Creative Critical Reflection

With this, I proudly present the end of my project and the end of my journey. I reflect on this project not only as something that helped me learn, but as an experience. The way such an experience taught me how to handle other parts of my life such as discipline and planning is fascinating, and I am grateful to this class for teaching me something truly valuable. Here are my CCRs:

Questions 1 & 2:

Questions 3 & 4:

Film Opening

IT'S DONE !!!!!!!!

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1g9Yh_KYO4uZad9qELOLmakdEX5e4lmUx/view?usp=sharing

Special shoutout to Kyle for letting us use his dog.

Plans for the CCR

Although my CCR script is only halfway done with questions 1 and 2 being completed, I will meet up with Zach today to finish both of our CCRs and record our media products. We decided that we would have a conversation with each other for 1 & 2, and for 3 & 4 we will do a solo director's commentary on the film opening. 1 & 2 are very long, and I expect 3 & 4 to be much shorter. Here is question 1 of my CCR:

For question 1, I talk about the conventions of our genre, comedy. I also mention our inspiration, Jim Carrey, and his several roles that inspired us to make this film. I continue by explaining how we challenged those conventions with the consequences being transferred to a normal hardworking individual, Randy Greggorson. Finally, I finishthe first question with representation of economic groups and a smooth segway into theme, a topic for the second question, which will be shown in the last blog post, my CCR.

Editing Software and Process

To edit my film opening, I am using Adobe Premiere Pro. 

I have been using this software for years now to the extent of even passing the certification test for it. Because of this useful skill, and I have just completed the first draft of the film opening in a few hours. Zach and I plan to show the project to my Media Studies teacher, and if it needs any tweaks, I will make sure to change it. Here is the first draft:

The first draft of my project as seen in Premiere.

Even though I did it pretty fast, it took longer than usual for a 2 minute video. In fact, I would argue that I put much more effort into this video than I have with many of my other projects. The intro is heavily edited with moving text, smooth wipe transitions, sound effects for the transitions, zoom-ins and outs, masks, and other techniques that I may have forgotten about. A dynamic, fun intro is created as a result.

The story then begins to unfold...

The second to last blog post will showcase the complete film opening.

Final Day Filming !!!

As of Friday evening, Zach and I have officially finished filming our project. Here are some pictures from that day:

Randy driving to work and entering his house at night.

Yes, we filmed during the day and again during the night; it was a busy day, but we got it over with. We couldn't have done it without Kyle and his annoying dog only following whatever will please his tastebuds. 

Our filming process involved filming shots of Zach driving to his dad's office in the daytime (Randy driving to work), and then driving back home at night, only to find one of his other dogs at home. I made sure to get several long shots, medium shots, and close ups this time, making the film more dynamic and natural. We were going to use Eric's drone for a cool establishing shot, but we worked with what we had instead and got some great shots.

Moving forward, we plan to edit and finish the project by the end of next week.

Meet Randy Greggorson

It seems that Zach and I have reached yet another obstacle. Eric, our "rich guy" actor, has, conveniently, left for a trip to the Keys. So we had to get creative.

Randy Greggorson and his glorious convertible.

Randy Greggorson is a version of Mateo Baldwin divided by 2. He is still rich with his marvelous clothing and his beautiful car, and will always be rich for the film. However, in reality, we used his dad's convertible, his sunglasses, and he has no expensive watches. But that is fine because we will use what we have for the shots and they will turn out great. The only issue is the shots for which we will need the dog, but we are expert wingers and will figure it out. Kyle will, again, be our assistant, and we will help him with his project too.

First Day Recording

We had originally planned to record on Wednesday. However, due to incomplete planning and subpar preparation, we could not record that day, and decided to record today, on Thursday. We had also planned to record the entire project in one day, but that was unrealistic, not only because it may have been too much to record, but also because Eric was not available. As a result, we only recorded the scenes where the two "dumb guys" were on screen. Here is a picture:

Jorge Santana and George Washingless having a wonderful exchange.

Although we acted dumb, we decided to include the detail that it was "Casual Friday" as an excuse for our terribly goofy outfits.

Recording was relatively smooth from start to finish, until we completed the last scene and had to take the dog on a walk. Kyle, our recording assistant, owns this dog, so he went with us and offered us drinks for the walk. However, the dog was very stubborn and didn't want to go back home. In fact, he was so resistant to going back home that Kyle had to walk back to get him a treat in order to entice him to return. We were out in 85 degree weather, in our goofy clothes, with cars passing by regularly. It was an interesting experience, but worth doing for the project.

The dog was difficult to work with on camera too. To be frank, I hate that dog, but we needed him for several shots in our project.

We will finish filming our project tomorrow.