The Finale

Thats a Wrap!

Film Opening:

One Last Time 

CCR's:

CCR 1

CCR 2

Summary of Portfolio Project

 This project has been quite the experience. I feel like I learned a lot from this project solely due to the fact that it forced us out of our comfort zone and made us adapt to our situation because if we didn't then the end result would not be good. At the start of this project, I thought I had plenty of time to do everything, and I actually thought I would be done way before the due date, but it is safe to say that this project grabbed me and my whole group by surprise and proved itself to be very time-consuming.

Not everything in life comes easy and some of the small things will force you to take a course of action that will prove to be very unpleasant. An example of this can be seen with my group's dilemma during the bathroom scene. We were presented with a lot of roadblocks during production, but the majority were due to the bathroom scene. Some of the setbacks of the bathroom scene were that Adriana had guests over, so we had to reshoot it in a completely different bathroom, and the camera kept over-exposing the shot, which led to it being unusable. This experience taught us to keep pushing through it all and to be patient.

Editing took way longer than originally thought. Thankfully, I got the hang of it and was able to teach my peers how to do certain things and what not and I also learnt how to do and make certain effects via tutorials on YouTube. Filming also took way longer than expected, mainly due to all the refilling and postponing that was done. We had a minor problem with the camera, and it over-exposing shots that made us have to refilm many times. We then found out it was a problem with the ISO, we then fixed it and proceeded as needed. 

Editing took ages to do, we spent long hours editing at home and when we would meet up. Before this project, we had very minimal experience in editing so this forced us to learn via tutorials or trial and error. I can confidently say that all of our editing skills exponentially grew, thanks to this project. 

This project proved to be very time-consuming and made us spend long nights working on it, but it proved to be worthwhile. We created something that we were all impressed and proud of, but it goes beyond this because it helped us connect with each other and build on our friendship. Spending long stressful hours with each other, making jokes, sharing life stories all these things made this project so much fun to do. It seems like a coincidence how the film that we chose to do kind of reflects on the stage of life that we are currently in. This project has proven to be a sort of oxymoron as it has been painfully annoying and exhausting to work on, yet it has been very pleasant and memorable at the same time.

It is safe to say that this project will be something that I will cherish for the rest of my life. I just hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

CCR Post-Production

 Hey, blog! Today, I started post-production for both of my CCRs, and I think that production went very smoothly, except for a few problems in my second CCR video. The camera is very shaky, and the file from my voice recording corrupted for the first two scenes. However, I managed to enhance some of the audio through Premier Pro, so it sounds a little better.

During the post-production process for CCR 1, I found that I would stutter a bit and that there were a couple of moments where nothing was said or done, so I just cut those out. For every image that I inserted, I added a pop sound effect, and I thought about adding two pops for when I added two images, but I thought it was best to stick with one pop. I also had a mix of images, some being images taken during the production of One Last Time and the rest where stock images.

CCR 2's post-production definitely posed more challenges than the first, and this is mainly due to a poor selection of a cameraman and technical issues that unfortunately could not be resolved but rather enhanced. For the stability issue, there isn't much that can be done. As for the corrupted voice recordings, I simply used the audio from the camera and enhanced it using Premier Pro's enhance speech and repair features. 

CCR Production

Hey blog, The CCR production is going very well. I finished shooting the first CCR on Saturday, and I'm scheduled to shoot the second CCR tomorrow. Honestly, I feel very good about the first one. I like how fast I finished shooting, and I hope it looks good after post-production. But I do feel very confident about it.

CCR 1 Production:

For my first CCR, I asked my friend (Winston), who has a really nice car, to help me out with the CCR. This nice car is crucial for the idea that I had in mind, which is, me walking around and seeing a nice car. I go up to the owner and compliment the car, he thanks me, recognizes me, and asks if I want to take a spin in his car while he asks me some questions. I accept and hope in.

During the production process, we came across a few inconveniences, which led us to reshoot multiple times. Some of these were running out of space, recording the intro vertically instead of horizontally, talking for too long, etc.

The first day, my friends and I went out to eat right after school on Friday, and after we ate, we went to drop off one of our friends. As we did that, I asked him if I could film the introduction scene at his house, and he said yes. Since this was right after school, I didn't have the camera with me so I decided to just do it on my phone. I finished the introduction in like two minutes and we drove around while Winston asked me questions. Unfortunately, during one of the questions, my phone ran out of storage, which forced us to postpone the CCR production.

Winston picked me up again on Saturday morning, and we reshot everything, but this time, the only thing that was recorded on my phone was the introduction, the rest was shot on the Sony A6400 camera. After we finished production, he dropped me off at my house, and I began to edit the clips together. I realized that I recorded the introduction scene vertically and not horizontally and that the video was way too long, it was 8 almost 9 minutes. So, I told him this, and naturally, he was mad, but I told him we had to reshoot, and he said that he would pick me up in 5 minutes to finish it.

Winston picked me up, and we went to 7-Eleven because he needed to get gas. So I just filmed the introduction there, and I did it horizontally this time. After this, we drove around for about an hour and finished the whole thing, and the scenes seemed much shorter because I summarized what I had to say by a lot. As we were getting close to finishing up, the camera did, so the only thing I didn't film was the outro. When I got home, the first thing I did was charge my camera and film the outro. After this, I combined the scenes and made sure it was good on time. It was just under 3 minutes! 

Anyway, that is all for the CCR production currently. I will continue with production tomorrow. How Exiting!

Researching CCR: Question 4

 Hey blog, Today I will be talking about my 4th and final CCR question: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

In order to create One Last Time, We used Adobe Premier Pro which allowed us to make clean audio bridges, add effects, etc. which helped us build that reminiscent theme around Piper.

To film we used a Sony A6400 with an Interchangeable SEL18135 lens, two iPhone 13s, and an iPhone 15 Pro Max. We used the camera for the majority of production the only time we used the iPhones was to record the memories compilation. We stored all the shots taken on the camera onto a 32GB SD card that we bought from Walmart and the rest was stored on the iPhone's camera roll. 

Every shot was handheld we didn't use any type of tripods or mounts for any of the shots. Surprisingly, every shot looks stable, and can barely notice that it was handheld. When it was too dark out and since we didn't have any lighting equipment like ring lights and whatnot, we had to put the iPhone flashlight on top of the camera in order to get the shot that we needed. For the car scene, I had to get out the window to get the shot of Piper. 

We also researched tutorials on YouTube on how to use Adobe Premier Pro because Adriana and Sienna were having a hard time using it.

On top of that, we added non-copyrighted music from websites provided by my teacher to add more back story and more of a reminiscent effect.

Researching CCR: Question 3

 Hey blog, Today I will discuss yet another CCR. This CCR question is as follows: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

The production and post-production of this film opening have helped me evolve in many ways such as filmmaking, composition, editing, and many more. This was a group project made up of Adriana, Sienna, and me. We all learned new things from this assignment. Adriana learned how to edit, direct, use lighting, and scale rooms to give off the illusion that it is filled. Sienna learned how to act, edit, and direct camera positioning. 

Research:

We first started off by researching different genres and films to see what genre and methods we wanted to incorporate into our film opening. We all really liked the Coming-Of-Age genre as it fit perfectly with the overall idea that we had initially for the film opening. We then individually analyzed film openings from different productions of the Coming-Of-Age genre such as Stand By Me (1986), Juno (2007), and Eighth Grade (2018). After this, we proceeded to analyze the credit scenes from different productions that fall under the Coming-Of-Age genre such as The Perks of Being Wallflower (2012), Juno (2007), and The Edge of Seventeen (2017).

Planning:

After doing all the research we started planning, taking our next course of action. We figured out our production days, post-production days, CCR days, etc and wrote it down in Sienna's notebook. This proved to be very helpful and helped us stay on track excluding other extraneous variables that delayed a few of these days. To give you a small rundown of what we had: 

1. Planning

• Plot
• Script
• Storyboard
• Filming dates
• Production members
• Actors
• Location
• Music

2. Filming

• Film scenes
• Do any retakes if needed
• Record foley

3. Editing

• Edit footage together
• Edit in music, sounds, and foley
• Edit title and credits

4. Review

• Review the film opening and make sure it is good
• Make adjustments if needed

5. Critical Creative Reflection

• Research information that relates to the reflection
• Create the reflection
• Edit and review it

Siennas notebook:

Researching CCR: Question 2

 Hi blog, Today I will be venting about The second CCR question: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Target Audience:

Coming of Age is a very popular genre in novels and films, defining the growth and maturity of adolescent characters. The genre is aimed at teenagers and young adults aged 13-25, with a more diverse audience and also adopting more varied methods. Modern trends include more diverse audiences, improved awareness of mental health, and blending genres like fantasy and horror. Research sources like books, articles, and social media provide insights into popular themes and stories.

The target audience for One Last Time will be directed towards recently graduated high schoolers or college freshmen who can sympathize with Piper. Our content will work to engage because we have created a film opening that many people can relate to because of the common theme of leaving for college and leaving their old lives with it. This method will grab the attention of the reader and leave them craving for more because once people start to sympathize and relate to a topic they often get 'hooked' on it and it leaves them wanting to find out more.

Film Distribution:

If this was a real production, we would upload it to mainstream media like TikTok, Instagram Reels, and YouTube Shorts. We would do this because this way it would be very easy to catch the attention of our target audience as amateur filmmakers with limited resources and maybe even go viral. If the film does get enough traction to go big we could expand to streaming services like Hulu, Paramount +, Netflix, etc.

Sources:

https://thesixthformreview.wordpress.com/coming-of-age-films/

https://otago.shorthandstories.com/the-evolution-of-the-coming-of-age-film/index.html

https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies

https://chsprowl.org/3782/op-ed/the-unfortunate-tale-of-the-coming-of-age-genre/