My Projects: Hope You Enjoy :)

Hey Cambridge people so this is my final post with the links to my projects and there isn't much for me to say I'm just going to refresh you on my CCRs just so we're all on the same page :) CCR 1 answers question 1 "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" and question 2 "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" and my second CCR answers question 3 "How did your production skills develop throughout this project?" and question 4 "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?". I don't think there's anything else to say besides i hope that you enjoy my work.

The following are the links to my projects

"Monotony" - Film Opening

CCR 1

CCR 2

Final Reflection: How long i've come.

To be honest it feels weird to be writing this blog post, this day felt so far away for so long and it's finally here i don't even know what to write. I think that my journey doing my film opening has certainly made me a better filmmaker because this is one of my strongest pieces but i think arguably more importantly i am coming out of this a way better cinematographer because this is the only piece i have done cinematography for that i am genuinely proud of the cinematography. Honestly i am very surprised i have a film opening because of all the hurdles and challenges up until like an hour before i stared filming i was genuinely wondering if i was going to have a film opening it just seemed like everything that could go wrong was going wrong, and then some.

I started this project by wanting to do a critique of the U.S. Military and i eventually landed on the idea of the daily life of a veteran who has returned from war. I hate this idea so much, not necessarily because of the idea or message i still like those and agree with the message, but because of all the stress it caused me, it was literally a production from hell. Everything that could go wrong did, and that's why i hate it so much. If i were to list every single thing that went wrong this blog would be 8 or 9 pages and i mean this very seriously i did not think that i would have a film opening until i finished filming "Monotony". What this taught me is that sometimes when something isn't working it's better to just cut your losses and do something else and my ego and arrogance had me stay on the military idea for way longer than i should have because i jut couldn't admit that one of my ideas was bad and wasn't working, my only regret i have when it comes towards this project is that i should've switched ideas way earlier because i would have had time to perfect every little thing about Monotony because since i switched so late i didn't really have the time to perfect every little thing about it but it's not a big deal because i am very proud of the end result and i think it turned out great and same with my CCRS.

The change to Monotony. The most stressed i might have ever been was the night when i decided to drop the military idea and had to come up with an idea quickly. Thankfully Pink Floyd saved me and gave me the amazing idea for "Monotony". When i was making "Monotony" i also faced a lot of production setbacks as i had to rush all of the pre production because of the time i lost on the military idea and when it came time to film my cinematographer cancelled on me like an hour before filming and he had the camera, tripod and shot list so when my actor the amazing Luke Dierking arrived i had to make up every shot on the fly because i really only had 3 in mind, the rack focus with the broken picture frame, the match cut, and him rising from the bed and staring at the camera so the cinematography certainly was a struggle especially because i have a history of being pretty bad at it. Everything after filming went surprisingly well though. I managed to finish editing the film opening only a day after i filmed and the CCRs went smoothly i filmed each of them in only a single day and by the next i had them pretty much fully edited. Overall i am really appreciative of this portfolio project as it helped me grow as a filmmaker, taught me valuable lessons and overall helped me become better at techniques i thought i was notoriously bad at and now consider myself decent at like, sound design and cinematography.

CCR Editing

Hey everyone! So, I have finished editing my second CCR answering questions 3 and 4 and thankfully it went super smoothly. Since it was a director commentary for most of the b roll i just had the film opening playing in the background and since i talked for longer than the film opening was i added outtakes and unused shots which i think people will enjoy and appreciate to see and when i was adding the outtakes i just couldn't stop laughing because i remembered when i was filming and how much fun i had and how funny it was. Here is a screenshot of my timeline.

I Filmed The Wesley Huer Show CCR but when i was editing i realized it was just ok and i got a great idea for a new CCR. I will be talking as the director inside the world of the film and answer the first 2 CCR questions. It will be very meta. When filming my first CCR i did like 11 takes just to make sure it would be long enough and here is a raw clip of a take

The video quality isn't this bad  just had to compress it a lot to fit in my blog post because there is a 100mb file limit.

For this CCR since i just finished filming today i don't ave the final edit done yet but I already have a line edit done though the only things that i am missing are shortening them to make both CCRs equal 11 minutes and adding B Roll and credits.

CCR: Productions in heaven.

 For my second CCR i am doing questions 3 and 4 and i am doing a director commentary and i am talking about my _ and _ and my inspiration for my project and how i was greatly inspired by the Pink Floyd song "Another Brick In The Wall Pt.2" from their 1979 album "The Wall". 

this is the album cover

I already wrote my script but i also went a bit off script and improvised a bit to make it feel more natural. Here is the script.

I also already recorded my voiceover for the director commentary yesterday and just need to edit it. Here is a funny video that my friend took of me while i recorded my voiceover.

For my first CCR i already wrote my script i am just waiting to film which i am doing later today, here is the script for it i think it strikes a great balance of seriousness and comedy. I am very happy that my production for my CCRs are going so well because i always have production troubles and this is the first time in a while i have a smooth production and not just for Aice Media just my productions in general.

Line edit done!

Since i am behind on filming and editing i spent all day today editing, color grading and doing sound effects and i think that it turned out great. I am pretty much done editing i just need to fix a couple of things but most of it is done.

so..... I FINALLY FILMED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 So after all this time i filmed. I still had a while because at the last second my cinematographer cancelled on me so i had to do it all myself. I still think the footage turned out good even though my specialty is not cinematography and i had to film on my phone. Me and my amazing actor Luke Dierking met up at 4 and started by filming the scenes at my house when John wakes up and we didn't take long and here's some of the raw footage.

After we filmed all the stuff at my house we then went outside and filmed the scenes of John driving and instead of using Luke's car which was my original idea we decided to use my aunt's old car who lives down the street from me because i felt it fitted John's character better. Here is a shot that shows what the car looks like.

After we got those shots we drove to my dad's office where wee filmed the rest of the scenes of John working. Since we had no cinematographer i just had to kind of make up the shots as i went which resulted in so much footage of just John working and the office which will be a nightmare for me to sort through but hey it's like they say it's better to overshoot than to undershoot. Here are two shot because i don't want to bore you with mostly static footage of a boring office.

CCR research

 So to research CCR i started to listen to all their albums and i've got to say that "Cosmo's Factory" is my favorite, wait CCR isn't Creedence Clearwater Revival. shoot. 

Ok jokes aside i actually researched for my CCR and i've decided on an idea, for High Voltage (a show produced by CBTV) my friend Wesley Huer made a segment called "The Wesley Huer Show" and it's a parody of talk shows and i'm thinking about having my first CCR video be about me going on his talk show and him interviewing me and playing up the CCR and Creedence Clearwater Revival joke along with asking me actual CCR questions about my film opening.

GROUP MEETING 2!

 S today was my 2nd group meeting and i learned about group members film opening and everyone did horror except for me 😭. I couldn't get a lot of feedback because i haven't filmed yet but Jacey did give me a great idea which i will use and she said that when the word "Work" is repeated in the final Voiceover that it should match cut to John in various clothes to show him being there a while and i will for sure use it. Jacey's film opening is a horror thing about tarot cards and she already edited her piece and the only thing she needed feedback from was the font for her title card which we helped her get right. Vanessa's film opening was about a dentist serial killer and she didn't really need feedback and i saw what she had edited and it was really good. Vicky's film opening "Manslaughter" is about a girl who goes on dating apps and kills guys and she hasn't edited alot but Vicky is an amazing filmmaker and we have worked together so i know firsthand how good she is so i have faith in her film opening. Lastly Tiziana i really don't know what her film opening is about so i can't really say a lot all i remember is that she wanted to film at a gas station and we helped her get permission to film on private property,

Here is a picture of all of us.

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

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? My piece challenges conventions and addresses social issues because it is a critique of a very fundamental part of society. Capitalism. We are taught to think it's this great and amazing thing and ignoring the human costs of it and this piece shines a light on it and the human cost and brain washing that Capitalism inflicts on it's workers.

Slight change to "Monotony"

 So i spent all of last night thinking of a work around to the filming location and i have decided to slightly change the story to instead of being about a veteran who's time in the military left him soulless it will instead be about someone who's working a boring and sad corporate job who's work has made him soulless and just another clog in the machine. So now instead of being a critique on the military it will now be a critique on corporate America and how it takes away your individuality and makes you just another piece in the machine or just another brick in the wall. I also changed the name to fit the new story instead of being called "Manslaughter" it will now be called "Monotony". To reflect the sad reality of corporate America i am also making the change to now have everything in black and white except for the broken picture frame which will now have a picture of a beautiful painting. here is the updated script it takes major inspiration from the opening narration of American Pyscho where Patrick Bateman is narrating his morning routine.

Re recording the voiceover

 So because of  my story change i have had to change my voiceover and since my crew and actors couldn't film today i did my voiceover today and set Saturday as a filming day since the script has been simplified to basically only be 2 locations i think i can do it all in one day. Here is the final take from the last line of voiceover.

Filming Setback

 So today i was supposed to start filming but unfortunately i ran into some issues. Today i was supposed to film the scenes where John is at work at a grocery store but when me, my actors and crew showed up today we were told we were not allowed despite having gotten prior permission with the manager of that publix. So to work around this i am considering changing John's job to a boring office job because i talked to my dad and he said i could film at his office so i might change the story slightly.