CCR #1

        Hello again Blog, today I'm talking about CCR question number one. What does CCR mean?, well it stands for creative critical reflection and it's the last part of my portfolio project. For the CCR I must create two media products, each of them must contain two CCR questions for a total of four questions being answered. Now I'm not entirely sure how I would like to split up the questions or what type of media product I want to create but I'm considering doing a director's commentary.

    CCR #1 is about discussing genre conventions. It's best to let the audience know beforehand what a genre a convention is when making your video. As stated by StudioBinder a genre convention refers to the recurring elements, themes, character types, plot points, and settings that are commonly found within a specific genre. After I let the audience know what a genre convention is, I must discuss what genre conventions I chose to challenge or if I chose not to challenge any I must discuss why. I don't want to spoil whether I've stuck to the genre conventions of sports comedy or not, but I can say that I'm excited to talk about it. I feel that answering these questions is going to be a whole lot better than creating the film just because I get to take you through my thought process and explain my decisions.

      After discussing whether or not I included the genre conventions of sports comedy I must end with a discussion of representation. Representation refers to the choices made in how individuals, groups, events and issues are illustrated within a production. I feel like this is going to be a little harder for me to describe but still able to be done.

Editing

         Editing is my least favorite part of creating films. It's so time consuming and when editing you need to adjust so much. Editors have to think about so much when doing their job. For example, making sure the movie flows well, making sure to get the best takes, and controlling the pace of the film. That's all stuff I just don't want to have to deal with, but I do. I'm nervous and a little scared to see how I am with editing because in the past it's been pretty chaotic.

        For my clips of the film I plan on using IMovie. Adobe is also a very good editing platform, with access to even more than iMovie. The cool thing that I like about Adobe is that you can create your whole soundtrack and edit your clips right over top of each other. I've used the iMovie app before to do my One Word film and it turned out pretty good. During the editing then I was able to sync the clips together nicely and create a smooth film. The thing with iMovie that's so good is that even beginners to film can utilize this app and create nice videos, because you're able to easily import all your videos and photos into the app and implement them easily into a video. This app also gives you access to soundtracks and sound effect. I intend to edit my clips here and then export the final product into adobe, where my soundtrack is going to be.

                                        This is me editing my clips together

        

                           This is the features of iMovie(on top of editing the clips)

Bloopers

         During the production process of my film opening I had a lot of mess ups. At first I was mad because I messed up so much, but after looking back at them they helped me shape and create a better film opening. Messing up my lines or doing something wrong helped me to be more determined to do better. The next shot or few shots after that I put more focus and meaning behind the words and actions I was doing. 

         I also believe that the bloopers helped create a better and more fun experience for me. If i didn’t have bloopers I might’ve gone crazy because filming would’ve felt so boring and unlively. After a few shots I probably would’ve stopped and quit because I wouldn’t have had the determination to finish.

These are just a few of the many bloopers that I’ve come across but they’re also the ones I like the most. Not only has creating this film been a learning experience but it has also been a memorable experience. My brother and I have bonded so much over the creation of this project, so I’m glad that I was able to do it.

Soundtrack

    Welcome back to my blog. This time I’m going to be talking about how I’m using sound and adobe premiere to make a soundtrack of my project. I was first introduced to adobe back around December when I had to create a sound project for my class. When I had to do this assignment I was annoyed at first, but looking back I’m glad I did it because now I have experience and knowledge that I can use towards my portfolio project. The cool thing about soundtracks is that there are multiple layers within a scene. Although making a soundtrack is tedious and long, the outcome is worth it.

 Pixabay is one of the websites that I got from my teacher. This website has tons of sounds which is really helpful. I was searching up and looking through sounds that I could use for my project. I found a few but it was hard to find exactly what I wanted. It’s not as easy to find something as you think. I would search up what I wanted and something totally random would pop up instead, so if that happens on another website where I can’t find my sounds needed then I’ll just have to make Foley sounds.

BenSound is another website that my teacher introduced me to. It also has a bunch of sounds to choose from. This website is more music based though, considering its homepage showing different music genres. This website will help when I’m choosing my background music for my project. I was playing around with the sounds and created a small soundtrack like ten seconds long or so. Creating it was kind of fun but it took forever. I now know that I should not wait to the last minute to do sound because of how long it takes.

           

House Videos

            So I originally was going to film my whole film opening at the golf course, but something got messed up and I wasn’t able to go for the week because my parents had work. However, I still wanted to record so I wasn’t behind, so I decided that I was going to film half of my opening at my house. I had an idea that I was going to make my character hurrying in getting ready to go to work. Since I have to keep the opening comedic my character is going to think he’s about to be late for work so he’s trying to rush to get to work, while getting ready he’s going to fall and get hurt. Then once he gets to the golf course his boss is going to tell him that he’s late. My character Bryson is going to think it’s by a few minutes, but he’s actually late by an hour because of daylight’s saving time.

             During the creation of the filming my house scene I had a lot trouble with certain shots. There was this one in particular when Bryson walks into the room and has to grab his clothes. This shot took so long because my brother couldn’t record from the right angle so I had to move him to the right spot and show him what angle I had wanted. Also, when I would try to grab the clothes they wouldn’t come off of the hanger and then my closet would open. What’s annoying about my closet is that it’s hard to keep closed so I had to set it back up after almost every take. I had created a time-lapse of this scene. This scene helped me realize how I need to be patient and careful when creating my film opening. It also made me realize why multiple takes are needed for a single shot.

Filming

         Wow I didn't think I would say this, but filming is kind of annoying. I didn't realize how many takes a single shot requires for it to actually look good. Like the dialogue could get messed up, or my brother could interrupt me, or my parents are watching something loud. Even though it was harder than I expected, it was also fun, because I had my brother record and we shared some laughs.

    Since my brother was recording he didn't really know how to record shots. So I had to teach him how to hold the camera properly. Sometimes I would show him and he would still hold it wrong, but I could always retake a scene.

    This is a photo of some of my clips that I have recorded.

    Overall I think today went well. I discovered that filming takes time and patience, as well as determination and I was also able to get some of my filming done. This was a productive day and I hope there are more days like this to come.

Pre-Filming

     I have begun and progressed into the more important stage of my project, production. I can't believe I'm starting my production process already, I feel like this project is going so fast. So today my brother and I went to the range at Bonaventure golf course. We were just playing around and goofing off when I realized that I should record a few videos.

    Time was limited because of the Sun so I was only able to record for a little. During this time I couldn't really complete much, so I decided to use it trying to figure out how my character is going to swing his club. So I recorded a few videos in slow-motion of my brother swinging his club. I did this to analyze his swing to see if it could work with what I wanted or if I wanted to have my character swing differently. I switched two of the videos from slow motion to regular pace because they wouldn't load into blogger but I still have them in slow motion on my phone for a reference. My brother isn't the best golfer, but he has a nice swing, he also wasn't in the clothes that I would like to have my film in, so this video is really a learning tool. Based on this video I learned what time is best to record, which is way earlier than when I recorded and how I want the swing to be.

Like I said my brother and I were just having fun and his outfit didn't match up to what I wanted so these videos are just for me to learn from. Also, going to the golf course allowed me to have a better understanding of my time management and when I should start recording.