Creative Critical Reflection

Link to Google Drive: https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7a7xblur9cIdk9SaXVwOHJjSU0

Fighting Innocence film opening

Here is my final product, I hope you all enjoy watching it! I had a great time creating this piece and hope you enjoy watching it al much as I enjoyed the experience.

Link to Google Drive https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/0B7a7xblur9cIdk9SaXVwOHJjSU0

This is my last blog post before my video and CCR is posted, eeek! Although I am relieved that this project is over, I will admit I liked being given the freedom to create my own product was a great and accomplishing feeling. I was able to research something I am passionate about, and that is somewhat relevant to the times we are living in today. Although any children of the world are not directly fighting as soldiers in a war, there are parts of the world where war is occurring and children are forced to mature at a faster rate. Children all over the world, more specifically in third world countries, are facing traumatic experiences daily and having to fight their innocence in order to keep going forward.

Transitioning to a different subject, I do have one more challenge associated with my film, the ending. I have edited everything up until 1 minute 47 seconds. However, I still have one scene where the protagonist is interacting with her brother at breakfast. The scene does fit within the timeframe, but I am not sure if I should include the scene because of some technical errors I am having with it. The major issue I am having with including the scene is the fact that it is too rushed in my opinion. The characters don’t even say good morning to one another, but the rest of the scene is usable. So far, I had my parents watch it and my mom said to add the footage, while my father says to stop the film there. I am looking to get opinions from my peers over the weekend, and I will decide then. As of right now, I feel that if I take the time to work around the mistake, I would be able to include the scene in my opening. Thank you for reading, final product in my next post!

Editing and SATs

It has been a long week to say the least. It is the week before spring break, and also a week before this project is due. Today I took my SAT, which went great by the way, but my brain is now struggling to process information. After that glorious experience, I have to edit once again for who knows how long. The reshoots were a huge improvement, and the voiceovers are working well to establish the somber mood of my opening, which eases my stress.. a little.

 I have also come up with a rough draft name for my movie. Right now it is "Fighting Innocence" because this film is all about child soldiers repressing their human emotion and being forced to grow up too soon, therefore, fighting their own innocence. I like the name and so far it is the only good thing in my day right now. There is a lot to accomplish in a short amount of time, so I will either have a mental breakdown in the next few days, or I will hustle and succeed. Hopefully I choose the ladder.  

Mission Accomplished!

I am very happy to say that I achieved all of my goals for the weekend. I was able to reshoot the mistakes I made with my cousins, and my cousin finally did the perfect voiceover for my piece! Not to mention that I also was able to get the voiceovers for the news reporters! I am very proud of myself for doing everything I said I was going to do, and keeping on schedule. Now, I will have to edit the piece once again, but this time with footage that doesn't make me cringe. I fixed the lighting in many of the new shots, and my cousin was a lot less giggly during this filming session. I am in a very happy and relieved state right now, but I know that editing this beast will still be a challenge. For now, I will revel in my victories of this weekend and prepare myself for the week to come.  

This is going to be a long one, so get ready!

Ok first I will share the great news that was just shared with me… the due date is extended until April 11th! Although this does change my schedule a bit, it takes a huge weight off of my shoulders due to all of the mistakes that I have found while editing. Which brings me to the bad news.

   First of all, I have stuck to my schedule and I edited for two hours yesterday. After editing, I realized that during the more emotional shots my cousin is hiding a smile, or the lighting changes dramatically. That means that I have to re-shoot a good portion of the film. Also, the voiceover that I am trying to have my cousin record is not living up to the vision that I want in my film. And the last issue I have is the news reporter voiceovers have not been filmed yet, I am a very shy person and I do not like asking adults for favors, but that is definitely something that I will need to get over in order to make this project as successful as possible. As you can see, I have a substantial amount of obstacles, but luckily with the time extension, I will be able to fix them.

    I have already scheduled a re-shoot day with my cousin on Sunday, and I am going to coach her. With the voiceover on Saturday, since she will be at my house for my father’s birthday. In relation to the news reporter voice overs, I will either be asking my youth group leaders on Friday, or some close family members who go to my dad’s birthday party on Saturday. Either way, I have made it a goal to get the remaining shots and sound effects this weekend in order to stay on schedule.

    Despite all of the challenges that I will have to overcome this weekend, I have made little victories in my editing process. I was able to find music that matched the mood I was going for perfectly. The best part was that it is royalty free music! Here is a link to the creator of the video, and a screenshot of the video and the rules stating that I am allowed to use the music for my project.

    Let's be real here, I have run into quite a few problems, more than I should have at this point in the project, however with the time extension and determination, I will fix the issues and do this project to the best of my abilities. Until next time!

Rules stating that I am allowed to use this music for my project.

Schedule

After I finished filming on Saturday, I began my editing process on Monday. I will start off by saying that editing is not a strength of mine, hence why I started early. Moreover, I made a schedule in order to pace myself accordingly with the editing process. Since I have AP and AICE tests soon, some of my teachers are increasing our workload in order to prepare for said tests. Without a schedule I would probably end up imploding with stress, therefore, a schedule was the best thing I could do in order to avoid a mental breakdown. Now comes the hard part, sticking to it!