CCR Prep - Question #3

     Hello everyone! Welcome back to my blog! Today we are answering Question #3 and what my second CCR will consist of. Now, I have mentioned in my previous blog posts that my first CCR was a Director commentary/interview between my interviewer and myself as the director. Now, my second CCR isn't set in stone but I do know what I will say in order to answer this question along with graphics.

The 3rd question I will be answering will be :

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

This is it, I'm finally done with portfolio project and we are on week #7. This entire project was a process that was both experimental and exciting! With this, lets reflect on what I learned and how I advanced in terms of a producer. 

My Overall Process

    When I started this project, everything seemed so overwhelming, the planning, the editing, filming a whole 2 minute production all by myself. I can admit it was quite intimidating. I started with making a schedule out for myself on where I should be each week and noting it down and repeating the process for the past 7 weeks. Throughout this production I have learned it's okay to mess up, my production skills have improved, as well as my planning process before filming as well as editing everything all together. Figuring out what I was going to focus my opening on was challanging but it forced me to step out of my comfort zone and realize that it really isn't hard to make something creative and original if you have an open mind. I picked a horror film to make and it is pretty in character for me because a lot of my posts before this project was focused on horror. It is easily my favorite film genre and I really did enjoy producing a film project based on the mystery behind killings. These skills will not only help me in this class but in many more instances moving forward such as overcoming obstacles, planning and researching, and making my own analysis for the things I create. I'm very proud of myself on how far I have gotten. 

Sound Research

Storyboard

Rsearch and Planning Process

    The research process was very ejoyable for me. I got to research some movies that I loved watching in the free time, their openings, the movie credits, and overall the types of themes they gravitate towards. For my time period I also had to establish what kind of mise en scene props I had to integrate and I researched on two films (The Black Phone and Scream) in order to get the proper inspiration from the 1990's. Researching the genre conventions was the most important step to take because I had to first learn about my genre before starting to produce it. This explains why it was one of my very first blog posts concerning my portfolio project. I developed my plot online, drew a storyboard, created mood boards, as well as research about the types of dentist offices there were available in the 1990's. This all brought me towards the end of my portfolio project where I got to start planning for my actual production. I had to plan what music I wanted to incorporate and adapt my shots to my storyboard and tweak things here and there before I started the actual production. 

Production

    I spent a very long time filming. It was a major obstacle for me in terms of scheduling due to me having an outside actor that was busy alot. This led to me filming for 5 days in the span of 2-3 weeks and I still had to reshoot while editing and finalizing my project.  It was very hard to do everything in 2 hours or less every single day because those were the only hours my actor was available to film. I realized I had to schedule more effectively and communicate the hours that are needed before agreeing therefore, time won't be lost in the future. But, lesson learned and everything was figured out in time thankfully. I took a long time figuring out what shots were better for each scene and sometimes I ended up not following the storyboard and going based off a general idea that I had outlined due to my mind changing mid production and I'm glad it did because the overall product came out really well! I had to bring out many people to help me with filming that wasn't my actor such as my other friend and my parents that help lights and camera. When I didnt have that help I was moving alot in order to get the perfect angle with the perfect lighting and everything worked out in the end once I started editing. 

                                                                        Production Shots:

Obstacles:

Reflection

    It started with learning how to edit and get used to the Adobe program with a One Word Project. This project helped me transition into editing and mess around with a few techniques but not really being a master at it and having to search up tutorials but not having to do anything complex but putting together a few scenes and add music. We were tasked with a tone word and we had to make up a story without any dialogue and give off a sense of appreciative throughout the film. Me and my partner decided to make a story about a girl sitting alone at lunch and someone else coming over to give her some company which made her appreciative of that girl. This project helped us know how to plan with storyboards, think about shots and movement, and overall edit it into a sequenece which was a great transition into this class. 

Link to My One Word Film Here: OWF_Romero.mp4

    My next big project was learning how edit only audios with our very own foley sound creations as well as audios from online copyright free music websites. Me and my partner were tasked to make a soundscape with no video at all and only sound overlay. We decided to make our setting a medical clinic and overlay sounds as if the subject was walking through a pediatric clinic. This project gave us a lot of issues because it was very challenging to make a well enough sound scape without sounding too artificial. It did help transition me into learning how to overlay sounds and prepare me for this project. 

Link to My Soundscape Here: RomeroSeoane_soundscape_per7.mp4

    Our final big project was cosidered as our midterm and everyone was tasked to be in a group of 4-5 people and create a music marketing campaign as well as a music video that goes together with that campaign. This project gave me the most experience necessary to effectively complete my portfolio project. This process included the research and planning the editing as well as the filming all together put into one. Our group made a music marketing research chart to gather some background information on the genre just as I did for this project. We also completed a storyboard, props, and decided on the variety of shots that will be used. This project was very demanding but we finished in time and I found it a very nice experience

Link to Our Music Research Chart: Music Research Chart.docx 

Link to Our Timeline: Music Marketing Project Development.docx

As I'm typing this blog up, I can very proudly say I loved every aspect of this process even though it was challenging. It forced me out of my comfort zone to be creative and plan accordingly. I learned many skills that I will be utilizing in the near future. The editing was the hardest challenge by far and my favorite part was the actual production process and the planning that goes behind it. It is very tiring but I am overall pleased with myself on my final product!