So now that we got the talk of the News Report contest out of the way, let's talk about my required assignment for Cambridge.
The Plot
So basically I thought the last blog was about the News Report but Mrs.Ortiz told me it wasn't and it was actually supposed to be about this 2 minute final decision video, so I'm just using this blog to talk about it instead. Our final people in our group is going to be Savannah, Adrian, Me, and Amaris because so far that's what's been working best for our group and our outcomes for video assignments. Our group wants something along the lines of Horror,
1. because it's easier to think of a plot
2. that's all we've been doing for our videos
3. horror is what we are most interested in
So now that I gave your our 3 reasons, our scene opening is most likely going to be close to what happened in our last film The Watcher. That film did really good comment wise and we got many compliments from Mrs.Ortiz about the video, so we're leaning towards something along the lines of that. I'm going to be honest and say that I really don't know what our group has decided on because we have so many great ideas, but one of the ideas would probably be a sequel to The Watcher and cut to a scene of the girl that was captured fighting the guy and running, then ending up full of blood (fake blood obviously) on the road. The only problem I think we'll have with that is trying to find fake blood since it's nowhere near halloween, but I think we should be okay! Our group is super excited to see this film come to life, and most importantly it has to be perfect for Cambridge, and I can't wait to see what they think of our progress as far as blogs, video assignments, and technique for these films.
This blog is going to be about our groups final decisions about, basically everything; from who's working in our group, to my journey to get where we are now. So, without further ado, let's get started because there has been a lot.
Our Group
Our group will include me (obviously), Adrian, Savannah, and Amaris. Due to the difficulties of Amaris having biology while Me, Adrian, and Savannah have media, make it extra difficult to work as a group. That's why it's important that for this assignment we are going to be meeting up after school, and making sure this assignment is top notch.
The major assignment
This assignment is one of the most important ones we've ever done, and I'll explain why. Our teacher Mrs.Ortiz has told our classes about this activity that Adobe is sponsoring. Our task is to make an AMAZING 2 minute video (which obviously we will) to turn into Adobe. Then, the teachers at Cutler Bay Senior High are going to be rating our videos and picking the best one to submit. IF we win (and we will) we'll have the chance of getting 35 GoPro Hero's. When I heard this I kid you not my jaw literally dropped. I've been wanting a GoPro Hero since they came out, because since me and Adrian go on a lot of vacations involving water, it would've been awesome to have a GoPro around to be able to film our experiences. The only thing about this 2 minute video is that we have to make it a News Report talking about any of the following 3 topics:
Financial Health
Mental Health
Physical Health
So obviously we're picking Physical Health because our whole group goes to the gym, so that's what we're most educated in. Our plan is take this mini mic to the gym with us, and interview a couple people in there, asking them how going to the gym has effective their physical health, what they eat in a day, and what drives them to get up and go to the gym everyday/how often they go to the gym. We feel this will be a winning report just because we have an idea of going to this electronic library that has a camera setup that looks exactly like a News room. Our group is super excited and I really can't wait to see if we can win this, not only for the GoPro's but for the experience of actually submitting our video(s) for others to see, not just our teacher. I know it will give me a ton more confidence in submitting our final 3 minute video to cambridge, AND more experience creating a higher quality video.
My Journey (updated)
My journey in media studies has been such a good experience from the last time we talked about this. It's been such a fun class being able to create videos, and rate our classmates videos. It's been a whirlwind of emotions on the other hand. At the beginning it was fairly boring because all we would do is talk about camera angles, mise-en-scene, lighting, sound, and editing. But then I realized why exactly we needed to learn all of it because now look at the quality of the videos we are producing. The more you know, the better your video will turn out, and that's why I'm so confident in winning this contest. (if we don't i'll be sad but yk it's fine) This journey has made me want to take up a profession in some sort of media when I get older, but I don't exactly know what I'd want to do just yet. I love being in these videos, and I love making these blogs, I also really love producing these videos and thinking of the plot. All in all I really do love this class, and it's been really fun experiencing the making of these videos, and I can't wait to make more in the near future.
It's been a while, so let's catch up! The last few blogs were made a while back. We just got off break last week, and monday was our first day back from a whole week long break. Me and my family went to Universal, and it was really fun. But for me, I couldn't help but think about how amazing a video assignment would be in this type of setting. Specifically the Hulk ride because it has a bridge underneath that shows the roller coaster going above you. There's also a lot of varied shots you could make out of just this one ride. Once we got back from break, we reviewed all of our videos we had made. We had the assignment of making a 30 second or less video (again with no dialogue). We have a quite a few behind the scenes that need some explaining before I show you the finished product, so let's get into it.
Behind the Scenes (BTS)
Starting off, the first shot was going to be the one that's shown here. It's suppose to imitate two girls saying bye after hanging out all day, then going their separate ways. We thought that this shot would "set the scene" of it, but it ended up being to bright or happy of a scene for us to use in the actual film. Adding this scene would have also made our film wayy to long than what it already was going over.
This next picture was honestly just us realizing we forgot to take behind the scenes pictures halfway through filming so we were basically just working out of nothing, but our other group member, Adrian, took more pictures.
A little background information real quick. Our group consisted of these 3 people shown in the picture. Savannah to the left, me in the middle, and Adrian to the right.
Believe it or not, it was really hard to start thinking of this film. Our group definitely had a lot of disagreements during this process, mostly having to do with angles or shots, but we all agreed on having the main focus be dolly shots, because we've never done them before.
A dolly shot is a shot that looks like it's following the character, so if the character is walking straight, it will follow the character by rolling straight.
Now obviously we didn't have an actual or track to be able to do that shot, so Savannah made the camera stay as still as possible while she followed me in the scenes, as you'll see at the end.
This next picture is us planning the last shot that shows the main character getting grabbed at the end. Here, you see savannah and me trying to think of what exactly to do, and this is were the finale dolly shot comes in. So here you'll see the long empty hallway, and how bright it actually is, vs how the editing made it seem very dark.
The Watcher
You may be wondering, "What's The Watcher and why did this girl put it as the subheading?" Well, that is what we decided to name our film. Our film is about this girl walking home in a dark alley, while this guy is following and WATCHING her. And at the end, he GRABS HER.
We made the "dark setting" by filming on my phone (iPhone 15) and by making it so the brightness on the camera was almost all the way down. This was kind of annoying because we had to manually do fix the camera after every scene.
The film starts out by the main character (me) entering the hallway, and then feeling like someone is watching her. So she turns around to see nothing, but as soon as she turns around, out pops this black figure, who's face cannot be seen. She keeps feeling like something is off, but never catches the guy..until the end. As soon as she's about to turn the corner..BOOM he grabs her. And she was never seen again..
Now that I've described the backstory and all the hard work that was put into this film, you can see the finished product.
I hope you enjoyed this film, there's still room for improvement but all in all it isn't bad. Especially for a highschool Sophmore. This film was definitely chaotic behind the scenes, but with the whole teams input it was a great film and you should see many more coming your way so I hope you're excited!
