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.

Second Steps of A CCR

 Question Two of CCR!

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

This CCR question is about how the choices we make within this film target a specific audience as well as how we plan on distributing our film. I've already done some good research of the target audience of my film, so I'm going to start formulating a script for this portion of the CCR video. However, I definitely need to look up ways to distribute a short two-minute opening, but also will develop a script for it.

Target Audience-Script (pt1 of question 2)

Now, I know what you're thinking, "were you thinking of me while creating this film?" Well, if you were my target audience, then yes! The target audience had a strong influence over our film creation! We wanted to make teenagers and even young adults, mostly 13-21, could relate to and feel seen by, since that is typically the goal of Coming-of-Ages. At those ages, people tend to want to figure themselves out and be seen by society as something more than just a kid. But they, aren't fully sure how to do that, or what to do for that. Atticus has such a strong passion and learns how to properly handle that passion in hopes to teach these teens and young adults healthy ways to use their passion as well. But we can't just simply teach these young people without attracting them first. So how did we do that? Well, the opening was made to have three settings that are typically very comfortable for teenagers. A car and two bedrooms. A teenager loves their bedroom. It is their space to get away from the world. That's what we wanted to make their bedroom. Atticus's room is full of his whimsical and fantasy-like toys/decor as well as all of his beloved art supplies and comics. Meanwhile, Aurora's room is full of pictures of when she was happy with friends and family alongside all of the cameras she loves. The rooms are set up this way because it is what makes Atticus and Aurora feel most comfortable. Cars, are different. An older teen, and especially a young adult, rely on their car if they have one. Cars give these young people freedom to do and go where they please. It allows them to explore this world, whether it be safely or daringly. These two things are very special to young people and we needed to make it apparent that they were special to our characters as well. 

Let's not forget, our LGBTQ audience. There is a queer relationship in this film. To reach queer community, we must represent that relationship authentically. On top of it being queer, it is very toxic and Aurora eventually leaves Kai, and get with Atticus, a boy, afterwards. That doesn't make a lot of LGBTQ+ audiences happy, and there being a gay relationship in the first place doesn't make other people happy either. Our film wouldn't do so well if we had both the queer community and homophobes mad at the movie. So, we naturally had to target the LGBTQ audience by representing the queer elements well for representing them alongside representing ourselves. That's why having someone not make a big deal of the gender they date is important and is what we plan on doing. Handling the toxic relationship in the same way as handling a heterosexual toxic relationship was crucial. And that's what we did. We showed a gay relationship and normalized it. We also normalized someone not caring what gender she dated but instead their character.

Alongside that, we needed to make things cool. Or what teenagers think is cool. A car going fast and almost hitting someone, in a teenager's mind, is very exciting! We want to attract teenagers, not bore them. Alongside that, many artistic kids love to watch art on the screen! So having Atticus be the artist that he his and demonstrate some of his art definitely helps! Costuming had to be stuff that typical teenagers wear, and since we are typical teenagers, we just used our wardrobe. Well, Madison and I, who were actually typical teenagers. Atticus is a little different, so he shows that in his different wardrobe. The story also includes a lot of fights and action to keep the attention of our target audience as well as very serious storylines that may be faced by typical young people. Toxic relationships are a topic we cover that happen to 33% of American youth. We want those struggling with that kind of relationship to be seen. We won't shy from the hardships that many go through in relationships. We want to show the arguments, the fights, the betrayals, all of it. Because it is something that needs to be seen. Especially the way that Aurora gets out of that relationship. In the opening, it only shows the controlling behavior of Kai and the fighting nature of their relationship.

Now we had an audience, now we just needed to get it to them...

Distrabution Research/Script (pt2 of quenstion2)

Distributing films is how you get that target audience to actually see what you're targeting them for. Without distribution, what I said up there is just a bunch of nonsense. But how exactly do I plan to distribute my "big name film" if it's not actually a big name film? Well...

Social Media:

• Instagram
• TikTok
• Twitter/X
• ***YOUTUBE***

Some Sites I Found To Upload To:

• Vimeo
• ***Youtube***
• Kinema
  
• Filmd
  

Film Submissions:

• Miami Film Festival
• Shorts.tv- Submit our film and see what they say
  

Script: Let me tell you guys a secret.... I didn't actually create a whole entire film. Only the first two minutes of it! I know! I know! I'm a terrible person. But look guys, making a full length film... is a lot of work. But hey, you can still watch these brilliant two films! I plan to distribute it on all kinds of different sites. Sites like Vimeo, Kinema, Filmd, and not to mention social media like Instagram, TikTok, Twitter- ahem- X, and of course YouTube. So you might not be able to see this film in big name movie theaters but you could catch me and my film at the Miami Film Festival, and cross your fingers that my submission to Shorts.tv gets picked up and possibly placed on the silver screen just as you all want! But truly, the best distribution choice not just for me but for any short, very short, film maker to get the largest reach is no doubt YouTube. All of my target audience is on it, and most of everyone else's target audience is on it. It's accessible from most places with internet, and even gives ya a little ca-ching if it does well. But to maybe achieve greater success, Miami Film Festival and Shorts.tv might give me and my team the biggest big break we need! 

Important Development!

 Breaking News!

As you know I yap a lot. Typically, I know what I am yapping about. But I fear, I missed one crucial detail that I must share with you all right now! That is that Kai, the main antagonist to our main character Sam/Atticus is now a female! Yes everyone, gasp. Kai was originally male, but because Kai is being played by a female, and our team members are mostly queer, we decided to change direction just a little bit. That little bit making Kai a woman, and therefore in a queer relationship with Aurora.

How will this change things?

It doesn't change much! The story remains the same, however, the representation changes. Instead of just a toxic relationship, we are now representing a queer toxic relationship. Something that is barely seen in media. Because of the political state of the world, I feel that recently most queer relationships shown are more wholesome or sweet rather than being layered with issues. So representing a toxic relationship is one thing, but adding the queer experience to that changes how many will view these characters and even the outcome of the story!

For example, currently in the LGBTQ community, a woman leaving another woman and then dating a man afterwards is heavily frowned upon. That is what happens in our story. Many may not like this plot point, but it is a very common thing to happen. I've personally known four girls who have dated a woman and then dated a man afterwards. They hate these girls got was so weird and not right. 

On the flip side, homophobia is still very present. The idea of two people of the same gender dating people disgusts people. I myself have been the victim of homophobia, and this is not right either. Perhaps, if we represent that for some people, the gender does not matter, but how the person treats them, people may come to be more accepting of both dating the same gender and also dating the opposite gender.

Representation is important, and so I am actually very happy to be adding this intriguing storyline into our production. While I personally have a preference for one gender, many are open to multiple, so it's time to show that more and hopefully let people be more accepting of that.

First Steps into Creative Critical Reflection

Please Lee, Explain What a CCR Is!

Well if you insist! A Creative Critical Reflection, or CCR, is an overview done by yours truly of the entire process of my video product. I do this through two different media types, most likely a video that reflects on the production, responds to the questions, and expresses my personality! So, it needs to be reflective, responsive, and creative. 

The Power of Sound

 Foley!

Foley is the creation of sound effects for films/shows, videos, and other kinds of media. It's used to make the video feel more whole since the cameras don't capture the sounds as well as adding those sounds in! For our film opening, we intend on creating some specific sounds, and of course I'll show you that process, as well as add in sounds from helpful sites like Pixabay and Bulletproof Bear. 

As you may or may not remember, we are behind in filming, so the sound effects I can fully edit in will be for two short clips. You'll of course see a better, more extensive use of sound effects in future blog posts, but I am currently doing as much as I can now. 

What I Did!

There will be music over this, but there still needs to be background noise to make this opening feel whole, so even if the noise is so quiet you can barely hear it, I want it there. I watched my 16-second video over and over again and placed sound that I thought should be there or envisioned to be there until the scene felt complete! I used Pixabay for all sound effects within this scene. I didn't feel the need to create foley for this scene since I was able to easily find everything. But not to worry, because I still want to create foley!

Creating Foley

For the major scene we plan to film, I do have some sounds I can create now for future use! These sounds are the sound of drawing, the chair creaking, and Atticus falling. So, here's a short montage of me creating those sounds!

I'm excited to place these with the shots I'm seeing in my mind, as well as finding new sound effects to put in. It's kind of fun if you ask me! And as always, I'll keep y'all updated! 

First Steps of Editing

 Editing!!

I genuinely enjoy editing! It's one of my favorite parts of this whole production process! I enjoy acting too, but editing is where I feel my skills shine, and I hope to prove with the editing of this film opening. There isn't anything too crazy planned, most of it just being cuts to different angles and actions. That doesn't mean this role of editing should be taken lightly, since it is just as important as most of the factors of this production. So come with me, as I edit the few clips I have together to have a clear and consistent scene that fits into the time constraints.

(Screenshot was not working, I fear)

I'm currently editing Aurora's solo scenes, which isn't much, but I have to make sure to keep them short and sweet while including everything we want to. I will say, keeping things short is definitely my biggest struggle when I edit, so I am fearful of this, but as long as I make sure her scene is no more than 10 seconds we'll be fine! 

Well...

The video is 16 seconds instead of my hoped for 10 seconds (or less), but I did what felt right and natural, so I am not too upset. I will have to wait until I get all clips to see if it's much of an issue or not. For now, it's an alright time and it looks good so there is no huge outcry for this situation.

I know it isn't much, but it's all I can do right now! It's better to have this done than to add another "scene" on top of everything else I'd have to edit. The blog post for editing the big scenes is going to go insane!

The Rise and Fall of Production

 The Good News!

Sofia and Madison are back from STN! Our whole team is back, the equipment is here, and we are ready to get rocking on rolling to get back on track with our filming! 

 The Bad News!

Madison is sick, our lead actor can't film, and I can't film this weekend. Making us behind... AGAIN!

So What?

Sofia, Kenna, and I found a day and place we could film the scene with Aurora in her room after school. Sofia's house was perfect since her room had a window facing the street the same way my neighbor's house does. The plan for when we film at my house has Atticus looking longingly at his neighbor's house, which is Aurora! So filming in a different house in the perfect placement was, well, perfect! 

Sofia checked out a camera, we agreed at a time to meet up, gathered good props, and when the time came, met up and filmed! 

You don't want to read me yap about the process, you wanna see it! So here's our little vlog of creating the set of Aurora's room!

The story of this scene is simply Aurora getting ready to go out with her boyfriend Kai. Alongside that, we also filmed Auora's (my) reaction to Kai almost hitting Atticus with his car and leaving her room. 

We filmed multiple shots of me brushing my hair and putting my make-up on. Alongside that, we put some focus on the props we placed around to represent Aurora since she is a photographer who loves, and misses, her friends. We got a shot that would be Atticus's view of Aurora. Finally, we filmed Aurora seeing the commotion between Kai and Atticus, and running out to apologize and leave with Kai.

Here's some cool photos and videos of us filming!

This was a very successful session, but we still have a long way to go and not much time left. We plan on using the entirety of next week after school to film all that we need to! In the meantime, I'll start editing the clips we have as well as compile some foley. (subtle foreshadowing of the next blog posts)

The Comic!

 A Comic?

Yes, a comic! Our main character, Sam/Atticus, is seen drawing a comic through most of the opening. Why? Because it is his passion and a driving force for him throughout the movie, not just this simple opening. I was assigned to create this comic! A daunting task to be honest. It has to look good enough to appear like an artsy kid made it, but not too good it looks like a professional comic book artist drew it! I think I nailed it, however, I have yet to do line work on this comic. Why am I posting about unfinished work then? You'll see why (I'll explain in a few scrolls with pictures and videos!)

Shoutout to Kenna for making the comic booklet for me!

     

I don't know if you can tell, but I took full creative freedom with this comic. And I mean it was fully my idea on everything, besides the title (which truth be told I'm not a huge fan of and hope that we change). I want it to be changeable if my team doesn't like certain aspects or wants to take away or add to it. Does that increase the time of making the prop? Yes, and you know how worried I am about time, however, I know myself and my art! I know it'll be quick for me to do the line art of the pages and color the cover (the comic page remains colorless because it is the page Sam will be working on). It isn't perfect or even pretty, so I definitely want my team to see it in person and I can fix what they don't like in real time.

Now what am I trying to portray here? The comic is a projection of Sam's life. He is the main figure of the cover. He is also standing guard of a princess whom he based on Aurora. He guards here as he sends a magic spell that hits the dragon who is after the princess, which is supposed to represent Kai going after Aurora as Sam works to protect her. The page itself is representative of how Sam fell in love with Aurora through her beauty and also her kindness. He sees her kindly feeding a horse and immediately thinks she is the fairest of the land! Meanwhile, Sam sees Aurora striving to be a good person and falls in love with her because of it.

If I were to keep it how it is, Sam/Atticus would be colored in a dark blue and Aurora would be in light pinks. Kai, the dragon, would be green and black as well as huffing orange flames. The line art would be a little scribbly to show that Sam himself is a bit of a messy artist rather than a professional guide. Is this to make the drawing process a little easier for me? A little bit! But also because I genuinely think he would be a messy artist. I would add subtle foreshadowing in the background, like the dragon blowing his flames actually at Atticus on the cover to reference the fight they have. I'll show that the magic Atticus has on the cover does nothing while the dargaon's flames burn Atticus' robes, foreshadowing the physical fight that Kai easily wins against Sam, discussed by my group members a week or so ago! The comic would be colored very vividly, almost in a jarring way to show that Sam's fantasy is not a true reflection of his real world.

Time lapse of me making the cover

Time lapse of me making the comic page

Here you can see me looking through a few of my comics, and that is because I wanted a reference of good comic panels to replicate. Ones that fit the scene in my head that I imagined. So thank you IDW Sonic issue 1!

The page of inspiration 

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, "But Lee, why not show us after you make corrections to the comic?" And that is a valid question, but I wanted to show you guys my thought process, not just my group's. If I solely post after the corrections from my group, you only see the perspective of my group as a whole, and not my own perspective on the film and what the comic should convey. This comic is a big deal and really shows what I think of the story. I see Sam/Atticus as someone who wants to protect Aurora from her abuser, but is blinded by love to see she's stronger than he thinks. I tried to represent his blindness in the comic with her seeming to have a very passive role, hoping that contrast with how I'll play her within the scene.

Final Notes

I plan on showing the final product alongside a showing of all the props I collected or even made for the opening. The comic is important enough to have its own blog post, but to make another blog post for it seems a little much, don't you think? But don't you worry, I love talking so there will be a large paragraph or two or three underneath it discussing the final thoughts of the comic. This post was to show you my thought process behind making the comic since I was the one to make it, and to show that, although we are a great team, we are not a hive mind and have slightly different interpretations of our story. Yes, we are on the same page, but do have a few differing ideas and I wanted to focus on my ideas for this comic before tweaking it! Who knows, maybe my team will love it and not want to change a thing! Maybe they'll want to change everything. We'll see when the finally come back from STN!

Student Television and Me

 Question: What are we going to do?

That logo up there is the logo for Student Television Network, or STN. It is a place for high schoolers (and middle schoolers) to compete against one another with their TV production skills. Why is this important? Because Madison and Safia, two of my teammates, are away on a trip to this competition for a week! We are down half a team for a whole week, I fear. That's fine because Kenna and I can go film on our own together, right? Wrong! STN is huge for our school's television production club/class so most of its members go on this trip, and because of that, they take most of the equipment and don't allow the leftover students to check out any of the equipment after school. We need a T8 Cannon camera to film our scenes, but now have no way of getting it! Having our whole group allows for us to achieve our ambition, as well as the right equipment. This is rough, so the question is what are we going to do?

Answer: What are we going to do?

This STN trip is really testing my collaboration skills and resourcefulness. If we can't film, might as well continue preparing the stage for our opening. I've begun looking for costumes around my house for my character, Aurora.

I believe this outfit is perfect for Aurora, to fit that dulled grungy vibe we're searching for her. I don't care much about the shirt so I can follow this helpful guide to make it even duller if we want! Alongside that, I found good wizard costumes and hats we imagine Sam/Atticus on Amazon that I can try to buy by the time our teammates (and the actor, funny enough) come back from STN. Finally, a huge contribution to this project of mine, other than editing, is my art. I can make some background pieces that'll be claimed to be Sam's as well as use some of my past art and set it up in the office we will be filming in.

Concluding

There will always be a complication in a project. Some big, some small. Unfortunately, we did get the big complication of a week of stand-by. But there is always something I can do. There is something you can always do. There is something we all can do, even if small. So if all I can do is gather all of my old art and draw new art, that's what I'll do. If I work on costuming, I'll work on costuming. For now, I'll be scrolling through my old blog posts and writing ideas I have brought up and searching for a way to make them happen by the time we actually film. 

First Steps of Filming

Time to Get Filming

As the title and heading imply, we have started to film! Exciting right? Yes and no... we didn't have the time nor supplies to come together and film a full-fledged out scene within our opening, so what we did was find a short period of time where team members could film non-character shots and/or close ups that don't show the character and their costuming. Soon we landed on the plan of meeting together after school to do some quick close-ups of Madison's car and their hand. Initially, it would be all four of us meeting and filming together, but due to the tight filming space and tight schedules, Sofia and Madison thought it better for it to be just them to film and have me and Kenna work on costuming and props.

  

Sofia and Madison checked out a T8 Cannon camera from our school's TV production class and filmed their shots using it! This is the camera we plan on using for all of our shots to make the opening look amazing and feel consistent. It is a great camera that Madison, Sofia, and I have lots of experience using!

These shots were all of Madison's car and some bits of Madison that we planned on having within our opening! These shots are great! Madison is planning on sending them to me so I can start editing as soon as possible to make up for some of the lost time we believe this entire week will bring.

To Be Frank

I'm very nervous about how few shots we have if I'm being honest. It's great to have these shots of course, but our group seems to be very busy with a variety of things and half of our team is about to leave for a TV production competition. I'm just nervous about the timing of it all and hope that things will work out in the end with scheduling. We went a little ambitious with our project and as it turns out ambitious people come up with ambitious ideas, but these ambitious people also have busy lives. I'm sure I'm overthinking and we can indeed succeed, but for now I'll sit worrying.

Luckily, I'm not at a loss. A majority of filming will be done at my house. If I start setting up now, the less time it takes to actually start filming. To keep my worries at bay, I will do what I can to make everything happen as smooth as possible.

Casting Calls!

 Casting

To make a movie, one has to get a cast. Our opening will have 4 characters, therefore we need three actors! Simple math right there! So who have we cast? Why have we cast them? How did you cast them? All will be revealed in the next few paragraphs! So keep reading!

Our Process

I wish I could tell you guys that we held a large-scale audition and went through multiple rounds of line reading before we found the perfect actors to play our characters.... but we didn't. We chose an easier path and cast some of our group members and a friend of the group that we knew for sure we could count on being in the opening. Time for the cast list!

Cast List

Kai........................... Madison!

Aurora................... Kaylee!

Sam/Atticus....... Sam!

Headshots and Characters and How they Fit!

Sam/Atticus

Sam was actually the character we as a group put the most thought into. We agreed that Sam needed to be played by someone who looks or can be made to look nerdy/geeky/dorky. Sofia and Madison thought, who better than their friend Sam! I've worked on a video with him before and believe him to be a great actor and can very easily fit the vibe we are trying to achieve. So I agreed to him very quickly. Although Kenna has never met him before, she trusted our judgment and we went on to recruit him and he kindly agreed. It would be cool for any social media marketing for our film if we joked around with the fact that he has the same name as the character he's playing. Just a thought that crossed my genius and ever moving mind.

Kai

Madison always wanted this role. From the very beginning when he was first made (Kai was the first character proposed). In truth, I think Madison built this role for themselves. Either way, there was absolutely no one to take the role away from Madison. Kai is a Mister tough guy that wants nothing but control. Madison may not look like a mean brute, but with the right costuming, we can make them look like that description and I know Madison has the ability to portray that personality. I know Madison will be awesome!

Aurora

Oh hey! That's me! Crazy! I'm a huge theater kid, so I definitely wanted to contribute some acting to this opening, so when Aurora's character was first brought up we all agreed she should be played by me! Her character, I think, fits me a lot with the grungey look she starts the story with and the interest in the arts and nerd culture. If only she was a Sonic fan, her character would be perfect for me! Who knows... there's still time to add to her character :)

Concluding Notes

Although none of us fully fit our characters, we each have the acting skill to adapt into the character as well as enough similarities, so it works out! I'm confident the characters we have will be portrayed properly. 

I love scripts!!

 Why A Script?

You're always asking me so many questions, aren't you? That's alright, I love to answer them! A script is where all the action and dialogue or a play, movie, or other media pieces is written out. They help keep the entirety of production on task and in an understatement of what is taking place within their pieces. It's a way to stay organized, on task, and in agreement. Not to mention tells the performers exactly what they are performing. 

Our Script:

CLICK HERE TO READ

This is our script! It's helpful to know exactly what the characters are going to be doing, the shots we need, and how they'll be edited together! With this script put together it looks very likely that we will be able to start production soon and what an amazing production this is beginning to look like!