I THINK

     As we start our final little project in e-Comm, we need to get some background. Our last project (ever) is a music video, so we have been tasked with reviewing a music video.

     The music video I have chosen is I THINK by Tyler, the Creator.  The video starts with him getting kicked out of  a bathroom. He then enters a club where he is looking for a boy who is avoiding him. It ends with a photo shoot where the boy finally approaches him.

     The lighting for this music video is beautiful and pairs really well with the cinematography. The bathroom scene starts with a muted tone with cooler colors, the most notably mint. In there, he sees a boy come out and is entranced until he is caught in a fight. Once he is thrown to the ground outside, it switches to an electric red. This color strikes the most violent, then switches to toned down party lights as he struggles through dark crowds of people. As the second verse hits, a flash of light brings in a photography studio. People take their pictures in front of a vintage, earthy, blue.

     One thing I think this video does really well is keep the subject of the shot close to where it was in the last shot. This is pretty important when it comes to busy,moving,fast-paced shots, as it's easy for the viewer to lose track of where they are supposed to be looking and get lost if the focus of the shot jumps around. When the subject stays nearly the same, he eye can easily follow it and stay engrossed in the video. The editing is also quite strong for this video, cutting as the beat and idea in the song switches and keeping the shot lengths even and easy. The audio comes wholly from the song, which is professionally mixed.

     As I am the colorist for our upcoming movie the Kingfisher, I really want to study different uses of color in music videos and movies so I think looking at this video and trying to recreate its feel will really help me expand my abilities. Our music video also plans on having those electric (and in our case city) lights, so I think that will be a good place to start.

     As an editor, I could see some of where I get my editing style in this video. The editor stays pretty much on the beat and keeps cuts short on faster areas.

This video suits the singer's style really well as he has evolved through his albums. His vibe has changed from a wild, almost childish video-type, has become much more beautiful, as which can be also seen in his BOY IS A GUN music video. I think one thing he and his director could do is develop the story a bit further as it applies to the album.

     All in all Tyler, the Creator is one of my favorite artists and watching his style evolve from his first album to his latest Grammy winning album.

Suspicious Minds

     For our last big project of first semester and before our feature film, we had to make a short film. We all pitched treatments to the class and separated into groups based on the ideas we liked. Mine was chosen as one.

     My short film was about an Elvis impersonator who is kidnapped by a cult and has to escape. It was originally called All Shook Up, but it turns out that is the name of the Elvis musical so it was changed to Suspicious Minds, which I honestly like better.

     The process started out pretty smooth, I planned out our filming dates and gathered actors and costumes pieces. But it slowly started to fall apart. Locations weren't coming through, actors needed to reschedule, filming went long, it was rough. What had started by being well-planned turned into two extra weeks of filming. This project quickly became super stressful for me.

     Since I was supposed to be post-production originally, I did a good bulk o the work on this project. Scenes and shots were shaky, the audio was rough, and somethings just weren't living up to what I had hoped them to be. But, I did what I could and turned in something I am kind of proud of. I really like the way I put together the ending; it was exactly how I pictured it and makes me excited every time I see it.

     I was not in class to receive feedback on the project, but my teammates were. We definitely could have improved in our lighting, audio, film- basically all of our production departments. But, people really liked my ending scene, and honestly that's the part I care about the most. If we were to redo this project, I would have made sure we were more careful and creative with our camera and lighting, and paid more attention to our audio levels.

     This project was difficult to get through. I really cared about it but everything wasn't going to plan. Still I tried my best to push through it and we got it done.

We're Halfway Done with Senior Year

Wow, I can't believe we're already done with first semester. It's weird to think about how much time has passed since the first day of school. Anway, we got a lot done in e-Comm.

Semester One Projects

     We did three groups projects this semester. A basic camera assignment, a commercial, and a short film. 

     The basic camera assignment kicked off the year and gave each of us a chance to review the functions of our class cameras. My group decided to make a music video to a song a friend of ours had made. The plot was that a man finds himself in a house he doesn't recognize and has to figure out how he got there and why he's there, then when things don't go exactly to plan, he is knocked unconscious and the day starts over again. The friend in question ended up not letting us use her song, so we had to switch it to a short. I feel like the strange and hard to follow plot would have worked better as a music video where you can pay more attention to the song and visuals than the actual plot and ideas presented to you, but that's okay. 

     We only had two or so weeks to do this project, so we were in crunch time mode. We filmed it in two days and edited it quick. Our location made it hard to get the feel we wanted and I think even we didn't truly understand the look we were going for. But we tried our best and worked it out. 

     I was on camera for this project and that is definitely not my strong suit. I had to push my limited knowledge as a cameraman and get a lot of help from others so I could learn more about the camera and shot composition and making sure the important things are where they need to be. 

     The feedback we were given was that we had to make the plot more evident and the audio was shoddy. Both of which are definitely true. I think we ended up stripping it of the original sound and using other audio and noises in its place. I don't really like this project and honestly wouldn't redo it if given the chance. I would rather take a different approach to the whole assignment and start from scratch.

     Our next project was a commercial, and my last team parted ways, trying to shake The Watcher off our backs. I also decided it was my time step out of the DP chair and back into my usual place as editor. It was a time to try something else. After watching a bunch of commercials, we decided to take the direction of that one pizza commercial with Joe Keery from Stranger Things. Our commercial was for Levis. We took the weird dance scene from Spider-man 3 and re-shot it downtown.
     We had longer to do this next project, so we were a bit more comfortable. We had some problems with continuity because of the way we directed our extras. That made editing a bit of a challenge, and I definitely kept that in mind when it came to future projects. We had a composer in our group and he put together some original music in the same style as the movie scene, and that's one fly favorite parts of the project.

     We also hadn't checked out a dolly or anything, so moving shots were by far the hardest part of the shoot. That became our main piece of feedback as well. Too shaky. If we re-shot it with a dolly it would have made the whole thing nicer, but our actor and extras became wholly unavailable right after we turned the project in. I do like this project more than The Watcher, but I still have my things I wish I could go back and do differently on set and on the chopping board.

     Then came the moment of truth: short films. We each had to write up a treatment and pitch it to the class. Mine was about an Elvis impersonator who gets kidnapped by a cult. Weird, but somehow it got picked by a group and we were off. I had to do a bulk of the job. Scheduling, finding actors, gathering props and costumes, fell onto my shoulders even though I was post-production. This project became  stressful really fast. But I really wanted it to turn out the best it could, so I kept marching on.

     Since this project is relatively the hardest, we had the most time. I planned everything out so we would be done filming by the time I needed to start editing, but somehow we ran over and all the way through the set post-production week. I had to re-wrangle my cast and crew to get it finished and pulled some long nights to get it edited and colored. Da Vinci gave me a hard time when it came to getting back into premiere and the audio was pretty bad.
     We haven't watched them in class yet so I don't have any feedback. But, I just now had it pointed out to me that there's one shot that needs to be flipped and some people I forgot to put in the credits, so I will definitely be going back and fixing those things. This is probably one of the projects I'm most proud of this far, just because of how much work and time I poured into it.

Time in Class

     A bulk of my time in class is spent editing. On the first project I did most of the pre-production so that took up my time. The second project I helped with storyboarding and I came up with the idea and then I edited it. The third project fell heavily on my shoulders so I did it all in class. If I thought I was done- I wasn't. I need to double check my work and touch up on little details I had missed in everything I worked on. Outside of class I was on set a lot and edited at home some. I also did all of the coloring for Suspicious Minds at home. 

Client Work

     I have two major client work projects this year that will carry me through the end of next year. 

     Last year, Abby Goss and I did some client work for the Johnson County Mental Health office and they asked us to come back again this year. They write there own script and find their own actors, so all we have to do is shoot it and edit it. We have already had one meeting with them to read through the script and soon me and Abby will start working out filming date and storyboarding so we can get filming in January. I'm not sure if Abby or I will edit it, but we are usually both on set. They asked us to bring on a sophomore or junior so they can take on the reins next year. The group is fun and we really enjoyed working with them last year, so I 'm looking forward to entering production.

     Every year, our marching band has e-Comm film them a documentary of the season, so I took on the job. I came to band camp over the summer and filmed it and many event throughout first semester. I wasn't able to make it out to many competitions so it's going to make editing pretty hard. I'm planning to start editing over break and a friend of mine said he'd help me. The goal is to have it done before spring. 

Areas of Strength and Improvement

     In e-Comm, my main thing is post-production. I love editing and it is always something I can fall back on. I love watching the final project come together and making those little touch ups as I go. Last year, Brett taught me how to color in Da Vinci and I worked on that for the feature film. I've been using it in my projects, but it's kind of hard to improve when you don't know what you need to learn. I'm all hoping to teach someone else this year so we can divide up the work and they'll have someone who knows the program next year. I never thought I would know anything about color, but here we are. I want to get better in the production side of it all. I'm not great behind a camera and cinematography isn't my thing. But, I would like to get to know it better so I can understand all aspects of the world, which will in turn help me even more when it comes to editing. 

Guest Speakers

     We had a lot of really cool guest speakers come in this year who were able to teach us a bunch about the industry and their personal views on filmmaking and production.

     We were super lucky to have Morgan Cooper, a director from KC, come talk to us about his experience being an up and coming director. He answered every single question we threw at him and he was genuinely curious about us and our program. He was very insightful about how he wanted to bring more women and people of color into higher positions in film and how he wanted to do that. He even told us that when we're ready to hit him up for help branching out into the industry. It was by far my favorite.

     Every year we get to have a KC local in the industry come talk to us, Gordon Lamb. He taught us about the equipment he has and how to best utilize the things we have. His presentation is always interesting and is something to look forward to every year.

     A couple of alumni came back and talked to us, too. Our director from last year, Darby Christensen, came back and talked to us about what working on a feature film set would actually look like and the process break down. She also told us about the film school she goes to now and its similarities and differences to what we're doing now. 

     Leah Wellman came back and talked to us about the cameras we use. I really liked her presentation because it played a bunch of stuff out for me that I didn't entirely understand or only briefly got after working on different projects. Hers really helped when it came time for the commercial project. 

     Ryan Burnett came and talked about post-production and making are everything was kept organized. He talked about how important it is, especially with the feature film coming around.

Upcoming Feature Film

Our biggest project will take us all the way through the end of the year. We will have a big premiere at Cinetopia for the whole community to come see. This year, I get to be the script supervisor and colorist. I learned a lot from last year's script supervisor on set and in class, so I'm really excited to do it for myself. I am also excited to be the colorist and pass down what I know to a junior for next year. I get to watch the entire movie be created from script to screen. 

In Conclusion

Looking back, I accomplished a lot in e-Comm this semester. I got the roles I wanted for the feature, I made a short film I am proud of, and I worked with a lot of new people. The thing I loved most about this semester was honestly turning in the short film and being done with it. Then, reflecting on the whole process and the work put into a 5 minute video. If I could do anything differently I wish I could have branched out and worked with even more of the people I still haven't had a chance to work with. Also, I would redo all of project one. I'm proud fo the work I've done this semester and I'm ready to enter my final semester of high school with my head held high. One goal for next year is to stay on top of everything and even ahead of the curve. I don't want to fall behind and drown in work. I am super excited to see how the rest of the year plays out and how my class works as a whole team. It's gonna be a good one.

I'm Not an Underclassmen!!

It's the end of junior year, and I am no longer by anyone's standards an underclassman. Which is very cool and a little nerve-racking. But, the nerve-racking stuff won't really start until after summer so I have some time. Let's reflect, why don't we? Junior year.

I always forget I didn't start the year in entertainment. I started with animation and I did a project and a half. By the time I got to entertainment, I had missed the first two projects. I think my favorite two projects from this year were the short film and the feature film.

The short film was my first full project in that class. I worked with my friends and directed my script. I picked it as one of my favorites because it was my first one and I was proud of the way it turned out. It took us a couple weeks to make start to finish; it was hard to find days we could all make it on set. That was the most difficult challenge, finding time to squeeze in filming in our's and our lead's busy schedules. This project helped me learn a lot about directing and taking the lead in projects. The story didn't have a very strong ending and that's honestly because we couldn't figure out how to end it. I've always struggled with the fact that stories can be anything you want them to be. That just seems like so much pressure to choose the right ending. We also could have been more creative with our lighting choices.  I'm still proud of the fact that we finished this piece on time and the way we wanted it to be. We fit filming into any time we could and it was usually a couple hours after school until as late as everyone could stay and long Saturdays. Abby and I work pretty well as a team and we bounce ideas off of each other really well, so filming was mostly a breeze. I need to improve my script writing because I am not great at creating characters. Well, here it is.

My other favorite project from this year was the feature film we made called Get Real. I was on the post-production team as an editor and colorist. I liked this project because I got to become friends with a lot of the seniors and I learned a new program. I loved getting to work with my class and my friends every day, even if it did get super stressful at the end. I started as an editor and then graduated to a colorist as it became time. This project took all of second semester to make. It was challenging right at the end because we got a little in over our heads as I was coloring the whole thing by myself. Luckily the other colorist finished his other project and could take some weight off my shoulders. We had editing parties where we would all stay at the school late and then we would go to someone else's house and keep editing. I need to work on coloring faster, each grade and recolor took me a lot of time because I was so worried about it looking bad. I also could have made the colors pop more than I did. I was pretty critical of myself when it came to watching the finished project on the big screen, but I was still really proud of what I accomplished. The finished movie was really good and I almost cried in the theater at the climax. They haven't uploaded the movies to Youtube yet, but when they do it will be under ONWStudios.

The thing I loved the most this year was getting to work with my friends and see the things they create. If I could change one thing, I would have gone straight into entertainment so I could do the commercial and music video.  My main take away from this year and my goal is how hard I want to work next year to make each project the best it can be. (Here's my direct address to Mrs. Smith. Mrs. Smith, I really want to step up my production value next year and make you, my class, last year's seniors, and most importantly myself, proud.) Next year will be the year I jump head first into the arts.

I'm really hoping that next year I stay in sixth and seventh hour because I love having e-Comm at the end of the day. I really don't like the idea of having it at the beginning or middle of the day and having classes afterward. Next year, I don't mind doing coloring since I'm the only person to get taught Da Vinci, but I really want to be the script supervisor. In our theater department, I am an assistant director and the closest comparing role in e-Comm is a script supervisor. I have already gotten to assistant direct couple shows and I got to learn from this year's script sup Piper. She was a really hard worker and really good at her job and I would love to fill her shoes.  I also got to fill her for her a couple times on set and I loved it. Whatever I end up doing, I cannot wait for next year.

Where's Ray?

     For our last project in e-Comm of the year (besides the Get Real), we were tasked with creating a mini documentary.  We were to choose a subject or topic we found interesting, and, well, document it. We had to have interviews and a plot. With that, our team got to work.

     While brainstorming for topics, my friend Abby came up with a bit of a nonconventional idea. What if we, took to social media and it's influential abilities?

     We took that idea and ran with it.

     I wish I had a copy to show, but team has had some personal problems come up and we do not have it exported yet.

    So, we had our idea. But how were we to actually apply it, and how were we going to document it while we ran around praying that it actually worked? We were lucky that Abby had already had some experience growing an account fast, so we stuck her with posting and growing duties. Most of my work was in pre-production, getting logistics figured out, planning posts. The idea behind the account was that someone had "kidnapped" our school's mascot, Ray the Raven. Players had to decipher clues and codes to figure out where and how to get him back.

    We had one major filming day. We are all friends with the girl who plays our mascots we borrowed the suit for a day. In an old video my friends made, they used this cool trick to get a silhouette on a colored background fast. We staged our friend Mario as the kidnapper and had another friend wear the head and crouch next to him. Then, we went outside and filmed a little video of the raven actually getting kidnapped. The whole time, Abby and I filmed behind the scenes. We also did a little photoshoot in the basement so we had some more content for the page.

     Most of our class time earlier on went to figuring out posts and clues. The idea was there, but we didn't know how to accomplish it. I came up with the idea to hide the main clue throughout the entire project, so we took each letter of our final clue and had the capital letters spell it out. We also did a little clue at the end where A=1. One post would go up daily over the span of two weeks with all the clues leading to real life.

     Abby really took the leadership role with this project since she was in charge of the account itself, but we all worked together to make sure the whole thing ran smoothly. Project management was extremely important to the success of our documentary. If we missed a day or two of posting and weren't always checking up on the account's stats. If we were lacking anywhere it was technical skills. Our documentary itself was pretty simple since the majority of our work went into pulling it off.

     Our last day came as a bit of a surprise. We posted our final clue and could only hope some people would show up. Lucky for us and the success of our project, they did. People participated! We had a large group show up all at once. One student followed it very closely and another had found a program to try and take off the voice changer we put on our original video. The account at its peak probably had about 145 followers.

     If I could go back, I would have been a bit more diligent about making sure all the posts got out on time and tried to get more footage during class of posts and updates along the way, making the whole thing a bit more cinematic.  I really liked our idea for the project, though. It felt different than what is normally expected and we stepped out of our comfort zones with the uncertainty of the fate of our project. I wouldn't change that. When it comes to the next project, I want to focus more on cinematography and making sure the visual aspect is there.
 
     I really enjoyed watching this project unfold from beginning to end and I'm really glad we stuck with this idea in the first place. Our school tends to be a little lazy when it comes to things like this so the odds were stacked a bit against us, but I'm glad our worked paid off the way it did.


   

The Dangers of Go Zones

Aside from the feature film, we were given another project- a PSA. My team started out with a PSA about hitchhiking. A little girl comes in and hitches a ride with a strange man. The end twist was that the man ends up getting robbed by the little girl. We had the whole thing storyboarded and planned and ready to film but our two big film days were cancelled because of snow and snow days. They made it so when the days came, we had no equipment.

So, it was back to the drawing board.  We took a day and brainstormed new ideas that would only take a day or two to film. We ended up taking this thing at our school called Go Zones, the area in the hallways reserved for people walking, and making a short about the dangers of blocking them with your feet. The concept of Go Zones, while I guess fundamentally important, was always a little funny to us, so we made it a comedy. We were lucky enough to keep our actor from our original video and film during the lunch hour.

We filmed the voice over one day, and visuals the next. Sadly, we couldn't get all the equipment we needed so the shots are shaky. I think if we had too a bit more time and had everything we needed, it good have been pretty good. Not saying what we have no isn't funny, it definitely is. Editing full on Sarah's shoulders so I only saw the final product. I was proud of her for taking a short day of work and making a real video out of it.

I learned a lot about being prepared and having back up plans on this project. Communication was also really important in the process. Communicating with actors to get availability took a good chunk of time because one of our main actors could only be reached in person. Almost no one was ever available on the same day. But, we got it planned and prepped and we were set to check everything out. But then snow day after snow day came and blocked our filming days so we had to communicate within our group to figure everything out and then get the plan to our actors.

If I could go back and do anything differently I would have prepared for filming days even earlier and checked out equipment ahead of time in the even of snow days. I was really proud of the way my groups worked together when those snow days through a wrench in our plans.

I am definitely looking forward to this project next year so I can step up my game and show off what I can really do.

Final Review- First Semester

     This semester in e-Comm (and just in life) has been all over the place. I started out the year in animation thinking I might drop out senior year and now here I am sitting in the entertainment classroom happily poking away at a keyboard. Buckle in, because this is going to be a long one.   
     Since I joined late, I was only here for one full length project, but I did also do the 24 hour film challenge, so I will speak on that as well. This semester brought on a lot of learning about lighting and how to really use the cameras. I also spent less time editing than I did in the past. I was able to branch into different, bigger roles like script writing and directing.

    Semester Work

      I transferred into this class in the middle of  a project, which was extremely bad timing on my part. But, it gave me time to catch up on in class videos and work. 

Film Reel

     I siphoned through all my old work and videos I had to put together a film reel. I also went out and shot new content with my friends and family as actors. Filming and editing took probably about two or three weeks to see through to completion. It took me some time to get back into the swing of filming and editing. There wasn't much cinematically appealing footage from sophomore year, so I basically started from scratch. Reteaching myself Premiere was a lot of fun, especially from a new standpoint of making the final product something beautiful and not just the clips placed together in order. 

      I chose a song called 'Summer is Like a Dream' to set my reel to. I had some footage of Halloween decorations at the end that I had changed at the last minute. I was told that it was misleading, which I definitely understand. Summer and Halloween don't really coincide. I took that footage out and went back to my original plan, which I like much better. I don't have the new version with me, so you'll just have to take my word for it with the original. 

     A lot of my sophomore year was spent disliking my videos and being embarrassed to show them off. This is the first project I have been proud to show to the world. You didn't read that wrong. This project made me fall back in love with my craft, a love I lost last year to a poorly executed and overly ambitious short film. But, that's in the past and I am back to enjoying editing. 

24 Hour Film Challenge

     We'll go in chronological order. The process was a little different than a class project would be, but it was still fundamentally the same. The goal was simple, complete a short film with the required criteria in twenty-four hours. And so we did. We had to include specific shots, specific lines, and had to stick to a prompt. Once we split into teams, we immediately began to brainstorm. Our film was about a couple being followed during their anniversary date. I directed and wrote most of the script. Besides the time crunch, finding actors and locations proved to be a challenge. Luckily, some of my friends we willing to act and Sophia worked at AMC and they let us film in their dining area. 

     After our film was shown, we were told it could have been a little bit clearer and that some of the shots were grainy. There was a shot we couldn't get because of how late it was that would have made the plot a bit clearer. In the beginning, when they walk out to their car, we were going to have a car in the back to show someone was watching them, but no amount of lighting that made sense could pull the car into the viewfinder's shot. Also going along with the time, it had already gotten dark by the time we were shooting so the shots ended up grainy. We should have tried to film earlier or waited until the next morning, but our lead had to work so she couldn't be out too late. If I could go back and change anything, I would have filmed that scene early in the morning to get the illusion of sunset and show the car in the background.  Sound was also another complication we had. We couldn't seem to find the right noises we needed and none of us knew how to make eerie music. We were also switching back and forth between Premiere and Final Cut, but it all worked out in the end. 

     For the time we had to do it and with all given circumstances, I think it turned out alright. I had a lot of fun directing for the first time and getting to work with people I wouldn't have had the chance to otherwise. There's no way I'm not doing this again next year. 

Short Film

     This was my first actual entertainment project, and I was a little bit nervous. This was our final sophomore year and even with more time it still made me join animation instead. This time around was much different in a lot of ways. 

     To start the project, we all had to write a treatment. I was out of ideas and had been for awhile when I found this out. It took me until the last day of writing to figure out an idea that I actually liked. I wrote it, pitched it, and joined a group. I worked with my friends on this project. It was really interesting because I've never seen them in working environments. We ended up choosing my treatment so I directed. We all had to write our own scripts, so I did that and part of the story boards. This project taught me a lot about time management. Pitching took a really long time in our class and we ended up with about a week to do a majority of the project. 

     Our short film was enjoyed by the classes. They liked our choice in actors. We should have been more careful with our costuming though, because there was a scene where an actress who was supposed to be a kindergarten teacher was wearing a varsity jacket. We also could have spiced up our lighting. If I could go back and change anything I would have done more with the lighting and refined the script. 

     This project could have gone better, but I am relieved it turned out the way it did. It is still something I am proud of and am ready to show off. 

Time in Class

     When we aren't listening to a presentation or getting taught, time was spent planning and preparing for production of the current project. Gathering actors, getting props, finalizing locations. If I ever thought I was done with something early, I wasn't. I would go back and refine where I could and get other people's perspectives on how I could improve the work. In pre-production, I could go back and refine the script, look for locations, and find actors with flexible schedules. In production I could start editing and prepare for the next filming day. In post, I would go back and refine my final edit with color and sound and just final checks. I am lucky enough to have Premiere at home, so if I'm ever more crunched for time than I thought, I can take projects home. 

Strengths and Weaknesses

     As a cinematographer, I have an eye for natural, or, almost accidental, lighting and shots. When I'm brainstorming or script writing, I can see scenes play out in my head. That translates very well to story boarding and editing. Editing has always came pretty natural to me. I am good at keeping everything smooth on screen and getting the feel of the film where it wants to be. I am also a pretty good sound editor. Cutting together music or cutting parts of songs out to sound smooth is something I really enjoy doing. These make me really excited for next year's music video project, but I can't wait that long. I will definitely be working on projects this summer and during breaks. 

     I have never been good at time management. Long term projects are always hard for me to wrap my head around because the future always seems so far away. I am going to have to force myself to get better at that through scheduling and better planning. I could also stand to get better at communication and getting my point across when I explain things. I also need to practice reading out loud.

New Knowledge

    It's always fun to see old students come back and apply what they've learned in the real world to classroom settings. Looking back, I feel like I was always somewhere else in the school for a club or class when these presentations were happening. I do remember learning about characters with Drew and I loved his presentation. I don't remember what he called his character triangle, but I will definitely be using it in the future to create more complex characters. the Social Apex presentation was also really interesting. We don't get to see how our skills in this programs could be applied in the real world often. 

Feature Film

We're doing a feature! I am part of the post production crew as an editor. I am bringing my knowledge from my past projects and editing abilities to make this movie the best it can be. I will be working with the DP to learn the coloring software he wants us to use and working on other outside projects in the meantime to keep my skills sharp.

Let's Wrap it Up

     I have seven minutes to finish this. Let's go.

     The project I loved most this semester has to be my film reel. It was a wonderful reintroduction to the program and got me back into editing. I also got to edit my own music and cut down the song which was definitely my favorite part. If I could go back and do something differently, I wouldn't have gone into animation. I wish I could have been here to be a part of the commercial and music video projects. My overall takeaway from this semester is that you shouldn't let one project ruin how you feel about something. That does go back to last year, but I think it really applies to my e-Comm journey this year as a whole. My goal for next year is to put my best e-Comm foot forward and pour my heart and soul into every project. I want to be proud of everything I create and I will.

      That was a lot of typing. Cool. I hope you enjoyed writing this as much as I enjoyed writing it. Look forward to more exciting blogs like this one because they are coming with cool, new, exciting projects. Just not for awhile because now we are going full steam ahead into the feature film and I couldn't be more excited.

Life-Long Friend

This e-Comm year started off in a bit of a weird spot, as in an entirely different classroom. I started the year as an animation student but realized a couple weeks in that it isn't what I wanted to do. I transferred into entertainment late but excited. I missed a couple of projects and came in in time to start the short film. Everyone had to write a treatment and turn it into a script. From those treatments, we chose one to make into our hour's feature film. But, that's a different blog post. I wrote my treatment about a man who has to deal with and overcome the personification of all of his anxieties and worries. When we split up into groups, I worked with Abby, Tayah, and Sarah. We chose my script and I directed.

Pre-production was a little rough as we had very limited time to film and plan everything out. We were lucky enough to find enough actors that we didn't have to be in it, but filming time was very limited. I made the mistake of writing a very location heavy script so we had to have a lot of filming days to get everything done and still have time to do our homework. Ilming had to be done quickly and efficiently. One of my cast members and I had agreed to act in another group's short film, so we were both working on two film schedules. I was out of town for a lot of the editing process, so I didn't have a lot of say until right at the end, but I trusted the girl editing to make it good.

This wasn't my first time directing a project, but it was one of the more stressful projects. I learned a lot about time management and how to keep everyone on track and efficient on set so everything could get done on time. I hadn't really worked with entertainment's cameras before this project, so I did a lot of learning on the spot. Communication was really important during production and post, making sure all of the actors knew what they needed and what they were doing, and making sure the editors and I were on the same page about the final product. To me, leadership and collaboration go hand in hand, and I think those both worked together for the best on this project. I've worked on a lot of projects where no one could agree on anything and the final product was slapped together last minute because no one could agree on anything. This project wasn't like that at all. While Abby and I worked on it the most, everyone stepped up into their roles brilliantly and had a say on the final project. We both understood, though, because our two other group members worked a lot of the filming nights and couldn't edit at home. we scraped a pass in project management. While it wasn't done by the deadline, we wanted to make it the best it could be. We did finish filming in the time limit, though. It was just very hard to complete to the best of our ability with the very short timeline.

There were a lot of things I did enjoy about our project. I really enjoyed the group I got to work with and would love to work with any of them again in the future. Our actors were also really good and easy to work with. I was really happy with the jobs they did and their cooperation. If I could do this project over, I would like to have had a longer timeline to get it done. For the next project, I will try to free up as much time as possible, getting homework done during school and trying to get time off work if necessary. Having free time after school is essential to getting projects like this done on time, even without the close deadlines.

For my first project back in entertainment, I am pretty happy with the way it turned out. There are, of course, some things I would go back and change if I had the chance, but I am still proud of it. Sadly, we don't have any more short-term projects this school year. But, that means we are jumping into our feature film after this which I am very excited for. It's gonna be a good one.

It's the End of the Year As We Know It

     Well, it's the end of the year. It has gone by way too fast and I can't believe we've accomplished all we have in this class.

Technology

     Technology-wise, we learned a lot. We learned how to work in Photoshop, Aftereffects, and Maya. Maya was probably the most difficult for me. There were a lot of steps involved and it was very easy to slip up. I never quite grasped he concept of lighting in this program and that is evident in my work. 


I was really proud of how my ice cream shop animation came out, thouhg. A lot of work was put into the smaller details, and for our first animation in Maya, I think it looks pretty nice.


It is important because they are skills we can continue to use even if we don't go into animation.

Collaboration

     I think I worked well with other people this year. On our final project we split into groups and had to put everything we had learned this year together. We split up the roles, casted it, and got to work. Once we had everything filmed, we worked separately and got each of our roles done, asking for help when we needed it and communicating with each other to get it exactly how we all wanted it. Our biggest technical issue is that we forgot to turn on the lights when shooting in front of the green screen and that made it basically impossible to make the green screen look realistic. But, we worked together to make it the best we could. Collaboration is an important skill to have anywhere you go. In school or in the future workforce, you will always be collaborating.

Communication

     This one will be important no matter what you're doing or working on. Communication was most prominent in our final and while working on projects I didn't quite understand. I had to ask for help a lot if I had forgotten the steps in the demo, something wasn't working right, or when i had simply forgotten how to do something (which happened more than I like to admit). I had to ask for help quite often while making our snowflake animation. A lot of the steps weren't working for me so I had to get help from other students.

Project Management

     Project management is really something I've been learning the hard way. I have a hard time focusing during long-term projects, and, unfortunately for me, most of the projects in this class were just too long for me to focus. Luckily, I got everything done. I really fell behind on the individual explosion project because I couldn't figure out what I wanted. I did end up getting it done on time, but it isn't entirely what I wish it could be. Project management is something that is very important in any job and career and is something I'm going to have to work very hard on improving.

Leadership

     Most of our projects were individual, but I still helped some of my classmates when they had problems or weren't sure what to do next. I showed leadership on our final team project by figuring out filming times and directing our cast. Leadership is hard because if you can be shy it is hard to take charge in any way. Leadership is a very sought after skill when people are looking to hire. It is a very important skill for people to learn early on and continue to develop.

     

     I will be going into animation next year so I will be using what we learned this year everyday. Programs like Aftereffects and Photoshop are things I enjoy using in my free time and will almost definitely use this summer. My dad wants to learn how to use Maya so I will be teaching him everything I have learned. 

     If I could change anything I have done this year, I would change my walk cycle. Barold was a pain to work with and I would love to have the chance to redo that entire project, start to finish. Really, if you look through my old blogposts about animation, you can see me constantly bashing him. On a more specific note, I would go back and make his front leg move the right way. His leg drags on the ground and the snaps up and that is not the way it's supposed to go. I would also quickly go back and redo the lighting and exporting of my can animation. 

Looking back on this year made me so excited for next year. I can't wait! Mr. Olson, you will be missed!

bouncing ball

For this project, we returned to the classic bouncing ball project. We started out by heading downstairs and taking videos of us dropping a golf ball, a bowling ball, and a tennis ball from five feet. We then took those videos into Photoshop and measured out where and when the balls hit the ground. Once we had all the measurements, we went into Maya and modeled the balls. I really liked the way my golf ball and bowling ball turned out, but I feel like my tennis ball could have looked better because it is smooth. The bouncing turned out really well. I really liked this project and the only thing I would change is the tennis ball.

Soda

Perks of Being a Wallflower

For our movie trailer, my team recreated the Perks of Being a Wallflower trailer. We had to recreate the video as close to shot-by-shot as possible. There were some scenes that we couldn't really shoot (the homecoming scene specifically) so we had a bit of creative freedom there. We had to work around two work schedules, a rehearsal schedule, and a softball schedule; finding time to shoot proved to be a little difficult.
We had two main days that we did the bulk of the filming. It was very hard to find extras that were willing to shoot over the weekend. Our main cast was very helpful in getting everything done and squared away, luckily. It was sort of hard to wrangle extras when filming and that set us back a little bit each day. We worked right up until the deadline. We tried to edit at home, but something wasn't converting correctly and we weren't able to. Both Jenna and I have different editing processes and I took a little longer than she did. Some of the clips came through without sound and we had to reconfigure our project to use the voices and sound from the original trailer. It proved to be sort of difficult to make your clips match the original trailer when you didn't have them saying it with the trailer to begin with.
I learned a lot about how to manage people and how to communicate. I had a really hard time at first trying to get people to listen and to do what we needed them to do. It took most of the process, but by the time we were almost done filming, I had learned -mostly- how to direct people and be patient with them. I think patience was a ting I had to learn. You have to make your point clear and wait for them to fully understand and not get frustrated with them.
If I could redo this I would make sure all of our actors were talking with the actual trailer so their lines matched up. Or, I would be more careful with the sound and making sure it came through correctly. I really liked the way our music video was planned out with the locations and actors. I thought we did an alright job planning it out and making sure everyone was on board and on schedule.

Snowflake Animation

This project was definitely on the longer side. We went in making the snowflakes and that took a really long time because you had to make them look like plausible snowflakes. Once you had all of your snowflakes done, you had to make them 3d and smooth them. This was one of my least favorite steps.  Making them smooth was a whole process on its own. They look wildly different smoothed versus un-smoothed and it really makes away from them toking like real snowflakes. There were also a lot of problems for me with the polygons and that made it difficult to even get to the smoothing stage. Once that was done and you would make your window. something weird happened to my window but since you really can't see it, I'm not going to go into it. The animating of the snowflakes went mildly well. After finishing all o the snowflakes, I had to go back and make sure you couldn't see them through the window t the end. Then, I realized that they spun way too much as they fell and that they weren't spread out enough. Fixing that would have required taking out every single key frame and restarting the animation portion. I am mostly happy with the way this turned out, especially through the window.

Now It Spins!

We can animate with Maya now! We took our last project (the ice cream shop) and made the ice cream cone, scooper, and bowl of ice cream spin.

Process
      There really weren't all that many steps in the process, but it still took me a long time to really figure out. I hit a bump pretty early on trying to get it to actually spin. The pivot point wasn't in the center so when it would spin it would go off the table. You know, as it does. I had to call in backup to figure out how to fix it. Luckily, we did get it fixed and could get back to work.
   
      Rendering turned out to be a whole different story. It took me days to get it out of the door. I had a really hard time finding all of the different required steps and settings and that really set me back. I had to render it out a couple times to get it to actually work right. Once all 120 pictures were rendered, we put them into After Effects. This all made me run out of time to go back and fix the bump maps.

Bump maps and Textures
If you watched the video, you may have noticed something was off. The bump maps and different textures look normal when they are still in Maya, but that's not quite true when you're watching it as a video. If you look closely (or even at all), you will notice that the textures and bump maps don't turn with their respective objects. But, you know what, for my first ever 3d animation, I think it turned out pretty good.

Final thoughts
I can't even imagine what our next 3d animation will look like or if it will be this simple. I'm excited to see what's in store!

Salt Shaker

For our next Maya project, we had to make a salt shaker. We also had to make a cup, but that went pretty under the radar. We started with the body of the salt shaker, making circles and attaching them together. Then, we adjusted the sides to make them the actual shape of a salt shaker. After we got it looking right, we made the bottom of the salt shaker. Something here went wrong for me and I had to adjust it a lot to actually fit the bottom of it. The cap was really fun to make. By making a sphere, cutting it in half, and adjusting it accordingly, you could get a fun cap. When we were making the holes in the cap, I decided to make them into an S. My salt shaker at home looks like that so I thought it would be a fun little addition. Though, you can't really see it in the picture. We had to make the body of the salt shaker see-through and the cap a shiny gray. Nice the salt shaker was finished, you had to put it in a box so you could see the lights and compliment the salt shaker itself. I've never been the best with lighting and making it actually look right. The salt we made by taking the original shape of the salt shaker and sizing it down slightly. I'm overall happy with the way my salt shaker turned out.

Hammer time!

      For our next Maya project, we were tasked with creating a hammer and nail. Now, this project was difficult and surprisingly frustrating for me. I got sick in the middle of it and missed days of work. But, I ended up getting it finished and I think it turned out all right!

      Lucky for us, we had instructions to go off of and follow in Google classroom. There were a couple of small detail instructions missing here and there and that made it pretty hard for me to keep a steady pace. I got stuck for a while trying to figure out how to get the back end of the hammer to split in two. This was the point that I missed three days of school. When I came back, I was more confused than when I left, but I ended up figuring everything out. Mr. Olson got an updated version for us to work off of and that helped a lot. I was finally able to get the shape of the back end of the hammer right and move on to the other side. The head of the hammer took a couple tries for me to get right but I figured it out. The shape of the handle was the easiest and fastest step to get done. The nail took a couple tries, too, but I got it done and out of the way.

      Shading was easy even though it took a couple tries. My hammer was sort of dark in the end, but it's at least the right colors. The grey is sort of off and the brown doesn't go with it really well, but hey, it works. My nail is a nice yellow-gold color and it's rocking and living it's best life. I like the way my nail turned out.

      The first time I attempted three point lighting it was close to a disaster. I tried, like, six times and I ended up needing close to six people to figure out where I went wrong. This time went much better, luckily. I think I only needed one person to keep me to the right track and got it done sort of quickly. Sadly, when I got into rendering something was off and I had to readjust the lights a lot. I still really don't understand the process of rendering if it doesn't go well the first time. I can't really adjust it well. I had someone help me with the rendering and I got it out of the door!

For ONW Now This Has Been Hannah Iverson Now Back to the Desk

      For our final project in video, we had to produce an episode of ONW Now. Mr. Cooper split our class into two different groups. Sadly, I was in the counselor's office when that happened so I didn't get to see it go down. I was part of the production team for Jenna's team. Jenna assigned us all different parts of ONW Now to do. I was helping Colin with the intro and outro.  For our intro we redid the Office intro! I really enjoyed it. The outro took me a bit of time to put together because for some reason I couldn't figure out how to get all of the credits even on the screen. The thing I am most proud of is the music in the outro. Man, I am so proud of that. The intro music was to long for the credits so I had to take a portion out from the middle of the song. It actually sounds real! it actually sounds like it was recorded that way! I started a story with Katie Hughes but it didn't come together in time. We had one run-through during Lunch A with a different group's stories and it went pretty well. The the big day came we were all running around getting every last minute detail together. We were all nervous because we wanted it to go well and it didn't help that someone was sitting in our class. The recording went really well! We had one little scare with the swim and dive story, but everything went rather smoothly.
      I learned a lot through this project. Working with a team to create a show you aren't confident you  can make is a big job and requires a lot of trust between you and your team. I learned a lot about working as a team and making sure everything comes together well. I also got to be a floor director for the first time and I enjoyed it.
      I really liked how are team worked well together throughout this project. I also really liked our intro I wouldn't change the way either of those things went for us. If I had to go back and change one thing about this project, I would have done a better job with the Winter Wishes story and I would have actually seen it through.
      I have known for awhile that I don't want to be in convergence journalism and that I don't want to be a journalist, so I found myself wondering what I was drawing from this experience a lot. Working with a team is a very important skill and this project was very helpful. I also know now how to make a news story so if I ever get in a situation where I have to write a news story, I'll know. And that's a comforting thought. Though I did have some fun in journalism, I know i't's not what I want to do. I am definitely looking forward to entertainment.

Turns Out We Got More Done Than I Thought This Year

Over the course of this year in animation, we worked in multiple programs on many different things. We worked in programs from After Effects to Maya. We made inanimate objects and fully developed characters. Here are the highlights.



Let's start back at the beginning of the year. We started off strong by redoing one of the first things we ever learned in animation. The classic Bouncing Ball. But this time, we bumped it up a notch. We learned, for the first time, how to animate in After Effects. Mr. Olson had walked us through it step-by-step and then we got to try it out for ourselves. It took me a long time to get the hang of After Effects and I ended up using my Power 50 a bunch to finish this on time.  I picked this project so I could show where we started doff at the beginning of the year and see how it progressed. I took a long time on this one making the bouncing look at least mildly realistic and I feel like I did an okay job.  If I could go back and change this project I would have made the leaves blowing in the background and the bouncing look even more realistic than it may have already. The leaves are the only reason I called this project Ball In the Fall. It makes sense that they should move.




I included this one not because I wanted to, but because it felt necessary. This snail was-no- is a burden I will carry for the rest of my life. Meet Barold. A happy, care-free Girl Scout who happens to be a mutant three-legged snail. I gave this snail a whole background story. Turns out, animating something with three legs is a whole lot harder than something with two legs. It took me at least ten solid tries to get his legs to look right and right at the tail end I made his leg go the wrong direction. We were supposed to be demonstrating a walk cycle with a creature of our own creation. I don't know what I was thinking, creating this free-loading, cookie-selling snail that doesn't pay his half of the rent. I did learn how to do a walk cycle though, and I was able to later apply that knowledge to an animal I'm actually proud of. I have definitely improved on my ability to make a walk cycle but I haven't learned not to choose projects that will give me a hard time in the future. If I could go back and change one thing about my walk cycle, it would be the entire concept. I would have had such an easier time if I hadn't had to deal with this monstrosity. I know I shouldn't be this hard on him, but I'm just holding on to unnecessary bitterness. Contrary to now popular belief, I did enjoy this project at the beginning. I just got myself in over my head with extra work and I did learn a lot doing this project.

This here is a project I am 100% proud of. For our second project in Maya we had to create a castle. I leaned a lot about Maya here. There was a lot packed in this first project. We learned how to maneuver in Maya, how to manipulate shapes and change their configuration. We also learned how to add colors and textures to the different shapes and, of course, I covered my little castle in gold tinfoil.  I picked this project because it shows how far we came in this program in such a short time. I'm proud of myself for (mostly) getting the hang of Maya quickly. My dad wants me to teach him how to use Maya and I am really excited. I want to start exploring the different areas in Maya and go beyond the basic instructions of each project. I can apply what I have learned to my future projects in Maya. If I could go back and change anything in my project I would add more details to my castle. I have a friend who made her castle taller and put a dragon on it. A dragon! That's so exciting! I am really looking forward to all of our future projects in Maya.

I chose this project because it is our most recent animation project. Mr. Netterville calls it a "polything". We learned about booleans and all about lighting. Mr. Olson was out due to surgery while we worked in Maya and Mr. Netterville came in and taught us. I am really getting the hang of the basics of Maya but if I get stuck on a step it takes me awhile to get back on track.what I learned in this project is definitely going to help me on future projects. If I could change anything on this project, I would redo all of my lighting. I had to have a friend help me fix my lighting and make it look at least slightly correct. We have come very far form the beginning of the year and I'm really proud of her far I have come.

It's pronounced "Single-Oh-Ten"

      For our big 2D project in animation, we had to make a story with multiple angles, incorporating everything we have learned so far. We went from Photoshop into Aftereffects. I put mine all together in Premiere before uploading it.

      For my animation, I decided to make a secret agent panda named 010 who saves the world. I was originally going to name him 008 but my friend Lindsey suggested the name and I laughed so hard at it I had to use it.   My original idea was to have the panda foil the bad guys plans of taking over the world using a super computer by unplugging it. A lot of people told me it was too similar to Peter the Panda from Phineas and Ferb, but I liked MY panda and it was too late to turn back.

      Working in Photoshop took a lot longer than I had expected. I learned the hard way that you can re-use layers in Aftereffects and took time drawing out everything. When I had drawn my first shot and moved on to the next one, I realized that I would have to draw a city from an entirely different angle. I ended up pulling a picture off of Google and adding in the graffiti and trashcan. I think what I struggled with the most in Photoshop was getting my bear to look ok every time I redrew him. He had multiple outfits and angles and that was a challenge to get right.

      I had two friends in my class film the videos that are in it. The first one is Lindsey and she is meant to be the person who gives secret agents their missions. The second one is Mario and he plays Barry the Bad Guy. We went out into the hall during class to film it and he memorized it the day of. I really liked the idea of having real videos in with my animation so I rolled with it.

      Aftereffects was also a bit of a struggle. I had a really hard time getting the puppet pin tool to look at least decent and making sure I had everything I needed in my project. I often had to go back in and change the original Photoshop file and that made things pretty difficult a couple times.

      I am honestly happy/ I've come to terms with the way my final project turned out. I think I would like to do this again but I have to learn how to manage my time better and not choose story lines that get me in over my head in work. But, this bear will hold a special place in my heart as my first feature-length, million-dollar, blockbuster film.

Hard News Story- Jazz Festival

This Friday is the Baker University Jazz Festival. Both the Jazz Lab and Jazz 1 classes will be attending. They will be playing five pieces.

While there are “a few technical things that we need to clean up, we’ve really improved over the course of the year,” saxophone player Lucie Roberts told us. The Jazz Lab class has been meeting during fifth hour everyday this year and has worked heavily on articulation and the fundamentals of jazz. Jazz 1 has had frequent 7 a.m. rehearsals and came in one weekend for a “jazz party” where they rehearsed from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.

There will be 18 total groups from all across the area playing at the festival. They will get to play for adjudicators and clinicians and find out what else will be played. This will help them “prepare for the heart of the festival season which will start in March,” Mr. Davis, the band director, told us.

This festival will kick off their season and help them prepare for the winter concert in December, the Pittsburg State and Drury jazz festivals, and, for Jazz 1, their chance to perform at the State Music Educators Convention. Then, at the end of the year, the Jazz band will open for the Glenn Miller Orchestra.