Goodbye My Media Studies Blog :(

Hi everyone! As you can see from the title, this will be my last media studies blog post. It's so saddening yet it gives me completion to type out my last post. 

I remember when I first found out about this class and when I heard about blogging, I was so fascinated at the idea of blogging. I had never done it before, and seeing it done in a class about media studies seemed captivating.

In all honesty, blogging for this class was certainly a chore. I felt it was tedious to get each blog done, and I disliked it with all my heart. But as I rushed to finish this last post, I felt nostalgia rushing over me. It makes me think back to the past months, when I was completing all the early preliminary exercise blogs. That was like 40 blogs ago, which is crazy to even think about. 

But I will miss my blog, no matter how much I disliked updating it aha. I loved the aesthetic my blog gave. I decorated my blog like this because I loved the Disney movie Tangled since I was a baby. Since my blog should be a reflection of me, I chose one of the movies that are near and dear to my heart. 

This class was probably one of my hardest (if not, my hardest) classes that I will ever take in my life. The work was difficult, but in the end, I got it done right? Otherwise, you would not have been seeing this blog right now :D

My experience in depth.

In this class, I struggled a lot, especially with procrastinating and putting off my work. Each time we had to create blogs, I felt unmotivated and I was in a creative slump. It was challenging and super irritating to try and write each blog.  It was a rough process to try and make blogs as long and beefy as I could. 

This class has made me learn a lot of things. It made me permanently remember all the camerawork, editing techniques, and other things as well. I cannot look at a film/media product the same without looking at their shot sizes and angles. It's insane how much this class has been an inspiration for me.

I remember when I was a child, I used to make short films all the time, and my mom gave me the idea of being a Film Editor. At first, I disregarded her idea, but now, I think that she was right. I think I have the talent to become a Film Editor. Maybe I'll take up that opportunity.

So, it was really nice to talk to you guys. I loved my experience here, and most of all, I loved my TEAM! They were AMAZING, and they are such an inspiration to me everyday. Thank you for reading this blog, P is signing off (forever).

Creative Critical Reflection: Digital Voiceover Video

 Introduction

Hi all! Welcome to my blog again! Today, I will be sharing my Creative Critical Reflection with you all! So, the CCR basically sums up our film and the elements of it, but in greater detail. The maximum time for this video was 20 minutes, and my video was 19:50 (insane.. I know!) But... without further ado, lets watch my Creative Critical Reflection!

Reflection

While I was recording my Creative Critical Reflection, I was tired and it was really late at night, so in was completely not in the mood! My nose was also super stuffy, so it was hard to talk, but I actually got it done! The first time I recorded my CCR, it was 27 minutes long! So I had to talk swiftly while presenting. I hope it does not sound so rushed! Anyways, thanks for watching! My next post will be my last post for this blog :( . See you then!

Final Film

 Introduction

Hi guys, welcome back! Yes, you read the title completely right, today I will be showcasing our FINAL FILM! I am so happy and ready to show you guys!!! We changed every crevice, we fixed every blemish. No stone was left unturned in the making of this! We added coloring, we added new music, and our final film even came out shorter than the first draft! (which was my main concern).

I would like to start to say thanks to my lovely crew and my cast. We did an incredible job with the film! Our First Draft's title was "Trustfall", but now, the title has been changed to "Through Her Eyes". We changed it to that title because we thought it would be more fitting, because we start the opening with Christine viewing Mercedes, through her eyes. Enjoy the film. The show starts in... 3...2...1...

Final Film

Reflection

The final film is complete, and this media product has been a success! This whole process has been a whole journey, filled with hardships and obstacles. There have been points in time where our team was ready to quit, but we decided to keep going, because we knew we were all talented enough to finish off strong. We did end up finishing strong! This makes me feel so relieved and overjoyed, but also sorrowful because it is our last project working together as a group. Thanks for tuning in! Next post will be my Creative Critical Reflection. P is signing off!

First Draft and Feedback

Introduction

Hello everyone! Welcome back! Today I am continuing to talk about our first draft of our film. In addition, I will be talking about the feedback we received from our teacher on our film.

This was honestly the part I was anticipating. I was excited and scared to hear my teacher do a harsh and critical review of our first draft! I really thought she would rip us to shreds, but she gave us better critiques than I thought!

The Feedback We Received

• We needed to add more credits in our opening scene
• Need to incorporate theme music during Lizzy's conversation with Mercedes
• Higher Volume (voiceover during conversation)
• Needs to have obsessive passion 
• Theme music with lyrics that tells the story
• More backstory/exposition. For instance, a voiceover of Christine introducing herself and sharing her background with Mercedes.
• More sound effects
• Fonts in credits are too small, it doesn't match Christine's personality
• Better title slide, expressive visuals
• Better color theory, weird, whimsical colors that challenge conventions.
• No play editing slide
• Have better hook
• Yellowish color (filter) over bathroom scene
• Continued consistency at the end where the doors locked, and you hear dialogue with the closet, then Christine leaves the closet and says, "they're never gonna find her here!"
• One shot of Christine throwing Lizzy's bag with her cell phone in it, and as Mercedes frantically calls Lizzy and walks around, she sees Lizzy's bag and hears her phone ring

Reflection

To conclude, I was NOT expecting to hear those types of critiques. I thought I would hear more upsetting remarks, but those were all very understandable. I hear what my teacher is telling us to do in order to improve our film, and I know why she said the things she said. We got a good score for our first draft, and I am very complacent with what we got! I thought we were going to receive worse, but we did great. I would like to thank my teacher for giving us the push we needed to fix our film. :D Thanks for reading! Come back next time, where I share our FINAL FILM! P is logging off..

First Draft

Introduction

Hi guys! Today I will be sharing my team's first draft with you! (YAYYYYYYY!) If i'm going to be super honest, our first draft is super messy. It looked good to us at the time, but I realized how discombobulated it looked now! It's not a complete dumpster fire, but it is.. something. I am so glad that we did this first draft, so that we can learn from past mistakes and grow, so that we can create a better one for our final film! Now, ladies and gentlemen, I present to you... our first draft.

First Draft....yikes!

Reflection

Although this draft may not be the best, it was super fun to create(also stressful), but mostly fun. I loved the experience of creating such a wonderful media product with my buddies! It helped me learn so many things, like the importance of teamwork, and the importance of PLANNING ON TIME! (because we usually rushed due to procrastination). When I completed editing this first draft, I felt so relieved, I felt like going on vacation because it took so much hard work and dedication. All these challenges, and the trials, it all proved to be worthwhile in the end. Thanks for watching our premiere of the first draft of "Through Her Eyes". I hope you found inspiration in my post. Have a great day, P is signing off.

Post-Production: Sound Editing Decisions

 Introduction

Howdy everyone! Welcome back to our continuation of our conversation about the post-production process! Just to clarify, I am the editor for this film! In this film opening, I used sound effects like the sound of someone banging on the door, or the sound of hands slamming on the desks. We also used simple dialogue, so that our audience can understand the context behind each scene. Last time we talked about visual editing decisions, but now we are talking about audible editing decisions. 

"What do you mean by audible editing decisions?" Well, this means the sound choices we picked for our film! Sound can be a variety of things, like:

• Dialogue
• Sound effects
• Music

Sound in film is important, because it helps the audience feel like they are inside the scene. Real and simple sound effects give viewers that effect. It also helps the audience gain clarity for a scene. I will be displaying my team's sound editing decisions for you guys!

Sound Editing Decisions

Reflection

Honestly, deciding what sounds to use for this film was the hardest part for me. It was hard to even out the sounds in this film too, because of how some scenes have really loud background noise. I tried my hardest to mute out most of the noise, so I hope it doesn't take away from the film at all :(

But incorporating sound in our film was satisfying after all. Hearing the sound effects and dialogue loud and clear really makes me feel like I did a better job than I was expecting, so that's nice! :)

Thank you for reading! In this blog post, I talked about my group's editing decisions and how it affected us in the end. I hope this is informational for you! P is signing off!

Post-Production: Visual Editing Decisions

Introduction

Hey guys! Welcome to the post-production process of our film! Today, I will be talking about our visual editing decisions for our film opening! First, let's review some key terms to help you understand more. 

What is editing in film? 

Editing in film is the process of taking apart clips and reorganizing clips to end with a result that is to the editors' liking. This includes shortening clips, lengthening clips, adding transitions, adding color, adding overlays, etc.  Editing is a crucial part of the filmmaking process because it gives a clean structure for your audience to follow with no issues. It also makes the film more pleasing for the viewers to see, so that they become more engaged with your media product. My group and I approached the storytelling of editing by adding a title card that fits the tone, and Christine's character. The font is bold, brash, and is extra. These are some traits of Christine as well. 

So, you might ask, "What do you mean by visual editing?" Well, visual editing is edits that change the visual aspect of our film like:

• Transitions
• Coloring
  
• Captions

These visual parts of the film opening are crucial. This is because they help enhance the story. I guarantee you, if you do not add coloring or any type of transitions into your film, your viewers will probably find it boring, since it looks plain and uninteresting. Here are some decisions we made while considering visual editing:

 

Reflection

In this blog, we identified the visual editing decisions that my team and I made to produce this film. AT first, we did not add any coloring, but later on, we decided that off-putting coloring would be best, because it fits the tone of the film. We also decided to add transitions, so that the scenes flow smoother and easier. Harsh cuts are only for shots in one particular scene. Thanks for reading! P will see you next time.