End Products

 Hello, this has been a beautiful and kind of stressful journey but all of it was worth it to see the final results.

Here they are:

Portfolio Project Folder

Resolution

 With the final due date coming near, I thought I would reflect on the whole procces of the making of "Dear Diary;"

It all started with research. It gave me an idea of what film openings have, how different films introduce the narrative, and how they set the tone. It helped guide me to what I wanted to produce and convey. So I started planning. Drawing out the storyboard, looking and making props, creating the music, making a script, and then, filming began.

This definitely was the hardest part. One our third day of filmig we realised the pacing was off, the shots felt rushed and we had too much for a two minute opening. So we decided to redo our storyboard and keep only the important stuff in. We got my mom's professional camera gave the new footage more of a cinematic feel and this time the film truly felt overall better. 

Yeah sure, we could've kept the old footage and worked with what we had but taking the easy way out would've meant getting a cheaper end product, and it would've been a shame since the actual project ended up being so beautiful.

I'm truly grateful for this project because without it I wouldn't have know I was capable of contributing to making such a beautiful project.

And also a special thank you to my father and sister, Pablo Moreno and Trinidad Moreno Pamio, for collaborating with me and helping me on my CCRs.

Making My CCRs

Making both of my videos were very hard, but the toughest one was Late Night Snacks, since it's me interviewing myself. I had my sister helping me and without her, I don't think I could've done it. She helped me run my lines, and read them to me so I had something to react to when filming. I also had to bake a brownie since I needed a snack, and let me tell you, the brownie didn't last a day in my house. However, the hardest part about this CCR was the editing. 

Carpool Talks with my dad also had it's struggles. For one, my dad doesn't speak that good in english, so we had to do a lot of takes. Then there was the fact that we didn't have anywhere to put my phone, so I ended having two spots, one stuck in the sun blocker for a high angle and under the air conditioning in the middle of the car for a low angle. 

Learning my lines was hard, I stuttered a lot, I got confused, and I would sometimes hestitate a little bit too much, so please beware that I tried my best and chose the best clips to add in.

Here are my logos:

(I have a whole blog post about editing this logo)

Overall, although I ran into a lot of issues, the process was very fun and I had a blast.

Here are my resources for the background songs:

https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-unlock-me-amapiano-music-149058/

https://pixabay.com/music/upbeat-upbeat-exciting-background-music-306539/

https://pixabay.com/sound-effects/cheering-and-clapping-crowd-1-5995/

Editing my first CCR

I decided I wanted to do a little logo or intro for my night show. So I went to Canva and I picked What elements I would add to my intro. 

I decided I would add a moving fridge that would transition into the name of the show, Late Night Snacks With Santina. This was definitely the hardest part. I couldn't figure out how to make the text be revealed in Canva, So I moved to Adobe Premiere Pro.

After one thousand tutorials later, I found out how to cut and key frame my text and finally got the finished product.

However, that was not before I found the perfect font. I wanted my font to give off retro cursive vibes, but still be legible. So I went into Adobe Fonts and chose Dreamboat.

Here's my finished product:

change of plans

 I have decided to change my first video about my first and second CCR. This is because I saw another classmate copy what I had posted in my blogpost, and since I didn't feel like my idea wasn't at its full creative potential, I decided to do a more original idea. 

I was thinking of the Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon and thought, what if there was a more relatable show that's similar to this one? and the Late Night Snacks with Santina popped up. It might be a bit cringey, but I think the idea is pretty unique.

It's going to consist of me going to my kitchen, late at night, to grab a snack. Suddenly the host is going to appear, most likely also going to be me, and we're going to talk on the kitchen counter, or the couches I have next to my kitchen.

Group Meeting #2

 On Tuesday, I got together with a group of some of my classmates and we helped each other out. We talked about our problems with filming, our progress on editing, and CCR ideas. 

Kalel had a problem with time management. Him and his group had to film in a park at 20 minutes from where we all attend school at. The problem was that they were using natural lighting, and they had gone a little bit before sunset. 

Nicholas talked about how he wanted to do a one-on-one interview inspired by The Tonight Show starring Jimmy Fallon. I thought that was very interesting and would be a fun idea to do the creative critical reflection. 

I personally loved Amparo’s plot idea because everyone else was doing horror movies and she was doing a coming-of-age film, like me. She showed us some of her unedited shots and they all looked great so far, I'm excited to see her final result. 

Overall, the group meeting was fun, and it helped everyone see where the other groups were and we also helped each other out in small problems that we had, like ideas for our CCR’s. 

CCR 4

 How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project?  

Me and my group used many hardware tools like cameras, lighting, mics, phones, and tripods. We also used software tools like Canva, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Blogger. 

One of our biggest problems were choosing the right camera to film our shots with. At first, we had Fatima’s Canon camera, but the battery had died, and she couldn’t find the charger. Then we switched to Fatima’s iPhone. Although the quality was good, the lamp we were using for the lighting messed up the camera lens and made some of the scenes look unprofessional. Finally, we used my mom’s camera that I had forgotten that took videos and the shots looked a lot better than the other attempts. However, we were using my sister’s tripod that its mainly use is for phones, so although it had the screw to go into the camera, the camera was too heavy, and it had to be held up by someone. That someone was me. I was the one filming and therefore some shots were a bit shaky or a little bit unfocused. 

For software, we mainly used Canva, Adobe Premiere Pro, and Blogger. On Canva, I designed the animated production logo. On Blogger, we documented every step of making the opening, including behind the scenes videos, weekly updates, photos of props and sets, and research on the drama and coming of age genres. We edited the entire opening on Adobe Premiere Pro, which was useful because we had access to it both at school and on our own devices at home. 

 

Planning for my CCR #3

 For my second video, I decided to inspire myself from Carpool Karaoke. Carpool Karaoke is a little segment from The Late Late Show, with James Corden driving with a famous musical guest to sing along to their songs with him in Los Angeles. James drives around while the guest is on the passenger’s seat, and he interviews them. I like this set up because it’s entertaining and funny. Although it ended, the Carpool Karaoke is iconic. 

My dad offered to interview me as I’m in the passenger’s seat. Although I won’t be singing, I want to incorporate some background music to silence surrounding noises from other cars and the road.  

Although in the car it’s hard to get different angles, the Carpool Karaoke has two cameras at different angles, one in the middle of the car to capture both, the guests and James Corden’s, faces, and one high angle in front of the guest. The pacing between the two cameras is fast, because the audience can get bored quickly since the setting doesn’t change. 

I wanted to also incorporate clips from our film opening to help the viewers visualize what is being asked and what I’m trying to convey, better. 

 

CCR 2

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

Our target audience is young adults and teenagers (around the ages 14 through 25) mostly because they can easily relate to our movie the most. This mostly because of our plot, and how it revolves around teenage struggles and how Maddie copes with it. Some of the topics “Dear Diary;” contains are suicide, depression, isolation, and stress caused by school. 

In the production process, we used various mise-en-scene elements that our target audience can resonate to. Firstly, Maddie’s room is very dull and cold. Me and my group implemented a color palette mostly consisting of cool toned colors to make Maddie’s room loke as lifeless as possible. This was a way to show how the state of her mental health is. Many teenagers can relate to how Maddie is feeling and how their rooms might reflect how they’re feeling. 

We also include the effect social media has in creating feelings like rejection and isolation. Teenagers might relate to the role diiferent types of social media, like Snapchat, can have a toll on their mental health. 

Me and my group incorporated the active audience theory by Stuart Hall, this theory essentially means that the intended message of the creator may not be completely understood because the audience make sense of the messages through what they know and may interpret messages to support their own beliefs.   

Since we’re amateur filmmakers, we’re going to distribute our film through platforms like YouTube and submitting the film to film festivals. These are our two best options because uploading a video on YouTube is easy and free, and if done right, can reach a lot of viewers. It is also easy to get feedback from viewers and can also be shared by the viewer themselves to their friends. On the other hand, film festivals are more competitive. However, if our film succeeds, it can help us create a wide network with other filmmakers and professionals. It could also get screened and receive feedback. 

Editing

 Me and my group had a lot of troubles going on during filming, so this set our schedule into kind of a mess. In class I had decided to for the production logo since I'm not that good at editing and would rather edit our very important final who’s more experienced, while I’m better talented in things like designs and animations that are basic. So, when Fatima offered to do it, I was relieved. 

RIght now though, our main priority is checking if we have two minutes, if the plot is clear, if the shots are visible, and if the sound sounds good. Filters, transitions, credits, and title aren't our first worry, since that needs to be deliberately chosen between the group and we can't do that before first, actually editing the shots together.

She would send us pictures of the progress, but she didn’t get very far since we had finished filming on Thursday. Since we don’t have a finished product yet, here are some sneak peeks:

 

Our Props and Set Design

 Since we filmed only in Maddie’s room, we wanted to show Maddie's depression but also show her old life. So, we included a lot of pictures. The majority of them were in a cork board. There were pictures of Maddie’s best friend and cousins, and there were also some pins and stickers pinned to the board.  

On Maddie’s nightstand, the diary and the picture of Maddie and her best friend are on the top. The picture is in an old frame I had from third grade that says “my best friend” that I personally thought would be a nice touch. The picture itself is around the age her best friend left and when Maddie last saw her. 

And at last, we had a framed picture of Maddie with her dad in the window from when Maddie was small. This picture was taken when Maddie was closer to her dad before he started to be more and more absent. When Maddie closes her blinds, it’s symbolic for shutting out her problems and leaving them out.