Creative Critical Reflection

Final Project

Here it is! My Final Project! Click the link below for the opening to "The Divide".

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B2f9b_s41R3hbTR1NWRTa2RqQ1E/view?usp=sharing

Adjustments to Music and Company Logo

Unfortunately, I wasn't able to get permission to use the song "Mi Primer Millon" by Bacilos in my project. So instead I decided to use music from the royalty free website bensound.com. I am using the track called "Beyond the Line", click here for the link to my license to use it. With this license I do not need to include the song in the credits of my film so I will mention it only in the description of the video. This song is upbeat just like the one I originally intended to use and it compliments the tone of my piece.

On another note, I made an adjustment to my logo for the company "Belizean Productions Inc.". It will now be simply "Belizean Productions" and the new logo is below. I made this change because "Belizean Productions" is more straightforward and by adding the word "incorporated" the title became a bit redundant. I edited this logo on the website canva.com.

"Start Designing." Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software – Canva. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.

"ROYALTY FREE MUSIC by BENSOUND." Royalty Free Music by Bensound. N.p., n.d. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.

"Bacilos - Mi Primer Millon (Official Music Video)." Youtube. Youtube, 26 Oct. 2009. Web. 08 Apr. 2016.

Logo

I have finalized the names of the "companies" that created my movie. One of them is "Chebat Media" like the URL of this blog and the other is "Belizean Productions Incorporated". I chose two companies so that my film would look more professional and realistic. Besides that, showing that many companies are interested in working on this movie shows that the story is an important one to cover. I created logo's that will show up at the beginning of my film as all companies do with their movies. For the "Chebat Media" logo I wanted to express creativity in cinematography. When I though of creativity I thought of abstract thinking so I chose an abstract painting as the background for my logo. For "Belizean Productions Incorporated" I chose to use a picture of the great blue hole that is found in Belize. It is a very famous landmark of that land and it shows patriotism within the company. Besides that I used to live there so I wanted to bring another piece of me into this film.

"Helene Messier, Symphonie (Symphony)." Http://www.saatchiart.com. N.p., n.d. Web. 6 Apr. 2016.

Hoover, Pierce. "Into The Blue: Best Snorkel Sites in Belize." Tropixtraveler.com. N.p., 17 Feb. 2015. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

"Start Designing." Amazingly Simple Graphic Design Software – Canva. N.p., n.d. Web. 06 Apr. 2016.

Character Change

I have decided to change who the character Alejandra is in my story. In my original idea, she was a housewife who took care of chores along with the help that she hired. But within all the films that I took she ends up looking more like one of the help than she does a housewife. Therefore by separating her from the family that my characters are in I will present her as a housekeeper in my film. This will still aid me in expressing income inequality as a main character, Alejandra, will be a window into the world of poverty in Mexico. Besides that, the contrast that will be found in my film between these characters will help express awareness about income inequality. Her full name will be Alejandra Gongora meanwhile the teenage boy is Marco Villanueva and his grandfather Gustavo Villanueva. The other characters have not changed.

Movie Poster

I am extremely excited to post the first completed part of my project! Here is the poster for my film!

At the center near the top of the poster is the title of the film: "The Divide". Directly above it there is one of the film's tagline "based on true circumstances". At the very top of the poster in small letters are the names of the stars of the film Maria De La Luz, Sebastien Chebat and Abraham Farah. At the bottom it says directed, produced, written and edited by Julienne Chebat and then it has the movies website which is a link to my blog. Yay! 

Characters

For my story I have three main characters that will be introduced in the first two minutes. They are the grandfather, Gustavo, his daughter Alejandra and her son Marco. 

Gustavo:

Gustavo is Alejandra's father and he is the main supporter of the family. Through the several franchises that he owns of grocery stores he has managed to create an extremely comfortable living for himself and his family. In this picture he is sitting down working in his summer home in the pueblo Bacalar. This is where the story takes place and it is where his entire family spends time during the summer and other vacation times throughout the year.

                                                                                    Alejandra:  
                                                                                                                                                   

Alejandra is Gustavo's daughter and she is a house wife because she has no need to have a job. She spends her days concerned with the typical things that housewives take care of such as cooking and cleaning. Although these activities do not take up much time in her days because help is very cheap in Mexico, she still choses to engage in these activities in order to keep herself busy.


Marco:

Marco is Alejandra's son and Gustavo's grandson. He is a very carefree teenager as he has been given a very worry free and luxurious life at birth. For this character I want to show the level of satisfaction that he finds in life. I showed him playing soccer as this sport makes him extremely happy and he has plenty of time to indulge in hobbies such as this one.

Income Inequality Research

The topic of economic inequality has interested me for a couple months now as I've become more exposed to it. I first began to understand this topic by watching different vlogbrothers videos on youtube such as "Is the American Dream Real?". These aided me in better understanding this topic and led me to start seeing the effects of this around me. It also taught me that income inequality is very complicated and that it is affected by several factors, one including healthcare which John Green talks about in the video "Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform".

But, when I went to Mexico for spring break I realized that the effects of income inequality were much more evident than they are in the United States. Bacalar is the "pueblo" in which I spent my vacation. The word "pueblo" means town or village and I will be referring to Bacalar as that for the rest of my blog posts because it is more authentic to the setting than the english word is. In this pueblo the buildings were small, grungy, in need of being painted and had metal roofing. These homes made up the majority of the inland of the pueblo as the land there is cheap and can be afforded by the locals. On the coast of Bacalar, where the lagoon begins, the wealthy have their homes. I took footage of many of these homes and several of them were extravagant. There were several homes with more than two stories and that took up large spaces of land. Additionally, these houses had docks in which boats and jet skis were parked. These are luxuries that only the rich can afford. 

The purpose of my project is not to try and make the wealthy look bad. There is nothing wrong with having money and using it to buy things that you will enjoy. The purpose of my piece is to bring attention to the lifestyles of people on both sides of the economic scale and express that there needs to be something done to allow more people to be able to live on the coast and less in the pueblo. Unfortunately Mexico has been a country of income inequality for nearly all of its history. In 1811 Alexander Von Humbold wrote "Mexico is the country of inequality. Nowhere does there exist such a fearful difference in the distribution of fortune, civilization, cultivation of the soil, and population. …The architecture of the public and private edifices, the elegance of the furniture, the equipages, the luxury and dress of the women, the tone of society, all announce a refinement to which the nakedness, ignorance, and vulgarity of the lower people form the most striking contrast.". This quote can still be applied to the current state of Mexico as income inequality is a major problem. 

Humboldt, Alexander von (1811) Political Essay on the Kingdom of New Spain, Vol.1, translation by John Black, London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.

"John Green - Author of The Fault in Our Stars, Looking for Alaska, Paper Towns, and An Abundance of Katherines." John Green RSS. N.p., n.d. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Krozer, Alice, and Juan Carlos Moreno-Brid. "Newsletters." World Economics Association. World Economics Association, 05 Nov. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Vlogbrothers. "Bigger Pizzas: A Capitalist Case for Health Care Reform." YouTube. YouTube, 03 Sept. 2013. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.

Vlogbrothers. "Is the American Dream Real?" YouTube. YouTube, 18 Mar. 2014. Web. 01 Apr. 2016.