Final Goodbye

Last blog post EVER and IT'S MY BIRTHDAYY! YAYY! 

                                                                         Film Opening

https://youtu.be/WYwx9YWuZro

                                                                            CCR 1 

https://youtu.be/gSFLgihTnLo

CCR 2

 https://www.canva.com/design/DAGihBrTNBE/T8Eky6MGC6fP2C7WCkC56Q/edit?utm_content=DAGihBrTNBE&utm_campaign=designshare&utm_medium=link2&utm_source=sharebutton

Goodbye and thank you so much for following my journey!!

Looking back on it

     This is my last real blog post for this class ever. I'm glad I finished, but it's also kind of sad because I've been posting on here for 2 months. Anyway, looking back on the project starts now!

     When I think about it, this project helped me in so many ways and was such a fun experience. This is probably the biggest project I've ever done, so it was really difficult. Before this, I had never even had a project that took more than a week or two, so it was definitely different. There were sometimes I hated it, like editing the video, and there were sometimes that I loved it, like the recording! There were ups and downs in the project, and I learned a lot of things

I learned to manage my time way better, which was something I had struggled with and still struggle with, but I'm slowly learning, and that's what counts. I also learned teamwork, and how if your partner or team members don't work together well, it just won't work. For me, my partner, Sofi, is someone I've known since I was in 7th or 8th grade, so we were already close, and we knew each other well enough to determine that we would work well together. We had also worked on numerous projects together in the class too, so the experience for teamwork was already there. This project also taught me the importance of flexibility and attention to detail. Filmmaking is something that needs constant revision, and sometimes, what we make in our heads or draw on paper just did not translate on the screen.

Overall, this project has made me appreciate the efforts of filmmakers and actors way more than I did before, and its helped me see what really goes on in film sets. Its definitely strengthened my technical skills, creativity, and problem-solving abilities. Looking back, I'm really proud of what I've accomplished throughout this project, and I'm really excited to start the next chapter of my life.

Thank you so much for reading, and I'm excited to see you in the next and very last blog post.

Finishing my CCRs!

 

Hellooo! I went to the pool today and I got super tan and it's literally amazing. I love the pool because I can just relax and chill in the water or do whatever I want. When I got home I started and finished producing my CCRs! I just finished editing my first CCR and finished recording my 2nd one. I'm basically all done with the project! All I have to do now is post my blogs. Editing the first CCR wasn't hard at all (thank god) because I basically just had to cut the clips and edit them together, with no added sound or anything!

Creating the presentation was honestly super easy and fun because I love making presentations and making them all cute and everything. I made it on Canva because I have a lot of experience using it since I competed in DECA this year and it gives so much more freedom than Powerpoint or other softwares. The post-production of my CCRs really didn't take too long so this is a short blog post. 

Thank you so so much for reading and have a wonderful day!!

Done with 1 CCR!

I'm in class again and I'm doing this blog post because I have literally nothing else to do. So on Monday Sofi came over to my house and we filmed 1 CCR each. I had a lot of trouble coming up with ideas and one of the ideas I had was very similar to one of Sofi's. When I was thinking of ideas I was just trying to think of things I liked to do. One of those things is cooking! But Sofi did a baking show and I feel like they're very similar and I want my CCRs to be unique. 

 

We filmed her baking show at my house and she was baking a cake while the host, who was me, was asking some questions about the project. We filmed at my house because I had the ingredients to make a cake and she didn't have any. It was super worth it though because I love eating cake batter (I hope I don't get salmonella). Then we recorded mine, which was a little skit of 2 girls watching the movie as if it was airing on TV. One of the girls who was me was obviously very into media studies and one wasn't so she was asking the questions. I answered the questions but they weren't directly asked so I might just add the questions I'm answering into the beginning of the CCR. 

Not in class anymore because school ended and I'm at home but YAY SPRING BREAK!! Anyway, continuing.

It was actually really annoying because we couldn't find my tripod for so long so we had to go on a hunt for it and for some reason it was in my garage? Really random but we found it. We finished filming at least so that's good and I'm going to record my 2nd CCR tomorrow! I'm really excited to finish this and move on to the editing process so I can post it and show off my finished product.

CCR numero 4!

Hello again!! Im sitting in my bed right now and I was studying for a chemistry test I have tomorrow and I remembered that I have to do this last blog post for the week. This is the final CCR question, "How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?". 

For hardware, we used my phone, which is an iPhone 14, to record all the footage which was supported by a tripod that i got from my dad to keep all the shots steady and stable. The oPhone made it easy to film on the go and in a bunch of different settings, while the tripod made sure that there were smooth, professional looking shots.

For software, I used Adobe Premiere Pro to edit all the footage together. It let me cut and arrange the footage and add sounds to enhance the quality of the opening. The software gave me the flexibility that was needed to bring my vision to life.

Online, I used many different tutorials an websites to find out how to edit because obviously, I sucked at it before I started this project. I primarily used YouTube to figure out how to use Adobe Premiere Pro on my Macbook because a lot of the websites gave instructions for windows rather than for a Macbook.

By combining these many technologies, I was able to produce and edit my film so I could create a final product that was both visually and audibly entertianing! 

Thank you for reading and have a great day!

CCR 3!

Hi! I went to the beach today to film one of my CCRs because my idea took place on the beach, but I forgot that I live in Florida and it's spring break for a lot of people, so the beach was packed and I couldn't film it because it was insanely packed. I think I'm going to try to film it another day, but I'm not too sure about that idea anymore because the circumstances aren't in my favor. That's beside the point. Today I'm going to talk about the 3rd CCR question, which is "How did your production skills develop throughout this project?"

My editing skills were the most prominent factor that developed throughout the project. Even though I hated every single second of it, they definitely got better since that was my main assignment. I edited the whole video and added the sounds as well. I definitely want to talk about that in my CCR since I worked so hard on it. This is a short question and I think this is the last question I'm going to answer in my CCRs since I think its a nice way to finish off the entirety of the project!

This is a short question to answer since I believe my camera skills haven't changed. Its really only the editing portion that improved a lot! 

Thank you for reading and have a great day!

Number 2!

 Hii! I'm in school right now doing this blog post and it's a Friday finally. This week literally felt nonexistent, it went by so fast. Either that or I really just didn't do anything so it felt way faster (I didn't do anything). I'm sitting next to Sofi right now and shes doing the Title and Production scene but since I pretty much finished all the editing I had to do, I'm doing this blog. The second CCR question is "How does your product engage with audiences, and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" which, in my opinion, is the most difficult CCR to answer. Just like the first question, this question also has 2 parts that I need to answer within my CCRs. 

How does your product engage with audiences?

My movie engages with my audience by knowing the target audience of the film, following or rejecting conventions of my genre to make it interesting and appealing to my target audience, using camera and filming techniques to make my movie visually appealing, and posting about the movie on social media to gain the attention of my audience and allow them to interact with the movie.

Abiding by the wants and needs of the target audience can greatly affect how the movie will interact with my audience. By utilizing all the methods listed above, I can maximize my engagement with my audience, which can lead to more overall views of the movie and gain more traction for the film.

How would it be distributed as a real media text?

There are many options for distribution as a small media director if this were to be published as a real media text. One of the main websites where any kind of media can be posted is YouTube. YouTube is available to anyone and everyone as long as they have access to the internet, which makes it a perfect place to publish the film so people can find out about it. The downside is, it's hard to gain traction on YouTube since tens of thousands of videos are being posted every day. Anyone will be able to access my film if it was posted on YouTube, yet chances are, not many would see it.

Another option is showing a single screening of my movie at my local movie theater. This is something that can be done by talking to the owner or manager of this small theater and discussing to have the movie play at any time. This can gain the attention of more people initially and have more people see it from the start, but, it won't reach many people outside of my tone and will still stay unseen and unheard of by many and most people. 

I would probably decide to do both options! Post it on YouTube and have it shown at my movie theater so at least a few people see my movie. Though I know many people probably wont see my movie, doing both can widen my range of potential viewers and get people to actually watch the movie!

group meeting 2!

    

GROUP MEETING

 So I'm actually in class in the group meeting right now and were all just discussing how far into our project we are. Most people are still editing so that makes me feel better that were not done either, because I thought we needed to be done by now but I guess I'm at a normal pace so yay! I think all of my group members were in the phase where they've started editing and are adding sound now, and some need to film a few more clips just like I do. 

    Right now we're showing each other our projects and they're all really good, it honestly makes me nervous. I just found out one of the people in my group is in CBTV which is our school's news channel and now I think my project is terrible. He has a professional camera and everything it looks so good im ashamed of mine now.

    We were talking about the ideas for our CCRs and no one really knows what theyre doing. I told everyone I am going to the beach this weekend to film my CCR and everyone really liked the idea. One of my group members did have an idea for her CCR but we advised against it because we thought it would be too common and non-creative. It was really hard thinking of suggestions for ideas of the CCRs because they obviously have to be so unique and different. I can't even think of a second idea for my other CCR myself let alone other people. 

    Everyone liked my idea of the CCR on the beach which is really nice and gives me reassurance that its actually a creative idea. One of my group members is doing their CCR inspired by one of the scenes of their film, but i dont really understand it. It does look creative though so that gives me the idea of going through my film again and seeing if anything there can inspire one of my CCRs. 

    All of us kind of agree that our last resort would be doing a presentation with voiceovers, its better than nothing and can let us get very in depth explanations pretty easily. We all know not to do a floating head CCR because our teacher very clearly told us that we should NOT do a floating head CCR.

Sadly editing again.

      Unfortunately, I had to edit again today, but I honestly couldn't do too much. I honestly only added the clips today, and I know I said I would add sound today, but there was a problem with filming. 

    So we always wanted to film today but we didn't know that daylight savings started today! So we obviously filmed our other scenes when it was dark. So we had to wait until around 8 pm to start filming. It took about an hour to film because we had to walk to the location that we wanted to film at. Then after we filmed we had to walk all the way back to Sofi's house and then I had to get picked up by my parents. I got home around 10:00, so I don't have much time to edit today because I really need to sleep because I have an important math test tomorrow. I could really only edit the videos together since I literally didn't have time. So here's the full opening (minus the scene with the news reporter because I have to get my mom to re-record it).

    

So the clips only added about 6 seconds of footage but I also did cut some more of the other clips and made it blend together better.

 

Also, here a little clip of us complaining.

Thanks for watching and reading, and sorry I don't have more of an update.

Editing.

    So I hate editing. When I say hate, I mean HATE. It is the bane of my existence. I hope I never have to do editing again in my entire life. Everything else about this project was so fun, and now I'm dying on the inside trying to edit these videos together. I didn't even get that much done today because I literally despise doing this. 

    I have a Macbook, so editing on Premiere Pro is slightly different. It took me a whole hour or two to figure out how to just import the videos to the application. I had it saved to my photos because I just saved it from messages (not a good idea). In the app, you can only choose from files so I searched up a video of how to move videos to files on a MacBook and it just did not work. The buttons weren't the same, It said that it had an option of move to files which it did not. So for a good while, I suffered, trying to move these videos to files.

     Once I finally did it, I now had to import them. Lucky for me, they were all out of order. So when I was editing them, I had to add each on to the project and watch them so I could put them in order. Then, while I was doing that, and I was ALMOST done putting them in order, my laptop died. It did not save. So I went on a rampage and quit for a while and then I went back and added them all back. After, I had to cut them to actually make it look good. 

    So basically, all I got done today was putting the videos together. Not much, but it took me ages. Then tomorrow and Monday I have to add sound, which I think might actually kill me. Im not excited at all to do that but I have to, so I guess ill just put up with it. NEVER AGAIN THOUGH. Anyway, now that I'm done with my little yap session, here's some screenshots of my editing process and the final video together.

So I don't really know if the videos uploading or not! So I'm also going to do a little youtube link because I need whoever reading this to see what I put my blood, sweat and tears into.

https://youtu.be/iF0ghVj8dDE

Thank you so much for reading and PLEASE watch the video I worked so hard for this.

Filming again!!

     Hii! I just got back from filming with my partner, Sofi, and we started and finished filming most of the film. We did the living room scene and the phone call scene. We wanted to finish filming but there were two problems. Problem number 1 - We didn't have enough time, although we could have started it. Problem number 2 - it was very dark outside and we couldn't go out to film. We were always planning to film at night, but it was just too late for us to film, so we will finish filming on Sunday. 

    So, here are the final, raw clips that we are planning to use within our 2 minute film!

Okay little problem. I'm trying to upload the videos from YouTube onto Blogger, and it's not working. So unfortunately, you'll have to click on the links if you want to see them. Also, it's not letting me upload all the videos, only 8 of them, so I'll post them all on my YouTube in upcoming blogs, but for right now,  it has the most important 8.

https://youtu.be/2bzBTeGWoDo

https://youtu.be/f_8UndymkOs

https://youtu.be/Wu-3xa3P0Qc

https://youtu.be/fqAMrzvcD-E

https://youtu.be/LWF6GiDSVcY

https://youtu.be/bXWJVoPS3x8

https://youtu.be/UPBQbJ06ZaQ

https://youtu.be/_WmlFcvUtLk

So for the couch scene, we had an idea, since her TV had the no signal screen, we decided to use that in the film as a way to transition Lily into watching something different. We tried to take many different angles and types of shots to make the scene very visually interesting and not boring. Since we had our script, the hardest part was getting the angles and shots right, and making them not look weird, which I think we did a pretty good job of and the shots will all come together once we start editing, which will be tomorrow! I plan to finish editing the film by the ned of this week, but hopefully earlier if I manage to do so. Then, next weekend I want to film the CCRs.

For the phone call scene, its going to switch between clips of Lily and clips of Olivia to show that they're having an ongoing conversation. This part was so annoying to film because I had to be outside of her house, and there was this mosquito that kept biting me. We also had out script for this scene so it didn't take that long at all.

The part that took the longest was the coffee, which was literally two clips, mostly because we didn't know how to work the coffee machine, but also because we had to play with the lighting a little bit to make sure me, who was filming, and the camera weren't shown in the reflection of the glass. I think we did a pretty good job though, and the coffee actually turned out to be pretty tasty aswell!

Thats all for today's blog post, have an amazing day!

CCR researching!!

 Helloo! This week has been so, so, so long. It's felt like a Friday since Monday, and it's still Thursday. But I have an exciting weekend coming up! Tomorrow, I'm meeting up with my partner to continue, and if we don't finish (hopefully, we will), we are going to finish on Sunday. That's beside the point, though, so let's focus on today! I'll be talking about the first question of the CCR and researching it further.

The first question of the CCR is "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?". This question and the second CCR question are the longer ones because in order to complete them correctly, you must answer two questions within one.

To start this blog off, I'll be researching the conventions of dystopian film genres and comparing them to my own film. Many dystopian films or novels have many common characteristics, such as societies in constant war, extreme social class divides, high levels of poverty, environmental damage, loss of individuality, technological control, and government control. Our film covers a few of these categories, so let's discuss them.

- Loss of individuality- One of the main points in our movie. Our movie surrounds a society where everything is perfect and everyone is the same, there is no variation between people whatsoever, highlighting the sense that everyone has lost their individuality.

- Government control- The loss of individuality in our movie is due to the high levels of government control over the society. The government has issued clothes to wear, a standard of teaching everyone the same things, etc, to make sure no one deviates from the standard of people they want.

- Extreme social class divides- Although I haven't talked about this much in my blogs, I did mention it once while discussing the locations for our films. It won't be shown in the first two minutes, but later in the movie, the girls find out how different other people are living in a different society from them.

- Environmental damage- This will be shown in the two minutes in our film opening, in the scene of the news reporter, where rebels are destroying areas in the society to show their disapproval of the government.  

Now, onto how our film challenges some of these conventions of dystopian genres.

- High levels of poverty- This isn't shown within our film, mostly because the society wants everyone to be the same, so no one is living that poorly, because the government wants to be in control of the peoples mind, and hide them from the outside world.

- Technological control- The people of this society aren't too concerned with their devices, although there obviously are things that are blocked on the internet, and the government does control what goes on the television to keep their residents locked out. The reason I put this as not being technological control is because I'm reading the novel Fahrenheit 451 currently, which I think is a true example of technological control because the government keeps their citizens locked out by keeping them actually addicted to their devices.

So now that I've talked about the first part of the CCR, it's time to move onto the next part! How does it represent social groups or issues? 

Well, dystopian films tend to represent what the world, at least certain societies, will look like in the near future if we keep going on the same path we are currently on. Our film represents current societal issues, such as social class divisions, which seem to be a growing problem in today's world. Many people are living in extreme poverty while others are living in a life of luxury, which is represented in our film. This is shown as the society within the film is basically living in a whole other world, without knowledge of the different lives people live, which could be similar to today's issue, and how higher class people are unaware of the struggles that many people go through because of their financial situation.

Thank you for taking your time today to read, and have a wonderful day!!

StudioBinder. (n.d.). What is dystopian fiction? Definition and characteristics. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-dystopian-fiction-definition-characteristics

Prezi. (n.d.). Conventions of dystopian fiction. Prezi. https://prezi.com/w4bwwkx6fjph/conventions-of-dystopian-fiction

First Time Filming!!!

 Hii! Today, my partner, Sofi, came over and started filming. We weren't able to film much, we only filmed the first scene, which is of the news report. She wasn't at my house for long, so we really couldn't film much. We took some time to film the report, even though it was only around 20 seconds. This was our script for the first scene.

SCRIPT

Authorities confirm that the extremist group The Hollow launched a coordinated attack on Central Plaza last night, targeting security outposts and disrupting transit lines. Explosions were reported near Compliance Tower, with minor structural damage and temporary service delays.

Officials assure citizens that order has been swiftly restored. Supreme Governor Dain addressed the nation this morning:

"The Hollow seeks to spread fear, but Novera stands unshaken. We will not be swayed by those who cling to the past. Live as you always have—without fear, without hesitation. The system prevails."

This explains to the audience the whole concept of the movie and creates context. This then leads to the next scene, where Olivia is sitting on her couch with the news report playing in the background. For a better explanation, Novera is the name of the society that they live in, and The Hollow is the rebel group fighting against the corrupt government.

It took us a few tries to film this because my mom is Latina, and she had some trouble pronouncing the words. I might try to re-film it with her in a different location at my house, on a plain wall, because I mentioned this in my previous blog post, but we tried it with the TV in the background and it was hard to get a good angle of the TV without being to close the the reporter. 

 

This is a little blooper that we had that I thought was kind of funny, and I want you guys to see it!

This video was the best take we got today but I'm probably going to refilm it with a blank background and use it as a greenscreen because I think this could look better.

Thank you for reading and watching! Have a great day!!

A problem!

    Hi! Today has been so annoying. So we were supposed to start filming today, but it got moved to tomorrow because my parents had an issue, and my dad just got home from a job that was in Mexico and we had to go pick him up from the airport, so we couldn't go film which was really annoying and upsetting. 

    I started making a script for the first scene we're going to film, which will most likely be the scene of Olivia sitting on a couch, but it's just a general idea of how the scene will go. It's not complete and honestly not even an actual script, so I'm not going to post it here because it's so bad and doesn't really make sense. I just know what everything means because I obviously wrote it, so instead, I'm just going to give a general idea of how the scene will go. 

    The scene starts with a close-up shot of coffee pouring out of a coffee maker into a mug. The TV news report will be playing in the background to give some context of why it was shown in the scene before in the first place. It will then cut to Olivia, which is me, scrolling on her phone, watching TikTok or some form of social media, not paying attention to the TV. Suddenly, she gets a call from Lily, and she answers immediately. I'm not quite sure what the conversation between Olivia and Lily will be, but it makes Olivia immediately rush out of her house and sprint to wherever Lily is. The scene is a short one, but I want to use many inserts to make the scene visually interesting since there isn't that much dialogue. I also want to use a close-up shot of the phone when Olivia gets the call from Lily to make it clear to the audience that this is an important part of the scene because it sets up the entire next scene.

    Anyway, that's it for this blog, its just a simple and short breakdown of the first scene that we want to film, because I couldn't really do anything else because the filming was moved, but tomorrow I will post some of our raw footage of us filming, and maybe some bloopers too!

    Have the best day, goodbye!