🏁FINAL PROJECT🏁

 OUR FINAL PROJECT

https://we.tl/t-X0QYcitwET

🪞CCR🪞

 

HERE IS MY CREATIVE CRITICAL REFLECTION

https://prezi.com/view/5fRPScgYTW5xbN7tgbnJ/

🪄LESSONS I LEARNED🪄

 Hey bloggers,

    As already stated before, we have finally completed our project. This two month period of recording and editing was DEFINITELY stressful. I would be lying if I said it didn't keep me up at night thinking about it. However, this period allowed me to learn so much more about myself and others. I knew that I would learn some valuable lessons, whether they were because something good or bad happened. These were some I learned...

    PATIENCE. When we first started recording, I wanted to finish as soon as possible, which made me rush the most crucial process. The making of the scenes. I wasn't allowing myself the time to thoroughly think out how the scenes would connect, and obviously this heavily effected the outcome of our first few days of filming. However, as I started to realize that me rushing this crucial process wasn't positively effecting our project, I realized I needed to change something. We ended up starting our filming process from scratch, and actually thought out what were going to do

    COMMUNICATION. It is a vital part in every day life, but when doing a project like this its always important to prioritize things like this. All of us had some kind of input during this project, whether it came down to the making of our scenes or costuming. Whenever Gallarde did not feel comfortable or felt that we could incorporate a better scene, we always heard him out. Also, our communication skills allowed whatever problems that occurred to be resolved quickly. Overall, our project was made easier through our thorough and clear communication.

🥇CHALLENGES OF FILMING🥇

Hey bloggers,

    During our filming process, I would say that our project, for the most part, went pretty smooth sailing. (again, for the most part). I say for the most part because there were times where arguing occurred, which caused us to have setbacks. The reasons were quite reasonable, and if we never discussed these issues we probably would have never finished our project. There were many challenges during filming, and it's time to list them. First of all, there were times where Gallarde did not feel comfortable during scenes, which was understandable. However, he made some recommendations which helped us improve our communication.

    Another issue that we ran into was scheduling. During the first couple weeks that were assigned this project, we could NEVER find a date to record. Whether it was work, family gatherings, or plans with other friends, we could never find a day to record. Additionally, another problem that we ran into was the time of day. Obviously, we could record at around eight where the sun would be down, but we wanted it to be very specific. We wanted the basketball court lights at Riviera to be off, in which we had to wait until eleven at night to do so. Our parents were quite concerned as to why were were out this late but we powered through and got it done. 

⁉️HOWS IT GOING?⁉️

 Hey bloggers,

    After hours of recording, editing, procrastination, arguing, etc, we have finally finished our project! A huge weight off my shoulders has finally been taken off, and I couldn't be happier. This project has caused so much stress, but to be honest, it has all been worth it. Being able to enjoy these times around people who I care for is something I will never take for granted. Even during the times where they weren't focused and would rather goof off, as frustrating as it was, it was still moments filled with laughter and joy. I talk Antwan and Gallarde everyday, but seeing the other side of them outside of school was amazing. 

    Editing and recording was definitely stressful, but I learned buckets of knowledge while doing so. Being able to direct the movie taught me so much about the intricate details that go into movie production, as one scene can make a movie go "Hollywood". Telling Gallarde what to do, at times, was quite frustrating because seeing him things do that did not align with my EXACT vision threw me off. However, he did the best he good which is all I asked for. Although not THAT experienced, we were all happy with how Antwan edited our project. He added all the things we wanted, which made our film turn out how we wanted to. I loved recording this project and wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

🤔A MOVIE THAT INSPIRED ME🤔

Hey bloggers,

    Before we even got this project assigned, I had already started brainstorming a couple of ideas that I felt would set us apart from other groups. In order to prepare me for this project, I did some research on a couple of movies that I felt would help us construct our scenes and give us an idea of what our opening should look like. Obviously our film was centered around a depressed kid, so I specifically looked up some sad movies.

    The movie that stood out to me was Interstellar. Although it doesn't really fit this narrative that we are trying to push, I was still able to extract a couple of ideas. As we all know, we see our protagonist, Cooper,  on a mission to find another habitable planet. Interstellar's central themes revolve around isolation and loneliness, and those are two ideas that we also wanted our project to be centered around. It stresses the importance of human connection and emotions in overcoming difficult situations, and that is what our protagonist is trying to overcome in our film.

    

🔖WHAT INSPIRED ME?🔖

 Hey bloggers,

    When first brainstorming our project, may different thoughts came across our groups mind. Topics such as sports, school stress, and video games crossed our mind. However, this topic specifically, of a kid who is suffering in silence, felt the most fitting for many reasons. Mental health is a huge topic in todays world, and encouraging people to get the help they need has been at an all time high. Messages like these are spread over all forms of social media, such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok etc. On the dark side, we see people who would rather suffer silently...

    As boys growing up, we all agreed (our group) that we have been taught that crying shows moments of weakness of vulnerability. However, now that we have gotten older, we have learned that it's okay to sometimes show emotion. Humans are meant show emotion, as it is a natural part of human life, whether someone is a female or male. Venting how you feel about your feelings about someone or a certain situation is extremely beneficial. You get the opportunity to get things off your chest, and who doesn't like to do that? Me personally, when I feel something isn't right or my gut feeling is telling me something isn't right, I always address the situation.

    However, sadly, most men would rather keep it to themselves. They would rather cut deeper scars within themselves without addressing a particular problem until it gets too much to handle. That's why you see in our scene at the pool that our main character tells our background character that he has been doing well. While deep down inside he is suffering. It's okay to cry. It's okay to let out your emotions when you feel it's needed. Talk to someone when you are going through a tough period in time. Never suffer in silence.

🎩EDITING TRICKS🎩

Hey bloggers,

    Editing our project has been quite time consuming to say the least. Before we started our process of editing, we knew that it was going to be a challenge. We thankfully had Antwan edit who has already had prior experience in editing, but Gallarde and I still had our fingerprints involved. We wanted our project to come out a specific way, in which our editing had to be top tier. While discussing how to edit it, we discovered some tricks...

    A valuable trick we learned during this process was to start with a plan. Going into editing without having a foundation is like a headless chicken looking for food. It's important to develop a rough draft or outline when doing things like this. That's why a storyboard is so important in the editing process. You can organize your clips on paper or computer so when the editing comes around, all you have to do is look at your storyboard and organize it as such. You can also put the transitions and shots on the storyboard.

    Another trick I gained an understanding of was to focus on the continuity of your film. It's crucial to pay attention to it so your film runs smoothly. It includes maintaining consistent eyelines, ensuring the passage of time is crystal clear to the audience, and matching action continuity between shots. This step is CRITICAL to the development of your story.

💻SOCIAL MEDIA💻

 Hey bloggers,

    When searching for ideas on how to go about this project, I was quite dumbfounded. Obviously I knew the foundation of how I wanted the the project to look, but I struggled looking for how to create meaning within our scenes. That's when I took my concerns to social media. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram provided me with an abundant amount of ideas and how to make our scenes the best they could be. Social media is an excellent place to find inspiration, and I am glad I did because I was able to find so many things that benefitted my project.

    I searched up on TikTok, "how to make a sad film", with the hopes of finding something similar to what I'm doing. Luckily, I was able to find some things that helped me. They suggested using dark clothing, but specifically casual attire. This casual attire, this specific TikToker said, would suit what we were trying to get at, which is a depressed teenager, and as we know, teenagers love to wear comfy outfits. Another piece of inspiration that I got from Instagram was to show our main character in a secluded place. Obviously that suggestion is quite broad, but it lead me thinking about the pier at Riviera Isles. In this case, we ended up recording a scene at the pier and we never looked back.

🤲WISHLIST🤲

Hey bloggers,

    While recording our project, we wondered "what if we had a bigger budget?" Obviously these are just curious thoughts, but having a significantly larger budget would definitely make things look better. As the director, seeing how the camera effects the outcome of a film was truly fascinating. At first, we started recording with an iPhone 15. However, when Antwan offered us the chance to use his Canon camera, it changed the whole landscape of our project. Going from a pretty good camera, to an an actual camera that is used for things like this helped us in ways that we could have never imagined.

    Having Gallarde as our actor was amazing, but the truth is that he is not an actor. If we had the chance to have a competent actor, who actually knows how to get the best out of every scene, would be absolutely  incredible. Costuming, although a huge component, does not necessarily require a huge budget. If we wanted to record a lavish film with fancy scenery, restaurants, cars etc then of course we would want the costuming to match the occasion. However, our film could have clothes from the dollar store and we would still be content with it. 

    In terms of our location, we were extremely happy with where we were able to record. However, it would be nice to be in a secluded area as it would have fit our idea for the project, which was isolation. If we had an unlimited budget we probably would rent out a small part of Miami for a night just to shoot a couple of scenes. Having a professional editing team with the best of the best editing software would be a BLESSING. Our project would be immaculate as the edits would be smooth, exquisite, and seamless. Sound plays a huge component, so maybe paying a prominent artist/band would work wonders for us. Our lighting was actually perfect for our project, so I probably wouldn't change anything about it.

🖥SPECIFIC CAMERA SHOTS/ANGLES🖥

 Hey bloggers,

    As already stated many times, camera shots and angles can convey multiple messages without actually saying what they are. They are what, I would call, "subtle messages". As a group, we wanted to use multiple different angles and shots that would be able to show the main characters emotions. Recording some of these shots were tedious at times, but we felt these angles/shots would best convey what we were trying to aim for.

    Starting off, we see the opening with our main character, Gallarde, in bed with an alarm clock waking him up. In this scene, I used an overhead shot to really get insight on his facial expressions when waking up. His demeanor makes it seem like he is dreading waking up. Another shot that can also be seen within the same clip is a close shot. Close shots are great at capturing emotions, in fact, probably the best shot at catching those feelings that cannot be captured with any other shot.

    An additional scene that I wanted to touch on was near the end, wear we can see our main character sat down on a bench. During this scene, I wanted to show that our protagonist was at his lowest point, which is why we incorporated a high angle shot. High angle shots are brilliant at capturing vulnerability, in which our protagonist is probably in his most vulnerable state. Isolation is also something that can be seen within this high angle shot. We see that it's just our protagonist, with no one around. The time of day and his surroundings are able to be analyzed within this shot, which is why the high angle was the best for this situation.