CCRs and Final video

 I feel kind of bad because I keep saying it and I don’t want to make it seem like I am bragging, but this was supposed to go up yesterday but I no matter what, couldn’t find a way to transfer the videos from my computer to my phone and back with all the laws against websites like my main editing platform, clever(my school platform), and the limited connection to the internet didn’t allow me to download or send anything too big online without it taking a very long time. 

But , what’s done is done and I can’t do anything about it now so here’s the finished project!

Video: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MZJY7VvNH6KlG8i029RXPcGLMbG1BMX-/view?usp=sharing

CCR 1: https://drive.google.com/file/d/15cHkg470PjB9v4xb2CyCdUQwiKlJZhma/view?usp=sharing

CCR 2: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Jt6007jTO_7Hr61OHktJGfnV3vBihKEt/view?usp=sharing

Final reflection

 Its finished! Im so so happy and it is quite late where I am so I cannot wait to go to sleep, but this has been at the same time one of the most annoying but fun projects. Some days were much better than others like the days I had to grind out blogs weren't too fun, but the brainstorming and letting our ideas come to fruition in our filming and editing, then seeing it came as a shock to everyone. 

At least me, I thought it wasn't going to be as good as it came out but when I saw the finished product and shared it with my family and friends, they had little to no complaints and all loved it. 

Doing all the little things like the background, the fake blood on the knife, water on Leo's face, his hands trembling, all this I think gave life to the movie and allowed the audience to really feel it.

After working on my CCRs I realize that I work a lot, and I mean a lot better with people. I find myself procrastinating less as I not only want to please my teacher and get a good grade for me, but also for my teammates and not wanting to get them a bad grade. This way, I hold my work to a higher standard and think it helps in the end. 

Anyways, its all over now and not in my hands so I can't do much than sit and enjoy my break!

Post production CCR

 So, looking back on it I did assign myself too much work which caused me to finish my project during my break which I really didn't want to do but, I should've been more responsible earlier on. I didn't get to put out all my ideas that I wanted to do, half because of just not knowing how, and half because of the time restraint. Internet for some reason was very stubborn here and didn't allow me to download Adobe premier on my laptop, causing me to move all my files to my phone and edit on iMovie which I found easier as its a program I am more familiar with but I know there are many more things you can do in Adobe, but I wasn't able to access it. Other than that, without a few Google searches asking how to do things like overlays or voice overs, I think the process was smooth and the product was good.

Ideas for filming!

 Ok so first I want to get out of the way that the project is due the 25th and I'm going to need every hour of every day because I'm going on vacation! I'm posting this on the 19th because I've been cramming in work and couldn't meet the quota of 4 blogs per week, I only could do 3 last week so I'm doing 5 this week. On top of this, literally tomorrow, I'm flying off to Dubai!! I'm super excited but there's going to be a lot of school work that I can't do on the trip because my mom made a little schedule and there is little to no free time, which is a good thing for me but a bad thing for my poor teachers. I'm leaving at night tomorrow so what I'm thinking is I record the hard CCR video and most of the easy one today, and the rest of the easy one tomorrow, and edit on the super long 13 hour flight.

Now, originally I was going to do the little talk show and a job interview, but I think its better to change it up. Now I do like that job interview idea but I think it would be better if I made it an online job interview and my friend already agreed to be the boss. This helps a lot with the time constraints that sprung up as I wouldn't be able to get someone to come over the day of my flight.

For the second idea, well its still up in the air, but I really like the podcast idea and I feel like that is going to come with a lot of editing and not that much recording, so it gives me something to do on the flight, hell I think I can do the recording and the editing on the plane, but I wouldn't want to be a bother, so I'm sticking to my plan. 

So, I'm going to take a little break, draw up a tiny script that will hopefully take up 5 minutes and change, and get my friend on a call and complete the first video. Then I believe I'm going to write a blog about it, finish up the second CCR, make a blog about that, sum up the whole project, and enjoy Dubai!

CCR Question #4

 The 4th CCR question I need to answer in the videos is: "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?" 

I think a harder question would be when didn't we integrate technology, and I wouldn't have an answer. From the script to messaging about the project, writing down notes, of course the shooting, and the editing, tech was everywhere.

We used Celtx, a website our teacher recommended for script writing and we found it very easy. This would be an example of using software on computers, hardware, and we shared the product through messages, a version of online technology. 

There wasn't much to say about the pre-production time, but during production we again used messages to communicate when, where, and who would be there during recording day. We also used many things like our iPhones, tripods, cars, cameras, drones, and probably so many more things I'm forgetting to film all the stuff, either as props or recording tools.

For post production, we used adobe premier pro to add music, remove sound, merge the shots, add things like the credits and title. I'm not sure if I already said this but I thought at first that editing was going to be the hardest part but one of our teammates, Nico, he finished all of it in like 2 hours. I mean I might be overexaggerating but it was really really fast and I'm a bit scared about making my CCRs as I'm going to have to edit those but I hope that he can help me out a bit by introducing me to the program.

Now all that's left is a tiny bit of planning, the recording, and I can relax for the rest of my spring break!

CCR Question #3

 Now, since we need 2 videos, 2 answered questions each, and since this is the 3rd question, I need another video idea!

Now the 3rd and 4th question, they focus a little more on what I learned and what I used, so I think a job interview would be best as a fun and efferent way to get across those questions.

I would start the scene with me in a tank top and shorts, something dirty, then I walk into the bathroom and get all ready then walk out with slick back hair and a suit ready for my job interview.

I don't want it to take too much time out of the information part of the video so I'll try to compress it as much as I can, then I can move to the interview scene of the CCR.

There are going to be 3 characters, me, the boss of the company, and the receptionist.

After the getting ready scene it'll be a quick scene of me stressing after the receptionist pointing me into the direction of his office and giving me a few tips like "Hey man, quick tip, talk about your experiences. That's what boss man is all about" 

Then I'd walk in, greet him, and answer his questions.

The question I'll be focusing on during this blog will be "How did your production skills develop throughout this project"

Now, if there is one word to describe our filming process, its definitely "problem". It felt like just about every 10 minutes we were running into something and we had to figure out how to get around it. We encountered problems like:

Non-functioning drone(made us pick a different film date)

Next drone not being up to our standards either(tree solution)

 Car breaking down(needed to get a different car)

People being in the back of shots(needing to reshoot)

Time of day changing during filming(needing to reshoot again)

Actor being sick

Wrong expressions on faces

Splitting up editing work

Font for credits being hard to read

Our team managed to work through and overcome all of these problems and learned a lot of things along the way, and one of the most important was to overwork. Shoot a little extra, have back up plans like we did with the car(but that was mostly luck that we had an available one), and just because you think your done, doesn't mean your actually done. I don't know if you remember, but a while ago I shared the schedule I and my teammates made and while I thought that our little "gap week" was just for us to relax, apparently that was very very important and we wouldn't have been close to finishing without it.

I'm going to break down the last question left and then get to some questions the interviewer could ask and then I'm already at the filming part of my CCR and ready to be done!

CCR Question #2

 The second question that we have to answer is, "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" 

"Your product" is of course the movie,  "engage with audiences" is how it attract people, and "how would it be distributed as a real media text", well of course I would want it on Netflix or something crazy, but something more realistic would be like YouTube to get my name out there. I could also possibly use my school to spread the movie through groups, posters, or even the cypress bay TV which gets shown to every student in the morning and would be a great place to promote a student made movie. 

As for how it engages with audiences, the target audience we were looking for are teens or young adults who are looking for a thrill with a phycological horror movie. We sort of based the movie around this, having a teen as the protagonist and the genre came from its recent popularity with this age range according to psychologytoday.com. We've also used a lot of horror movie filming techniques like behind the back, Dutch angle, and suspenseful music which has proved to give the audience that little extra fright.

Cites:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/grand-rounds/202211/why-are-more-kids-watching-horror-films   

https://www.stage32.com/blog/how-to-shoot-a-horror-film-that-terrifies-audiences-3149