Filming Blog: Corona Virus

  In my last blog, I talked pretty optimistically in terms of the whole corona virus not effecting us in media studies that much. Unfortunately, ways have changed and now all the group needs is a chance to get together. For the first couple days, talking over the phone wasn't to bad but I can't say the same anymore. Finishing up the last parts of editing has proven to be the most tedious part of this whole project. It seems as if none of us can link with each others schedules. We need to be able to sit down together and just get it done. That simple idea is just getting harder and harder. Especially with the corona virus. This corona virus keeps becoming more and more restrictive but for good reason. The Governor has already put into play action against going out of our house with no issue. Now there is curfew and we can't leave without reasonable cause. A media studies project doesn't fall under that reasonable cause. This however changes nothing. Why coming together physically as a group will be a lot easier, we should still be able to do it over computers like all the other groups. It just would be nice if we were able to work to our full potential together. The restrictions are just going to get more extreme so it won't get any easier. The only thing we can do is to find a way to work more conjointly as a group with the circumstances we've been given. Maybe we can try implementing new tactics like group facetime. The only thing is we would have to plan ahead. We have to get this done no matter what case.

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Filming Blog: Re-shoot

    During this time, we are currently battling the Covid-19 pandemic and Broward counties first wave of action is shutting schools down for this week. We were coming near the end of our our third quarter when school was closed but this changes nothing in terms of due dates for this class. Most of the things we turned in were computer based anyway so it changed nothing. As for the groups who didn't complete their filming, going out with your group was risky. Despite the clear warnings, we took that risk. Unfortunately, after reviewing our put together film, all we did was name the things we should have changed. We constructed a list a few classes before of all the things we would have changed. Yesterday, we came together, pulled out the list, and started filming. We did consider the fact that we would have to wear the same clothes which we did no problem. There was changes to the environment however which through us of. With our luck, the city of Hollywood ended up re-paving Paige's alley just when we are trying to do our re-filming. Now during our film, some parts have brand pavement and others are cracked, and old. We continued with our filming anyway though. We started with the truck scenes because my dad had somewhere to be, and moved on to smaller hings like the text from my mom, and the tying me up parts. Another thing that changed was the fact that I had got a haircut a week before so personally I look different in some scenes now to. There was no telling the effect this virus would have had on our schooling so there's not much we could do. Not that it has any difference in this class, our third quarter has been extended so the quick absence of school shouldn't effect us in the long. Honestly, our teachers have not been in contact with us as of now but for this class specifically, Ms. Marchione was aware that this could happen so she told us ahead of time that it would change nothing. All due dates will stay the same and nothing has been extended. So far, we've done good keeping up with our due dates and communicating with each other within our group through call and text. I don;t see any drastic changes in terms of his class. It also helps that as of now we are pretty much done with our entire film with only a few small things left to go.

Editing Blog: Team V.S. Sound

     I've talked a lot in my previous blogs on our editing experience because honestly, it's been the most tedious past of this whole film. Just when I think were finished, something happens that has opening the editing app for that "one last time." Today for example, we thought we were going to have an easy class to just review until we realized the titles were not the right colors and some played to short. While this may have been a straight forward fix, our next issue was not so simple. For the titles, we went in, changed the colors, and made the clips longer. The sound on the other hand, had us reverting back to the drawing board and trying to find new no-copyright music. After listening to the film with headphones in, it wasn't hard to realize that the different songs did not flow well together. That and some of the songs were almost like a joke in the positions where they are. Alone, the music sounded good in the occasion but when we were sitting there listening to it, we knew it had to change. Luckily, we had some other pieces of music previously saved from when we first were trying to find music. We only had to get one new song for a piece for the film. After inverting the newly positioned and changed music into the film, it sounded more professional. I think it's safe to say however that there's still a lot more work needed in that category. In one of my last blogs, I talked on our availability when it came to the re-shoot. Paige was able to get this weekend free'd up so now we are planning to use this weekend to our advantage. We don't plan on filming large parts of the film again because that's just not needed. We are however going to re-film some of the small flaws we found. We have good things planned but i'll save that for a new blog. Until then, we will continue to edit the shots we have and have it stay a well, first constructed film. Our last intentions is to go backwards in progress. We will continue our momentum forward while at the same time, tweak the obviously flawed components.

Editing Blog: Individual Work Towards Editing

    Coming towards the finally of this project, as a group we all made sure to put a joined effort into the editing portion. Rather than have us all crammed next to each other trying to get the same job done, we assigned ourselves different jobs when it came to editing. These jobs included, titles, sound, cutting of clips, and transitions. All of these would come together to complete a full edited film. Personally, I was in charge of titles. I looked through all of our clips and looked for the best places to add a short length Title. We previously filled out a list of all the titles we would include and whose names we would put in each title. Before we started all of this though, we made sure to watch the unedited clips in the order we put it in and had it perfect. We handed it off next to Roscoe where he put his time in to make sure the clips would flow with smooth transitions. After all the clips ran in good harmony, I got handed the computer and started to insert all of the titles. I made sure to find spots where there was little to no background that would take the attention off the title itself. Also, the small absence of background motion needed to run long enough where someone may easily read the titles. Once all the titles were written clearly, I played with the font and colors of the letters and had it looking really nice. Elijah was our last step with inserting any voice overs and some music. All of our input was included when picking the music. We wanted music that would set the tone mainly and that’s exactly what we did. The music flowed nicely and intensified when needed too. We looked over what we had done and it really looked like a full short film. All of our abilities were put together and our cane a product we can call our own. We’re far from finished but at least now we can say we have made our own title film. It should sit nicely as is but we’re not done yet. 

Peer Review Blog: Reviewers never showed

   When coming towards the end of our project, our next stage of this movie making process would be getting some constructive criticism with a peer review. We as a group would be proving the same critic towards another group as will all the other groups in the class. In order to get peer reviewed, you had to be able to give the clip of your movie fully constructed and nothing else added. That wasn't an issue for our group because we finished our filming a couple weeks ago. In between us finishing and the peer review date, we also did some editing. This included cutting, titles, and a little bit of sound inserts. We were more then prepared for the peer review day to come. We showed up to class on time but we knew something was wrong. The class was emptier than usual and it seemed as if half the class was absent. On the board was a paper posted that had everyone's group listed. It showed who's project we would be reviewing and who would be reviewing us. We waited a little longer hoping the class filled up but it stayed the same. The group who was reviewing us was not in class and neither was the group that we were supposed to be reviewing. We had no way to get a grade so we were worried. We realized that next class, we would either do the peer review then or get an alternative assignment. While we were sitting there however, we didn't let the class go to waste. We opened up Paige's computer, which was an Apple computer, and opened up our editor. We finished up all the sound and also started some transitions between slides. Our editing was near completion but we still have some finishing touches before we can turn it in to Cambridge. We are in  position now that we are entirely ahead of schedule and will have more than enough time for adjustments. Adjustments that can put us over the top in Cambridge's eyes.