CCR

CCR

Hi guys!

I hope you enjoy!

https://youtu.be/k3i9jqnJmic

Link to Film

Link to Film 'Little Town'

Hey guys!

The final product is done, I hope you all enjoy!

https://youtu.be/zjwJdcBZ-cs

backup link:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1eo6DPVNR3M4LkoSlBxHZGl991JXnblS5/view?usp=sharing

Reflection

Reflection

Hey guys!

As the days of our production process come to an end, I wanted to post a reflection on the entire process. I wanted to include how it made me and my group feel, how we overcame certain obstacles, and how, in the end, we produced a film opening that we are extremely proud of.

As my group and I have completed our portfolio project film opening, I can now properly look back and see all of the new things I have learned as well as the ways we overcame our biggest obstacles during the production process. We changed our storyline and genre many times throughout our production process, even before Corona occurred. We were constantly striving to be not only realistic but also make a quality production. I can proudly say I am pleased and proud of the final product of "Little Town". Previously, I had never produced an entire film opening, and my only experience was what projects we had completed during class. This project, especially with Corona Virus, made us think outside of the box and compromise on many things.

I had branched out quite a bit when it came to my blog posts. I used new apps including 'Shoplook' for our costume design inspiration and 'Snapseed' to edit a portion of the film itself. I have learned to explore new apps and softwares, as they bring new opportunities of creativity, which I felt I was able to perfectly capture within my blog. Also, from having required blog posts every week, my group and I had no room to slack off and stuck to our schedule from Google Calendar.

Our film developed into an idea that was changed countless times in all aspects. I learned to adapt to situations that were not in my control. As this entire stay at home order was issued, was the same time my group scheduled to film our video. Being forced to adapt, we changed our genre, storyline, and method of filming completely. I would say this change was for the better, as our film opening now is much more simple and straightforward than our previous idea. Janey had to film the entire film by herself, with her phone instead of our high quality camera which we planned on using. It is the little things like this that we had to change around, but it ended up being for the better.

We learned about patience and communication being the two key components of our entire film production process. It was a lot of team work instead of having one person do a part. Each step of the editing process was validated and had input from all three group members.
We worked together as best we could given the circumstances, however this did not stop us from striving to make a production we were proud of. I have learned technical tools as well as emotional, as to not get frustrated over what our film could have been and the potential our first idea had, but to only look forward and put that energy into producing "Little Town". I learned more from this entire process than I thought I would and I am looking forward to posting our final product.

Thumbnail

Thumbnail

Hey guys!

As the days of our production come to an end, I was the one editing the last portion of the video and tweaking any final touches. This meant that I would also be the one who would upload the video to Youtube for our final grade. As I had never previously uploaded a Youtube video before, I went into the 'managing channel' side and saw one option I would need to fill out was a Thumbnail picture. 

I did some research to see how a thumbnail should be, as I had never made one before. 

I went on wyzowl.com/youtube-thumbnail-size/ and found quality recommendations for someone first starting out and what/how they should make their thumbnail. Everything down to the exact resolution the picture should be saved in was disclosed on this website. I knew before doing my own research I wanted the thumbnail to be simple, straightforward, and attractive. And after doing my research, I found that these three traits are exactly what viewers want to click on. 

Before I thought about going out of my way to create a thumbnail, I thought why not just use a random part of the film and have that as the picture. Then, after doing research, I thankfully found out this was not the best thing to do. 

Here are some of the main key takeaways from that website, that I used to curate our thumbnail for "Little Town". 

After reading through the website and having a better understanding of how I wanted my thumbnail, I made a quick outline of what I overall wanted it to look like :

1. Less is more
2. Picture including Mia
3. Have title name 
4. Simple editing
5. Aesthetically pleasing

Since we had not previously thought about taking pictures specially for a thumbnail, I went through all of our raw footage and came across a shot of Janey (playing Mia) riding her bike as a camera in a car follows her. I especially liked this shot because the sun was directly hitting Janey, enhancing the entire image overall. 

Here is me going through the footage and screenshotting a part of a clip to use as our thumbnail:

Then, I went to VSCO to further enhance the picture.
Here is a before and after of the thumbnail from VSCO:

BEFORE VSCO

AFTER VSCO

Then, after having the proper filter and color adjustments on the picture, I wanted to add the title of the film "Little Town". I explored fonts from dafont.com and ended up downloading the 'Royal Acidbath Outline". 

After I installed the font, I was easily able to add the title onto the picture, save it, and upload it as my 'Custom Thumbnail' on Youtube!

Here is the final product:

Group Meeting

Group Meeting

Hey guys!

After filming and getting all of the different clips, my group and I had a meeting! Janey, Andrea, and I had a video call on Snapchat, since it was the three of us we were able to all see each other that way. 

Here is a picture of us during our call:

Janey had completed all of her filming by herself with the assistance of her Mom and Brother, who was a film-savvy student which worked out really well in our favor. We had to have this video call because we needed to discuss things about the editing aspect of the project that we could not easily formulate into words for over text in our group chat. We had been planning this call for about three days now, and even though we are all each social distancing and quarantining at home, we were each busy doing our own tasks. After a few days of planning we finally hopped on a video call together and touched on these main topics which I will list here and then further dissect later. 

- How we were going to do our voiceover and what would we say? When would we use it?

- Who was going to edit first? Second?

- What kind of music did we want, if any.

- How would we share the footage from Janeys phone to Andreas and I's phones?

- Run through the footage together with mainly Janeys help.

These were just some of the many topics we touched on together while on the video call.

For 'How we were going to do our voiceover and what would we say? When would we use it?', we really had to plan this out. I had originally said I would make a script for the voice over and record myself and input it in while I was editing, but then we realized it would not flow well when Janey had to speak in the film, the voices would be off. I wrote more in depth about the voice over on my previous blog post as well. We decided upon Janey recording herself for the voiceover. We came up with the script for it on the spot together with the three of us brainstorming. Janey typed it up and sent it to us right after the call ended. We decided that we would use the voiceover no longer at the start of the opening as we had previously planned, but instead we will have it later into the film, about thirty seconds in. To record the voice over Janey will use 'Voice Memos' on her iPhone. 

For 'Who was going to edit first? Second?', this was really not something Andrea and I had any preference over. We did not have a dispute about who would get to edit first or not. We just casually decided that Andrea would start the editing process and I would complete it. We thought this way it would be the most fair decision.

For 'What kind of music did we want, if any.', Janey had the really good idea about using some soft piano background music. We were going to further do our research for non-copyrighted music and implement it into the film. We thought this could be something we decided upon later on as the editing of the actual footage was our main priority at the moment.

For 'How would we share the footage from Janeys phone to Andreas and I's phones?', Janey had the really good idea to use Google Drive to share the footage she filmed to us. It was quick and easy and the footage's quality did not alter. This was a big deal for us as sending it through iMessage would have decreased the quality.
Here is a screenshot of the Google Drive folder Janey shared with us:

For 'Run through the footage together with mainly Janeys help.', after Janey shared the footage with us, she walked us through the idea behind certain shots. This was a really good process I felt because we were able to get ideas from Janey that she had while she was filming. One in particular that really helped was when she talked us through her beginning shots and how she directed her brother to film her. This gave us an idea on how to formulate that part of the video when we were editing later on. 

Voiceover

Voiceover

Hey guys!

My group and I decided that our film opening had very little dialogue and we wanted the viewer to be able to learn about Mia (our main character) as well as hopefully be able to relate to the same struggles that she has. Since our main purpose was to make Mia relatable and have the target audience (high school students, high school graduates, and college students/people in their twenties) relate and understand what she was going through, we wanted to make the intro a bit more personal than we had previously planned.

Since changing our storyline and adapting to the new circumstances that social isolating and staying home has brought us, we decided upon making a voiceover be a part of the film opening. We figured that this way the audience would get an introduction on Mia and learn about her feelings and passions. I decided to do some research to make sure that using a voice over was partially to provoke some kind of emotion in the viewer and connect with them overall. Thankfully on the article I read on : https://www.cmdnyc.com/blog/2016/1/20/effectiveness-of-voice-overs, I found out that voice overs are often enough used for that exact reason! Here is some of the research I found and annotated to best understand our approach when it came to the voiceover. 

After finding this research, I decided to dig deeper and see what other websites that were reputable had to say on why filmmakers typically use voiceovers. On https://www.business2community.com/video-marketing/male-female-voice-matters-explainer-videos-01712050 I found the research to support that audiences tend to prefer a female voiceover than a male. 

We started our voiceover planning process and knew that the reason behind it all was the keep the film opening intriguing as well as give an insight into Mias life.

We wanted to find some films that were famous for using voiceovers and also to get some inspiration for how they word things and how they sound. We came up with these :

Mean Girls 2004:

A voiceover was used to introduce Cady Heron to the audience. This is a very similar approach as to what we wanted to do for Mia and we took inspiration from it for our own voiceover. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5QTXzM3wPRw

Riverdale 2017:

Voiceovers were used throughout Riverdale and we examined the delivery of them to ensure we were doing them in an appropriate manner. 

We decided that Janey would record herself for the voiceover. Originally, I was going to type up a draft for the voiceover, which I will still include here, however we later figured out that when Janey says her lines in the film opening, it would be too obvious about the different voices. For this reason we had Janey be the one to record herself for the voiceover. 

Here is my original draft (which we will not be using):

Here is the new draft, which will Janey will record :

We will be using Voice Memos to record the audio and we will then import it into iMovie while editing the raw footage. 

Filming Time

Filming Time

Hey guys!

We have finally started and finished our filming process! Janey took one full day to film. Originally we planned on spacing it out for her among a few days, but we realized that it would be better to film in the order of the day in which the scenes occur since our film opening is rather chronological and sequential. We were originally going to have Janey film one scene of her on the bike during the sunset on one day, but then we realized that as the next scenes of her at the mailbox came, it would have different lighting. This was not something we could control, so we decided it would be best to film the scenes in the order in which they occur. 

Here is one of the props we bought on Amazon way before everything starting being delivered 16 days after order date:

At first everyone in the group was a bit hesitant as to if the filming process would work. We had multiple doubts including, if Janey's brother who was film savvy would be available to help her film. We knew Janey could not film the scenes of her outside and walking into her house by herself, and a tripod would not work either. We had to coordinate with Janeys mom and brother (who was luckily able to help her film some scenes). It was more than just the three of us at this point, because the two people filming were important and vital to our overall production process. 

We also, back when we were still in school, we were planning on using Janeys brothers' professional camera to film. However, due to him having to go home early due to Corona Virus, he had limited space and unfortunately could not bring it home. We ended up using Janeys iPhone 8 Plus. Our second backup if her brother did not have his professional camera was to use either my phone or Andreas, as we both have the 11. However, due to our circumstances, we had to adapt with our filming equipment as well as many other things in our project. 

Since Janey was filming everything by herself, we decided that Andrea and I would evenly split up the editing process. Andrea was going to edit the first part of the film opening, and send export it to Google Drive, where I would retrieve it and edit the second half. During our editing times we agreed to face time each other if we needed advice. If we were not in self isolation, we would really have been next to each other editing, but again, we had to adapt and work with the situation we were in. 

The night before filming we all planned out Janeys outfit and made sure she had everything ready for the next day, so we could ensure we caught the sun as it was setting. 

Janey kept us in touch as she was filming. We were there to give her advice and suggest things along the process of her mom and brother filming her. This was not ideal, as having been the ones to directly film the footage would have been the best option, we again were adapting. 

Janey started to film around 7 pm in the night, because our opening scenes included a beautiful sunset which we really wanted to capture. As well as getting the sunset in the shots, we also had good lighting for Janey while she was riding her bike. This overall alone enhanced the shot exactly how we pictured. It did not take a long time at all for Janey to get all of the shots we needed. Now, it is time for Andrea and I to take over and begin the editing process.

Here I wanted to show really how much the sunset enhanced the scene of Janey on the bike. 

Here is a before and after:

BEFORE SUN

AFTER SUN

Media While Quarantined

Media While Quarantined

Hey guys!

Since we have all been at home and doing our best to practice social distancing, media and technology has proven to be the one resource in which everything else revolves around. I found this to be true from everything vital such as news and updated reports to our pure entertainment to unwind. For me personally, I have fully taken advantage of this time off and created my own non-profit project called "The One World Project", in which I am teaming up with a local drapery store in Davie, Beautiful Windows Blinds, and together we are making face masks. We are making these face masks from scratch, starting with fabric and elastic, and we are sending them off to hospitals and medical institutions around Florida that are in dire need.

Now as I started this project I knew I had to educate myself on it first to see if I was capable of doing it giving the resources I had and all the non-essential stores around me being closed. So, I went on the internet and starting finding templates of the masks to measure my fabric, videos on how to make the masks, and even how to contact hospitals to see how many they needed. 

This Youtube video walked through the steps one-by-one and I was actually able to learn myself how to create a mask. https://youtu.be/9tBg0Os5FWQ.

I found this website: https://www.deaconess.com/How-to-make-a-Face-Mask/Mask-Donations?state=FL&page=2 and emailed them asking for the face mask template. 

Momentarily they replied and I then did more research to find a list of hospitals that were in dire need of masks. I found a list online and through this list I was able to apply a filter and select only Florida locations. 

I then created an Excel Spreadsheet in which I organized every organization based upon their needs and contact information. I called around 15 different locations and by having this Spreadsheet I was easily able to log in information as they were telling me on the phone. 

Then, as time passed and production began, I wanted to spread my message. I thought the best place to do this was social media, and I immediately created an Instagram page for my project @theoneworldproject_. Through here I posted daily content and was able to spread my message of "one mask at a time" and "Sew. Send. Save". Through my Instagram I created, I was able to actually reach out to organizations such as ICNA Relief, and collaborated with them. They were having a grocery delivery for those badly affected by Corona, and their volunteers did not have any personal protective equipment (PPE). I reached out and made arrangements, and was able to donate 20 masks the day before the drive began! Here are some pictures of the workers wearing our masks.

To further spread my message of why I wanted to start this project and how people could help, I created a short video on Imovie. By using Imovie, I was able to compile videos of the production process, of me doing things such as cutting fabric, and even talk a little bit about my project. 

In addition to all of this, ICNA relief reached out to me again and was telling me about all of the people that cannot afford to buy food and basic medicine for their families, so I started a GoFundMe, which is an online page where you can have people donate money to a certain cause. I sent this link out on all of my social medias and through text messages to all of the contacts on my phone. 

To create my logo for The One World Project, I went on canva.com and I formed my own logo. I had gotten some inspiration for my logo through Instagram from other organizations doing their own donations of face masks.

Here is my logo:

Despite being at home, I was able to stay connected with the world around me thorough various media types as well as technology. I was able to actually raise money and donate it fully to ICNA relief through online efforts only. I was able to make masks and mail them to first responders and hospital staff, solely thorough online resources. I had to force myself to get very creative with my online presence to spread my word about my project. 

Aside from this amazing chance I got, I also had to stay in touch with my loved ones, specifically my Grandma, who lives in Trinidad & Tobago. Daily I was able to video call with her through WhatsApp's video call option and talk to her and try and take her mind off of everything going on. 2 days before the lockdown was called, I was actually booked to Trinidad to see my Grandma, so video chatting everyday has kept both of us in touch and up to date. 

As for my school, we started transitioning to fully being online as of March 30th 2020. We have been using resources such as Canvas, Microsoft Teams, Zoom, and even Remind to stay in touch and up to date. It has given me a new kind of freedom because by having an online school, you can form your own schedule for the day. Canvas has been a primary platform that all of my teachers use, and they send announcements and updates out on the website regarding our school work.