Week 7

 STRUGGLES

My group and I were trying to plan out another day to film the second half of our project, unfortunately it hasn’t turned out do well. We have all been extremely busy doing our own separate activities. For example, on Friday Javier had a family event so we couldn’t film that day. On Saturday I had work in the morning then I had a soccer game at 5:00 P.M. Enrique also just started working at the same place I am working at and has been getting long hours. Today I had work during the afternoon and Enrique had work during the morning.

We have been struggling a lot to correlate our schedules in order to get the filming process done. This next week we will try to find a date that we all can get together and film. An important note is that the second part needs to be filmed during the day so that limits our possibilities.

On the bright side, Javier is going to start editing all the work we got done on Thursday. I can’t wait to see how it all turned out. One thing that we are all intrigued in knowing is how much time we have left to film the second half because when we were filming, we were terrified to not leave enough time for the “cleaning up” part.

Week 7

 CCR

This past week I have been thinking deeply about what I am going to do for my CCR. I am still not quite sure on what I want to do but many ideas have risen. I think that the question that is asking about "your production skills being developed" will mostly have support to be answered after our second day of filming. When we are doing the clean up part, we will utilize most of the techniques we have learned. Even on our first day we used so much terminology and our main focus wasn't the shots, it was to build the story, I can't imagine all the shots we will create.

I am really loving the idea to create a youtube video more than the interview now. I feel like it'll be great to just show my personality to Cambridge. I do think that those two are going to be the ways I convey my messages.

SPRING BREAK

THE BUILD-UP

My group and I finally started filming during this long break. We wrote up all the information about what we wanted to film and what to wear on our google calendar. We all agreed on different colors to wear so that none of us were matching. We met up at Aaron’s house at around 7:00 P.M. to get the filming started. I myself filmed the first shot of the house during the day time, then when it was night Javier filmed the same exact shot to transition the scenery.

FILMING

After those two shots were taken, we talked about the other shots for about 45 minutes due to some problems we started facing. The first and major problem was that we couldn’t get enough people to come to Aaron’s house and make it look like a party, so we had to improvise. We decided that we were going to change it into a film that has a group of boys planning a party. One of the boys will black out and wake up the next morning. We filmed all of the first start of our portfolio project and will finish the rest soon.

Week Six Pt.2

THE START OF FILMING

Today is the last day of school before spring break. This is going to be the time that we mostly film and see major progression within our project. It is perfect for us because none of us are going out of town and we are going to have unlimited free time. The fact that we have no school is crucial, school takes up so much time plus all the extracurricular activities we all have. The only problem during spring break could be my work schedule, my manager told me that I would be scheduled a few days during the break. The shifts can vary from 4-8 hours so this could possibly affect us. Although I am positive that we will around it. Also, we still haven't confirmed on a specific date but we once we do it'll be up on our google calendar.

Week Six

ROLES

This week my group and I discussed what each member is going to be responsible of. Javier is going to take care of all the editing for our film. He has previous experience besides this class with editing and is confident he can do a great job. Enrique is going to be the producer. He is very creative and comes up with great shot composition. Aaron and I are going to be the main characters involved in the film. Throughout all our group projects we have mainly been the ones to be actors. We really don't get shy during filming which Javier and Enrique lack. As a team and using each of our strengths we are
confident that our film will come out amazing.

MORE ABOUT ME

I have honestly loved being the actor in all the projects this year and I know that with this project it'll be no different. When we write the script and storyboard, I like to create my own lines, this makes me feel so much more comfortable while being on set. I also have gotten very good at improvising my lines, I like being creative and catching my peers off guard, I even surprise myself. This role as a rebel teenager that when behind their parents back shouldn't be too difficult for me to act, at the end of the day I am a teenager myself.

Location Scouting

BUILD UP

Today was a HUGE day for the development of the project. My group and I knew we had to act fast and start getting things done so before we created the storyboard we wanted to scout out the area. This would help us have a clear idea as to what we want to create. We all went to Aaron's house that is in Savannah so it was only a five minute ride. We searched for spots throughout his whole house and found a few that were promising. We also wanted spots that were relatively small so that we wouldn't have to invite that many people to his house.

SPOTS

Here we have Aaron's game room, we believe this is perfect for our film because many shots could be taken here for various reasons. One being that it is a relatively small room that could get filled up very easily. Another reason is that it is a cool room that would give our film a very teenager vibe.

The two images above are where most of our shots are going to take place. The kitchen is just an easy spot to film because if anything where to get dirty, it would be easy to clean up due to the surfaces. It can easily be filled up as well. Most movies that have a party involved always have shots in the kitchen, it is where the beverages are and food as well. The pool can also be a great spot to take shots because it is a very teenager place to have a party. The problem with this is that it would be hard to get it filled up due to all the space there is.

Week Five

SHOOTING SCHEDULE

Today my group and I met up through a FaceTime call to discuss various things for our project. One of the most important things discussed was how our shooting schedule is going to look like. We still haven't confirmed any specific dates that we will actually film but we have a great idea that will help us get organized and plan everything accordingly.

Instead of typing everything in our Snapchat group chat that the messages delete every 24 hours and what we say there could easily get forgotten. We will start using Google Calendar. This app allows us to write information on the specific date that we want to film. For example, if we are filming on the 18th of March, we can write, "Javi: bring denim jacket with a red shirt under." All these things are going to help us get organized and leave no room for error. Also, this is very visually pleasing and easy to understand. We would all share the document so that everyone has access and can edit.

Struggling Week Five

MONDAY-WEDNESDAY

This week has been quite a struggle as of now. My group met with my teacher during class and I wasn't there due to a doctor's appointment I had. This has affected my progress a lot because they talked about a lot of things and changed a lot of this for the project. Not only that but also my group and I haven't been able to correlate schedules to meet up so that they can tell me what we have changed. I believe that on Friday we will FaceTime so that they can give me all the details.

TODAY IN CLASS

Today in class we did individual meet ups to write down our blog url, short description of our film, and confirm all the information. We also did an assignment that I think is really going to benefit me on the long run. We reviewed various different blog posts from previous years that were graded almost perfectly. The purpose of this activity was to gain more ideas for our own blogs and improve them. I noticed that most of them had engaging images and colors. A lot also had big bold headings that organized the blog accordingly.

CHANGES

There has been many many changes done to the project as of now. In previous blogs I talked about one of our group members getting lost before the parents arrive to the house. We decided to change that idea and make it so that none of us go missing due to the fact that it limits the possible outcomes. The viewer knows what the rest of the movie is going to consist of. Now, we will end off the 2 minute film with the parents walking into the garage and being surprised with what they find. This ending will leave the viewers very confused and thinking about millions of different scenarios.

Another change that we are going to make to our project are the colored backgrounds that we were going to add when introducing a character. The colors were supposed to represent the personality of the character. We decide to completely take that off because our teacher, Ms. Stoklosa, told us that it could easily be very cheesy and come off badly. Also, we wanted to build up the characters personality throughout the rest of the movie, it didn't have to all be determined in the first clip they're in.

CCR

Today in class we had a full lesson about how to create a Creative Critical Reflection. Our teacher informed us that this year we would have to create 2 productions compared to all the previous years that they only had to do one. I think this would be perfect because it’ll give me the ability to be creative and have variety. My teacher gave us many different options to choose from but as of now there are 2 that stood out to me and I feel like I’d do a great job in.

My favorite option was the idea to do an interview. Basically my sister would interview me and ask me 2 out of the 4 questions and I’d respond. I’d include examples of my actual video, screenshots of the information I used and real movie examples. I would have to decide whether I want my sister to be in the video or have her behind the camera. If I decide to have her in the camera we would probably go back and fourth as we speak.

Next, I really enjoyed the idea to create a “YouTube video style” in the sense that I’d be talking to the camera as I walk around. I want to show Cambridge the type of person I am, by walking around, being social and interacting with the consumer, it represents me.

In regards to the questions being asked, I still have no idea what I’d respond due to my group not being anywhere near done with the project. When the time comes and it is time to actually create my CCR, you’ll be the firsts to know everything I am talking about.