WWOO I"M DONEEEE

 CCR Links

Here is the link to my Director Commentary for the first part of my CCR and this is the second link to Podcast which is the second part of my CCR.

Hope you enjoy :)))))

YAYYY HERE IT ISSSS

 Film Opening 

Here is the link to my Film Opening "Sparks"

Hope you enjoy :)))))

It's All Coming to an End

 Reflection

        It is the end of this crazy 8 weeks and even though I want to keep this short and simple, there is so much I want to say about this production. Over the time I have had to work on this project I learned so much about what it actually takes to produce a film and struggles, conflicts, good moments, and the overall experience that can happen. 

        At the start of my project, I already had an idea of what I wanted to do. I wanted to make this project personal because I like to tell stories that have meaning, I like to tell stories that can mean things to people, especially the people who are behind the scenes of it all. I knew I wanted to do an LGBTQ+ film but the process of fully creating it is what really got me. 

        I'm not going to lie, I was going to have the basic morning routine start where they meet in class and yatayata but after talking to my advisor, I realized that I am allowed to take risks. I was so scared of doing something out of my comfort zone for the simple reason that my idea wasn't going to be liked but then I realized, and excuse my language, WHY DOES THAT FUCKING MATTER? At the end of the day, it was my film, my creation, and it needed to be something that I liked, and I enjoyed making. 

        After finally storyboarding, script writing, making my shot list, and finally finding a crew I was so excited to film it. Even though production was bumpy because of my time crunch, I got it all done and it turned out extremely well. Never in a million years, did I think it was going to turn out good but once I started showing it to others before making my final adjustments and seeing their impressed faces, and telling me how good it was, I was confident and happy with what I made. Of course, I was already happy with the product but when you realize other people like your work too, it makes it even better. 

        Lately I have just been working on my CCR which is almost finished, but nevertheless this journey has been a rollercoaster and I wouldn't have changed a single thing about it. All the struggles I faced, all the choices I made, and all the times I had sat down and worked on this got me to where I am today. And if I'm going to be honest, it feels fucking great knowing your first idea turned out to be something incredible, because most of the time (at least from what I have heard from my friends who write all the time) your first idea doesn't always turn out so great. But guess what, I love proving people wrong.

That Moment When Everything Starts to Fall into Place

 Group Meeting

        Today we had a group meeting to meet for the last time before the deadline of the project. I got a lot of good feedback from my film, and I learned about a lot of different ideas I could come about with my CCR. One of the people in my group said she was doing kind of like a reveal the question type, and others were planning to do a Director Commentary just like me. 

        Nevertheless, I can finally say I have very little to finish with both my Opening and my CCR. I am excited to finally post it the last couple of things I need is to continue to get feedback and tweak whatever can be better before my submission. Lately I have been felling like everything is falling into place after such hectic weeks which I am very excited about :))))

CCR Structure #3 and #4

How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

        Throughout the process of creating this project, I learned a lot of things about the industry and myself. Thanks to my television club at school, I have had a lot of training in the past 2 years with cameras and editing softwares so that wasn't my biggest issue, but the main thing I learned during this production is the process of being a leader and managing time.  During this production, it took a lot of courage to lead a whole crew all on my own which is something I realized I’m pretty good at.

        Due to the fact that during this project there were a lot of other outside things in my life preventing me to fully focus on my project times including school, competitions, and many more also helped me train my planning skills. I learned that many things aren't going to go as planned at times for example filming can get postponed. Overall, I believe I learned to step out of my comfort zone as a filmmaker and learned to realize my ideas can be turned into something really great.

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

        During the editing process, I integrated a lot of software and online technologies that improved my project as a whole. Not only did I use platforms like Adobe Premiere Pro to help me edit my project, but I also used websites like DaFont to find the most suitable fonts for my project and Non-Copyright Music from YouTube in order to have the best music possible that matches my film.

CCR Structure #1 and #2

 End of Spring Break

            It's Sunday which means the end of Spring Break and the start of testing month. Yay. So exciting. I'm just kidding, while testing is not my favorite time of the year it does mean one step closer to summer, and all the hard work I have been doing is being payed off. I mostly excited for this exam mainly because since I am very into film, this is really the only exam I want to take. No offense to my other courses. 

        Anyway, I have recently been structuring my CCR along with answering the 4 main questions required by Cambridge. For inspiration, I have been looking at CCR examples from previous years to help me find my groove. 

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

    My product (as obvious as it is) is a romance film revolving around the two main characters Ana and Summer. My film uses convections from the genre of Romance by focusing on the passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. 

    The Romance genre can focus on many different conflicts which can make it fall under the genre but, their conflicts mainly include obstacles of family resistance, discrimination, and the inclusion of another love interest. If we were to go down father into the full film, we would see all these problems, but since this is just the opening, we are mainly looking at another love interest. It represents both social groups and issues by introducing the LGBTQ+ community. 

        In my film, the main to lovers are Ana and Summer which are both shown as female representers of the LGBTQ+ community as their sexualities are shown within the film. Throughout many years, this community has been bashed and discriminated in many ways, myself included, which is why it was very important to me to show this love in a positive light and represent this community as a place of acceptance and salutation. 

        I have also made the inclusion of focusing on a Hispanic character considering the fact that Hispanic have also been discriminated by being portrayed as part of the low-class, or even the bad guy. I also thought it was really important to include the Hispanic representation within this character because of her family issues with her relationships, speaking from experience some Hispanics are not the biggest on homosexuality so it really makes a personal connection with audiences who struggle with the same problem as Ana. 

How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

        As I have said before, the audience can connect with both characters in different ways. With Ana, they can understand her situation by trying to figure out herself while being in a relationship with the opposite gender. Having a sexual awakening isn't the same as having it when you are single then when you are in a relationship. Audiences can also connect with Summer because of her struggles of being the new kid at school. Making friends and trying to fit in isn't the easiest thing to do, which can make audiences relate to the struggles she's having. 

        Which brings me to my target audience, Romance has very popular blended genres and the target audience for romantic films are 13- 40 because young and mature women are typically more affectionate and connected emotionally so they will get hooked to the characters and the love interest as well as feelings between them. But for my film, any person from the LGBTQ+ community would enjoy the film along with allies of the community. 

        As an armature filmmaker, it's not like I can submit my film to platforms like Netflix, HBO Max, or Apple TV so the most common place to submit to are film festivals such as All-American High School Film Festival, and YouTube. 

Me and Editing = Besties

 Almost done YAY!!

        I do have to say, this journey has been a little bit of a rollercoaster. I am finally pleased to say that I am almost done with my Film Opening "Sparks". Recently, I have been hanging out with friends over the break and I asked my dear friend Brady to watch my film opening (he's kind of been begging me to watch it because I never show him my work so yeah) Brady came over to my house one day and I showed him my film opening.

  Lucky enough Brady is a BIG TV kid, that's actually how we met. Ever since I joined CBTV and got involved in the club, I met Brady through one of the Live Events we do which are Lighting Oscars and ever since then him and I have been the best of friends for a while now. I always love reading his scripts and watching his work, so I only thought it was fair for him to watch over it and give me some feedback. 

    After he watched what I had so far, he pointed out some good points. During the scene where Summer and Ana first meet and are mesmerized by one another, he thought there could be more sequencing. The idea of first showing close up of the face and then a close up of the eyes would have been a better way to indicate the intensions between the 2 characters. So I did, I changed some of the order of the sequence for it to match better and it actually made it look a lot better. I also believe it improved the pacing of the moment as a whole. 

Changes and More!

  I also changed some of the beginning shots of the montage mainly because they unsatisfied me but overall, I still need to film the last couple of shots I need for the montage this week which I can do during 6th period (study hall) and lunch. 

    I am very happy with the way my project is turning out and I am so glad we didn't have to reshoot anything because. that. would. have. been. a. pain. 

    I can't wait to finish the overall product but, in the meantime, I am going to be working on my CCR in order to fully finish the amazing progress of this long-term exciting project.

    

Thinking about CCR

 Spring Break Really is My BREAK Break. 

        As I have mentioned in the last couple of blogs, I have recently just come back from my competition trip to Long Beach, California! Although this trip was a literal rollercoaster because of the number of things happening between competitions and the crew as a whole, the minute I came back to Florida life has literally thrown me off completely. I have never had the worst jet lag of my life waking up from 2pm in the afternoon to going to sleep at 3 in the morning because of the time difference in California. 

        Needless to say, I have been using some of my time to focus on my project and all the missed work I need to make up for my other classes along with helping out some of my friends in other AICE Media classes that are in the process of making their own films. 

 

    In addition, I have also just been selected as Vice President of Cypress Bay Television Club which has me extremely pumped but there have been some mishaps since that has been announced making my life filled with a lot of unnecessary problems that will hopefully soon be resolved.  But my point is, I have been trying my hardest to continue to work on this project which gets me to my next part of today's blog, my CCR progress. 

CCR

        I have been having some hardships structuring my CCR since this year I need to create 2 pieces of media instead of one. I know I said I was going to do a talk show as my second piece of media but, I think I am just going to do 2 director commentaries as kind of a Part 1 and Part 2. I have been thinking about the first 2 questions as whole: 

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

How does your product use or challenge convections and how does it represent social groups or issues?

    To answer this question, my film uses convections from the genre of Romance by focusing on the passion, emotion, and the affectionate romantic involvement of the main characters. The Romance genre can focus on many different conflicts which can make it fall under the genre but, their conflicts mainly include obstacles of family resistance, discrimination, and the inclusion of another love interest. It represents both social groups and issues by introducing the LGBTQ+ community. 

    In my film, the main to lovers are Ana and Summer which are both shown as female representers of the LGBTQ+ community as their sexualities are shown within the film. Throughout many years, this community has been bashed and discriminated in many ways, myself included, which is why it was very important to me to show this love in a positive light and represent this community as a place of acceptance and salutation. 

I Love Color

 Color Color and More Color

        

   

    During post-production, I replaced the effect that I was planning to use and decided to use the theory of color instead. In order to do this, I used an adjustment layer on top of the scene where Ana and Summer have really intense eye contact. 

    I mainly used the color pink to indicate the romantic feelings that started to develop within the two characters. Also, I added music in the background kind of indicating how this moment blocks out everything else around them. With the use of nondiegetic music, it creates a bigger tension within the characters showing the viewer that there might be a possibility between the two of them. 

Final Music + Credits

    After debating and trying out different soundtracks with the film, I have chosen a song that I believe matches well with the concept I want to start my film with. I have also started my credits, but since I don't have all the clips I need for the first couple seconds of my film, they will probably be moved around from the original position I put them on. 

[FREE] Indie x Bedroom Pop x Alternative Rock Type Beat - "Better Off" - YouTube 

Fonts Fonts Fonts

 Decisions, Decisions

        

As it's getting closer to the deadline, I have started thinking of what types of font I want for my credits. 

One of the main things that need to be included into the credits is the Director, Writer, Editor, Cinematographer, and the main actors.

For obvious reasons, I will be the main credits since I have been working alone for the majority of the project, but of course I will be mentioning my main actors which are Natalia Szabo, Martin Rosario, and Victoria Chamorro. My main struggle lately is finding a font that matches with my final font for the tittle of my film.

Since the tittle is yellow, I will be making most of the credits around the same tone of yellow but to the point where you can actually read it because yellow can be a little hard to see on screen. 

I will be trying out different things specially once I finish getting all the montage shots of the beginning of my film.

I Hate Copyright

 Changes

        Due to the fact that I have been gone for the last week for my CBTV competition, I have had no time to really focus on my film. But I did get to rethink some things during the trip. Since this opening is due very soon and I honestly want to get as much stuff done as possible, I have decided to change the idea of copyright music out and turn to my good old friend YouTube for help.

        I have been looking on YouTube for the last week different types of songs, beats, and music in general I would like for the beginning of my opening film.

[FREE] Indie x Bedroom Pop x Alternative Rock Type Beat - "Better Off" - YouTube

[FREE] Indie x Bedroom Pop x Alternative Rock Type Beat - "Searching" - YouTube

Here are some of the songs I am thinking of becoming the song for my film opening, I will still search more and more songs to find the perfect fit but until then, on to more changes. 

Effects:

I am rethinking the idea of adding this special graphic within my film. Due to struggles of time and not knowing if I will have enough time to edit a good graphic I am satisfied with, I have decided that I might play around with coloring as an effect to show the intimate moment between my 2 characters instead of a graphic. 

Although I would have loved to have this within my opening, I believe it will make the film better without it, and by using color it will represent my idea better than how it would be interpreted with a star.

Music fills My Soul

 Stay Tuned

   

         For my film opening, I wanted to incorporate as song for the montage that shows the fun, exciting, and welcoming environment of the school in general. I've been listening to a lot of music lately and these are the songs that I was thinking about, the biggest problem is copyright. I have already contacted Baby Queen, so I am currently waiting for a response, but I still have to contact Peace. Depending on which response I get first, I will choose either song for my opening but, if I don't get a response on time, I will find other music for the film. 

YouTube>>>

        I have also been listening to non-copyrighted music on YouTube this whole morning, and it was lowkey really hard to find the song that matched the scene the most to my liking. It usually is an easier task specially for other projects I have done in CBTV, but for this I wanted to be even more picky about the song for this scene. 

Clare Griffiths - Love At First Sight (wedding promo) (VLOG MUSIC - No Copyright) - YouTube

Cinematic Documentary Romantic by Infraction [No Copyright Music] / Lovely - YouTube

Relaxing Music for Meditation. Calm Background Music for Stress Relief, Sleep, Yoga, Massage, Spa - YouTube 

        These were some of the options I found on YouTube, I am leaning towards the last one the most because I believe it fits the scene the best for the idea, I had in mind but I am still going to be looking for more music or even make my own music since I have a guitar at home. 

Almost Spring Break

 Editing/Retakes

        

    

    Ever since we filmed on Thursday, I have started the editing process a little earlier because I wanted to give myself enough time to make it look exactly like I want. So far, it's been pretty good but some of the shots, and scenes need to me refilmed because some of the shots are a little shaky, overexposed, and really just not to my liking. 

    I will say though, first day of filming was completely a success and it turned out a lot better than I thought considering the time crunch we were on. Currently, I am at 1 minute and 41 seconds of the opening. At first, I was a little scared because I thought we needed to reach the full 2 minutes but, after watching some examples I realized that it's okay to be a little under the time. I will still check with my advisor to see if I am correct though. 

I am planning to refilm the last couple shots either next class or after spring break due to the fact that I will not be here most of next week, I just need to confirm with my cast that they are available to reshoot.

The Struggle is REAL!!

 

Due to the fact that it is almost spring break and competition season, school has been a little bit of a wreck. My teachers have been assigning a lot of homework, test to study for, etc. making it a little hard to fully focus on this project. 

Not to exclude the fact that my crew and I are leaving to national competition next week which will also limit my time on the progress of my project. However, I will try my best to continue my work and create the best film opening possible to my standards. 

Day One of Production

 Filming!!

        Today was the official first day of filming!! To be completely honest it did not go as planned but I still think the crew did an amazing job specially in a time crunch. 

During my second class of the day, I met up with my friend Tyler who was a huge help with my opening, with his drone and after speaking with security, we got the chance of filming the top of the school with his drone. It was such a cool experience seeing how it works and making the shots look amazing!

One struggle we did have though was the transferring of the videos. Since the files of the videos were HEVC instead of MP4s, I had to pay the difference in order to get the footage to put into my project, and as a current student who does not have the best financial situation it was a bit annoying having to pay to get the footage but, anything for this project. 

Later on, during my third class of the day (AICE Media) I was set to start filming with my cast, I had all my equipment ready to go as soon as I walk into class but then our advisor informs the class about an assignment that needed to be finished by the end of the class period. I'm not going to lie it did make me a little stressed because it meant we were on a time crunch as I mainly planned for this to be the only day filming with my crew but once all of us finished our assignments, we had enough time to film the scenes and hopefully there will be no retakes (depending on how the overall shots look).

For this scene I ended up using the Mark 4 Cannon Camera from CBTV and a tripod, here are some of the behind-the-scenes footage!! 

Postponed Production

 Change of Plans!

        Last class, my cast and I were planning on having our shooting day, but what I did not realize (partly my fault because I did not check the syllabus) is that we had a lesson the CCR for the entire class period, resulting in us not having enough time to film pretty much anything. It made me a little sad that I did not get to film but, I was glad to have learned the different ways I could create my CCR since it was a little confusing on how we were supposed to do this. 

CCR Ideas! 

        There are 5 different ways I could create the CCR. A presentation with a voiceover which in my opinion is a little boring specially since this part of the project is supposed to be creative (hinting the name), a director commentary, a talk show, podcast, or something different. After watching some examples of different CCR's in class and really understanding how to create them or what they look like I'm leaning towards 2 ideas. 

        Since Cambridge is asking for 2 pieces of media for this reflection, I was thinking of doing a director commentary for the first two questions and a talk show for the third and fourth question. I believe a director commentary towards the first two questions would fit best since they do go more in depth about the film and the choices made when creating it. However, I am still trying to figure out how I want to answer the question in a creative manner, obviously Broll will be used but the idea of answering the questions through like a letter (example shown in class) or other mediums would make it more interesting. 

        The idea of the talk show seems very interesting to me since I get to play around with Mise-En-Scene when developing the "talk show" set. I still need to find my host which will probably be my dad or my brother but for now, I will mainly focus on writing my script and fully developing the idea of both videos, so they are under 10 minutes combined. 

Filming Schedule Altered: 

        Since the next class we will be doing a visual analysis our production days will be postponed until after the exam, hopefully filming goes smoothly and there aren't many obstacles along the way.

I LOVE Props

 Major Props in Opening

        

        The two main props that I will be using for my opening is the Anas Photography Class Flyer and Summer's Schedule. Since the opening is mainly based on the meeting of the 2 characters, these two props are key to the point of them meeting. In the storyboard, the significant moment of them really connecting with each other is after they pick up these papers from the floor. I found it important for the props to look realistic since my film is mainly contains formalism elements of a school environment. 

Effects Change: 

For the animations of my project, I decided to change it from butterflies to a shooting star. The main reason this changed occurred was because I realized I am not as advanced in After Effects as I thought and animating a butterfly is very difficult, so I turned to something simpler for my level.

I chose a shooting star to make a connecting between the meeting moment and the tittle of the film. Falling in love feels like a spark is growing in you and I believe watching a shooting star relates a lot to those feelings, speaking from personal experience.  

To create the effect of a shooting star flying through the air you need to use the pen tool to create a pathway (Shape Layer) of how you want the star to fly. After creating the path you have to copy and past the keyframes of the path to the object that you want to animate in order for the object to follow the path exactly as created. Once the object follows the pathway, you just need to keyframe the object to your liking in order for it to look more realistic. 

First Day Tomorrow!!

I am so excited to work with my incredible cast tomorrow on our first day of filming!! On my next blog post I will be giving an update on the production process and how the first day of filming went!!