Film Opening

 Well...

Here's my film opening, "Where'd She Go"!!!!

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/mjLsISQ4VSk

Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1roGFpvmMUN17nT0nW2TManMahaKybFUv/view?usp=sharing

Thank you so much for following me on this journey!! 

And in case I don't see ya, good afternoon, good evening, and good night!! - Truman, "The Truman Show"

Creative Critical Reflection

 Hey hey hey!!!

Here goes nothing!! Here are my 2 CCR's! 

CCR #1

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/F7-Pk3_1baE

Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1De3vxw0NF7alQPk2PRw8xWuqAt28sRFF/view?usp=sharing

CCR #2

YouTube link: https://youtu.be/bSyZbi912WU

Google Drive link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1oTJZM-UNsvUoXfl-PZi6ReEFmpZTUB-v/view?usp=sharing

Stay tuned for my film opening!!

Final Reflection

 Hey hey hey!!!

The time has come, it's time to reflect on my journey in creating my portfolio project!

I truly cannot believe or process that I was capable of getting through this. I remember seeing this due date so far and having so much to do, as this new realm or expertise was pretty scary. This genuinely felt like a lot and it kind of was, but all I can feel is utter gratitude for this experience. 

Being all by myself on this allowed me to fall and hit myself (many times), but with the best part being of picking myself up all on my own. Although this is my least favorite way of learning, it ends up really sticking to ya and sticking for a long time. Besides learning things the good and bad way, whether it was through my peers or finding out the effects of certain of my own actions, this journey made me realize, or at least remember, how much fun this whole process is. I felt as if I may have taken myself too seriously at the beginning (I did anyway because this is serious), but when I got to filming and editing, I noticed how free I was at in my creativity and sticking my thoughts in a whole project. 

Besides that, besides gratitude, I feel so much joy at how I have grown these past 8 weeks!! I loved working on this thing!!

Well... Time has come, the upcoming posts include my CCR's and my film opening!! 

Toodles!! (See ya soon!!)

Aaaaaand that’s a wrap on editing!!

 Hey hey hey!!

Guess what? (I’m pretty sure you can do so!)

I finished editing my film opening!!!

                                                                (Source: Giphy)

So here’s a recap on my process!!

I can’t tell if it’s a blessing or a curse that I overfilmed, as it did happen to give me options, but I did also technically had to export and convert everything I shot on the camcorder, as when I plugged it into my computer, it was all .mod and mixed up (the same issue I mentioned in a couple of blog posts ago). After I was able of having all those MP4 files in my hands (my laptop), I started to work for real!! Shout-out to Cloudconvert for helping me out!! (I did have to create an account after oh so many videos that needed to be converted, but you gotta do what you gotta do!)

I organized these videos in a folder this time so that I could avoid the hot mess that happened to me when editing my CCR #2. This made it a lot easier of locating my files when editing, for sure!

Then, I got in, arranged the clips in the order I desired, so that I could have a rough idea of what to shorten, add, and basically edit. To my luck, of course, I lost a clip that was supposed to be the second to last scene :( It was on my camcorder, but when I would connect the camera to my laptop, it would not appear! I was pretty upset about it and tried several ways to retrieve it, but it did not work. So, I recurred to the “third to last” scene, as that final scene before THE last scene. 

Luckily though (for real this time), since I was using a camcorder, there typically is a bunch of jumpcuts when looking back at videos on it. I, though, although it seemed natural, I just tried “rounding” the corners and added a film dissolve transition (tried to make it as minimal and less cliche as possible) to kind of jump that. Most of the editing really, although I was really nervous about it (as I mentioned in my CCR #2), it was pretty simple. It was a bit iffy though, when “rounding” those corners and shortening certain clips as I meant for them to be somewhat sequential, but I felt that I was able to! 

The main thing, and what surprisingly took me the longest, was the credits. Yeah, words with fonts and in colors and that show the jobs of people during a production, I knooooooow. 

Here I was messing around with the fonts, colors, etc etc. I ended up going for DIN condensed, with a color emboss effect on top of the burgundy/dark red type of color. For the process of arriving to this combo, I first dove into the font, as I believe it is the most tedious part. There’s just SO MANY OPTIONS!!! Last time I was in class (more like a couple of classes ago), we did get told that font choice is actually very very important, as it can also aid in emphasizing the tone of a piece. So, I tested out all of them on screen, mainly the options I had in mind, and landed on a more simple font that looked like it blended into the camcorder quality. It was simple, yet meant business (scary), hence why its on my piece! The red color, besides the intensity of it, was also placed in there to break away the very white and airy background, as really the only other colors is the dark blue of the jean jacket and my friend’s dark hair. I felt that the red really broke up the simplicity in a sense. The color emboss, added this nice effect and richness to the red which I ended up key framing on the title scene!!

Besides that, I was really indecisive on the last two scenes, especially the last scene, as it felt empty. Sooooo, since it was meant to be spooky (not the right word), I decided to add a sting!! I was in between these two, that also happened to be free to the public, copyright free etc etc!

I will leave it to you guys to see later on which one I chose!!

Other than that, editing ran smoothly. It did take me a couple of hours to get through with it, but alas, I’m done!!!

Toodles!!

Anotha One!

 Hey hey hey!!!

I’m finally done with my CCRs!!! Yay!!!

Soooo, first…

Last night I started shooting the interview I planned on doing for the part 2 of my CCR! Remember Wired’s Most Searched Questions interview?

Just if you were able to jog your memory a bit, I ended up doing something pretty similar. I went ahead and grabbed a posterboard I had, around the same size which was perfect, and went on Canva so that I could add the Google logo and the searchbar with the questions. After I printed those, I continued to cut and glue them and added strips of paper to sort of have that same “ripping of paper” moment!

I then started recording, a bunch of times! I kept on re-recording because I really, and I think out of the nerves, kept stuttering. Even today I tried recording to see if I could compose myself, but nope! So, since I did record two parts, and was going to need to glue them together, I decided to make my video a bit out of the ordinary interview and decided to make it fun, goofy, and somewhat close to what may or may not have happened in my head when recording. I added in fun comments, memes, and generally, images so that there wouldn’t be that much of a talking head.

(e.g. when I was talking about the hardware I used, I spoke about this one camera that came in handy, so to add it in, I removed the background through Canva, then downloaded it and added it onto my video. I did this quite a bit but it turned out great!!

Here’s me adding in a fun picture of a very mentally-fried penguin!! I thought this was so fun and it made me enjoy the process much more!! 

Between one penguin and camera picture, my desktop looked like this (this is just the bottom half). I really stretched out my storage a lot and had to mess around with it to work, especially when exporting the video!! There was just one meme that ended up being added in a moment where I did not add it to, but it looked fine, and I accidentally mispelled Cambridge as Cambrudge, oops. Please dismiss those two instances!!

After that though, I did add it to my google drive as I did with my CCR part 1, so that next week I can upload it to my blog!! Stay tuned!!!

Toodles!!!!

1 down and 2 more to go!!

 Hey hey hey!!!

Here to announce that CCR part 1 is complete!!! I spent all day on it, well.. since 9 a.m. (it’s 6 now). I can’t tell if that’s impressive or that I’m a slow-poke. 

Anyway… Here’s what I’ve been up to. 

First, I finally cleared my cache, as thanks to my angel friend, she said if I did so it could actually help me download Adobe Premiere Pro, a software editing app, that because of my lack of storage, I have not been able to download. She sent me this great article, but in my case it was no use, so I went to Mr. Google yet again and found one that did help me. I’m not really solid as to what my cache is, but I do want to say that it’s a bunch of gunk from your computer than can get deleted and not delete other stuff (I hope). Just so you can see how needed it was for my computer, take a look:

                                                                               (Yikes)

Well after that, I finally saw light of day and was able to download premiere!!! Yay!! I’m so excited I could scream!!

Okay, so after my happy rush, I went and dove into my CCR, the first part at least. Remember how I said I was going to make a presentation? Well, I did. I really got into it and started researching and making sure everything looked perfect, hence why it took me a whole work shift to finish. I chose my template and started working!!

So what I did to tackle this was pull up the speaker’s notes tab on the bottom left of the page and started blurting out a mix of my research, stuff from my previous blog posts, and generally, what I had in my brain (comes in handy). I normally start projects, any type of them, this ugly and rearrange, set them out, stretch ‘em, and then make them look pretty. 

I chose these two questions for the first half…

•        How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social group/issues?

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

My choice of the first two questions were not only because I love my stuff in order, but generally, I thought that they were the more wordy ones, that with the video I plan on making, it would go over my 10 minute goal. Although I did answer them through my Canva presentation, it still ended up being short of 6 minutes!!

After I would finish my notes, I would look for images that matched what I was saying (Examples).

(This film is phenomenal, but this scene is absolutely crazy, so I thought it would go perfect in what I’d mention about the Drama genre)

After each and every piece of research, including images, I would copy and paste them into a slide I had for all the links/resources I had visited for my “source” slides. After citing my sources, I went back and added bullet points summarizing what I had said, made the pictures pretty with purple borders to match my template, and even some comments in some of them!!

Here’s a sneak peek!

After making my script and slides pretty, then came recording the voice memos to insert them in my presentation!!

This calls for… Bathroom lock-up!!

I have recently found out, considering the amount of VO’s I have had to do for Canva/Powerpoint presentations, that my bathroom is the quietest room I have to record, so I went for it again!! I recorded over and over again and sent it to myself, as I recorded through my phone and needed it on my IPad (don’t forget my lack of space guys)!! Considering what I mentioned like 3 words ago, it took long to receive, backup and all of that nonsense, so obviously that took a bunch of time. 

Finally, I received them and uploaded them to Canva, which to my luck, I somehow got them mixed up and took a bunch of time (yet again) to arrange them as appropriate and adjust the time stamps and everything. Butttttt, I was able to do everything!!!!

Lastly, I exported as an MP4 and uploaded it to my Google Drive, where I plan for the link to be pasted on my blog in almost a week!!!

1 thing down, 2 more to go (editing and CCR 2)!!!!!!

Almost there!! Toodles!!

                                                                        (Source: Giphy)

Planning for CCR! Pt. 2

 Hey hey hey!!

I’m still extracting my videos (it genuinely has become such a tedious process as sometimes the dates that appear on my laptop “are not” the same ones that align with the videos on the camera?) This upcoming week is crunch time to get through the editing and CCR’s!! 

Sooo, as I deal with the other stuff, lets look at what we have ahead!!

For the first part of my CCR, as I previously mentioned, I will be using Canva for my presentation in which I will showcase my experience during the production of my portfolio project. Here’s some templates I have in mind!

I thought these were funky and interesting! My teacher did say that if we were to choose this medium for our CCR’s, it didn’t necessarily have to do with our film opening, soooo, I have these two in mind to demonstrate my funky and colorful personality to show (or rather contrast) where my film opening came out of!!

As of the second part of my CCR, I honestly feel very inspired and drawn to the Web’s Searched Questions-styled interview!

       I honestly think these are so fun, simple, and concise! It really does feel organic and true to whatever the interviewee may feel!!

                                                      

Although this is my spring break, I will do nothing but get myself together and hustle!! These two tactics to tackle my CCR, in my opinion, are the best fit for me as I sometimes happen to be a girl of short words (ironic considering how some blog posts can be long). 

Well… That’s it for me today!! Sorry for the shorter blog post than usual, I got a portfolio project to do!!

Toodles!!!

Must-Do in Pre-Editing (Post-Production) phase

 Hey hey hey!!

Now that I have caught myself up a bit, now I can show you what the process is like so I can start editing!!  Today’s post will be primarily about what the process is like to extract these videos from my camcorder, besides that one scene I filmed with a “normal” camera with an SD card, as it can be quite tedious!! 

An obstacle I encountered, that I encounter almost everyday really, is my lack of storage on my laptop and phone! This is been quite the issue as I have had to rework my strategy to take on these, as you saw from my last post, quite of bit of clips. But again, it is better to overfilm than under right??😅😅

Sooooo, my strategy now is to directly delete the unnecessary footage from my camera, as before I tried (what a knucklehead) to go through the process of exporting all the .mod files, converting them, and setting another set of those videos on my laptop. Now, I will just directly choose what shots are the solid ones from my camera and then doing the whole process (yes, guys it took me a second to receive oxygen in my brain cells to come to this much easier solution). Here’s how that deleting looks like, as, to my defense, I did not know how to delete them at first, hence why I recurred to the much more difficult solution. 

Before you start, of course you have to plug in your camera to your computer, well to an adapter to your computer. 

Next, and what I happened to be confused on, the camera will take you to a screen that blocks out all the other amenities of the camera like the videos and that shows you options like playback on pc, connect to device, etc. This part was another trial and error because I first thought that the camera, even despite one of these options, was not going to be compatible to connect with a newer device such as my laptop, but fortunately it did! Here’s what that screen looks like. 

After this screen, and after you press “Playback on PC” it will connect to your laptop. The small catch is that after you try all the folders, like I did (there’s so many), you’ll be led to this beauty.

 

I ended up having to press the SD_VIDEO folder (pretty logical), and see through the PRG002 to PRG005 folders, scrolling to see where the videos I took were. Luckily, and what seems logical, is that they were in the last folder PRG005, by date. After I am assured where my videos are, I can start cutting down on them. Let’s go back to the camera!

See, if you just set your camera like this, where would you guess one could delete stuff? In the 3rd button down, the function button, it’ll open up to a bunch of options, including the delete button.

After I narrow down my options, then I just reconnect my camera again, and start dragging them out, which they shouldn’t be many (my storage is saved yet again), and I can start exporting to my newfound CloudConvert, download them, put them in a folder with another video shot on another camera that can be easily exported and start editing!!

My editing process should not be heavy as by my stylistic choice of mty production including such an informal tool such as a camcorder, would not really need crazy editing, besides them being put together, a black screen insert, some music, and of course, the credits. I plan on tackling that this weekend/week, alongside my CCR, so stay tuned!!

Well, that’s it for me today!! Happy Friday Jr., toodles!!!

Productive Production Day!!

 Hey hey hey!!!

Guess what? I finally filmed!! 

Yesterday, afterschool, I finally filmed and helped record my friend’s project (talk about a big cinematographer, actor, director, writer debut)!! So let me discuss what actually went down!!

I first got to my friend’s house at around 3:30ish, we had lunch and went to work!! I have yet to export footage from my camcorder so the explanation of the scenes I filmed with it will be brief for today as I will try to stick with my storyboard for reference (switched a couple of things up during filming).

I first started with the scene where we meet the protagonist…

We knocked out scenes 1-5 in an instant (but with a couple of mishaps, rearrangements, or whatever you want to call it). For scenes 1-2, I wanted the main subject to be a dress, but we could not find one that matched my vision (within what was in our closets), soooo, we switched it up a bit and I decided to back up from the jean jacket “Charlie” was wearing (to cover up the dress we did have but had a giant stain on it🤦🏻‍♀️). It ended up working, so yay!! Next was to cover dialogue for scenes 3-5. When getting to that, we realized that what I had written did not sound organic when delievered, so honestly, a lot of the takes I ended up taking say different things because we just decided to improvise with what came out during that moment, but still following the structure and vision I had. 

This is where the changes come in. From scenes 5-9, given time constraints, I had to switch it up. From scene 5, we actually did change settings (to the kitchen), and I had “Charlie” be preparing her cupcakes for her little birthday celebration. The her friend behind the camera would then take on the same/similar dialogue (remember the improv) onto scene 7. 

Scene 7 to 8 was different in the sense that I did not transition from day to night, as by thinking about it, and considering the camera I was using (very old), it was not going to work, so we just did it during the day. A problem with this scene was that it involved a doorbell. Doorbells and dogs don’t mix. Because of this inconvenience, we had to make creepy girl coming in during scene 7 to say she brought her dog with her (which kind of makes sense?) (shout-out to Brownie, my friend’s dog, for acting). Scene 9 was also in the kitchen and it went great until we randomly just began to burst out laughing (I want to say out of tiredness) and had to re-record several times. The re-recording also allowed me to have space to re-think and change how I approached my characters or even how I said my lines. Scenes 10-11 were fun and simple to film. I zoomed in on the candles, made my way around the table and captured when “Charlie” blew the candles (for the last time🧐). 

These scenes were also when things got funky. Because I did not have time or resources to print and make a whole evidence table, my friends and I tried taking creepy/unusual photos of “Charlie.” They were just of her which is unsettling. So, what I decided to do with these photos was to download them on my phone and have the mystery un-aliver reminisce on them and then move their phone-in-hand to eventually a unalive “Charlie.”

Just so you can see what I have to deal with soon, here’s the picture of some of the files I have to check on the camera first, delete what I don’t use, export and download!!

                                                        (The more the merrier right?😃😅)

Anyway, that’s it for me (for now!!) Here’s some flicks about me helping my friend film!!

Toodles!! 

Let’s pre-plan our CCR while we’re at it!!

 Hey hey hey!! Happy St. Patty’s Day🍀🍀

Production starts soon (tomorrow actually), so to take my nerves out I’ll just start looking at what my CCR may look like to shake it off!

I plan to discuss the four questions I need to answer, through two techniques!

The first way I manage to tackle down my first two questions is through a Canva presentation. I love love love Canva presentations, whether it be for school or out of pure silliness. 

Canva is some type of magical software that aids in helping anyone with designing the best presentations, flyers, posts etc. It’s a graphic designer’s la la land!

Given its endless amount of pre-made templates, made by the most creative artists, it really does become fun to play with. It has thousands of elements (stickers, gifs etc.) and fonts to play around with as well, allowing for one’s creativity to explode!!

Here’s an example of one of my past projects (for english language A level)! My project was based on studying Olivia Rodrigo’s (a celebrity) idiolect. The presentation itself did have to include components that somewhat emulated the style or persona of the celebrity we’d focus on. With the help of Canva’s amazing pre-made template, as well as the agility to switch around a couple of things, add stickers that screamed Olivia’s style, and even add in voiceovers (what I plan to do with my CCR), we were able to do great on our assignment (we got a 100%!!!!)

So, given my history with the software, me being comfortable with it and all, I think that this is the best way to tackle the first half of my CCR!!

The next way I plan to tackle the second half of my CCR is through an interview. In my free time, even when I was much tinier, I loved just wandering around the Youtube jungle to watch interviews. I really cannot tell you why a 7-year-old was watching The Ellen Show interviews, but my time has come, so because I have an opening to fulfill my 7-year-old girl dreams, I will take advantage of it!! Let me show you some examples of current and trendy interviews that I have my eye on as they truly do inspire me!

Variety’s “Actors on Actors” lets the actors do their thing! They sit down and interview each other on the highs and lows of their careers, strengths and weaknesses, and typically tend to star actors who have had a recent project release. This is perfect as I can possibly pair up with a person from my media class, as we both have the film opening project in common, yet different as we have two approaches, as an opportunity to interview each other with the questions we have to ask while getting to know each other!!

 

Wired’s “The Web’s Most Searched Questions” interviews has become a fan favorite in the industry. This interview consists of just one star, or two co-stars, answering, literally, the web’s most searched questions. This dynamic is also fun as we see how the stars get to know each other and rip off small white pieces of paper from the board (it drives people insane)!! If I were to choose this route, I would have to re-create my own board and would do the interview by myself. 

 

Lastly, and the honorable mention, is the very popular Puppy Interview brought to the public by Buzzfeed. This type of interview has been one of the most sought out as it catches actors in a different element. Especially after a very “heavy” or serious movie, or any movie really, these interviews allow for fans to feel as if their favorite celebrity were right there with them. The very informal and unserious element make these interviews binge-able, even despite there really just being a room with a backdrop, person, and puppies. 

If I get to this interview, with my own and my friends dogs, I would add in inserts of pictures/videos of the process I discuss in that question during the moment. I honestly think that this is a great way to unwind after such a demanding project!! Love this!

Well… Take this as food for thought, as I will too. I honestly feel as if my Canva presentation is not the problem, but the interview. I will have to get behind my computer and tweak my version to fit my needs in terms of editing to add in some interesting shots/clips I have to show, but besides that I think I’m set!!

Toodles!! Goodnight!

Say cheese!! Let’s talk about cameras, especially old ones!!

 Hey hey hey!!

Well… I thought this blog post was going to be cute and short, but when you deal with a relic you haven’t seen since you were a baby, things get complicated. Before I begin ranting, I want to give my biggest thank yous to the one who saves us all in the 21st century, Mr. Google. He knows everything and helped me with the pickle I was in, so shout out to him!!

So… Remember how I said a couple of posts ago that I wanted like a cute and vintage and personal video, hinting at “My So-Called Life.” I honestly thought, and think it is a good idea (I mean at this point I would have to stick to it, right?), which meant pulling out an old camcorder I have, more specifically, the JVC GZ-MG 130u, I believe. This camcorder in my house has a bunch of old home videos of me, which to my mom is solid gold, so I was already nervous to even touch it and felt that I was walking on egg shells. 

I grab my camera, (some may feel old when I say this), but I didn’t know what to do with it. I knew the basics, but I felt scared touching anything else because I didn’t know if something could delete. I clearly wasn’t thinking because I immediately stuck an SD card in the camera and it had ask me to format it, which in my vernacular, does not exist. I just saw that it said it was going to delete everything and I found myself in a huge pickle. So, because of my confusion, I went to Mr. Google for answers. It kept saying it wasn’t going to delete my camera’s content, which is logical as I did end up finding out that my camera is a hard-drive camcorder, aka it has storage built in it. Either way, I tried it again and accidently said yes to formatting the SD card, scaring the literal crap out of me for a second, but also, honestly ended up giving me the boost I needed, as it did just what Mr. Google had said, just delete the stuff in the SD card. 

After I figured that out, I found a couple of cables in the little camera bag we have and plugged it into my laptop to see what was on it or where I could start. This is where I was in my second pickle. I went through the folders where the videos I have were supposed to be (because why not check out some baby videos and export them while I’m at it), and everything was in .mod!!! I almost cried and went bonkers!!! What is .mod supposed to mean!!!!! Besides that, the only thing visible or “open-able” was a starter video that I ended up watching because why not. Picture of me watching said video:

(When it said “World’s First Hard Drive Camcorder,” I almost lost my marbles!! How old is this thing??)

After that debate I had with myself, Mr. Google was there for me yet again. This is where I meet my new favorite thing on the internet, a video converter that is not annoying or has a paywall!! His name is cloudconvert. (Jazz hands)

I set that aside and start looking at what I’m dealing with, the .mod files, that according to a 2007 FAQ on the Apple website that I read, is either useless, bootleg, hard to deal with, or all of the above. I take the risk of starting to export the videos already on the camcorder (my home videos) to see what happens and test how it would be like when the post-production comes and I need to do this. Through the converter I mentioned and my set up… I was able to export!! Ignore my messy set up, but it really took all of this (and the Biscoff cookies) to get to success!! The videos exported really quick and smoothly which I loved, as I, as a rookie, have had to come across some knock-off pages that take an estimated trillion years to export a small video. 

I feel so relieved that I was able to go through with this camera as my project weighed heavily on it (no biggie, no pressure right?). I didn’t want it to be one of those (in my opinion), tacky filters on top of a really good camera because it kind of just ruins the charisma to it. I’m so happy I could scream!! This process was basically a bunch of tedious trial and error, which allowed me to learn a few things and, more so and importantly, how to use this camera!! This will make my production process much smoother now that I know where everything is, as well as post-production, as I now know how to look for them on my laptop, convert and export them!!

Everyday you definitely learn something new! That’s it for me today, happy humpday!

Toodles!