Pedro, all I need is a boom mic. Also today I'm gonna go get the hawiian shirt for tennis guy. Now schedule wise...

this throws a wrench in my plan, okay im just gonna push some stuff back

For the tiki bar scene ive still gotta call the place and ask if I can film

TUESDAY

Okay so we're doing the first markham park scene here with the radio and stuff. The actors we need for this are the suit guy and tennis guy. Tennis guy will wear his hawaiian shirt and suit guy will wear a black. and white suit. Suit guy will be played by nikita and tennis guy will be played by cooper. also pedro will help

WEDNESDAY

On this day I'd like to shoot the two scenes at evil tennis guy's house. The first one will be with suit guy and evil tennis guy at night. and the second one will be with tennis guy challenging evil tennis guy. ill shoot the second one first since its later in the day. 

THURSDAY

Car scene

im gonna do an update post on the schedule after we've done all these days.

Week 4 Post 1: lets get scripty!

 I FINISHED THE SCRIPT!!!!! i think it's pretty freaking good. CLICK ME IF YOU WANNA READ IT

heres the storyboard

Alright now im terms of storyboarding I've got a pretty good mental storyboard in my head. Im gonna do an actual storyboard for some major scenes though. 

Alright so it's been a couple days now and i've done the first scene storyboarding wise. I've come to the realization in this specific instance that storyboarding is a waste of time when I have full creative control. I know what I wanna do and I don't need anyone else to see what i'm envisioning. Yall are just gonna have to trust that its gonna come out well. 

In other updates, my friend Pedro has joined the crew! He read my script the other day and really liked it. He's got a bunch of equipment I can use alongside the stuff from Short Cuts. He also wants to help out with the cinematography so that's awesome!! 

Schedule wise, I plan to begin filming this friday. The scene we're gonna do is the third scene at Markham park. After school tommorow I'm gonna go get clothing for tennis guy on thursday. And thats as far as I've gone with the shooting schedule. My crew is very flexible so we can do whatever. 

Week 3 Post 4: updates on whats going on

 alright so unfortunately I didn't get as much as I planned on getting done this week, but its not that bad. The only thing is that I have to get the hawaiian shirt sometime next week. I watched two movies this weekend that I thought were really freaking cool. 

On saturday I watched big trouble in little china and it was genuinely the coolest movie ever. So the plot is

basically Kurt Russell's character is a trucker guy and he's with his chinese friend picking up his friend's fiance at the airport. And then this evil gang kidnaps her. Also this takes place in chinatown in california. And the big bad guy is like magical chinese jeffrey epstein and the two guys have to stop him. It really surprised me because the opening of the film made it seem to be somewhat realistic action movie, but then all the sudden dudes are flying around on lightning bolts like the guy from mortal kombat and its insane. I like how Kurt Russell's character is totally freaked out by everything but is trying his best not to let it show. 

And then today I watched a Nicolas Cage movie from like last year or whenever called The Surfer. Its about how Nicolas Cage's character goes back to his childhood beach to go surfing but the locals there are really mean. As the movie goes on it feels like your losing your mind. Everything looks so cool and unique. The coloring is so great, especially how the blue sky and ocean contrasts the predominantly warm color palette. I found this movie just scrolling on disney plus after rewatching the predator and I am confused why I've heard no one talk about this. 

I think that's all I've got to say today, next week I'll finish up the script and storyboard it a bit. I'm not gonna completely storyboard it since I usually come up with it on the fly, but I have some ideas for specific shots. 

Week 3 Post 3: Tstok... Assemble!!

the gang is all here

dear tstok i checked and i never said fuck in a blog post

 GROUP MEETING

Renn

So it's a coming of age. And its about plant pots. I dont really get it but i think its cool. I like a lot of the technical stuff hes talking about like plants growing

Joauquin

someone's gonna wear this hat

Okay this is getting crazy, or you could say... absurd

This one seems cool, im excited for it. 

ooh betrayal, cool

sister is anti everything religion

tension

animation yayayyayayya!!!

might be called: satanist crusade

yea this whole idea feels like "trust me bro its gonna be sick"

Robbie

i like this one

Zachalicious London makes love to a camera

I also like this one

dark comedy

love triangle 

i like what's going on here, if it wasn't zach london and the rest of the cbtv seniors id be like idk bro but i trust these guys to be really cool

Hernandez

ok so its a documentary

i like how the episodes are structured

okay on a side note i kinda spaced out and figured out an ending for my movie

so it'll be the tournament scene and the bad guy will serve the ball and the good guy will catch it and be like "what are we doing dude, what do you want to gain from this" and the bad guy is like "the truth is, i miss my real dad" and then the good guy is like, "i miss my dad too" and they hug it out and become bros

this one is gonna be awesome. 

Gaby

music video!!

sunsets are cool

i like the plan and it should have lyrics over the thing

Ryan

thriller comedy, custodian

i think this is the one i agreed to be a dead person in

yea this is the one i agreed to do

i like this one its gonna be cool and funny

Week 3 Post 2: lets buy some stuff

so cool!!!

 Alright so I've gotta pick up the pace with this stuff. Im doing pretty good with the script but I've gotta get ready for production stuff. In class today I was thinking of how to film a car scene and I was like "hey I wonder if they have a tripod that can stick to a car" and there is one and its not a million bagillion dollars. So I'm gonna get this so I can get some cool shots from the outside of the car and have the characters talk n stuff. It'll be so cool. 

I'm also planning to go to the thrift store with my friend Cooper, who is gonna play my main guy, to go get clothing for the movie. I want Cooper to wear a hawaiian shirt with some cargo shorts or whatever. I've also gotta get some tennis outfits for Cooper and the bad guy, whos gonna be played by my friend Democratus. Hes this massive dude who will be a very imposing villain. 

For equipment, I'd like to check out stuff from the Short Cuts place near NSU with the guy named Jim. They let you have the stuff for a whole week, while CBTV only gives you equipment for a day😠. Jim also has more stuff like boom mics and stuff that I'd like to use, I should actually check if Jim rents out camera car mounts so I don't spend 40 bucks for no reason. thats all ive got to say today

                                                                  

Week 3 Post 1: Doomscrolling for tstok's class

PRODUCTION 1

Media Text: The Afternoon Club - David Guggino

Social Media Tool: Instagram

Post Description: So he kinda just posts stuff about how he's a director and is like "go watch my movie!" He ties stories of his own personal experiences and advice in with promoting his movie and i love it so much

Developed Branding: Alright so the full movie isn't free to watch but the trailer is and the vibe I took away from it was like intentionally amateurish in its production value in a way that comes off as very interesting and entertaining. And that brand i everywhere in his social media page. I just look at this guy and im like yea this is exactly who made this. He makes posts with little clips of his movie, and he also talks about director tips n stuff. And there's one post where he's making some mysterious stew in a pot and talking about his movie. His branding works really well in a way where I dont even think he's intending on having a good, cohesive brand. He just pours all his work with his own creative juices and it all ends up matching in a wonderful way.

Main Takeaways: I love this guy. He's so freaking down to earth and real and his movie looks so freaking funny. I am going to buy this movie because I want to support this guy. David Guggino is my goat of all time. He feels like someone my mom would have known since high school and introduces me to him at some random gathering. I wanna go home and watch this guys movie so bad.

PRODUCTION 2

Media Text: The Academy - David Guggino

Social Media Tool: Instagram, YouTube Shorts

Post Description: So its similar to the marketing for The Afternoon Club, with Guggino giving his down to earth. Yea its kind of the same as the other one

Developed Branding: This movie is like a mockumentary thing about a thing in new york with                                                                                         people and stuff so yea thats the branding

                                                                                    Main Takeaways: same as last one

PRODUCTION 3

Media Text: Just Be Awesome: Trying To Get
Hired At 40

Social Media Tool: Instagram

Post Description: So there's just one post about how the film won an award

Developed Branding: Okay so the social media post doesnt develop any branding at all, so theres really nothing to discuss here

Main Takeaways: dont do this

LINKS:

https://www.instagram.com/david_guggino/reels/

https://www.instagram.com/shortframefilm/

Week 2 Post 4: better late than never

 Alright guys, I forgot to do this one. STN has been bonkers, like totally bonkers! My team did really great for crazy 8. We did a story on Tampa's depleting tree canopy and how it makes the city waaaay hotter. And it is all factual cuz it is hot as balls out here. Im helping chud ass bella put audio files in her blog so its lowkey her fault this is late. 

MEDIA TEXT 1: HISTORY CHANNEL CHUPACABRA HUNTING

me left, bryan middle, luke right

Okay so the first night of STN me n Bryan Bomfim and Luke Dierking got to the hotel and started organizing everything and increasing the fung shway of the room. We organized the shoes and made the pullout bed and repositioned the cuck chair. And then we laid down and turned on the history channel cuz every other channel was lame. And we turn it on and see this guy named Josh hunting the chupacabra. He was interviewing this one guy who was like "yea its common knowledge that the chupacabra was a failed government experiment." And that was genuinely the funniest thing i heard all day. And they went into this cave with spiders and boogers and snakes n stuff and it looked really scary. 

MEDIA TEXT 2: AFTERSHOCK: HUNTING JOHN CYPRESS

alright luke dierking told me that ts is not on youtube but whatever im gonna write about it anyways. So after we watched the chupacabra video Luke dierking showed us a segment where luke and wesley hunt the ghost of john cypress. It was funny n stuff. I also downloaded angry birds star wars 2