Film Opening and CCR Links

Here are the link to my film opening and CCRs. Hope you guys enjoy them!

Film Opening and CCRs

Its Finally Over!

It’s finally over. I finally finished this long project. This project started around January 29 and has now been finished on March 22. This project was an experience that’s for sure.

(Me at times during this project)

In the beginning, when I was planning out what I was going to do for the project it was pretty difficult to decide on what I was going to do for the film opening. I remember that it took me a long time to decide what genre I was going to do but after some time of deciding and some third-party insight, I am deciding on the genre that you see now. Around this time I was deciding on what I was going to do, I didn’t really think that this project would be so difficult or it would be such a long process. But I soon realized that it wasn’t going to be as easy as I thought and that this was gonna take up much time. There were many difficulties between working on the project and balancing school work, but the good thing is that I was able to work through it. One of the biggest challenges was posting the blogs at certain times and making sure that they were spaced out.

(Me at the beginning)

When it came to the time for production, this was also a big challenge, and I wish that it would’ve gone a little bit smoother, but in the end, it turned out pretty well. I planned my project to be very good and I also planned it perfectly in my head but of course, things do not always go as we think they will. I have course was not able to get the actors in the people that I wanted originally even though I said many backups, so that is one thing that was a bit upsetting at the time, but the good thing was that with the power of Latinos in action and my officer position, I was able to get some people to help me and also with the help of a close friend. In the end, the project turned out good it is not as good as I wanted it to be, but I am happy with how it turned out. Even though it was a bit of a struggle shooting and it was a bit of a time crunch when we were shooting the shots turned out pretty well just editing was the part where they got harder.

(Me enjoying time before editing)

When it came to the editing, I knew that it was gonna be a long process because I’ve had it many times in the past, and I know that it takes a long time to do it and to make it look perfect. But for some of the Parts of the project, I didn’t know that it was gonna take as long as it did, but Push through it and was able to make the videos look good. Especially editing for the CCR was very long and I needed an entire day just to edit both CCRs, but it was worth it because I made them look good for the project and if I had spent a few days, it probably wouldn’t have looked as good and I probably would have not been able to finish it on time. Color grading was of course a big issue that I explained a lot in my blog post as well as my CCR. Even though it was so difficult at times, I was able to learn some new tricks to help me out with it, and I pushed through that as well.

For the CCR I expected it to be very simple at first, but once I knew that we had to create videos and two separate parts for those videos, I knew that it was going to be more difficult than it seemed. To be honest, the CCR editing was much harder than it was for the film opening and the filming for the first part of the CCR was almost as stressful as shooting for the film opening. I was also able to learn lots of new tricks, and do things that I’ve never done before while shooting the CCR so That is a plus side to the negative that I just explained.

(Me after editing my film opening and in the middle of editing my CCRs)

Overall, this was An experience that I can’t even explain with words. I will say though that it was long and excruciating at times but in the end, I know that it was a good experience to go through because I was able to learn and master many skills. Now that it’s over, I can finally relax a bit especially now that I only have two months left of school, my birthday is coming up, and My adult life is coming up. I definitely will enjoy not posting blogs constantly like this, but I will miss it as well because it is a good place for me to display my thoughts and to speak open-mindedly. The shooting was also of course Pretty fun, but that’s something that won’t stop because like I said in my CCR, I am in CBTV So shooting like this won’t stop for me for a little bit longer. Thank you for reading These blogs and I hope that you enjoy both my CCR and my film opening.

(Me now that its all done)

CCR Post Production: Editing Hell

After filming, both my CCR’s, which were both filmed on two separate days it was time to edit. Editing the CCR’s was hell. I was able to pretty much fully edit both CCR’s but it took me the entire day.

For the first PCR, it took me 3 to 4 hours to complete the edit, but even then it was not fully completed so I will have to work on it more the next day. There were many issues when doing the editing for example, the color grading again. Good thing I was able to copy and paste the present of another clip to the clip I was working on so that all of the clips look the same color-wise. Another problem that came with this editing was that the video where I talk, it is a long video of 30 minutes. So I had to cut all the perfect takes which took me a long time because of how long the video was. I also had to cut all the perfect take out of the eight-minute video for my mom’s talking parts. Another problem was that I had to try to fix the background noise a bit, and that is one of the main things that is not fully finished with the CCR. I also added pictures and videos within the CCR so that was another thing that I had to focus on.

For the second CCR it was a much easier process because Instead of making one long video like I did last time, I cut up all of the takes into small videos, so it was much easier for me to extract. The perfect takes to put into the edits. The only thing that I had to do for the second part was to color-grade it again and work on the audio as well. Unlike the first CCR, I did not have to add pictures and videos, because this CCR was designed to have just video clips.

Besides, the CCR, other problems happened between editing, one of which was a problem with Premier Pro. My PC seems to be having difficulty when switching between different projects and it ended up freezing and crashing at one point. Premiere Pro shut down As well, and when I tried to close out other projects to focus on one It ended up deleting my Progress on other projects that I had luckily, since I saved them before, I was able to re-open them, even though I thought that they had all been erased.

Overall, the process of editing was a bit challenging, and it was very time-consuming. I started editing, I think around 2:30 and I finished editing around 9:00. So, as you guys can see, this is why I chose the title editing hell because there were many problems and setbacks within my process of editing, and I spent my entire day editing these videos.

CCR Production: Shooting Day #2

Today was the second day of shooting for my CCR. This CCR was a much shorter process than before because it was just me acting this time instead of me and my mom. I have the assistance of my sister for this filming though.

The filming for this day was also easier because my script was not as long as the one for part one. So for most of my shots, I was able to memorize the script easier and I was able to put each attempt in two separate videos, rather than one long video like I did for my last CCR. Overall, the shooting for this video was also a bit smoother because it was earlier in the day and we had no school rather than it being at night and having school the next morning. Also, there was no background noise at this time because like the last CCR, there was a lot of background noise due to my parents, making dinner, and doing other things.

The only thing about the CCR was that it was shot in multiple locations throughout my house so me and my sister had to move around constantly. I also came up with new shots as well as my sister gave me ideas for certain shots that weren’t initially planned. There is one shot where I am on the toilet which was my sister‘s idea but the idea turned out really well and it was pretty funny. For that shot, it even took me multiple attempts to say the part of the script correctly because I kept laughing. My sister also came up with two of the shots which were the one shot where I was on the swing and a shot where I’m looking out of the window.

Overall, the CCR shooting was pretty stressful on the first day, and for the second day, it was a bit better and actually, it was pretty fun. Hopefully, the editing won’t be too bad and the process will turn out well.

CCR Production: Shooting Day #1

I could now come up with the idea for both my CCR parts. In class, I started the script for the first part of my CCR. Then once I got home, I finished it and had it ready for today. My idea for the first part which answers questions one and two is a video of me getting interviewed as if I were a director of the film I did get popular. I also will add photos and videos within my video so that it is easier for the audience to understand what I am explaining. The second part of my CCR, which I have yet to film is a video where I will be answering the question while filming in each of the spots where the scene of my film opening was shot. This will give insight into the questions as well as show the audience the set of the film opening.

Today I shot the first part of the CCR. I was looking for people to be in it because I needed an interviewer to be played. So I asked my friends to see if they could help and act as the interviewer but all of my friends were busy and we were not able to help. Instead, I asked my family members if they could help my sister was not able to be on camera, but she helped assist me with the shooting and with the script memorization and wordplay. My mom played as the interviewer for the first part. I played Mr. Lepage a.k.a. me. Shooting this was a bit challenging because I had to use that tripod that I used for the film opening again which is a little bit unstable and I used my phone as well. There was a bit of background noise so in editing, I will have to try to take that out or use the studio audio feature on my phone. Another difficult situation was that while I made the script I did not realize how long some of the parts where I talked were so there was a lot for me to memorize or for me to read off of. So it took me a few takes to make it look good. Same with my mom because she is not used to reading lines like this and she has a bit of an accent when she talks. But for the most part, I feel that it turned out pretty good.

I feel that I put the shots in a good position and that I use the 180 rule correctly. The only thing that I wish that I could have done better was lighting, but I did not have much to work with. The only type of lighting that I had was the lighting from the room and other lights like the lamp in the background of my shot and a little ring light that my sister bought from her room to use as a front light.

I will be shooting the second part of the CCR on Thursday most likely because that will be a day where I am most free. I will also make the script for the second part tomorrow in class and finish it later in the day. I will also start to edit the first part of the CCR. The only challenge that comes with editing this is that I filmed my take of each piece of dialogue on one video and in total the video came out as 30 minutes so I will have to go through that 30-minute video and find all of the perfect shots. For my mom, though her shots were only at a total of eight minutes. Hopefully all of this will be able to get cut down so that I can make it in 5 to 6 minutes. If not, I will make it six minutes and my second part will be five minutes so that I can get a total of 11 minutes, which is the maximum for the CCR. Hopefully I can get out a good point of editing tomorrow even though I work. But if anything, I will also have time after I shoot my second part and the day after because of no school and the start of spring break. Hopefully, all goes well, and I can finish it and make it look good.

(Me after all this is over)

CCR Question 4

It is now the last and final question of the CCR. Like I did with the previous questions, I will be breaking them down so that they are easier to understand and that I will be able to answer them while I film my CCR more easily. The question for number four is how did you integrate tech technologies- software, hardware and online- in this project?

First I can establish which software tools I used, obviously for editing as you can see in my blogs in the past, I used Adobe Premiere Pro. This was used to edit in the line my clips, add titles, music and more. Another software that I used, but I used it for visual effects and graphics was Canva. This was used to create my titles and create my ideas for my credits. For writing and preproduction, I used the software Celitx. This was used so that I could write my script for my film and so that the actors had a script to read the dialogue.

Next is hardware. There was a lot of hardware that I used first for cameras I used my iPhone camera and that’s it and for audio. I used my iPhone audio as well as iPhone audio from Voice Memo. I used my sister’s iPhone tripod to stabilize my shots and I used my friend’s light kit to shoot certain shots with the blue LED lights. Lastly, I used my PC in my room which holds all the software that I used, and extracted all of the videos from the hardware that I used.

Lastly, are the online tools that I used. One of the most important online tools I use is Google Drive. I use this to store my clips and to store my final video or draft video. This made it easier to grab clips if I needed them rather than having to save them on a flash drive or somewhere else. I also used YouTube tutorials to help me do certain tricks and features on Premiere Pro. I also used YouTube to watch certain videos so that I could get inspiration for my film or use it within my film. When I finally finish everything, I will be using Google Drive to display my project. I luckily have the monthly payments for Google Drive so I have more storage and access to more things. It is reliable and also I feel it is easier to do and more private. While I would put it on YouTube as unlisted for now, I will put it on Google Drive.

I have answered all the questions of the CCR. Now it is time for me to come up with more ideas and decide how I will do my CCR. Once I decide which will probably be on Monday or hopefully by Tuesday I can start shooting for my CCR.

(Me thinking about what to do for my CCR)

CCR Question 2 & 3

Since my last blog post was about my group meeting, I will be mixing this blog up. Instead of talking about question two I will be talking about questions two and three so that I can talk about the other questions throughout this week. Also a little update on my project is that throughout this week? I will be working on making the title a bit more readable and better looking and I will be adding the credits and music. Overall, I will also be trying to make it to two minutes.

Just like I did in the last blog about question one I will be breaking down each question first is question two. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? To break down this question I first have to know what my target audience is. Who is this project meant for? This project is for all types of people, but I want this project to be more targeted towards younger people like teenagers or young adults. I also want this project to be targeted toward Latinos and other races related to Hispanic culture. Even though my film does not seem to be relating to that type of audience, later on if I were to continue the film, I would want to integrate something like that. But obviously, my actors are Hispanic so I feel like that will appeal more to other Hispanic people. Now I must figure out my engagement techniques. How do you emotionally or intellectually connect with the audience? In my project, I feel that I am emotionally connected with the audience by showing a young couple in a rough part of their relationship. The emotions and the actions of the people in the relationship, emotionally connect with people, especially those who have gone through similar experiences or are getting to the point in their life where this could happen. I feel that the characters and the setting are relatable to a few people. The visuals also could get audiences connected to the real feelings of the scenes. Lastly, I must see if my film opening has a message and impact. What do you want the audience to take away from it? Does it inspire, inform, or entertain? I want my audience to understand that life can be hard, but it can be mended back to how it was before. I also know that being in a relationship can be difficult at times and things like this will happen but fixing things like using communication can help. I feel that this film opening could inspire others to take action in their relationship if it is getting to this point but of course, the film opening is to entertain people as well. The story and the script were formed to entertain others. Now the second part of the second question has to do with distribution. How would it be distributed as a real media text? My project would be accessed through Google Drive through the public view setting, but I would also like to put it on YouTube if I deem it good enough or I may unlist and share the link. If it were a real film, I would have imagined it to be shown probably on HBO Max, or shown in a film festival that possibly focuses more on Latino culture like the Latino International Film Festival. If I felt like it was good enough I could’ve also submitted it to go on the lightning film festival at Cypress Bay.

Now it’s time to talk about the third question. How did your production skills develop through the project? I feel that my production skills did improve slightly. I am always producing films/media for CBTV but when I produce things, they are not short films like these they are more like news segments. I miss doing short films like these, but I of course forgot lots of ways to do certain things so I feel that I improved and relearned lots of things that I’ve done in the past. First reproduction, I feel that for my script thing, I got it back to how it was because for CBTV the scripts they make me don’t have to be as professional as the ones that I made for the film opening so I had to relearn how to do a script like that since I have not done it in a while. I did learn more about how to do a more dialogue-focused script because the ones that I’ve done in the past are more focused on scenery and shots. For production, I feel that I improved on shots with lighting because usually I feel that I struggle with that but luckily, I had a light kit and natural lighting that helped make the lighting within my film much better than it would without those things. I also feel that I improved my cinematography because I had to learn to use my phone to film, which is something that I usually don’t do. My directing also improved because usually on CBTV films, I get actors who are in CBTV so they know what they are doing or I am the actor, but this time I had rookie actors who did not know what to do or struggled. I was able to help direct them towards the way I wanted to film the goal and how they should act within it. For post-production, I feel that I did not really improve because I used lots of the skills that I already knew about editing for editing my project. The only thing that I did improve on was that I learned how to do sound muffling. I searched for how to do it on YouTube and I was able to learn how to do it and was able to put it on my first clips of the film. The color grading was also a bit challenging, but it is something I’ve done before, but this time it was a bit more intense. I also feel that I improved my problem-solving skills because there were a lot of difficulties throughout this project and luckily through hard work and determination I was able to pull off what I wanted. This project was a bit more difficult to manage than others that I’ve worked on in the past, but luckily I was able to work through the stuff and I’m currently still working through it.

Breaking down, these questions will help me create my final script for my CCR once I figure out what I will be doing for it. I hope that I come up with an idea soon, but to be honest, I am really not sure what I’m going to do yet. And for my film opening, I am going to improve on it more and add more key details.