Monday, February 13, 2023
Portfolio Project !
Portfolio Project Schedule
Throughout the next ten weeks I will have to stay on track to complete my Portfolio Project in an orderly fashion. For this reason, I have created a Schedule to keep me on track. Here it is:
Week One:
-Choose Project Type
-Do Require Blog Posts (+more)
-Begin to research
-Start developing an idea, plot, etc.
Week Two:
-Research on common conventions used within the genre
-Search for music/cast members for production
-Blog Posts
Week Three:
-Develop a solid final idea for my production
-Start filming/obtaining b-roll shots
-Blog Posts.
Week 4:
-Research more shot ideas for my project
-Continue production/filming (starting to film interviews)
-Blog Posts
-Get behind the scenes footage for Blog posts
Week 5:
-Create the social media page
-Finish Filming
-Blog Posts
Week 6
-Post Production (editing)
-Compiling all clips and putting them in the order in which I want
-Continuing to add to social media pages.
-Start writing small magazine article
-Blog posts
Week 7
-Continue editing production(hope to finish)
-Work/Finish magazine article
-Post on social media
-Blog Post
Week 8
-Start research for Critical Reflection
-Post to social Media
-Blog posts
-Review entire project for any errors (if any fix them)
Week 9
-Post to social media
-Compile entire project into on file
-Create CCR
-Blog Posts
Week 10
-Reflection of the entire project.
-Post final blog posts
-Post Critical reflection
-Submit Project.
Monday, December 12, 2022
Critical Reflection!
In the documentary “JAGGN”, my group and I aimed to capture how life is in a high school band through the multiple personalities within the band JAGGN. It includes the good, bad, and funny moments within this band and aims to give the viewer a complete and rounded look on this type of unique experience.
Before we began any sort of production, we had to research specific techniques that we could use in our documentary to make it as good of a product as it can be. When researching, we discovered one of the main conventions of a documentary we could use were montages. We knew that if we could create a montage good enough in the beginning of our documentary, it could help immediately set the tone for the rest of the film. Music also played a huge factor in our documentary, not only because it could help us set a vibe, but we also discovered that we could use the band's music to show our audience their product to help give them a deeper understanding of the band. We came to the conclusion that the combination of these two commonly used elements in documentary production could help us introduce the band while setting a tone for our film simultaneously.
As a rockumentary about a highschool band, It was immediately obvious to us what our target audience would be. That being mostly highschool students ranging from the ages of 14-18. We also figured that our target audience would predominantly be male teens. We made sure to include humor into this film. There are some characters in the band which helped build this humorous element we aimed for. Whether it was the band members messing with each other mid-interview or them trying to explain to the camera what the name JAGGN means, we thought that these types of humor techniques and elements helped cater to our target audience. Other things like us showing clips of the band performing at a highschool party and homecoming also bring a connection to our teenage audience.
The main social group represented in the JAGGN documentary were high school students. Representing them was almost inevitable in this film as the band we were filming and interviewed consisted of 5 teenagers. In the documentary, we tried to display the raw nature of the members in this band. We decided not to provide very professional interviews for a reason. We included the moments when members that weren't being interviewed talked in the background and them laughing and having a good time to show you what it's like to be surrounded by all of your friends in high school. Going back to the clips of the band performing, they also represented what brings joy to a lot of highschoolers. We included videos of the crowd partying, dancing, and simply being teenagers to show a form of representation. The atmosphere of these videos also was a big symbol of teenage life in high school as they took place at homecoming and a highschool party. I think our documentary successfully developed a sense of representation but could have been done better if we put more thought into representation in the planning stages.
Through our research, meticulous decisions on techniques and elements, and making sure that our project represented and catered to our target audience, I believe that we gave our audience a better look on what life is in a highschool band. We aimed to give the audience a look past the surface level and really show them the characters of each member in this band and how their dynamic nature makes them into the band JAGGN.
Saturday, December 10, 2022
JAGGN (production and editing)
After our planning, we started production. I unfortunately couldn't be at the filming of the interviews and some of the B-Roll shots due to personal reasons but my other two partners (Jack Sussman and Jack Leventhal) did an amazing job. The interview and some of the B-Roll shots were filmed at a member of the band's house in which they all seemed cooperative and easy to work with for most of the time.
After the filming part of production, we also gathered clips we filmed from other occasions (live performances, raw footage, etc.) that we would incorporate as B-Roll footage in the documentary. We began our editing phase in class after we filmed. The editing was definitely the longest process from the amount of footage we had to cut down, review, and put in the precise order we envisioned. We also encountered a couple technical difficulties with our editing software but eventually persevered.
JAGGN (pre production)
It all began with our planning in class. After many different ideas, we landed on one that we thought would work great. We had a close friend in a school band called “JAGGN” and from there on we decided to make our story about them. Before any production, we planned the majority of our b-rolls and made a small outline to prepare ourselves. This was done in the matter of two classes knowing we did not have an extensive amount of time.
Monday, December 5, 2022
Monday, April 4, 2022
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Making My CCR
For my CCR, I decided to start off by making a script for each question we were required to answer. It is obvious that without a script, the quality of my CCR would be extremely poor compared to if I were to use one. The script took about one hour to write as I made sure I answered every question given and also made sure to add every detail necessary. When it came to deciding what i'm going to edit my CCR on, I decided to go with Canva. I decided to use Canva because of the many options you are given with the video editor version. You are able to add music, pictures, videos and more into any production you want.
Filming my CCR was fairly smooth and only took a couple takes. One frustrating bump in the road was when I was in the middle of filming and It stopped all of the sudden because my storage was full. This happened a couple times. A quick solution to this was just to use my dad's iPhone and send the videos to my laptop. From there on, I could just edit those clips into my CCR.
Saturday, April 2, 2022
Filming Process
I planned to only take a day or two to film my entire opening scene for Scrow. Lucky for me, It only took me one night to film the majority of my shots! Those shots being the victim cleaning up the kitchen, turning off the TV, closing the door (without locking it :) ) and more shots that display the chores done by the person before falling victim to Scrows terror. Most shots only took a couple takes and took me an overall 1-2 hours to shoot the entire opening scene. I shot the entirety of my film with an iPhone 11 and had ZERO problems with recording. Although the quality isn't top notch, it definitely gets the job done with 4k and HD options. If anything, It is quite impressive how such a good camera can be compacted into such a small device. I was also lucky enough to find a dedicated actor who did me a HUGE favor by contributing to my film. So for that, I would like to introduce you to my main actor (who played the victim) Deniz Izak. Deniz:
Deniz was very good at knowing what I wanted in each scene. He did not try to do anything obscure and followed the exact script and directions. I genuinely appreciated this because it not only made the overall scene well executed, but also made it so we could film this as quick as possible without wasting much time at all. The quick filming gave me more time to do things such as editing. So I would like to give a HUGE thanks to Deniz.
Shots Updated
Shot 1: Shot of house from the outside.
Shot 2: Shot of Room right before the entrance of the kitchen. (Credits/Movie Label)
Shot 3: Shots of victim cleaning up kitchen beings. *Music plays continuously*
Shot 4: close tight shots of persons face focusing on cleaning up kitchen *Music plays continuously*
Shot 5: More shots of cleaning up (Different Angles of the room) *represents almost as if the person is being watched (which he/she is)
Shot 6: Grabbing TV Remote
Shot 7: Shot of victim turning off TV with the remote.
Shot 8: Shot of victim closing the Door.
Shot 9: Shot of "LOCK ON/OFF" switch showing "OFF". This represents that the door is unlocked.
Shot 10: Shot of victim turning off lights.
Shot 11: Shot of Scrow
END