Editing Day Blog

My group has now completed the film. I’m very glad we were able to do it efficiently without any inconveniences. We now move onto the editing process. On my previous blogs there a few points of interest in our video. These would all be different memories. There is a jump cut from when our main character grabs the book and the opening of the book. This will then play into the oversight of the memories. We will have him skim through the pictures, which is a POV shot. Then he finds one and zooms into it. This moves into the vital transition.

This is the zoom-fade. This is where the camera and the editing software have to work in a perfect combination. We will have the camera zoom into one of the pictures, this will be a picture at the beach. Then along with the zoom we will have sort of a minor light-out so that it appears that a picture is being taken. This is probably the hardest part of our entire video. If we mess this up, then it will kill the flow of the video. Flow is one of our main objectives of all of our entire video. We are attempting to make this as professional as possible. There are also a few other transitions that will need to be perfected.

Most of these transition will be ditto to the first. They will contain a zoom in and a minor light-out. There are also; however, some similar yet different edits. This will be the zoom outs of these picture. This will be important as one picture will have to transition to another in the video. After the storyline is completed then the transition will come in. We will have the zoom out, but the picture will start off with the minor light out. Next, we will slowly reduce the light out as the camera zooms out. The final edit with have a jump cut to a wide angle of the husband sitting next to his now wife. Then finishing our editing for the video.

Filming Blog

On December 1st my group and I began filming our final scenes. We focused on getting as much work done as we could, due to the fact that we knew that we didn’t want to procrastinate till the last moment, since all of us have other extracurricular activities which we had to already manage, like soccer or wrestling. On Sunday we were able to get more of the moments which we will be incorporating in the “memories” book which will play a big role in our music video. We got memories of us at the park, the beach, and the car. These memories will then be viewed as our group’s member dad, will be reminiscing on his past, which we will be making the memory that he never forgets about his childhood. This will be a complicated scene to accomplish however I’m confident my group will be able to make it all work out nice and clean. With the right editing I think we can make the photo turn into the memory as we have pictured in our storyboard.

However, this is not the only thing we still need to complete. Tomorrow we will be  capturing the most important scene which is what we will be doing during the memory. This will be taking up much of our night as we need to take scenes at the  few different areas. We have adjusted our location for the memory to be during the “Lining of the tree” in Las Olas, due to the fact that it helps in the idea of making it a night which will always be remembered. To adjust our plans we had a group discussion between all of us and agreed on this idea. During these scenes we will be recording, our group member will have  to use a drone to capture the shot of us driving off in the night with our friends, then afterwards all the rest of the scenes will be used with our group member’s phone since he has a high quality camera. I believe that if everything goes right, tomorrow we will have all the scenes in our movie completed, and we will then just have to merge the clips and edit to have our final overall music video.

If by any chance we do run into any slight inconveniences then we will proceed to deal with them accordingly, and we will adjust our schedule to make sure we complete the video on time. If we can not shoot during the “lining of the tree” we will go ahead and revert to our old plan of the beach. Also we will not be able to use fireworks for the reason that when we went to buy them we were informed that a legal adult of 21 years or older had to be with us when we used it and none of our parents could come. Subsequently causing us to be back tracked and leading us to decide that to save the trouble we would just go without it. Even though we do not have the fireworks we will be using the sparklers and any other props we see will fit along the way.  I am glad I have been able to work alongside my group members on this project due to the great energy and effort we have put into it. I believe this is a great group and our final results will be nothing but our absolute best.

Filming Blog

This past week my group decided that we should film our video so we can get it out of the way and edit stuff if needed. My friend texted in our Media group chat around 10pm on Saturday that we should film on the following day around 4pm. We all agreed except one member of our group. He had left town for the weekend due to a soccer game in Orlando. We kept in touch with him the whole time while we were taking pictures and recording some videos. We thought it was very important to keep him involved as we are a group and we all need to be on the same page. Although every picture looked very good due to our group member camera quality and my skills as a camera man, we had to pick the best ones from that day. Luckily we all agreed on which ones to pick and we didn’t have any arguments over a picture or video.

Unfortunately none of us have a car or can drive, so we decided to invite two of our close friends to help us with the process. They drove us to the different locations where we took pictures and recorded some of our videos. They were also part of our project as we involved them in the pictures when we were playing soccer at the park, and when we were at the beach. We all met up at the park at 4pm on Sunday, we quickly started the process as some of us had to be home early for family dinner. The first thing we did was play soccer and football at the park while one of the group members was taking pictures of us. This part was very fun as we just played around for a while even though we were actually working on our project. After this, our friend drove us to the beach where two of our group members decided to jump off the peer. Before they jumped we all made sure that the area was safe and that the water was deep enough. When we were about to leave we decided to record some of our video and take some pictures at a restaurant on the beach. We ordered a snack so that we could stay inside and we asked the manager if it was fine if we filmed and took pictures inside. He was a very nice man and offered us some help but we gently declined as we could see he was very busy with the restaurant.

After we finished eating we were all sitting down in the plaza talking about our project and all the props we need to buy, and when the next day we were going to film was and especially where. We decided that we were going to film on Wednesday, November 27th, at one of our group member’s house as he lives close to the beach and that’s where we originally wanted to record most of our music video. For our props we decided to buy fireworks and candles that we will use when it’ll get darker, but of course we asked and made sure that one of our parents was available to supervise us while we use this material since we are not familiar with it and it could be dangerous. I believe that my group and I are doing a very good job with the music video because we are already getting ahead and doing most of the work now so that we can finish before the deadline, because if any inconvenience would happen we would have time to fix the issue. I really enjoy working with this new group, and also filming our music video I think is very fun as we get our work done but we also enjoy and have fun doing it. Hopefully nothing goes wrong with our music video and we can finish our filming process as soon as possible.

Story Board

At the beginning of our storyboard it starts off with a adult man on the beach with a book of memories. This will be the establishing shot and it will also be a wide angle. Then, on the next box there is a shot of the book, held by the adult. On this book there is a picture of him and his friends. This is an insert of the book, with the pictures in the book, including pictures at a basketball court or a restaurant. This next step is very crucial to our editing process, as this will probably be the hardest part of the music video. We will lock onto on of the pictures, which will be the friends locking arms. We will then zoom into the picture and zoom out into the actual beach. This will be hard because the smooth transition will be crucial for the flow of the video. We are thinking of doing a fade transition and a color transition.

The next box is a tracking shot from behind the car that we are driving in. This is the first shot of our general flash back scene. We then proceed to meet up with the girls at the beach and begin the main part of our video. We then begin to walk the beach together in the night, this could be adjusted for filming purposes. Then we begin the real fun, the pyrotechnics. The very next square is where we have the pairs playing with sparklers on the beach. This will paint a beautiful picture as the contrast from the sparks and the nights will created that tone. After we have a few visuals of the sparklers, we will have some sort of fireworks like some Roman candles. This will be accompanied by the dancing of the friends. This will be perfect for the music as it is more of an upbeat and party song.

Next, we move into the third phase of the video, which is the relative ending. The first box of this phase is where we will have one of the friends separate form the rest and sit. They will just be watching the moonlight in the calm of the night. We will then fade to the friends coming together to take a picture. This will be a picture that we started of with in the book. It will zoom out and the picture with be in the book. Next we will cut to a wide angle of the adult version of the subject sitting at a table in the beach. He is then approached by the adult version of his date, they are now married and living happily. Then, we will fade to an image of the couple sitting on the beach watching the sunset. Finally, we will have a drone shot of the sunset from high in the sky. Thus concluding our music video.

Planning Blog

In our music video we will have many different locations. Our music video will be based on past memories of a person, so we will have to film in a variety of places. We will first start filming at the person’s house which will be Camilo’s house since he live close to the beach. After we do our filming there, we will be going downstairs to the pool and film there too. After we film in the pool we will go to the beach and do most of our filming their since we have a really big space. When filming in the pool we have to make sure that we are safe before everything. We will make sure we don’t do risky jumps and running around the pool to make sure we are safe. We have to be even more careful when we film at the beach. We will make sure we ask permission to the lifeguard since we want to film a shot there. Our group will make sure we are safe and not doing anything that could harm or interfere with someones routine.

In our music video we will be using many different types of props. At the beach we will use sparkles to shoot one of our scenes. We will use a soccer ball as well since everyone in our group loves to play soccer. Our group is also taking shots in a car. When we film the shots in the house our idea is to show the person that is watching what we like to do with our friends, so we will be using a PS4 to represent that because we are always playing video games together. When we film at the pool we will be using a beach ball and a volleyball. At the beach we will also use soccer goals to recreate a game. We will try our best to make the memories as realistic as we can.

Since we are doing many different memories in our music video we will use many different costumes. When we film at the beach we will mainly be using swim shorts and some of us will be using shirts. Some of us might even be wearing something beach related costumes like a necklace or sandals. When we film at the pool we will be wearing almost the same outfits but with some small differences on the details of the clothes. When we film indoors at the house we will just dress up using normal comfortable clothes that we usually wear at school. If we film at the park we will be dressing up using soccer clothes because our idea is to play a game there too. This project will be really fun and I’m really excited to start filming since we will be filming outside school. We have almost everything planned out and we will try to start filming as soon as possible.

Codes and Conventions

Today November 14th 2019, our teachers, although we just finished our commercial video, they already have a new assignment ready for us that seems very interesting and fun. We have to shoot a music video, and we decided to use a pop rap song called “Rocketeer.” My last project was a success, but I decided to find for a new group because I think that working with new people will develop some of my production skills that I didn’t have the chance to develop in the other group. I’m very excited to work on this project due to the fact that I want to try new camera angles and also improve my editing skills on Pinnacle Studio or iMovie. I think my new group and I will do very well on this project since we were all on the same page when it came to picking the song. Also because our skills are a lot better than when we joined this class and we have a lot more knowledge on how to record a video. Since everyone in the group has extracurricular activities we will have to shoot the video on a weekend. We will try our best to record the music video as soon as possible so that we don’t have to worry about any inconvenience.

My group and I quickly agreed on the song to use for the video. We thought that Rocketeer by Far East Movement, was the best song for our idea for the video. I think it fits perfectly as it has a hype beat that makes you feel nostalgic and it brings your best memories back.

1. In our music video we will be on the beach, so we would be wearing bathing suits. There will be other times, however, were we will be on a basketball court for a picture, in which we will be wearing  clothes for basketball. There will also be a picture that we will be in a restaurant and laughing, so we will be wearing regular attire, maybe jeans and a t-shirt.
 2. In most of the pictures in the book, it will be daytime. This is except for the picture that we will zoom into, which will be set at night. We might use a flash for some shots though.
3. In our music video we will have an adult hat is later in life, maybe a father, that will grab the book an open it. Then the pictures will be of us at the beach or in a restaurant. Once it zooms into the main picture, we will have a few teenagers acting naturally. We will be at the beach playing volleyball or playing with sparklers.
4. We will not be using make-up in our video, as we want to put out a natural and relaxed mood. There might be somebody wearing make-up, but it would be coincidental.
5.  Throughout the video we will be using a hefty amount of props. This could include the sparklers that we are using at the beach. It would also include the book of pictures that will be used at the beginning of the video. There also might be some other props like a basketball at the court, or some food at the restaurant.
6. The video will start off inside of a house, in a room, where the subject will grab the book. Then we will have different settings in all the pictures in the book, like a park or a basketball court. The main setting; however, will be at the beach.

Editing Day Blog

Today in class, we were able to edit our raw footage that my group and I dumped onto my computer, and also on a USB, on the day of filming. Initially our plan was that we would’ve done it on the school computer but I found out that we couldn’t download the iMovie app on that computer. We decided that it was better if we did it on another member of the group’s computer because he was able to download iMovie. We started the editing process, by dumping all footage that was stored on the flash drive to James’ computer. We saved the footage in two different locations, (the classroom computer and the USB flash drive), so it made it easier for us to delete the footage from the classroom computer and use the same footage on the USB. After moving all raw footage into a new folder on James’ computer, we dragged the footage and dropped it into the iMovie app. Once everything was in iMovie, we decided that editing in different categories would be more efficient in getting the best takes in each scene. First, I went through all the film and placed all footage into categories of each scene so that we could see each scene, watch all takes in the scene, and decide which was best to put into the editing area. I did this with all takes in each scene, from the beginning of the commercial to the end of it.

   Once we reviewed all the footage and placed with its scene, I began to put the best takes into the editing area to begin editing. I put the scenes in chronological order so that it would be more organized and the commercial would make more sense. When all footage was put into its proper time frame, we could start the editing process. I began at the start of the footage of the opening scene of our group member using the vape for it to be an establishing shot of her clearly being on school campus  as well as vaping. We didn’t use transitions in this scene because it was the opening one and also we didn't do much editing. During the second scene however, we had trouble figuring out what camera angles would’ve been better for our commercial. We decided that since the second scene is the two effects of vaping, addiction and lung cancer, coming towards the student; it would’ve been best if we used a mid shot to show the effects of vaping. Also, we used an over the shoulder of the two effects walking towards the student. Furthermore, we decided that a transition between the mid shot and the over the shoulder, high angle shot was needed; leaving us with the fade in transition. We ended up choosing this because it would clearly show what the effects were and also it would show the student who vaped facial expression of overwhelmed and scared to really get the danger and seriousness of these effects. With the next scene being a continuation of the effects of vaping walking towards the student, a mood of suspension grows with more intensity as the effects get closer to the student. I thought that the best camera angles for this would've been a high angle that would’ve also been an over the shoulder shot of the two effects gaining onto the student who just finished vaping. This way, the anticipation would slowly grow as the effects gained on the student who just finished vaping.

   For the final scenes of the commercial, we previously decided that it would’ve been our group member, that missed the day of filming, the one to do most of the editing work, with our help of course. In the end of our film the student falls and looks up at the effects towering over her, we used the point of view shot to represent the student. Between the last scene and this scene we decided that the smoothest transition to put in would be a jump cut because it would show how quick it would be for the effects to surround the student who vaped earlier. After this scene, I thought that the best transition for our next scene of my group member and I giving a few facts about the effects of vaping, would’ve been a dissolve effect because it will start a new and different kind of scene. By doing so it made the transition better and a lot smoother. For the final steps of our editing process, we noticed that there was a lot of background noise since it was a regular school day. I realized that iMovie had the editing option that allowed us to turn down the background volume without making it sound like the volume was lowered throughout the film.

Editing Day Blog

Today in our media class we were supposed to start the process of editing. I was very excited for this day as I love working with computers and editing videos. As soon as class started my group and I started working on the computers, after signing in, I tried to find pinnacle studios on the computer offered by our class and school. I couldn’t find it but I just thought that it was a problem with my account so I signed out and let another group member try with his account. After all of our group members tried with the school computers and it didn’t work, we started worrying that we were the only group struggling with the process. Luckily I brought my computer to school and I had the idea to use it so I  decided to start working on my computer. We rushed the process because we thought we were behind everyone else. When I opened my computer I had to update it and unfortunately this took a while. We thought that editing on my computer would’ve been a lot faster and more efficient, but after twenty minutes of waiting for my computer to update we started to get irritated by the fact that we couldn’t edit.
After my computer was finally done updating, we downloaded IMovie or at least we tried to. Our school WiFi wouldn’t let us download this application so we needed to find another source of WiFi to make sure the computer would work. A group member, luckily, has unlimited data so we used his phone as a WiFi source. We finally thought that we were about to start editing and finish our task for today. But when we tried to open iMovie or pinnacle studios, both of them didn’t work. This is when we find out the whole class couldn’t edit today. The programs crashed.
I was very aggravated by the fact that we couldn’t edit today because I was very excited for this day. Since our group member was sick during filming day we had to adapt and find a solution, and I thought that today we would explained her everything about the film and the editing part but we couldn’t because it wasn’t working. Despite this, she offered to help a lot for editing to make it up since she wasn’t here and couldn’t do much for the filming day. Overall today was a pretty frustrating  day because we weren’t able to work. But something I learned today was hot to move footage from the desktop to Google Drive. Hopefully we will be able to start working next class.

Filming Day Blog

Today in our media studies class we got to film for the whole class period with our groups. My group and I chose a 

anti-vaping video because we thought our commercial could have an impact on today’s teenagers and their addiction to vaping. The first thing I did for the process of filming was costumes, we all decided to wear white shirts in order to look more professional. I also brought a USB drive to use it as a vape for filming. I was the director of our group so I had to take care of all the process of checking out all the equipment. Unfortunately we ran across a big issue, one of our group members was very sick and could not make it to school, so we had to adjust almost everything. We made sure that we had the right camera and the SD number card and went down stairs. Before we went downstairs we had to get tape but we didn’t have any in our class so we had to get it from the class next to us.

         I taped on my shirt signs saying “lung cancer” and the other member of our ground had “addiction” taped to his shirt. The first shot of our commercial is our group member sitting on the stairs of our school and using the USB like a vape. This scene only took one take, but we still took more takes in case something was wrong. Not having enough people we wanted in our group, was a big problem. Luckily a student we knew walked by, he had experience with the class as he passed AICE media studies, so he helped us get a couple of shots. I had the idea of adding some dialogue at the end of our video to present the consequences of vaping. The other group member and I talked to the camera about the consequences of vaping and this took a lot of takes because we didn’t know what to say at first and then we started laughing.

             I made sure that there was a white wall behind us to make it look more professional. I then packed up the equipment and the other group members helped me carry it up to the classroom. I started the dumping process before class ended and we finished on time. I also had to help another group that  needed extra people to form an “L” for their media commercial. I figured out how to insert the SD card into the SD card reader and then into the computer correctly. I then went up to the classroom and dumped all the the clips from the SD card onto my computer. I then packed up all the equipment and put our equipment sign out paper in the correct folder. We somewhat had to rush so that the next period could use the SD card as soon as possible. In the end we all had a very enjoyable experience filming. I think our group was very productive. I think our commercial is very educational and it will have a big impact on teenagers addiction for vaping.

Story Board blog

  

Today we began and completed our storyboards in class of our upcoming commercials. Since our commercial is 30 seconds long, each box of our storyboard represents 6 seconds of film so in total we used 5 boxes. In our anti vaping commercial, we will be using several kinds of shots in order to fully enhance the audience in the commercial and keep them interested. Some shots we used were point of view shots, over the shoulder, high angles, and finally wide shots. Although we may have to change some scenes, these are the planned camera angles and movements we will be using in our commercial. During our editing process we plan on using jump cuts to transition between our different pieces of film, the reason being that we want this commercial to really emphasise what each scene is saying.

Editing Lesson Blog

   Today in class, October 14th 2019, we learnt about what we will need in the future to succeed in this class. This class gives us the chance of checking out cameras in order to film for our commercial or music video, but every time we check out a camera, we need to fill out an agreement sheet and put our full name and phone number on it. Also every camera equipment has an item number and we need to let our teacher know what camera we have through the agreement sheet by putting all the information on it. Cameras aren’t easy to use, we always have to make sure they are charged because if we start filming and the battery dies, it will take very long to charge up. Another very important thing that we need to remember is that we must have our school ID to film around the campus or else we will not be allowed out of our classroom.
   Once we are further into filming we will need to create folders where we are going to save and move our work into them. To be able to move our films to the computer we will need an SD card reader and plug it into the USB, luckily all these material is provided from our teacher. The first thing we will do with our folder it’s going to be dumping, which basically consists in moving everything in our folder by highlight all we have and then move it to the folder. You will also need to import the videos and you will be able to know what to import because it will have a yellow check on it. I personally think that this was a very important part of the lesson because it will be a lot easier for us students to keep track of our work if it is all in one folder and it will also help us with being organized.
   After we are done filming we will need to start editing our raw footage. We need to make sure we have every take we took since we will never know if we will need a take last second. We have to be ready for anything, for example our videos getting deleted, or our WiFi to crash, or our computer to break. We have to build our video on AV track 2 and if music is needed it will go below so that the audience can still hear the voiceover, if present. In order to add musing we will have to make it MP3 and then click on “jump audio.” A big part of the editing process is adding techniques that we will learn throughout the years and we can do that “by right clicking,” go on “effects editor,” and then “transition in.” An example of the ending techniques is the shattered glass when a jump cut is present. Ultimately we will need to pick the title for our video, we have to click on “T” and then write one. The last thing to do is that we will have to detach the audio and then delete it before we turn our equipment in.

Planning Blog

   As a group, we have decided to do the anti-vaping commercial. In our commercial, there will be a student walking towards the bathroom, they will then enter and begin using the vape(USB). After their use, “lung cancer” will wait outside the bathroom and begin to walk up to the student that vaped, “death” and “addiction” will follow and eventually circle the student. It will then fade or dissolve into a close up of the students face where they will be overwhelmed with the effects of vaping. At the end of the commercial, there will be a voice over, stating something to the effect of  “After vaping, you may be stuck with these effects forever” The commercial will then end with the warning signs of vaping.

1. Props: For our anti-vaping commercial, we will be using a USB as dangerous vaping device, shirts with labels on them:“lung cancer” on one shirt, “death” on another, and finally “addiction”.

2. Costumes: We will be using a casual, school appropriate clothes to represent the student vaping in our commercial. To represent the effects of vaping, we will be using T-shirts with labels on them “lung cancer” on one shirt, “death” on another, and finally “addiction”.

3. Schedule: 10/10- We are preparing our commercial by listing our props needed, our costumes we need, our schedule for planning, the location of our commercial and finally, the backup plan if our original plan does not go through. 

10/14- We will be creating our storyboards for our commercial to explain each segment in the commercial.

10/22- We will be filming our commercial on the school campus where we will film our original plan and possibly our backup incase the original is not what we were hoping it to be.

4. Location list- For our commercial, we will be filming near the bathroom and the classroom. We will be using these locations as it portrays perfectly where vaping occurs throughout the school day. We may change or think of new places in the school to shoot the video, however, for now we have chosen the bathroom.

5. Backup Plan: If our original plan of using the bathroom is not able to be followed through on, we will switch locations to the bleachers by the football field as it is secluded and could be another place for vaping to happen.

Blog 2

Conventions and codes are used throughout commercials to get the viewer or consumer, more interested in the product. An array of conventions and codes can be used during an advertisement, some being: lighting, music, sounds, and overall story and plot of the advertisement. Each example of conventions draw the audience in more to the actual commercial, whether it be through emotions or curiosity. 

  Conventions are the familiar and predictable forms of media that brands use to communicate certain ideas or convey a desired impression. How certain words and phrases become conventions is through repeated use to the point where the audience is actually anticipating the phrase again. In our commercial, an anti-vaping campaign, we will focus primarily on the health effects of vaping in the long term so we will use the conventions of constant repetition throughout the commercial. 

Introductory

My name is Luca, I’m Italian and I moved to the United States three years ago. When I first got to the  US, everything seemed nice and perfect, and I was living the dream. I was ready to start a new life leaving everything I had before behind me. Moving to a new country isn’t always as easy and fun as it seems, not knowing how to speak the language that everyone speaks around you it’s very demoralizing but I’m very proud of myself for learning English so fast and all on my own.

At the beginning of my junior year my sister graduated and moved to Wisconsin when she obtained a scholarship for swimming. At this point my mom decided to move back to Italy so she could provide a better income for my sister and I. My mom gave me the chance to move back with her, but I knew that if I did I was going to waste the two years that I already spent in the United States. So I moved in  my friend’s cottage and I’ve been living there for a year now and at the beginning it was pretty hard not seeing my mom every day and having her drive me to school or eating her amazing dinners. Eventually with time I got used to it and I realized that this experience is making me a more mature and independent person and I think this will help a lot with my future because this isn’t something many people have the chance to do.

Now I’m a senior and I’m ready to go to college, to start a new chapter of my life, learn new things and meet new people. I think that meeting new people is one of the best things in life because you can learn from their best qualities and also worse qualities so you don’t make the same mistakes. I consider myself a very lucky and unique guy because I can speak three languages and I can almost do anything on my own.