Senior Year 1st Semester Reflection

This semester we worked on 3 videos. However, I was only able to work on 2 of the 3 due to the fact I was out of town for a week. Even though I was gone, I captured some great photos during that time.

Camera Assignment 1

For my first project, my group and I worked on camera assignment 1. We set it up to be like a PSA. The base line was cursing, and how it can get you into trouble. For this project we were given a week. I think it worked well for what we were doing and the time we were given. My team worked well together and got it done in a timely manner. I learned that if you have a well organized team with connections, it doesn't take long to complete something you can be proud of.

Short Film

The other project I had the chance to work on was a short film called "The Date". The main idea was a shy, awkward guy asks out the most popular girl in school. For this project we were given a month. There was a lot of pre-production for this one because we had to hire actors, storyboard, schedule filming dates and locations. The rest we did in a matter of days. Some of the issues we had involved the time of year because of Thanksgiving break and a snow day. We also had an issue with one of our actors because they were in orchestra and it is the season for the big concerts for them. In the end, I think the short film could have turned out better if we had given ourselves more time to edit. I was originally editor, however I was not given enough time, due to our rearranging schedule, to edit the film the way I wanted, so another group member took the job. I did however have to step in as an actor for the film. I am not a fan of being on camera, but due to the limited time, I decided there was not much of a choice if we wanted a certain ending. 

Overall, in class, I thought I used my time wisely. I did a lot of editing for my film reel to make something I was truly proud of. I used my time to organize the footage I had in order to make it as clean and easy to find as possible. 

My area of strength lies within organization and editing. I spend a lot of time sorting through footage to find exactly what I want and edit it to the exact way I want it. However I do need some improvement in cinematography and directing. Im not the most skilled on a DSLR when it comes to filming. I know a lot about the photography side of it, but not as much when it comes to filming. When I do photography I usually work with a "point and shoot" type camera since that is what is most readily available to me being that my father is a photographer on the side. I feel as though my editing has gotten much stronger from last year to make a cleaner piece. 

Our guest speakers taught me a lot. Unfortunately, I was gone for the presentation given by Morgan Cooper, who I feel I could have taken a lot from in order to improve my directing skills. I learned a lot from Darby and Ryann about pre-production, post production and editing. I think that is what helped me improve my organization and editing skills this semester. 

For our up-coming feature film I am vey excited that I get the chance to be the storyboard artist. I feel as though we have a strong, well thought out and detailed script that will make this job very easy. I plan on reading over the script during the break to plan how I will capture the details in storyboards. 

First semester has been interesting for me. I had a lot of things going on at the same time and I was gone a good amount. Whether I was out of town or sick, I missed a lot of class time. I would love to see an opportunity to work on a project all on my own in order to see how well I manage my time in order to improve my collaboration skills. However I did learn that if your group is well organized and efficient, it does not take long to complete something you are proud of. A goal that I will set for myself next semester is that I would like to have better time management. 

Junior Year reflection

My favorite projects that I did this year were creating a film reel and creating my own website. These where my favorite projects because they were all mine. I got to have my own creative vision and it was all what I wanted. I got to pick the music and the background and the shots I wanted to use. I worded on these two all year to keep it updated as I created more and had new projects to show. As far as challenges go I don't feel like I faced very many because I worked on these on my own. I did ,however, struggle with some footage getting lost for my film reel. But I also enjoyed taking a camera with me on a weekend trip and getting footage of just random things that I thought looked cool. I learned a lot about how different programs work throughout this year.

I feel that I used my time well to work on these, when I got the chance. Any time that was available after completing a project, I was working on my film reel. I definitely learned how to prioritize throughout this year. However, I can still improve on my actual camera skills.

For our feature film, Just My Imagination, I worked as an editor. I feel that I was not much a part of this project as I could have been. I lead a very busy lifestyle outside of school so it was difficult for me to be able to work on a lot. Some of the editing I did however, was liked and got added in. Some of the scenes I did got thrown out completely, but it was getting so tight on time, so it was a rushed decision.

The thing that I loved the most about this year in Entertainment was the people I got to meet and work with. It will not be the same without my senior classmates next year, but I will grow and hopefully meet new people next year. Something that I want to change for my senior year is to work on managing my time better and having more time to perfect a project. Overall I think I learned a lot about the programs that we, as Entertainment students, work in. I also learned that I like to screen-write and direct. I am a very shy person, but somehow I like being able to create videos from my own visions and ideas. I just need time to think in depth about my ideas instead of making them rushed. I pay very close attention to detail and I want everything to look just right, so it takes me a little longer than I have been given to work on my projects. If I do not like something, I will start from scratch. I have a bit of a different process than most, I feel, than others in the way that I would rather have a project turned in late and receive a bad grade, but it looks good, compared to turning it in on time and it looking sloppy. I also am quite busy outside of schools so it does make it quite difficult for me to work on filming after school or on the weekends.

I feel that having this class 1st & 2nd hour was beneficial for me because it was a good way for me to start my day. I was able to creatively think first thing rather than having to force myself to do college algebra equations first thing in the morning. It was also a great way to start my school day in an environment that was a lot more calm than other classes. We had good conversations and great stories to share that for me, a lot of times, turned into great video ideas. As for the feature film next year I think I would do well using my artistic ability in storyboarding. I think that I am not the best editor as far as deadlines and editing knowledge goes. I may have learned a lot this year, but editing is still not my strong point. 

Mini Doc- Alcoholism

This Mini Documentary is about the effects of Alcoholism. We discover how these people began drinking, when they noticed they had an addiction, when they decided to get help and finally what life is like being sober.

As far as a script or questions goes we had a fairly long list to begin with. Some questions we decided to scrape such as "when was the first time you were drunk and what was your reasoning?" because we either did not like the answer we received, or we did not feel that it went well with the other questions we had asked. We were also unable to ask questions about Alcoholics Anonymous due to privacy. The questions that we did have about AA however where, "What part of AA helped the most/" and "What is the hardest part of AA".

My production role in this process was art direction and editing. The director and cinematographer of the project was Sarah Pitts. Audio and coloring was done by Amelia Mamie. The thing about our group is that we never truly stick to our production roles. We do a little bit of everything to help each other as well as ourselves. For our cast, Sarah had connections with people and it made the process very easy. The people we interviewed, gave very honesty and real responses to our questions and were able to open up about their experiences.

I really enjoy working with both Sarah and Amelia because I feel we work well as a team. We have all become friends throughout our year working together and I feel that it helps when creating a project. It is good for our communication and collaboration that we all listen to each other and we all share all of the role within production. We just want to help each other wherever we can.

As for what I would do differently, I feel like that can all be done in the editing. I feel that it was a good documentary based on the fact of the responses we received. As for what I would do the same, I would most definitely work with this group again, if I ever got the chance. However, both Sarah and Amelia are seniors and I will not be able to work with them next year. I am sad that I will not get to work with them again, because they were great to work with and we became friends through all of our projects working together.

What I learned from this project is that, the connections you have, use them to your advantage. I also learned that, just because theres a set of guidelines for what types of shots that should be used or the kind of emotion you want in an actors voice, use your own ideas, you do not have to stay within the boundaries. Create something that you feel shows you as a person, not what a list of rules tells you how everything is supposed to be. 

PSA blog

      The idea of my groups PSA is anxiety. It was a comparison between a day in the life of a person with anxiety v.s a person without anxiety. The reason we choose this topic is because my group and I have experience with anxiety.  For our pre-production, we put out a flyer to get actors, to which we got a response very quickly. Then we had to find statistics to make it a PSA. The 2 statistics that we found were from different sources. One of them was from a slam poet Regan Myers. The other was from a school district poster. Our script was very simple because one of my group members had already written it for her short film, but it wasn't used. As for production roles, I was art director, Damian was editor, Amelia was cinematographer, and Sarah was the director and writer.  During the filming, I came down with the flu, however I still filmed when needed. What I would change would be give the statistics longer on screen, as well as I don't feel that the character without anxiety was necessary.