Hey Blog!
Here are the final results of my work from these past 8 weeks.
Film Opening: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1x7lXstZOZ70SnMM9sBYiVe6dfMD6sQMv/view?usp=sharing
CCRs:
Interview (questions 1 and 4):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qHlHjfJphnbaq5fUGVTH1o77--Q5aPP2/view?usp=sharing
Packing (questions 2 and 3):
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1MbRMRXtwD1efzSwCv725Ql1Db6SwNyBV/view?usp=sharing
Hey Blog!
So this is it, huh? It's been 8 long, long weeks of working on this project almost nonstop. It's a little bittersweet—I'm so happy to finally be done with it, but it was so much fun working on it at the same time.
On one hand, I don't think I have ever worked so hard and so much on a school project before. Some weeks it was the bane of my existence, especially during the planning process. Sofia and I would sit for hours and hours simply trying to come up with an idea on what our story could be, and once we had it we'd spend some more hours trying to plan on how we could bring it to life in the best way possible. Time would fly by and we'd have almost no progress done, mainly due to our hesitance and lack of decision-making skills, which if I could go back and give myself some advice it would definitely be to be more decisive as this would have probably made the whole planning process so much simpler and quick, giving us time to produce our ideas instead of only thinking them. Managing our time was definitely not our strong suit when working on this project, however, we made it work.
On the other hand, this has been my absolute favorite project to work on. I have never felt so much control and freedom on what and how I could complete a school project. Sofia and I have always been very creative people who love storytelling (we actually met in a creative writing class) so getting to spend time creating our own plot, with out own characters, deciding what would happen and how we'd manage it was truly a dream come true for us. From planning out each shot to writing the script to casting our actors to developing the mise en scene to actually filming, there was no part that I can honestly say I disliked. It was so much fun working with our actors, and it was so amazing seeing them play the characters we had created as our story came to life. It was an amazing opportunity I am so grateful for, and it something I would love to pursue for myself in the future even. I've said this before, but the editing portion of this project was so much fun and it was one of my favorites to do, along with filming. It was incredibly gratifying that, now that we had filmed and created every little section we wanted, I was able to actually put it all together as I worked to make one, continuous video that was our initial idea finally realized.
As I was talking to some friends about this project they even made me realize something that I think is such an important part of my experience. I would rant and complain to them how busy I was and how stressed I was, how I had no clue how we were going to get it all done in time. It was so incredibly daunting and difficult and demanding, but at the end of the day, despite every complaint, and every tear shed, this has still been my favorite project I've ever worked on. This class is one of my favorites despite the stress and hard work I have to put into it, and I think that this shows how much I loved working on creating our very own film opening of which I could not be more proud.
This was an amazing experience that taught me so much about hard work and myself, even. It taught me the importance of time management and my lack of it. It taught me the importance of paying attention to detail and having a good plan prior to starting a large task. I'm taking so much from this project that I am happy to take onto the rest of my education and, even, life. So, I guess I'm happy to say, that's a wrap!
Hey Blog!
My CCR videos have officially been filmed in their entirety which means that now it has been time to edit them to make sure that the video is not boring, that my ideas flow nicely as I talk throughout the video, and to include any credits necessary—either citations to sources used or to people who helped me.
Beginning to edit my CCRs, however, was a horrifying thing to begin. This wasn't because it was going to be overly difficult or that I was lacking time or anything of the sort, it was simply the fact that I did not want to see myself pretending to be professional or serious, but, alas it had to be done. So after procrastinating for many hours yesterday, I finally opened Adobe Premiere Pro back up and it turned out it wasn't such a big deal as I was making it out to be, so it went fine.
For my first CCR, I added name tags that specified my friend's name as she helped me, as well as her role as "interviewer," and on my side I did the same and labeled myself as the director. As I started talking about the genre conventions that we chose to stick to I included a screenshot of the paragraph from which I learned most of my information, and added the citation for it near the bottom, stating that the article and author. When I further explained how our opening used these conventions, I made sure that my answered included detailed moments from my opening where I followed conventions, so, in editing, I included clips of the opening that showed what I was talking about. I included our storyboard drawings and behind the scenes videos of us making our props as I described ways in which we did not use technology and in which we did. Adding one more behind the scenes of testing out our camera, and a couple of screen recordings of how our editing process went, allowed me to make my explanation much more visually interesting as well as detailed as it is possible to see what I am talking about over only listening to it.
Editing the second CCR video went similarly well. I started out my answer explaining the beginning montage in our opening to describe the friendship that our characters have as shown through the colors and light in our film, so I made sure to include part of the montage with me as a voiceover. I did make a mistake in my video where I said words wrong or in the wrong tone, and I tried to fixing them in editing, but it looked bad and too sudden that I chose to leave them in instead to not sacrifice the video quality over my responses, though I think that my stuttering does add to that teenage look I chose as I pretended to pack for college, to tie into the themes of my opening. As I addressed the question of distribution, since this was a very research-based question, I included screenshots of the article from which I learned possible ways to distribute films as a small and independent filmmaker, once again, including citations for them. My favorite addition to make while editing was definitely when I talked about how I got sick right before filming I included actual messages I sent to my partner Sofia where I told her I was scared I wouldn't be able to join her. It's just a quick fun thing I thought would be good to add. Throughout the CCR video I also added the questions on screen to further add visual interest and to make them easier to understand as it is only me talking for four minutes straight.
Hey Blog!
As we begin to wrap up the final editing stages for our film opening, we also begin the process of producing our Creative Critical Reflections, or CCRs, for short, and, honestly, filming these has been more difficult than it was the opening. Don't get me wrong, the film opening was a lot of work, but I have found the CCRs to be more difficult considering it is me on camera, and I laugh, a lot, and I forget what I'm going to say even more. Also, I've never actually been on camera in the way I had to be for these two videos I filmed for CCR, so it was quite awkward at the beginning. Thankfully, a couple of my friends agreed to help me film my CCRs—some wanted help in exchange, some saw it as a cure for their boredom—and having them there made it a lot easier and more natural for me to talk to the camera.
My first CCR consisted of my friend, Manuela Correa, interviewing me and asking me the required questions in a sort of sit-down, talk-show type interview. We sat down at her couch and just got to talking as I answered questions 1 and 4 as stated by my blogs, "how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?" and "How did you integrate technologies–software, hardware and online–in this project?" The camera was set up, on a tripod, in a way that showed both of us, as we sat in front of each other to show the way the conversation was more "natural" and relaxed. However, it took us about 12 takes to get one serious, and continuous take because we could not stop laughing, and I'm not kidding when I say 12, it was bad. Once we finally got some good content that was actually usable though, I felt a lot more confident that this wasn't such a horrible task to have to complete, and I felt more prepared for the next day when we'd film my second CCR.
Here are some screenshots of a couple of the times we couldn't stop ourselves from laughing:
Day 2 of filming CCRs consisted of filming my second video in which I answered questions 2 and 3 as named in previous blog posts: "how does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" and "how did your production skills develop throughout this project?" For this CCR, I wanted to use themes present in my film opening, so I pretended to be packing for college as I answered these questions. However, it turns out I cannot multitask for the life of me so pretending to pack while thinking of my answers for these questions turned out to be impossible. So I decided that I'd pretend to already be done with packing so I could concentrate fully on my answers. Though I did not need anyone else on camera with me this time, some friends still helped me set up the camera and remind me of what I wanted to say when I looked lost. Unsurprisingly, it took me a lot less takes to wrap up filming since I did not continue to break due to having my friend in front of me. This one I wrapped up in 5 takes, so I was rather pleased that it could be done as quickly as possible so I could begin editing.
Overall, production of CCRs was so much fun yet overwhelming and it was so much hard work, but I am so pleased to, not only have them done, but also with the final result. I think they have so much potential and I'm ready to edit them in the coming days.
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Now that I have all the information from the CCR questions that I need in order to make my reflection videos, now I need to brainstorm how I could make these reflections so they are thorough and informative yet fun and entertaining. Here’s a couple ideas I came up with.
1. Interview format
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| Variety, "PBS SoCal Announce Lineup for Season 11 of ‘Variety Studio: Actors on Actors’" |
2. Packing for College
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| Independent, "Booked your summer holiday? Here’s your ultimate packing list" |
3. Podcast
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| Resonate, "Understanding What a Podcast is and How it Works" |
Similar to the interview, podcasts allow for direct questioning by one person and straightforward answers for the person being interviewed—me. Sitting around my dining table or my kitchen table with someone else would allow for easy conversation while our voices are being recorded for the podcast qualities.
My favorite of these ideas are the first two since they are pretty creative and allow for a clear line of questioning and answering the questions that are necessary. I'm a big fan of the podcast option also because I think it'd be fun to create and watch, however I think that it is the more difficult of the three and I don't want to overcomplicate myself when I have such a short period of time to create and edit these reflections.
Hey Blog!
The final question I must answer as part of the CCRs of this project is "How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?"
The short is answer is how didn't I? The majority of this project, from beginning to end, used some form of technology in one way or another. Really, the only part of this project that didn't integrate technology in some way was the storyboard process since it was all hand-drawn by me.
We began the use of technology when making our props by doing some research online, mainly on the acceptance letters and packages given out by NYU and also by typing them out and printing them for that professional look we wanted. The filming was all done on my iPhone 16, with all the behind the scenes being filmed by Sofia on her Samsung. We used the video feature to record everything with the help of iPhone’s action mode in order to get more stable shots since we had a lot of movement, mainly in our biking montage. Because of this, we did not need a tripod or much any other equipment since we both needed and wanted the freedom of hand held shots.
For the editing process, we decided to use Adobe’s Premiere Pro software since it had so many features we could use to help make it more professional and detailed. We had used other simpler programs in the past, but we settled on this one for the level of dedication it could help us achieve. Though we both lacked editing experience, after watching a series of tutorials on YouTube on how to work with Premiere Pro, we managed to find our way through it and edit our project wonderfully.
The various uses of technologies throughout this project helped us reach that high quality production we wanted to create with an ease that made production simple yet intricate. It wouldn’t be the same film without all these different softwares and devices.
Hey Blog!
Moving onto the 3rd of our CCR questions: How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
And the answer is quite a long one.
Because of past courses I've had and lessons we've reviewed throughout this year, I had a fair amount of experience going into this project. However, I had never been in charge of such an important and serious production, so, even with some past experience, this felt like a brand new adventure to undertake. It involved so many small yet significant details to consider, and so many steps and tasks to complete that it felt like such an overwhelming project it was almost paralyzing. In the same way, other kinds of school projects do not usually allow students so much artistic and creative freedom in the way that basically creating your own film does, so it was pretty daunting approaching the idea of this project, at first. I mean, we had the opportunity to literally do whatever we wanted—as long as we followed the set expectations, of course—which gives you so many options, almost too many, even, so getting started was tough.
Still, once Sofia and I decided that we wanted to work together to make the project maybe a little more achievable—not to say it wasn't so by ourselves, but two brains think better than one after all—we started brainstorming possible ideas for what the plot of our film could be. We didn't have many ideas, story-wise, but we both agreed on the overall aesthetic that we wanted to go for, which narrowed down our options from anything to a singular genre, which was "coming-of-age." Though Sofia is not as much of a movie addict as I am, we have both watched a couple of movies that we adore that all dealt with growing up in some way and often feeling isolated throughout it or even in spite of tragic events, so we used this as our inspiration.
We decided to go the extra nostalgic route for this film and set it in the early 2000's as most of the coming-of-age films we love are from this time period, but this gave us an extra challenge that we had not thought about during the planning stage when actually producing it . This was the fact that we actually had to make it look like it was the 2000's, from hair, make up and costumes, to what we were able to show in the background such as any modern form of technology, like an Amazon Alexa, or newer cars, like a Tesla, which ended up with a lot of our shots needing to be adjusted, changed, or altogether scrapped. Costuming was also a very difficult endeavor since neither of our actors, Sofia, or I own any clothing that has that particular "2000's style," so we had to resort to some old clothes that Sofia's mother owned that she was about to give up as donations. This really helped to further teach me of all the details that go into filmmaking since I had not realized how difficult it was needing to be so specific and detailed about nearly every aspect of my film in order to have that professional look we wanted.
Once we got to the actual filming time we began to run into a couple of different issues. The earliest problem we had was scheduling conflicts all throughout. Our actors both had different schedules, as did Sofia and I, and we even had to coordinate with Sofia's family as we needed the kitchen/living room area, where Sofia's mother works, and we needed her brother as another actor. Once we finally found some dates to work on, we stumbled onto the worst of our troubles—I got the flu the weekend before filming. Half-conscious and somewhat feverish, I put a mask on, took some Tylenol, and I managed to make it to filming, so we thankfully did not have to postpone anything. The last of our major issues was problems with weather and time. One of our days of filming we were hit with a cold front, making it difficult to film our outdoor scenes. Another day, there was a high probability of rain which meant we had to hurry and use up all the time sunny time we had, and, finally, on the last day, filming ran long and it got pretty dark outside resulting in some darker shots.
This production was a rollercoaster to create, from beginning to end. There were many doubts, problems, and disagreements, but there were also many positive experiences from which I learned a lot about the filmmaking industry. I am very glad to have had so many ups and downs because I can now confidently say that I created something I am very proud of despite all the challenges faced.
Hey Blog!
As we slowly approach the final due date for this project, I must continue the planning for my CCR questions since we will soon begin the process of making these instead of the film opening. Question #2 asks "How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?" so let's write a little script in response to it.
When asked about audience engagement, my response would be the following.
Our film, When the White Seeds Fall, is a coming-of-age film we have been working on for the last couple of weeks. It follows two teenagers as they enjoy their last summer before college together while also preparing for the next step in their lives that they, luckily, get to experience together as they are both accepted into their dream school, NYU. Like with all coming-of-age films, this chapter of growing up is one that thousands of people have gone through, albeit all a little differently, so it is a film that audiences can relate to in a number of ways, regardless of age or gender.
Starting out with a montage of only the two girls biking and being excited over their admission, with a lot of natural light and upbeat music, we establish the lightheartedness and friendliness of the storyline. Quick cuts ranging form one girl to another to them together again emphasize that the very essence of this movie is the friendship between these two girls, they're together now and they always will be. The audience can connect to these characters emotionally since it is very likely that they've had a friend that they feel that kind of relationship with, allowing for the utter despair they may feel when they later discover all is not sunshine and rainbows with these friends. By the end of the opening, it is obvious that one of the girls—Lily—has some sort of medical issue of which her friend is unaware. As many people have dealt with some sort of medical problem and even loss, there is a further connection felt with these characters as the audience understand what they are going through, and worse, what will ultimately happen by the end of the film. The universality of these themes present in the story—friendship, growing up, struggle, loss—allows for a deep and personal connection between those watching the film and its characters, leaving the audience to hope for the happy ending they know is not coming.
When asked about its distribution, I will talk about the following points.
As a small, independent film that no one has heard of before, reaching said audience will be quite complicated. However, through the use of events like film festivals, which are largely hosted to allow independent filmmakers to show their work to large crowds and people working within the filmmaking industry, allowing great opportunities for filmmakers to make connections which could result in larger distribution outside of the festival, When the White Seeds Fall could gain great traction. Similarly, with today's growth of technology and online resources, there are many platforms that could accept my film for streaming online. Programs like Netflix, Hulu, or Prime Video have great reach, and would be great distributors for my film, but they come with great competition. As a back up in case these platforms don't take my film—and even if they do—there are other platforms that are more accessible to both me, as the creator, and the audience since they do not require subscriptions like the others do. Websites like YouTube and Tubi are completely free to viewers and are easy for creators to use, though they are more exposure than profit based.
Equally important to distribution, however, is the marketing of the film because how will people know they can watch the movie if they don't know about it? Once again using today's technologies, social media would be a great place to promote the release of my film. Platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, and even YouTube itself would allow me to post the trailer, announcements, and maybe even small clips of the film to garner excitement from people.
SOURCES:
Hey Blog!
The portfolio project that we have been working on for the past couple weeks is only partly comprised of the film opening I've been talking a lot about recently. The other part is the CCR's. CCR is short for Creative Critical Reflection and this is a moment where we, as the creators of our films, get the opportunity to reflect on what we have just created through four questions that have been provided to us.
- How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
- How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
- How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
- How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?
On this blog post, however, I will only be concentrating on the first of these questions, and will then move onto the rest in future posts. So, "how does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?"
First, let's discuss what some conventions that are commonly used within the coming-of-age genre are. This type of story most often features teenaged characters, or characters that are on the brink of some sort of personal growth or other transitional period. They embark on a journey of self-discovery, overcome personal challenges, or confront social conflicts and uncertainty as they learn valuable life lessons that will help them to mature and grow into the person they will be in the future. Often, films will feature parent troubles, school life, first romances, and learning about our own identities and sense of self.
Coming-of-age films often exemplify the emotional intensity of teenagers as they face the many challenges that come with growing up. This is largely done through a focus on characters and dialogue rather than dramatic actions, as many adventure movies do, but the characters' conflicts are largely dramatized so the audience can feel the importance of the situation as the characters themselves feel it. They tend to include elements such as comedy and music and will sometimes blend in other genres such as action or horror.
When creating our story's premise for our own film opening, we chose to use many of these genre conventions since we love classic coming-of-age films for their great representation of teenagers, which, as teenagers, we love to see. They are the type of movie that helps you feel seen as a person and they help you to understand the world and your place in it a little bit more than before watching it. Our story deals with the universal feeling of starting college or university and our characters are lucky enough that they, as best friends, can go onto this next chapter of their lives together. However, they soon learn that life isn't all roses and rainbows as they are hit with the harsh reality that sometimes plans don't work out as we want them to and there is nothing to do about it.
SOURCES:
Gunn, N. (2025, January 10). Common Young Adult (YA) Fiction Conventions. Ooligan Press. https://www.ooliganpress.com/young-adult-conventions/
Coming-of-Age Movies: What is the Coming-of-Age Genre?. MasterClass. (2021, September 24). https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies
Quintanilla, E. (2021, March 6). What is a Coming-of-Age Movie?. Medium. https://medium.com/coming-of-age-with-film/what-is-a-coming-of-age-movie-7ebf1121ca1c
Kench, S. (2023, September 24). What is a Coming of Age Movie — Examples and Characteristics. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-coming-of-age-movie-definition/
