⋆✩Anna's blog✩⋆

 Hello!! So for this blog, I wanted to show you guys my CCR, Creative Critical Reflection!  I made it where I was being interviewed, and I brought along a special guest. I hope you guys enjoy my CCR 

 Hey!!      Here I want to talk about the editing. I am going to be honest, this is my favorite and least favorite thing to do. I like to edit on my free time. Am I good at it? No. But I do enjoy the process and enjoy learning different techniques to put into my film.       I have this issue that when I do a project, whether it is school or personal, I have high expectations cause I expect my best work every time. Now I am not saying we did not do our best, we did, but there are many aspects that I wish I could change which I know there is no way in doing. And I notice all these flaws when I am editing.       I had to take several breaks when working on it as I am the only one doing this and I spend hours Infront of my computer, My poor back! Sometimes I will be working on the project that I forget to take a break or to stand and I get super tired. This editing stuff is no joke lol. Luckily the program Nicole gave me, premiere ...

 Hello! On my last post I briefly spoke on my feelings about the project. Now that it is complete I am able to form my thoughts. Setting: For my and Anais' character, we filmed at our respective rooms, However for Mal we did not film in her room or any part of her house. Each character somewhat represents the actor, so I feel that shoot Mal's scene in my room does not feel authentic or believable. But we had to make do, so shooting her scene in my room was the best option.  Editing: I feel like two minutes is too short. When simply putting the clips next to each other, it landed at 5 minutes. If we were allowed more time, I would have put a few more clips to transition better. But I think I had did a good job setting up the plot and introducing the characters.  Music: I am surprised at the music we had found. After being told that used copyright music is forbidden, and being told the idea Anais and Mal made, I was kind of in doubt. In my opinion, copyright free music is n...

  Hey everyone! We have finally completed our film! It was super fun to create and an interesting experience putting it all together! We are really proud of it and can't wait for you guys to watch it! 

 Hey! Hey! So for this post I wanted to discuss the work each member put in, just to give you insight on how the group worked together. Acting: All of us agreed to be apart of filming, so we all acted. I feel as if we all put equal effort in to our acting. To be honest, I felt like I did a lot of movement in the sense that I was showing my character through my actions unlike the other two who showed their characters with the props and music. Again, we all did a good job and I am pleased with the Oscar/Emmy quality acting. Editing: I did all the editing. My computer and I are BURNT. Mal and Anais are not familiar with editing or the editing programs, so I volunteered to edit the film. Did I kind of hope there would be a way where they can help editing? yeahhh... but I pulled through. Honestly, I felt overwhelmed at times cause I would not know what to do and wasn't reaching my own expectations.  Filming: When it comes to filming, it was mostly Me and Mal. Nicole had pitched in ...

 Hey guys! This blog post I will discuss who I would cast as these my group's characters! Now sit down cause this will be interesting... at least to me.  For my character: Because I am Latina, I want other Latina actresses to represent the character. I have two in mind. The lovely Xochitl Gomes and Jenna Ortega.  Xochitl is my first pick. Not only is she my age, but she has a bubbly and outgoing personality that can easily be translated to the character. After watching Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, she was able to capture the comic book character's personality and made me quickly like her performance. She also has this confidence when wearing any piece of clothing she puts on, a huge fashion icon! So when I think of the ideal clothing items for my character, I feel like she would pull it off exactly how I imagine. Jenna Ortega is my second pick. I know. I know! She is mostly known for her screams, straight face, and negative portrayals, but she was not alwa...

 Hey everyone! Now due to this being a school project, we were left to our own devices and weren't given a budget. But lets picture what I would do if I had such an obscene amount of an endless supply to use for my film. Costumes: One thing I love, or hate, about a film is what the characters are wearing. If it is nice I will be drawn to it. If it adds to their character, I will be over the moon. Originally the group wanted it to be late 90's early 2000's themed. If I had the budget to afford the right pieces, even authentic ones, I will make it seem that the film was shot during that time period. Like Juicy Couture tracksuits when it was popular or ties over white tank tops. Get a costume designer who understands the trends that happened during that time and replicate it in the character's clothes.  Setting/Props: Can you imagine the most girlie 2000's room? Or the creepiest setting where the reveal will happen? With an unlimited budget, I could, again, follow tren...

 Hello everyone! I wanted to create a special post to thank all everyone who helped in making our project! I am very grateful that my peers where able to take time out of their day and helped us whether it was providing us equipment, help with shooting or even give us ideas! Nicole: I only became friends with her just this year, however I had grown close with her in the past few months! I have her in my Media Studies class and she had been the biggest helper with my group's project. At the beginning we had joked around giving each other silly suggestions but then it turned into "maybe you can include this..." or "maybe instead of this you can do this". She was our outside perspective and helped us correct many continuity errors. She came with us when we need to films certain scenes, she helped take behind-the-scenes photos and also film stuff that we couldn't. She had also gave me access to the handy cam to help film our video as well as gifted me premiere p...

 Hello! It's a wrap!      We finished filming, finally oml. Near the end of Spring Break, I had asked Mal and Anais to meet me at a different park to reshoot the ending. Luckily we were able to meet up, cause it was kinda last minute. They said they wanted to film when during the sunset, which was a nice idea. But by the time the sun was... setting... Anais had showed up late and we missed a solid moment of it. So we had to quickly shoot our clips with the sun still out.      Regardless, we finished and all we have to do is edit the last few clips and make minor changes. Another who knows how long on the computer. But this is almost done and I will take the longest nap ever in celebrations.  Here are some photos we took while shooting our last clips:

 Hey! Welcome back to me going on and on about inspiration that influenced my idea of our opening scene.  To begin a show that gave me inspiration for it's aesthetic is Gilmore Girls. The show, although older than me, has a warm and comforting feeling which I wanted to put into the film. With it's grainy texture and use of color, I wanted to put that in the first scenes where everything appeared "normal".  The Scream franchise gave me inspiration on how to tell the story. After being told that our original plan might end in failure, my group came up with the now idea. I thought of Scream, where the characters do not have a clear understanding on who it is that is harming everyone, in this case my character, and will go through possible danger in order to find the antagonist. As well as revealing the villain at the end inspired the idea of keeping the "stalker" a secret. Booksmart is another movie that I got inspiration for the plot. Originally, I wanted the ...

 Welcome back! Today, I want to talk about the current editing process. So far we have already filmed one scene, but we are beginning our editing so it will not overwhelm us later. This scene is of Anais' character coming home from school and going to do her homework. The camera we are using gives a vintage vibe to our film but I am adding filters over each scene to add to the vastly different moods and personalities each character has.  During this part, there is not much special or unique transitions, we are mostly using cut transitions as it is simple and less tasking on our part. For sound, we really did not like the idea of using copyright music. Not that it is bad... but it is bad. Thankfully, Anais is talented at guitar so she suggested that she can come up with unique melodies to use instead of using copyright music. Another problem we faced was the editing programs. Nicole suggested to use her account to access Premier Pro, but of course, with our luck, the software d...

 Hey! Hey! Let's discuss group dynamics. My members suck... just kidding. I love my members and they each pull in their own weight. Sometimes I feel like I may be pulling a lot of weight, like I'm the only one that did the storyboard. But they each pull in their own weight and it is fun to work with them on our silly little project.  Despite having the lovely Annie and Mal, we also work with another group, being Ashley, Nicole and Vivi, who has been helping us create ideas, shoot some scenes, and vice versa. Nicole is also in a videography class in our school, so she has experience with editing and video making. She even lent us a program to help make our project. How lovely is she!  I am super grateful for my members and peers! <3

 Hey! Representation in any form of media is important, without a doubt. It is crazy how our project/film consists of an all women cast. An all women OF COLOR cast.  Anais is half-Filipino and half-white, Mal is Indian, and I am half-Dominican and half-Ecuadorian. Netflix should call us cause we got variety and diversity like no other haha. Our characters do not surround their personalities around their background, so their ethnicity isn't as important. They share the same ethnicities as their respected actors. I like to think of our film as any other movie but so happened to have a crazy diversity. Sometimes diversity seems so pushed in a lot of media today, so if our project was a real movie it would definitely not be forced representation but rather happy and normal representation. Along with the characters being beautiful women of color, they fit typical stereotypes. HOWEVER!!... it is not based on our gender or race, but rather who simply fit that stereotype the best. It ...

 Let's talk lighting! So, to put this out there, we do not have these fancy equipment big budget movies have to create these amazing, eye watering scenes. But we have practical and natural lighting! Natural lighting: Me personally, natural lighting is the most beautiful kind of lighting. We had shot some scenes on bright, sunny days so it captured a beautiful aesthetic to our film. Even inside, we had used natural lighting in one of our scenes where my character was in the kitchen/dinning room. This is one of our biggest and most important light sources!      Here are some photos of us using natural lighting: Practical lighting: You don't have a huge lamp that can shine the brightest light for your scene?! ...then use practical lighting. From computers, to desk lamps, even ceiling lights; all are used to help set up mood and aesthetics for each scene.      Here are some photos of us using practical lighting:

 Welcome back everyone! For this post, I wanted to discuss title sequence ideas for our projects. Previously I had shared some of my favorite time sequences, which are super creative and super expensive and time consuming to do. But there are simple, yet still aesthetically pleasing that will also fit with our project. Idea 1: I mentioned Community's title sequence in the past, but this idea got inspiration from this specific show. I wanted something that would capture a early 2000's vibe and a creative vibe. I thought that maybe we could use writing to introduce Anais, and my group loved the idea. Idea 2: Call Me By Your Name has a beautiful aesthetic that instantly draws you in. Especially during the title sequence. I had thought of using a cursive/fancy style to write our names, but, at the same time, I feel it is too formal and too romantic, which is not our genre.  Idea 3:          This movie has a basic teen flick vibe, and it can easily be ...

 Hello! So I wanted to talk about how the first day of shooting went. We wanted to start with Anais's character so of course we went to her house to shoot. It was right after school, where Mal, Nicole, and I walked to her house as it was like 5-10 minutes away. Anais was already at her house since she left early.  When we got there, we were greeted by Anais' mom who had a bright smile on her face. She said that because we were coming, she brought food so we can enjoy while we filmed. However, we ate it as soon as we went inside. During that time, we talked about the different angles and overall plan to capture this first scene. Nicole is not part of our group so we had to explain in detail what our image was. After we finished and talked with Anais' dogs, we went to her room to begin filming. Originally, the plan was to move her table so we can be right behind it in order to film, but we couldn't move it. So we had to resort to balancing the camera on a little storage b...

      No... we don't have any supporting characters. We wanted to focus more on the main three characters, despite the constant joking of including Nicole and Ashley as random people in the background. Instead of supporting characters, we are including props that are significant to the plot and each character's personality.      My character will have girly props. So imagine posters of the most popular boy band, a hot pink phone case, a pen with a pom pom. These are such simple props but they tell the audience a lot of the character's interest and personality. We wanted to find even more detailed props, like a pink and blinged out flip phone, old school boy group posters, etc, but we do not have the money nor time to scourer the Earth for these items. Thankfully, I like some boy groups, like BTS, and they include unique posters within their albums, so I we can use those. I am also pretty creative, so I can make a custom phone case that mimics...