Final Links!!

 Here are the links to our film opening and my CCRs

Project Final Reflection

We have finally officially reached the end of the project, making this my last ever blog post before I submit the final links. These last 8 weeks have been incredibly long and tedious but I feel like we were able to create something we're all really proud of and I've definitely learned a lot while working on our final project.

I was really looking forward to beginning this project when I first joined the class, as I had friends who took the class before and mentioned the final project being some kind of short film opening. When the time came to begin the project I began to feel nervous about the outcome, since I wanted to make something I could be proud of and show how much progress I've made throughout the year. Overall I definitely feel like I've learned a lot in this class thanks to Mrs. Stoklosa but also because of all the other projects we've done. There's a lot of room for improvement but my only real issue with our final project is the camera quality, but there's not much that can be done about it with our current lack of equipment. I'll definitely invest in better equipment next time around and I'm determined to keep improving as I progress through my film studies and end up where I can do all of this for a living. 

There's a lot that goes into making a film and I can really appreciate every step as we finally wrap everything up. During the moment, it all feels very overwhelming as you try to figure everything out and overcome alllll of the issues that come up during production and post-production, but seeing everything come together in the end really makes all the stress and late nights spent trying to fix an issue worth it. I'm really looking forward to doing this and other similar projects again as I move from high school to college and begin taking film production classes to really study and master the fundamentals of film making. I had a lot of fun working with my friends on this project and look forward to all the future works I'll produce in this field. 

Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoy watching our film opening as much as we enjoyed making it.

CCR Post-Production

 There isn't really any post-production needed for my first CCR since it was just creating a presentation, so this post is focused on my CCR podcast answering questions 3 and 4. I decided to record my voice on Canva because I found it really easy to use the notes space for my script and record my lines in a way that felt organized and easy for me to read.

I obviously didn't put much thought into making it look nice since it was just for my script. After I recorded all my lines, I found my sound effects and the song I used in the beginning using pixabay and then began the process of combining all of my audio clips together and cutting out any odd empty spaces in the audio and adding the sound effects where they were needed.

For some reason, my Adobe premiere school subscription expired so I wasn't able to edit the audio on Adobe and I had been having issues with DaVinci and something about a codec on my computer which doesn't let me open .mov files. I honestly don't know what the issue is and how to fix it but I decided to move on and use Premier Rush to edit the audio. It's not ideal, but I've spent a lot of time trying to fix the issue on my computer to no avail so I figured I would try my last resort and edit on my phone for this last part of the project. Editing was pretty straight forward after I figured out how to use Premiere Rush and I was able to combine the audio clips and upload both of my completed CCRs on Youtube.

CCR Production

For my first two CCR questions I decided to create a Canva slideshow presentation because it felt like the easiest way to articulate my thoughts and answer the questions in a way where I could elaborate my thoughts properly. I did originally plan on creating a video for both of my CCRs, but I'm going to be honest I had a lot of trouble speaking on camera, memorizing my lines, and presenting it in a way that got my ideas across. Clearly, I'm more comfortable behind a camera than I am in front of it.

For my Canva presentation, I split my questions into multiple parts so that I could answer my questions thoroughly and have multiple short and specific slides as opposed to two long slides with no clear idea. I also added the scripts I had made in my earlier blog posts to the notes so that I could read from them as I recorded my slides.

For questions 3 and 4 of my CCR I also decided to go for an audio medium as opposed to visual for the same reasons. I created a podcast titled "Inside Entertainment" where I discuss celebrities and read through articles about them as if it were gossip. I wanted to do something similar to those "ATA" Podcasts or "True Crime" Podcasts where the person speaking is just reading commentary and reacting accordingly.

 I also wrote a small script for the podcast and used my past blog posts as my script for answering the questions. I also created a logo for the podcast to have as the video background while I address the audience and answer my questions. All that's left is to add the music and edit my audio clips together so that I can finish my podcast and submit both my CCRs.

Group Meeting Reflection 2

Yesterday we had our second group meeting where we discussed post production and plans for our CCR as we begin to wrap up our portfolio project.

During the meeting, We all talked about where we were in our production/post-production process and most of us were on the same page. Aside from a couple of reshoots and some light editing, we're all pretty much finished working on our film opening. We went around showing our peers our group opening and gave each other feedback and suggestions. When it was my turn, we got a lot of positive feedback with only a couple suggestions about altering the establishing shots to include the opening credits during the montage.

DaVinci Resolve

Also, one of my group members found an amazing editing software that I used today to add the credits to the film opening. I'd never heard of DaVinci Resolve but it was honestly a lifesaver, Adobe Premiere is a nightmare to use. Although I still found myself looking things up constantly to find out how to do certain things, I found that DaVinci was a lot easier to navigate and was a lot more straightforward, which eased the editing process a lot. 

We didn't really discuss any ideas for our CCR, and I'll be honest I still have no idea what I want to do for mine other than having the questions answered. So for now there's not much of an update I can provide for my Critical Creative Reflections process.

Overall, meeting with other groups helps us get someone else's perspective for our project and even though there wasn't that much advice given, we still got great feedback which assured that we are on the right track for our film opening. I'm really excited to get everything finished and uploaded so that we can start wrapping up.

Group Meeting

4th And Final CCR

Okay so, unfortunately I still don't have any ideas for how I want to present my CCR. I feel like I want to do something very creative and different that can illustrate the way I think, so for now I'll just continue to answer the CCR questions so I can continue brainstorming and come up with something to begin filming and editing next week.

Script for third CCR, "How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware and online- in this project?"

"Before we could begin production, we had to plan everything out and we mainly used WhatsApp to communicate our ideas. All of the media we would eventually post on our blog during the planning and production process we shared with each other through a group chat we made and eventually through OneDrive. A lot of our planning also needed visuals, and we felt that Pinterest could give us the kinds of photos we were looking for when searching for clothes and decorations for Jordyn's room so we could develop her characterization. We also used Spotify to create a playlist for Jordyn before putting everything together into organized collages using Canva. For the last step before production, I used Canva and Procreate to create and animate the logo we used for our production company "ELMAI" in the opening."

"For our production process, the main hardware we used was my iPhone 15, since I had the best camera quality in the group and none of us had access to a more professional film camera, but we made do. I'm also going to use my iPhone 15 to film my CCR since it's the best quality hardware I can get my hands on. Of course, throughout the entire process I used Blogger in order to update you guys every step of the way. We also used the website Premium Beat to select our royalty free song after the Inhaler song "It Won't Always Be Like This" didn't end up working out."

"Once we began post production, the main software utilized was Adobe Premiere Pro. My group member Elke did all of the editing on Adobe Premiere Pro since we had all done previous projects in the class with that software and had some kind of experience. I honestly found the program difficult to use and we couldn't figure out how to add the credits using Adobe so after exporting it Elke sent me the project to add the finishing touches. After discovering DaVinci, I learned how to navigate it easily and was able to add the credits before exporting it and uploading it to GoogleDrive and Youtube."

"Overall, I found a lot of useful software programs that were able to aid us throughout the project and I learned a lot about different ways to go about the production and post-production processes utilizing different technologies and resources."

Software Used

Script For 3rd CCR

  Script for third CCR, "How did your production skills develop throughout this project?"

"Although I've always wanted to join the film industry, I can admit I had almost no experience in filmmaking or film editing when I first joined this class. I'd done some editing when I was younger using KineMaster to create YouTube videos, but my experience was vague and my skills were amateur. Throughout this class, I learned about all the different steps that go into filmmaking from planning to production to post-production and learned both the technical and theoretical aspects of making a good product."

"We spent a lot of the class working on individual assignments that allowed me to really grasp all of the different choices that go into filming like angles, composition, colors, and lighting and how al of those play a part in developing meaning to your film. We also went through a lot of the different steps you take in filmmaking like storyboarding and creating soundscapes using foley and other sound effects. Post production wise, we used programs like Adobe Premiere and later I found DaVinci, which I was able to learn to navigate and use to really perfect the editing in our film."

"I feel like I've really gotten the hang of all the different parts of filmmaking and directing, but I can tell there's definitely still a lot of room for improvement. I've also learned a lot about working with others. During the year, we had a lot of different projects where we got to select our groups and some where we had our groups selected for us. Working with people I didn't always share ideas with helped me learn to compromise and come up with something great that we can all put thought into and do our best to make it great. I worked a lot with my close friend Elke Gomez and we also ended up working on our final film opening project together, along with Mariana Aldana. We had some complications along the way due to tight schedules and some disagreements, but we made the most of it and were able to end up with a product that the three of us could be proud of. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of creating "18 Before 18" and this class has taught me so much, I'm excited to move forward and to keep working towards my goals involving film production and the steps that follow as I move onto college and continue to hone my skills."

First Film Project (One Word Film)

Answering CCR Question 2

 Script for second CCR, "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?"

"The target audience for our coming-of-age film, "18 Before 18" is primarily focused on teenagers and young-adults. Of course, our audience isn't limited to this age group, but we wanted to create something that resonated with older teens who find themselves reaching that edge of adulthood as they head towards the end of their high school career.  Our film adds a unique touch to the coming-of-age genre where our main character Jordyn breaks the fourth wall, interacting with the audience and giving them her inner thoughts to provide a second person perspective which can make the film feel more personal to the audience and give Jordyn more depth as her thoughts and motivations are explored."

"In order to distribute our film to an audience, we felt like the best way to go about it was to upload it on YouTube and also submit it to our local film festivals. We felt that YouTube would be the best place to upload our film because it helps us reach a large audience and we could easily promote the film on our social media pages to ensure our target audience can find the film and access it. We also thought local film festivals would be a great way to share our film because it would help our product find an audience outside of social media. Some of our local film festivals where we'd distribute our film include the Fort Lauderdale International Film Festival, the Cypress Bay Lighting Film Festival, and the Florida Film Festival which are all great places to start distributing our film to larger audiences."

Florida Film Festival

Starting my CCR

We have finally reached the point in our project where we're wrapping up and can begin working on our individual Critical Creative Reflection. Although I'm excited to being so close to done, I can't believe how much time has passed and how much our group has accomplished in the last six weeks. With only two weeks left to work on this portfolio project, I've begun brainstorming some ideas for how I want to present my CCR. Although I do already have some ideas, I feel like they're a little ambitious for the time we have left to work on the CCR, so I might have to go back to brainstorming so I can create something doable with my time limit. My original idea was to do some sort of talk show where I played both the host and interviewee to create something more fun and creative.

The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon

Again, not sure how I plan to execute this and the idea might change completely if I can come up with something more feasible,  but for now I wanted to create a script so I could have the question answered at least and make brainstorming easier.

Script for first CCR, "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" :

"Our film is a Coming-of-Age film which follows pretty much the same themes of the genre. We wanted to utilize characteristics shared in other coming-of-age films like themes of personal growth and change, as well as characters facing some sort of challenge for the first time in their life where they have to make a choice that highlights how far they've come. Our main character Jordyn, is a teenage girl who wants to make something of her last year in high school, to make lifelong memories before she's fully grown up, and in that desperation she loses sight of what is most important, her best friend Amelia. Although we embraced a lot of the coming-of-age genre conventions, we really wanted to avoid showing Jordyn in a negative light throughout her journey. We wanted to step away from the stereotypical portrayal of teenagers in media and not create characters that real teenagers couldn't relate to. I can't speak for all teenagers when I say this, but nothing is less engaging than seeing media constantly show us as moody, disinterested, and using outdated slang. We wanted to keep our dialogue as realistic as possible, and wanted our audience to be able to see themselves in Jordyn and sympathize with her through all the mistakes she makes. Jordyn is flawed, she's stubborn and impulsive and the plot is driven by her constant misdirection. But she is also compassionate and adventurous, she's a well rounded character which allows teenagers to see themselves in her."

Editing Effects

Since our groupmate Elke was doing most of the editing process, when we met up yesterday we tried to figure everything out so that the process would be a lot easier for her. We spent a lot of our meeting yesterday looking for fonts that would fit the tone and aesthetic we were going for. Since it's a coming of age film with a more adventurous protagonist, we wanted the fonts used for the Title and credits to reflect that. After looking through the Adobe Fonts website, we found a couple that we felt would suit our film opening and the title, "18 Before 18".

Font we selected

With our fonts and sound selected and our clips edited, all that was left to do was for Elke to put it all together. She has been sending us updates and so far we all really like how the film is coming together. I would've liked for all of us to keep meeting up together to continue editing it, but with our schedules and the deadline coming up we figured it'd be easier if one person did it, so Elke volunteered to edit the film opening for us. Other than that, I really want to add some sort of edit to make the lighting a bit warmer since it feels too harsh and sterile in the school shots for the mood we want to create. Ideally, lighting would be completely in our control, but because we were filming at our school the best we can do is fix it in post production, since we cant change school lighting.

Sound Editing Process

After countless delays we finally began editing our film opening. With only a couple of shots left to film of the school, our project has finally made it to post production. The first part of the process was to get all the clips and sort through all the takes. Since we filmed on my phone because I have the best quality, I was in charge of going through all the clips and finding the best takes before uploading them to one drive so my group partner Elke could begin to edit on Adobe Premiere.

After we had selected all of our clips, Elke arranged them in order of the storyboard and trimmed them so we could match the different cuts. With that done, we decided to meet up earlier today so that we could begin editing together. We spent most of our time looking for sound effects and sounds we could use for the film opening like the sound of the school bell or the background music because we ended up not getting clearance for the Inhaler song, "It Won't Always Be Like This". Since we couldn't use that song, we had to find another royalty free song that had the same tone we were originally going for. It was honestly a bit of a hassle to try to find another song last minute because we really wanted to make the Inhaler song work. After searching through Spotify for small artists we could possibly DM, we settled for this royalty free website and found a song we all really liked, "Right Now" by Nicolas Major.

With the song choice out of the way, we just had to look for a couple more sound effects before wrapping up the sound portion of the editing. Since most of the scenes were long, there weren't that many clips to edit together and the easy part of the process had been completed.

Wrapping Up

 Although we finished the main part of our filming last week, before we can  start editing we had to film a couple of montages to add to the opening and for the title sequence. For the opening montage, we wanted to have a way to visually represent Amelia and Jordyn's friendship using photos they've taken and creating a small montage with them.

Pictures we used

We hadn't thought the montage through and how we wanted to go about filming it, but after some discussion we found an idea we were all happy with. We decided to print out the photos of Amelia and Jordyn and have them set on a white background to resemble polaroid pictures and add them to a door to represent Jordyn's bedroom.

Our Finalized Montage:

We also wanted to film a series of short clips of the school to create another montage for the title sequence to establish the setting. For this we just went around the school and selected angles that we liked so that we could later film those during our lunches so that we would have shots with students to create a cohesive setting. Otherwise, we're set for filming and have nothing left to do but edit our film opening.