Group Meeting Summary

 Today, March 11th 2025, I had my second group meeting in regards to my portfolio project. I was paired up with my peers and we got to discuss the plot of our films and then show some of the footage in which we have already done. In my group, some of my peers weren't really able to show their footage because they filmed on a camera rather than on their phone, but I personally can't really film on a camera so I have decided to film my opening on my phone. Besides discussing the work we have already done, we decided to all pitch in and give each other ideas on what we could do with our CCR's, as we are all in the process of starting those and finalizing our films. Overall, I had a great time talking with my peers about all the different ideas we can potentially come up with to complete our CCR's, and just overall observing the work that everyone has done, it's great to see everyone doing such a great job with their films and all the different genres and styles I am seeing within all the different groups. 

Post-production process

 Editing: 

-I began my editing process over the weekend and I must say it has gone pretty well so far, nothing out of the ordinary except the fact that I wasn't able to access the Adobe platform for a while, so I just started editing on iMovie right away; putting together the clips which were already finalized in order to not fall behind on editing. I don't want to wait till I finish filming all my scenes in order to finally edit because that would be unethical, giving that I still have a long way to go for the editing process and the deadline is approaching. I will show a photo down below of the clips I have inserted together on iMovie but this is so far what I have for my editing progress. It's time to start getting more ahead. 

Production Process

Filming:

- This week I began filming the footage in which I will be using in my portfolio project, I must say I am a little behind on filming so I used the footage in which I had and began the editing process. I still have some more scenes to film as soon as I can and then I should be done editing it all together within the next two days. I still have a long way to go as I still have to figure out how I am going to edit the credits and what the title is going to be for my film. 

-This is only partial of my footage, but my plan is to piece together the clips on iMovie because for me it is a little easier, and then for the credits I will have to be using Premiere Pro. In order to film these scenes I had to set up my phone camera on the tripod, with my room at very low lighting in order to achieve the contrast that I wanted in my initial scenes, I was a little concerned it was going to be too dark but with a couple dim lamps in the background I sort of made it work, since I don't have any sort of ring light at my availability. In my next blog post I will be discussing editing and some of the ideas I might have in mind. 

Research for #1 question of CCR

The first question of our CCR asks... "How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"

-My product is a coming of age film which represents social groups like teenagers in between the ages of  13-17 and it will represent issues like struggles with mental health, a lack of discipline which affects daily lifestyle and tasks, dwelling on past events and over comparison/being chronically online. My product will use a vague and short representation of what it's like for a teenager to be experiencing disturbances within their mental health. 

-My production uses examples like having a memory wall in which our character holds on to, causing that to be the main component of how she tends do dwell on the past, you can also observe a low lit room that appears to be messy, representing our character's inner state; unstable. My production will also cover topics of co-comparison of teenagers on social media. All of these being factors of what led to our character becoming motivated to slowly turn her life around for the better. 

Production planning #3

Production Day 3:

-On the third and hopefully final day of my filming process, I am going to be filming all the scenes in which my character seems to be doing subjectively better, brighter lighting, different choices in costume and the credits scene. 

- Most of these scenes are going to consist of them being outside during the day time, preferably almost sunset to be able to incorporate that "happier" or more "joyful" vibe that I am looking to add to the end of my opening. These shots are mostly going to be done by filming them myself with no equipment use, it's mostly going to be a lot of zoom in's depending on what looks and works best. 

-There will be a couple more bedroom scenes, but we are going to be able to observe how the room is more tidy, our character seems like she is in a better state overall and the ending of the opening is going to be wrapped up with scenes of her writing and discarding old memories etc. that no longer serve her purpose signifying that she is finally moving on from her past. 

-The final scene as the credits roll is going to be a mirror scene where she is about to leave to go discard all the things she has collected in a bag, and as she is about to exit the room she realizes she left the bag by the bed, and she takes one last look in the mirror before grabbing it and we can genuinely see she is doing way better, she then smiles to herself, letting herself know that she is proud of how far she has come, as she grabs what she needed and proceeds to walk out, now leaving us with an empty room as the credits begin to roll. (the credits of course aren't part of the filming process but more of the editing process).

Planning for production #2

Production Day 2:

-For my second day of filming, I have decided I am going to film all the scenes that require going through my character's quick flashes of day to day activities as she goes through that self improvement journey that my film is based on. On this day, I will be getting other people to participate in my film and they are also going to be helping me through this filming process. These specific scenes are all going to be very short clips as I do need to fit in the whole storyline in the span of the 2 minute mark, but the quick flashes of change in setting and activity is going to be a good representative of what is going through our character's brain on a daily, signifying worry and rushing thoughts of needing to achieve something great; in need of wanting to make something useful of herself as she no longer wants to stay stuck in a cycle where she does nothing but stay in her room and dwell on the past. 

-The filming process for this is simple, I will be filming throughout the span of the whole day with my actors and other scenes by myself, as I just take the camera with me through my day, and the reason why I say this process shouldn't be that hard is because since the film is based on true events, most of what is going to be portrayed are things that I myself do mostly on the daily, it is now just required to properly film them in a way that looks pleasing and can correlate to the plot of my film.

-On this day I will also be filming the writing scenes I was previously discussing in other posts, it is going to be mixed into the other scenes, like I said, all short clips. I will be using my tripod to set it up at an angle where it only shows the writing on paper as our character is using this writing as a way to express herself. 

Planning for production #1

 Production Day 1:

-For the first day of the production process, I will be filming in my bedroom, and with the help of a tripod I am going to set the camera at an angle which faces my bed, as the film will open with my character on her bed. (don't worry it's not going to be consecutive shots of my character just getting ready for the day). For this particular shot I have to make sure the lighting is very dim, almost suggesting like it is almost night time.

( I haven't started the filming yet but here is a reference image.)

I will be filming for 3 days out of the 5 weekdays, and if I don't find to be done, I will be definitely finishing the filming process on the weekend, but for the first day out of the three all the bedroom scenes will be filmed, and they mostly consist of my character in her bed and in different areas of her room either pacing or reflecting etc. 

Editing Softwares

 Hello Cambridge! It has finally come to the time where filming is going to begin, some of my classmates already started, but due to some difficulties this week, I will be starting as of next week, so for now I am going to be talking about the editing softwares I am planning to use for my opening and in the next few blogs I will be discussing the equipment that is going to be used and the schedule I have planned for filming, along with the places I have in mind.

When it comes to editing softwares, we have been taught how to use the Adobe editing tool for previous projects that we have had, so I will definitely be utilizing this tool to edit my opening, but since I am working on a Mac, I have decided to also utilize iMovie if adobe gives me any complications which I doubt, but it is always good to have some sort of backup handy. 

In order to edit, I will be receiving guidance from my peers who are a bit more specialized at editing than I am, but for the most part it is going to be individual; the help I will be receiving will be very beneficial in this case because editing is not one of my strongest skills, but can be manageable. 

Sound/Audio

 Now that I am focusing on sound, I will be discussing the techniques I will be going to use in order to produce sound within my opening. I will be using a lot of the audio that is going to be recorded in real time as I am filming my scenes but I will also make some of the audio in my opening by using foley sounds that are going to be edited into my opening. Some of them I will get from certain resources that were given to us for previous projects, and some I will be creating on my own. I am still deciding whether if I am going to incorporate music or not and what type of music it is going to be, since I still need to look at my options under the non-copyrighted section which was provided to me. A lot of the sound in my opening is going to convey what seems like a "quiet life" as my character progresses through her journey. A lot of sounds that consist of her day to day, giving off a silence that represents a sense of the peace in which she is trying to find within her mind. 

Mise-en-scene element #2

 The second mise-en-scene element I will be focusing on is costume. The clothes that my character will be wearing is going to be a very important representation of the inner turmoil in which she is going to be facing. The costume will be very simple but will still make sure to do the job of representing the current state in which my character finds herself in. Her choice in clothing is going to change throughout the opening and it is going to play a role in representing how she is upgrading her lifestyle choices. At first we are going to see her in outfits like pajamas which clearly need changing, and as the film progresses we are going to see how she begins to make an effort to appear presentable; actually making an effort to try for herself. 

(Example of the type of costume that will be seen at the beginning of the opening).

                           (Example of the type of costume that will be seen towards the middle).

                (Example of the type of costume that will be seen towards the end of the opening).

Mise-en-scene element #1

 For this blog post, I will be focusing on mise-en-scene regarding the lighting I will be using in my film. My mise-en-scene is going to focus in creating a certain mood within my opening based on how the lighting is presented. I will be using low-key lighting in the beginning of my opening to convey a mysterious or sentimental mood and then as the film progresses the lighting will gradually change to a more vibrant and sort of nostalgic looking type of lighting. (I will set an example down below). I will be using the dark blue tones to represent a colder environment that will convey emotions of sadness, and then the warm yellows to create a sense of that inner peace that my character is going to achieve. 

-The low lighting I will be using in my opening is going to represent the emotional instability my character is going to be facing as she begins to find the motivation and discipline that will give her the drive to improve the things that she is doing in order to find purpose. 

-This type of lighting will represent the purpose that my character is going to find as she goes through her journey of self-developent. It is going to convey the emotions of joy and pride for the accomplishments she is going to achieve. Creating a lighter mood than what was originally portrayed at the beginning of the opening.