Reflection Period

The End of the Road

So, this is the end of the road. I enjoyed our memories together! But before I say goodbye to your blog, I’d like to go over and reflect on this project. I know what you’re thinking, what is there that you haven’t already said, Lee? How much more can you possibly talk about?

My answer is, no matter how much I talk about there is always more for me to talk about! Looking back, there are things I did that I needed to improve upon this project and there are things I did oh so right.  

 

The Opening

Okay, let’s stop being vague and explain my exact thoughts on this project. To start, I was very excited to start. Making my own film! It sounded so cool. But the daunting task of these blogs scared me. A lot. But honestly, I wish I had made more! Writing blogs filled me with ideas and strategies on how to carry out those ideas. It gave me more energy and determination to complete my opening and everything around it. One could argue that I should have a better structure to my blogs and maybe make it more formal, but just writing out the first thoughts that come to mind does me more good than waiting until I can phrase my thoughts properly. This way I get more thoughts and more ideas. I can just talk and talk and talk some more, which will help me plan and plan some more. 

Overall, the blogs are a way for me to brainstorm and organize my many thoughts. I always looked back through my blogs and it always made me figure something out or helped me remember what I wanted for a certain aspect of the project. I loved having them and enjoyed making them because I was able to fully put my personality into them.

Group Work

When it came to working with a group… well, to be incredibly honest with you… I wouldn’t do it again. Don’t get me wrong! My group was awesome. They helped me out so much and came up with terrific ideas. They brought skills into the project that I could only dream of currently having. This project is (hopefully) successful because of them. With that, we did a story completely different than what I wanted, which is fine, seeing as it was a team effort, and having to plan around so many schedules was rough. It was overall great to work with them! But I do wonder how much different my story would be on my own, and how much better scheduling would be if I chose to only have maybe one other teammate or myself. There would be many parts to my film that would be poor without such an awesome and large team, but the opening would feel more like mine and I may of had a better handle over the project with only myself or maybe one other person.

The opening came out great. The shots look gorgeous and it is edited in a very clean and crisp way. The story overall make sense, and it fits our vision. We ran into a lot of issues making the opening, but were able to save those issues in a super awesome way! I will say, there is one specific part of the opening that I edited that I was proud of and very happy about, because it was a way to fix a missing shot and to make the story of the opening make sense, Then my partner took my draft took the part away for “looking goofy” and replaced it with something that made the story less apparent. The rest of the group was fine with it, so despite me asking if we could find a way to bring that aspect back in, we never did. And with other missing shots, and the story being changed so much, it isn’t what I wanted it to be.

My opening is overall great. But I want to be honest with you guys when reflecting, but do not take my criticisms for anger or disappointment. At the end of the day my team and I are very happy with how the opening turned out!

The CCRs

The CCRs were to be honest, a little brutal to make. I made them as fun as I could, but I just finished making the opening and was exhausted with a lot of my classes. Making the blog posts for the CCRs helped, but couldn’t prepare me for the rough and long shoots and, to be honest, miserable editing process. It took longer than I planned to finish them. I planned to take only two days to film both and a day or two to edit both as well. Unfortunately, it took four days for me to fully film, and three days to finish editing. I had a 6-hour editing session just to not finish my first CCR. There may be a part of me being a slow editor, but man, it took me a while. I do think that the reflection that CCRs forced me to do was very valuable, but the work I put into it currently does not feel worth it.

Overall, this project was fun! I enjoyed the production process and growing as a content creator! These blogs were honestly the most useful I learned about, and I will try to incorporate something like this for future projects! Thank you for reading all this time, and I’ll miss you blog!

XOXO,

Lee!

The Final Products

 

The final Products!

Here is my film opening: 

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1IwuzwbwwPxfEM99_njGlUpqaBJ7oFZ2N/view?usp=sharing

Definitely need it to be a real film by now! I'm very proud of the work my team and I put in, and I hope you enjoyed the challenge of creation with me and are just as proud as we are!

CCR #1:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CSwP0BKNWiqitgJd88kSEibu4qWQ_lDj/view?usp=sharing

Look at me go! I just turned 18 and got my first Oscar. I'm so awesome! The footage was a total of 58 minutes, just for the edited piece to be 5 minutes 39 seconds, but hey, at least the green screen went well!

CCR #1

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1T3JGymIiqb5fSkcOSkfwWBvglMi6z3Kx/view?usp=sharing

Oh man, Oscars and now night shows. The public just can't get enough of me! The footage here was 1 hour 9 minutes, but the edited down version was only 4 minutes 4 seconds! Man, was that challenging.

Thank you for the time you took to read my blogs, watch some of my vlogs, and now watch the final products. I hope you enjoyed your time as much as I did!

Editting into Oblivion

 Editing the CCRs!

Well, editing is taking much longer than I thought it would. I luckily am done with my first CCR video, so let's talk about it!

This took me a total of around 7~8 hours to edit. You may be wondering why such a long time. Well, I used a lot of graphics, created closed captions, and condensed a 58-minute video into 5 minutes and 39 seconds! This took a lot out of me, and unfortunately, I do not see myself finishing anywhere near my original schedule. 

I was worried that creating the greenscreen effect on Premiere Pro was going to be difficult but honestly, it was nothing. I went to Adobe is self and learned all about how to do it. It's all about using the Ultra Key tool and keying the background out.

But despite that success, I still have a long way to go and few failures like the graphics not being up to my typical standards. Am I a little bumbed out by this? Yes, I am. But it does show to me that I gave myself a good amount of time to edit and that I am (hopefully) putting in good work for this project.

Time to do Number Two

I think CCR video #2 will be much easier since it has less content, and most graphics are coming from the footage I already have. Be that as it may, I still need a lot of luck! 

Moving Right Along

 Production of my two CCR Videos

Whoo! I am almost done! Let me tell you guys, I am tired!!! I just finished wrapping up the film opening just to start the process of making two completely new and in-depth videos. Usually I enjoy these kinds of projects, but there was so much hassle with production, I just can't wait to be done!

My first CCR video was me giving an Oscar acceptance speech. I had to find an area that would be perfect to create a green-screen effect. That turned out to be simpler than I thought! But unfortunately, the day I originally filmed became a very bad day, and I had to halt production until the next day :(. Then, the day after, I filmed my second. That went a lot smoother, but I had to direct one extra person to pass me, and my mom had the unfortunate task of being my camera woman and she wasn't feeling so great afterwards.

My first CCR video has a total of 58 minutes of footage that I will have to go through. My second has an hour and 9 minutes! My next statement will be sarcastic. I am very excited to edit these.

Final Question! (CCR #4)

 Wrapping Up

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

In my opinion, this question is the easiest to answer. All I have to do is remember my tools and explain how I used them! So let's take a step back and look at all the hardware and software I've used during this project.

Hardware: The Physical Things Used in Production

• Camera: Canon Ti7
• Our Phones
• My Laptop
• Headphones/Earphones

Software: The Physical Things Used in Production

• Premiere Pro
• Canva
• Blogger
• CapCut
• Pixabay
• Bulletproof Bear
• Google
• Docs
• Search Engine
• Word
• Voice Memos

The Final Part of my Script

Host: Please leave

Me: There was a lot of helpful hardware and software for me and my team. Let's start with the hardware When filming we used a Ti7 Cannon Camera to get the beautiful shots we did, while using our phones to get behind the scenes shots and to record some voice lines. Then we took the SD card from that camera,  put it into a USB C SD card adapter to then transfer the footage onto my beautiful laptop. Using some headphones to listen into the audio I began to edit! 

Host: Is that all?

Me: Oh goodie, you're interested! Let's go on to my software! When planning the opening, we used Blogger, Google Docs, and Word to write down our ideas and line everything out. We used WhatsApp to easily communicate between each other as well as share the ideas written on the previously mentioned software. We also used Google's search engine to research and find all the information needed to create this opening as well as access other software. While filming, we used voice memos to record certain sounds and voice lines to get a better audio than what the camera would provide. With all the behind footage we had, we used Cap Cut as an easy and quick way to edit them together. To edit my opening I used Premiere Pro! The best editing software out there and the software that I am certified in. When looking for sound effects, I used the site Pixabay where I was able to download many different kinds of sounds to add into the video. For our song used the majority of the opening, it was found on Bulletproof Bare, which provides quality copyright-free music. Making the credits was bit of a tricky task, but the talented Sofia was able to go on to Canva to not only pick the font but animate the text too! All I had to do was import that text into Premiere Pro. And boom! A film was made!

Host: Are you finally done?

Me: mmmmm maybe....

CCR Number 3!

 Time to do Question 3!

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

My answer to this question may not be what one would expect. I already had a great deal of production experience before hand from my work with my very advanced television production class to my technical work and performance in professional theater. So, although I had a great deal of improvement in attention to detail and caring about all the small things, the biggest improvement, and maybe something I still need to improve on in productions is collaboration! Let's talk about it (and make my CCR script)

The Script for Question 3

Okay first, let me explain how I'm going to answer this question. Close your eyes and imagine your favorite late night talk show. Well, actually, you need your sight to read so maybe don't close your eyes. Just imagine it! Now, the host is about to bring out your favorite celebrity ever! Oh you're so excited! The crowd is cheering! You see foot steps and then... it's... me? Huh? Everyone is confused except for me, for I am a professional yapper, and oh man am I going to yap you're ears off! In a timely manner, of course.

Host: Welcome back to Another Late Night Show! Let's not keep you waiting anymore. Please welcome to the stage Robert Downy Jr!

[applause]

Me: [walks out] Oh thank you! Thank you! Stop it, you're all too kind. Hello!

Host: Uh you're not-

Me: Shhhhhhhh. Thank you, Jim, for inviting me to talk about my film opening project!

Host: My name isn't Jim...

Me: I'm sure you saw my lovely Oscar acceptance speech for it (NOTE: Other CCR video is Oscar acceptance speech)

Host: I didn-

Me: Great! Well then let me talk about something different so I don't vote you to death HAHAHAHHHA

[laugh track]

Host: Who's laughing?

Me: Going into this project, I was very confident with my production skills. I mean I was in an advanced television production class and have worked with all aspects of theater production! What was I going to run into that I couldn't do? AHAHHAHahhahhaa...ha... There was a lot, Jim. I lot. I have a huge ego and am too much of an overthinker. Terrible combo, I know. It makes me miss many important things when it comes to making productions such as this one. Sure, I had the basics of production down to a science. But there's so much more than just setting up a tripod and hitting record on a camera. Let's start at the beginning, pre-production.

Planning is the majority of a production, believe it or not. Making this opening, and preparing what there was to be done came with a lot of learning curves. The biggest being the typing out every little step I planned on doing and posting it onto my blog. I talked in depth about my characters, settings, costumes, storylines, and so much more. Sure, I've done a story board and created a script before, but typing out all of our ideas about what I and my team wanted our story to be and the research needed to be done wasn't something I was used to. I discovered two things when creating these blogs. 1) Writing everything out and having a plan for every step of production makes things so much easier and 2) I love doing it. Creating the blogs was at times stressful, but at most times was very enjoyable for me. I wrote a lot and felt more prepared because of it. Sometimes I will be confused or unsure of what I was going to do when the time came to film, but then, I just kept writing and the ideas just kept coming to me. I now feel more capable of fleshing out my ideas and coming up with solid production plans instead of just winging it whenever I film.

Production is what I thought I was a pro at by now, but I still have a long way to go. But through this project I think I've gone a little bit further. Typically when filming, I take a long time. However, I was working with a fast-paced team who have been doing TV production even longer than me and go at a very quick pace when filming compared to me. With this fast-paced filming, we were able to get a lot more shots than I typically would be able to get, however, because they go at such a quick pace, we missed shots that were important to our story. That being a shot of the cover of our main character's comic book and a shot of our main character looking out the window. When I filmed, I took more time with it and redid many of my shots, and was constantly looking for something new to film. Both types of filming have their merits, but seeing the issues with the two, I think I need to find a pace that's within the middle. And you remember how I said how important that planning was, we needed to reference that planning while filming so we don't let important details slip underneath the cracks, such as those two shots we talked about and discussed the importance in our blogs.

Post-production of this project showed me that I need to be more organized when I edit. I was a wreck going back and forth, back and forth, looking for clips and looking back at the blog, script, and storyboard to edit properly. It was a lot to keep track of, and not too much time to do so. I needed to edit fast, but also keep every detail we wanted in. So, I used the feature for the first time ever when editing on Premier Pro, used the feature that lets you organize the clips and audio into their own special folders. It helped me stay so insanely organized and keep track of what I was doing. Definitely going to use this strategy again when I edit another big project. 

Alongside this, collaboration was surprisingly huge in improving my production skills. No matter what production you do, you will always in some form, have to collaborate with others. In fact, the more you collaborate, the better your production may turn out. However, with the help comes compromise. There was a lot of compromise needed to achieve my production since I was working with a team of three other people. We are all very passionate. Passionate people have a lot of passions. We had to work around everyone's schedule, and that was hard with MaKenna's color guard competitions, my busy school life, and Madison and Sofia's TV production projects, there was a lot to work around. Especially when we lost Sofia and Madison to a TV production competition for an entire week! No camera, no crew, just two girls figuring out other ways to further their opening project while the other half of the team was gone. Relying on others can be fun, but can also be a nightmare. Luckily, once they returned, it became fun once again! We all got together immediately on their return to film. Besides time compromise, there was also the compromise of story. Some elements of the opening I'm not a huge fan of, the title of our opening, The Guide to Saving a Princess, being a huge one. But my team compromises on some production elements for some things I want. I just had to get over myself and realize that we are a team. We want everyone to be happy with what was created. If I don't like the title but the rest of my team does, then so be it. I'm sure I put some elements in the story they don't love either. I had to understand that working as a team means doing what is best for the team.

So what did we learn here?

Host: That you don't know when to stop talking?

Me: That this film-opening project improved my planning skills, attention to detail, filming skills, organization, and collaboration in terms of a production!

Host: {sarcastic) How awesome....

Me: It is awesome! You know what else is awesome? What I used to do all of that!

{PART 2 AWAITS YOU IN MY NEXT BLOG POST}

Another Group Meeting?

 Another One?

Yes, another one! I am very glad we had another group meeting, as it was really helpful in fleshing out all of our ideas and making us feel more confident in what we have created thus far. In this group meeting, we discussed what we had completed for our film opening, how we planned on finalizing it, and our plans for our CCR. Do you want paragraphs explaining every group member's project? I hope you said yes, because you're going to get it!

(Michael is in the front bottom, Matias is behind towards the left, in the far left corner is Camila, Peyton is in the top right corner, and finally there's me on the right below Peyton)

 

As we gathered together, we went to find each other's blogs and look through them quickly to spot any issues with accessing each other's blogs and/or discussing the aesthetics of the blogs. Luckily, everyone was able to get onto everyone's blog, and there truly wasn't any major blog aesthetic issues either. In fact, I loved both Peyton's and Cami's blogs. Peyton had such an adorable background to her blog, and Cami had the best layout I have seen on anyone's blog. Unfortunately, Cami was unsure of how she got her blog the way it is, so I will have to figure out her mysterious ways on my own.

Technically, we discussed the CCRs next, but I want to discuss our openings first, so that is exactly what I will do!

Peyton, like everyone, has finished filming! Yay! Her issue was figuring out what to use to edit and how to edit. Michael, Matias, and I all encouraged her to use Premiere Pro and taught her to access it and use it, since Premiere Pro is the best editing software to use and free thanks to our school. She talked about the problems she ran into while filming and how she overcame them. For example, she and her partner were supposed to film in school, but a substitute didn't allow them to go out and film in class, so instead they had to film the scenes at home and change the story to fit the set change. 

Cami didn't have much to say. She was just happy with how her project was going, and I am very happy for her. Matias still needed to film one more scene, and Michael is also very happy with how his project is going.

Okay, I was expecting to talk longer about that... but that's okay! Onto the more important topic of discussion which was the CCR. Unfortunately for Peyton and Camila they were not present on the day that the directions for the CCR were fully explained. So Matias, Michael, and I did our best to explain all the details of the CCR and what they needed to do. We answered all the questions they had to the best of our ability and I sent my notes to them as well as my first CCR blog post in which I explained all the questions in great detail. With this help they were able to come up with an idea.

Peyton is thinking about doing a podcast for two of her CCRs and an interview type video for her other two. Michael is doing a "What do you do for a living?" influencer video. Matias is doing a director's input video. And I'm planning on doing an Oscar acceptance speech and a late night talk show. Hoping the best for all of us!

What I got most out of this group meeting was making a schedule for the last week and a half we have left to complete this project and enjoy our Spring Break. Both Peyton and I wanted to complete this project by Friday, March 21st, or if we must push it, March 22nd. So we looked at what the aspects of this project needed and decided on a great schedule to follow to reach that goal. 

Saturday, March 15th- Finish editing opening.

Sunday, March 16th- Be Done with CCR script

Tuesday, March 18th- Finish Filming 1st CCR Video

Thursday, March 20th- Finish Filming 2nd CCR Video

Friday, March 21st- Try to Finish Editing Both and Post Opening and CCRs

Saturday, March 22nd- Definitely be done by now.

I'm going to do my best to fully commit to this schedule and get everything done nicely and not have to stress during Spring Break with the looming deadline of March 25th. 

This group meeting made me feel like I am on track with good timing. I am more confident in my team and the film we've created. And with explaining the CCR in detail with my group I'm definitely more confident in what I'm creating for it.