Research question #4 (27)

Here is my rough draft of my answer to this question. I'll use this as reference when developing my script for my CCR (which I am completing at the moment and getting ready to film tomorrow)

 Question #4: "How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project?"

    For starters, we used my canon camera to film our project as well as the use of a tripod to steady the camera. This allowed us to avoid any shakey shots as many of our shots are not intended to look handheld. For software, we used Imovie and adobe premiere pro to edit our shots together as well as make transitions. We did some coloring in the photos app in the editing section which was very easy and convenient. Especially since most of our editing just required some lighting adjustments and one scene turning black and white.

    I feel as though this question has been the hardest to answer as there is not much to say as we kept our technological part of our project rather simple. I feel this is because none of us are ever experienced with filming equipment or editing sites, so since our knowledge was limited we don't have much to work with. Hence, we don't have much to answer this question with.

Questions research 3 (26)

Hey blog! I'm doing a rough draft of the points I will hit when answering this question in my CCR, I can look back on this post while im developing my script (which i am currently making) to make sure I answer the question thoroughly. I plan to film my CCR on sunday march 16!

Question #3 

How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

I believe my production skills may not have improved so much; it I learned my strengths and weaknesses on a whole new level. Such a long project required a lot of attention to detail, long filming days, and editing. I learned a lot about myself as well as developed discipline skills and time management. I learned that editing may not be my favorite thing to figure out how to do but once I have looked up videos on how to edit, it is quite relaxing. In addition, filming is my least favorite part, which I found surprising to myself since when I was planning everything, I was excited to film. Turns out, it was the most stressful part trying to get my whole group together- nearly running out of time to film. However, we got it done and through the whole process I realized I work better on my own, especially when editing. 

Research question 2 (25)

Hey blog! I'm doing a rough draft of the points I will hit when answering this question in my CCR, I can look back on this post while im developing my script (which i am currently making) to make sure I answer the question thoroughly. I plan to film my CCR on sunday march 16!

Question #2 

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

My project engages with audiences by having a relatable teenage experience. As it is a coming-of-age film, we included underage drinking and peer pressure. Both of these themes are very relatable to not only teens going through it, but also adults that remember their teen years. Either way, our film scene will raise awareness to how manipulative some “friend” can be and how the people you surround yourself can affect your behavior. The setting being at a pool/park area creates a warm and inviting feel. It being sunny out and in a setting of fun- makes the audience feel how Sammy does. It can be confusing when you're invited to do something bad, but the surrounding contrast thee bad and give off a welcoming mood. A playground is where innocent children play, and the two girls convincing her to drink are not scary looking or wearing dark colors. They too, seem very welcoming. This gives insight to the characters inner battle between right and wrong, which is a very relatable and engaging topic for other teen viewers as well as adults, who can relate back to their teen years and reflect. I would distribute my media in theatres after heavily promoting it on social media. Once it gains attention I have plans to get it distributed on vimeo and even YouTube for easy access. Make sure to check it out! 

meeting (24)

     Today I met with a group of my peers in class! We all discussed our projects and gave each other feedback. Here I created a quick rundown/overview of what each persons project is about and the feedback each person gave as well as some recommendations and challenges each one of us faced and overcame. This group meeting benefited me in realizing i'm right where i'm supposed to be as far as progress in my project. Also, i'm not the only one that has had problems (big and small) when producing this project.

    First off was my classmate Shira. Her film is about a zombie apocalypse that happened on one random night. It is based on a household of surviving the aftermath of the apocalypse. She informed us that the most challenging part of filming was getting the lighting just right, as it had to be dark but still able to see the actors while still conveying a horror/suspenseful tone. they still have some things left to film. We all gave her some feedback on her blog posts as well. Suggesting more picture/video proof of filming as she had a lot, but they weren't on her blog posts. Someone else in my group meeting, Jayden- suggested that she films with brighter lighting than they desire because they can always darken scenes easily in editing. However, it is hard to brighten scenes later.

    Next, was Wyatt. His film is about a basketball player that wants to be as good as his brother but is just comically bad at it. It is a self discovery theme of the brother finding his own self differed from his brothers identity with basketball. We all reviewed his material on his blog posts and thought he had some pretty nice shots, yet all agreed some coloring could go a long way for their scenes. As the shots were very motivating of them working out, the lighting is slightly dim and the colors are a bit muted. He shared with us the problem they had while filming, they got kicked out of 3 different gyms since neither of them all had the same gym memberships at the same place. They took 2 hours alone just finding a gym they wouldn't get kicked out of until they discovered they could get a free membership at LA fitness for the day.

    Following that was Jayden. Their film is about a young girl whos mom passed away at a young age and goes mute because of the trauma. In response, her dad neglects her and mistreats her. Before her mom died, they were a very religious family which was a huge factor to the families close bond. without the mom, they fell apart. They decide to move to a christian community in honor of the mom but this comment is off putting. They have a negative view on life even though they preach God.  Jayden recommended the iphone app "Black magic" for filming. The only challenge they faced was finding a church but once they did all they had to do was ask permission to film. They said that asking permission was super easy and the people of the church were super nice.

CCR Q1 (23)

 Research for CCR question #1

          Time to start thinking about my CCR question #1. I need to get creative so I would like to do something that I already have some knowledge on. I love podcasts, so i'm thinking of doing a podcast as one of my forms of CCR. This research will identify and answer the question of "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"

    Our genre is a coming of age, so we have many conventions displayed of this genre throughout our opening scene. For instance, we suggest character growth, from childhood to adulthood by introducing an "innocent" character to adult beverages and a more intense friends that are into doing illegal things like underage drinking which expose Sammy to more adult decisions.

    We incorporated dialogue to represent the relationships between the three girls. As this is another key aspect of coming of age films. We made sure to focus on body language as well, inmost scene you will se Sammy covering herself with her arms or have her head down, while Vicky and Sophia are very loud with open body language and very expressive faces. Sammy is internally battling what is right and what is wrong as she hangs out with these new friends. This also is a representation of personal growth. We can't actually show the personal growth or have a hopeful ending like traditional coming of age film because we can fit that all intp an opening scene. It just wouldn't make sense to already have an almost fully developed plot and ending in the opening scene.

    

    Our product represents social groups by representing the contrast between the deviant girls and the innocent girl Sammy. There is a strong distinction between the two, as the characters Vicky and Sophia partake in rebellious behavior. This is their social group, they are friends because they both do the same illegal things. Sammy, who is trying to fit into this social group is just trying to fit in. This is where the social issue comes in. Sammy wants so badly to fit in, even though these behaviors Vicky and Sophia display are the complete opposite of what Sammy would usually participate in.  The characters Vicky and Sophia clearly have a bad influence on Sammy, but Sammy ends up complying because of wanting to be a part of this social group. But how far will she go?

Editing (22)

     

    Update! We are still editing but it is now one of the groups turn to edit. I did coloring and now one of my group members is working on putting the different clips together in order. We all know that editing is all of our weakest points, so to make up for it we decided to all take turns, so we can all build on each others editing. We are able to do this by signing into just one account that we can all get to when it is our turn to edit the production. This seems more efficient and will overall make our final product better. As all we will do is add to the editing, even the smallest difference will help.

 Plus, maybe one of us will see something that the other didn't. I really think editing is the most relaxing part, my group and I can all get on a group call. One person is editing and the other three are finding the material the editor is looking for. Looking through all the clips is really funny, finding bloopers or even finding footage we didn't realize we were recording and you can hear us stressing out about the beach getting dark- that was a hard day on us. I think the funniest blooper is the one where we needed our character Sammy, who is played by brianna, to walk into frame and open the gate to leave her house. But it was locked!

    Also, we found some longer clips that we forgot to start and stop the camera. It just kept rolling- oops! Now we have almost a three minute long clips of us doing one scene over and over again. However, thanks to editing we can cut the clips precisely to the shot that we need. Here is our final product of this clip:

    Having multiple clips to chose from while editing is actually really helpful, just because its not my turn to log into the account and edit doenst mena im not still helping. We all contribute to finding the best clips, making sure each video is editied if needed to have good lighting and a steady camera. We all are collectively trying to chose the font and placement for the credit scene as well as decide where the title goes. We know we want to have the title somewhere in the beginning- not the end. Im super exited to see how this turns out and be able to watch all of our hard work come together!

Editing (21)

    

 Editing time! Now that we got all of the clips (and some extras just in case) the editing process begins! First off, I worked on coloring of the different clips. Some were too bright because of the sun, which we couldn't control. We had to slightly shift spots to stay out of direct sun, but we managed. We also kept in mind that during this editing process we would be able to play around with lighting later on so we weren't too worried about it. 

    For me, the editing process is probably the most relaxing. I don't have to set a schedule to meet up with anyone specific or at any specific location to edit. I can do it from anywhere, in class, during my freetime, or any day after school at whatever time suits me best. It takes off a lot of stress. Especially working in a bigger group, the filming process is quite stressful when trying to get everyone tp be at the same place at the same time. This is one of the reasons our location had to chnage as well as filming be pushed back. 

    Even so, we kept pushing through all of the challenged we had to face. We worked as a team and we also never got upset with each other over things we could not control. Which for me, was very important as we all need to be in relatively good moods to be able to film with each other for hours on end, and multiple dyas. I'm glad I chose to work with the girls that i did. We are all contributing to the editing process, as we are all clueless on this part. Even though this is my weaker area, I feel confident that my group and I will all work together and help each other to the best of our ability through anymore challenges we face.

    Anyways, I edited the coloring of the flashback. Surprisingly, this took me more time than I thought. I couldn't simply overlay the video with black and white. Since the initial video was quite dark, the black and white overlay made us almost invisible and the two characters in frame seemed to blend into the background. I was able to edit this directly in my photos app. I had to play around with exposure, saturation, and sharpness. I also raised the light in the scene to make it brighter although it was black and white, this helped significantly. I am doing the same with brighter clips, making them a bit darker and the actor more defined from the light.

The original black and white:

The edited version:

    

Production (20)

     Hey blog! Today was super fun but at the same time very tiring. However, it's always good to be tired from working so hard. We spent almost all day filming at the beach. To be honest, it was a super long drive and it was windy, and hard to get away from excess noise. We noticed this and decided to immediately make a plan. We have limited time to film, as we are already behind on filming due to some bumps in the road, so we needed to make the most of our time at the beach as well as make a new plan on where to film as we will not have enough time with the sun if we come after school. (the sunsets at 6:30 and we get home from school at 3:30) Given, we would still have to change into costumes, get to the beach, (40 minutes away) and get set up.

    We decided we would film the majority of our film at a pool instead of the beach, as they both have the same aspects that we need in the location. Since we were already at the beach, we decided to film a flashback shot of our characters Sophie and Vicky leaving a beach party with alcoholic drinks. This will at least put some use to our beach trip. Now that we realized we dreamed a bit too big we set a date for us to all meet up at Ana's neighborhood pool to film the rest, as well as tweak our script. 

    Nevertheless, we decided the shot to keep to be a scene of the characters Vicky and Sophie (after a beach party) taking some of the alcohol home, to then later offer to our character, Sammy. This scene will be a black and white flashback inserted when the girls are talking about where and how they got ahold of the alcohol even though they are underage.

Production (19)

 Problem

    Today, we ran into a problem. We were supposed to finish up the majority of our filming. Yet last minute two of the girls couldn't come. The girls that play Sammy and Sophia. Leaving Amparo and I left to film whatever we can. Yet the only problem is that there are no scenes in our opening film that have just me in it, and Amparo is the filmer. We have already some opening clips filmed so it wouldn't make sense to switch up the character at this point. Amparo and I were already prepared to go to the beach to film so we decided to still go and maybe get some montage shots of the beach that we could incorporate if it fits in our opening film during the editing process.

    These are just a couple of the videos we got. We tried to make the most of it.

Solution

    Amparo and I decided to figure out a new schedule from here. How we can make sure to still get everything done on time. We decided to plan more days to film instead of just two to have "back up" filming days. If not everyone can go to maybe two of the filming days, if we plan for four filming days, all of us will have to be available at least one of the four. We decided to make the odds more likely and planned filming days for tuesday through friday for the week of march 3-10. This gives us a variety of days to have better chances at us all being there as well as giving us time to start up on editing over the weekend days of saturday and sunday. Now that we fixed our slight bump in the road, we feel less panicked and actually more prepared than ever! I'm excited to finish filming and start the editing, which so far has been my favorite out of any project we have done in class.