Portfolio Posting Week 8 #2

 This weekend, Claudio and I will begin to actually work on our Creative Critical Reflection. The plan will most likely be to do the script and film on Saturday-Sunday. Then, on Monday we will wrap up the editing and the entire project. This weekend will be very stressful because my schedule and Claudio's is clashing a bit. But, we've had so many issues along the way and we will definitely find a solution. Claudio has already started going over the questions in his blogs so I feel that I should do the same. 

First, the aspect of representation is not a major theme in our story. I already spoke about this and addressed it because I deemed it as a mistake of ours, but not having representation is also okay. I think I did not want to base my story around representation because I would feel limited. For example, if you are doing a story on the LGBTQ+ community, you would be limiting the ideas you can have compared to just doing a regular story. I think representation is great and almost necessary in some cases, but Claudio and I just wanted to do what we liked without thinking "Is this not being representative enough?"

Portfolio Posting Week 8 #1

 This Monday, Claudio came over to my house and we made it the day where we would almost finish editing. All I can say is that it went really well. Claudio and I work really good together and I've seen the relationship evolve over the span of the class's duration. We first started reviewing the video clips. As usual, there was a lot of bloopers so we spend a good amount of time dragging the correct clips onto the DaVinci software. Claudio's computer was too slow so we checked the clips out on mine instead which helped save a ton of time. 

I also needed to redownload DaVinci on my personal computer and it ended up really slowing down my computer and making it crash a couple of times, which happened before. Time was also a large issue. The project untrimmed and untouched was 3:30 minutes which had us stressing. But we picked and chose the absolute most necessary clips and deleted all of the filler ones, it did not feel good to delete parts but it was necessary. Claudio and I are satisfied with the project, we are just missing the music for one of the sections. One can only hope that others enjoy it too. 

Portfolio Posting Week 7 #2

 Claudio and I have now started the CCR questions. We didn’t realize how important this aspect of the project was. We will prepare for the questions by reviewing and evaluating our project. I’ve been doing this project and have never taken these questions into consideration. I think the aspect of representation is really overlooked and our class essays have emphasized this topic which has helped. I don’t consider our project to challenge any societal issues in terms of representation. No sort of minority or specific group is targeted in the story. If we did have to choose a story that embraced representation, then I guess we got mistake on that aspect. 

Portfolio Posting Week 7 #1

As I stated in the last blog posts, Claudio and I have begun the editing process of our project. This is probably the one aspect that I was looking forward to the least. Claudio and I both have a background in film class, but we are no experts when it comes to editing. This is why we were both a little hesitant about the last few weeks because we knew it will come down to this. So, we encountered a couple of issues while editing our project.

First, the editing software did not seem to properly work. The startup process was inconsistent and I would sometimes get randomly kicked out. Whilst uploading the clips, sometimes they would not fully render or upload the video and audio. Due to this, the clips were not completed. When playing the videos, the audio would also cut out and the computer just felt really laggy. This is all most likely due to the poor wifi here in Colorado. I have tried my best to accustom and adapt to the circumstances of traveling. After all of this, we managed to edit around 20-30 seconds worth of footage. That’s not too bad for one of the first days. 

Portfolio Posting Week 6 #3

 We started to organize and begin the editing process. With the editing I want to make sure that the order of clips make the story pop out in the best way possible. I at first believed that the order we shot the project in would automatically be the order we edit the clips in. But, I’ve taken some thought into it and realized I could play around with the order of the clips in hope of making the story even better. 

Reviewing and going over the clips also made me realize how great this project can turn out to be. The way each clips develops the story into a deeper level and there is no filler really makes me happy. Most projects suffer from filming and uploading unnecessary footage, but that does not feel like the case with this project. Hopefully by the end of Week 7 and start of Week 8 we can be basically done with the project.

Portfolio Posting Week 6 #2

 I have finally been able to get my hands on some footage of the project. I wanted to display some videos because it feels like I’ve been missing that in my blogs. Inserts of photos tend to be an important part so I need to consistently use videos or photos in my blogs. I think sometimes us students forget that the blogging process is just as important as the filming process. Sometimes it’s hard to think of what to write, but I try my best to stay creative because the project is not over yet. 

This picture displays the mise-en-scene and costume design of the 3 main characters (sorry for the bad quality I downloaded the picture through social media which was a bad decision). First we have myself, Craig, who is wearing a black puffer jacket. This color choice was obvious. Black is associated with evil and darkness, which are two themes that Craig embodies. Second, we have Claudio’s yellow and blue navy jacket. His character, Gio, is a doubtful and watchful person. The yellow signifies alertness. Then, we have the contrast between the two colors which shows Gio’s duality. He is two faced towards Craig which is shown through the half and half color way. Finally, we have Felipe playing the character Felipe. Felipe is the innocent character of the project. He is a sign of hope and innocence which is shown through his white shirt.

Portfolio Posting Week 6 #1

Today was the first day of the group meetings. This whole concept of group meetings is actually very interesting and useful, so keep it up Mrs. Stoklosa!!!! At first we felt a bit uncomfortable with each other but later we just got the hang of things. I discussed with my group members my main concern. My main concern was this project feeling more like a trailer/teaser instead of an opening. There is a lot of action and story development within a 2 minute segment, which makes me think this might not have the feel of a film opening. 

I gave a broad summary of my project and the plot and my group members all thought it still had the feel of a film opening. This relieved a lot of stress for me, because it would be embarrassing doing a film opening that does not even feel like one. Emma was asking a lot of good questions throughout the whole meeting, Zoey, Nethumi and Sasha also gave some really good feedback which helped me evaluate my choices. The critiques and feedback I got gave me more confidence in myself and it tells me that I can create a great project.