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.