Creative Critical Reflection

Along with the film opening, I wanted to additionally post the two creative critical reflections I created.

I linked both videos here in case there are any problems:

Creative Critical Reflection #1

Creative Critical Reflection #2

Goodbye!!!!!

Film Opening

 After 2 months and 25 blog posts, I am proud to say that my group and I have finally completed our film opening. While I'll miss working on a production like this, I'm glad it ended successfully.

Hope you enjoy!!

Here is the link if there's any problems:

Dear Mara Film Opening

Final Edits

     I thought I would be done today, but a small problem came up. Last night I was asked to also do the sound editing, which isn't too much to do, but I was still upset that I had such short notice to collect sounds and put them all together. However... there is no time to complain!! The overall project is due by tomorrow, and everything needs to be done. To avoid complications with my CCR, I used the same website Lucia was going to use for free sound effects - ZapSplat (found here). 

    I fortunately found a few sound effects from there such as water running and doors opening. For more specific sounds that I wanted, I used foley, such as white noise in the beginning (turning on my PS4) and Mara placing the pill bottle on the sink (placing ibuprofen on my nightstand). Throughout this entire process I was also luckily discussing with Andrea and Lucia. I sent them multiple videos to see how the audio sounded from their perspective. They recommended adding music, and Lucia sent me a song that she found earlier. The song is called "Still Miss You" (pretty ironic), found on Bulletproof Bear (linked here), a catalog containing copyright free music. I added this song and we decided to fade it out at the end, while Mara's ears are ringing, to avoid being overwhelmed by sound effects. It also creates a turning point in the opening, where everything gets worse.

This video, one of many, that I sent them shows five different ways I used to add audio.

Dialogue - from the video itself

Music - Bulletproof Bear

Voiceover - Voice memo recorded by Andrea

Pill bottle - Foley

Ringing, Water running, Door - ZapSplat

Overall, the audio ended up looking like this:

    The website ZapSplat also says to credit them in the video. Therefore, I'll need to remember to add it in the description of the video.

    This makes this blog post one of the last ones I'll do. I wanted to use this blog to briefly reflect on my experience. This project made me learn so many things that isn't just important to making a film opening, but overall in long-term projects like this one. I mostly learned the importance of planning and researching, how they both contribute immensely to not only the final production, but to your dedication and attitude towards it. Without proper planning and cutting straight to it, you'll have messy research and miss parts that you didn't think were needed. This leads the production and post-production process to feel unsure and improvised, which is never a good feeling. 

    Also, for me personally, I learned how working with partners can be as detrimental as it is beneficial. There are parts to working with a group that I never realized would be a problem, like disagreements, relying too much on people, and scheduling conflicts. Luckily, I chose really great partners, and these problems didn't occur often.

    I am so glad I had the opportunity to do such a big project. This was my first project that's taken over a month. I've always loved film; I'm still taking a film elective this year, but no project has challenged me as much as this one. Luckily, avoiding procrastination and dedication to research allowed me to feel extremely proud of the result of this film opening. I'm excited to show it!!

Reflections finished!

     Hey blog! I finished my second (or first) creative critical reflection!! I know the way I word it is complicated, but I'm planning on posting both of my CCR's along with my final project in one blog to make it less complicated soon.

Creative Critical Reflection #1

    This video was much more challenging to make compared to the other one. Making a podcast is surprisingly harder than I thought. I needed to make a proper setup that doesn't have too much of a distracting background. That's why while Nicole and Andreina are in front of the same background, I had to find a location that didn't expose my entire house to film my parts. Hopefully the white walls make it seem like we're all in the same part of the house.

Original background

Trying to change the angle

Different location, less distracting

    The audio was also a huge challenge for me. The microphones didn't actually work, they were just props. I thought it wasn't going to be much of a problem, but since I'm facing away from the camera (podcast hosts typically don't look at the camera while they're talking), the explanation is a lot harder to understand. This is especially because of the air conditioning and other background noises my family was making. Luckily, I found an effect on Adobe Premiere Pro called "denoise" that helped isolate my voice A LOT. I'm really grateful I found it. However, even with this effect, it's pretty hard to understand since I'm not facing the camera. If I added music, it would be almost impossible to comprehend what I'm saying. Mrs. Stoklosa emphasized adding sound when we were introduced to the creative critical reflections, but based on podcasts I've listened to, they typically don't have any sound effects or background music, unlike a talk show or a behind-the-scenes video. I've really been thinking of ways to make the audio more interesting, but I feel like with it, it would just make the video feel more like a mess.

    I also expected for it to be longer than the other one, since these two questions are supposed to be the ones that are more detailed and in depth. However, I feel like I also explained a lot in the behind-the-scenes video that could be used to answer the first two questions. Also, the videos shouldn't collectively be over 10 minutes, which is great, because in total mine is 9 minutes.

    On a more positive note, my two ideas were finished according to plan! This means soon I can reflect on my project with a bit more freedom and what I feel most proud of with the project (along with my obstacles and learning opportunities of course). Along with that, once Lucia feels good with the audio editing, I can show our final production!

Planning for CCR #1

     Hi blog! Luckily I was able to finish filming AND editing my reflection yesterday. So, now I have more time to plan for my "podcast". I actually began making the script on Monday before I found out I couldn't film it on Tuesday, so luckily I had a foundation already of what to do. 

    Two hosts on the podcast will ask me about how my film follows genre conventions and how it stands out, how it represents teenagers or issues, how it engages with my audience, and how it will be distributed. I made up the scenario that I just posted the trailer and will be posting my full film very soon. Since it's only a clip of a podcast, I decided to not include much of an introduction and a simple fade out at the end. 

    I also linked the websites that I directly mentioned in my script, and will mention more examples during editing. I mentioned my favorite video of all time (Breaking down the opening sequence of The Half of It), and I also mentioned a website named Gruvi (linked here) that helped me come up with distribution methods.

My script is linked here.

    I'll be filming tomorrow with my two fellow podcast hosts. I'll update then!

Creative Critical Reflection #2

It took me almost the entire day to make, but here is one of my creative critical reflection videos!! The other one (technically the first one) will be made later in the week.

Creative Critical Reflection #2

Preparing for CCR #2?

     Now that it's spring break, I wanted to use this week to work on my creative critical reflections and have them done before this weekend. This was my overall schedule:

    Monday: Plan for CCR #1

    Tuesday: Film CCR #1

    Wednesday: Edit CCR #1, Plan for CCR #2

    Thursday: Film CCR #2

    Friday: Edit CCR#2

    The CCR #1 was the podcast I was originally planning on doing. I wanted to make up a casual podcast with two film creators as hosts discussing overall movies. However, I wanted my video do be an "extraction" of the podcast from where the other director asks me questions about my recent film, Dear Mara. This is where I ask two questions where I go more in depth, and will most likely be longer. I wanted my friends Andreina and Nicole to be featured in this, since they are also working on their film opening, making it a little bit more realistic. However, due to scheduling conflicts, we can't film together on Tuesday. So, what I decided to do is swap the schedule. This means that I'll plan for the CCR #2 today, and film it on my own tomorrow.

    What I came up with for my second CCR was to make a behind-the-scenes video of the film. While I am being interviewed and discussing parts of the film, there will be clips of "behind the scenes" in the background. I still have every blooper on my phone, so getting the footage won't be hard. This idea is mostly inspired by the BTS videos that Marvel movies typically have. An example is shown here:

In this video, I'll be answering these two questions:

    How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

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

I created a script for the video, linked here. I'm not sure if I wrote too much or too little, but this will be figured out and modified once I film. I'm planning for the producer to be called Alexandra, and the video editor to be called Alex, who will have a beard (creative, right?). I'll update my filming process tomorrow!