My Critical Reflection

 

How do your products represent social groups or issues?

My product represents social groups and issues by having the person being interviewed be reserved for most of the film. Having them act like that gives people who would’ve felt awkward in the same, or similar, situation something to relate to. For the introverted, it may be difficult to express themselves and speak with others unless it’s on the topic of something they are passionate about. This is shown in the film. The director does not come off as confident, but when they get into costume and speak about their passion, they are a lot more extroverted and animated. Because they are shown someone that is similar to them, those who are introverted may feel more comfortable or less guilty with who they are. Those who have felt guilt for not talking more or is dissatisfied with how shy they are can find refuse to see someone else who is like them. Not only will this give introverted people someone to relate to, but it may also give others a good idea on how to approach these people. Someone who wants to become friends with an introverted person but is unable can watch the film and see that introverted are more likely to open up when talking about a topic they enjoy. Although this may not be true for every introverted person, it can help everyone in general. If people are able to reach out and connect with those who are naturally reclusive, then impossible friendships can form more often.

How do the elements of your production work together to create a sense of ‘branding’?

There were many different parts of the film that was able to be turned into a brand easily. Over the course of production, the Dark Figure became the mascot of the film unintentionally. While making social media posts, the Dark Figure was most likely the subject of the image and while talking about the film, I found the Dark Figure to be the most interesting part of the conversation. The Dark Figure being the unknown force of the film gave me the opportunity to make him whatever he needed to be. In the film he would be the antagonizing force, but in promotional material he could be the main character’s reluctant friend. The first image I made for social medias was of the main character and the Dark Figure sitting next to each other. In the film, this would be impossible. Despite the audience not fully knowing the intent of the Dark Figure, it was safe to assume that he wouldn’t willingly sit next to the main character for a photo. The mystery of his character lent itself perfectly to the brand due to his anonymity. Had I thought of social media more during the planning of the film, I most likely would have made the main character the mascot. The social media accounts would be controlled by a reclusive main character who could have called out for help online or asked about the weird sights they’ve been seeing. Instead, the Dark Figure was able to steal the spotlight and become the “Face of the Film.” 

How do your products engage with the audience?

The film I ended up with engaged with the audience by answering the questions they would have had about the film. The interview is a perfect way to explain more about the actual film and address any misconceptions or rumors. The answers asked during the interview could easily be asked by someone who is following the film and wants to know about the production process. Having an interview with the maker of the film gives the audience glimpse into what it is like making the film, what experiences and slip-ups have happened during the process, and if film making is fun. It also allows for the audience to see who the maker of the film is. They can see what their personality is like and possibly form an opinion on them without having to meet them face to face. Without meeting me or watching the film, audience members can see that I’m introverted and shy to talk on camera but passionate about film making. As mentioned before, the audience is meant to see that I, or at least the persona I put on in the film, is shy.  This persona can get the audience to connect with me more personally and possibly liken themselves to me if they are similar in how they act. If they audience is unable to see themselves in me or my character, then it is still possible that I remind them of a friend or can decide on if they like my personality or not. 

How did your research inform your products and the way they use or challenge conventions?

My research included looking into two different genres: mockumentaries and psychological horrors. When looking into psychological horrors, I was able to see how the characters were written. For example, looking into “American Psycho” showed me that the main character is not supposed to be outright insane or different from other people. Instead, the main character of the film blended in with his colleagues and kept everyone’s trust in him. The opposite was taught to me when I looked into “The Silence of The Lambs.” That film showed me that if the main character was going to be outright in their “special” behaviors, then there must be something to them that makes them threatening. Hannibal Lector’s demeanor was creepy, and it did not allow the audience to guess what was going to happen next at all. When incorporating my research into my original psychological horror script, I wanted the film to show off that the main character had something wrong with them from the start. Then, it would continue to show how the main character was steadily getting worse. When looking into mockumentaries, I learned that the aim was to be funny, but there was still room to have information. I incorporated this into my interview by having a contrasting behavior between the director of the film and the interviewer. In the full script, the interviewer is obviously not interested in wasting time and allowing the director to explain himself or fully talk about the film and this is contrasted by the director who gets excited about the film and talking about it. 

My Short Film Package

 An Interview With the Creators of Secluded

https://youtu.be/b_1qtzmX558

https://secludedshortfilm.wixsite.com/mysite

Crashing More Than Editing

 

For the past few days, I've been trying to edit the rest of the interview. However, Sony Vegas hasn't stopped crashing every time I do something. Every time I move a question into place, the program stops responding seconds after. I've resorted to saving every few minutes, just in case. I've been able to make some progress this way. I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. It's possible that the program is outdated and something went wrong. Or my computer can't handle the software. That one seems unlikely, as I've edited more taxing videos. Whatever the issue, I hope it doesn't persist for long.

I've been able to edit halfway through the first part of the interview. I doubt there's much left to do in this part. I've gotten past the part of the interview where I intended to play a clip of me "breaking" my light bulb. After this point, I need to sync up a few more questions then I'm off to the next half. The second clip I planned on including may end up somewhere in this half. The second clip is of me in the Dark Figure costume hitting a bedside table. The second half of the interview has me in the Dark Figure costume. Thanks to this coincidence, there's a lot better chance the clip will make it in. Hopefully I can make it there with under 20 crashes. I doubt it though.

The Final Stretch (Editing)

 

With everything finished, I'm now ready to put together the film. After editing a little bit already, I can already see that I've messed up a few things while recording. The main issue being that I didn't wait long enough before continuing down the script. The problem this creates is that the questions likely overlap the answer before or after it. So far, I've been able to remedy this problem by just cutting out some of the excess from the questions. Pauses, uh's, okay's, etc aren't vital to the question and are expendable. I'm not completely finished with editing, so it's possible that this trend doesn't continue. So far, I've added titles, cut up the questions, and began on placing the first few questions. The rest should be a fairly simple process. All I need to do is properly place the rest of the questions and cut in a few clips from filming. There is still a topic of whether I'm going to change the interviewer's voice or not. It seems fine right now, but maybe my playing both roles may get a bit confusing. If it does, I can pitch shift the interviewer's voice. That way, I'll sound much different depending on who's speaking.

I'm not done editing for today, not yet. I've only decided to take a small break due to my editing software crashing repeatedly. I can definitely get everything done today, hopefully I do.

Filming on the Other End of the Camera

 

Unlike yesterday, I was actually in frame while recording today. I wrote about filming the lines of the interviewer yesterday and today I filmed on the other end of the camera. This time I was playing the interviewee. The worries I had yesterday about the film all falling on my acting have been mostly subdued. I feel as though I've done a good job acting both naturally and unnaturally at the same time. By that I mean, the character on screen isn't too far off of how I would be if I were in that situation. However, he is still a lot more nervous and awkward than I would be. One thing that made its way into my acting from how I act normally is my hand movements. When speaking formally, I tend to move my hands a lot to help explain to subject better. This tendency is more than represented in my acting.

So far, I've recorded all of my lines up until I switch into the Dark Figure costume. It took me a while to figure out what camera angle looked the best and what to do about the lighting reflecting off my glasses. In the end, I did the best I could and settled with a decent angle. Not much I could do about my glasses. It'd be impossible to sneak a look at the script without it looking horribly obvious without them. All I need to do now is record the second half of the interview, edit it all together, and render the final products. Assuming there will be no need for any reshoots, of course. I would've finished recording the full interview before blogging, but my camera died. Anyways, I expect to need to do a bit of problem solving during the editing process. I want to include to clips in the film, but I've only made room for one in the script. I doubt I'll need to rewrite a portion of the script, but I don't have any idea of where to fit in the second clip. I'll figure that out when the time comes.

Filming! I Didn't Know I Still Did That!

 

Before jumping into the actual filming, I had to record some lines. These lines are meant to be that of an interviewer. In the script, I wrote the film to play out as an interview of the producer of "Secluded." To accomplish that effect, I needed to have an interviewer, obviously. To preserve the spirit of "Secluded," I opted to have myself be the interviewer and to have my voice be cut into the film to make it seem as if I was asking myself questions from behind the camera. To make the audio sound as natural as possible, I set up the camera and sat a fair distance behind it. Which is why the picture above is of an empty chair. It's a picture taken while filming, yes, but all I filmed was just a corner of my room. What I'm going to do next is actually act out the interview as the interviewee, i.e. myself.

I'm a little nervous about playing the part myself, seeing as there's so many aspects to it. I need to act as I would, but at the same time play up some of my more negative attributes. I need to seem even more obsessive with the project than I really am and I need to seem a lot more embarrassed by some of the mishaps that have occurred. Not only does my acting play a role, but I also need to worry about the audio as well. I'll need to get deep into production to see whether I should go for clear audio when recording as the interviewer, or if I should record in the same environment to help it blend in more. In comparison to other microphones I've used, the microphone on my camera is a lot more sensitive than any other. It can pick up background noise from other places in the house and really likes to amplify the noises of my air conditioning, even when I don't hear it. I expect my voice to come through clearly. When I was re-enacting events for the mockumentary, my voice was clearer beyond my expectations. The problem lies with the background noise. In any case, I'll figure it out once I dive deeper into filming.

Editing, Finally

 

While rewriting my short film, I planned for there to be cutaways throughout. Clips of some mishaps that occurred while filming were specifically what I wanted to include. While I was done writing for the day, I actually recorded some recreations of those mishaps. Today, I took the time to edit them. Most of them didn't require much work. All I needed to do was add captions. The one clip I did need to edit a bit was the clip where I break a lightbulb on accident. I didn't have any footage of me actually breaking the lightbulb, so this was one of the clips I had to reenact. To make things clear, I didn't actually break a lightbulb or burn myself while recording the clip. When it actually happened, I didn't burn myself then either. As for breaking the bulb, I was completely fine afterward. My hand was protected and my parents were nearby.

Alongside these clips, I want to include the first scene that I recorded and edited. I plan on working it into the film as an intro of sorts. I'll have a portion, if not all, of it play, then cut to my character speaking about it. "Then I had to cut a lot of out of focus clips, leading to that scene being unusable." This line, which will also talk about what happened during production, will introduce my character. I don't expect everything to be related to real life experiences, but I'll feel better about the product if I can bring in those experiences naturally. I want to make it seem like the production of this film was filled with mishaps and slapstick chaos, while not being over-the-top and unbelievable. It'll take some workshopping, but I can do it.

The Writing Blog?

 

Yes, the writing blog. Instead of blogging about filming scenes, I'm here to talk about rewriting my short film. Throughout the short filming process of my original story, I've gone through trials and tribulations time and time again. While I could work through it and make the original story, I imagine doing that would lead to a final product that I'm not happy with. So to avoid this, I've decided to rewrite the story I want to tell and take a more meta approach to it. Instead of filming a story about a shut-in being haunted by his past, I'm going to film a story about the filming of the story about a shut-in being haunted by his past. I want to make a mockumentary about the production of this short film. I feel as if this will lead to a better product due to most of the blunders and mistakes I'll be talking about in the mockumentary have actually happened during the filming of my original story.

I'm not going to just throw out everything I've done in preparation of filming my horror story. Instead, I'm going to use my promotional website and social medias as pieces of lore in the film. They'll play a part in the characters' journey through filming. I haven't figured everything out yet, which is why I took today to start writing and figuring out how to make this idea work. With what I've written out so far, I expect the film to be one long interview about the upcoming movie. I'm going to exaggerate my clumsiness in the dialogue of the characters and have them reflect some of my own feelings throughout this project. Just like my original idea, this new film is going to rely on my acting. Since there's no special effects or action packed scenes, I'm going to have to carry the film with my performance. Hopefully writing that down will ensure I do a good job.

The (Almost) Filming Blog!

 

With the small break I took yesterday, I plan to jump back into filming soon. I've been unable to film due to some issues on my part. With any luck, I'll be able to start filming once more tomorrow. To make up for my long absence, I'm going to need to film as much as possible for the next few days. My situation may not be that dire, but it's what I plan on doing. I'm not too worried about the filming itself. Instead, I expect the editing to take the most time. Out of everything, masking is definitely going to be what causes editing to take the longest. While masking, I need to go through each frame and make sure that the path looks good and doesn't move unnecessarily. It's what caused the first scene to be a hassle to edit and it'll repeat throughout production.

What I hope to happen while editing is that I'll get better at masking. Not only so that the final product looks better, but also so it takes less time to do. My favorite part of doing these projects is always getting better at something. Last year, I improved at filmmaking in general. I learned just how much filmmaking relies on the editing. Before, I treated editing as just cutting clips and putting them together. After making just my commercial, I learned that editing also included fading in and out, correcting mistakes, and changing how the scene looks. This year, I've learned the importance of lighting in a scene and I'm off to learn how to mask better. Despite the quality of my final product, I'll be able to look back and be proud of my growth. I still want to make a good final product though.

Finding Sound Effects

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ILtw7SKMjCQ

I didn't plan on finding the sound effects for the film today, but I decided to get it out of the way. The search for these was a lot easier than the search for music. While I knew what I wanted for both the music and effects, there were a lot more sound effects to choose from. Shown in the picture above, the video I'm going with contains 5 different impact sound effects. I'm sure I'll appreciate the extra choices when I'm editing. I'll appreciate it even more considering that I'll need to change the sound a bit before use. For example, I'll need to change the volume and maybe the pitch of the sound. I expect to use this sound effect whenever the Dark Figure disappears off-screen. When I do use this effect, I don't want it to be extremely noticeable. I'll aim to make it subtle, that way it won't ruin the experience in any way.

I plan on making another post for Christmas tomorrow. I'll have to come up with what to post. I plan on making another picture, but I might also be able to make a video. I'll have to put a lot more thought into it. I've already done a picture with the Dark Figure in a Christmas Hat, so if I use him again it'll have to be different. I don't want to recycle the same idea and have him in a hat again. Instead, I might use a Christmas present to make it different. Of the few ideas I have, I'm considering making a Christmas card. It would be a fun side project to work on while I have the time. I'll figure it out soon.

Finding the Background Music

 

In preparation for the grueling filming and editing process I'm bound to have, I decided to look for some creepy background noise to put in the movie. I knew I wouldn't need hours of ambience, so I found this one video to be sufficient. Even better, the creator doesn't require permission for me to use it, not even credit. Of course I still plan to give credit, but it is nice to not need to worry about any extra processes for gaining permission. Here's the link to the video: https://youtu.be/1nD3Sp_saz4

I don't plan on using this music all throughout the film. While writing the story, I didn't picture there being any music other than some the main character potentially will be listening to. I wanted to focus on the content of the scene and using it to create a sense of unease. I've decided to include music because I realize how much of a bad idea not including it would be. Not only can music intensify a scene's mood exponentially, but it can also prevent the movie from feeling "empty." A movie feeling "empty" means that there's a lack of sound and, as a result, it is too quiet at times. This can be done well if those making the film want to use this effect in their film. I, however, didn't write this effect into my film so including it will only ruin it.

Before editing any of the scenes, I'm going to predict that I'll use the music more heavily in the scenes where the main character has left his room. I imagine the shot of the main character surveying the house he's shut himself out of will work well with the ambience of the music. If I use the music in any of the scenes inside of the room, it will most likely be quiet and fairly unnoticeable. Barring the scenes before the main character leaves the room, I don't think the scenes inside the room will need the music. Instead, I'll focus on sound effects for whenever the Dark Figure is on screen and/or when he affects the main character. After I get deeper into the making of the film, I look into what sound effects fit into it better. I'm gonna need to find out where to find those sound effects as well.

Social Media Managing

 

Today I made and posted a Christmas photo on my social medias. I didn't plan on posting content that was directly related to filming, but a few setbacks have stopped me from being able to film and caused me to do this. Above is the photo that I made earlier today. The quality isn't the best due to the photo being taken on my phone, but I find that to be acceptable. I think the quality is fine because of the inclusion of the Dark Figure. It implies that his presence distorts the footage, which I think is a cool piece of lore to have. I don't plan on incorporating this into the film, which is why I'm not filming with my phone, but it is fine if it's for a picture.

The easiest part of making this picture was editing it together. Since I wasn't able to use a proper camera, I couldn't use my phone to remotely take pictures. This meant I had to record myself getting into position as both myself and the Dark Figure. Hopefully it isn't a surprise that both people in this image is me. I've been getting good at blending together images to clone myself. I've practiced before working on the film and I feel as if I've hit my stride. Now I need to get better at masking shots together. While I don't necessarily look forward to masking together my next scene, I am excited for the practice I'll get while doing it. I expect to make a few more images like this, despite whatever setback I'm facing. Whenever I edit a photo for this effect, I feel proud of myself for getting better and better at it. The first picture I made wasn't the best, but I was able to improve as I made more. I learned to keep the camera angle and lighting as close as possible to the first shot, which makes the editing 1000 times easier. I plan on filming as soon as I get the chance, the problem is when that chance will be.

Editing the First Scene (Masking, Masking, and More Masking)

 

After a few days of slacking off, I decided to get to work on editing the first scene. I didn't expect it to be too much work and was looking forward to finding out how I was going to achieve the cloning effect the short film will rely on. Before I got to the few seconds that the dark figure was on screen, I found out that I may need to reshoot some parts of the first scene. The reasons why varied for each shot. The shot of me walking back to my desk with the plate of food was out of focus. The shot of me walking into the camera/toward my door was unusable due to the laptop I was pretending to be working on going into sleep mode. Despite a few of my shots being unusable, I was able to piece together enough footage to make up the first scene up until the parts with the dark figure. When thinking of ways to create my cloning effect, I decided to mask out my character and to add him into the shot. The problem with this was that I ended up having to go frame by frame adjusting the masking path so that my character was cut smoothly. This has been a grueling editing process.

The period of time that the dark figure appears is only 2 seconds. This doesn't sound too bad, but it gets worse when you factor in how many frames are in those 2 seconds. In those 2 seconds alone, there are more than 50 frames. This means that I have to make or manage the masking paths of 50+ frames. I appreciate the time to myself, but this was more than enough. While going through each frame, a few problems presented themselves. One of them being the shadow I casted on the wall. The way I was masking out my character, excluded anything else in the scene but him. This included the wall next to me and the shadow I casted on it. The other problem was my door. On my door, there were 2 jackets on a towel hanging there. One of those jackets is a part of the dark figure's costume, meaning that it isn't hanging on the door during the 2 seconds he's in frame. This means that my character's moving in front of the door will make the mask look awkward. A solution that I have for both of these problems is to finish masking out the main character, then to mask out the wall and door as well. Hopefully it works, I'm tired of masking things out.

Filming the First Scene

 

Today I recorded the first scene of the short film. The scene itself will most likely last less than a minute, but the filming took a lot longer than just a minute. Before I started filming, I had to prepare a plate of food to use. I had a choice of just putting together a sandwich or waiting until Thanksgiving to have a full plate of food. As you could tell by the date this is going up on, I didn't decide to wait. When I had the sandwich prepared, I had all I needed to start recording.

My story gave me no scenes to film before the first scene with the dark figure. The first scene of the film will be the dark figure's first scene. This meant, I had to shoot additional takes as the dark figure. He didn't do much this scene. All he does is bang on a table before disappearing. Despite being in the costume for about 30-45 seconds, my glasses had enough time to fog up inside the hoodie (which I was wearing backwards). In hindsight, I should've taken off my glasses before recording, but whatever. Alea iacta est. 

Other than the plate of food and recording as the dark figure, I had to constantly had to transfer a light bulb from one lamp to another. This is because one lamp had a white light bulb while another had a bulb with a yellow tint. I didn't want to have a yellow tint to my lighting, so I resolved to swapping the bulb back and forth depending on where I needed the lighting. In the end, filming went fairly smooth. I'm expecting editing it to go well too. I'd move onto filming the next scene, but it needs to be dark out for to do so.

Making My Own Website...

 

Link to the website:

https://secludedshortfilm.wixsite.com/mysite

To better spread my short film, I was tasked to create a website as well as a few social medias. The easiest part was making the social medias. All I needed to do was create a new email and the rest was smooth sailing. I'm not new to making social medias, that can't be said when it comes to making a new website. I've never made a website before. I've had the idea of making a website and had knowledge about the tools online for doing so, but never decided to go through with it. Setting up a YouTube, Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook took around a half hour to complete. Setting up the website probably took around twice that time and maybe some more. Eventually, I got the site up and running, even with the few setbacks.

I'm 100% sure that making a website without the use of Wix would be much more difficult than with it. That doesn't make it a perfect experience though. Either at fault of my computer or the sign itself, the site would move slowly while using it. Clicking and dragging elements would make the process difficult. The menus felt a little bit clunky. Again, this was due to the website moving slowly. Whenever I wanted to change which tab I was working on, the drop down menu would take a few clicks to drop. Despite the slowness of the site, I enjoyed seeing the different things I could do with the website and links. I thought it was cool seeing that I was able to add links to buttons, images, and whatever else I wanted. There isn't much, but I was able to add a little bit of character into the buttons. All in all, an okay experience.

Storyboard for Short Film

 

Here is the storyboard for my short film. When drawing all of the scenes, I needed to change a few details. This was either due to me losing confidence in my ability or for clarity. I didn't have to make any major changes to the story, thankfully. While writing, I made sure to keep in mind the limitations that would come about from filming at home. I wasn't perfect in making sure filming every scene would be possible, but I did fairly well. Going through the script once more made me excited to start filming again. I'm a bit nervous and curious as to how pulling off the cloning effect is going to go. I know about what to do when editing the effect. However, there may be a problem with the lighting. The effect requires for the two takes to have similar, if not identical, lighting to be pulled off well. If I'm unable to access lighting gear, I plan on using laptop screens to light up my shots. This year, I should have better equipment than last year. Earlier this year, I was worried about not being able to get a camera from school. Thankfully, I've been given the opportunity to use a camera to film from someone else. Although it would be useful to have two cameras for recording, I don't plan on borrowing a camera from school. For obvious reasons. Other than a better camera, I've also gotten better at editing. Due to both practice and a new computer to edit on, I've gotten a little more competent in editing. My getting better at editing is part of the reason why I chose to do a script with a heavy emphasis on it.

Planning for Short Film

 

Before I'm able to start filming, I need to layout plans for more than just the story. So, before I start, I'll plan my schedule, where I'll be filming, who's going to be helping with production, what safety precautions I'll be taking, what props I'll be using, and what costumes I'll be wearing.

In comparison to my project last year, I have a lot more filming to do with this short film. Mostly due to the increased length of the project, but also because my plans will require me to record some scenes twice. Not only will I need more time to film, but I'll also have set times to film as well. Some of the scenes require me to be awake early in the morning or late at night. So, to make sure filming doesn't interfere with school in anyway, I plan on recording during the weekend. Of course, this isn't going to prohibit me from filming during weekdays; if there are scenes that I need to record and I have time to record, then there's no reason for me not to record.

As for my filming location, I will be filming around my house. Mostly, I will be filming in my room but there are scenes that require me to film in my kitchen or outside of my room. Although it isn't the most exciting place to record, it makes planning safety precautions easier. Because I'm filming at home, I can be confident that at least one of parents will be nearby. As a backup, my niece will also be here as well.

Last year, I filmed all of my projects with me being the only cast member. Along with the amount of group members I have, this will not change this year. The plans I have for filming will have me take on two roles and use editing to have those characters appear on screen at the same time. If it turns out that I've overestimated my editing skills, then I'll be able to pass off one of the roles to a family member.

I've explained how my filming at home will help cover the filming precautions, but there is something else that I plan on doing. Before I start filming, I plan letting everyone in the house that I will be filming. This will not only prevent anyone from walking in and ruining a take, but also to make sure that they are aware that something may go awry.

Finally, I the only props that I have written into the script are two plates. One plate will be filled with food and the other will be empty. There are two instances where the full plate will be used and one instance where the empty plate will be used. As for costumes, the main character will be dressed in casual wear up until the end, where they will be dressed for school. For casual wear, I have a wide selection of outfits to choose. For the school outfit, I'll have a backpack and an outfit that is more appropriate for school. The last costume I'll need is an all black outfit for the figure character. I already have the school costume and the all black outfits chosen.

Short Film vs Feature Film

 

After watching both the feature length film and the short film versions of 9, I've been able to notice some big differences between the two. The obvious ones being that the story is more drawn out and explained and the feature film has voice acting. These are obvious changes that would come with having more resources working on the film. Although they are seemingly surface level changes, they can lead to other changes. For example, the characters are easier to get attached to with the voice acting. I expressed during my look into the short film that I wasn't very invested in the chase scenes due to not being invested in the characters. While the characters' voices aren't the sole reasons for this, it plays a role. Speaking of characters, there are a lot more in the feature film than in the short. In the short, we only see 9; 5,presumably; and the robot dog for most of its runtime. This made it all more confusing when we saw more characters exit from the device that 9 opens at the end. In the feature film, we see a lot more characters. We see 9, 5, 1, 2, 6, 7, 8, the twins, the dog, and an even bigger villain. Other than having more characters to develop and get the audience attached to, the increase in character roster also allowed the film to explain why those characters were inside the device from the short. 

The short doesn't do many things better than the film. The only thing I could think of is that the short didn't overuse the trope where a character is almost killed before the enemy is distracted by something else. This, however, is mostly due to the short having a shorter runtime and, in turn, less opportunities to do so. It's not surprising to say that the feature film did a lot of things better than the short. It's almost unfair to compare the two, actually. However, it is nice to see how far the story has come in the 4 years between the short and the film's releases. In the end, both were done really well in their own ways and can both be commended by its animation work. 

Research 9, the Feature Film

 

The short film 9 is an animated story about a goggled creature with the number 9 on its back that was turned into a full length film 4 years after the original short film's release. The full length film holds the same setting as the short film, a post apocalyptic Earth, but goes a lot more into depth with its story. When watching the short film, I wasn't sure as to what was going on. That was because nothing was properly explained in the short before it moved on to the next conflict. The film does a better job at this, most likely due to having a longer run time. The story that the film expands on is not only more fleshed out, but it is also intriguing. The story and characters were all written well and went well with the amazing animation work. The only time that I remembered that the film wasn't stop motion was during scenes where humans would appear. The sound design was also really well done. There were sound clues that would hint toward what would happen next or would come from something that happened in the background, even if the viewer wasn't meant to pay attention to it. 

Despite the positives of the writing and presentation of the film, there were still some problems with both. For example, the action scenes got stale after a certain point in the movie. This was because the film has a tendency of saving characters from danger by having a distraction take place. There are multiple instances where this would happen and it got to a point where I expected it to happen more times than not. Although it wasn't much of a problem, it took me a while to see the characters act in ways that were human. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gatekeeping being a human, it was just weird seeing 9 clutch his injured arm as if it were bleeding. It's a little bit weirder to think that later on in the story, one of the characters fails to realize that their hand is broken before they see it. Plus, how come some of the characters are noticeably older than others? I'd assume inorganic creatures such as these wouldn't age in similar ways to humans, but I could be wrong. 

All in all, the film was an enjoyable experience and definitely holds up 19 years after its release. I've praised the animation of both the short and the feature film and that isn't just to fill in the minimum sentence count, the films genuinely look amazing.