The start of it all

ABOUT ME

Thanks for visiting ❤️ My name is Adan, and welcome to project DEFICIT, a short film project made for me to learn and showcase my interest in the world of film! 🎬

I've always wanted to create a new universe. A world where anything is possible, and I want to showcase that and make it an immersive experience for everyone. Ever since they announced that my grade will be participating in creating a personal project, I knew I wanted to create a short film. I was not going to miss this opportunity!

To see more of my product, click me!

To see more of myself, direct yourself to Instagram and check out @fadlanridzal 😽

SMART GOALS

✩ Specific: Creating a short film. Specifically, a one-man cast short film about being isolated, and being alone in an isolated area, with limited social interaction. I want this film to be a metaphor for our current situation in the pandemic. For this short film project, the reason why I wanted to create a movie in the first place is that I want to create an experience for myself and I want to expand my creativity in the form of a movie.

✩ Measurable: I will track my progress by checking how aligned I am with my personal timeline and the school timeline, and also, I will track my progress using the Personal Project Report as well.

Indicators of success:

1. The viewers understand the meaning of the movie

2. At least get 50 views on YouTube

3. The movie must at least be 5 minutes long

4. Do not spend money on the project

5. Finish the product

✩ Achievable: There are a few steps I must take in order for me to finish my product. But, to narrow it down further, I have separated it into three major steps:

1. Investigation

Do research on how to produce a film. This includes internet searching, using articles, and YouTube videos. But, I would also like to do interviews with movie producers or people who work in the film industry.

2. Product making

Start planning, creating, and editing the movie. This includes the script, selecting sound effects, soundtracks, and preparing editing programs. Then start shooting and then create the movie.

3. Publishing

Display the final product to friends, then distribute it through social media. Preferably, YouTube.

✩ Realistic: Because I have always wanted to create a short film. I’ve always wanted to learn how to produce my own movie. This includes every part of a movie production process. Not only the shooting. I want to learn the full steps. Creating a script, selecting suitable soundtracks for the movie, playing the character, and editing the movie itself. In the future, I want to pursue this as a career, and to me, it is important to start now. Especially since Personal Project is the perfect chance for me to start having experience in movie making.

✩ Time-bound: I would like to start my Personal Project once I get approval from my supervisor. I would like to start earlier if that is possible, but, I think that would be useless since I do not know for sure whether my project would be approved or not. And I don’t want to waste my time on a project that didn’t even get approved. I will reach my goal once I finish all my three steps and when I see success for my Personal Project by using the personal success indicator.

Filmmaking 101

ATL

There are two main ATL skills that I used throughout my journey of doing this project. The said skills are communication skills and creative thinking skills.

✩ Communication skills: I had to use my communication skills throughout my investigation process. My communication skills helped me get an exclusive interview with well-known Indonesian filmmakers! Other than using my communication skills for my investigation, I had to use my communication skills to create the film itself. It may not be obvious why I needed communication skills to create a film, but in order for me to convey a message through the form of a cinematic masterpiece, I need to be able to communicate to the audience in many different ways. In a movie, it’s not just audio. I need to be able to convey a message without the use of verbal communication. I need to be able to communicate to the audience through symbolism, color, sound effects, cinematography, facial expressions, and body language.

✩ Creative thinking skills: creating a movie is a full creative process, without my creative thinking skills, I would not be able to create the movie in the first place. I didn’t only use my creative thinking skills to produce a story, but I also used my creative thinking skills to identify the soundtracks I wanted to add to the movie, the sound effects I needed, what the character says, the cinematography, and much more.

Expert interviews

By using my communication skills, I was able to get an exclusive interview with filmmakers, Riri Riza and Gina S. Noer. I didn’t just ask about the technical side of how to create a movie, I mostly asked about the philosophy of creating a film. I asked questions regarding what makes a movie extraordinary, what makes a movie stand out, and how to develop a story rich with ideas and character. I am pleased to say that out of all my investigation resources, I have learned the most from the interview I did with Riri Riza and Gina S. Noer.

Research results

During my interview, I already had a list of questions prepared

How do you start your stories? Do you jump into the script, do you make an outline first, or start with creating the characters?
Once you start the story, how do you progress from that? How do you expand that story?
How do you organize your ideas?
How long does it usually take for you to finish the first draft of a script?
What is your scriptwriting process? How do you usually start writing a script?`
Do you have any specific programs that you use to write a script?
Are there any important details that people often miss out on when writing a story or a script?
Do you have any other tips on how to create a good story and/or a good script?

A lot of my research comes from watching movies. There's not a single way to make a movie, therefore my best source of learning was to find inspiration. I found lots of cinematography inspiration from movies like The Suicide Squad, Eternals, and many more. Other than getting information from my interviewees (Riri Riza and Gina S. Noer), I also found information from other filmmakers like Such as well-known filmmakers like Wes Anderson, Quentin Tarantino, Chloé Zhao, Steven Spielberg, etc.

Final product

Throughout the whole process, I managed to make 4 drafts of the script.

By the day I've shot a few clips, I only had 3 script drafts. But, I decided that I had to change the entire script mid-shoot and decided to create the fourth draft.

I needed to use my self-management skill in finishing this project. Although I must admit, that my self-management skills weren’t the best, I still used the skill to my advantage. A problem I faced was not being able to follow my timeline. When I made my timeline/action plan, I didn’t take into consideration that I had other activities such as semester exams. Because of that, I wasn’t able to stick to my original plan. Because my timeline didn’t go as planned, I needed to make sure I was able to finish my project on time without the timeline.

I had two sleepless nights spent just editing the film. Although I think the final product could've been a lot better, I'm proud of myself for being able to at least finish it.

A recollection

Challenges faced

there was a period in my personal project journey where I ended up losing around fifty percent of my movie files. I did not expect this, and I was indeed not prepared for this. I did not have any backup files, and I lost fifty percent of the files for around a week. During that week, I could not do anything. It’s not possible for me to retake the shots because I already had my hair cut for the movie and it would break the continuity of the movie. All I could do was find a solution to retrieve the files that I lost. And I did. But because I lost it for a week, I ended up only having three days left to finish the whole project. This ended up with me needing to pull all-nighters for three days straight. During those three days, I had to drink a lot of coffee to make sure I stayed awake and finished my personal project.

When I started creating my timeline, I underestimated the amount of work it took to create a story, develop that story even further, write the first draft of the script, perfect the script, shoot the movie, and edit the movie. On paper, it seems as if the steps are easy and don’t seem like it’s a lot of work. I even thought I could finish my whole project in just two weeks. But I didn’t take into consideration the weight each step had. Each step of creating the movie, starting with planning the idea to publishing the movie was crucial and needed to be perfected. That’s what took the longest time. Perfecting my ideas. That wasn’t even taking into consideration that I needed the motivation of perfecting the said ideas in the first place.

The project's impacts

Throughout the project, I've learned how to create a movie, the challenges, what to prepare, etc. While I was creating this project, I learned the importance of a solid story and character. It's not enough to have amazing CGI or extraordinary cinematography when it lacks in plot. It may seem obvious, but it's easier said than done.

Although I only had the goal of 50 views for my film, I ended up having 150+ views on the project. This resulted in more feedback than I expected. My project was able to impact other people since my movie was a metaphor for our current situation. I strongly believe that people are able to relate to what I represented in my movie. This can be proven through the feedback form I made. In the feedback form, I also asked if people understood the message of the movie.

I will be sustaining my project in the future. I will try to turn the youtube channel into some sort of portfolio for future projects!

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