That's A Wrap!

     And with that, it's over! I can't believe I actually did it! Overall, I think this project was a huge success for me. Not only did I largely improve over the past seven weeks, but I am happy with my final results and I am proud to say that I completed this project.

    For this final reflection, I'll go step by step to specifically talk about each thing I had done for this project. 

    First thing the class did to prepare was a TON of research. I put a lot of extra time and ca

re into my research to make my project the best it could possibly be. Although I came into the class with little to no experience with anything to do with film, I knew that me being in theatre would give me some sort of advantage when it came to research and script writing. I did research on genre, film openings, credits, and conventions; techniques, lighting, sound, mise-en-scene; and topics that I knew would be important for my film. The number one thing I knew I had to research was genre conventions, though. The genre I picked is generally uncommon, so I had to have a few commonly used conventions for Psychological Dramas to make it clear that's what it was within the opening. While doing this research, I also noticed there were plenty of conventions I wanted to avoid so I could get my point across within the two minute time limit.

    Next, It was production time. This is when I realized just how fast time started to move. I was set back during this time since my entire cast wasn't able to film on the original film date so we had to move the date back multiple times until we found a good day. This had also pushed back my editing, which I was worried about but that wouldn't even be the worst post-production issue I ran into. Anyways, during production I realized how much effort needs to be put into lighting elements for my film. Luckily, I had a hunch this would happen so beforehand I purchased two lights on tri-pods and a sunset lamp to help me get the exact lighting looks I wanted. This filming process went super smoothly since my actors are used to performing and needed little direction on how to play their parts, so any mistakes made were easy fixes and were usually just people forgetting lines.

   

    Then, I had to edit. Here is where all my trouble came in. I was doing perfectly fine for about a week, then all of my editing got completely deleted. I don't know how his happened or anything but there was nothing I could do about it, I had to start over. This time, I was more careful and saved my project every time I was done editing for any amount of time. This was definitely the most stressful time of the project but I was happy with the results, and even more happy that this part was over.

    CCR's were next! This honestly had to be my least favorite part of the project. I'd say I'm a creative person, but I had literally NO ideas for this portion of the project. After a while of brainstorming with my friends, they helped me come up with the ideas of two things I am super interested in, DC and Theatre. The first CCR I did was a mock-audition where I pretended I was auditioning for a role in a play or musical and the director was asking me questions about myself (or rather the film). I really liked editing this CCR over the other one since this was more like editing a film which I was used to. The second CCR was a street interview style video, but I incorporated some DC elements into it to make it different and more person to me. This one, though, was such a pain to edit since there was a LOT more work to be done.

    Looking back, I'm pretty upset that it's over. Yet I'm definitely also very relieved. I guess it's bittersweet for me, since this is one of the most challenging yet helpful projects I've ever taken on, and it has genuinely pushed me to look into some careers in film.