Portfolio Project

Links to project

Hello everyone, and welcome back to my blog. I want to thank you for coming with me all this way. This is my final post about the creation process of my portfolio project, and that means that the links are here… I hope you could enjoy this as much as I did, and let me know in the comments below what you think about it

Link to opening, “The Awakening”

Link to CCR of questions #1 and #2

Link to CCR of questions #3 and #4

Thank you for reading, and I hope to see you on the next one.

Sincerely,

Clara Errazuriz.

Reflection

 End of this journey

Hello everyone. The due date is finally here, and I’m not going to lie, I’m anxious, and exited for everyone to see what I have created, but also I’m melancholic, since I did like producing this project, and I’m not sad, but I feel that I’m going to miss this (maybe the editing not so much…). I can’t believe that I am so close to finishing HALF of my final project (since I still have to do the essays), but I’m grateful, because of how much I learned.

Reflection

I loved this project… when I found out about it, I was not very exited, since would have to blog about it (and a small detail is that I don’t really liked to write), but at the end, I liked what I had created (and realized that I hate writing essays, which are very different from blogs), and I am very proud of the final result.

The Awakening

I feel that I haven’t talked about the opening in ages, and I never did a reflection on it, so, here I come…

Even tough I postponed everything, since I just wasn’t exited about doing it; I ended up liking very much my creation. It was the first time that I had the opportunity to create something from scratch, and also the very first time I took a class like this. 

When I started the project I knew a lot of stuff that Ms. Stoklosa taught me during the school year, but now, I feel that I learned much more things, and that I was able to learn better the things that I sludge knew.

I loved the fact that we didn’t have to do anything in specific, but the only instruction was “two minute opening of a film”. At the beginning, I wished for more instructions, since there were so many things that I could do, but after, I realized that that was the only way to really do a great project 100% made by us. I think that I’m as proud as I am of my opening, because I created it 100%, and everything was my idea.

This project also helped me realize that every little detail in cinema has a meaning, and that even tough there are millions of films out there, each and every one of them has an giant amount of work behind. 

How the editing of "The Awakening" ended up looking like

Editing

I think I never told all of you how the editing process of “The Awakening” went, but as I already said, at the beginning I hated editing, but through this process I learned a lot about it, and I ended up liking to edit, to a level that I even offered my dad help with some videos that he had to do. 

The most challenging thing about the editing for me was and still is the sound. It’a very difficult for me to make it sound normal, but at the end, I felt comfortable with it.

CCR’s

The part of the project that I liked the least were the CCR’s, and even tough they helped a lot to reflect about what I created, I just felt that they were a bit extra, and not really necessary. 

My goodbyes

Even tough I’m not leaving, and I’ll keep posting, I wont post more stuff about the creation of the portfolio project (in exception for the final post with the links). I enjoyed this project very much, and I’m while I’m exited for you all to see my creation; I’m also sad that I wont be posting about it anymore, since 4 out of 7 days of the week for the past months I have been posting, and I just feel that its going to be really weird not to post and edit during the weeks…

I hope to post more soon, and remember to check out the next blog that’s going to have the links for the opening of “The Awakening”, and the CCR videos.

Post-production of CCR’s (finish)

 Editing Process for CCR’s 

hello everyone! Today, I’ll be doing the editing process of the CCR’s, which I don’t think that will be so easy, since I filmed a lot of videos, and they’re long, but in all of them I make mistakes in different ways, so I will try to edit all of them together to make them look good, but at the same time, I have to avoid jump cuts, which I think that will be my biggest obstacle.

After editing (questions #3 and #4)

To be honest, the editing was not as bad as I thought it would be… I think that I was just scared because this is longer than the opening, but it was actually very simple, because the shots were long, so I didn’t have to find a good spot to put the shots in, or edit the sound so much, since the CCR doesn’t need any special sound effect, and it needed very little editing.

The only obstacle that I faced, is that I HATE with all my soul to see myself speaking in videos, and I had to rewatch 59 VIDEOS, since I made a lot of mistakes when I spoke, which means that I recorded a LOT of videos.

After watching all 59 videos, I choose the ones that I was going to use, and select which ones I wanted to use, I edited them together, and passed on to the next CCR.

Questions #1 and #2

For this CCR, it was easier to edit, since the videos are much more interactive and funny that the ones of the second CCR, so I didn't had to add sound effects, visual effects, or even I didn't had to include shots from the shooting of "The Awakening".

For the fist question, I only recorded one main video, whih is the one in which I speak, and other one showing the setting, so I just had to edit them together, and it was very simple.

To make it look more realistic, and also to give a vibe of discomfort, I edited the appearance of the videos, I used a filter to make them look more cold, and to bring the quality of the videos down, since I wanted it to look "realistic", and like I was being "kidnapped", I thought that a video of low quality would be better than one full HD.

How it looked before the edition

How it looked afer the edition

I liked a lot how it ended up looking like, and I feel pretty confident with it.

For the second question it was also very simple, since I only recorded 2 videos, but they were easy to edit together. For this part, it was not necessary to edit the lighting, since I recorded in my bedroom, with the lights off, and I was simulating that I was hiding, so the appearance of the shots was perfect.

To make it more interactive, I added an extract of the opening, in where Maverick is saying that “he’s back”. It was an example of something that I was saying, and to that shot, I added a black and white low-quality appearance, to show that it’s something that’s not happening now.

Production of CCR’s

 Production of CCR’s

Hello everyone! I hope you had a great weekend. Today is the last week that I’m going to be posting blogs about my portfolio project (sadly), since it is are due on the 17th. On my last blog I talked about what I was going to to for each CCR, and today, I’m here to tell you how that process went.

Production of questions #3 and #4 of CCR

10/03/26

As always (whoops) I did the second video first… but anyways, I’m here to tell you how it went, and the difficulties that I faced during the production process. 

I shot on Mavericks bedroom, I set everything like it was on the shooting day; I put Maverick’s watch on the floor, and the alarm clock, which I borrowed, back in. I also undid the bed, since on the shooting day it was undone. 

I started with a bowl with papers on it, and grabbed one with the question. I answered the 3rd question on Maverick’s bedroom, and the 4th one on the living room, where he made the phone call. 

Bowl with questions

I did various shots of each question, since I had to memorize a lot of things to say, and I didn’t want to do any jump-cuts. I’m not going to lie, this was not easy, since english is not my first language, it was difficult for me to remember everything I had to say, an to be able to be understood, since I have accent.

How I set up Maverick's bedroom

After I finished the first question (which took me like one hour to record), I changed locations, and recorded at the living room. Here I talked about the 4th question, which was about the different technologies that I had used in the production on this project. To answer the question, I showed some of the different hardware technologies that I used during the whole process, and then kept answering the question.

How I set up living room

Production of questions #1 and #2 of CCR

11/03/26

To do the first two questions, I shot on the next day, which is today. To refresh your mind, what I basically did was that I simulated that I was in Maverick’s situation, trying to escape from a chair that I’m tied up to, while I answer the questions. You can see my reflection on the fist question in the blog about conventions and social groups, and the reflection for the second question on my blog about audiences and distribution. 

Filming at the church, where I shot when Maverick was kidnapped, was very complicated, since I can’t drive, but I really wanted to answer the questions while trying to escape. So what I did was that I tied myself on the chair, but I went to a friend's house, and shooted in her garden, because the lightinh was very good, and also there were not so many background objects. I also added a panel light to make the lighting more dramatic, and to be able to really recreate the scene. 

This was more difficult and challenging to do than the CCR for the questions #3 and #4, which is the one that I already did, since I needed someone to film me, since I was tied up to a chair, and couldn’t press the record button, or set the lights if I was tied up, so, what I did, is that I asked my friend for help, and to be honest, it was great, since she's also in this class, and that means that she also needed to do her CCR, so she helped me with mine, and I helped her with hers.

This was more stressful than the other CCR, since we didn't have enough time, because my friend had to leave and we were shooting at her house, but even though we kind of rushed, I ended up liking a lot the final result

The set

CCR Idea

Creative Critical Response

 Heeeeyy! I hope you read my last 4 blogs, because, if you didn’t, you may get pretty lost on this blog… 

Introduction

Today, I’ll be talking about my CCR project ideas, and, as I mentioned on one of my previous blogs, I want to recreate the scene in where Maverick is kidnaped, but the thing is that Maverick is not going to be the person that’s in the chair… It’s going to be me!

Okay, so first of all, I’m going to talk about the CCR a little bit, because I’m not sure that I explained it in depth on my previous blogs. The CCR is something that I have to do after I finish my opening (so, I have to do it soon), and it has to be 2 videos of a maximum of 10 minutes (together, not each one). I have to answer 4 questions in total, which are the ones that I talked about on the previous blogs, but to refresh your mind; the questions were:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

Idea for First Video

I wanted to do two questions on each video, and to make the videos interactive and not boring, I’ll be talking to the camera, while I try to escape from the chair. That’s going to be the first video, in which I’ll be answering the questions 1 and 2, that are “How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?”, and “How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?”

Idea for Second Video

For the second video, I was thinking about answering the two questions as I walk in on Maverick’s life, when he’s waking up from the nightmare. But, how am I going to do this? well, I still have to redo some of the shots for that day, so, I’ll be shooting the CCR, and the opening at the same time. This will also be really interactive, because I’ll be able to, for example, show how the tripod is being used in the real shooting process. It’ll be like a behind the scenes (BTS) video.

What a BTS looks like

Technologies (CCR#4)

 CCR Question #4

HELLO EVERYONEEE!! I’m really exited, because I'm SO CLOSE to finish this project. Today, I'll be discussing the last question of the CCR, which, to be honest, is the one that intimidates me the most. The question is "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?", and to be able to understand it, and answer it properly, I'm going to do the same that I did in the research for the first question, I will break the question in parts

Hardware

The hardware is a physical device that you can feel and touch. For example, for this project, I have edited, and done the blogs through my iPad, which is a type of hardware. So, while software refers to the websites and apps, hardware refers to the physical devices that performs tasks and process data.

Software

First of all, what is software? It is the set of instructions that tell a machine what to do. For example, the app Adobe Premiere, where I edited the video would be a software. Apps, and programs that you can work on, and that the work is saved into a device. Many of the software programs need to be installed.

Online

Even thought many people (like me) many times mix up software and online platforms, they are not the same. To me, it was really difficult to really understand their differences, but after some research, I get it now. One of the main differences is that while you can access online platforms through the web, you can't access all software platforms through it. Also, online technologies need to be connected to the internet to work, and that's one of the most important things that I use to differentiate them

Answer

 "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?"

I integrated many technologies into this project, of various kinds. I used hardware technologies to film and edit, software technologies to edit, and online technologies throughout the whole process. Some of the hardware technologies that I used was my iPad to do the blogs, my phone on the shooting process, to record, a tripod, microphones, to enhance the audio quality, panel lights, and after the shooting, I couldn't edit on my iPad, because the software was not working properly, so I used a laptop. Without the hardware, I would not have anything, because I would've not be able to shoot, edit, or even do the blogs. 

Some of the software technologies that I used are Adobe Premiere, that made the whole editing process a lot much easier, and fast, than if I had used another app. Also, it worked at school, not like Adobe Express, that for some reason, worked really slow in school, and it didn’t let me upload too many videos. I also used the Apple app, Photos, to edit my brother out of a scene, and Canva to do the company name, “BigBan Productions”, which was a short video of about 8 seconds in which the company name slowly appeared, and then disappeared. One of the most important softwares that I used was the Camera app, on my iPhone, since I recorded everything from there, and without it, I would have no project. It made things much more easier, since I didn’t had to worry about finding a professional camera to record with, and also the videos were automatically saved into my iCloud, which was also something that was really helpful.

I think that what I used the most were online technologies, because I used them for the editing, production, and planning process. On the planning process, I used a lot Safari, to look for information, and to do some research about each of the topics, and to look for action conventions. Also, YouTube helped me a lot on this process, since I watched videos, in which another action film openings were being discussed, and I kind of took inspiration from them. I used WhatsApp to ask questions to my classmates about things that I didn’t understood from the project, and, obviously, Blogger, in where I documented and expressed everything about this project.

Everything that I used

Skills That I Developed (CCR#3)

CCR Question #3

 Welcome again! Today I’ll be discussing the third question of the creative critical reflection. For this question and the next, it’ll be a separate video, so, I’m going to have the first two questions answered in one video, and then, this question and the next are going to be answered in a different video. To refresh your mind, the first three questions were:

Questions

1. How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
2. How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed asa real media text?
3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

And the fourth and last question, that I haven’t mentioned yet; is 

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

Production skills

If you want to see my answers to the other questions, go check out my blog, because they will be posted there. 

The question asks about my production skills, and to be honest, the skill that this project has challenged the most until now has been the editing… I just don’t feel comfortable editing, and it takes me a lot of time, and I don’t really know how to use the app 100%, and that makes it difficult. But, while I was trying to edit, I started to learn some things about Adobe Premiere, and slowly, I understood how it worked, and even though I’m not a pro using the program (yet), I was able to work on the editing, and feel comfortable with what I had done. 

Another skill that I developed during this project was that now I know the importance of a good storyboard, and a good script. I think that I haven’t talked about this yet, but while I was recording, I wasn’t shooting from a specific place, and had only like 5 shots that I planned to record in a specific way. This ended up doing the editing much more difficult than what it was supposed to be, because, for example, in a shot in where I was recording my car, my brother is behind it, and he got in the shot. This meant a lot of extra work, since I had to remove him from the shot, which meant more editing to do, and also more time. Also, while editing I realized that I should’ve done some shots differently, and with a really good storyboard, this wouldn’t have happened.

After editing

Before editing

Conclusion

In conclusion, this project helped me develop a lot of new skills, and also, to know what to do better for the next time. I used to hate editing, and I always postponed it as much as possible, because I really didn’t liked it at all, but with this project, I learned some new things about it, and now, I don’t hate it that much. Also, while I improved in some skills, I also learned what not to do, and learned the difference between poor planning and a good one.