My CCR

 After 9 weeks of hard work, it's time to reflect on the process. 

Here's my CCR!!!

De Nuit

 After some final touches, I've finally concluded the editing of my film opening. I'm so happy to finally end this chapter and share it with everyone. 

DE NUIT

last step

 One day away from the due date and I'm finally done with the editing process, I'm really happy that my whole vision and hard work is finally done. Though I ran into some challenges that prevented me from bringing the exact idea I had into life, I still found a solution or alternative and I'm pretty satisfied and happy with how it tuned out. I'm so excited to finally be able to share it tomorrow after I do some last-minute tweaking. My next step is to reflect on my learning and journey before I can finally say I'm completely ready. I'm almost completely done with my CCR. What I found best to prepare for my CCR was writing a script and finding ways to smoothly incorporate the answers to each question as I discuss my project. I have also taken a few clips from my film and films from the same genre to insert into my video to make it more interactive and visual. 

    

Don't crack under pressure

 With the due date 3 days away, the project is constantly in the back of my mind. I've been editing all day after school and my plans for the weekend consist of finlly wrapping this up. It's been a long journey and a new experience since I've never worked on a long-term project. Throughout these few weeks, I didn't think the due date would finally come and procrasinated lots but always found a way to meet the deadline. I've really enjoyed this process althroughout and can't wait to share it with the world. 

    I've finally concluded 98% of the project with the exception of some final touches on my CCR. I will be posting it on Monday after i've completely finished every little detail of it. This has been a very fun experience where I've gained a lot of knowledge and I'm finally ready to wrap it up and see a vision become a reality. 

Planning for my CCR

 As I prepare to create my CCR and wrap up filming, I decided I should plan out the answer to some of the questions that need to be included. 

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

Throughout this project, I've learned how time-consuming producing a film is, even if it's 2 minutes long. I spent most of the time available to plan which I didn't think was necessary. Turns out nothing would've worked out because without planning the outfits, mood boards, genre research, etc, I wouldn't have been able to produce a proper film. When it came to filming, I really understood how much lighting and camera movements affect not only the mood but how the whole piece is interpreted. I played around with lighting pre-filming but my sister suggested dimming the lights to enhance the romantic mood of Serena and Ben dancing. I also learned a lot about post-production and how important it is to bring a film to life. For example, the color hues and the sound make a huge impact on how the piece looks. 

How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware, and online- in this project?

Technology played a huge part in this project as it was used for filming, planning, editing, etc. Websites such as canva made my idea come to life possible as it allowed me to use a variety of templates, fonts, and stickers which also helped with organizing my ideas and knowing what I really wanted. Although I was planning on using my mom's Canon EOS R6 for filming, it wasn't available when needed so I had no choice other than to use my phone. Nowadays the quality of iPhone cameras is quite good so I had no problem in using it. Lastly, the cherry on top which made this idea become a reality is Imovie. When editing I tried out software such as Adobe Premiere and DaVinci resolve but ended up sticking with IMovie as I was familiar with it and was able to manage. 

Editing

     I got to editing as soon as as possible. At first I tried to use Adobe Premiere since I had some previous experience on it from 2 years of taking film in middle school. Once I opened the software and tried to edit on it I realized it had been 3 years and I had completely forgotten how to use it. Since it's not a very easy program to use I asked my friends what editing software they were using. One of them told me he would be using DaVinci Resolve so I downloaded it and also had trouble figuring out how to use it. I went back to the basics and opened iMovie and started cutting clips and adding music.

    So far I'm really liking how it's turning out although I have a long way to go since I underestimated the time this would take. When I was editing my first few clips I realized I made a mistake by setting my camera to different resolutions so some clips have lower quality than the rest. I'm considering refilling those clips but I'm not sure yet. I plan on finishing editing and starting my CCR by Sunday at the latest but hopefully Friday or Saturday morning. 

Here's a sneak peek from the editing process:

Although I've run into a few problems over the course of this project, I'm glad I've figured it out and made it work. 

    

film day 1

 The day has finally come and today was my first day of filming. About 2 hours before, I texted everyone that is taking part in the film and confirmed that they would be attending. Luckily, everyone agreed and I told them to arrive at around 7:30 just after the sun set. As soon as they arrived we got to work. 

    Since we couln't film in Brey's room anymore and we had settled on the living room, we decided to dim the lights and put a fake fireplace on the TV to settle a romantic mood in addition to the music and the song. The first part of the opening scene which is Naomi and Ben ran very smoothly and I was very satisfied with it. I decided to add the shot of Ben looking out the window for a dramatic effect and like i previously mentioned, to introduce the main conflict of the film.

    The second part of the film which consists of Leo and Naomi also ran pretty smoothly although im considering re-shooting the part where Naomi runs out of Ben's house in slow-mo. Once i get to editing I will see how it looks with the slow motion effect and if anything I can just re film as it isn't a very complicated shot. 

    Luckily, my sister had to do this project last year and she helped me a lot with the camera movement and details. 

Here are a few pics from filming day: