Creative Critical Reflection

Last, but not least, my Creative Critical Reflections

CCR #1- Interview

CCR #2- Presentation

I hope you enjoy my CCRs :))

Film Opening

 I am very happy to proudly present to you, the fruit of my 9 weeks of labor...

My Film Opening!!!

Vicky's Film Opening Link

I really hope you enjoy 💗

Creating my CCRs

 It's finally time to talk about the creation of my CCRs. I'll be starting off with the creation of my "interview" which was inspired by Wired Autocomplete Interviews that I've seen and enjoyed on YouTube.

The reason I chose this is that, as an already successful series on YouTube, I know that the content can actually be engaging and entertaining while also allowing me to answer the questions required for the CCR.

Now, let's start with the disastrous beginning to my production of this interview.

I needed a posterboard to create the prop for the video, but I didn't have any at home, so I asked my dad to go to Michael's and get me some. My dad agreed but said we would bring my brother and go out to eat while we were out. I didn't think this was that big of a deal and I certainly didn't think it would waste too much of my time, which I needed to be thinking about because I had planned to film that day.

So we're driving out on the highway when my dad accidentally turns onto the expressway, with no exit onto the main highway and normal roads for miles. Lo and behold, we ended up a couple cities farther from the Michael's we were planning on going to an hour after we had left my house. So just the drive out had wasted enough of my time, and on top of that we had only just made it to the restaurant, we still had to eat, drive to Michael's, get home, and make the prop. So I basically decided I wasn't going to be able to film that day, and would have to put it off for tomorrow. 

So we eat, I manage to find the posterboard I needed, and we drive back home, leaving my prop creation until the next day.

Well, I actually had a ton of homework to do for every other class (shocker) and was stressed out of my mind because I had two CCRs to complete before the weekend was over— which was my fault, but it still didn't detract from the stress that was building.

So the next morning I got up bright and early and set to work on creating the poster, setting up my filming area, and filming all the clips I needed. Thankfully, this didn't take too long, and all I had left to do was edit.

But this was just for one CCR... I still had a whole other one to do.

Now, I had had the bright idea of making my presentation during class, so I already had a presentation, however, I had no script for what to say in my voiceover, and I hadn't come up with all my bullet points yet, so I still had some brainstorming and work to do.

I spent an hour or so finishing up my presentation, writing my script, and recording the voiceover.

All that was left was to edit all of them together, publish them, and I would be done with my portfolio project once and for all. I was so close.

Without a hitch, I got all my files downloaded on my laptop, imported them into Premiere, and edited the crap out of my footage and voiceover. This was probably some of the easiest editings I've ever had to do. No fancy text, transitions, or anything flashy at all, just plain old cuts and timing. It was glorious. My final products were created in probably two hours and I could taste the finish line. 

All that was left was to export and upload to YouTube, which I had figured out how to do when publishing my opening.

And finally, my CCRs were complete... and it only took me a day 😍.

CCR things and stuff

 I'm now in the phase of this project where I am planning my CCRs and thinking about what I need to do and how I want to do it. 

For one, I know that I want to make a video and a presentation with a voiceover, which I think I've mentioned before but I'll repeat it again now just to refresh your memory.

For the video, I want to do something along the lines of a Wired Autocomplete Interview.

     

Those are some popular examples of an Autocomplete interview. I want to have the first two CCR questions ("How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" and "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?") included in this video and I will have a posterboard with the questions on them just like these interviews.

The other two questions ("How did your production skills develop throughout this project?" and "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?") will be answered in my presentation with voiceover.

So I plan to work on the scripts for both, make my presentation this week, and film and record the voiceover over the weekend since I'm very busy throughout the week. I am glad that I can do these by myself so I can cater to my schedule and not anyone else's, though. It's making this process a lot easier since I know I can count on myself.

I actually helped my friend with her CCR on Thursday and I think it gave me a better idea of how I should answer the questions and how long it will take me to get them done, so thanks, Ana. 

That's all for today, folks. :)

I finished editing! 😁

In case you didn't read the title, I finally finished editing my film opening!

First, let's talk about how the last bit of my editing process went. After a small bump in the road where I forgot how to use the text tool, it was smooth sailing. The only thing I had left to do was add all the credits that appeared at the beginning. I pretty much knew exactly how to do this already because of the trial and error I went through on my first day of editing with making the title of my movie appear onscreen.

I decided to basically do the exact same thing, with a little fade in, hold, and fade out. I chose to have each text box appear for 3 seconds, which I decided was enough time for people to be able to read it and then ignore it. I made the fade-in and fade-out effect by messing with the opacity and voila, that was it. Of course, I had to do that for every single text box so that was tedious and monotonous, to say the least, but didn't take up too much of my time or anything.

Now, I had previously mentioned the idea of adding little animations to the film as another method of visual storytelling but I've decided against it because I feel like the story I had in mind has a darker tone that some of my inspiration that included animations, it would be a bit too dramatic of a switch to have cute little animations and then go on to the rest of the movie where the tone is much more serious and somber. So overall, I just moved away from the idea.

Finally, I wanted to talk about what the editing process has taught me. Basically what I learned is that I have to have a better plan when filming because I've discovered that there's only so much you can do in editing when you don't have every shot you wanted or need. I think for most of the opening it was fine and I was just putting the puzzle pieces together but at other times it felt like I was creating puzzle pieces from scratch, trying to use what I had to make the story work. I realized when I started editing that there were a few shots that I hadn't gotten that were more integral to the vision I had of the opening than I had previously thought, and I had to work around that, ultimately changing parts of the opening from what I had had in mind and had put on my storyboard. I don't think this made the opening worse or compromised the quality of the work I created, however, and I didn't do too bad a job at filming because editing truly was not that difficult once I figured out exactly what I wanted to do with what I had given myself.

I think that the next time I have a project to film or just a large undertaking ahead of me, I will take even more care to plan ahead of time and ensure that I have a clear image of what I want so I'm not stuck scrambling at the last second to make up for my shortcomings.

Guess who is almost done editing 😜

If you guessed me, you would be very much CORRECT 💃👏. Did it take me an entire day? Maybe, but I've got an almost final product on my hands now. My opening and movie final feel real. Like a tangible thing that I will be turning in for my final exam.

But anyway, let's talk about everything I did today, and what I have left to do in terms of editing. 

So, today I put all the clips I filmed on that stressful day last week into Adobe Premiere Pro and set to work on cutting down my raw footage. That raw footage amounted to over 5 minutes of video so I definitely had some work to do. My preferred method of editing includes going clip by clip in order and ensuring every clip and those that come before it are perfect before bringing the next clip into the timeline. I don't know if this is the most efficient method of editing but it's how I've always edited and I like to believe it makes sure I pay attention to every detail.

Once I had edited every single clip into the timeline and looked at the time stamp, I was horrified to see that I had a whole 36 seconds over 2 minutes. Did I stare out the window and contemplate life? Yes, but only for a brief moment! That's when I vented for a bit to my friend and went right back into it, cutting away everything that I felt was out of place and unnecessary. I didn't look at the final time stamp until the end to make sure I wasn't cutting out necessary clips just to make it shorter, I went clip by clip and slowly started chipping away at the length of my opening. 5 seconds here, 3 seconds there, and voila, my opening was 2 minutes and 6 seconds long. YAYYYY! A round of applause for me for making that work.

My confidence was at an all-time high. My spirits were soaring. Then I reached the audio editing portion of my day and wanted to rip the hair out of my scalp :)

For one, when filming, I hadn't exactly thought through what the audio in my opening would be, and I thought that most, if not the entire opening, would have music over it. So, when I was filming, I didn't take any care to get my voice out of the clips I would be using. As a result, I had a 2-minute long video, with me periodically saying "Go!" into my phone's microphone. This was a big problem because now I had to go in and cut out every instance of me or the actors talking when we shouldn't be during a take. This took an embarrassing amount of time and I'll spare you from knowing what my failed attempts consisted of, but I eventually realized I could go into audacity, cut the noise of chatter and people walking around the library from a couple of clips, and use that audio to cover up anything unwanted, and it would blend seamlessly with the existing background noise already in the clips. So it's official, I'm a genius, my project is awesome, and totally do-

Music.

UGH. 

I knew from the moment I woke up today that finding royalty-free music was going to be a pain, but now the moment was upon me and I was dreading it. But, I took a snack break and got right into finding royalty-free music that fit the vibe. The first problem I encountered was finding a website to get a song from. I first tried one website, downloaded two songs, and realized that without a premium subscription, the music would have audible watermarks (that's a thing???) throughout the song. So that was a no-go, which meant I had to pivot away from that. I found a new website that didn't put audible watermarks on their royalty-free music (thank god) and searched for a while for a song I liked. This was actually very difficult because every song I listened to sounded like the background music to a Chloe Ting workout tutorial and was giving me quarantine trauma flashbacks. Another problem is that royalty-free music also has a tendency to lack lyrics, which I did not want because what 16-year-old walking to the library is listening to high-energy instrumentals? Not any that I know, and not any in my movie. I eventually figured out how to filter the website to show me lyrical pop songs, and this is where I felt that all hope was not lost. I found a song I felt matched the vibe I was going for... Crush! by MAYBE. Even the name is fitting for my movie.

I also like how upbeat the song is, making it a good contrast to the darker themes that would have existed throughout the rest of the film. Once I cut the song to have the right parts playing during the corresponding clips, I felt good about finally shutting my laptop and calling it a day.

I reviewed my opening and checked with some friends to make sure it was actually good and I feel satisfied. I'm still considering doing the little cartoon animations, but that's a problem for another day.

My plans for spring break

 So I haven't started editing yet because I filmed just a couple days ago, but spring break is my week. My plan is to get all my editing done during that week and also film and create my CCRs. 

This seems like a lofty goal, but, personally, I know I can get it done during my break because I'm not going away or making any big plans for the break and I really like how my project is turning out, so editing my videos will be enjoyable.

Also, filming my CCR will be fun since I'm doing it with my friend and I'm helping her with hers, so we'll make a whole day out of it. My friend and I will also be meeting up to edit, so that is going to make sure I get work done and make it more fun.

In general, I will be editing on Adobe and it will probably take me a few days. Nothing crazy. 

Filming and creating my CCRs in general should take me another day or so, and editing them will take me about the same amount of time.

I think spring break will be great for me completing this project, and if anything goes wrong for whatever reason, I have the next week to get myself together.

How was filming? I rocked it.

Now for the story of actually filming everything I needed. When I arrived at the library, Male and Sophie were already there and had saved a desk at the back of the library for all our equipment. I threw the props I brought down onto one half of the desk along with all the other girls' things and got straight to work. 

I started with Sophie getting to her desk, unpacking her backpack, and doing homework. This was super quick and would be a good little montage in editing. 

Next, I filmed the main scene where my characters meet. Sophie got up from her desk, walked to the bookshelf, and grabbed a book when it was snatched backward by Male, revealing her face. The two girls look at each other for a while before Male disappears with the book and Sophie returns to her desk before getting up one more time to go to the bathroom. I filmed Male walking away from the bookshelf with the book in hand and Sophie coming from around a corner to go to the bathroom.

I then got some shots of just Male sitting in a chair in the library with the book she grabbed and looking up to see Sophie walking out of the bathroom. We then rushed back over to the desk and filmed Male writing on an index card for the note for Sophie's character.

All of the shots so far looked great. I had changed my phone setting on the way to the library so I could film in 4k with my phone and I think that was a great choice because the videos look awesome and high-quality. We got a few more Male scenes out of the way before filming Sophie coming back from the bathroom and finding the note in her book.

Once we were done filming inside, the biggest hurdle was done and we grabbed all our things and booked it out of the library before we got kicked out for filming, which they tried to get us in trouble for near the beginning of filming, but eventually the staff just ignored us and we finished filming without being noticed again.

Once we were outside, we just had to film Sophie walking around the park and to the library before almost getting run over by Male on my bike. We decided to film this in the back of the parking lot since it was totally empty and would be much safer than trying to film on an actual street and take less time. 

It took a couple failed tries and some practice, but eventually we managed to get a great shot of Male almost hitting Sophie (safely, of course), and we quickly filmed some shots of Sophie walking around.

Guess what time it was when we finished. 5:00! It was perfect. Sophie was able to go home and study, Male went home to pack for her trip, and I got all the shots I needed.

The chaos of trying to have a plan for filming

On a super hot Monday, with middle schoolers crowding all around the library, and cars crowding the parking lot, I finally filmed my opening.

While I think filming itself went very well, it was certainly a struggle to get the plan set up. Why was it a struggle you may ask? Let me take you back to the beginning.

In my original schedule, I had planned to film on the weekend of the 11th and 12th, but on Tuesday, March 7, I texted my actresses, asking them if they could film on Saturday. When Male responded saying that she couldn't make it on Saturday before the library closed at 6:00, I thought to myself, "it's fine, I can film on Sunday and Sophie should be free then." This is When I realized my fatal flaw... The library is closed on Sundays. 

So, I regrouped and asked Male and Sophie if they could film on Monday, after school at 4:00. They said yes. I was satisfied with this. It could still work out in my favor right? Well I had no idea the stress that would be thrust upon me later that week. 

Later that week, Sophie texts me and asks me if we could film all of her scenes first on Monday so she could leave as quickly as possible because she had a giant exam the day after and hours of homework that she was going to try to get done in study hall. I told her that I would try my best to get everything shot as quickly as possible so she could be out before 6:00. 

At this point I wasn't very stressed out but it had slipped my mind to ask Sophie if she had a bike at home (Sophie lives really close to the library and it would be faster for her to bring a bike from her house than for me to pack a bike in my car). Fatal flaw number 2.

On Sunday night, I'm packing all of my props up because I have a less than 30 minute window between getting home from school and getting to the library with all of my props. As I'm doing this, I ask Sophie if she has a bike and she tells me she only has her scooter. Now I'm royally screwed because I really needed the prop to be a bike, but at this point it doesn't matter since filming is the next day and my parents just informed me that they will not be around with the cars to drive me. 

I'm freaking out.

My dad tells me he can figure it out to be home by 3:30 and pack my bike into his car. This could still work, right? As long as I make it there, I have enough time to film between 4:00 and 6:00. But on Monday during first period, Sophie tells me that her mom is not letting her stay past 5:00 because of her huge exams and her study hall was stolen by a huge school assembly. 

So now I have 1 hour to film my entire opening, because, funny story, Male is leaving on Tuesday for California for a week. It is now or never.

When I get home from school, I check my bike, realizing the tires need to be filled and I go inside to grab all my props and equipment. My dad comes home right in time, unloads his car, fills my bike tires with air, cleans my bike, and packs it up into the trunk of his car. I manage to leave my house right on time and drive over to the library. I made it right at 4:00, unloaded my bike, parked it outside the library, and went inside to meet my actresses to film. All was good and I was ready to shoot.

What's up with editing? Because I don't even really know

 Editing is the next biggest thing to think about and plan since I'm filming tomorrow (ahhh!).

The first big question is: what editing software am I using?

The first big answer is: Adobe Premiere Pro, without a doubt.

Adobe Premiere Pro is the editing software I have the most experience with (remember that middle school film class? yeah, we used Adobe) and the software I have chosen to use in the editing of this project. It's one of the best editing softwares in general, and the fact that it is available to me through this class is fate because I already know how to use it well. 

The next question is: how do I want the movie to look?

One of my first blog posts when beginning the research for this project was about researching openings for movies and TV shows within the same genre that have the same vibe as mine. One of the TV shows I am drawing heavy inspiration from and want to emulate in my own opening is Heartstopper. I really like the colors, the music, and the editing style with cartoon animations.

While watching Heartstopper I really enjoyed the visual motifs of the cartoon drawings that appear onscreen during important moments. For example, when Nick and Charlie were having romantic moments, cartoon leaves and flowers, leaves representing Charlie, and flowers representing Nick. I really like the visual motifs that represent each character appearing onscreen to further tell a story without dialogue or acting. It's something I will definitely be considering for my project and maybe a future blog post if I decide to go along with it where I tackle the obstacle of learning to animate and putting said animations into Adobe and my opening. 

I had a schedule... that schedule didn't exactly work out 😅

I'm not going to lie, the title of this posting is slight clickbait, but you're here and reading aren't you? That was my plan all along. Since you're reading this, I assume you read my past post about the schedule I created. This schedule included two weekends to film so I could choose either and film on any one of those days.

It's funny how things never go according to plan, do they?

Here's what happened.

I realized after making my schedule that I had completely booked up the weekend of the 4th and 5th. This was fine because I had allotted myself another weekend to film if necessary. I'm a great planner if I do say so myself. So, I was banking on filming sometime this weekend either on the 11th or 12th. This, however, did not happen. The reason why is a combination of the library where I want to film being closed on Sundays and the library also closing at 6:00 pm and my actress, Male, having practice until 4:00 pm. So overall, the weekend plan was a bust. 

But, there is an upside! We managed to schedule our filming for Monday, March 13th at 4:00 pm. Yay!!!

So perfect, now I have a set day for filming, this is good. All of my actresses are able and ready to meet me at a set date and time to film my project. It feels good to finally have something solid. Now, the only thing left to do is get them prepared by making sure they have the script to read over and telling them what they should wear and bring.

My job is to make sure to pack up all of my props and equipment the night before on Sunday so I don't rush and forget anything.

Well, that's my update. Things are looking up 😎.

Have I Even Thought About Equipment?? Not Really

The first thing that comes to mind when considering equipment is what I'm filming with. While my phone camera is not the best, I think it's the simplest thing for me to use to film this considering I have the storage space and the quality is still pretty good. This will also make it easier to transfer my videos into my editing software since I don't know how to use SD cards or cameras in general.

The last piece of equipment I'll be bringing is a tripod. The absolutely spectacular news is, I have a tripod that works with any phone from middle school film class! I'll be using this tripod since it's compact and easily portable so I won't have too much heavy stuff to carry tomorrow.

Aside from my phone and my tripod, I don't think I need to bring any other special equipment for filming purposes. 

Other necessary items for my production to run smoothly tomorrow is my storyboard, to make sure I film everything accurately to my original vision, and a print out of my script so I can have it as a reference and so my actresses can read it whenever they need.

That's all for today folks!

How is filming going to work?

I decided to keep the number of locations small for my film opening so that filming is as easy as it can be. 

My main location is the local library which is very close to our school. I plan on filming Monday, March 13th, when school ends. 

My actresses and I will walk over to the library when school ends and will begin filming in the library since it will have people populate the background that is coming out of school and they will be around the ages of my actresses and characters. I will then be filming the outside portion once all the schools have let out and the streets are more clear and safe to film on to make sure that everything is as safe as possible.

On the day of filming, I will bring all of the equipment I need to school and keep it in my backpack until I need it during filming. I will also ask my actresses to bring specific costumes that fit their characters and any props I can't provide myself. They will carry these throughout the day to have when we shoot.

I will give my actresses some time to change into their clothes in the library bathroom before we start filming and then I want to start rolling, filming in order of what happens within the library in the script.

We will start filming with Sophie (who plays Amelie) walking into the library and advancing to the back desks. Once we shoot that we will film all the scenes of Sophie sitting at her desk and leaving the desk. Then, we will film the scenes that take place at the bookshelves with both Male and Sophie. Then I will film any scenes that have them together like Sophie walking to the bathroom and Male putting the book on her desk. Then, Male will film all of her scenes inside the library and that will mark the end of all of the scenes inside the library.

After all of that, the streets should have had time to clear from the crowd leaving school and we can film the outside portion, starting on the sidewalk and then moving on to filming on the street. This should be quick and we will only be in the crosswalk for most of it. After this has been filmed we will quickly move on to filming Sophie walking toward the library and we will be done.

This filming schedule will help keep me on task the day of filming so that my actresses and I can be done and leave as quickly as possible since all of the filming has to take place in one day at a certain time. I've never written out a filming plan like this before, so hopefully doing this will help keep me focussed and get all my shots filmed quickly and easily.