Film Opening - 4/2/23

Here is the link to my two minute film opening!

https://youtu.be/qF-pRffSDgc

I hope you guys have enjoyed this journey with me. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

 

Creative Critical Reflection - 4/1/23

Here are the links to my two Creative Critical Reflections!

Part 1: 

https://youtu.be/brQODSaxb04

Part 2: 

https://youtu.be/y25ezSViZ2o

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

CCR PROGRESS + SIGN OFF - 3/31/23

      Hi blog, just updating you guys today because I finally finished my CCR script! The script is about 2100 words. It took me what felt like absolutely forever to make it. This week I’ve had so much going on that I had to postpone making my script until the end of the week. As you may know, I am one of the chairs for this project at my school called Dance Marathon which happened this Friday. So, I’ve been a little occupied. 

      However, I did make time to finish it and this weekend I have been able to film and edit it. Filming took pretty quick. Most shots were taken once and only once. But by the time I got to editing, I realized that I had an issue because I wasn’t gonna be able to work with Adobe Premiere Pro as I didn’t want to download any new apps to my new computer that I just got because I don’t want to overload it yet. So, I had to work with iMovie.

      Now, I thought that iMovie would’ve made this process easier... but I was VERY wrong. It was so difficult to use iMovie. It was slower, it just didn’t have as many tools as adobe did. For my first project, I answered the first two questions and that one was pretty easy. I just made it like a YouTube video. So, all I had to really do was add some background music and add a couple images over the screen.

      The second car I created was a little bit harder. I did it in a talk show kind of way which meant that I needed to creatively insert photos in a different way than the YouTube video. So in order to do that I decided to use this big monitor that I have in my house, put a green picture on it, and use that as a green screen. But, greenscreening in iMovie is much more difficult than greenscreening in Adobe. So, it was pretty difficult to do so.

      Everything took me about two days to do and I’m pretty happy with the way that it came out. Of course if I used Adobe I could’ve probably added in many more things after editing just like I did with my film opening. But, I’d say that I got all of my points across with research, pictures, evidence, and all the things that you guys would need to see about how I feel about my project. 

      I thought that I was gonna run into an issue because my script is so long, but the videos ended up combining to be 9 1/2 minutes when my limit was 10, so I was
very happy with that as I was scared that I would have to cut the video down, and I wouldn’t know how. I can’t wait to post my opening and my CCR here! I think and hope you guys will love it!

       I can't believe this process is finally coming to a close. I've been through so many highs and lows with you guys and I can't believe that I will be saying goodbye to my blog. This has been such an amazing journey with you all, and I hope that you've enjoyed it just as much as I have.

       I started this project kind of dreading it and now I'm so sad that it's over. I've learned so much about myself through this process and I had so much fun creating my media products. I don't know when I'll "talk to you guys next time," but I am "signing off..."

I hope I'll talk to you guys soon. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

CCR SCRIPT - 3/25/23

      Hi blog, I’ve begun my CCR creation and I’m so excited! At first, I was pretty confused about what I wanted to do but I decided to start the script anyway and see what came to mind. I have four questions that I need to answer which I explained in depth, in a previous blog post. 

      I have to divide them in half between two types of media and after looking at some past CCR videos and having the CCR lesson in class... I’ve decided that for the first two questions, I’m going to do a YouTube video where I review the film opening. For the second one, I’m going to do an interview similar to a talk show where my dad will ask me questions about my film pertaining to the third and fourth questions.

      So far I've been using a lot of my blog posts and sources cited on there to help me with my CCR. especially for the genre, I researched a lot previously to the CCR so I have a lot of research readily available. This is great because I can see the CCR script will take a long time. This first question took me around 2-3 hours to write!

      While I've written the script it's also given me time to watch over my film opening and I've been able to spot little details in it that I didn't previously.

      I’ve written a script for the first question; I have now realized I’m running into a timing issue. For the first question, I wrote about 800 to 900 words. I felt that was too long, so I timed myself reading it, it took me around four minutes. My CCR should be around seven minutes but can be ten. I’d like to keep it at seven minutes; however, I do not know how that would be possible seeing that I’ve already written so much. 

      I'm worried that it will take me a really long time to edit the CCR because it took me 3 or 4 days straight simply focusing on the film opening. But, the CCR is less about camera cuts and more about the information I will be presenting, so I don't think it should take as long. I hoped that I would finish my CCR script today, but now I see it is much more time-consuming and requires a lot more brain power than I had initially assumed.

      I hope that I will be able to figure this out tomorrow in class. I’m going to ask my teacher what I can do to help with this. I have some other questions I need to ask her about citing sources and just some overall questions about my film opening that I haven’t been able to ask her over spring break. 

      I’m very excited that my project is moving along now. It took a pretty long time before I began editing. But now that I began editing, the process is becoming much lengthier. I want to make my CCR relatable and interesting to watch because I don’t want people to get bored as it’s gonna be very long with a lot of words. I also know that I need to include a lot of graphics, which are going to be pictures and videos of my film and other films to compare it to. 

      I'll update you guys soon with the end of my CCR script and some other details about my project as it closes out this upcoming week. I can't believe my project is almost done, it's been such a journey!

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

I AM DONE EDITING! - 3/23/23

      Hi blog, the day is finally here... I AM FINALLY FINISHED EDITING. Now I’ll be able to move on to my CCR! Editing took me about three or four days straight just working, and not doing ANYTHING else. I originally thought the editing would be pretty simple; just splicing a few clips together, adding a song or two, and then being done. However, the editing process was super tedious, and it took me forever.

      I ended up foiling a couple of sounds. For example, when Taylor steps out of the car in the beginning, her footsteps are foiled, along with the dangling of the keys that I created when she reaches into her pocket. I also created the sound when she’s texting along with the swoosh when she sends the message around the middle of the film opening. 

      I ended up having to spend a very long time on the last couple of seconds when she goes to submit her assignment. This is because I actually had to inspect the canvas page because I had to create an assignment for her to submit her psych project, as I in fact, did not have a random psych project assignment lying around that I could use. So I had to inspect the page: I created instructions for the assignment, and I created a fake submission, I had to change the title of the tab, the title of the assignment, the submission details, along with the date and the time submit. This took a pretty long time as I obviously am not the most computer savvy; however, I figured it out. I wanted to make sure that there were enough details in the project to make it seem realistic. I also had to inspect the page and change the assignment to say Taylor Fullman instead of my name (when she realizes that she has to do the assignment), because that’s the character's name and it wouldn’t make sense for it to say my name, a random name in the film opening. 

      I also had to create the opening clip with the company, Bright Light Films; I had to foil the sound too. I made the light switch on and off, and I used an electric razor to create the buzzing sound for when you can see the light shining below the words. I created the logo on Canva and then imported four separate photos into adobe premiere: the black screen, the black screen with the light, the black screen with the light, and the words on the black screen with the light, words, and reflection on the bottom. 

      I went back and watched the whole video to make sure that everything was okay, then I moved on to the credits. I didn’t necessarily know where to put the credits because I know that a lot of the time credits go at the beginning of the film when the music is playing. However, I had the music playing around halfway through so I decided to put it there as that would make the most sense and it would be awkwardly placed if I put it at the beginning of the film opening. I again used Canva to find my fonts. I created the credits on Canva, and then I copied them with a transparent background and download them into Adobe Premiere. 

      Once I was done filling out all of the credits, I watched the video again and decided to change up the bathroom scene a bit. Originally there was one clip of Taylor splashing water in her face, but I changed it into two clips, one being a little more close-up while turning the volume of the music down in order to create that little personal connection with her which I know my genre loves to do. If you guys don’t remember, my genre is coming of age and I wanted to make sure that because my target audience is teenagers they would feel a connection to Taylor being the teenager. Then, I ended up creating a sound for the end of the film opening. When you see the title I wanted to put a sigh as a sigh of relief that she’s finally done it and submitted it at 11:59. I used a pretty basic font for the end because I felt that it was simplistic, and I thought that it looked a lot like the time on the clock, I had to put some different keyframes for the position and the scale of it. The numbers began with the scale being very small and the numbers being out of frame. Then they get bigger as the computer closes. They also move down so you get the full view of the numbers.

      I’ve watched this video now about probably 20 times just to make sure that everything looks right and I think that for the most part, I’m probably done editing. Maybe I’ll change a couple of things here and there but now I’ll be able to focus on my CCR. I have about a week left to finish the project, so I think I’m doing pretty well on time. If anything changes I’ll definitely let you guys know and I’ll update you guys on how my CCR is coming along!

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

TEXT MESSAGES - 3/21/23

      Over today and last night, I spent over six or seven hours just editing text messages. Now to the naked eye or at least what I thought that this would be, it should be about an hour of editing a couple of simple clips to make some cute text messages for my simple video. Oh, how I was wrong... I knew that this would be something difficult but I did not know that it would be this difficult. 

      Once I was about 3/4 of the way done editing my video I realized that it appeared a bit plain. Not plain as in black, white, and boring; but plain as in it just needed something more and I really liked the idea of these text messages.

      Now originally Taylor was going to pick up her phone and begin playing music in order to concentrate to do her project; however, I decided that the text messages would be a nice way to show how teenagers communicate nowadays, which also relates to my genre of coming of age. This genre generally surrounds teenagers and their addictions to technology.

      I went to YouTube to find a quick tutorial on how to do this. I found that the tutorial was about 3 to 4 minutes long so I assumed that it would be quite easy. NEWSFLASH to anybody reading this... It is NOT easy. Editing is NOT EASY. 

      As I was editing these text messages my dad continuously came out into the living room and repeatedly asked me why it was taking so long to edit, saying how I should be spending my spring break doing something else. You know... I kind of just wanted to do it, which is odd. But, never mind that.

STEP 1

      I began by importing two images. One image was a blue speech bubble, and the other image was a grey speech bubble. Now, in order to change the colors of the speech bubbles to the exact shade I wanted I had to search up the tint effect on Premiere and change the color. I ended up importing four speech bubbles in order to write four little sentences. 

STEP 2

      Three of the sentences were from a new character name Maddie. Now, we’re not going to physically see Maddie throughout the film. She’s simply a character that is friends with Taylor and is annoyed that Taylor yet again is taking forever to complete her assignment. She is concerned that since this is a group project, and she will get a bad grade if Taylor doesn’t pull through. But, just as we all know, Taylor always pulls through even if it is last minute. This may not always be convenient for other people, but sometimes teenagers are like that. 

STEP 3

      Once I changed the tint of the speech bubbles, I made sure that instead of having the clips "fit" on my screen, I change fit to either 100% or 200% just so that I can get the fine details of the text bubble. Next, I change the focus of the text bubble to the corner in which it’s coming from rather than the middle. This will help me with the transitions that I use in the future. 

STEP 4

      My next step is to add some more effects to the bubbles by creating three different keyframes in which the bubble goes from zero which means we can’t see it and then at the end to a said number like 100 and then the middle keyframe would be a number like 105 so that it has the effect that a text message word when it comes in pops into your phone. For the middle keyframe, I also right-clicked and selected "ease in."

STEP 5

      Next, on the text placed within that speech bubble, I add the cross-dissolve effect. Then I add another piece of text, which goes above the message which states who is coming from (in this case Maddie) along with the day of the week, which is Tuesday, and the time. There are three different times because Maddie texted Taylor at three different points of the day and Taylor clearly does not respond until right now. 

STEP 6

      I repeat this process until I’ve done all four of the speech bubbles now at the end of the speech bubbles timeframe, I make them all have the transitioning out with the effect "push." Once I add in the sound, this transition will occur once she sends the message almost like she sent a message out of the frame, which she quite literally is.

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

SURPRISE! - 3/19/23

Hi blog, I have an expected yet surprising update...

      So I know yesterday I said that I was switching to iMovie, but I spent all day trying to edit the video with the sound, the sound effects, and all the cuts and clips... 

      I caved, I couldn’t do it. I actually could not do it. So, I went back to my handy old computer that crashes every time I open up Premiere. What else was I supposed to do?

      I opened up Premier and began researching different ways to use Premiere on my computer in order to make sure that it wouldn’t crash. I found that I actually needed to get rid of a lot of storage on my computer, which definitely helped Premiere run faster. Since I don’t have an Apple Computer, I ended up having to take hours to import every single thing from my phone onto my Microsoft surface, because now I’m not editing straight from my phone. Although this took a long time I know that in the future it’ll end up being more beneficial to me than not.

      So I opened up Premiere and I began dragging all of my clips in. Every time I drag in one clip, I would hit enter, which renders the videos and make sure that my computer doesn’t crash. I ended up having about 80 to 100 shots that I had to edit. I began today by simply putting them in order and making sure that they all ran smoothly; this is so that throughout the week as I edit them, the crashing is as minimal as possible. 

      I also began playing around with different ways that I could place the clips in order. I found that, although I envisioned a certain order of clips in my head sometimes it’s okay to switch out that order if it looks better for the aesthetics of your film in relation to the sound or simply so that the film doesn’t appear all over the place.

      The song I chose definitely will help me edit because it’s kind of a guideline of what I should be doing. Once I began editing I lined up the different clips with the song. Now the song only currently takes place in the second half of the video; however, I’m still trying to decide where to put the credits. I am most likely going to place them in the beginning, so I’ll probably add some of that song over the credits too.

      Now that I’ve been editing, I realize that there was absolutely no way that I could’ve done it on iMovie. The amount of clips that I have to layer is insane. iMovie only allows you to layer three; however, I already have a part in my film that layer fourteen clips, and that doesn't even count any of the sound layerings! 

      My laptop only crashed two times today which is much better than the last time. I think that as long as I continue to render all of my clips as I add them in, the video should end up perfectly fine and my laptop crashing should be condensed to a minimum.

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

EDITING - 3/18/23

Hi blog, happy spring break!!! So, this upcoming week is probably going to be pretty difficult for my project as its spring break and I really want to try and relax. These past couple weeks have been very stressful, which I talked about in my last post. However, today I wanted to get a head start, and that head start included some editing. 

In projects before in AICE media class I was editing on adobe premiere Pro or iMovie. Now I know that adobe premiere pro is of course much more efficient than imovie. However, premiere Pro has proven to lead to some issues in compatibility with my computer, but I wanted to try anyway. So, I started premiere Pro on my computer and started editing a couple of shots that I filmed last week. Once I started editing these shots, premiere Pro completely crashed my computer for an hour. I tried again, one more time but the same thing happened so I decided that using iMovie would be much better. Now iMovie isn’t the worst case scenario as it’s still an editing software; however, it is not as high-tech as  Premier Pro or some other websites. 

I do like that iMovie can be used on my phone which means that I can edit from wherever I am. I’m usually not home as this is spring break and I’m trying my hardest not to stay cooped up in my room. 

Using iMovie has been not the most interesting experience as it doesn’t have that many features however, it has been an easy experience because it’s not prone to crash in my phone or making it slow down 

On iMovie it’s much harder to make clips very short because it has a limit to how short your clips can be. While on Premier the clips can be a short as you want. I also find that it’s hard to layer videos, or sounds on iMovie, because it only lets you layer three clips at once. So, if I need to layer four times or more I’ll need to finish editing the first film and then move that video into another iMovie project and start layering on there. 

I haven’t begun editing sound yet, but I’m sure that the layering issue will definitely come across when I’m attempting to do that because I have to layer songs in and I also have to create Foley sounds of outdoors. So, I’m sure that that will be a bit of a struggle, but I hope I’ll be able to figure everything out and Imovie in the end is most likely the better option for me.

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

MUSIC - 3/15/23

      This week has been pretty stressful for me as it’s been the end of the third quarter, which, as I have expressed in recent posts has been pretty difficult for me. So, I wanted to take a step back from the project a little bit: however, that led me to realize that I ABSOLUTELY 100% CAN NOT and will not sit back from this project because I still have so much to do.

      As I begin thinking about editing, I realized that I still needed to pick out my music. Now, music is something that I’ve been struggling with since the beginning of the project because I couldn’t put my finger on the exact type of song I wanted, where I was going to get my song, how to get the songs for free without copyright, and all those other little tiny details that you wouldn’t usually think about. Now that I have this project, I realize that finding music is not as easy as it seems.

      I went scouting for music on different websites such as Spotify, YouTube, and other copyright-free websites. I won’t reveal my song yet until the end of this post. I found my song through Spotify. I’m actually an Apple Music listener, but I asked some friends who have also taken this class, and they said that Spotify was a really great way to find a variety of different songs that were copyright-free. So, I looked up copyright-free music on Spotify and I listened to around 50 songs. Then, I finally found the song that I wanted.

      Now, originally my film was going to be more stressful or sad. However, once I begin looking for songs, I realized that that would be a little bit too difficult; I found that the song I chose fit what I wanted the project to be about a bit more. My song is actually pretty upbeat and very encouraging which is something that Taylor clearly needs in the film.

The song I chose is
DRUMROLL PLEASE...

Anymore - N3X

      The song is copyright-free!!! I went to YouTube to get the full version of this song as Spotify only allowed me to hear a short clip of it because I am not signed up for Spotify. I’m very happy with my song choice, especially because of all of the beats and snaps in the song. It'll be easy to cut and move around within my video however I may please, which will allow for an overall smoother film.

Link to the song:

ANYMORE

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

ROUGH WEEK - 3/12/23

      Besides being your average lazy teenager this week I’ve been pretty unproductive for some real reasons. To start, It’s the end of the third quarter and I’ve been trying really hard to get all A’s. I’ve never had a third quarter where it’s been an issue; however, this quarter has proven to be much more difficult than the ones in the past, and all of my grade-determining tests and assignments have fallen between last week and this upcoming week. So, I’ve been absolutely filled with studying, practicing, and completing assignments which have caused me to be even more stressed than I would usually be. So, I’ve been pretty anxious. 

      In addition to that this has been the first week of cheer tryouts for me at school cheer is something that is very important to me so I’ve been dedicating a lot of time and energy to practicing and making sure that I’m doing everything right in order to hopefully make the team. 

As you can see, I didn't even get the chance to start my CCR or editing!

      This was also the weekend that my cousin came down from college who I don’t see very often so we had a lot of family dinners scheduled and planned along with things to do with him during the day. So, I haven’t been able to spend much time doing my assignments. 

      To top things off I have also come down with some sort of sickness that caused me to be on medicine that has been giving me some pretty bad stomach aches and making me overall feel pretty bad. So, it’s been pretty difficult to focus on school when I haven’t been feeling very well. This actually affected me tonight as I was doing my chemistry homework and studying for a big math test that is tomorrow because I had just taken my medicine and I got this terrible stomach ache which actually caused me to have a panic attack, which isn’t necessarily uncommon for me. It just really sucks when I have other things to be doing. This is something that’s me back pretty regularly For example, when I was in class the other day, completing a media text essay I randomly felt one coming on me and I just had to remind myself that everything was going to be fine which ended up working however, sometimes it doesn’t and sometimes I need to sit alone and make sure everything is okay. 

      Overall, this week has been pretty stressful so making time to follow my calendar that I made a couple weeks ago hasn’t been the easiest. I know this week I was supposed to start editing however, I’m gonna have to start that next week which was not my plan. But, is not the end of the world as I know most of my friends haven’t even started filming filming. 

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

REFILMING - 3/11/23

      Over the past week, as I was watching over some of my clips, I realized that I needed to refilm a lot of things because either the angle was incorrect or you can’t hear exactly what the character Taylor who’s played by my friend Sammy is trying to say, or little things like that. So this weekend I took it upon myself to invite my friend Sammy over to re-film those things.

      Now this time when filming I made sure that we didn’t make any spur-of-the-moment decisions like we did last time as I stated in my blog last week. So, the second she came over we made a list of all of the shots that we needed to fix along with how we were going to fix them and in what order we were going to fix them. This helped because we weren’t running around, like chickens about heads, and we actually knew what we were doing. Last time we made a lot of decisions on the spot which led to this decision to continue filming. This decision, of course, led me to not be able to start editing this weekend, which has definitely been a major setback for me as now I will have to work on this project over spring break, but you’ve got to do what you’ve gotta do if you want your film to come out as good as it could be, and live up to its full potential.

      This time I made sure to stay with all of my ideas instead of listening to certain ideas that Sammy had although she does know a lot about filmmaking. I felt that because this was my project and it was my idea it would make much more sense for me to just make all of the decisions and have her simply do what I tell her to for each shot. Surprisingly it didn’t take very long to fix the scenes that we had to. I think that is all thanks to the list that we made which split up everything that we needed to do. I think that last week took so long because we didn't have a list.  

      This time I made sure that my tripod was working correctly and had all of its parts. Last week it was not working correctly because it broke halfway through, and I ended up having to make a makeshift tripod and find other ways to film, which led to shaky and blurry videos. 

      What this has taught me is that planning is key and it’s not always the best idea to bring your creative mind to the table right before filming. You should be planning in advance so that when it comes time to film you know exactly what you’re doing and you don’t have to go back and film multiple times. This way, you don’t have to drag the people who are playing the characters out a second time when they might have plans that they would want to be doing on the weekend instead of playing a character for your short film opening. 

Some shots we had to fix:

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

BLOG ANALYSIS ASSIGNMENT - 3/9/23

      Today I walked into class, thinking that we were just going to continue our blogs like normal. But, Mrs. Stoklosa decided that we would do an assignment called blog analysis. In the assignment, she showed us four different blogs and asked just a couple questions about them. Now, usually, I would be annoyed that we would have an assignment during the time I could work on my project, but this assignment ended up helping me move further with my blog.

      We were told to review the blogs and find things within the blogs that we would like to add to our blogs or what we would change about their blogs, etc. I found that the two blogs I chose to read use a lot of images, which are really good at engaging the audience because when I look at a screen and I see a bunch of words, I’m usually pretty uninterested however, the photos allow the reader to get more of the backstory on with the reading and stay a little more interested. I liked the embedded links of these blogs where you can click on them and read more about perhaps a celebrity or a type of shot or angle or maybe something about the setting or where you can read about a film. I find that these allow the reader to understand exactly what they're reading instead of having to interpret everything that’s on the screen

      As a person who really doesn’t like to write or read them, I find that reading these blogs has helped me because it shows me that not everything in my blogs, or in any writing in general has to be just writing I can include images and examples of things that I’m doing in the real world, which is the same amount of work as writing something. 

      After I did this assignment, I read over some blog posts of mine, and I found that I can start adding in more photos of my project as I’m moving along with the execution of it along with more links to show exactly what I’m doing, or potentially an example of someone else doing it.

      I also liked how the blogs I chose to read use a lot of casual language, which I try my hardest to incorporate into my blog because a blog shouldn’t be something that you read that sounds like it just came out of your language arts classroom. It should sound like something personal or at least that’s what I would like my blog to sound like, I think personality is key and that people should try their hardest to not be monotone when blogging. Sometimes what I like to do is instead of typing a speaking into my blog, I like to talk into the microphone on my phone so that I get to write down exactly what I said, just as it would come out of my mouth 

These are some of the questions we were asked:

Which blogs did you review?
What was done well within these blogs?
What type of posting is most engaging (what are the specific elements of an engaging post, provide specific examples from both blogs)?

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

FILMING DAY 1 - 3/5/23

     Today was finally the day. the day we talked about and waited for. This is the first big day of many; one of the most important days during my project. The day of execution begins today. I learned a lot about what it means to film and how important paying attention to detail is and had some issues down the road.. 

      My friend Sammy came over to my house and of course, we sat and did nothing for hours; not uncommon for 15 and 16-year-olds… Anyway, I unpackaged my new tripod that I ordered on Amazon and we began. Now of course I had my storyboard and notes but I felt that it was also important to keep my creative mind open to new plans and listen to any ideas she had. Originally my video was supposed to start inside of my room kind of like a music video and just show different shots of Taylor, being messy and other things of that sort. However, when Sammy got to my house, I realized that it would be nice if it was a video of her getting home from school and then noticing that she had an assignment to do; so that’s what we did. The first shot we did was where the character Taylor gets out of the car rushes out and doesn’t say bye to the person driving, which we don’t see in the film, but it is a friend who drove her home from school. Taylor rushes out of the car and can’t get the key out of her pocket in her usual Taylor way and can't get the key inside the door, but she does and she rushes into her room. She plops down her bag and goes to her bed. Then I thought it would be nice if she opened her computer and saw that she had an assignment due that night which is something that I can relate to greatly. So I made that the next shot; then I made it seem like she put music on which I’m going to edit later. We see a lot of shots of messy things in her room along with shots of Taylor working on the project, then I decided that Taylor should have a moment with herself in the bathroom just splashing some water on her face, telling herself that everything is gonna be OK and that she needs to get her self together. So, we filmed that part and moved on to the end where she was done with her project. She takes pictures of it and submits it on her computer. We filmed everything except the last scene where she closes her computer. I don’t know yet if I want the title to be shown after she goes to her computer or if I wanna keep the title in the beginning, but I’ll figure that out as editing begins. I noticed that it was definitely helpful that Sammy knows a lot about film and theater and she was able to give me some insight on what I should do better. I also found that putting our creative minds together meant that a lot of change would be happening to my project in the blink of an eye. There wasn’t much time to just brainstorm and write ideas down. It was more of a game-time decision like when we change shots or angles. I found that it was tough to film the low-angle shots I had in mind for example when she was doing the project, and I wanted her to feel powerless in her own mind, but because the tripod was so big and didn’t shrink enough; it was kind of difficult to do so. I also found a very high angle difficult to film. 

      Because Sammy and I are such close friends with also very difficult to make sure that we weren’t laughing during the take switch could shake up the camera and make the acting seem not real and creates many other problems, but overall today went very well. We filmed almost the whole entire project that we needed to, I'm sure during editing that I need to refilm my shots which I will probably be doing next week or the weekend after I’m not sure yet but you guys will know. I’m definitely excited to start editing this project and see how the videos will match up with each song choice.

I'll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

CCR LESSON - 3/3/23

      Hi, blog! Today my teacher decided to change up the schedule a little bit and tell us all about the CCR otherwise known as the creative critical reflection. She showed us the Nearpod about what it is as a whole, and how to do it, and she also showed us some examples. 

      She told us that we should take a week or two to just focus on the CCR so that we don’t feel like we’re rushing at the end and we also have more time to put some final touches on the rest of our project, the two-minute film opening. She told us there were four questions that we should reflect upon and that we need to create two media products. So one media product would have two questions and the other would have the other two questions. The two media products can be in the form of a talk show, podcast, a PowerPoint with sound over it, or anything else.

QUESTION 1

For the first question, she told us that we should discuss conventions and what they mean in our genre conventions. We should discuss what our genre is, what the conventions are, how we embrace them, and which genre conventions did you challenge. Which is basically going against what the genre would usually entail. we should add the discussion of representation in our film, and make sure that the video does not only include a talking head, which means no graphics.

QUESTION 2

For question two we should discuss how we arrived at the target audience, and how our product choice has to do with our target audience. Our target audience should be operationalized for example, age range, gender interests, and demographics, and we should discuss our realistic distribution methods as our films are being produced by amateur filmmakers. So that would basically mean YouTube and film festivals; and she made sure to include that we should state which film festivals, not just state that we will be at film festivals.

QUESTION 3

In question three we were told to reflect on how our process involved our research, our planning, and our production process along with a reflection on how we begin a project first and how we finished.

QUESTION 4

Question four is pretty lengthy. We should discuss techniques, and the hardware used along with the software. We should also state how we did it. How did the software solve problems? Did you need to learn new technologies? And did you run into any obstacles in general? 

      She told us to make it around seven minutes. Make sure to have some research cited in APA or MLA format. To end our CCR we should have a final reflection statement that discusses what you’ve learned and what you’ve done differently. 

      I’m excited about my CCR because it will help me reflect on everything that I’ve been doing in the past weeks and help it all come to a close. I will be able to see everything I’ve done, pick it apart, and state how I could’ve done it better, and if need be go back to my project and do it better.

I'll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

GROUP MEETINGS - 2/27/23

Hey everyone, I’m back! My teacher had been mentioning group meetings for a while now and we were supposed to have one last week. However, there were many drills and code reds which took place of that so we had to postpone it to this week. So, this class she split up in groups of five and we discussed how we were doing with our projects, what we’re planning, with how we felt about other people’s projects.

      So there were five people in my group, 2 of the peoples projects are going pretty well. One person‘s project was going nowhere at all and one person‘s project was doing so amazing that I second-guessed myself a little bit. The two people I’m going to discuss are Lucas and Connor. So, Lucas was having a little bit of an issue with his project because he had no idea what to do. He was working in a group with three other people and I noticed that he was running into the same situation that I had been running into with my group in the past. The issue is that they all either had too many really good ideas or not enough ideas as a whole, and having not enough ideas as a whole can be really discouraging; this is what he was going through. I went through the first option: more of us having too many ideas that we can’t decide between. So, we looked over his blog and we noticed that all of his posts had 3 to 4 sentences max and we told him that he needs to start brainstorming a little bit more because his project is going to be very last minute if he doesn’t, and it’s going to mess up all the other group members as well. He started typing up some new blogs, and we were talking to him about his ideas and how they were the genre of horror and suspense. We discussed some things that he could do with it, and how he could present some new ideas to the group members. He seemed pretty relaxed about it, but as I know from the past, even if you’re relaxed that you’re not doing anything with your project currently, it’s gonna catch up to you and probably not going to end up well.

      Connors project was going very well and that is to no surprise because he’s very into theater and the kids in the theater program tend to have very good projects. All of his plans are set out, his blogs had very lengthy posts and he was actually one of the people who gave me a lot of criticism on my project, which was very helpful because in the coming week I will start filming my project. Connor actually loved my project plans which definitely helped with my self-esteem about it because usually he knows what he’s doing. He complimented me on my calendar that I made and said that even he hadn’t had it that organized but that he was definitely gonna start doing one, which he ended up doing near the end of class He worked out some stuff with me about my setting plans. I explained the whole metaphorical meaning of the title 11:59 and the whole group took that very well.

 

The blog post they liked the most:

      Overall, I think that the group meetings went pretty well. The two other girls in the group both had pretty good ideas. We helped one girl because she was deciding between two ideas. One of which to the rest of us was clearly the better plan because it was the idea that did not involve a driving scene as those can be pretty difficult to execute. The other girls project seemed like it was going pretty well and she had all of her plans set out, and some dates picked for filming and editing. I think that the group meetings helped me feel more organized and get my confidence back as I was lacking lots for the past week. Now I’m definitely confident in my filming plans and editing for the rest of the week!

I’ll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

STORYBOARD + OUTLINE - 2/25/23

     Hey everyone... it's almost time to start filming! I can't tell yet if I'm extremely excited or terrified; I know it's one of the two. Now that filming time is so close, it was only right of me to make a more detailed plan of what I am doing. I chose to jot down some quick notes on some sparse ideas I had along with some storyboarding!

What is storyboarding?

      A storyboard is a simple yet tedious task that basically plans out everything in your film. It's visual, all drawn out. These drawings contain each shot in the film, including camera movements like pans and tilts. It allows for more visualization on paper rather than unorganized thoughts in your brain. Storyboarding is a simple way to communicate your ideas through illustration. Storyboards also have captions underneath each drawing that states the shot and what the character in the shot is doing. They also contain little arrows which indicate different camera movements. For example, a tilt would have an arrow going up or down; while a pan would have an arrow going left or right.

      Below you can see a section of a storyboard. This is the beginning of my short film opening. I created a storyboard for the beginning of my film, left a space, and then put the storyboard for the middle of my film on the outline below the storyboard. Most people would probably be very confused by that; however, there is a method to my madness. Some of my videos consist of chunks of quick shots of props/items. So, I'm not necessarily sure of where those will be placed in the film or in What order. So, in the outline I discussed what they would look like; however, it would be pointless to draw them into the storyboard in an order that isn't promised in the final video. I will most likely determine where those shots will go once I determine the song I'll be using and when I'm editing. I also have to see which shots sync well with that song and don't look too awkward.

      

      Here you guys can see some general notes included in my overall film opening outline. I jotted down all of the ideas floating around in my head so I can be more organized, organization is key! I've definitely learned my lesson after those group projects from this year... I wrote here what all of the quick shots will look like along with a storyboard for the middle of my film. I also included some major points that should be created while filming which are indicated by the asterisks (*).

I'll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

SCHEDULE - 2/24/23

      Hey everyone! I just finished creating my schedule for my portfolio project! I knew that this project was going to take a lot of time, but this calendar really put that not perspective. Hrre I listed due dates for every component of the project along with which dates I'll be working on them.

Here's the calendar:

      

      Just like Taylor, I am not the most organized, so this was probably the first schedule I've made in a REALLY long time. But, now that I've made it I see its importance.

Why is a schedule so important?

      With a schedule, I can make sure I have enough time for every component of this project as there are SO SO SO many. For example, If I think I need 2 weeks to film all the clips, I can make sure to leave myself with enough time to edit rather than overcompensate for creating blog posts or my CCR. if I'm not organized I could find myself struggling to finish my project as time runs out. I've had this issue before, especially in my group projects in the past. We spend so much time planning and brainstorming in the beginning, and when it becomes time to execute we have only a couple days left. Not only do our stress levels skyrocket, but we don't have enough time to meticulously do what needs to be done. We also don't have time to revise and collect peer reviews to further our revisions, which are really important.

      Now that I have this schedule I can make sure that I don't run into that problem ever again. It cost me my grade so many times, and now I can work as hard as I need to with just enough time to do so! I made sure that I left enough time for my CCR creations and I left more than enough time for the blog posts as I'll need to complete over 15. I also had to make sure that with spring break coming up that I plan accordingly; with less of a workload but still have an emphasis on the blog posts. Overall I think that this blog will be beneficial to me and would be beneficial to anyone taking on such a big project.

Talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies :)

PROPS/MISE-EN-SCEN - 2/23/23

       As the filming days are creeping up on me, it's important that I finalize my setting and my overall plot. For my plot, I've begun storyboarding, which I'm excited to share will you all in the near future. But now, I am working on figuring out what exactly my setting will look like. To do that, I need to determine which props I will be utilizing.

What do props do?

      Props are one of the most important components of a film, they are what fill up the setting and help tell the story without using direct language. It gives the film life and a purpose. Props can also help create a sense of character. By using props that the character uses often and relates to, we can get a deeper understanding of their life and personality. Props can also help create an atmosphere and help give a setting more meaning and more of a story. I visited this website to learn more about props to create my own film opening plans!

Example 1

80's bedroom: 

Posters

• Posters were a huge deal in the '80s: rock and roll, magazine covers, etc. Whatever you were into, you had a huge poster.

Cabbage Patch Kids

• Cabbage patch kids were popular among younger girls in the 80's so they would be likely to be seen on their beds or in another place around their rooms.
  

Example 2

Beach

Towels

• This is a common prop you would see in a beach setting as they are used to dry off someone who is wet. Most people tend to go to the ocean at the beach.

Sunglasses and sandals

• Because it's hot and sandy, these are two clothing items commonly used when going to the beach. They are also commonly found in southern states like Florida.

Beach Balls

• What is a beach without beach balls? Plenty of people play games using beach balls, along with other sports like beach volleyball.

Some of my props

Now that I have a pretty good idea of what props do and should be, I have to choose props of my own:

Good Grade Awards

• Taylor is studious and shows that she is by placing all of her academic achievements on her wall.

Abstract art painting

• This painting seems simple; however, it isn't. It appears to be just another painting. But its colorfulness represents how Taylor wants to enjoy the good in life but the abstract placement of color represents how her messy acts cause her to not be able to do so. The meaning may be difficult to grasp at first, but in the end, will make sense.

Clothes

• There will be random piles of clothes scattered in different places in her room to represent how he carries herself and presents her belongings. 

Papers

• Similar to the clothes, papers will serve the same purpose as they're scattered throughout the room.
  

      These props all support Taylor's messy behavior, and her inability to get her life together; at least that is on the outside. She may pretend she has everything together but she doesnt. She puts herself through too much stress and in return, treats her surroundings like they mean nothing to her.

I'll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies

TITLE - 2/22/23

         As the past couple of weeks has passed, I have developed my plot, settings, characters, etc. However, one main component is missing... the title! In one of my first blog posts, I discussed a couple of options that crossed my mind: Mess., 11:59, The Mess, The Stress, and others that weren't quite as good.

      Now, most people would ask, "why does a title even matter?" The title actually matters a lot. The title sets the premise for the film. It sets the tone, and mood, and helps the viewer understand a bit about what they're watching before they watch it. In one word, the title creates meaning, the meaning of the story. It also supports the genre of the story. 

      For example, the movie titled IT. at first glance If you've never heard of "IT" before, you would be so confused. What's "IT"? Is "IT" a person? If so, who is "IT?" This title causes a stir within those who've heard of the movie. The title causes confusion among viewers, which actually helps with marketing. The title is short and sweet, yet provides so much meaning. It also helps with marketing and promotion as the stir causes lots of talk. The title goes hand in hand with its genre: Horror/Suspense. The title actually creates suspense within the viewers. They question what "IT" is for days, weeks, and even months leading up to its premiere. This can cause things as little as tweets on social media apps like Twitter or things as big as hundreds of thousands of people buying tickets to see the film because they're that intrigued. 

Now, my film opening is about stress. Taylor is all over the place which we see in the opening. We have different clips of her messy room and papers; however, she always pulls through in the end. We know this because of all the medals and awards she has on her walls for her grades. As I thought about what my plot truly meant, I knew exactly which title I would choose.

 

DRUMROLL PLEASE......

The title is called: 11:59

Why is the title called 11:59?

11:59 actually relates to a lot of things. The most known one is that most high school teenagers have their homework assignments due at, you guessed it... 11:59. This causes so much stress for these students since some could have up to 7 other classes in the same situation. These students happen to be my target audience: teenagers around ages 15-25! 11:59 symbolizes the feeling of clutter, mess, and disarray. That's everything that Taylor is, we see that in the clips we see in the film opening. It doesn't only relate to school and having assignments not being turned in, but it relates to the overall sense of mess. Teenagers are depicted as messy and all over the place, not caring about school; that is what this film symbolizes. But, Taylor is meant to break the barrier and show how although she's depicted as a mess for the way she carries herself, she's actually a very good student who turns everything in on time and does very well in school. I currently have a ton of assignments due on different dates at 11:59, and it stresses me out like crazy. I am one of those people in so many difficult classes that it tends to overwhelm me sometimes, so I understand what people like Taylor go through.

I'll talk to you guys later. Signing off!

- Amanda Margulies