Creative Critical Reflection

CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION 

Here it is everyone, my final post. Here I have included both CCR's and I have really enjoyed working on this project. Well, enough of the suspense. Here it is. Drum roll please!!!

Twitter Interview CCR

Powerpoint Presentation CCR

Farewell! Until next time!

Film Opening

FILM OPENING

Hey guys, the time has come. It is time for the final product. I have worked long and hard these past few weeks on this project and I hope is reflects. The time I spent editing and blogging could take up a few days by itself. Anyway, this is the time that me and you have been looking forward to so lets get to it. 

I am happy to be able to finally present this to you guys :)

Without further ado, here is my film opening. I hope you enjoy it!

Film Opening

On the next post, I will be posting my creative critical reflection. See you there!

CCR Planning

Hey guys, happy Saturday!

Today, I want to talk to you about my CCR's. When I was planning them, the first thing that I did was answer the questions and then write how I will say it in the videos. It ended up being like a script which I thought was pretty cool. 

Here is how the script ended up coming out:

The red is my answered questions and script and the black is the question. This really helped me come up with what to say and how to answer each question. At first, it was just a google doc to throw my ideas in there but once I had all that information in there as bullet points, it was easy to make it into a script. I am happy how it came out! I know there is not a lot of writing in this post but the main purpose of this post is to show off my planning process and introduce to you my ideas and reflection of my project. 

I hope you have a good rest of your day and tomorrow, I will post the final videos!!

Cool Idea For First CCR!

Hey guys, happy Friday! Since we're in the final stretch of the project, I have been thinking of some cool ideas to add to the project to make it better. I finally though of a cool idea! My first CCR is basically a talking head as it should be. In the YouTube videos, they have the same things but they make it a bit less boring and more intriguing. It is a talking head with a white background yes, but they add something to make it less boring. 

I thought of a cool way to do that. When I talk about the first twitter post, I included a popup of the twitter post. I used a photoshopping app to make a twitter post with the names, place, and question I talked about. As you may be thinking, this idea came to me after exporting it so I had to go back, add this and then export it again. 

Here are the 2 twitter posts I created and added:

When I talked about the tweet and read it out loud, I faded the picture in and put it on the left like most YouTubers. When I stopped reading, I faded it out. I think it added that intriguing part that it was missing and what the YouTube videos had. I am so happy about how this project turned out and after one more post, I will be post the final videos, both the film opening and the CCR's so stay tuned!

Have a good rest of your day!

Filming First CCR

Hey guys, Happy Tuesday! Today I wanted to talk about my first CCR. I filmed it!!

This CCR was supposed to be a bit creative. Recently, before the show Outer Banks new season came out, the cast members did a little interview and answered tweets from fans. Anything they asked, they answered. That is sort of the approach I took. This needs a white backdrop and since my girlfriend's mom is a photographer, she had one I could use. I took a different approach in the creation of the video though. I didn't stop the video any time I messed up and just pieced the good lines together when editing. This was done on purpose though. The videos where they do this usually do it this way. It looks as if they stitched many clips together. It adds an interesting effect on the video when it looks stitched together. 

This was annoying though. I had to go through 17 minutes of footage and cut the parts I messed up on (and I messed up a lot lol). What I did was listen through it all and every line I did correct, I would cut out all the other takes and put the correct part on the left so I know those were the ones that were good. After this, I added some music that perfectly suited the situation. I finished the video for the most part but I want to show the twitter tweets on the screen when I read them. I will take a screenshot of a twitter post and photoshop it to make it look how I want it to. This will make the video more interactive and intriguing so it's not just a talking head the whole time. 

Here is a picture of my filming:

I will finish this by tomorrow and get started on the second CCR which is the powerpoint. This one should not take too long so I will hopefully finish it tomorrow and would just need to add the voice over and I would be done with that one too. I have finished filming and editing the film opening and I will post it when I post the CCR's. The CCR's and the film opening will be my last 2 posts. After all this, it's over. I will be done with this project. I am happy to show all my friends and family when I finish :).

That's it for today guys, and I hope to see you tomorrow on the next post!

Group Meeting - Final Stretch!

 Hey guys and happy Monday! Today in class we did group meetings. We went around giving each group member 5 minutes to speak and asked questions about how their project was going. If they were running into problems, we would give them feedback. We have done this before but the last time we did it, we were just starting the project. This time, there wasn't much to talk about since people are close to finishing. There were some people in my group that hadn't started filming yet. We have 1 week left until the due date so they have a lot of work left. 

I am close to finishing mine though. I am set to finish by Saturday and I couldn't be more excited. Although this project has been fun, I am relieved to get this strain off my shoulders and focus on my other exams coming up. The members of the group did give me some good feedback though. I wasn't sure where I was gonna film my first CCR but then they suggested a white backdrop for the idea I was gonna do. I remembered my girlfriend's mom is a photographer and that I could film using her white backdrop. It will look very professional and just like the interviews off youtube.

Somebody in my group also suggested I use a good quality camera for this just to add that extra professional look. I was thinking of using my moms camera to film since I have it at my disposal. 

                                       This was very helpful in the creative process and will make my project even better. 

                                                                    Have a good rest of your Monday!

Specific Details

Hey guys and happy Saturday! Today I want to talk about the specific details of my project like the film name, production company name, the font I chose, and the information included in the opening credits. Here are my ideas and the red letter ones are the ones I officially chose. 

Film Name Ideas:

• Fatal Punishment 

• Taken

• Abduction

Production Company:

• Sacul Productions

• Calus Productions 

• Surf Surge Productions

• Madrid Motion Pictures

• Ladderado Productions

• Skyscape Productions

• Gatekeeper Productions

• Skyjet Productions

     Opening Credits Include:

• the production company

• executive producers

• the director

• the lead actors

• Music credited to: ​​Christoffer Moe Ditlevsen and Wendel Scherer

I decided the film name because the main character gets taken and the movie revolves around him being taken and the spiral of the aftermath. I decided on the production company name because I just thought about the name and it had a great ring to it. Lastly, the font. The font was an interesting choice because it was chosen for a specific reason. The all-caps, thick lettering is strong and impactful. It promises a film that is direct and no-nonsense and makes it look serious.

Also, the music I chose for my opening was taken from this copyright free website:

https://www.epidemicsound.com/music/themes/podcast/stories-interviews/

That's it for this post and I am excited to start the CCR!

New Tight Schedule

 Hey guys, and happy Friday!! These next couple weeks are gonna be a little tight for me. After my spring break, it's crunch time. On Saturday, I will be filming the second scene. It shouldn't take too long because I wrote a script and i'm hoping to knock that out in 45 minutes and then finish editing. On Monday, I will start filming my first CCR. I will do a blog post on the questions I will answer in the CCR as well on Monday. Next week is gonna be tight. Monday - Tuesday I will edit the CCR I filmed on Sunday. Then Wednesday I will take a break. Thursday I will film the second CCR and I will edit on Friday and Saturday. I am hoping to be done with everything before Sunday so I can relax. 

Here is a picture of my agenda so you can see my schedule for next week: 

This is gonna be difficult but it can be done. I am going to enjoy my Friday and tomorrow, the real work begins. Happy Friday everyone and wish me luck!

Editing!!

Hey guys, happy Wednesday and happy spring break! My family and I decided to head up to the west coast to have a fun and relaxing vacation. Although the beach was amazing, its also giving me time to reflect on my project. What I did wrong, what I could improve, what I would like to input. Those kinds of things. To take advantage of the situation, I decided to continue editing on the beach. It was very relaxing and hey, I even got some sun. Anyway, let's continue with the editing portion. Since I have to re-shoot the last scene of my film opening because it was too rushed, I am only editing the first scene. There was a lot of thought process that had to go with this because I had to figure out what music suits this opening the best. I went with a dystopian trailer to sort of give that eerie feeling in the first scene. I was able to add a few sound effects in certain parts to emphasize a hit or a thud to to make the scene more dramatic. 

Here is a picture of the editing timeline:

I did start editing the second scene as well to just plan out how I would like it to be. I know the layout of how I want it to be now so I will just re-shoot it and edit it in no time. In the next scene, I am planning on doing a neat trick to create a blinking effect when he wakes up. This can all be done with the power of premier. I did a little research and watched a youtube video from an expert and after I shoot the next part, I will create this effect. 

Here is the youtube link for the video I watched: 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=50qIeVsF0zU&t=380s

That's it for today guys and stay tuned for the real video to be finished. The next step will be the CCR's!

Filming Update

 Hey guys, happy Saturday!

Yesterday's filming went pretty good actually. There were some problems we ran into though. The first setting was fine but the second one was where we had the most problems. For one, my actors had plans and since we had taken a long time on the first setting, we had to rush the second one. There were some good scenes in there but it was rushed. At the end when everything was done, I added up all the times and I was short 30 seconds. Now that's a real problem. Since it was rushed, I didn't have time to write a script but today I am going to re-shoot that scene. I wrote a new script and now, it won't take as long and I won't be short 30 seconds. I also noticed that the introduction panning scene was a bit rushed. It could have been longer and more detailed and when I re-shoot, that's what I am hoping to do. I do need to call all my actors back and hopefully they have time to shoot one last scene. Fingers crossed! 

There isn't much speaking in my film opening so that's why it's short. 

Here is my script: 

I will post pictures of us filming tomorrow if you are interested but for now, that's all I have for you. Enjoy your Saturday!

Filming Dayyyyy!

 Hey guys, the day has finally come to film. My friend is coming over in a little bit to film but I just wanted to talk to you quickly and give you an update before it's time to film. 

The prop I made from my little brothers kindergarten picture is finally done. I've been busy doing stuff for the end of my school quarter so I have been putting this off but I finally did it last night. I went to Walgreens last night to get it printed but there was such a long line; it was absurd. Luckily I had a picture frame at home that nobody was using so I just put the picture in it. That way, I didn't have to waste time or money buying a new one as well. I had the picture printed the same size as the frame as well. If I had forgotten to do that, it would have been a NIGHTMARE lol.

I have a picture of how it turned out right here: 

I think this is a good idea to put in here because it shows what drives the character and this could be a good thing and a bad thing. Since he is in a hurry and stops to look at the portrait, it would make the audience think about what happened to the son. Maybe the son was kidnapped or maybe he needs to go find him. These are questions that will be going through the viewers head so I think this is a pretty cool idea. 

My friend is on his way so I have to go get ready really quick but i'll update you guys tomorrow on how it went.

Happy Friday everyone!