The creation of a short film is indeed a process. It takes a lot of time to get it right. Connor who was the director came up with the idea of the short film. We expanded upon the idea and tried different things in the script but Connor had the final say in the script. We used Celtx to create the script and printed out scripts for our future actors. After that everyone agreed on a certain production role (Editor, Art Director, Director, and DP) I was the editor of the project. We all worked on story boards to get them finished and Connor worked on production schedule and cast list once we got actors. When we got actors and the days to film came up there was not many problems. Some actors had to leave early so we did some time crunches but overall filming was smooth and as we expected. Being an Editor
As an editor I was responsible for editing the film and getting it finished on time. I used Adobe Premiere to edit and a bit of Adobe after effects for some effects. Editing was very straight forward, get the clips, put them together, clean it up, effects. That was the process for the entire film. I did learn how to do some better effects for premiere. Being Professional
The team I worked with did a great job overall. We did a great job getting the camera set up and filming on time. We did talk through a lot of the problems and figure out when and where we were going to film. I stood up when stuff was not getting done to get things into check. I talked with the actors to tell them how to act in a scene. After all we got the project in on time. The Experience
The overall experience was positive. If I were to do something different I would give us more time with filming so the camera setting would be checked more often so the film would look better. Other than that it was great and I would do everything else the same. I think that finding actors before the film would also be great so we don't have unreliable actors when it comes to finding dates. But at the end of the day I think the film turned out great and cant wait to work on another project.
I worked on many projects over the last semester. This includes my films titled: "Simply Complex", "lets switch things up", "Bruh Moment", and recently "Franklin's Cake" (All films at end of blog). Each project had a different time limit, but to sum it up, Simply Complex and lets switch things up both took around 2 weeks to create. Bruh Moment was a part of the 24 hour film fest, so the film was made in less than 24 hours. Franklin's cake was one that took a bit and we had around 3-4 weeks to create the film. Many of the problems we faced while making each film seems to be reoccurring. Problems we had were: camera focus, camera white balance, lack of close ups, and poor acting with actors. Based off these issues, I can focus more on these problems on future projects, and maybe get to learn the camera a bit more. Feedback for my films was also very parallel with the problems, white balance off, poor acting, focus the camera, etc. Later into the year the films writing got a lot better and the overall enjoyability with those films also increased too. But I think that overall the films I helped create were great films that, while may not be perfect, are very enjoyable to watch and share.
Time Management
Time management is a bit "wonky" for an editor. During the films, I help during pre-production but production I don't have much to do. I try to show up to filming to try and help with tips and ideas for the film but after everything is film its a grind. I spend a lot of time out of class editing the film and making it look better. Due to this, I never got finished early because I was always working pretty much until the due date on a film but during production I try to help as much as I can. I also always try to improve my skills outside of class with personal projects on my youtube channel, its overall meant for fun but I think I gain more experience on editing too.
Strengths
My Strengths as a video student I believe are, lack of better terms, strong. I didn't do much client work but I did do personal projects, as previously stated. I feel like I have a great editing talent, that can still improve and become better. But in order to make it become better and the best, I need to work on editing more and learn premiere and all it has to offer.
What to Learn
What to improve about my films. Overall I think all the films I worked on were quite a success. But there will always be something to improve about the films. I think camera work could be enhanced, greatly. What I mean is more of unique camera shots, white balancing the camera, and lighting. But there are other improvements other than the camera. My editing skill could be enhanced. Meaning I could learn how to make better effects and how to be more efficient with my work. But my skills, camera work, writing, and pretty much everything has improved greatly since the beginning of the semester.
Honorable Guests
All of the guest speakers I got to experience in class in this semester I think are great and talented people but 2 were major impactors for me specifically. First was Morgan Cooper, He is a Director for this remake of bel-air but in modern times. I think it was cool to meet an actual famous guy and have him show us that he was just like us, and maybe that the class can be just like him in the future. Another guest speaker was Ryann Burnett, who is keen in post producing and editing. Since I am very interested in post production, I was very interested how a superior worked and operates. Now from these two individual I think that Morgan Cooper gave me the confidence to continue working on my film studies and pursue film. Ryann Burnett showed me how to properly organize and edit efficiently, which can improve working times so I can complete projects faster.
The All American High School Film Festival
The AAHSFF was a great chance to go see NYC and learn about film. We went to a lot of crazy and cool locations around NYC and overall the experience was great! But I think that I can use the college interactions in the future and maybe get accepted into one of the good colleges for film. I think this also improved my work by seeing other peoples work, seeing the winners, and how they made the film.
Future Feature Film
A feature film that is in the works that I am a part of is called "Sub Rosa". Currently my roles for the film is editor, colorist, and script editor. While most of the work will take place after the filming of Sub Rosa, I think I can still can be efficient during pre-production and production. During pre-production I would help work on the script and make sure everything make sense within the script. During production I can show up to film days and maybe give some tips on how to make editing a tad easier on my part. Finally in post production, I would organize and communicate with my fellow editors to try and evenly give out work and get the film finished in the best, most efficient, and most convenient.
24 Hour Film Fest
I had an opportunity to precipitate in a 24 hour film fest. Basically it means we have 24 hours to create a film based off some basic requirements. Overall the film I helped create was really good for 24 hours and I was really proud of it. It helped me on how to work under pressure with the small time frame and how to organize time. I think overall the film fest positively impacted my skill in film.
Overall
I think this semester really improved my skill in film and more specifically, editing. I really did enjoy the trip to NYC due to it being educational but also really fun. I would personally change how we filmed the camera in previous projects so that the shots were focused and white balanced. I think that editing is a thing I want to do in the future and seeing how much I improved, I believe it is a possible future. A goal for next semester is to improve camera work, work efficiency, and editing. I also want to thank Mrs. Smith for being a great teacher, she has helped the class is such a positive way, so thank you.
The project was to create a low-poly version of yourself or pet by using the pen tool in illustrator. The project took a couple of weeks to complete, most of it making the triangles within the subject. One major challenge was being patient with the entire process. I learned how to use the pen tool and how to use a grid to my advantage. A suggestion I got from some friends was that I should make two adjacent shapes, not the same color. Nothing much changed to the project compared to my original idea, it was just the wait of completion. I think it turned out very well in the end.
Special Event Advertisements
The project was to create advertisements for a fake event about a topic researched, for me that topic was pop art. The project took about 2 months to get all advertisements done, and research. Some challenges were just thinking of ideas during the project, because pop art has a particular style to it so it is hard to come up with original ideas. I worked on my Indesign and Illustrator skills while working on the project and the compatibility between the two. I didn't get much feedback for my work because most people thought it was alright and didn't have any other ideas on what to do. My ideas on the postcard changed a lot because I couldn't think of an original idea that stuck. The poster is my favorite but i'm not sure about the other advertisements.
Logo Designing
The project was to sketch out logo ideas and create them in illustrator, then pick out our favorite color design of our best logo and create mockups of the logo. The project took about 3 weeks to sketch and then finish the mockups in the end. Some challenges were thinking of color ideas for the logos and trying to fully create the logo in illustrator. I also got to work on my illustrator skills while working on the logos and using the pen tool to create shapes. I didn't receive much feedback except for when picking the best logo out of my selection and I think it worked out well. My original color ideas completely changed on the some of the logos but in a good way. I think my logos all turned out really good but especially the final logo.
Class Time
After finishing a project I tried to help out my neighbor with his project to help him finish but other than that I also worked on my sketching skills on my own. I have illustrator at home so I usually draw in my free time so I get some experience off of that. I do help my friends out in the class by giving them suggestions to their projects to help them finish. I also work on my own youtube videos outside of class with premiere but that really isn't "graphic design-y".
My Strengths
My strengths in eComm is being an independent hard working when it comes to projects. I also enjoy video editing which might be because of me liking to be independent. I try to help out friends with their own projects by giving them tips or staying after school to help them finish their project.
My Weaknesses
Personally I think I can be very unoriginal with ideas or projects. I can be very shy and not want to talk to people during class or ask for advice which can overall effect my projects outcome. I also don't spend my extra time in class working on things that could make me better.
Conclusion
I really enjoyed the projects and my teacher Mrs. Beaudoin, she was really kind and helpful throughout the year when it came to critiques. There isn't much I would change, I always looked forward to this class throughout the day. I would just like to improve throughout the year next year to become better, there really ain't much to it, just become better overall. I enjoyed this overall and I had fun, I hope eComm next year will be the same.
To start our project which was a movie trailer we needed to find a video to replicate. We found a movie called "The Breakfast Club" but a bunch of people in our class were doing it so we decided not to. We found another movie called "Stand and Deliver" which we decided to work with. I started with story boarding while my teammates found actors and such. After storyboarding was done we had to figure out who was available at what times and which scenes that we were going to do at school.
Production
During production my group was pretty busy so we didn't have many days after school we could film, eventually we found some days and got the basic shots done. The main issue wasn't finding main actors but finding background actors. We eventually got everything done with minor issues except that some scenes were impossible to replicate with our surroundings. I improvised in editing with certain scenes. The video turned out pretty well with no complications with editing.
Conclusion
While working on the video the only complication I had was finding background actors. Other than that I learned how to use a dolly for shots and practiced with premiere. But overall I did enjoy the project and the journey to complete it.
I forgot to get a picture for a vector portrait project in graphic design and so I looked through my phone to see if there was any selfies I had taken, there was only one. This majestic piece of work was gonna be my low-poly vector portrait for graphic design. I got prepped by using a filter in photoshop to bring out more of the color in the picture and to simplify the piece and use less colors to make low poly work better.
Production
For production I started by making a grid to snap my curser to so that making triangles would be easier to create. I started with making triangles for the headset then going down to the face and then glasses and finally the hoodie, all of these pieces were all on separated layers. I used different stroke colors to tell the different layers apart. After all the triangles were finished I started working on coloring them in. It was simple at first, select the triangle and use the eyedropper tool to get the color in the center of the triangle, but I wanted to have the triangles next to each other to have separate colors so you could see all the triangles in their glory, it was difficult but it worked out in the end but the shapes really made it pop out.
Final Product
I am happy with the final product but if I were to change one thing it would to have more triangles so that the end product would be more detailed and look better in the end.
For my Video Production class an assignment was assigned to make a music video. You had to recreate the scenes and overall look of the original. So finding a song that was school appropriate and a song you enjoyed so when editing it, it wasn't utter pain, was a good idea.
Production
My group consisting of Me, Alexis, and Andrew went to search for a funny video to film so we wouldn't be bored working on it and had some motivation for a very entertaining piece. We went through a couple of songs but the song EVERYONE agreed with was Rick Astley's Never Gonna Give You Up. It seemed pretty fun at first and it looked achievable. I had to draw out every camera angle and scene change, it wasn't fun but it got done. When the actors, Alexis, and Andrew went out to record (over a two day period) I couldn't go due to my work making me come in. Once they finished filming I had to edit the video with a bunch of random clips that didn't even have the right voice lines or rhythm to the original. So basically I was looking blindly through a bunch of videos with no good result just to attempt with some clip that looked alright. I manage to finish the video and the VERY end of the video shows how I feel about it.
Post Production
One the video finished uploading was okay. It was well received by my friends and everyone usually enjoyed the video. Most of them said it was okay and the clips don't really line up well with the voices. So if I had to change something it would probably be putting the video in the BACKGROUND while the person SINGS the SONG. Like am I weird for thinking that its stupid that they didn't put the song in the background while they sung the song so they matched it extremely well? Anyways, it went alright I guess, I posted it on my Youtube so I earn that Youtube $$$.
For a project in graphic design we needed to create graphics using quotes and using our newly learned typography skills to pick out fonts for those quotes. I wanted to have my own quotes so I spent a couple of days coming up with 10 quotes that I liked. I picked out 4 quotes to use for black and white, they were pretty simple and graphics could be simple as well. I used a common cursive font for all of them, then had a simple font that went with a word in the quote.
Production
I got a bit better and faster at using illustrator after this project will work well in the future. I wanted the graphic to go with the quote or go with the word that pops out the most. Graphics were simples and not complicated so people can understand and recognize them immediately. Color looked better than black in white for 3 of the 4 I created. The 4th one really relied on the 2 colors for a cool contrast look, but overall I preferred colored.
Final Product
I think the quotes turned out pretty good and as of now there isn't anything I want to change about them. They look great and get the point across. I also prefer the colored ones except for the broken glass one, it looks better in b/w.
