GOODBYE! The Links!

 Dear Lovely readers,

“Life Moves Pretty Fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it” -Ferris Bueller

This is my final goodbye. I will miss updating this blog and working on this project. The best two months have flown by so fast. I hope you enjoy watching Interwoven and the two CCR I had the pleasure of directing. I want to thank my partner Samia for helping me out with the creation of Interwoven, I couldn't have done it without her. I also want to thank all my friends who helped film or acted in the film opening or CCR 2#, your help will always be appreciated. Special thanks to Gabriel who acted as Detective Elias even though he was feeling sick and Lee who helped film the CCR and the news reporter scene despite a very busy bowling night. It truly takes a village to produce a film. Goodbye lovely readers!

FILM OPENING: Click Here for Interwoven

CCR 1#:Click Here for CCR 1#

CCR 2#:Click Here for CCR 2#

My Final Thoughts...Reflecting on the CCR and the film opening

 Dear Readers,

                 (Last Day of Filming, the news segment)

We are almost at the end of the road. So it is time to reflect on this project.

The creation of Interwoven and its two CCR’s has shown to be a long tedious, yet fulfilling and satisfying process. In the duration of this project, I have improved and expanded my skills in Media production thanks to the both hands on experience and the knowledge from my media studies class. My partner Samia and I got to be in control of every decision and aspect of your opening. Allowing for full creative freedom, the freedoms of creating and making every decision and aspect of our project was great, but it also taught us a lot about decision making and planning ahead. We both planned scripts, costumes, hardware we were using, etc when it came to this project. The creation of Interwoven definitely taught us the importance and value of planning ahead and working towards a goal.

While yes, learning the lesson of planning ahead and was a lesson we needed to learn and value during this period, we also had to understand that things happen despite overplanning, especially in the post production period. In Interwoven film opening we had to move scenes and cut out pieces of dialogue to allow for us the be within that 2 minute range. We learned that having deleted scenes is normal and okay as long as they don’t affect the story in the long run.

To answer so questions. Yes my favorite part of this project was definitely editing, not because I enjoyed it or found it fun, but because it allowed me to have creative control of the film opening and both CCR’s. Also I tend to have a lot of patience with it. I enjoy filming the scenes as well, but I find the most interest in editing to get the great final product.

(How I felt editing the CCR all day in bed, miserable:(( )

CCR wise, it was fun to film both CCR’s. To be honest, I had quite a bit of trouble when it come down to editing. I spent around 10 hours total reshooting, editing, and organizing for both CCR’s. It was not fun editing the last CCR, which is to funny because the last two hours of editing that CCR, premiere pro finally stop crashing and I was having a jolly good time. Editing both CCR took so long as well because I had around 20 minutes of audio taking about the project. So I obviously had to cut down a LOT. Very annoying, but worth it in the end. The Canva was much more bearable but even then I still needed to speed so parts up to cut down time.

Before I go, I want to give you guys one gift from me. It’s not really a gift? It’s more like a fun fact/surprise, if you read this blog you know I am a Letterboxd user. So let me reveal my top 4 films (before u say anything they are always subject to change as I grow older, also I don’t fancy movie taste, I am 17 years old)

My four favorite films (not in a specific order 

1. Kill Bill Volume 1 

2.Lady Bird (makes me cry so much)

3.Ferris Bueller Day Off (fun fact I recreated Ferris Day Off for my senior skip day, we went to a local museum, very cool.)

              My Cousin having their Cameron moment

4.Florida Project (Sean Baker!!!)

Honorable mention:

Liza Frankstein!!!

Okay! CCR is finished !!

 Dear Readers,

Oh my days. The CCR has been taking me out. I am currently editing both CCR and the process has definitely been difficult. Editing 10 minutes of footage is difficult even if it is separated into two parts. Luckily I got a lot of footage from my shooting day, but it is still very time consuming. To be honest, I think the most difficult part has been organizing the footage. I been having to name every single video file, based on what I am taking about. Also, it’s less of a mockumentary now and more of a directed commentary/vlog? It’s in a weird intersection of both. I think I might add something that will make it feel more mockumentary-ish.

                (me working on CCR 1# on CANVA)

Okay, I lied. The hardest part of editing the CCR for questions 3 and 4 is the fact the adobe keeps crashing. It’s actually stressing me out. I believe it’s because the CCR file is huge due to it being a 5 minute video. I am less stressed about my CCR for questions 1 and 2 because it’s a PowerPoint presentation on Canva. Which means no Adobe. I think Adobe is giving me a hard time since they know it’s basically the last stage of the project. I guess there is nothing I can do :( other than wait for it to boot up again.

I think I am taking more time editing the CCR’s than editing the film opening which makes sense since it more footage, but it has been more tedious than I expected. We are almost done. Just keep working Maria….

CCR Script!! Things are going DOWN!!😆

Dear Readers, 

Hope this week has been treating you well, I am barely holding by a thread. KIDDING. No but seriously, this week is full work mode. I am only focused on finishing the project this week which means filming, editing, and posting on this blog. Depending on how much I have to say I might post another blog this week. Anyways, I finished the first script of my first CCR, quick recap, I need to film two CCR. I am blessed to have great classmates who gave me the idea for my second CCR (which is questions 1 and 2), a directors commentary, but obviously fun video. Like a reaction/commentary video, but fun. Most likely in a PowerPoint format so I can get all of my points down straight. I am kind of going into that commentary like aa podcast were a write an outline of the shots or things I want to point out when I react to the video. I could start filming that part as soon as today, which looking at my schedule I will. I am going to try and see if I can project the PowerPoint on my large TV and wear a suit and tie and be fancy with it. 😁

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? (Directors Commentary/React Video)
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? (Directors Commentary/ React Video)
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project? (Mockumentary Style Video)
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project? (Mockumentary Style Video)

Okay now that we are hopefully on the same page of what I need to do. Lets talk about the mockumentary script. I filming this week and getting everything edited as soon as I am done filming. I am talking,  coffee on hand in the middle of the night. I want to get everything done as soon as possible so I can double check and fix anything if need. Reminder that this script is meant to be lighthearted and fun, The Office and Abbott Elementary inspired. 

Creative Critical Reflection: The Mockumentary

Written by: ME!

MARIA

Throughout this month, I been working on my film opening. It has shown me a lot regarding my skills as a creative and what I need to create my own pieces of media. The process has definitely been rewarding 

(SHOW A CLIP OF MY FREAKING OUT EDITING, STRESSED OUT)

MARIA

Currently I am working on editing.

(SHOWS A SHOT OF THE BACKGROUND/ PUBLIC PLACE)

I know its not ideal, but I don't really have time. My friends seem to be supportive though

LEE

Maria been working on her, AICE project. Recently,  like a lot. Its the only thing she seems to talk about. The other  she has shown me some of equipment and hardware she has been using, seems to work well?

(SHOW SHOT OF ME SHOWING THE MICROPHONES I BOUGHT FOR MORE CLEAR AUDIO, ZOOM INTO ME USING THEM. I SPEAK ON HOW TO USE IT)

OTHER FRIEND?

She also used a LED LAMP thing. (LOOKS AT PIECE OF PAPER). Oh, an LED SUNSET LAMP, she bought it off of amazon, worked surprisingly well.

MARIA

I have become a different person after this project…It’s crazy. Well I am joking for the most part. To be honest, this project has given me a lot of hands on experience with production, which honestly is very intimidating. 

You know that every action or shot you make will create a butterfly effect and affect your project, what I mean by this is that this project made me think forward and question every decision and action. It also made me work on my problem solving skills when it comes to editing, what can I do to improve certain points, can I fix it with editing or do I have to reshoot. These are the type of questions and ideas that I need to keep in mind. 

(SHOW BEHIND THE SCENE MONTAGE OF ME WORKING ON THE PROJECT. FROM DAYS OF FILMING OR ME EDITING AT MY OWN HOUSE)

Long story short, I improved my problem solving and decision making skills when it comes to production.

MIKA (THE CAT)

I have noticed that she uses Premiere Pro a lot. From what I gathered, this editing software is her go to when it comes to post-production editing.

MARIA

Okay I will be honest, I used premiere pro, which I know seems like a basic option, but in my opinion, it was the better option. Using premiere pro for editing was easy due to my experience and knowledge already with the software. I also used photoshop to help create things and plan out things like the logo. Adobe in general is a great tool for me and for other people who are interested in editing and creating.

(SHOWS SHOTS OF ME EDITING)

Sure did it crash and didn't save my work sometimes. Maybe this project taught me patience.

OTHER FRIEND

Y'know I weirdly believe that Maria production skills improved. The other day she told me so. Something along the lines off...

FLASHBACKK

MARIA

Yeah I definitely. Honestly this project has definitely improved my editing skills. Like I think it was mostly my incorporation of the music and editing to the music and editing are synchronized together. Editing to the beat. Like that one project we did last year for TV.

OTHER FRIEND

Yeah something along those lines. (LOOKS AT SOMETHING OUTSIDE THE CAMERA). Is she done editing? 

(CAMERA PANS TO ME ON THE COMPUTER)

MARIA

Yes! I am done, thank god. Please save my work.

CCR last question…

 Dear Readers,

How have you been? Great, glad to hear. Anyways, if you read my last post, which I hope you did….You may know what my situation is currently with the CCR, I will be filming and editing it all this week which I know is a little to close to the deadline, but my schedule has been so busy lately I haven’t had time to shoot it. Thankfully, this week I will truly focus and dedicated my time to the CCR and what I have to do with it. In the meantime, what I can do is script up the answers for the questions I answer to the CCR. So this is my last question I need to incorporate! Which means I am done with scripting my questions. YAY!

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

ANSWER: So (Insert friend name), it’s kinda obvious I used TikTok editing software. It’s the best and only option. Okay I will be honest, I used premiere pro, which I know seems like a basic option, but in my opinion, it was the better option. Using premiere pro for editing was easy due to my experience and knowledge already with the software. I also used photoshop to help create things and plan out things like the logo. Adobe in general is a great tool for me and for other people who are interested in editing and creating.

For hardware, I used my bare hands to grab the camera. Okay well while that is true, I also used LED lights to create the dark moody lowkey lighting effects. For recording dialogue, I used small mics which connected to my phone microphone and allowed for me to pick up the audio from a person speaking without the annoying white noise. I think people underestimate how good an iPhone camera can be, you don’t need a state of the art Canon camera to make a good product or in this case a good film opening.

2 and 3. I am talking about my CCR questions…

 Dear Readers,

Hope this blog post finds you well? Well (haha), I been alright. Editing has surprisingly been okay, my main concern with this project was that I was worried that I wouldn’t have enough footage, but it seems like the other way around. I have reached the two minute mark already and I haven’t even added the last scene. Which means I am gonna have to make some cuts that I hopefully get to finish by Wednesday of next week. In the meantime, let’s talk about the CCR…Unfortunately due to my own scheduling conflicts and the overall lack of time I have had due to my own schedule I haven’t been able to start filming on the CCR. Which means I am gonna have to dangerously work near the due date. Which is weirdly better for me, next week. My schedule will be open and I will be able to finish the CCR. What I can do right now is finalize my CCR questions, have a layout of what to film and then boom! Film CCR and edit the entire thing in three days. It’s not ideal, but I rather work on this when I have the time and the cleared mindset and headspace. Anyways here are my scripts for questions 2 and 3. Reminder that this will most likely be filmed in a mockumentary style format, so the language and tone is meant to be more lighthearted 

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

ANSWER: Well (insert friend name), this film opening firstly will be distributed through the major online video sharing platform like YouTube and Vimeo so our target audience will be able to have complete access to the product. As for how the project engages with the audience well….

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

ANSWER: I have become a different person after this project…It’s crazy. Well I am joking for the most part. To be honest, this project has given me a lot of hands on experience with production, which honestly is very intimidating. 

You know that every action or shot you make will create a butterfly effect and affect your project, what I mean by this is that this project made me think forward and question every decision and action. It also made me work on my problem solving skills when it comes to editing, what can I do to improve certain points, can I fix it with editing or do I have to reshoot. These are the type of questions and ideas that I need to keep in mind. 

Long story short, I improved my problem solving and decision making skills when it comes to production.

What shall I do for my CCR?⋆˙⟡♡

 Dear Readers,

It is all not sunshine and rainbows because I am creatively stuck between a rock and a hard place figuring out what to do with my CCR. I don’t know how I am going creatively answer the four questions. All my ideas seem so un creative or uninspired, so I need to figure out what to do ASAP. 

In this quest, I decided to watch and consume media. Get some inspiration. At first I thought doing something hot ones inspired would be cool, but then I realized how many other classmates had the same idea in mine during the group meeting. Then I thought doing a cool randomizer q&a would be fun, but it felt too simple and boring. Then I watched a few clips from Vogue 73 questions, I thought doing something inspired by that would be interesting. Something were I was talking to the audience. Then lighting struck, maybe I should make it in mockumentary format. A short narrative of the people in my life talking about how I been involved in the project and shots from the behind the scenes and myself answering the questions. Okay this seems like a better idea. So now what do I do? 

Well, I will be filming and writing a script of all my CCR questions soon through a fun mockumentary style format about making the opening. I will definitely need friends to help out, I was thinking of filming this at my house or somewhere public like a park, were it’s mostly quiet and interrupted.

Group Meeting 2#

 Dear Readers,

Hope you are doing well. I know I am (for the most part very tired though). Anyways, we had our second group meeting today and probably our last one before the project due date. I got to work with 4 other members and we chatted about how our openings have turned out and what we are going to do for our CCR’s. I was taking the notes during this meeting so here is what I got. Every group members blogger will be linked if you wanted to check out more content

Brynn Notes: https://digitaldazze.blogspot.com/ 

• Teenage girl that gets a mysterious message from boy in math class. They play 20 questions.

• Romance Comedy

• “20 Questions”

• CCR? Doing it today with friend. Questioning

• Scheduling Conflicts

• Fun lighting. LED LIGHTS.

• Costuming. Basic Girl. Minimalist clothing, Comfy clothing

• Everyday Girl Representing. Representing girlhood

• Her house, living room. Bedroom. Kitchen

• Composed her own music

Audrey Notes: https://pangsmedia.blogspot.com/

• Psychological Drama

• Guy, he doesnt think he is bad guy. He realizes he is a bad guy. He see guy that blocks people from speaking with red duct tape, not real guy.

• Red guy has makeup and sound cue that makes audience realize its a hallucination

• Red symbolizes anger

• “Silenced”

• More of a freedom of speech thing.

• Inspired by Cabaret

• Compose her own music. 

• Obstacles, scheduling conflicts. Editing delete. Location Conflicts. Costuming Conflicts. Fixed all of them. 

• Started focusing on CCR. Recreate Street interviews. Billy on the street.

Sergio Notes:https://studyingmedias.blogspot.com/  

• Sports Drama

• Med student with terminal illness, deteriorating muscles. Obsessed over gym to stay alive. Competition of power lifting, he might start liking exercising/ working out because of it.

• Almost done filming.

• Time and location conflicts.

• Pretty straightforward.

• Starts with monologue, voiceover.

• The Batman (2020) inspired. Kinda the same vibe.

• He uses himself for research for this condition. If he does nothing, he becomes severely underweight

• Show, dont tell. Heavily implied.

• Shoot in his house and LA fitness

• He composed his own music, classical.

• CCR, self-interview.

Oona Notes: https://digitaldynamicsz.blogspot.com/   

• Sports Drama, Coming of Age

• “Obsession”.

• Finished filming, editing.

• A girl who is injured and is training for competition falls and gets hurt. Has a healing arc.

• Rely on family and friends. Self-growth journey

• Filmed in the TAG place\

• Proper conflict with Calendar

• CCR, wired autocomplete interview?

Editing :( (it’s actually not bad)

 Dear Reader,

How are we doing? Hopefully good, I can’t see your responses. Anyways editing time. Here’s the thing with editing. When we researched film opening one film opening that stood out to me was the “A simple Favor”. I can’t tell if it was because of the music choice or the fact that the editing felt pretty cool for the title sequence. I want to take a bit of inspiration from that, and I am currently trying how to find out how.

I want to recreate some of those slideshow transition shots (that’s what I am calling it). With my own credit title sequence. I think the best way to do this with the experience I have on premiere pro is using keyframes and adjusting the movement of it on screen. I feel like this could be quite tedious so I am looking for a better method.

Here’s what I am trying to go for. I will be following this tutorial to create those quick animated transitions with the movie shots. I hope this makes it look better and more higher quality within my editing.

CCR Question 1….

 Dear Readers,

Simultaneously with the editing and producing of the film opening we have to work on the CCR, or the Creative Critical Reflection (for long). To sum it up since I have a feeling you already know what that it is basically one big reflection of our work (film opening) in digital format (could be a podcast or a video). It’s basically a directors commentary (seems cool). Anyways we have four main questions to answer. Today I will be answering or scripting my answer for the first question which is:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

That’s a pretty complex question, let’s break this down.

How can “Interwoven” challenges norms and represent groups and issues?

In Order for me to truly answer this question. I need to immerse myself in the story. As you know “Interwoven” is about this disappearance of Margaret Sinclair and the people who are interwoven in her story. We know that her disappearance could have been prevented had she had the right people around her, we also come to question who of her close relatives/friends could have taken advantage of her and her disappearance. In this we question familial and friend dynamics and how much nature or nurture can affect a person. Did Margaret get into the shady drug business because of her own environment and groups of shady people around her (nurture) or is it in her own nature to be unable to notice the flaws of others and herself when it comes to her decisions/way of thinking. We see the detective question this when it comes solving how Margaret came into this situation in the first place and that’s how we address social issue like the debate of nature v.s. Nurture in our film opening.

First Day Of Filming Part 2: Electric Boogaloo𐙚˙✧˖°📷 ༘ ⋆｡ ˚

 Dear Readers,

Of course I didn't want to leave you with a cliffhanger. Here's part two of first day of production. Other than taking about production, I also wanted to give a bit of analysis and what I have to do next. 

(This shot was really cool, I don’t know how we achieved that dark shadows)

If you remember correctly from the script, we kinda have a montage of the detective adding pictures in the bulletin. It's a montage were the credits will play. Here's some clips from that. Note we used the led light to create the cool, purplish blue lighting. Thanks to Samia for her amazing phone storage (truly blessed). Before the day of filming, I tested all the equipment, learning how to set up the LED Color Lamp, it was actually pretty easy and I was stressing for nothing...

I think my favorite part of filming was definitely the inbetweens were I got to set up the shots. It’s fun figuring out and fighting certain obstacles like for example, on of the issues with filming in a dark room with a bright light is the obvious shadows of the camera person. We had to angle the camera, albeit very uncomfortable to get certain shots without the camera person showing. 

Post-Production! (Are we excited or nah?)

 Dear Readers, 

It's been a minute... I miss you. Anyways, let's talk post-production. So basically, here's what I been doing post-production. NOTE: I am going to work with my other friend and film the news reporter scene later this week with my friend! So I am creating a OneDrive folder of all the footage. Currently, I am picking the best shots and dividing them by scene. I have to manually get all the videos from WhatsApp so its taking awhile. 

(Screenshot of My One Drive)

After finishing that, I will decide what videos are needed to be rerecorded and let my partner Samia know. Also let my actors know!

Now here's the big question... where am I going to edit the film opening? Tiktok editing interference. KIDDING, Adobe Premiere Pro. I have experience with editing in this software thanks to this class and class prior. Also its my preferreed program of choice.

FIRST DAY OF FILMING YIPEE𐙚˙✧˖°📷 ༘ ⋆｡ ˚

 Dear Readers,

You have been waiting for this day for your entire life. Not because of Oscars that are taking place as I write this, but because of the first day of filming for Interwoven. I am gonna split this blog post into two parts. The second part is going to come out later this week, I hate to leave you with a cliff hanger, but it most be done.

We filmed for 4 hours straight this Sunday (I know Tarantino is shaking in his boots right now.) We filmed the first minute minute of footage. Including the detective bulletin board sequence and more. Here’s so clips from shooting. Hope you enjoy.

One major obstacle we faced when filming was the bulletin board kept falling from the wall. Unfortunately I know, we had to make an weird double sided tape contraction to make it work and look decent.

(Most of the shots were take on my partners camera, here’s one I took on my phone)

Prop and Costume Preparation Time!˙⋆✮

 Dear Readers, 

It’s been awhile (we talked yesterday). Anyways, it’s time to talk about prop preparations! Tomorrow is the big day, the first day of filming. I know you must be jumping of joy right now. Before we film, we obviously need to get everything ready before then. So let me show you some of the things I did today to prepare. A little a day in the life I guess? At 9:00 am, me and my amazing cousin set out to run errands for the project. Our main objective was to get all the costumes down. We decided to be budget and environmentally friendly by getting our costumes at the goodwill, instead of buying it through bad fast fashion companies (this isn’t shade I just genuinely don’t like fast fashion).

The goodwill looks heavenly. This might be intentional on my part to create symbolism (my camera was dirty)

Here’s our clothing hall. Blazer and navy blue button down shirt. Thank you goodwill for your amazing work.

After that and a trip to Dunkin. I returned home to work on my props. Making small bags to keep evidence like DNA strands and silly substances. Using an iron to melt the plastic to make little bags out of one regular bag I had lying around. I didn’t wanna spend five dollars on a hundred pack of small plastic bags, when I was max going to use 5.

I then worked on creating fingerprint sheets. For this I bought authentic finger print sheets they use a gun dealers (apparently). For the film opening purpose they are for a detective. Then I used my own fingers to create fingerprints