Making an outline

Now that I've learned what I need to answer in my CCR, I actually need to plan on how to answer it. So, I thought it would be best to create a script of what I am going to say. I am not the best speaker there is, so I think creating a script is best, because it eliminates most room for error (which I need right now), and makes the entire process just that much simpler. But, before creating the script, I think it is necessary to make on outline of what I will say in response to the questions. The outline will focus on answering each question to the fullest, and only that. The script, on the other hand, will focus on using the information from the outline and contorting it so it flows together and doesn't seem choppy and robotic when I'm reading it. I also want to showcase a little bit of my personality in the script, rather than just reading in a monotone voice. Granted I'm not the best at public speaking, but I think if I treat this like I'm making a YouTube video (for a board of educational superiors), then I can talk easily.

Here is my outline. I decided to be as concise as I could while also answering every aspect of the questions. There is a time limit, or at least a limit until the grader loses interest, so I want to make sure I relay my information in the most effective manner I possibly can. Moreover, I plan to use my graphic editing past to add in some graphics and make it more entertaining. I also plan to use clips from our film itself when explaining, and photos from our research and planning to make it more engaging with the audience. Lastly, I wanted to add something that would make my CCR more personal and similar to our opening. So, I will actually sign my introduction using American Sign Language, and possibly sign the questions too. This will introduce the representation evident in our film from the start of my CCR, and add a fun, personal touch to my video.

Beginning the CCR

Now that we finished the actual opening, there is still one more component of the portfolio left: the Creative Critical Reflection. In class, we learned about the CCR, what we need to include and what we should accomplish. We also saw some student samples, which really helped me envision what I needed to do. There are three main goals we should attain in a CCR:

• reflection on the production
• responding to the questions
• expression of your personality

The CCR should be no more than 8 minutes; we learned, that it is better for this component to be short and concise rather than prolonged and overly-detailed. Our teacher gave us notes on the four main questions we should answer in our video:

1. How does your product use/challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups/issues?

For this component, we should discuss genre conventions of both our production and other movies of the same genre (in general). We should discuss which conventions we chose to use and which we chose to establish. Then, we should end with a discussion on representation established in our opening. For us, we will delve into representation of the Deaf community, but we can also talk about representation of teenage girls, suburbia, etc.

2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

This portion should begin with a discussion on target audience (age range + gender + overall interests of group). Then, we should discuss how production choices, content, etc work to engage with our intended audience. Lastly, we should address how we plan to make the film accessible; we must do so REALISTICALLY (not by international movie theaters).

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

We should reflect on how the process evolved throughout production: how we began with research and planning, and how we approached production. This portion should include specific details about the processes, and show how we adapted/changes aspects. Lastly, it should end with an overall reflection on where we started and ended.

4. How did you integrate technologies- software, hardware, and online- in this project?

The last portion should discuss any technologies used while producing the project. For instance, we should discuss hardware: camera, lighting, etc, and software: Blogger, editing tools, and Google Docs. We should also discuss HOW we used these technologies: obstacles, learning components.

The last part of the CCR is the ending with a final statement, discussion on what we learned and what we would do different/improve next time. 

Overall, I am excited to start the CCR, even though I feel like I don't have a lot of time for what I want to achieve. I plan to use my experience of graphics editing on After Effects to make an appealing video, and I plan to make the script tomorrow!

Finishing touches

You read that right, we finished!! It's very anticlimactic because there's nowhere for us to submit it until its due date, but nonetheless, this has still felt monumental. I have been editing this all throughout my trip, so it feels surreal to be finally done. I think both my partner and I can agree that this project has been/is kind of like our baby. But overall, we are content with our opening and proud of all that we have accomplished. We feel the opening truly encompasses the coming-of-age feel. Considering our budget (literally nothing) and our experience in film-making (little to nothing), we created the best opening that we could create.

We had to make some changes while we were editing. First, we were a little over time after putting all the clips together, so we had to either get rid of some or shorten some clips in order for us to meet the 2 minute requirement. We also had to download our title font from a different website (freebestfonts.com), because--we didn't realize this before-- the other website required us to pay to download the fonts. Moreover, we recorded the audio separately (as mentioned before) but it sounded a little bad at times when I went back and listened to it. So, I kept some of the original audio in certain clips. If it was truly necessary, then I inserted the recorded audio, which was a little time-consuming but worthwhile in the end. 

Here's the last screenshot of our opening. I plan to export it tomorrow, since it's late tonight, but we are done!

Editing

We are finally editing! But, we have had a few changes. I tried editing on Adobe Premiere Pro, but it was too confusing for me since I had not used it in so long. I figured since I didn't have the time to re-learn the software, I might as well use After Effects instead. So, I switched softwares yesterday. My partner can still help me while I use this program, and I can edit quicker because I'm more comfortable with the control panel and other effects. 

Editing so far has been smooth and problem-less (not to jinx myself). The only problem is that I am editing on the road or in hotels, so I have to edit with worse quality because the service is not great. This won't affect the end result, but it makes editing a little harder because I can't see the full quality of the clips until I render the finished product. Moreover, I was able to download the audios from uppbeat.com without having to pay for them, which is great! Overall, I plan to edit tonight and tomorrow night (during my flight) and finish by tomorrow. That way, my partner and I will start the last portion of this project: the CCR. Here is a screenshot of the editing process:

 

Beginning to edit

Now that we have finished filming, we have to start editing. It IS Spring Break right now, so we don't have as much time to edit, but we planned for this accordingly. We will start editing either tonight or tomorrow, because it has taken a while for me to import the clips. I said before that everything went smoothly with the filming process, and in saying that I kind of jinxed myself because later that day I tried imported the clips to my computer and I didn't have sufficient storage. Luckily, this was an easy fix: all I had to do was clear out items on my computer, but this was not a quick process. I have a lot of stuff on my computer mainly because of school, so it took a while to clear out the unimportant documents (which was surprisingly little). I finally had sufficient storage this morning, which is when I started importing the clips. It is usually a lengthy process (I have done this before), so it took all morning. But now, all the clips are imported, as well as audio, and we are ready to start editing!

My partner and I have taken film classes in middle school, and in those classes we were taught primarily on Adobe Premiere Pro. I, however, also learned special effects editing on Adobe After Effects throughout this time. Since I am the one with the apps already on my personal computer, I will be the main editor while Jaxson helps with decision-making and support. I've primarily used After Effects, but I am comfortable using both softwares. Because this project doesn't require much visual effects and motion effects, I will likely stick to using Premiere Pro because it is a system we are both comfortable with, so Jaxson can also help contribute. Plus, Premiere is perfect for coloring and audio effects, both of which we need for our opening. 

The software we plan on using: Adobe Premiere Pro.

We finished filming!

Yes, you read it correctly, we finally filmed!! Everything's coming together and it's a little scary, but we are glad to have such a large part of the project done and out of the way. Filming was relatively easy: we started when planned and didn't run in to many problems. The only thing that we struggled with was our timing, because our filming ended up running from 2-5 in the afternoon. In the grand scheme of things, 3 hours of filming for 2 minutes is not bad at all, but we found that our cast/crew (us included) were tired towards the end of the process. One thing we will change next time we do something similar is that we will split the filming up in to multiple days: group the scenes by the cast members involved and split it into several days instead of filming all at once. 

My lovely partner helped throughout the entire process, and even took behind-the-scenes pictures (seen below). We filmed entirely at my house--the space was kind of limited because my house is tiny, but we made work with what we had. We also had a lunch break in between which definitely motivated our actresses in performing to the best of their abilities. Everyone say thank you Jaxson for the great pictures.

I mentioned before how we decided not to worry about buying equipment for audio, but we made some last-minute changes the day-of filming. That morning, I tested out my DSLR and discovered that the quality of the audio was actually terrible, so I ran out and bought a small, inexpensive lapel mic from Best Buy. Since my camera is a DSLR, I hooked the mic up to my computer. We recorded the audio on voice memos, and only did this for scenes that we knew 100% were going to have audio, as many scenes were simply just music. As I'm re-listening and re-watching the clips, I'm very glad we decided to do this because the audio is much better and, therefore, our opening will be more enjoyable to watch (because the original audio of my DSLR was just that bad). Overall, we're really happy with how filming went, and we're excited to start the editing process and see this project come together at last.

Getting advice from classmates

Yesterday, we had group meetings in class where we met in small groups of 5-6 to talk about our projects and present our ideas. My group was 5 people, and they were all very helpful and attentive. At first, I presented my idea for the plot and storyline. I directed them to this blog (<3), because it is the ultimate source of anything and everything related to this project. I allowed them to scroll through and ask me questions about any of my posts. Then, I explained some of the finer details of the project: like the actors we plan to have, the location, our title, and music choices. We already planned almost everything we needed to start filming (yay us!), so I didn't have many questions for the group. 

I did, however, ask them for other music recommendations. We already found music that is royalty-free, but I was wondering if there were other, better websites that had a wider range for us to use. My classmates fortunately found several websites that had royalty-free music sorted by genre, like bensound.com and Youtube music libraries. One of them even recommended contacting artists on Instagram and asking for the rights to use their music, because it was a quick process that still gave them written permission to use quality music. 

Overall, these meetings were helpful in simply giving us much needed validation. They really liked our title "Birdcage" and thought it was extremely creative and pertained well to our story. They also liked how our "film" would include and represent a part of society that goes unrepresented a lot of the time. We were both told how great it was that we were doing our film on something we both enjoy and are knowledgeable on: deaf culture. This is what we needed to give us that extra bit of confidence, especially when we planned to film that day.