The Farewell Address (see ya gamers!)

 

    Introduction

    It’s over, but honestly it still really hasn’t hit that after 4 years I am done. I still remember my freshman classes like it happened last week. Hundreds of people I will never see again. And the ones I will see will probably be the ones I wish I didn’t. The things I learned about other people, but honestly about myself. I am still relatively young at 17 so if I ever see this document again I will probably laugh and call myself stupid. But e-Comm is something I won’t ever forget. The projects I made the people I have met. The skills, at least the big ones, project management, leadership, communication, collaboration and technical skills are something I hope I keep forever. The thought that needs to go into a project like a film are really multi tool skills. That I hope to keep.

Section I

At the beginning of e-Comm I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do, but in entertainment I realized that film is simply beautiful. At the time I didn’t know anything about a camera or how to refine an idea into a workable project with deadlines (how fun!)  I have learned so much but I still want to work on something that I didn’t really get enough time to do and that’s directing and cinematography. I want to be able to have the confidence to create something and be able to lead something to that end product. 

I heard a saying one time that a team is only as good as its weakest link and that’s why I want to hone my skills to bring everyone up as a team.  I am not sure what I would do differently, perhaps make filming a bigger priority in my life.

It’s to say for certain what I did that made me most proud. I have imposter :) syndrome I guess.  Every time I look at a project that I worked on that is really good it’s too easy for me to make excuses. But the ones I am most proud of are Hawthorne, Can’t Take my Eyes Off you and our 24 hour film fest video. The biggest problem with most of these projects is time constraints, when you are managing a big group of people it’s hard to find time in which everyone can be available to shoot. Hawthorne (my short film) would’ve been my Magnum Opus if you will. Of course we ran out of time, or we ran into technical issues. The thing is that I learned to plan out everything. Do not procrastinate and waste your time on stuff that is insignificant to the project.  They all turned out to be great in their own ways, CTMEOY had a great story and lighting, Hawthorne a great cinematographer (Drew) and an experienced actor/advisor Brett Taylor. The 24hour film is a bit different, the shots, story, script are fine but it was the experience of hanging out with friends and shooting a movie made it truly special. 

    The 24 hour Film Fest took you guessed it 24 hours. The other projects took a few weeks to complete with scheduling and shooting, pre/production all that Jazz.

It’s tradition to give feedback after we view a video and my projects were no different. I honestly can’t remember the feedback we were given or if we made any big changes.  I guess that might be something I should work on, whether my stubbornness or memory is more important is your call. 

Section II

    Time is money or whatever annoying people say but it is rather true. The time I spent editing a project are some of my favorite memories in e-Comm. But time is hard to manage when you’re at school. When your actors are in math class and you need to film in an alleyway 15 minutes away things can get difficult. But if when we had dates you gotta get out there and give it your all.  I’d say I’m a good editor, especially in Junior year I focused on editing and trying to enhance whatever product I was given through a well timed cut.  My cinematography will always be something I want to improve and hone if I decide to get back into the film scene.

Section III

The feature film was an odd one. I don’t often work with sound, and frankly I’m glad about that. Whether through bad luck or a potential I didn’t know I had, I was sound supervisor for Cursed. I thought it went well. I was there for all the film days capturing sound with the boom pole operator (Lucas, Malik, Truman, Kellan.)  Inside class I couldn’t really do much as the group of Juniors who ran the show didn’t really give good detail as to what we were shooting, when, what location. But Smith knows what she's doing of course, I thought we did a good job. (Also I was kinda lazy and forgot to apply.) And I loved that we got to work together as a class.

    Section IV

    Overall entertainment video was awesome. I can’t really describe the overall experience I had. I could offer up stories but not a connecting theme between them all. I guess I would like to try putting more effort into filming and contributing to the project. But hey to be alive to have regrets and live with them, not every choice we make is the right one, not every action we make is flawlessly or objectively right but we can give ourselves grace and work to better ourselves. 

Film Reel 2021 WHA???

 

The Process

This project took me a couple hours to do, above you will see a film reel of mine hand crafted January of 2021. I wanted to do a more contemporary piece of art when making this. When I was splicing clips together I thought it would be an interesting idea to incorporate a VHS/Cassette tape clicking to capture a more classic feel. I also choose an awesome song to bring the 1900s to the 2020s with a modern twist. I though overall it turned out really well as it allowed me to be creative but also sticking to my theme. I haven't also edited in quite a while so being able to stretch my wings and just start throwing things together is something I really actually love. The only thing I would change in my work would be the quality of the clips, while passable the converter I used didn't quite do a good job. I had to use a YouTube converter as I wasn't able to locate most of the clips.

Professional Review Blog Post

Review 

 The story is about a man who is dealing with a lot of problems about death and finding their place in the world, and it is expressed with almost surreal choreography. I think that something to take away from this is to not skip out on the movement of your subject, how through the movement you can make a really unique video. The use of color has always been a bid deal when it comes to creating a music video and this project is no different however they take it to the extreme, they use a panel of lights on the ceiling to create superb visuals. The changing of the lights on this scale mixed with the choreography is something that really allows the video to stand out. The only thing I would change would be the first cut. As so far there has not been a cut up to that point. Then changing the the came 90 degrees can be jarring. In Conclusion Still Feel by Half~Alive I a unique video that promotes a pleasant video to watch with appealing visuals with impactful lyrics as some choreography that puts this video up the greats.

https://youtu.be/KOOhPfMbuIQ

Short Film Junior Year

Pre-Production

   For the script we choose have a nice day by Mason Love, however we only had 3 people so we had to work extra hard on story boards. That was Drew's job while Mason worked on the script, I can't remember what my task was but believed I helped with location scouting for the film. Mason then made a big step when his manager at Hyvee (where he works) allowed us to film there. Our project was have a nice day a sublime take on the bleakness of life and the problems people face everyday. I follows Lucas a cheery graduate who gets accepted at a job for a grocery store and has to deal with the fakeness of corporations. Our main problem was finding actors as we needed people who looked old enough to have graduated high school and moved on to their careers. But we couldn't find that so we had to settle on high school students.  After we found our actors and location we were ready to go.

Production

   Production was different as we used a 2 camera setup. At the time his was new to me as if we filmed dialogue we would just switch perspectives with 1 camera. What was very different was when we filmed at the grocery store. This was awesome as it made the video feel authentic.  I wasn't very hands on since I was the editor of the piece. I also had work so I couldn't make it for some of the lesser filming dates. However for the main filming dates I was there. We also had a problem with getting our actors as they got into a car crash. They are ok and we managed to finish filming.

Post Production

   Since we had so much editing to do we decided to split it up. Mason took most of the scenes I wanted to help more and take more scenes but he insisted that he would take the most. The biggest problem we faced was the music playing in the background of the hyvee. This is when we tried to used nat noise to make it sound more connected. 

Reflections

On this short film we experimented with some new things. One was the length at 12 minutes, that was the longest length I have worked on a project before. We also had to work hard and really communicate as one person not doing their job could ruin the project. I think for difference I would have tried harder to be present at filming dates. But for doing the same I think doing something with a similar theme would be awesome as I loved the bleak theme. Overall there is some stuff I would do different but I did enjoy working on this project.

   

Junior Video Final

Short Film

      This project was our short film, it was supposed to be 5-20 minutes long. This project took us around a month.  Originally I believed I would use my own treatment for a short film however that did not happen since mine was half baked compared to everyone else's. We had a couple weeks to write the film treatment and I should have used more time to create a working foundation for a script. But it turned out ok as we used Mason's script called Have a Nice Day. There was some struggles at the beginning however since there was only 3 of us. I was the editor, Drew Faflick was the director of Photography and Mason Love was the Director. We learned a lot but the thing I was most learned the most about was editing dialogue since our film had the most of that. I learned that if you correctly sync up audio on a  tow camera set up you simply just use one of the audio clips for both scans and cut back and forth.  The biggest change we did was cutting down the piece due to time and manpower constraints. We ended up doing only volume one. But I liked the way it turned out since we worked hard on it and the visuals feel crisps and clean. 

Commercial 

Our commercial was over la Croix, a soda company. In this assignment we had to advertise a popular product. w looked at inspiration from previous film classes and from official works. At first we struggled with what company we wanted to do as we thought of Caveman Bars. And we flipped flopped between those.  Another problem was location scouting as we had to find a place where we could fit and it be very romantic. After we found a place the ball started rolling once again I was the editor. So I had to find a way to show the essence of what our director (Aidan) wanted which was suave early to mid 20th century feel. In that project I learned about  music and how to cut to it to make it work. This was my favorite one to work on as we had a big enough team who was very professional.

Camera Assignment 1

This Camera Assignment was the first one we worked on this semester. It was a bit difficult as we didn't know anyone yet so things were a little tough.  We couldn't think of an idea but then we used the theme of an impractical miracle product like you would see on a crappy informercial. Writing a script was hard as we needed to keep it school appropriate but also funny. But it wasn't funny. I was editor again but this time our director (Juan) did most the editing at his house. I would change a lot from this project including time management as we ran out of time when filming to get everything we needed. But this was a fun project to work it could have just been managed better. I learned you have to keep your eye on the clock when filming so you don't run out of time.

Time Management

Most of time in class is used editing or talking with people on my team, usually when I'm not editing and done I'm talking to the director of what they wanted to see and looking over what we have done.  And whether or no they want any changes before I export. Then I get some advice and it is back to editing that usually keeps me busy for a while. This semester I didn't really have any time to do anything else.  Outside of class I actually look at movie I've seen and almost analyze when they have cut or their style when editing. 

Client Work

As of yet I have not done any client work. I hope this changes this year as I am a hark worker and am willing to put myself out there. 

Strengths and Weaknesses 

My strength is when I'm Inspired I can get a lot of work done so when I feel that way I try to grind out as much work as I can before that spark dies out. This usually when it comes to editing as I get in the mood and can make a scene really good really fast. but earn i lose it I tend to slack off and not really try leading to below average work. Another weaknesses I have as I tend to be my biggest critic constantly doubting myself but I try to make up for that by putting out quality work that I think others will enjoy. 

Guest Speakers

I think Learned the most from Morgan Cooper, as my true passion is being a director not an editor. The fact that he showed up and talked to us about how you just have to really work for was a true inspiration to me. How you can make it big out there awesome. Next year I am hoping to apply myself more like he did and try to work harder to make it big like he did. 

Production Role

I can't say I am too happy about being a sound designer as I don't know the first thing about sound design. But that doesn't mean I won't give it a shot, and use this time to improve my audio skills. I am hoping to use this opportunity to gain knowledge to gain a leadership role next year.

Summary

My favorite part of the semester was working with the seniors. Next year I will apply myself more and will stay on task more. I learned this year you have to go out and try new things and to apply yourself. I was anxious but also excited for the next semester. My goal will be for next year will be to try and take a more proactive role in the feature film.

Semester 2 Roundup

Short Film 

   This project was our final project in Exploring Animation. Is took around a month to do it and it was supposed to be around 5 minutes long. So far we haven gotten feedback yet. But, I think our biggest challenged was between our director and the rest of the team.  Our team agreed that our director kept us out of the loop on purpose and tried to do everything her self. So far we haven't been any feedback yet but I can tell that this project needs some work. I was excited to do this but overall this was probably one of the worst projects I have done.

      Most of our time was spent out of the loop or waiting for film dates. I'm going to be completely honest and say that our group didn't really have anything to do during class as our director went behind our backs and edited the entire thing without notifying us she was doing so. I think however the funniest thing was that Animation actually helped me out my editing skills.

Technically I was the editor however I didn't get to do much editing. I also din't have much space to edit and write as our director decided that any other script was would not work and that her's was the best.

I think I should have tried to get more involved with this project. Since one decides to do all the work without telling us. However I worked well with the other members of the group.

Movie Trailer

    This project project was a small recreation of a movie trailer we did. This took us a couple of weeks, and I think we did a pretty good job. I worked with the boom mic and It pretty cool. The biggest challenge we faced was getting all of the actors. As you can tell from the video. I think we changed some audio cuts making it a voice over instead of the audio so all my work was for nothing. I think if we managed to finish this, it would have been a great video.

     We mostly used our spare time doing pre-production, including storyboards scheduling and other things.  This ended up taking a while so we didn't have much time. We had to film after to school so that gave me a ton of filming experience. As well as even thinking about shots and pans when watching movies.

I did the script, and this allowed to become more confident when writing. I learned about organizing the script so that an actor can know whose part is whose. As well as organizing the outfits and color coating the lines and actions.

    I used my strengths by trying to doin the script as I'm generally good at telling a story however I'm not the best drawer. I think the thing I need to work on the most editing as that is something I want to hone my skills on most.

Summary

My favorite part was working with people as well as editing videos.  I think next year I'm going to try and put in more effort in editing and getting to know more people.  I think I learned that going into entertainment was the right idea. And I think my goal would be to challenge myself with more difficult work. 

Movie Trailer

What Was This Assignment?

This assignment was a recreation of the original Breakfast Club trailer. This so far was the longest project we have had and it take.  We first started with getting our assigned trailer. Then we had to write down our script. After that we had to do the story board.  Lastly the hardest part was scheduling the actors. This was difficult as the actors was were very busy. However we managed to schedule only one day with the actors and we filmed for 3 hours.  We were ahead of everyone else however we were stuck as the actors were unavailable. This eventually led us to edit and turn in what we had.

Technical and Professional Skills

I learned about coordinating a schedule since we had to make sure all the actors schedules lined up. I also learned about audio management since I was the one who had to hold the shotgun mic. This was cool as this the first time any of my groups got to use a shotgun just like they do in the movies. I also developed my skills with communication.

Regrets 

The only thing I wish we could have done better was choose actors with better schedules. Our problem was casting based on how similar they looked to the original actors rather than how flexible their schedule was. Aside from that our flow world great. Our personalities worked well and the actors were enthusiastic. I look forward to working with our teammates in the future.

Music Video

The Brainstorming Of A Music Video 

I'd like to say that we were behind in terms of a music video. As our group was made up of people who didn't flow well together and were put together from people who didn't have other groups. And we didn't know what to do. We struggled with what song we wanted to do, each person had their own reason for choosing a song. Eventually we were able to choose The Man Who Sold The World by David Bowie. This song did not work for what we wanted to do. Which was the ability to craft our own story which would allow us to express our ideas.

What Skills Did We Use And Learn?

At first we tried to do our own thing. However we had to collaborate to get something out. Also had to be able to manage our time. However this was not easy due to our tons of snow that dropped those days. However We learned that we need to be flexible and that we can't just do the bare minimum. However we each needed to you use our own technical skills and knowledge to get something out.

What Would We Do The Same/Differently

I think that the main thing we should do differently was not biting off more than we could chew. We tried to do a lot which due our poor teamwork and weather we wen't able to complete our video. I think our group choice was also a bad idea. Two of our members went back and forth, arguing. However I thin that we should have done the same was to stay optimistic which at the end of the project was non existent.

Semester Reflection

My Work

My Video Starts at 0:45
This Video was the ONW video we made. This video took us around a week or two to make. We learned about the news editing process however we interviewed the principal so it took awhile to get him booked.  However we have yet to get peer feedback.

This video was our procedure/tutorial video. This only took around a week. This video was much easier. But trying to figure the cameras since we were still new to them was hard. We got someone feedback on the color correction and shakiness. We did managed to get rid of a bit of the yellow in the frame. For both of these videos I think I did pretty good on both given our time frame.

 I used my time mostly working on a script and generally managing the docs and also helped people with the tripod and camera. I think I could get off of topic at times but I believe that I managed to stay on topic. I would have spent my time trying to master audio if i finished audio since that's not my strong suit.  Normally I will stay after school to finish projects I lag behind on.
 
 I think my strengths are team play and knowledge and framing the shots. I seem to get along well with people and I think I can map out a scene pretty well. However I also have my weaknesses as well. I think I get off topic pretty quickly and I'm also slow at editing. That is why I try to leave the heavy editing to other people.

In the soft more edition I believe I was something similar to the director since I thought I organized the team. In this edition we made a informative piece on the recent deployment of the dell laptops.

My favorite part about the year was working and meeting new people. However next year I will stay more on task, which means I also need to keep other students concentrated as well. I took away that I can't do everything myself and that I have to work with other people to be successful.

ONW NOW

What Makes a Good Broadcaster

I think the main I learned that you need to have foresight and confidence. You need to have confidence to put yourself out there. You also need to be able to confidently deliver your piece effectively and concisely.  But you also need to be able to plan ahead while managing extra time.  However you are just a cog in the machine. There are also other people that need to do their part as well. Like the audio people who make sure everyone who could people clearly understood. The anchors who can clearly deliver their lines and lastly the editors who master the news you watch every night.

My Viewpoint 

From where I was I saw the people editing the show as they went. Switching the camera angles and cuing the anchors in. I thought this was very fascinating. Particularly because I never knew how this stuff was edited whether this was all spliced together or on one continuous shot.

 

How to use the elevator

Pre- Production

When we were given our turn to choose what topic we would cover. I didn't like the idea of our group choosing how to use the elevator. However I was wrong about the notion. We had a solid plan and a procedure that actually needed to further explained. We started off with simple stick figures and post it notes, then we moved to complex diagrams with a variety of different shots. Then we were ready to move on.

Experiences

I think the biggest thing i learned was to work with other people with different ideas. I think that this was quite the journey because all of the people i didn't know. And not only did we have different ideas but also personalities. However I think we managed to conquer the problems and make a stylized yet informational piece.

What Would I Change?

Unlike most of the things I've done this video had flaws. But I think I wouldn't change anything aside from editing on my part. The cuts were raw and I didn't have any information on how to correct the yellow on the screen in editing. But I think with a bit more practice I could fix those lickity split.