Creative Critical Reflection

This will be the last blog post that I will post to my blog. This journey has been filled with many bumps in the road, and learning experiences, but I don't think I would want it any other way. After looking back on all my different posts Ive realized just how much I have learned about media and never realized what an impact this has on a persons everyday life. I definitely have. new found appreciation for film directors, writers, editors, etc, because this project was definitely not easy. Creating a film is so much more than just taking a few videos and sticking them together, there is a lot of thought and hardworking that goes into making these incredible productions we watch every day. 

Here are my four different CCR responses: 

CCR #1: 

CCR #2:

CCR #3:

CCR #4: 

Finished Brief

 Finished Brief: 

Here is my completed brief. The name of the film opening is "The Fortress I Call Myself." Since I worked alone on this project the only member is myself, Jacquie Biello.  I have attached it below. 

I hope you enjoyed watching my completed film opening/brief. 

Adding Music

 Music: 

One of the last things I did was add some music to certain clips. This was mainly in the beginning and end of the film opening with the exception of a small clip towards the middle. I decided to go on YouTube and find downloadable music that creators wanted to be used for things like this. It was fairly easy to find a song that I liked that also was a good fit for the opening because it didn't draw too much attention from the film itself as well as followed most music conventions for a coming-of-age drama. Something else I added was some simple fade in/out transitions to the audio to make it sound smoother with the film. 

Here is a photo of me adding the audio to the first clip.

Reflection: 

In previous blog posts I talked about using a voice-over but after messing with it for a while I decided to not use a voice over because I was having problems with background noise and overall quality of the audio itself. While a voice over would have made the film opening even better, I think I can go without using one, plus I don't want to negatively impact the rest of the film opening. Moving forwards from here, I will be posting my completed film opening/brief in my next blog post, and start working on my CCR's. 

Creditors Block

 The Creditors Block:

Next, I'm going to start working on the "creditors block." This is the writing at the bottom of the screen at the beginning of a film that tells the audience who directed the film, lead actors, audio, etc. I did this by adding a text box and sizing it down to fit at the bottom of the screen. I am using white text because it will catch the audience's attention because of how bright it looks against the darker background. I was having some problem with the text because it kept cutting of halfway through the sentence. It didn't take me long to figure out what the problem was though. I just had to make a bigger text box so it could fit all the text since it wouldn't stack. Besides that, one small issue, adding the creditors block was rather easy and only took me about half an hour. 

Adding the Creditors Block

Reflection:

Now that the creditors block is added I will start working on adding music to a few of the clips. Like I said in the previous paragraph, there weren't many issues besides fixing the spacing for the text so there really isn't much to reflect on. I can't wait to see what the finished product looks like. 

Adding Transitions

 Transitions:

Today I decide to work on adding transitions to my film opening. This will allow the clips to flow better make the film opening much smoother. Adding transitions is pretty easy, and it only took me about an hour to get the ones I wanted in. To do this I went to the Effects tool bar and clicked on video transitions. The majority of them are different kinds of fades because I didn't want too much attention to be drawn to them rather than the video itself. I did have some trouble adjusting the transitions and making them last longer. This took me a few minutes to figure out, but once I got it, it was smooth sailing from there. 

Adding the Transitions: 

Reflection: 

The next step for me in the production process will be to start adding the Credit Blocks at the beginning of the film opening. This will include the director, audio, lead, and editing software. I will use more transitions to make them look better and flow better with the rest of the film opening. 

Unlinking Audio from Video

Unlinking from Audio

After adding all my clips and editing the unwanted parts out, the next step was to unlink audios from videos. While there are some clips I want to use the natural audio, there are also a few I wanted to add music or a voiceover too. To do this I have to right click the video file I'm trying to unlink than look for the unlink option. Once I click the unlink button, the video will separate from the audio and make it so you can delete one without the other. Now I am able to add other audios over the clip without having to deal with the original audio. 

Unlinking a Video from its Audio

Reflection: 

Moving on from here I will start putting transitions between the clips to make them flow smoother. I will also start working on adding music to the parts I need and adding audio transitions as well. So far, I haven't run into any problems when it comes to editing and everything has been going very smooth. One thing I also need to do is add the credits block. 

Starting Production

Starting the Process: 

Now that I have done all the research needed on coming of age drams, I can now begin the filming/editing process. Once I finished filming all the scenes I needed, I moved them into Adobe Premier Pro so I can begin the editing process. before I could move the clips over, I needed to transfer them from my iPhone to my computer. Adobe Premier Pro can only be run from certain devices because of the amount of hardware it requires. Luckily for me I have an older computer that can run the software in addition to my smaller laptop I use for school. Getting the software onto my computer was definitely a frustrating process. Due to the size of it, there were a lot of setting I needed to change on my computer to allow it to install. It took be about a good 45 minutes to get it to install plus another 20 minutes for it to finish installing. Once I had the software installed, I could safely move the files form my iPhone to my computer using a lightning cable to sync the two devices. 

Moving the files into Adobe Premier Pro

Moving the Files:

Once I had all the files saved onto my computer using my lightning cable, I was bale to easily transfer them into my new project in Adobe Premier Pro. After transferring the files to the project, I dragged all the clips into the timeline so I can put them in the correct order. This step definitely took me the longest because of the number of clips, and making sure I had the right ones in the right spot. Once I finished moving the clips around, I then had to shorten all of them and only take the parts that I needed. For this project we are allowed 2 minutes of film since it's only the film opening. This step was very difficult for me because I really liked all the clips I had and wanted to make sure that whatever I removed would not affect how the film flowed. Once I narrowed it down to about two minutes, I ran through all the clips again to make sure I liked what I was working with so I can begin the editing process. 

Adjusting the clips 

Reflection: 

Moving on from here I will begin the editing process. In the next few blog posts I will take you through the easy stuff and the stuff that made me struggle a bit. I will also be working on my title screen and making sure the opening itself is visually appealing to the audience. I will be adjusting the appearance of the clips, as well as experimenting with different features provided by Adobe Premier Pro that I have never used before. While I am fairly familiar with adobe premier, there are a few features I have never used before.