Project Links

 Film Opening + CCR

    For each film, provided below is:

1. The YouTube link

2. The Google Drive link

3. An embedded video of the YouTube version

The best version of each film is the YouTube version, so follow the order of the links in case the YouTube link does not work.

Film Opening

They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not their Own! (YouTube - 4K)

They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! (Google Drive - 1080p)

CCR 1

CCR 1 - KL PODuctions (YouTube)
CCR 1 - KL PODuctions (Google Drive)

CCR 2

CCR 2 - CCRap Battle (YouTube)
CCR 2 - CCRap Battle (Google Drive)

Final Reflection

 It Is Finished.

    Wow, it is finally over. The portfolio project has literally taken over my life. If you have seen the second season of Stranger Things, I'd say the portfolio project is equivalent to the Mind Flayer, and I am Will Byers. I swear this project has been the main thing on my mind for the past two months and has controlled my every thought and movement.

    If you know anything about me, you would know that I approach everything (that I am interested in) with the mindset that "everything has to be perfect." Knowing this, it makes sense why I stressed out so much on all aspects of this project in the aim for perfection.

The Blog

    The blog. Some call it Blogger. Others call it the Blog of Death, Despair, and Suffering. I fall into the latter camp of thought. While it was a lot of effort to keep up with the blog alongside the production of our film opening and CCRs, it was a learning experience in both time management and critical reflection.

    In the earlier weeks of this project, our blogs were mainly focused on research regarding the genre conventions of the genres we intended our film to be about. These blog posts took the longest and required the most thinking, but were also the most interesting to write and highly useful to the planning of our film opening. Specifically, my research in film openings (Portfolio Project: Film Opening Analysis) and the use of color in film (Portfolio Project: Color Analysis in 'Guilty of Romance') helped me the most in seeking a style and purpose for our film opening.

    The pre-production blog posts were also challenging but helpful in honing in on what we really wanted They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! to be, as the blog prompts brought up questions that were essential to creating the foundation for a full-fledged film idea. Later, our blogs became more focused on production and post-production. These stages of our blog postings required less critical thought, but proved themselves to be a challenge in being able to succinctly summarize production and post-production processes using proper terminology.

Film Opening

    This was obviously the most fun part (eye roll, you should have known this). To see an idea become a planning document become a mood board become a script (and so on and so forth) become, finally, a neatly polished film opening is the most rewarding feeling. Our experience in a long form project like this, where every decision must be backed by intention, while not totally realistic (as sometimes art is merely a form of expression without any real meaning), gave me a mere taste of how much thought and effort goes into a formal production.

    Since I have discussed my improvement in pre-production, production, and post-production in my CCR blog posts, I will keep this section short. But, the film opening was a turning point in my writing, directing, and editing skills. Previous film projects throughout the years have seen me improve in short bursts, but none have held a flame to the portfolio project's long-term nature, which led to consistency in practice and therefor much improvement in my skills.

    Getting to work with a crew comprised of all my friends made the process all the more fun. Since none of them were actors, it forced me to really hone in on directing the actors, giving me invaluable experience. It was also a lesson in planning and communication, as getting three people together for a shoot is not easy when everyone has other things going on in their life besides acting as a favor.

CCR

    The CCRs were also extremely fun while being a learning experience. The CCR allowed me to let my creative energy shine, creating ideas for both CCRs that were comedic, entertaining, borderline nonsensical, all while still answering the questions at hand.

    I swear, both CCRs were somehow fully planned out AND fully improvised at the same time. I am obviously exaggerating, but if it weren't for my previous experience with creating the film opening, it would have been ten times harder to create the CCRs in the time allotted to us. However, the production of both of my CCRs were relatively efficient and stress-free, and seeing the final product was highly rewarding. The only really stressful aspect of the CCR was the editing, but this is more likely due to burn out as I feel like I have been editing non-stop for the past three weeks.

One Final Thought

    My longest lasting bit on this blog has been the Jd quotes at the end of each portfolio project post. Some have been hits, and some have been misses. However, I will miss writing these. The feeling of writing a quote after grinding away at a blog post for over an hour (or maybe even more in some cases) remains unrivaled, as after the quote is written, I can hit "Publish" and be done for the day.

    While I am wrapping up this project, I also feel like I am wrapping up my high school career. I am a senior, and this portfolio project has been the biggest challenge I have conquered all throughout high school. After I am done with this, it feels like there is nothing left to be done (besides exams). Now, I will move on to college and pursue film in a higher learning environment. So, I will end this blog how it started.

"I am thoroughly excited for having completed this backwards and upside down dirt bike ride that was the AICE Media Studies AS Portfolio Project" - Jd

 CCR Post-Production

CCR 1

    The podcast took a while to edit...

    My first editing shift saw me working for around three hours, syncing the mic audio, rough cutting the footage in the correct order, and doing numerous passes over the full video in an attempt to delete unnecessary bits and dialogue to make the length manageable. Even after all this, the final rendition ended up being around 7 minutes and 32 seconds. I edited all this outside of the comfort of my own home from 3 am to 6 am as I had no other choice. Once I was home later that day, I sat down for my second shift.

    My second editing shift saw me first fixing the audio levels, as the previous night I had messed with an audio setting that sent all the audio levels out of whack. To do this, I set the max audio peak at around -8 decibels and then manually combed through each clip, leveling most of the dialogue to be around the -12 decibel mark. Then, I altered the audio from the phone to come in when Guy the Audio Guy talks, as he had no microphone and could only be heard through the phone mic. After messing with all the audio clips manually, I adjusted the final mix to sit around -4 decibels, a reasonable final level.

    After editing the audio, I moved on to color, which took only a couple minutes. The original clips were auto-white balanced as the environment remained at a similar light level the entire time. However, I still passed over the clips to make sure they were balanced and just used the auto-white balance tool and manually did the final touches. Then, I lightened up the darker values in the image as the video still seemed a little moody.

    Last, I worked on the titles and sound effects to create a comedic undertone. My thought process was that the nonsensical titles and sound effects paired with the numerous comedic bits sprinkled throughout would balance out with the more serious sections in which I answer the CCR questions, working together to create a podcast that is both entertaining and answers the first two CCR questions in depth.

CCR 2

    The rap battle, while easier overall, did have its challenges while editing.

    My first shift of editing also saw me cutting the footage and laying out a rough draft, which only took 15 minutes at max as there were only four clips to work with in total. One issue I had was that when dragging the footage from the footage bin in Premiere Pro into the timeline, I lost the audio track. To fix this, I used a feature where you can export the audio from a raw clip. I think synced this audio with the video clip in the timeline and linked them, creating a video and audio track that I can edit and apply effects to in tandem.

    The next shift saw me first adding subtitles so the grader can easier understand the lyrics in the rap battle. I then paired some of the lyrics with images on-screen to provide context to some of the lyrics, making up for the lack of depth within the lyrical answers. Keeping with the first CCR, I wanted to go for a comedic tone for the rap battle, so I found funny sound effects on Pixabay.com, which is a free database with sound effects, music, and more.

    The only color editing I had to do was changing the temperature of one clip to match the other three clips. Other than this, the clips are untouched as if taken straight from a phone (which they are). This was an intentional choice, as I was seeking the unprofessional look seen in rap battle videos online.

    The last step was text editing, where I made the titles for the rapper names using a font I had downloaded for a previous video project and the end-credits, which contain credits for both CCRs. The text editing in Premiere Pro has confused me ever since they rid their program of the Legacy Title tool years ago. However, my experience editing the CCRs has taught me how to use the new text and auto-transcript and captioning tools. I have also learned a ton about editing audio, which is one of my editing weak points. I look forward to using these new skills in future endeavors.

"Hold on, I think ya' got somethin' under there. Heh, tickle monstah'" - Serenade

 CCR Production

CCR 1

    Despite the CCR preparation and production phases being the most stressful parts of this project, they have also been the most fun. The idea for my first CCR popped into my mind as soon as we learned about the CCR's requirements. I knew I wanted to do a comedy podcast that would separate itself from other serious and audio-only podcasts. The visual aspect allowed us to incorporate bits (like beating up Guy the Audio Guy and the tattoos) that would not have worked in the traditional audio podcast format, which makes the podcast much more enjoyable to watch.

    But let's focus on the actual production. We decided to kick off filming fairly early in the morning, around 8:30 am. This gave us ample wiggle room to film without the lighting changing too much as we were filming outdoors. I recruited the help of my project partner, Ryan, to play himself as the podcast co-host, and one of my best friends (also an AICE Media Studies AS student), Max, to play Guy the Audio Guy.

    The set design was pretty easy. The setup was in my backyard patio, and what you see on screen is fairly close to how it looks normally. All we had to do to get the look seen in the podcast was move a couple plants in frame and move a table to make space for the tripod.

    The tattoo bit, which ended up becoming the main setup for the CCR questions that were answered, actually came to me the night before filming. To create the tattoos, we just used a Sharpie marker to write on our skin. Yeah, I know, not safe at all. Whatever. I was fine with it and Ryan also consented; no harm was done.

    As for the sections where I answered the CCR questions, my responses were half-scripted. In my post discussing the first and second CCR questions, you will see many of the points I touched on in the podcast. Remembering these points and my explanations, I crafted an outline to follow while answering on the podcast, as I wanted to avoid the podcast feeling overly scripted and artificial.

    The microphone setup was quite simple. My partner and I both had the same microphones (Shure SM57), so we just hooked them up to my computer via an audio interface and some XLR cables and recorded our voices using multi-track recording in GarageBand.

    Midway through recording, Ryan had to get his braces adjusted, so Max and I dropped him off to the dentist, feasted and Waffle House, picked Ryan back up, and returned to finish filming. Overall, the production process was fun and went relatively smoothly. I attribute this to both having everything planned out and ready, but also our ability to improvise and create a coherent piece of media.

CCR 2

    Whereas the overall idea for the first CCR was thought out for a good while, the idea for the second CCR video came to me the day before filming. The issue stemmed from our original idea requiring the actor of the mom in They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! to act in our CCR, which was not possible at the time of film. So, I had the wonderful idea to have the second CCR be a trashy rap battle in which the rappers' bars answered the CCR questions. Despite being quite last minute, I was able to write the script for both rappers' verses in one day. It took quite a lot of work and thinking, but I pulled through. I even wrote a bit of it during a concert.

    The actual filming process the next day was flawless. Filming ended up only taking around an hour, and most of that hour was coming up with a funny intro that would provide context for the purpose of the rap battle. I got my friend Luis, who played the dad in the film, to play his character once more for the rap battle. I also got Max to help once more, playing the referee of the rap battle. Last, I got help from my younger brother, Evan, to be the camera operator.

    The filming was fairly low-tech, all things considered, as we wanted to go for the handheld, unprofessional look seen in all trashy rap battles. It should be noted that the lyrics were too much to remember for a one-take verse, so we just read from our phones. While we could have approached this another way, this further contributed to that unprofessional feel we were intentionally aiming for.

    Here is one of my favorite trashy rap battles, featuring the MC Serenade. This video is a major inside joke between Max and I and is one of the biggest inspirations for this CCR.

    After filming, Luis, my brother, and I went to eat at Chipotle.

"Life is good." - Jd

    

CCR Research

CCR Research: Question #4

Question #4: How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?

    My partner and I were like Tony Stark and Lain Iwakura the way we used soooooooooo much frickin' technology in our production. If you caught a glimpse of us out of your peripheral vision, your brain may have ended up falsely constructing an image of us hacking into the mainframe, or something. Wait, hold on. In order to proceed I need to pull up footage of my partner and I working on this project. Jarvis, pull up said footage.

My partner

Myself

Okay, let's be for real now.

Online

Google Drive: Google Drive allowed my partner and I to share documents (via Google Docs) between each other. This was important in our planning and scriptwriting stages.

Canva: Canva is a versatile online graphic design website that allowed us to create the flier for the Christian community used in our film. Our production logo was also created using a free Canva template.

Software

Adobe Premiere Pro: Okay, this is the obvious one. You saw it in my previous posts. Premiere Pro was our primary editing software for our film. The main cut, most of the sound, and the coloring was all done in Premiere Pro, my beloved.

Adobe PhotoShop Express: This is a mobile app I used to edit the family photos we created for the set of our film. It expedited the process as I have no clue how to use the desktop full version of PhotoShop. PS Express's streamlined and user friendly UI made the process actually fun and not aneurysm-inducing!

Adobe PhotoShop: Is Adobe controlling my brain? Maybe. I am about to use PhotoShop (yes, the program I just talked absolute trash about) to create the poem and title cards that will play at the beginning of our film. One day I will be able to harness the full power of PhotoShop. Until then, I will continue to hold my childish grudge against this godawful program.

GarageBand: This one I know a bit about from my music production experience (which is very little and largely self-taught). GarageBand was used to EQ and enhance the voiceover for the poem in the beginning of our film opening. My partner also used another DAW (digital audio workspace, GarageBand and FL Studio are examples of a DAW) to loop the intro of the song we wanted to use for the film.

Black Magic Camera: This is a camera app I installed on my iPhone that allowed me to alter the camera settings. This brought a level of customization and standardization I could not get with the default iPhone camera app.

Hardware

Modular Tripedal Optical Stabilization Device with Built-In Pan/Tilt Functionalities (a.k.a. a Tripod): Yeah, we used a tripod for a lot of our filming.

iPhone: This one is pretty self-explanatory. If you are lacking a self for some odd reason, I can explain: I filmed on my iPhone. That's pretty much all there is to it.

"Sometimes I lose what little purpose I have in life, but then I remember that my purpose in life is to dramatize and blow everything out of proportion. This blog post should make this abundantly clear to you. I hope it does. Don't judge me too harshly though, even if my blog is an accurate representation of my character." - Jd

CCR Research

 CCR Research: Question #3

Question #3: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

    The project required a LOT of work. A lot of thinking, a lot of revision, a lot of learning new production and editing techniques, and a lot of making things work. The production skills I believe I improved on the most are scriptwriting, directing, and editing.

    My experience of writing our script reinforced my previous knowledge on the scriptwriting process, but also allowed me to develop my own style. I am somewhat into writing and literature and highly appreciate the use of imagery to paint a vivid picture in a reader's head. I focused on using imagery in my scene descriptions in our script due to the very limited dialogue. This, of course, led the script to be unusually long for the very short 2-minute runtime. However, this style works for me, helping me visualize the film before and during filming, and helping the actors understand their role. Building my style will aid in my future screenwriting endeavors as the process will feel more natural and I will be able to put more attention into writing a story rather than properly formatting the words.

    When filming, I did much of the directing, including directing the actors in their performance. This is a skill I previously believed myself to be poor at, but I quickly developed a knack for it. At first, it was hard to describe the specific performance I wanted out of our actors, but with time I learned to find the exact words to describe these emotions and deliveries.

    Last, many of my editing skills were reinforced. Most of my previous knowledge and experience sufficed in the editing of our film, but I did have to learn color correction and the basics of color grading. This can be seen here in one of my previous posts. This addition to my editing arsenal will be a great help in my future solo projects in which I will have to tackle color grading. This was something I had been meaning to learn for what feels like an eternity, and now I can rest easy knowing that I have at least learned the basics.

"I feel like a different person with all these new skills, yo." - Jd

Carmenrequnez. (n.d.) Buenísimo. Pinterest. https://www.pinterest.com/carmenrequnez/buen%C3%ADsimo/

CCR Research

 CCR Research: Question #2

Question #2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

    They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! is tailored towards a young adult to adult audience who are into independent film. Specifically, viewers who are into more self-reflective and melancholic themes and are open to discussions surrounding the philosophy and psychology of religion would get the most out of the film. For much of the film, Belle's story is told without the use of dialogue, as she is mute. Everything the viewer learns of Belle's shifting perception of herself and the world around her is through other characters' words, her body language, and other context clues. The topics of religion overtly discussed see Christianity in a bad light through Belle's perspective and experiences, meaning those watching who have also experienced religious trauma can relate. However, there are also hidden themes of the necessity for faith in a religion in a world that seems bleak and lacking of any real purpose. The psychological and sociological themes may also resonate with many viewers who see themselves like Belle in one way or another. They Lay in a Pool of Blood That Is Not Their Own! will be a disturbing film to some and a comforting one to others, but will leave all viewers thinking about its core themes for days to come.

    The film will be a limited release, shown at various film festivals around the east coast of the United States. The film will be shown in both major urban cities and smaller, rural cities. Both demographics will be able to relate and engage with the film in their own unique ways, but the difference in culture between the settings may see different interpretations of the film, and therefore result in widespread discussions surrounding the film. The buzz created may even catch the attention of larger film distribution companies for a possible wide release down the road.

"Too long is the title, too late it is to go back. Actually no, I love the title and will never change it." - Jd