Week Eight of Portfolio Project

 03/31/22

Updates:

Well, this is slowly coming to an end and I'm editing the CCR right now!!!:(

Editing the CCR:

Boy oh boy, it was hard recording myself talking in front of a camera, I couldn't seem to memorize my lines but I just filmed piece by piece and just took my time with it. Editing the CCR was harder than editing the film in general. I had a hard time because the storage on my computer was running out and my disk was full, and guess what I deleted the who project for a second but luckily after 3 hours I was able to get it back. At that moment my heart just DROPPED.

Just showing you guys a quick little sneak peek of the CCR I tried being as creative as I could by really being myself in the film. I included some humor, enthusiasm, and sarcasm. I was going to include music in the back but I didn't want to have too many distractions. When it came to filming I just put my phone on my window and just hit record. I did many angles in my room and was only able to find the good lighting where my bed was, what a coincidence, I liked being comfortable while filming. Nothing much else honestly I just gotta say that this portion of the project took up a lot of storage. Well, guys, this was the last actual longish kinda not really a blog post and in the next one, you're going to see my creation. If i have to do any touchups id redo them and then upload them.Talk to ya later!!

Week Eight of Portfolio Project

 03/30/22

Updates:

In yesterday's post, I answered the 5 questions we have to include in our CCR. Today I will be writing the script for the video and including pictures etc. 

CCR Script:

I will just be writing the script directly on here.

The intro to the video starts:......

-Hello, my name is Valentina Bernal and this is my creative critical reflection. My film is called scrambled and it's a coming-of-age film, that is about Carolina Perez a girl who has just moved from Houston who is also a first generation daughter that was born in America but her family in Colombian, Texas and met someone. That someone is Taylor Walsh who is not liked by Carolinas mother. Throughout the film, Carolina faces many challenges with herself and her mother. Carolina fits the stereotypical characters in a coming-of-age film by going through personal growth that comes with changes that her mother doesn't approve of. (refer to blog posts)

Start of question one: 

-Genre conventions are plot features that are common in a genre, such as character stereotypes, significant events, and settings. Basically, it is what a viewer would expect when they would watch a specific film genre. If you were to go watch horror films they typically always have more suspenseful moments rather than funny ones unless it's a parody but we don't talk about those......Factors someone should expect when watching a coming of age film should be personal growth, learning valuable lessons, and obviously a teenager growing up. My film focuses on personal growth and change. Also, I included a protagonist who is her mother because a coming of age film is no good without that one protagonist, having one makes the audience feel more connected because it allows them to view the situation from two perspectives. As I mentioned earlier with Carolinas family being Colombian or Hispanic in general some of her views arent really her family's views.  She mentions in the opening film how she is nervous about her mom meeting her friend because her mom wouldn't agree with what's going on. The representation behind this is the struggles some people go through with their sexuality and acceptance of it because of their family's views some could be because of religion or others are just because of personal preference. I included or hinted at her heritage by including a magnet on her fridge of her country's flag and a bracelet with the country's colors as well. 

Question two:

- The target audience for my film ranges from ages 12 to 18 both females and males. My target audience really consumes A LOT of media by using Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok, and Youtube. With youtube being one of the most popular streaming platforms with (include image) about 85 percent (https://blog.hootsuite.com/youtube-stats-marketers/) I will upload my film on that platform. I also will use this program shortcuts to upload my film, shortcuts are for high school students who want to share their short films.

Question three:

- My process from the beginning to the end I have learned a lot about editing and all I can say is I now know how to work a phone camera. I definitely had to adapt to the editing software that I used which was premiere, when I started editing I My research and planning skills really evolved, I would just get cool ideas for shots or editing techniques and id write them down, and when it came to editing those techniques that Id think of id do some research on how to achieve the effect. knew nothing all I knew was that there were SOO many buttons I could press, but I stopped myself. After doing countless research and watching youtube videos I figured out how to edit. I'm glad I did the music video project, a few months back and the sound project as well because those projects helped me figure out how to come up with cool shots and how to film, and also the sound project helped me learn how I can film my own sound effect and search up different ones too. 

Question four:

-Throughout the project, the devices I used were my phone to film the project duh and my laptop to edit it...duh. I did not only use my phone to film but I used it to communicate with my friend to help me film or send my voice memos of her talking for the voiceovers. I also used websites like Canva to design my intro, premiere to edit my film, websites that have specific sound effects I was looking for, websites that gave me a template to write a script and blogger posts which helped me share my thoughts and journey. When it came to problems most of them was when I wasn't sure how to edit either the shots or audio, so id use technology by researching and watching youtube videos on how to achieve certain techniques. 

Ending:

-This project has had a lot of good and oopsie moments but overall it was a fun journey from learning about the film world to being part of it for a few weeks. I have learned how to properly film and edit the opening of a film and also learned the psychology behind making a film as well. If I had the chance to do something different is to do the planning portion accurately. For next time I could improve by really working on my storyboard because they need a little improvement I'm not the best artist out there. Well, I hoped you enjoyed the film and enjoyed this creative critical reflection, til next time bye-yeeee. 

Week Eight of Portfolio Project

 03/29/22

Updates:

Well as you saw from last week's posting I finished editing and now it's time for my CCR. What I plan on doing is just answering the questions here and just talking about my ideas of how I'm going to edit it, make it look, the script, etc.

CCR Questions:

Today in class we reviewed the important things to include on the CCR. With that, I will be referencing the rubric AND PowerPoint to input my answers to the questions. 

First question: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

-(https://youtu.be/HgUe8MvhPyE) Genre conventions are plot features that are common in a certain genre, such as character stereotypes, significant events, and settings. In other words, it's what one would expect when it comes to watching a film whether it's a horror, drama, or in this case a coming of age film. If someone were to go watch a horror film, they'd expect more solemn and suspenseful moments and not comical moments, unless it's a parody but we don't talk about those...For coming of age films it focuses on one person's personal growth they go through as they grow up into adulthood and it includes protagonists that don't accept or understand the changes which the character is going through... That means change which is a huge characteristic in a coming of age film whether it's a change in relationships with loved ones, friends, or families. This genre consists of a lot of emotion, and powerful feelings that some run into while growing up as they change, Change is a big factor. And that is the factor I chose to challenge in my film. My film is about Carolina Perez who is a first-generation born child from a Colombian family who has recently moved from Houston and has met a girl, but the girl is not just any other girl Carolina has feelings for her and throughout the opening film she expresses the way her new friend Taylor makes her feel. Throughout the film, she faces challenges with her family but most importantly her mother because her mother can't seem to understand the changes she's going through or who she is becoming. Cant overshare too much information about the film, so go see it yourself if you want to know more. My film goes through change and personal growth a teen girl goes through as she finds out who she really is and what or who makes her truly happy, but almost every coming of age movie should have protagonists and in my film like I said her mother plays the protagonist and she's the one who doesn't seem to understand the change. I chose these factors because it's relatable, every person who is going through personal growth has bumps and challenges, I will sit here and wait till someone says they have not gone through any change while growing up. The change represents growth and the differences that specific heritages have, some accept more than others. Carolina speaks about how she's nervous for her mom to meet her "friend" and if shell still sees her the same or if shell understands. The big picture is the struggles some people go through with being curious about their sexuality and them being afraid their family will not understand or see them the same. I show or hint at Carolina's heritage by including her country's flag on her refrigerator door and her bracelet has the colors of her flag as well. The clues that help develop the representation is the voiceover, the specific lines she says help develop the essence of a touch of reality.

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

-The target audience for my film ranges from ages 12 to18. It is for both males and females. My target audience these days consumes media by mostly using apps like youtube, Snapchat, Instagram, and TikTok. More than 50% of this target audience consumes all their social media platforms including youtube than other platforms like Facebook and Twitter. I will upload my film on youtube since it's the most effective platform for the target audience I'm going for. (https://www.becon.tv/shortcuts) I would also release my film on this website called shortcuts where high school students can upload their short films in all of South Florida. 

Third Question: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

-My process from the beginning all the way to the end has evolved drastically I have improved in different ways like my creativity has expanded. When it came to research and planning I would first 

let my mind wonder about different ideas like different shots, music, and audio ideas. After letting the ideas come to me I write them down on a piece of paper or draw them out. I do my research based on the ideas I get from either searching up how to do this effect or how to work with audios etc. While filming and editing this film I did not really know my way around editing and filming. I would not be sure how to set my phone to record in the best quality or how to even work the editing software so I would watch videos that really helped me work around the challenges of being clueless when it came to editing. I am glad we did the music video project because that really helped me learn how to plan, do research (the right way), and just be creative. 

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

- Throughout the project, I used my phone to film and my laptop to edit. Not only did I use my phone to film but I also used it to record voice memos for the voiceover. I used websites like canva to design my intro, premiere to edit my film, certain sound effects websites, websites to use a script template to write my dialogue, and blogger to share my journey throughout this film. I learned my way around premiere to edit my film by figuring out how to layer sounds, add color to the shots, transitions, and how to add text. I ran into a few obstacles but the biggest one has been storage, since the editing software and the project itself my computer sometimes wouldn't function correctly because of it. 

Fifth Question: Final statement.

This project has had many ups and downs from not being satisfied with what I filmed to being thrilled about what I just edited, This project has helped me evolve my skills and taught me how to edit a film opening. I have learned how to plan ahead properly, how to work with premiere pro, how to blog and research, and the process it takes JUST to film a film opening. If I had the chance to approach something differently I would take the planning ahead because there were some days I fell behind but luckily I still got up and caught up. What I could improve for next time is to really work on my storyboards and how to draw them out. 

 

That's all for today talk to you later!!!

Week Seven of Portfolio Project

 03/26/22

Updates: 

I will be starting my CCR soon.

Day 2 of editing 2:

GOOD NEWS I finished up draft 2 today and let's just say this one is the one! This draft just had way more flow to it and just made sense. 

Editing audio:

This part of the project was a bit difficult and time-consuming since I do have 3 layers of audio. It was difficult to figure out how to add the third layer but then I accidentally clicked a button and then boom I had the third layer. Funny how that happened because I was not about to add the synchronous sound, and just have the voiceover and music, which would have probably caused me to lose points. For some of the sounds, I just unlinked the audio and then lowered the volume so it wouldn't be louder than the voiceover and the music. I only included specific sounds like the egg cracking and frying, the fridge opening, the fridge closing, and some dialogue that I had to say but it's low so the audience does not lose track of what Carolina is saying in the voiceover. Some extra sounds that I searched up were nature sounds to include in the nature shots I had filmed for the credits.

This is what the final layers look like after adding all the audios in the first audio layer muted because that's the original audio of the shots. The second layer is the voiceover of Carolina talking and the third one is the layer with the soft Spanish guitar music that I had found on a website that had a bunch of copyright-free music. The fourth and FINAL ones are the small synchronous and asynchronous sounds. If you think it's too many layers I think is about right because I wanted to include many details and including those small ones are the most important ones. 

Editing fonts:

When it came to editing the fonts the only thing that seemed hard was how to get the fonts that I downloaded transferred to premiere. So I did some research and found out that premiere has its own font lists so I chose one that looked just like the one I chose in the first place. The color of the font is yellow and it matches the color palette of the shots.

This is how the credits look in the shots I obviously made the credits small yet visible because I didn't want it to distract the audience from what the voiceover is saying. 

    For the title, I did make it bigger and I put it close to the bottom yet centered but drag attention to it because the title resembles what Carolina is cooking throughout the opening portion of the film.

Color Balance:

The color balance was very easy yet time-consuming, I didn't know how to apply the color font to all the shots all at once so I had to do it one by one. But I just used the color balance effect on the effect controls bar and just customized the color setting to my liking. The thought process for the filter of the film has to do with the mood I'm want to set, for the film I want to set a happy and lively mood. Warm colors represent excitement, warmth, and overall creativity or just make it look pretty and artsy. I had added a lot of red tones because red represents passion and excitement which is what Carolina is feeling at that moment. There are also some yellow tints that bring out the satisfying part in the cooking portion with the eggs. The green in the outside shots also brings out just a wholesome feeling to the film. Overall the thought process of the color balance is not just what looks good but what brings the film together and makes the audience feel what the character is feeling. 

This is the before and after of the color balance, as you can see it makes the quality look better and it sets the right mood for the film.

Intro to the opening film:

I designed my intro on canvas using one of their pre-made videos, it was very simple and quick!.

This was the intro I WAS going to use but as soon as I put it on my timeline it looked more like a youtube into rather than a cinematic one. 

This is the second one I made and it was better than the first one. It had more of a cinematic feel to it with the logo about the text (which moves).

What's left:

Now that I'm done editing the project all that's left is to prepare for the CCR. Talk to you later!!

Week Seven of Portfolio Project

 

03/25/22

Updates:

Last night I finished editing the first draft, came out alright but I hope the second one comes out better. When I added the background music with the voiceover it matched perfectly I liked it a lot. So for now I know that the background music matches the voiceover. I added a pretty color balance too. 

Day 1 of editing 2:

Since it's spring break I kinda edited ALOT today haha, I've been staying home all the time and I'm glad I did because today I got like two days' worth of editing done. All I need left is the voiceover, the synchronous sounds, color balance, and background music

This is just a sneak peek of some cool shots in the film. One thing I could say is that this draft does have better lighting, one thing I didn't like about the first draft is that it didn't have goo delighting because it got dark while we were filming. I can say editing this was easier because I already knew my way around premiere since I already edited the other video using premiere. For the second film, I focused more on not giving out TOO much I wanted it to mostly include Carolina and nothing else. For the first draft, I had to cut back a few scenes where she was talking to her mother before because the dialogue didn't have her mother in it. Also, this draft has more flow to it so I'm leaning towards this second draft. Another better thing is that I included an establishing shot in this one because I wanted one or two shots to include so I can add the credits. Well, that's all for today, talk to you later. 

Week Seven of Portfolio Project

 03/21/22

Updates!!!:

No updates just on spring break :).

Day 4 of Editing: No editing today just thoughts...

Hello, there today I tried to figure out what I could insert to make more time. I'm not sure if I can use free images in my film to show more of the Colombian heritage instead of using a black screen. So for today, I'm just going to do some research on whether or not it is okay and then I will speak to my teacher about it just to be sure. So from the research, I have made today it seems a little more complicated than the process of using a copyright-free song. So, I think I am going to film the small closeups myself. I have a bracelet with the Colombian flag colors so ill film a closeup of that on the counter. I'll search up a few images and insert them here as inspiration. But first ill brainstorm objects any Colombian could have. An object that resembles their country flag (the bracelet), Colombian coffee, any other Colombian food, something that resembles their religion since most Colombians are very religious. Close-ups of all these objects could be inserted into my film but there's one thing I'm afraid would happen, which is if those closeups don't match the vibe of the film I don't know I think it will do it. I will have to speak to my teacher about this idea. By the way, this is the article I read https://www.rivaliq.com/blog/guide-copyright-fair-use-laws-online-images/.

Reflection from today:

There was no editing today but that does not mean it wasn't an important day. As I edit my film I think about what could make it better because as I am a filmmaker right now I want my film to look good. I truly think the closeups would be the cherry on the top. I have other thoughts to share and ideas I know will come to me, so you'll read about them in future posts. That's all for today ladies and gents, talk to you later.

Week Seven of Portfolio Project

 03/19/22

Updates!!!:

This is the first posting during spring break!!! That means the due date is slowly creeping up 🙊. Kinda nervous maybe a bit excited to share my creation/ my child (aka my project).

Day 3 of Editing: Going a little slow because of too many buttons on the software= Valentina is confused as hell...but we're getting there.

Today I decided to look over my video another time and crop some imperfections. I had to crop out a part of one of the scenes because the lighting did not match the one that had come after. I was wondering why the lighting could have changed so drastically like that, but my theory is that it was because the camera had taken a while to adjust to the lighting, and the shot after the camera already had time to adjust to the lighting. I was thinking about refilling it but that is a BIG no most importantly because there is no time and two the setting of the kitchen would look totally different and the actress would not look the same as well. When I had cropped the scene it has looked like she teleported a little bit but it's the best it's going to get, I much rather have her teleport (but not like completely) than have lighting issues. Believe it or not, that's all I did today I know I know but it actually looks a while for me to one learn how to correctly crops and two decide which moment was best to crop without it looking choppy and whatnot. 

Reflection on Today's Editing: Overthinking FOR SURE 

Well for today I learned that waiting for the camera to adjust before ending the scene is CRUCIAL in terms of lighting. I couldn't have cropped it when it adjusted to the lighting because both actors had already stopped talking by then. One thing I really want to fix that I don't know how is to make the film look flowy, maybe it is just me that is overthinking everything but I don't know I need there to be flow. I will rewatch some opening films in movies and past projects to see if my flow matches theirs. But it is a big chance that I'm just overthinking. Well, that's all for today folks talk to you later!!!