I'm Back in School + Making A New Blog

Well, my whole high school career has gone by uncomfortably fast, and now I'm a senior. I'm just going to make this short: for senior year, I'm going to be using a new blog. I plan to do as much film work as possible this year, especially outside of eComm. So I'm leaving the older stuff that I'm not too proud of behind, and embracing the now and future. I'm linking the new blog to my website, so clients and people can see my newer stuff. I don't think I'll take this blog down yet, so unless you remember this link, you likely won't be able to find it anymore. This isn't a goodbye, just more of a "see you later." My new website is called Ariel Seemann's Productions. The link is here. Here's what it looks like:

All I've done so far is create it, changed the colors, and changed the picture to one of my own. I'm going to go work on it now. Well, so long to this domain. Time to go places.

Small Summer Update

I'll make it quick:

-It's July, I still haven't done most of the things I said I would do in my last updates post. I guess while I'm on though, I'll make a few edits to the website to make it more professional and readable.

-I've been really busy this summer. I've had concerts, college visits, family trips, AP summer homework, ACT Prep, and I recently got a job. I planned to do some filming late July, but that's coming up quickly and I haven't done any pre-production work besides the script (and if I'm being honest with myself, I don't really like the script I wrote anymore). So I regret to inform you that the short film I planned is postponed until further notice. I think since this is my first time organizing my own idea into a film that I probably want to start something on a much smaller scale, kind of like the self-portrait I made. Something simple that won't take a lot of time or people to put together. Maybe I'll revise my script and film it in the fall, ironically when I have less time but am more focused.

-School starts back August 17 (I think).

That's all I can think to say right now, the heat is getting to my head. Be back on when my senior year starts!

The Hidden Premiered

Well, the title pretty much explains most of it. After months of work, arguments and compromises over the story, tons of caffeine, pop tarts for breakfast on set, seemingly endless film days, and sleep deprived editors, we showed off our finished, polished movie on the big screen. It was an emotional moment for us, letting outsiders see our baby and applaud it. My contribution to the film was as a writer and art director, so here's a little reflection on it.

As A Writer

Well, the first job I had in The Hidden was as a screenwriter. We discussed the story, and split it up so we each had a part to write. I had the first part of the 3rd act. We spent a lot of time with the script, and read and revised it both privately and with the class to see what they thought. And after that, we all met together and revised it vigorously to make the script you all know and love (well, probably not yet). For that job, I was really in my writing element, so I enjoyed it a lot. One thing I need to work on like I do with all my writing: revising. Usually I would leave it alone for a long time, then go back and change everything I no longer like. But we were a little rushed for time, like we were for the whole film. It was hard to figure out what elements of the writing were good, and what needed changing.

As An Art Director

Everybody had to apply for a production role. I didn't really feel too strongly for any production role at first, but I applied to be Art Director, citing my work in Sentio. Well, I ended up with the role, and I quickly began studying what to do with the script. I think the first thing I did as Art Director was during the end of Pre-Production: making a prop list. I read the whole script a few times, and wrote down whatever items I noticed were being used. I got everything one filming day at a time, and usually showed up with everything we needed. For some of the props, I asked around the classroom if anyone could get this or that. Occasionally, I had something at home I could use. As a sort of last resort, I bought some props at the dollar store.

The first day on set, Señor Director Brady Stanfield told me I was in charge decorating the set, taking pictures to keep the continuity of the set, and a magical thing called resetting (the art of running into a room to reset all the props into their original place at the beginning of the shot). I took resetting to heart. The word "Reset" became a mantra, a spell, a calling. Anybody could say it, and thump thump thump...boom! I burst into the room and frantically start moving things. As we all got closer as friends as the film progressed, it became an inside joke. Recently, I was awarded with the Reset Award for my contribution to the film.

At times though, I got a little lazy, and a little too careless with props. Twice, we had to get a prop or two by leaving set. For the most part though, I had everything. Especially when we were nearing the end of filming, I got pretty lazy for the film in general, and doing anything on set. So that's definitely something to improve for next year's film.

In Conclusion

I'm really proud of working on my very first feature film. There was a lot that I could've done better, but it was still a great step to take. I'll keep this all in mind for next year's film. I will be working on this blog as well as another project over the summer, when I have more free time. Until then, see you guys!

Sort of Life-Changing Analysis of a No Film School Article

So as a little assignment, we're looking at a popular filmmaking site, finding an article that pertains to our specific interest in film, and blogging about it. While I'm still trying to figure out where I fall specifically as a filmmaker, I've always liked writing, and I've written parts of the script for The Hidden and some short films. So I guess I'm more of a screenwriter than every other role.

Anyway, the article I'm referring to is here. I was a little taken aback by the title. I had always thought of screenwriting as a type of structured writing, instead of a liberal prose like any other work of fiction. This really opened my eyes to what makes great screenwriting, well, great.

You don't have to completely confine your script to exactly just what's on the camera. If the plot calls for it, you're allowed to use descriptive and figurative language in the action lines. In fact, it can strengthen the really impactful parts in the story, eg. the huge eyes-pop-from-the-skull plot twists, the protagonist thinks they've saved the day but, unbeknownst to them and the audience, they only made things worse, a sudden unexpected change in mood that, if done well, the audience will the think the temperature in the theater dropped.

Being descriptive can also really guide the actors specifically to create the mood of the film. So, instead of writing "Ben looked at Sarah," it's more specific to write "Ben peered into Sarah's eyes, trying to see if she actually had a soul after that horrid statement." It can really tell a lot about the characters your actors are portraying outside of dialogue.

With everything though, you can overdo it. You don't need it when the story won't benefit from descriptive script writing, like describing a camera movement or characters having a simple conversation during the exposition. It slows the pace of already slow-paced scenes, and portraying them as significant will bore your audience to death.

Before you write your script, you should know the story inside and out, forwards and backwards, everything stated and unstated, and how all these little points connect into your film. So, like I said earlier, save the big words and metaphors for the hugely impactful, hair pulling, nail biting, parts in your story. Think of a script as a film on paper (which is basically what it is). What parts do you want your audience gasp or cry or scream like they would if they were reading your film as a book? Then, buckle up and stretch your fingers, and write a jaw-dropping script.

Where Have I Been? + Changes Coming Soon to This Blog

First post of 2018! In May...

Hello again readers! I've expected to write another blog post sooner, but if you've followed, you know that I've been working on my first feature film, "The Hidden," over these past few months. Well now, we are done with Production, and the editors are working hard and overtime in Post to finish it for the premiere. That means I have some free time to work on other things.

First of all, Mrs. Smith informed us all about creating a portfolio. Not a blog, but a website specifically for showing off our best work, specifically for the senior show. I'll still keep this blog up, and probably link to it, but just to tell you, that's coming up. (Future Ariel: This is my website).

While looking for videos to put in my portfolio, I realized something: I can do A LOT better than that. Recently, I've had a burst of creative energy which resulted in a new scripts. Plus some scripts I've written and pitched, but they didn't get anywhere past that. I'll make a few revisions and get a crew together. Altogether: 2-3 short film ideas. Originally, I didn't think I could work outside of class because I couldn't get a crew together, but dumbly enough, I just realized I'm in a whole classroom full of filmmakers. I probably don't need a huge crew for a few short films, and there's plenty of sources to find actors. So after The Hidden and during summer, I'll be busy working on short films.

Another thing: change up the layout and coloring of this blog, because it's always nice to improve your design skills and change up your blog a bit. I don't think this layout has changed in... 2 years probably? Yeah.

Well, that's basically it. Also "The Hidden" premieres on May 9th at a local theater. I'll write about that, probably as part of my reflection. School's out in a few weeks, so yeah. I'll keep it in mind to update over the summer about short film filming, so until then, see ya next time!

Junior Semester One Reflection

Well, it's that time of year again. It's time for winter break, and time to wrap up the semester and reflect on it. So without further ado, here it is:

PSA: Teen Smoking

Here's the first project I did this semester, and the first of the year. Basically, I worked with others to create a humorous PSA about teen smoking. It took only a few days to film, and a few to edit. The main challenge was that we couldn't get good enough shots, until someone pulled out their iPhone and we filmed with that. Another challenge was how windy it was that day. We tried to film when the wind had toned down for a few seconds, and then edit out all the rest. Yet, it was a little hard to hear. There wasn't much we could do to change it after that feedback, but tried to make it slightly better. However, on my part, I really like the color correcting I did for my edit, though it does seem a little inconsistent for some of the shots. Overall though, it was a great start to the year.

Short Film: Sentio

On the flip side, the short film I worked on was dramatic. My friend Brett had a really cool idea for a type of surreal psychological thriller. We went more into planning with this one. I took on the role of art director and location scout, and was in charge of the set, props and consistency of them. The actors were a little hard to find, as only one person showed up to the audition. Yet, Brett has friends who can act. We used the weekend to get the shots of the restaurant, and after school at Brett's house. Production went quickly, but post-production took quite a long time. Plus, Brett is a really self-sufficient and advanced editor, and he insisted that he could do it by himself. Props to him, it looks great. The only issue we had was that our audio was way to quiet for a few shots, but we were able to rerecord that. The class said it was great, although the plot was a little confusing the first watch. It was one of those films where you have to really think while watching it, and I love that.

And now for a little sneak peak of something we're working on right now:

Feature Film: The Hidden

So every year the class works together to create a movie-length feature film. The plot of ours was originally conceived by Brady Stanfield, but expanded by the whole class. As of writing this, we have most of our actors casted and pre-production almost done. Without going into too much detail: it's about a girl who finds the cure to cancer in a world where the government forbids it. No spoilers for you. I took on the roles as one of the script writers. The original script Brady wrote was like 12 pages, but the final is 88 pages. I can't make too many exclamations, but... dang! This is going to be huge. We also applied to production roles, and I am pleased to tell you that I will be the art director again. Today, I just finished the prop list, and I'll send it out to the crew and try to start collecting the props we need.

Productivity

A lot of the time, I feel like I have nothing to do in class. Whether it's because we finished a project early, or because I've done all of my work on the project, I have some free time in this class. But, to stay productive, I've taken to working on my skills. Script writing and pre-production has always been my forte in filmmaking, so I like to work on independent projects. I have a few scripts and treatments I write to keep myself occupied. Also, I told you about this in a separate blog post. If I have writers block and no creative juices, I try to hone the technical side of filmmaking by analyzing short films.

My Strengths

Like I said earlier, pre-production is my forte. I'm a creative person who has almost too many ideas for short films and feature films. I really like focusing on story and character arcs. As an avid writer in general, I enjoy treatment and script writing. Also, being an art director has taught me to be visual.

Areas of Improvement

Well, like an average human, I won't be good at everything. While my editing has improved from freshman and sophomore years (cringes), I'm still not a very cinematic editor. I haven't been able to figure out that "look" that a lot of great movies have in Premier Pro. What I can do now is watch a lot of movies and try to imitate the lighting and colors in my own shots.

Guest Speakers

This year, we had some guest speakers come in and talk to our class. It was really cool to listen to local industry professionals talk about filmmaking. Both of them work in advertising, and one is Mrs. Smith's son. We got to view their work, and they told us what they did to improve their skills until they were hired. We learned that pre-production is the most important part, because if you don't really create something good at that time, then production and post-production are bound to fail. One of the speakers also looked at the script for The Hidden, and gave us feedback to work on the dialogue. We did.

MX4D

We also went on a field trip to a local theater to watch an MX4D movie, brand new theater technology. The seats move around, a breeze and mist are blown at you, and the smell of grass is used. We discussed making moving and sensory movies, since this is the future of theaters.

Summary

Well, it's been a great semester. I really felt like I grew a lot as a student filmmaker. Even with some mistakes, I wouldn't change anything, because the mistakes have helped me grow. I'm really exciting to work independently this break, and see what I can do for The Hidden. Until then, Happy Holidays everyone! Speak to you next year!

MX4D Experience: Justice League

So recently we went on a field trip to a local theater to see Justice League. The theater we went to had recently remodeled to include an MX4D room, a brand new movie experience. Today, I'll talk about that, and how it enhanced the movie.

What it MX4D?

Have you ever been in a 4D theater at Disneyland or somewhere like that? Well, MX4D is basically that with big production HD movies. The seats move around, air and water spray at you, a grass smell effect, and there's even sparse snow and rain. Currently, there are only 5 theaters in the nation to have this technology (the one we went to is the first in the midwest). The reason a lot of theaters are going to start building them is because many are in a financial struggle right now. Most people don't go to the movies anymore, they use Netflix and other streaming services. The goal of MX4D is to give viewers a movie experience they can't get at home. This is the future of movie theaters.

What do I Think of MX4D?

When I first heard about this, I loved the idea of it. For one, it sounded very fun, like an amusement park ride and a movie all in one (which it basically was). I also thought it was great to revive the glory of movie theaters. Don't get me wrong, I still thought this was pretty darn cool, but after experiencing MX4D first hand, my opinion changed a little.

One small fear I had was that it would be uncomfortable. It wasn't too bad. Although my friend, who wears glasses, said that whenever water sprayed her glasses would be fogged up. So if you're going to ever see something like this, contacts are probably better.

A small issue: I don't think I was fully invested in the movie. It was exciting to be moving around with the movie, but that amusement park ride and movie comparison I made? This leans more towards the ride part. Unlike 2D or 3D movies where I can talk about all my favorite and least favorite parts immediately after the movie ends, most of the plot details seemed to go in one ear and out the other. Looking back, I remember the movie is about DC superheroes. If your going to experience MX4D, it's probably best to also see the regular movie earlier.

Also, MX4D seems limited on what movies would be showing. For Justice League, we were completely still, watching the movie during the non-action scenes. Mrs. Smith also said that the theater has played horror movies like It in the MX4D room. So if a movie has no action or scares, it seems like an MX4D experience would be slightly awkward with it.

However, I still thought it was a lot of fun to go see, just mostly for the moving seats. The grass smells, well, those could be improved.

MX4D And Filmmaking

Before and after seeing Justice League, the class discussed that if this is the future of movie viewing, then what does that mean for us, future filmmakers? Well, it's to include more sensory imagery. Crane shots are also great, because the MX4D seats will move with them.

Conclusion

Well, that day was very cool to experience something that was previously only available in California and the northeast. It's also good to know where movies are going, and I'm excited to see this in other theaters, and go to an MX4D movie again.

Some Short Films I Was Watching

So whenever I don't have anything else to do in class, I usually go to YouTube and watch short films. It's great to study other filmmakers and see their methods, stories, characters, and how they flesh them out. It's also great to watch a lot of films for technical reasons. You can see what shots they used, how they framed their subject, and how the lighting and editing appeals to the story. So here is a few I've watched:

Andy

So here is the first one. Out of all of these, it's probably the one I, personally, can relate to most, being an average teenager and feeling pressure to do what everyone else is doing. I can really understand Andy and why he falls into peer pressure. The framing of his character is also something I caught. He seems almost inferior to everyone else, which was good for what the film makers were portraying.

Emily

Warning: Very emotional video above. I mean, just from the thumbnail you can tell this is about a girl going through a rough time. Emily dares to touch sensitive topics like depression and suicide, and if executed poorly, it would have offended a lot of people. But the film crew knew this and were very careful with how they portrayed it, while still giving enough to stab the viewer's heart. Very sad and very good. Congrats on the award, it's well deserved.

The Hit

So after the previous two films, I needed some comedy to lighten up. I clicked on this one because I once had a film idea of the same name. It was pretty short, but creatively executed in that short time. The humor felt original, and I held back laughter in class.

The Gunfighter

I don't watch a lot of Westerns, but I felt I wanted to branch out. Overall, this was a very clever idea I didn't know I needed until I watched it. I've bet all of us wondered how the story would play out if somehow the characters could hear the narrator, and The Gunfighter executes that concept well. It was also a little unexpected that it'd be a comedy, but not that that's a bad thing.

Time Trap

I also don't watch a lot of Sci-Fi, so I felt I wanted to branch out a bit more. I really liked this. Usually when I do watch Sci-Fi, it confuses me too much since all the characters talk about complex math and aerospace. This helped by not having much dialogue, and the viewer is focused on what the robot is doing, not what he's saying. The humor whenever he goes back in time was also nice.

Alone Time

This is probably the most life-like one here next to Emily, except there's no obvious conflict. The main character is just exhausted with her average life, and goes camping to find peace and relief. The editing of the forest and shot choice is very beautiful though, so "Alone Time" is more aesthetically driven.

Nadia

This has to be one of the most interesting films I have ever seen. It is a short film with the way it has characters, a plot, and conflict. But if you watch it, you'll notice it's also a PSA about abuse, and it doesn't try to subtly hide that. The man tells us facts and statistics about child abuse in the UK, while also tying it into a fictional, yet sadly realistic story.

Sentio: A Short Film

So we made this and recently presented to the class. This was the short film me and the group (Brett, Lizzie, Damien, and Brandan) created. We each had our own ideas for a short film, but we chose to make Brett's because we thought his was the most compelling, yet doable for a high school project. And then we got to the process.

Pre-Production

We started by splitting production team roles. Brett was the director, screenwriter, and editor. Damien was the cinematographer. Lizzie was the production designer and makeup artist. Brendan was in charge of sound. I was the art director and location scout. To find actors, we decided to hold auditions. However, we only posted flyers day of, so we ended up having to go around the school and find people willing to audition. Yet, we managed to find good actors.

The storyboards took a while, since the script was 18 pages. Lizzie drew up most of them, but we all drew a few scenes to help get them done.

Then I went out to scout a location for the restaurant. It's actually a church youth-group room. The lack of windows meant we could make it dim and evening-like while filming in the middle of the day. The only tables they had were quite big, but that's easy to compromise. The other location was at Brett's house.

Production

This only took two days. The first day we all showed up to the church in the morning. Korbin and Avery were dressed formal for the scene, while Connor put on the entity costume (and scared us all when he emerged from the hallway). Brett and Damien had the DSLR camera with some changing lenses. I was in charge of continuity, so for those scenes it meant keeping track of whether or not they had food in front of them in the shot. While this was happening, Lizzie was practicing her makeup skills for when we would need them. The first day went very well and we were done within 3 hours.

The second day I could only be there for an hour. This was at Brett's house. Lizzie couldn't be there at all, so Damien and Brett were the only crew members seeing it through. That day, we had the boom mic, so I was operating that while I was there. I heard the rest of the filming went well.

Post-Production

This was pretty straightforward. Brett is a self-sufficient editor, so there wasn't much for me to do at this time. Still, I made a few suggestions. At this time, we found out that some of our audio was too quiet. Brett met up with the actors to redo those shots. Since we finished production quickly though, we had a lot of time to edit and really make it good.

In Conclusion

I am super happy with the way this turned out. I daresay it's probably the best short film I've ever worked on.

Public Service Announcement

My First Project as a Junior!

Hello everybody, it's good to see you again after a long summer. I'm now a junior in entertainment video, and in a class with both juniors and seniors. You've got a lot to look forward to this year. To start the year though, we got into groups and made a PSA of our choosing. Between us, we could either do internet addiction, bee protection, suicide prevention, or teen smoking. We chose the latter. So now I'll take you through the process.

Pre-Production

So of course the very first thing we did in our groups was write down our ideas and pitch them to each other. The idea we decided to go with was Lizzie's. She wanted to do an anti-smoking PSA based off a video she saw:

Well, as much as we wanted to use a fire extinguisher, we couldn't. So instead we decided to use a water cup.

Then we assigned roles. Since it was Lizzie's vision, we decided it was best she was the director and production designer. I called the role as screenplay writer. My friend Damien was the cinematographer. My friend Piper was the art director and one of the actors. And last but not least, Darby was the main editor (we all had to do our own edits, but her's was the one we showed the class). We also got a note for another actor, Nick, who is in another class.

So then I wrote the script and Lizzie drew the storyboard. The storyboards were pretty forward, but I had to revise the script a few times. I discovered you have to read the lines aloud and decide if a character would naturally say that. In the end though, it was pretty good.

After we had both of those done though, we were ready to move onto:

Production

The morning before we filmed, we brought all the props we needed to school. The main prop was fake cigarettes from Party City. To make the smoke we needed for some of the shots, we used Pixie Stix dust. And finally, a water cup Lizzie has.

The first day, we got a few shots. However, we could not get a tripod or dolly, so the first few shots were quite shaky. Then the second day, we had a camera with a messed up exposure. So believe it or not, 99% of the shots used in the PSA were shot on an iPhone. Surprisingly, shots on the iPhone looked better than shots on the film camera; they were stabler and clearer.

Nick actually did not remember to wear the same shirt for the shoot, so we had to reshoot everything. That was good though, we ended up with more high-quality shots. We managed to film everything the second day.

Post Production

Darby was the official editor, so we showed her edit to the class. However, we all had to do our own edits.

Editing was pretty straightforward for me. However, my goal this year is to create more cinematic videos, so I paid more attention to everything in editing. Unlike last year, all the shots are color corrected. Raw footage films are something I'd like to leave in the past. I also want to practice cutting more precisely, so the actor's movement flows more naturally.

The only problem I really had was at the very end, when Nick says,"Before you light up." The water cup hitting the ground was very loud, so I tried to lower the volume for that specific area. However, when I did, you can hardly hear that line. I had to decide between the audience yelling in pain because of the sudden crash, or lowering the volume and hardly hearing what Nick said. Obviously, I chose the latter. I tried to make it up by writing the same message at the end. Sorry guys.

This is also the time I looked for statistics about smoking to put on the last few cards. Smoking is scary people, don't do it.

Conclusion

Overall, I'm quite proud with how this turned out. Sure, it's not quite up to the par I set for myself this year, but hey, it's really good for the first project of the year. The only thing I would do differently is to be aware of sound during production, and I just explained why.

Well, that's all I have for now. Can't wait to make more films!

Animation Final Reflection

Well, now I will post my animation final reflection. I'm not going to continue animation, since I already chose entertainment video as my main focus, but here is one of my last blogs.

Valuable Takeaways

This one is a bit different from the video final. I'll address each focus of eComm (Technology, Collaboration, Communication, Project Management, and Leadership) and how this class helped me grow in each.

Technology

There's a lot I learned here. I learned pretty much most of Adobe After Effects, whether it came to how to start a new project, or chromakey (a fancy word for green screen). I also learned some 3D modeling and animating in Maya. Our teacher showed us how to do most of it. To me, this stuff is important because it didn't only get me an A in this class, but no doubt I'll also use these concepts in video. However, it was hard sometimes, mainly because Maya likes to crash. But other than that, I learned a lot.

Collaboration

This is a skill that every person has a little or lots of knowledge for, because we live in a world surrounded by other people. In work, it means working with your coworkers, and not hurting them in the process. In eComm, we worked on a group project for a short film using special effects and chromakey. Even when we weren't working on the group project, sometimes I was stuck and asked for the help of people around me. Other times, they were stuck, and I helped them. Other times, we all didn't know what we were doing, and had to ask the teacher or look at the instructions.

Communication

This is another skill that everyone has to some degree. In eComm, we had to communicate a lot. I mean, it's in the name: eCommunication. When we worked on that group project I told you earlier about, we had to text our partners when we wouldn't be able to film or if we have a camera. Communication is what makes everything run.

Project Management

This is an important skill for school and work. If we want to succeed in anything, we have to get all our projects and assignments done and turned in. So we all had some experience with it. With eComm though, it was about getting through our group and individual work. I did pretty well on this, but a few times I had to come in early or stay after school to get things done. So I learned to use class time well.

Leadership

It doesn't matter if your a natural leader or have to rehearse conversations with people, all of us will have to lead something sometime in our lives. In eComm we had to show people what to do and how to do it, and organize locations for our group to shoot. Animation is a bit more individual than video, so our leadership was mainly helping people who were having trouble.

What I'll Do with All This

Of course, I'll bring it all into next year, and then expand my knowledge for it. Then when I graduate, I'll go into college with a head start. I'll still expand my knowledge of these skills there. Then I'll graduate and go into the workplace, and I'll still expand my knowledge of these over my life.

Conclusion

Well, I suppose that's enough of this. Have a great summer everyone, and I'll see you next year when I'm a junior!

Video Final Reflection

Well, school is almost out, and I can't wait for summer. But before that, we have to do finals... so here I am for one last blog post for my video class. This semester, I worked in entertainment, and made three main videos: a music video, high school film trailer, and short film.

We Didn't Start the Fire Unofficial Music Video

Well, here is the first entertainment project we worked on. It's a music video for the song "We Didn't Start the Fire" by Billy Joel. We were planning it for a few days, took one day to shoot it, and then it took about a week to edit it. The main challenge was, ironically, starting the fire. It was windy and cold that day. But with persistence and lots of lighter fluid, we mananged it. Another challenge was just making something out of footage of verses and a lot of fire clips, while keeping it interesting. I had to learn to cut the same shot differently, so to speak. It was well liked throughout the class, although a few people said I could have some other things besides fire shots. Overall though, I think it was the best out of everything on this reflection.

The Duff Student Trailer

This project was a trailer remake for the movie "The Duff." It took a few days to plan this, and it was the first video which I wrote a script for. It took about a week to film, and a week to edit. The main challenge I had was working with extras, especially for the party scene. The set had to be quiet enough to hear the two main characters speak, but everyone almost treated it like a real party. We didn't get as much as we wanted to film that day. Plus, I lost those clips and my friend tried exporting them from her Premiere project, but I lost the audio. The feedback was mainly about that aspect. There was also feedback from the teacher about how some clips were not in focus. Honestly, I didn't really like this project overall. I found it uncreative and unoriginal, but I did it anyway. It didn't turn out the way I would've liked it, but I'll accept it.

Short Film: The Reunion

This is the most recent project we did, and the longest. It took about a month overall: a week of pre-production, two weeks of production, and one week of post production. I was the cinematographer, as well as working a little bit on the storyboarding and editing. Some challenges faced was planning. We originally wanted to film in an airport, but they didn't give us a call back the day we were filming, so we had to find a place at the last minute. One of our actresses knew people at a coffeehouse, and they let us film there. The feedback we got praised the story and our variety of shots. I liked this story, and the way we executed it. It was fun to do.

Using Time in/out of Class

I didn't work every single day. Well, if I had work to do, I would do it. I mean if I have free time and have no work to do. I usually spent it watching other short films on YouTube to see what shots they used, and how the screen looked cinematically. Other times, I would look up tutorials on how to do certain things film-wise, like how to write a script or achieve a cinematic look. Outside of class, I used my camera to take random shots of my house. Not to use in a project, but just to practice filming.

Strengths

My main strength this year, I think, was definitely having an artistic eye. I paid attention to things like the rule of thirds, shot type, and focus to get the shot I wanted. If I didn't have the shot I wanted the first time, I would call for another time.

Weaknesses

My main weakness this year was probably time management, especially when it came to editing. I had a few projects overdue from trying to edit them. Often I took too long for production (or didn't get production done on time) and had to rush to edit.

Summary

I really liked this semester. I loved doing entertainment video, and will go into next year. If I could go back though, I would probably use more cinematic editing, and that will be my goal for next year. Well, I just have to do my animation reflection tomorrow, and that will be my last blog post for the year. Well, until then, see you all!

Music Video

Well, here is our first project in the entertainment semester. We were assigned to create a music video from a song, and it could either be a recreation of the official music video, or our own cinematography. So we chose to create our own. I teamed up with Liz and our other classmates: Austin and Brett.

Austin's grandma had a lot of land, so we decided to film the music video over there on the weekend. The trouble was though, that it was a cold, windy, and slightly damp day. Somehow though, with a lot of determination and lighter fluid, we managed to get a good fire burning. But we came upon another problem: we barely had any footage when it was getting dark. We only had two verses and a few fire shots. The third verse was rushed and I tried my best to fix the lighting. So we decided that we had to make a few changes, like using the fire as a light source for the final verses.

Most of our b-roll was just fire shots, so it was a bit hard to fill up all of the non-verses and keep it interesting. I think I managed pretty well, though. It did reuse some footage, but used effects and different cuts of it to make each clip look new. A lesson learned: get a better variety of b-roll, and don't procrastinate when it comes to outdoor filming.

The Duff Student Trailer

Here is something we did for entertainment video, before the big short film. The concept was to find a movie with a high school theme, and recreate the trailer. Most of us did movies like The Breakfast Club, Mean Girls, and things like that. A girl in our group named Mackenzie recommended that we do The Duff. Before, I had never seen nor heard of the movie, but I rented it and watched it for this project. We did a section of trailer #4 and most of the actors and extras are from our class for convenience's sake.

However, we were never free from problems, whether it was the wind, loud extras, or the one part where I didn't get sound (since I couldn't find the SD card with the original clips, I had to export them from Lizzie's premiere project. The sound couldn't export successfully. At this point, I was so done I just said "Whatever!" and added captions). As you can probably tell, it wasn't my favorite project of the year. But, I still got it in and done. And I learned one valuable lesson: Export clips the day you film them.

Semester One Portfolio in Animation

A Worm

Here is my favorite and smoothest animation, a worm guy. I decided to convert it to a gif, so it keeps playing! For this, we learned how to manipulate and bend 2D objects, and use a null. Isn't he just a cute worm? Possible Future Disney Animator, right here. I said this is my smoothest animation, although the more I watch it, the more noticeable that bump that means the animation cycle is repeating becomes. I kind of want to smooth it out more. But hey, I still like it.

A Pen

This one isn't a moving animation, but it teaches a skill required to be a modern animator: 3D modeling. Everyone's pen looks a little different, that's because we base it off of our real life pens. For 3D modeling, we learned a lot: polygons, booleans, texturing, and lighting to name a few. Most of the time, I was having trouble with Maya, but this pen didn't turn out so bad. It looks like a pen you would see in a 3D animated movie, and that is good enough for me. However, some parts should be more transparent, but I've finished it.

A Ball

Here is a remake of something I made in Freshman year, and something I was drawing on paper long before that: A Bouncy Ball. Only this time, I used Adobe After Effects for the first time. I learned how to use keyframes for animation, instead of just drawing every single frame. It definitely looks more realistic than my Freshman animation, the squish and stretch method is a bit more subtle. It stops when it reaches its highest point though, and that does annoy me a bit. All in all though, I like it.

A Panorama

This is probably my most majestic animation. We studied Bambi, and learned that Walt Disney used a panorama machine for the opening shot. This made the forest move with the camera, while the sky stayed still, like looking out the window of a moving car. Instead of a big machine though, we used layers in Photoshop, some of them longer and traveling faster than others. The only problem I had was this (and it was very minor) is that I can't draw. So the grass in just a brush option, the moon and sky aren't blended very well, and the wolf was attempted. But the most important part of animation is appeal, so I added music to complement the night sky. I was also going to add trees, but ran out of time. But I still really like it.

A Story

This one has its own blog post about the whole process of making it, and I really like it. I may be, well, not good at drawing, but I definitely hit the appeal principle. This was putting everything I learned in Adobe After Effects together to create a short film. Although a few things could be improved, like opening the setting a bit more, I'm really proud of it.

Final Exam In Video

This semester, I took video production, and we've focused more on the journalism side of video. Here are 2 projects I made:

ONW 1 in 200 Interview

This is a news interview of my friend, Lizzie. This took 2 classes to film, 3 to edit, and I chose not to revise. Some challenges I faced was finding a good location in the building to film. I found a well-lighten hallway, yet students occasionally passed through. However, I learned how to use white balance. The feedback was positive, and I was praised for the creativity of the interview. This is probably my best video of the semester.

Feature Story: The Culture House and The Arts

My most recent project is another shot at the whole feature story thing. This took around 2-3 hours to film, 3 classes to edit, and 1 to revise. Some challenges I faced were finding subjects and classrooms to film in. I wanted to interview teachers, but obviously teachers have to teach, so I didn't interview my first choices. But the very nice receptionist helped guide me, so props to her! Some feedback I received was that the subjects were looking in the wrong direction while the camera was rolling, but it was on me because I didn't realize this. Lesson learned: YOU direct YOUR interviews. Obviously I wasn't going to re-film the whole thing. When I was revising though, I noticed a few jump cuts from when I was cutting the interviews, and covered those up with b-roll. I really like this one though.

Now how did I use this time to film, edit and revise?

How I used my Time

Of course, the first step was the concept. You can't just walk into somewhere with a camera and start filming random stuff, you have to plan out how you are going to use your filming time. In my freshman year, I would storyboard, but this semester I used writing. I would write out my interview questions, describe b-roll I could get, and voiceover.

The next part is filming. I would interview my interview subjects, and film my b-roll. Just in case I didn't have enough b-roll, I would film some more.

Then I would edit. I would try to get my video in the time limit, and cut my interviews so that it flowed without me asking questions.

When I was done, I would rewatch it, export it, and upload it to YouTube. We watch all the videos in class, so I know what to revise through feedback. Then I would export and upload the final project.

Strengths

I think I was doing the best as creativity. I knew cool shots to get, and how I would get them. I was also good at cutting videos just right, so that the b-roll was interesting and the interviews flowed nicely.

Improvements to Make

Definitely need to improve my use of the camera. I still don't feel comfortable holding and operating a camera, with things like the tripod, white balance, and focus.

Summary

This semester was a good one, and I liked journalism more than I thought I would (even though I still prefer Entertainment). I would take more control of my interviews though. Next semester, I would like to unleash my creativity and have fun making the short films. Well, see y'all 2017!

Article Study: The Fur in Zootopia

Here is an article I found on the world wide web: https://www.fxguide.com/featured/the-fur-reaching-tech-of-zootopia/

So go ahead and read it.

And now, I will just talk about this article here. Isn't it really cool? I've heard about how the team of Zootopia had animated every hair on every mammal in the movie, but this article goes really in depth. To make all that fur, they used a program called XGen. Watching the video, you can see how layered and detailed the hair on the koala is. Each strand is in a certain direction. The animators went to zoos to see real animal fur, and that's how they knew precisely how to model it.

The article goes into other aspects of Zootopia, like the vegetation.

Tutorial: Making a New Project in Adobe After Effects

The Video Helps You Learn

Here's a little something I did: How to Start a New Project in After Effects, and the wordy title says it all. All you have to do is open the program, create a new composition, and then import your footage. Yep, it is really easy. It is import to make the compositions though, because those act as scenes for your video, and you can organize them. Hope this helped, and good luck starting out!

Making My First Short Animation

Here is Something

It is my first short film that I made in animation class! So watch it and enjoy, then read this. It was a major project, pretty much most of our Quarter grade. So we took a few weeks to make it. The story was probably the easiest part for me to make, since I have experience with plot planning. In the image below, you can see the original concept. The introduction and credits had to be cut, however, because of deadlines.

And the storyboard:

Then I drew our epic anti-hero, Adrianna:

....in Photoshop:

Later, I decided to add expressions:

I didn't sketch the guards on paper first. I just drew them straight from Photoshop. "He looks like a mii." -Actual feedback I got.

Then I drew the backgrounds. There was supposed to be a lot more, as you can see in the storyboard, but *sigh* deadlines.

Then I drew our very sacred orb. I used a picture of an opal as reference. I used some Photoshop effects to make it glow. For the screenshot, I gave it a black backdrop so y'all can see.

But then *spoiler warning* dun Dun DUN...Adrianna is frightened by the bell and breaks it. The glow effect is deleted and I separate it to pieces.

For the final image, I made the title:

Yay! Now everything is done in Photoshop and I can import it into After Effects.

After this I found all the audio files. Here are the links to them:

https://incompetech.com/wordpress/2014/01/pippin-the-hunchback/

http://soundbible.com/2057-Footsteps-On-Cement.html

http://soundbible.com/1765-Glass-Break.html

http://soundbible.com/1496-Japanese-Temple-Bell-Small.html

Okay, now I can start animating. For each scene, I made a composition, and ended up having 12 scenes. As you can see, they are all lined up on the timeline. Inside each of those bars, I used what I knew to make the scene. Here is scene 6 (a.k.a. the one where her arms reach for the orb, but the bell rings):

I have the layers for both her arms, with keyframes for the movement.

I did this for every scene, in different ways. Scene 2 was a panorama, and Scene 4 was a walk cycle (Scene 3 was deleted). After every scene was made, I just lined them all up, added sound effects, and exported it.

Personally though, I feel that it was underdone, and I would like to fix it one day. Yet there is something we learned called appeal. Appeal is story based, and you can get away with bad drawing if your story is good enough. That is what I was aiming for, and I feel like I hit just that. So I guess I'm proud of my first short animation.