Friday, March 31, 2023

CCR Part 2

 Today I finally completed my second CCR'S script! 



It did take me longer than I had anticipated. The first thing I did was break up the two questions being asked into multiple parts. 

  • How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
  • How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 
After that, I started my script. I decided to use word instead of Celtx Since the information is divided. I think re-reading the paragraphs will make it easier to memorize, as apposed to one long script. It was hard to keep in mind that most of this had to be memorized. I also caught myself forgetting I would be doing my makeup while speaking. This makes it a bit hard to attempt to read off a paper or screen, although I wasn't planning on doing so.

While I was creating the script, I listened to Bailey Sarians video to gain a little inspiration on how to make it all flow. I also watched some CCR examples provided to us.




After re-reading it an exceptional amount of times, I'd say it sounds great!

Here's just a little snip of what it looks like, can't wait to make it come to life!









Wednesday, March 29, 2023

CCR Part 1

Today, 

I worked on my first choice of media for the last two questions for the CCR. 

The powerpoint took me some time but I believe it did a rather good job at outlining the steps I went through to get to where I am now. 
 


I divided the two questions into 7 different slides, 14 all together and 1 reflective slide. Some slides contained minimal information so that the voiceover I Import contains the bulk of information, while others are more in depth visually/written as well.

For the both questions asked, I broke them down into multiple parts, making the information more understandable and organized. For instance, for the question "How did your production skills develop throughout this project?" I organized the slides by....

  • Research and planning
  • Initial approach to concept
  • Final approach to concept
  • Initial approach to video
  • Final approach to video
  • Obstacles
  • An overall reflection at the end


For the question "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?" I organized the slides by the different types of technologies I used throughout. For example for hardware, I used tripods and an IPhone. For online I used Shuffles, Blogger, Youtube, Celtx, etc.

I have all my slides completed, now I just have the voiceover left!



Wednesday, March 22, 2023

Something different

Hi guys, 

 I had a random idea for my CCR that could potentially be a success. I watching YouTube once again but I was getting tired of watching makeup tutorials. Since my feed and algorithm is mainly focused on celebrity get ready with me's, I also see other things they partake in like interviews. I stumbled upon something I thought was ridiculous but still very interesting. 

Now,

before I get into what it was, let me give you some background information about my family. As I added in my description, I come from various cultures. Cuban, Hungarian, Jamaican, and of course, American. Every part of my family is extremely different, yet they all had one thing in common, their love for food. I grew up eating all sorts of different things. From Rice and Beans to Palacsinta to Oxtail to a Fresh Burger. I'm most definitely a foodie. One thing all my cultures food have in common is the importance of spices. This was my attempt of clever transition to...HOT ONES



Hot ones is an American YouTube talk show created by Christopher Schonberger. Its involves celebrities being interviewed while they consume increasingly spicy chicken wings.Throughout the consumption of the wings, Christopher asks celebrities questions about their films and rumors. While doing so, pictures are added on top of the conversation.

For example, Pedro Pascal was asked about his friendship with Nicholas Cage and this image was shown



 I believe this is a fun and intriguing way to answer the questions above. As I mentioned before, spices are rather important to my family, thus I already have hot sauces for the wings. I'll let you guys know if i decide to take part of this wild idea.





The rivalry of idea #2

 

Hey everyone,

I'm still in a pickle for my second media form. The two questions I will be answering in this media form are 

  • How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
  • How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?




Although the powerpoint would give me more time to work on both and will probably be the smarter option,  the interview would be so fun and I can envision it. Let's find the answer!

Option 1: Power point Presentation (Slides containing visuals and information)



Pros

  • A way to present my information in an organized way
  • Easy to use while still being effective
  • Quick for time management

Cons-

  • It may be a tad boring
  • I will need to learn more about it to make my presentation visually interesting


Option 2: Bucket Interview (Interview in which the main person holds a bucket and picks out questions from it)



Pros- 

  • Enjoyable collaborative process
  • Easy to film

Cons-

  • Needs an interviewer which may be difficult to find (everyones busy nowadays)
  • Editing may be tedious since the first form of media will also be edited
  • Writing another script will take up lots of time.


And the winner is...

Power Point Presentation!

Fav Idea

 After doing some research on my previous ideas, this one is my absolute favorite.

Sooo..

The idea is a get ready with me/makeup tutorial, however it isn't any ordinary get ready with me/makeup tutorial. It tells viewers the backstory of the film 9:5 along with some insightful questions answered.

I used to watch youtube a lot. I mean a lot. It has always been so versatile and includes so many of my interested topics. One thing I always loved watching was forensic stories and makeup tutorials. One day, my algorithm introduced my to a woman that does both.


Bailey Sarian is a youtuber who does get ready with me's/makeup tutorials while she informs viewers about gruesome tragedies. Her visuals of imported pictures of the cases and impressive makeup process, as well as the script she creates for each video, all work together in deeply engage her audience. I never get bored watching her videos.




My Approach

I was a little bummed that I didn't chose horror because it won't be as similar, however adding my own twist will still make the video riveting. It was suggested to make the first two questions of the CCR (How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?", the most visual and creative. This sparked my enthusiasm and creativity so I will implement the two questions into this media form. 
Very similar to Bailey, I will use imported pictures from my film, accompanied by a strong script and my skilled makeup look. :)

Wish me luck!


 





Sunday, March 19, 2023

CCR Ideas



Hi everyone!

It's time to move on to our second portion of this project. I'm so excited to move on to the critical reflection. Just like the film opening, there is so much space for creativity. The only difference is there are two forms of media this time and they include information about the film opening previously submitted.

Our task for the CCR is to create a form of media answering the following questions pertaining to the film opening we've created. They can be answered through a podcast, interview, director commentary, powerpoint, and more, you have so much freedom!


Questions

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


I've decided to take the advice of my teacher and split the questions asked into two. Personally, i'm not a powerpoint girl. I do believe two videos will be more challenging than a video and a powerpoint, that's why i'm still brainstorming what I would like to do.


Brainstorming


For the first two questions, I wanted to choose my most creative idea since they're the most complex questions. What I had in mind was a get ready with my or a makeup tutorial, since I love making them in my free time anyways, why not contribute something important to it. This grwm will be a little different though, as it will have imported pictures and a story.





For my other two questions, I'm debating whether I should do a question bucket with the director (me), a 73 questions from vogue inspired video, or a powerpoint presentation. I believe all three of them are great and fit for the questions, I'm just still unsure.







     

Friday, March 17, 2023

Thursday, March 16, 2023

Almost Done Editing!

 We're almost there!

The end of the film opening is quickly approaching. I've taken this week to focus on editing the film. Here was my checklist

  • Clips Together
This was an easy process, all I did was import the clips and cut them to my liking :)
  • Baby Audio
To layer the baby audio over the title slide, I used Y2MP3 to convert this non copyright video (135) Baby crying sound no copyright. You can download it. - YouTube into a file that I could import into my project.
  • Color Effects
The color effects for this film took me the most amount of time. Since the visuals played the main role over the audio, I wanted to make them just how I'd envisioned them. 
I lowered the exposure and added a blue tint on every clip to hint sadness and emptiness. One big challenge within the coloring aspect was the fact that every clip had different lighting, which made it a bit harder to match them all. 
Ex. 


  • Fade on Frame 
For the close up shot of the frame that fell, I wanted to create a fade to focus to draw viewers attention to the picture in the middle. I did this by reversing the clips and then adding the fade.



  • Fonts
As for the fonts, I was a little disappointed. For the title, I really wanted a typewriter font. After downloading the font from adobe fonts, I thought it would show up in adobe premiere.  Sadly, it didn't show. As an alternative, I chose the font Shree Devanagari 714 on adobe premiere.



  • Foley sounds
The editing for this film was tedious, however, since I applied myself it made it less difficult. The videos I watched and the time I had to get feedback from my peers in class drastically helped better my editing choices. As you can see, out of my whole editing checklist, I'm missing one more thing on the list. The foley sounds. I have already recorded most of the foley sounds, but I still need to manipulate them into sounding clearer. In the audio process, I also need to check which clips need the foley or can just use their original audio. 


Sunday, March 12, 2023

Second Day Of Filming Fun


 Now, 

I will say this filming day was easier than the last. It was definitely a more enjoyable process. Today, I filmed the at home portion of the film opening. I started out by filming the simple shots of spaces in our apartment, I'm so excited they look exactly as I planned. I then proceeded to prepare the mise-en-scene elements for the remainder of the opening. 

Some examples are displayed below


Ex. 1: The messy desk


Ex. 2: Mom getting into costume


Ex. 3: I had to use my dogs crate as a desk since it was the only flat space next to the couch 



After all the setting and costuming elements were set, it was time for the acting to begin. My moms job as an actress today was to angrily shuffle through bills and throw them to a picture of us. Obviously, the picture had to fall. The shuffling through bills was fine, but throwing them hard enough to knock over the frame wasn't quite as easy. There were two separate shots of the knocking over the frame. Shot #1 wide medium shot of her shuffling then throwing the bills, knocking down the frame. Shot #2 close up of the frame falling. Let me just say, there was a lot of takes for each of the two shots. (About 15 as an estimate)

I've attached some of my favorite bloopers of each shot below. 

Shot #1


Shot #2


Overall
I had a ton of fun filming with my mom today and everything turned out according to plan. The bloopers were aggravating at times, due to their repetitiveness, but they just made the finally shot all the more rewarding. I'm so excited to start putting it all together :)














Saturday, March 11, 2023

The First Day of Madness


Day 1 of filming

 Yesterday was filing day and let me just say, it did not go as I expected. P.S. my mom and I ate very punctual people as well as organized, everyone has there days :)


Obstacle 1

since the campus closes at 7 p.m. and school ends at 3, the plan was to go home get everything and then head on to our filming location. When we got home, her costuming wasn’t dry, so we had to come up with a plan b. At my grandmothers she thought she had another pair… turns out she didn’t. Sooo, we went back to our apartment to see if the scrubs had dried and thankfully, they did.

Obstacle 2

We were set and on our way, or so we thought. I was so stressed about the costuming, I completely forgot about the props. We were already half way and we had to turn around AND IT WAS ALREADY 5:(

 

Getting passed the obstacles

I was extremely stressed about timing once we had arrived and wether or not the building would be open. However, on a brighter note, all the buildings were open and I didn’t run short on time! The fact that we got there later actually made the visuals easier to edit since the lighting was a little darker. The shots came out so nice and I’m ecstatic about how they’re going to look after I edit them. 


Down the stairs long shot



At desk medium shot 


I will continue and complete filming the at home portion of the opening tomorrow. 





Wednesday, March 8, 2023

Learning Techniques/Another Minor Bump in the Road

The bump

I was planning on filming my project last week to get ahead of the game as we know i'm a beginner editor, therefore the editing i'm trying to accomplish will be a bit more tedious. However, I couldn't film last week, due to the fact that I was at the hospital taking care of my grandmother. She just got a tumor removed from her brain. I’m so proud of the progress she’s made and i’m so happy to have stuck by her side to help her through it. I wouldn't call the surgery an inconvenience because it's the course of life, but it was a tad bit inconvenient. There were times I was so eager to film, I thought about doing some shots in the hospital, but at the end of the day, family comes first and I know that I will work hard with whatever amount of time I have.


 Now I've further planned my schedule and have my filming date set for tomorrow :)




In the meantime, I've been using my time wisely, searching and watching editing videos, so that i'm already ready by the time I get to that part of my journey.

I began with a simple video on color. As we all know, color schemes and tints have a great impact on setting the tone of a film. For instance, the darker and cooler the tints could help to convey there's a sad tone. Whereas lots of yellows and warm hues may convey a happier tone. As I've mentioned before this is a key element in the understanding of my idea. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=omtuw1Ua2Qk&t=312s


Another thing I was sure I needed to research was how to import my own font into adobe premire. In my previous blog, I talked about my title and attached the font I would like to use for my title. I'm still not sure whether or not I will be using this font for all the text throughout the film opening yet, but either way, I wasn't sure how to use a font outside of the ones given.


This video was quick and helpful in guiding me step by step on how to do this. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1vr0A_CXPKg


Lastly, for sound I decided not to watch any videos because I had another idea in mind. My film opening will not contain lots of sound so, however the little bit of sounds it does include, I want to be prominent and strong. Soo...I asked a friend in class with lots of experience with sound for some advice, and he said he would help me out :) Once I have my footage, I will blog my progress and changes Martin has helped me with, regarding the sound. 


Friday, March 3, 2023

CCR Lesson

 In class today, 

we learned more about the Creative Critical Reflection. Before this lesson, I was very nervous about the CCR. The fact that it's such a big portion of my work, made me scared. Thankfully our teacher explained and broke down the CCR in great depth, so that the class would understand what is expected from us.

 Purpose

We were first introduced with the purpose of the CCR. We are given the task to create and blog our film openings over the span of 9 weeks. I now know that the creative critical reflection is meant to reflect on the planning, production process, and final production. All the blogs I have made and continue to make have cumulated all the information needed, which makes the CCR much easier.

 Ideas

Our professor also gave us various ideas of CCR's we could form. Some of the following examples are listed below:

  • Talk Show
  • Powerpoint Presentation
  • Enhanced Podcast
  • Director Commentary


There are many more and I already have an idea of what I would like to do, but i'm gonna save that for later. :)


                                          The Questions



The main things required to include into our CCR are the four questions we're told to answer. Not only were we informed of what the questions were, but also how to further break the question down, to make sure every part is accessed. This was very helpful, as the questions can sound a little tricky at times. 


 The End :

The teachings closed with how to end our CCR and helpful tips to make sure the result is concrete. 

  • Close CCR- Talk about what you've learned, what you'd do differently, and how you could improve your work in the future.

  •  Helpful Tips- Creating a script, Present information in a creative way, be sure to cite and incorporate research.


Thursday, March 2, 2023

Title + Logo

 Ever since

the project was introduced, I always knew it would have to do with something personal to me. Something that has had a great impact on my life. My mom plays an immense role in my life. Her as well as my grandmothers story is rather interesting. Different, but interesting. However, one thing they both have in common is they've always been hard workers. 

SOOO..

I decided the title should focus around work but still hold a deep meaning, a lot like the beginning of the film opening. I decided to name it 9-5.  The phrase 9-5 is used in many song lyrics of artists, such as Dolly Parton's song titled 9-5. This saying is always used to represent hard working and exhaustion. I think this perfectly fits the situation my main character will be acting out.

As for the font, I asked my peers how they would visualize it. The title will be very prominent on the screen. It will be placed over black so it will be the main focus. After a bit of chatting, we agreed that a typewriter font would be the best option. Although this may not make sense, the typewriter reminded us all of a clocking in sound .The clicking of a typewriter also reminded us of the loop my main character is in.



I found this font on the website
https://www.1001fonts.com/search.html?search=typewriter&page=4 
There were over 21 typewriter fonts, but this is the one that caught my eye.

Tiny problem

The only problem is I originally wanted my title to be white, however, now that I see it in black I might like it more. Since my title is at the end, I might have to add in a little clip after. If I decide to do this, I will layer the title over this clip. The only reason I wouldn't do this is because the clip won't match the non diegetic sound of the baby crying and the title wouldn't be displayed in the bold way I wanted it to.



Project Components

 Here's the link for intertwined social media page! https://www.instagram.com/officialintertwined?igsh=MWo4NnhuaTRvazVmNg%3D%3D&utm_...