Creative Critical Reflection

Here are my Creative Critical Reflections!

This is Behind the Media: 'Dear Mara'(Creative Critical Reflection #1)

Here, Creative Critical Reflection #1 can also be accessed. 

This is 'Dear Mara' Creative Critical Reflection #2

Here, Creative Critical Reflection #2 can also be accessed.

Film Opening

After 9 weeks, I am glad to be able to post this completed film opening. Enjoy!

The film opening can also be accessed here.

Reflection Time

 It feels weird to say this.. but I finally finished this project!!!!

After a long 9 weeks, I am so happy to be complete with this project. It really feels like a weight lifting off my shoulders as I type this blog. I had an amazing time producing this video with my close friends Andrea Aponte and Alexandra Fuenamyor. 

I am extremely proud of the work we produced as a group. Following this blog I will be posting the Dear Mara film opening and my Creative Critical Reflections.

Today in review...

 Today was a decently busy day!

    I got to work early in the afternoon with a plan in mind: Do research and complete my planning to answer the first to compulsory questions in one video. I decided that in the enhanced podcast format, I would answer the first two questions provided by Cambridge:

-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?

Here are my notes/script:

    In this script, I also made sure to add small notes of what graphics to include so I could reference this paper later, and have a good idea of what to add in during editing

    Later in the afternoon, I began to film. As I had already created and practiced what to say, and my friend's(Nicole, who was filming with me) lines were very short, this process was very straightforward. Below, I will insert a picture of what our filming area looked like.

After a long time of researching, filming, and editing, this CCR is finally done. However, I have two questions I would like to ask my teacher before uploading my CCR, as I still must complete my second CCR(I will be completing this video tomorrow). I would like to ask if:

Do both CCRs need to be combined into one video and posted in one blog post?

And...

Do the citations go at the end of each CCR, or at the end of both videos combined?(This question will change depending on the answer of the question above.)

(I have all my websites to be created into citations saved safely on my phone, and I will be inserting the citations depending on what I am told in class.)

Soooo...for a quick recap of what is still left to do:

-Complete remaining CCR(and figure out exactly how to post it)

-Post the  final film opening(Alex is doing some finishing touches, and our film opening will be complete and ready tomorrow.)

Quick Review

     I hate to make it sound like I'm procrastinating...

    I thought I should share an update on my progress(and today's lack of...) and explain why! 

Today my friends and I celebrated my partner in this project, Alex's, birthday. We had a full, busy day and yes, I will admit, did not get any wok done. However, this is not a major worry for me. I was around both my group members, Alex and Andrea, all day, and we didn't have any worries. 

Our final video should be completed by tomorrow, as well as the filming for both(hopefully) of my CCR's. Tomorrow at around 2pm, my friend Nicole(mentioned in a previous podcast) will be helping me film one of my videos.

For this CCR, I plan to do a sit down podcast kind of video, in which we will be reviewing some questions in an interview format. The video would look something like these,(The Stiff Socks Podcast, or one of my personal favorites, Emergency Intercom.)

Unfortunate timing...

     Hi blog, this spring break has given me a lot of unexpected twists and turns, so I thought it would be best to explain in a post today.

    With the due date of the project approaching rapidly, I was planning on working diligently in the beginning days of this week to complete editing and create my CCRs. Unfortunately, I started feeling really sick on Tuesday and had almost completely lost my voice. I was speaking with a lot of struggle, and many words coming out no louder than a whisper. Come Wednesday and I went to see my doctor, and I was diagnosed with strep throat. I have since been taking my medicine and it isn't anything major, I've just really been struggling with trying to recover my voice. 

    Because the project is due in less than a week, I have become immensely stressed over being able to get my voice back and having enough time to film my CCRs. I have been mostly bedbound and am strictly leaving my house only for some doctors visits and passport renewal appointments. As I write this, my sickness seems to be getting better, and my voice is slowly but surely recovering. I have spoken with my friend Nicole, who has AICE Media Studies AS in a different period, and she has offered to help me film my CCR on Sunday, so that I hopefully have enough time to make a decent recovery before then, and have just enough time after to edit and post my CCRs.

    When I have been feeling more comfortable throughout the day, I have been slowly making progress on sound editing(I will insert an image below). I have honestly been procrastinating it, but I know this must be completed incredibly soon and this will not only affect me, but my partners as well.

    I know this is incredibly unfortunate timing, but I am trying to do my best in this situation. Until next time!

(On the left, you can see the notes created by my teammate, Alex, on what sound effects should be inserted and when. On the right, you can see the sequence in Adobe Premiere Pro that I am using to edit the sound.)

Minor Changes

 Today, we have made just a few small adjustments.

    As I mentioned in one of this week's blog posts, I found a font that I thought would make our video look more professional. However, Alex implemented into the video and... I'm not a fan.

    We agree that the curves and overall design of the font just looks a bit too childish and silly, and that it does not look bold or professional enough for our credits. To solve this issue, Alex was able to quickly find a new font, that looks very similar but has a more sleek, professional look. In combination with deciding production and distribution company names, our credits are almost complete...

    Now, the only thing missing is actor names! For safety reasons, we decided it would be best not to use our own names for the actor names, as well as for aesthetic reasons, as our names would be repeated in the credits. We tried to use Artificial Intelligence to help us out, as seen below, and well... these names weren't too great. Alex and Andrea will be trying to find more inspiration and develop these actor names, so I will come back and update you guys in a future blog in the next few days! 

    Last but not least, Alex finally completed the editing in which the text messages show up on screen, in which I mentioned in a blog a few weeks back.

    I'm a fan of how it looks, but if I'm honest, in the video, I wish the text messages would show up individually. Although Alex is the video editor, I may try to edit this part on my own just to lighten the load, and try to aesthetically improve our project. I feel like improving this would also make our project look better because it will include more advanced editing techniques.