Entertainment Video Senior Capstone Reflection

 The Five Guarantees

From the start, the e-Communication academy emphasized five different skills that the courses are designed to help you improve upon. They are: technical skills, communication, collaboration, leadership, and project management. A lot of these skills are things that I have always struggled with, but this course has definitely been useful in pushing me to improve myself in these areas.

Technical skills is probably the one skill I've always been good at. Like a lot of my peers, I grew up with technology such as computers and smartphones so I'm very accustomed to using them. Before joining e-comm, I was already practicing filming and editing videos on my phone, so I was at least decent at technical skills. E-comm was still very beneficial in this area because it taught me all sorts of new things, like how to use a DSLR camera, how to color grade, how to use lighting properly, and how to use Adobe Premiere. I learned these skills through Mrs. Smith's lessons, guest speakers, tutorials, and obviously practice. 

Communication and collaboration are all about working together and being upfront with each other on group projects. Sometimes this is hard for me because I'm not extroverted. E-comm has been great with improving these skills because video production requires you to be able to work with others, just like many jobs will later in life. When you work on so many video projects with others, you are guaranteed to make mistakes. But the more mistakes you make, the more you have to learn from. I remember back in Sophomore video class, everyone was a lot worse when it came to communicating with each other and collaborating, but now me and my other classmates realize the importance of it.

The last two e-comm guarantees are leadership and project management. These skills are all about planning and taking initiative. E-comm has taught me about project management because there are many different steps when creating a video, so you need to plan accordingly and manage your time if you want to get it done. Leadership is quite important when you're doing project management. If nobody in a group is a leader, the project won't get done on time. I've learned that if no one else will take the lead, it's important that I do.

Favorite Video Projects

I've Seen Footage is one of my favorite videos for many reasons. The video was very fun to work on and the filming process was more relaxed than a lot of the other projects I've worked on. It was good getting to work with Jack, Dominic, Mason, and Mario before the school year was abruptly ended because they are a great group to work with. I think it turned out pretty good too and it was nominated for emagine which is a plus.

Simply Complex was the first video project I did in Entertainment Video. It's one of my favorite videos because it was a good introduction to the class, and it's the first video I worked on with my friend Ryan Moore, who I continued to work with for many other videos. It's not the highest quality video, but it was a good learning experience where we experimented with different angles and shots.

My PSA for texting and driving is probably the highest quality video I worked on. I think everybody in the group did an excellent job with their roles and I'm super happy with how it turned out. This video was also pretty relaxed and not stressful because we got everything done in a timely manner. 

Conclusion

Overall, this was an amazing class to take and I am very glad that I did. I met some good friends because of Entertainment Video. I got to work on some projects that I am quite proud of. I learned so many new things about filmmaking in general. My biggest regret this year was doing online school. I liked it at first, but it grew stale and demotivating over time and I feel that I would've had more fun in person. A goal I have for myself outside of high school is to always stay creative and push myself to learn new things. Last thing I'd like to say is that Mrs. Smith has been one of the best teachers, and I'm very thankful for her genuine positivity and encouragement, especially during the last year. Thank you Mrs. Smith for everything you've done for your students!

Commercial Blog Post October 2020

 

Monopoly Commercial Reflection

    The product our team agreed on was the board game Monopoly. The original concept was that we would recreate a game of Monopoly in real life, then at the end reveal that it was all in the imagination of the people playing Monopoly. There was some disagreement on how exactly this would be made. I thought we should cut from the players playing monopoly to the real life version of what they were doing but everyone else thought it would be better to surprise the viewer so we went with that. We began filming this commercial but then we scrapped it to do the current commercial instead: A comedic game of monopoly.

    I was the editor for this project. Once the video was filmed, I was a bit time constrained editing it because I had one day to edit and turn it in, but it wasn't a huge deal because I didn't really need to do very advanced editing for this video. It was hard to get to exactly 1 minute for this because when I edited it the way I thought would look best, it ended up being about 45 seconds, which meant I had to lengthen a few clips, mainly the zoom in on Alex's face. After I was done editing and turned the video in, I came back later to add the whip pan effect which made the commercial a lot better.

In conclusion, creating this video was a bit of a messy process and I think what we lacked was a clear vision of what the commercial would be. If we put more effort into planning the video, I think it could've turned out a lot better.

1st Semester 2020 Film Reel

1st Semester Junior Film Reel

When making the film reel, I aimed to make it lighthearted and fun. That's the reason the background music for the duration of the video is upbeat. Of course I also had to choose shots that fit with the music, so most of the shots are either humorous or fun. The switch commercial showed two friends playing games together, so that easily fit with the music. Franklin's Cake is a comedy, so some of those shots worked as well; such as when Franklin throws an orange in the batter. When editing, I only used stable shots with good lighting and white balance. Many shots in Franklin's Cake were poorly white balanced, and some shots in the Switch commercial were poorly lit, so I didn't use those shots. I tried to make sure all my videos were evenly spread across the video, so one part didn't emphasize too much on one video.

In this reel, I wanted to show my main production roles as editor/cinematographer by using good shots, putting them together in a coherent way, and for good measure I put my production roles at the very end of the reel. Looking back on the reel now, I think I used the best clips I could've. Something I would've done differently, however, is the music. It fits the mood I was going for, but it's kind of bland and repetitive. Another mistake was exporting in 1080p instead of 720p. This reel was better than my previous one, but it still doesn't feel complete. Once I film more quality videos, I think I'll be able to add more substance to my film reels because as of now it feels generic.

Music Video Professional Review

Summary

The music video for Carried Away is about a dysfunctional relationship between two individuals. They try to make it work and even have some good times together, but there are some things that are said that can't be unsaid. When the male protagonist says "you make me sick," it highlights how their relationship will probably never work out.

Element to Apply to My Work

The editing was really clever. Although a lot of it isn't something I would be able to recreate, there's definitely a lot to take away from it. I like how the music video started and ended at the get-together where their relationship falls apart. In between is a mixture of happy memories and not so happy memories. The good and bad memories contrast each other and add a lot to the music video. At the climax of the music video where the guy says "you make me sick," it visibly shows the girl holding onto the words and when the guy says he's sorry, the sentence falls apart onto the floor. This shows how some things can't be unsaid. 

What the Creator Did Best

The creator of the music video did a really good job of storytelling. It's hard to convey a story in an interesting way, but this video really captured my interest. There was a really unique dynamic between the two characters and you can understand them as people. The guy says lots of things he regrets saying and the girl has trouble accepting his apologies. You can understand why they stay together even though their relationship is dysfunctional because the music video sprinkles in good moments in their relationship. 

How it Could've Improved

There's not a lot of bad things I have to say about the music video, but I will say that I prefer music videos that tell the story through visuals instead of subtitles. It's a little lazy, but I personally don't mind it too much for this video because of the climax where you see all the mean things the two have said to each other.

Franklin's Cake Blog

The Script

For this project, we chose the treatment that I wrote. I also wrote the script. The concept for the short film was that a man forgets his anniversary with his girlfriend every year and this year he forgets again, but doesn't want to anger his girlfriend again. He makes a last-minute cake that becomes sentient because the man spills chemicals in the batter. The cake tries is murderous but the man stops the cake before it causes harm.

The Process

During pre-production, I worked on the script with some help writing dialogue. We agreed on production roles minutes after our group got together. I was the writer and director. Ryan was the editor. Greyson did art direction. Ethan and John operated the cameras. As for storyboards, nobody wanted to do them, so we split them up across the group. We all participated in finding the locations, actors, and creating the schedule. Then, we were ready to film.

The first filming day was on a Thursday at Olathe North. We were filming most of Act II, the scene where the protagonist Franklin brings the cake to life. Murphy's law really came into play here. We showed up at the school around 4. They let us in the building, luckily, but we forgot to bring a few props. Some people went to get the items while we planned the shoot. While setting up the shots, we realized that we didn't grab the SD cards, so we messaged the group members who were getting supplies. They didn't see the message before getting back, so they had to leave again to get SD cards. Meanwhile, our actor was somewhat patiently waiting. After that, we were finally recording. The shots were pretty much improvised because we didn't know what the science rooms at North looked like beforehand. My voice was super hoarse from the start so I could barely speak. Directing with a hoarse voice is less than optimal. I really strained my voice on this recording day, something I don't plan on doing ever again. John was a big help, and was like an unofficial co-director. Once we started filming, it went smoothly. We finished filming right before 7, which was our original prediction.

The next filming session was at John's house. The scenes shot here took up most of the short film, so we had a lot more filming to do. Once the crew and actors arrived, we prepared the first shot. We had a slow start once again, but we sped up over time. People had to leave at a certain time, so we really were rushing while filming the last of the shots. We got it done just in time, and surprisingly took about the same amount of time to record as at Olathe North, even though we filmed a lot more at John's house. Finally, we were done with production.

Technical Problems

Once we were in post-production, we immediately noticed a major issue. All the shots upstairs at John's house had really bad white balance. Everything was orange/yellow and it looked awful. Ryan spent a lot of time fixing the colors, and even then the colors look weird at some points while watching the film. Also, after recording the voice lines for the cake, we realized we had to redo a line. Those were our main issues during post-production.

Role

I was the director and screenwriter for this film, two roles I was unfamiliar with. I'm not much of a leader, and I never have been. Writing is something I'm better at; I just haven't written many scripts. As for directing, I feel I could have helped the actors more because they were fairly unfamiliar with the script when we started filming. I did guide the video crew well though. I think I did a pretty good job with the writing. The dialogue progressed the story in the most natural way a story about a murderous talking cake could possibly be. The jokes were alright too.

Entertainment Video Final 2019

Projects

During the first semester of entertainment video, I've created three videos, not including my film reel. My first video project was called Simply Complex. I was an actor, art director, and I helped with the writing process. I learned how easy it can be to make continuity errors, as we did make a few. For example, a water bottle appears on the table three minutes into the video. My second video project is one that I feel is better than Simply Complex. It's a Nintendo Switch advertisement that was entirely filmed by me, except for the one shot I'm in. Also, it was filmed all in one day. This was my first time using the Canon 80D for more than 5 minutes, so I was very new to using it. I learned how to operate the DSLR, and also that I really enjoy using them. Filming the Switch advertisement was one of the most fun filming sessions that I've done in e-comm. My latest video project was a comedic short film called Franklin's Cake. This is my favorite video I've worked on this semester. For this project, I was the director and screenwriter. I've never been good at taking a leadership role, so being a director was intimidating. I didn't like being in charge because people always turned to me during the making of the video. The responsibilities of being a director take some fun out of making the video, so I don't plan on directing often. As for being the screenwriter, it was a more fun role. For this project, I got creative during the writing process. I'm usually not much of a writer, but writing comedy is very enjoyable. I learned that while writing, it's not uncommon to go back to the script and make changes frequently. Revising scripts creates an overall better film. Most feedback I've received on my films is related to camera-work, so that's what I'll try to improve in future films.

Class Time

In class, I usually use the time I've got to work on videos or other assignments we're doing. I usually don't have extra time when working on a video because if I do have extra time, I use it to revise and improve upon the video. Outside of class, I occasionally film and edit videos for fun, but I have been doing it less frequently because I'm often already making a video in class.

Strengths

My 2 biggest strengths on the 5 guarantees of e-comm are technical skills and project management. I always make sure that a project will be finished, and on time. I'm decent at planning out how long something will take to finish and when to film and edit. So far, I've only had one instance of not turning in a video project, but it was during sophomore year. As a junior, there's been close calls, but still no unfinished or late videos. My other strength is technical skills. I'm good at it because it's my favorite of the 5 guarantees of e-comm. The best part of e-comm is operating equipment and software without a doubt. Although I haven't had too much time with a camera, I feel I'm good with one. Editing is also something I'm good at.

Areas of Improvement

Just like the previous years in e-comm, my biggest area of improvement is still leadership. Commanding a group of people what to do is very difficult for me. Sometimes it's hard to convey my ideas and sometimes it's hard to make decisions as a director. I've definitely at least worked on this area of improvement when working on Franklin's Cake because I was the director for it. I got a little better at scheduling, instructing, and decision making, but it's still something I need to improve.

Guest Speakers

We've had many guest speakers during this semester of e-comm. Unfortunately, I missed some of them, but the speakers that I did get to listen to had very valuable knowledge. Leah Wellman was the first guest speaker. She taught us some basic but important things about how to operate the DSLR cameras. I was still very unfamiliar at the time, so I'm glad she taught us the basics of the Canon 80D.   Another guest speaker was Morgan Cooper. It was really cool to see him come to the classroom to talk to us about filmmaking. He told us about how the Kansas City area is actually a good place for filmmakers. He also told us about huge mistakes to avoid at all costs, like when he lost all the footage for a wedding video. We were told the right way to handle a situation like that as well. 

All American High School Film Festival

Attending the All American High School Film Festival was a big highlight of the semester. I viewed many films from high schoolers around the country. Many of the films were very well made. For me, the most memorable videos were ones with the most clever writing. It really shows how important good writing is. You can't have a good film without a good story. It is important, however, how you tell the story through filming and editing. I saw this in many videos, like The World Within Vincent. It was already a great story, but the way it was filmed and edited just made it really stick out.

Feature Film Role

In the feature film, I'm going to be an editor. I've never worked on a feature film, but I'm sure I have the ability to tell the story of Sub Rosa through me and the other editor's editing. I have lots of previous editing experience, so I know I can do it.

Exploring Video Final 2019

Projects

Movie Trailer

One of my projects this semester was to recreate a movie trailer. We were given a month to do so. A challenge we faced for the first week or so was finding actors that were available. We needed a couple more actors that weren't apart of our group but every person we asked declined. Eventually, we finally got enough actors for the video. While filming, we learned how much effort can be put into a single shot. The only issues with the video is one shot that doesn't look fully focused and there was one part where I was saying a line, but we later realized I was too quiet so we had to use the audio from the original trailer. During editing, we changed the aspect ratio to look like the original trailer. Overall, the quality is very good, and it's a very obvious remake of the Breakfast Club trailer.

Short Film

My latest project was to create an original short film. This was one of the few projects where we were planning and creating something entirely original. We had a little under 2 months to create the video. We also had to start by writing a logline, synopsis, script, and film treatment. After everyone did this, we chose the best videos to create and we got into groups. We had to schedule, storyboard, and other pre-production steps. The filming only took one day. My editing took four days. The short film is a comedy about a man that gets robbed whilst gaming.

Time Management

Whenever I have something to work on in class, I will do it. If I have nothing to work on, I'll do work from other classes. There have been many class periods where I had nothing to do, but when there is, I am usually productive. For example, after we filmed "The Robbery," I edited every class period consistently and I even came in for Raven 50 one day.

Strengths

In video production, I think I'm not bad at editing and operating the camera. The only way to maximize these strengths is to practice. The more I use a camera, the better I'll understand it and utilize it. The more I edit, the more I'll understand the software and editing techniques.

Areas of Improvement

I need to improve as a leader. I have only directed one video this year and I'm not very good at it. I have never liked being the leader in charge, but this of course can change.

Short Film

In the short film, I operated the camera for about half of the clips. I was also responsible for editing the video. The genre of our short film, as mentioned earlier, was a comedy. The story is not meant to be taken seriously. Something I learned was how to color correct. While editing, I noticed that some scenes looked a bit too yellow so I had to fix that. Before we were in groups, I had to write my own story. I learned to look for plot holes in my writing. My writing skills slightly improved.

Summary

My favorite part about second semester video production was the short film. I didn't enjoy the writing part, but everything that followed was genuinely fun. Especially, the filming process. I liked setting up the camera and shooting the video. Something I wish I did differently this semester was to finish my music video project. That project was a disaster for my group. My major take-away is that I would like to continue video production as a junior. My goal is to improve my editing/filming to look more professional and polished.