CCR

    Honestly just give me my Oscar already. I deserve it. Just kidding blog! I want to thank you for allowing me to express my feelings since the very beginning of this massive project. If I could go back and do it all over again, I honestly would no matter how stressful it definitely was at times. I hope you enjoy, BOTH THE PRESENTATION AND THE COMMENTARY ARE ALSO MY DEAR CHILDREN SO TREAT THEM RIGHT, I BEG YOU. 

   Anyway, just wanted to let you know I added up the minutes of both because I am extremely meticulous and they add up to around 9 minutes and 23 seconds (WHAT A RELIEF)

   This is finally our goodbye blog. To the individuals who took the time to read through me ranting or doing research, thank you, I really appreciate you and I wish you the best in life!

   Now without further ado, get ready for the best 9 minutes and 23 seconds of your life. 

CCR 1 DIRECTOR'S COMMENTARY

CCR 2 POWERPOINT PRESENTATION

MOVIE OPENING

    Well blog it has definitely been a fun time and I think you are finally ready to view my opening. Keep in mind, this is MY CHILD so please be nice and treat it with much love and respect. 

   

   Thank you for following my journey, hope you had fun!

   

   Click HERE RIGHT NOW to view "Trapped"

   Credits to awesome individuals over on "Freesound" that made this opening what it is:

• thanvannispen: "whispers.wav"
• SomeAudioGuy: "ZappsateliteHit.mp3"
• justkiddink: "Satellite dish2.wav"
• straget: "Thunder"
• straget: "The rain falls against the parasol"
• InspectorJ: "Rain on Windows, Interior" 

CCR process!

   Hello beautiful individuals reading this, today I have another post today for ya! 

   Forgot to let you know but yesterday I actually finished writing my script for the CCR and I also finished recording everything for my director's commentary! First, I needed to pick what I was actually going to do for the CCR and keeping in mind that it is supposed to be creative, as the title very obviously states, I arrived to the conclusion that I would be doing a complex, funny, long, but complete director's commentary (you are going to love this I just know it) which took a little while to edit and the second CCR would be a simpler Powerpoint presentation (too much work on the other one left me absolutely drained so a PowerPoint was indeed much easier as well as shorter, don't worry it is still a good presentation) I focused on responding the questions as best as I possibly could, providing details and all you can imagine from the production itself. 

   Today I edited everything for the first CCR and worked on my presentation. I will be most likely filming my audio so I can insert it to the PowerPoint and finally be done with this overall (not saying this in a bad way lol). Right now I am just basically making sure it is all good before the FINAL SUBMISSION. So excited for you to finally enjoy the final results, much sooner than you imagine.

   HERE is a link to the script if you want to check out what I will be saying in the CCR!

   Also, I do want to comment on one of my previous posts, more specifically the one posted on February 19 about the schedule I would follow. Yeah that clearly was not followed haha sorry about that but hey, it is the life of a senior in high school after all what are we going to do about it. 

Reflection after production!

    Well hello there everyone. Today you are in for a treat because I wanted to take some time to do some reflection in regards to the production of the video overall before I move on and begin to discuss the process of the CCR (be happy because the is a longer post haha).

    To be completely honest with you, this is my first project in this class where I am actually working on my own for a big project like this which was a little scary at first but as time went by I managed to get more comfortable and feel more confident with my skills. Both of my parents were awesome and I wouldn't have been able to complete basically anything without their help so for that I will always be super grateful. 

   One big challenge we encountered when we began filming was the footage itself. On the first day, as I explained on a previous post, we used an old (relatively professional) camera my dad has but literally never uses. The next day when we downloaded that footage onto the computer, we realized it was honestly way too dark and blurry meaning we had to start over again but this time using the phone camera. Also, the fact that I thought I could only film at night freaked me out a little since at nighttime I didn't really want to bother my parents so much because like, they need to rest too you know, so in order to get rid of that issue my mom came up with one of the smartest ideas in the history of ideas. Wrapping my window with wrapping paper. I even took a picture for you to see how it looks because to this day, I have NOT removed it off the window. My room is too bright in the mornings so I simply refuse to get rid of it.

(yes, the only kind of wrapping paper we had was Christmas themed and when we ran out I had to use a heart themed one. 10/10 would recommend if your room is bright like mine)

   Another big problem we faced, maybe the worst one, was lighting. Yes, figuring out how to get a good and clear shot while dark on an iPhone camera was absolutely HORRIBLE  because if we used the flash of another phone the shadow was too predominant on the shot so, after many emotional breakdowns, I had the idea to find a YouTube video of a white screen that lasts like 24 hours. Perfect, problem fixed. 

   Anyway, after filming for like 3 days straight the real challenge started. EDITING. I had edited things before but never something quite as important as this project so honestly, I was frightened. I spent quite literally HOURS and HOURS and HOURS editing but thankfully it all went quite smoothly. For the foley I just hid inside my parents walk in closet like a weirdo and just sat there in the quietness recording the clicking of a pen repeatedly.  

   Well blog, I think that this is more than enough content for today. Thanks for sticking around and listening. We're on the last stretch now!

Moving On!

    Hello there everyone, I have awesome news today! It is official, the video is completed and fully edited.  I got a really good picture of one of my favorite shots with shadows which I will show you in a little bit but before that, I want to genuinely communicate how much I appreciated both of my parents' help during the process, I wouldn't have been able to do anything without them and for their help I will be always grateful. They were my biggest collaborators and I am so happy with the result. Anyway here is a sneak peak of the video since my last post will include both the CCR and the opening. 

   

   This is pretty much it for now. As soon as I finished editing earlier today (I used iMovie because it is the app I feel the most comfortable with) I began the script of my responses to the four questions. It will be a busy week but so far I feel happy and motivated to keep going!

More info and good details!

    Hey blog! Today I thought it would be nice to take my time and talk a little about the production overall. Before anything though, I do want to let you know that the storyboard is completed and I will post  the rest tomorrow, however, I couldn't finish filming everything. Me and my dad were able to get most of it done but we still need to figure out a way to record the attack scene with only the shadows. Maybe we can use a blanket and put some lights to make it realistic but don't worry, I'll let you know tomorrow because we will finally finish and wrap up everything so I can begin editing. A challenge me and my dad faced was definitely the fact that we had to wait until nighttime to be able to record the videos since everything takes place at night obviously and my dasd gets home late from work. Thankfully, the process has been very smooth and surprisingly quite easy. The location used was my room which sounds easy enough, however, I had to clean a lot of stuff out to get the room more plain and let me tell you I have a lot of stuff in my room. I wanted the space for the props I had made that day. Through research I found that to help with sleep paralysis individuals take anti-depressants since one of the main causes for this sleep condition is anxiety, stress, lack of sleep and you guessed it, depression. Thankfully the websites I saw had names of specific drugs/ medication utilized in these cases so what I did was photoshop a label and tape it onto some pill boxes I have in my house. They look like this:

   I also saw a pill box that aids with depression that was decorated with happy faces (a little weird not gonna lie) but I thought it would be a nice contrast to add overall. To show lack of sleep I put some makeup to imitate baggy eyes and for the costume, I just wore a large hoodie with black sweats, but the color of the hoodie, light blue, was used to symbolize depression and sadness overall. Well here you go blog! A little insight on how it is going. Tomorrow I will finish the last scene I am missing to begin editing and I will provide more pictures and behind the scenes so don't worry!

Behind the scenes with me!

    Hello everyone! I just wanted to stop by to share some pictures I took from filming today. Keep in mind that I am filming in a relatively professional camera (by that I mean my dad's big old camera that we barely use) so the pictures may be a little blurry but I think the shots look very cool. Honestly, props to my dad because he is filming everything while I just try my best to act. We work great together but i know you are more interested in the pictures so without further ado here they are!