Reflection on Project

 We have now come to the end of the Cambridge Portfolio Project and I must say it has been a great journey to work on this production. Not only has this project taught me more about production and how to utilize editing and hardware tools but it also has taught me how to communicate better with my peers in order to receive the proper feedback needed to gather up ideas in which I could've used in my opening. I ended up using some of the ideas which my classmates provided to me in my film, one of my close friends Kaylee Conley whom was featured in my opening as my writer helped me with getting the structured sequence of events into place before starting the filming process. I did all the editing on my own, while my mother who was featured in my credits helped organize the setting to begin the filming process. During my editing I experienced a little bit of technical difficulties, as well as with my filming. I had to re-film some of the scenes I made due to poor quality, and during my editing I lost a lot of my progress and had to restart most of the editing portion of my project, causing me to start my CCR's too late. I wasn't really able to produce decent CCR's, instead I just answered the questions that were given with the help of my writer who was asking the questions and I discussed with her my answers, which were the ones I wrote on my previous blog posts. The blogs throughout the span of these eight weeks have also been really helpful in order to organize and plan all my ideas before hand. This project was both hard yet fun to work with, and I am glad I got to experience something different within my academics, something I don't usually work with, something I am not used to, but definitely something that has tested my skills and allows me to expand my knowledge in other aspects rather than just what is regularly taught to me, in a non-engaging matter. It is something I consider different yet engaging, and that is why I really enjoyed working on this portfolio. 

Project Submission

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GIGEffvCz7bm4FwGNKt7XfmbYARiGa1h/view?usp=share_link (Opening credit scene)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11mer5GgvVed7KPgU1pfGP__AJuTHehkn/view?usp=share_link (questions 1-2)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1nG4i2mBgxE0RjK_rAycvL5v_U-ZhS3qW/view?usp=share_link (questions 3-4)

Production of CCR's

 This is now the final week of working with the Cambridge Portfolio Project and I must admit, what a journey it's been. It is now time to produce my CCR's but the only problem is that I am starting production very late. The reason as to why I am starting production so late was due to the fact that I had issues with my opening credits production itself. I lost a lot of my scenes I had already edited and just overall lost a lot of editing progress causing me to fall behind. I managed to get it edited and sorted once again but it resulted in starting my CCR's too late, now leaving uncertain if I even have time to do proper editing for the ideas in which I wanted to incorporate. I will obviously be submitting something, because the questions must be answered, but the production will unfortunately not go as I planned. 

I will be filming both CCR's with the help of my tripod and using the script to answer the questions in which I put in some of my previous blog posts containing content about CCR's. The setting will most likely be one of the emptier areas in my home, since I would like to avoid a distracting background, and I will be working on these CCR's on my own, just like I did with my actual production. 

Script for CCR question #4

 Question #4: 

-How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware, and online?

-I utilized a variety of resources in order to create my film, I tried to intergrate the use of software and hardware into the production of my film in order to get the full potential of working with various resources in order to achieve a better outcome.  I used my MacBook in order to edit my production, as well as my iPhone, on platforms like iMovie and adobe premiere. I made sure to save all my footage on a google drive to be able to transfer it to the adobe platform, but some of the footage I was able to piece together on my iPhone on iMovie whenever my laptop wasn't within my reach. In order to film I used the help of a tripod and my iPhone camera. 

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Script for CCR question #3

 Question #3:

-How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

-In all honesty, I am not the greatest with production/editing skills, so managing and learning how to achieve the end result to this project has been difficult, especially since I am working on my own so I don't really have the help from my peers, which is why the group meetings have been helpful along with the class time we get to work on our projects because I get to ask my classmates for tips and feedback. I can say that I had to re film certain scenes due to the quality on my phone not being the best, it turned out I had to switch the mode to "cinematic" in order to get a better video quality that can be a bit more appealing for my opening, I also learned that certain editing tools are not the greatest when working with a project of this kind, so Adobe Premiere is definitely the way to go about it, since I had originally started on iMovie and honestly it hasn't been giving me the results that I am looking for. At the same time, I also need to improve on my editing skills, because I am still learning. 

Research for CCR question #2

Question #2: 

-How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text? 

-My product engages with audiences by demonstrating both the ups and downs of what it's like to deal with loss of relationships and mental illness. The portrayal of mental illness can engage audiences by offering relatable narratives because of the themes that are shown within my opening of self-discovery, navigating a challenge and being willing to overcome it, which can be potentially relatable to a wide audience. By portraying mental health conditions authentically, these films can help normalize these experiences, encouraging open conversations and empathy for those who might be struggling. 

-How it can be distributed as a real media text is through digital media, it would be online content that can be distributed through social media platforms rather than something theatrical.  I kind of view my piece more as like a short film; something that teenagers can share with each other and maybe it can encourage them to go down a path of pursuing something they truly love in order to find true purpose, and in the case of my character, her passion was writing. Her safe space which allowed her to grow into better things. 

 

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).