This journey is finally over with my CCRs being all done. I learned so much working on this project and I can't wait to make another one soon and apply everything I've learned these past couple months. I hope you can enjoy it as much as I enjoyed making it.

With editing and tweaks finally finished, I present to you Birds of a Feather! I had so much fun creating this and I'm a little sad it's over now, but I really love how it turned out in the end. Enjoy!

I may or may not have scraped my entire podcast Idea because my friends and I were joking about weird Youtube videos and it sparked an even better idea for my CCR. 

There was a viral trend named The Human Mail Challenge circa 2016, in which the content creator would pretend to ship themselves in a box to another location but trick the viewers into believing it were true. 

From memory, I remember that these youtubers would have someone outside move the box and play sounds to make the viewers believe they were actively moving in a truck or boat. After confirming via watching some old videos, I've called on a friend to help shake my box from outside. I will also be keeping a snack or two with me as well as my laptop to share my critical analysis with the audience to kill time. My destination will be the one and only Cambridge for some comedic effect.

I think this CCR plan and video idea really resonates with me more than the last one. I'm excited to get started! 

Today was all about feedback. My class and I watched each other’s rough cuts and gave constructive critiques on what worked and what didn’t. It was a mix of excitement and nerves, there’s something very different about seeing your work on a screen in front of an audience versus editing it alone in your room.

One of my biggest takeaways from watching other projects was how much small details matter. Some openings had seamless transitions, perfectly timed cuts, and well-balanced sound design, which made them feel so polished. Others had strong storytelling, even if the technical side needed a bit of work. Seeing all these projects back to back gave me a better sense of what makes an engaging film open, and it helped me recognize where my own strengths and weaknesses lie. My biggest worry was that the storyline wouldn’t be clear. 

With filming finally done, I moved on to the post-production process. The first step was organizing all our footage. I transferred everything from my phone and camera to my laptop, carefully sorting clips into labeled folders for each scene. I also went through and deleted unusable takes, making sure everything was easy to find when editing.

Once everything was imported into Premiere Pro, I started assembling the rough sequence. I focused on trimming clips, adjusting pacing, and making sure each scene transitioned smoothly. Some moments felt too long or too short, so I experimented with different cut points until the flow felt natural.

I also worked on audio, adjusting levels and cleaning up background noise to ensure everything sounded clear. Even without music added yet, I wanted to make sure dialogue and ambient sounds were balanced.

Editing is where everything starts coming together, and it’s exciting to see our vision take shape. Now, it's all about refining the cut and adding those final details to make it feel complete!

After weeks of hard work, we can finally say we’re done filming!

Our last session took place at a Japanese garden, where we captured our final outdoor shots. We made sure to get long shots, tracking shots, and over-the-shoulder angles to add variety to our visuals.

Then, we wrapped up by filming our opening and closing scenes at Amy’s house. Amy’s mom was kind enough to help us record, making it a fun and collaborative experience.

Finishing filming felt like a huge weight off our shoulders. Now, we can finally move into post-production, where everything will start coming together.

Amy and I have been trying our best to stay on track, but no matter how much we plan, setbacks keep creeping in.

First, Amy got sick, forcing us to delay a major filming day. Then, I got caught up with other responsibilities, making it difficult to reschedule. The combination of our busy schedules and unexpected conflicts has pushed our timeline back more than we’d like.

Even though we created a production calendar to stay organized, life has a way of disrupting plans. Since our film relies on specific lighting conditions and outdoor settings, we can’t just film whenever we want—time of day and weather play a huge role in the visual aesthetic.

Now, we’re looking at adjusting parts of our script to accommodate these delays. It’s frustrating, but we’re learning an important lesson in filmmaking: adaptability is key!

Music plays a crucial role in shaping the emotions of a film, so I took my time carefully selecting tracks that would complement our story.

I wanted songs with a dreamy, nostalgic feel that captured the essence of summer, youth, and friendship. After sifting through multiple playlists, I found a few contenders that stood out. Tracks like Knew You Well, Eugene, and Sentimental Lady had the right blend of soft acoustics, storytelling lyrics, and indie vibes that fit the tone of our film.

Even though some of these songs were originally love songs, their themes of longing, change, and personal growth also applied to deep friendships. In our film, they highlight the emotional bond between our two protagonists as they navigate their journey.

Now that we had a solid music selection, it was time to move on to the next phase, making sure the visuals matched the mood we envisioned.

Today we finally started filming! After weeks of planning, rescheduling, and working around our schedules, Amy and I were able to capture our first set of shots. It felt surreal to see our ideas finally come to life after so much preparation.

To stay efficient, we made sure to bring everything we needed to school, so we could head straight to our filming location once the final bell rang. Originally, a friend was supposed to help record, but at the last minute, they had a scheduling conflict. Instead of letting this set us back, we asked around and found someone willing to step in, proving how important flexibility is in filmmaking.

Our chosen location, a nature trail, was exactly what we had envisioned. The warm lighting, scattered greenery, and rustic pathways fit perfectly with the runaway theme of our film. As we filmed, we made sure to capture every shot from multiple angles, ensuring we had enough footage to work with in editing. We also took some creative liberties, experimenting with framing and movement to enhance the visuals.

By the end of the session, we were exhausted but proud. This was just the beginning, but it already felt like a major accomplishment.

Since today I don't have time to properly go out and film today (that's tomorrow), I instead asked Amy to walk real quick so that I could fiddle around with different settings on my phone to see which is best when we actually film. This also includes the default editing option that my phone provides me! I still haven't had the chance to put these clips into Premiere Pro just yet to fiddle with them on our editing software, so I instead clicked the edit button on my phone to figure out and find what exactly it is we want our shots to look like in post-production.

With filming starting tomorrow, Amy and I spent time scouting locations to make sure our scenes feel as real and natural as possible. Since our characters are running away from home, the journey they take is just as important as their destination. We wanted the initial trek to feel isolated, somewhere they wouldn’t easily be found.

From the start, we knew we wanted a nature-heavy setting. It wouldn’t make sense for them to stay in a populated area where they could be spotted. So, we focused on local parks and beaches, looking for places that felt both open and secluded. These locations will help visually emphasize their escape while also adding to the overall atmosphere of the film.

Since we’re filming locally, we were already familiar with some of these areas from past visits and realized they were perfect for our story. Others we discovered online, seeing pictures that matched our vision and adding them to our list. Now, with our locations chosen, we’re ready to bring this journey to life.

I will add photos here soon

January 27, 2025

It's now time to further prepare for production, script time! Neither me nor my partner have ever written a script before, so we were quite lost at first. Luckily, however, we used a model script to guide us in this creative process. This model script was also labeled so it was really easy to understand and I quickly got to jotting down. One obstacle we came across was that we didn't want to use much dialogue for this two minute project. The script might not be long (a portion of it is shown below) but Amy reassured me that our shot sheet will help us clearly direct the scenes with no dialogue, the montage sequences. It was also refreshing to remember that this could always be revised later down the line. With our issues now solved and put to rest, the script has now been written.

To prepare for my portfolio, I analyzed the first five minutes of recently released coming-of-age films with a darker tone. I selected these movies because their visuals and storytelling methods stood out as impactful and meaningful.

This last project I worked on with my partner was an expansion of my last editing project. In this new one, we created sound effects for our last video and implemented them! To work on this project, my partner, Amy, and I learned a lot about both making and editing sound in projects. Taking turns, Amy and I recorded each other making our own sound effects to enhance and replicate what was happening in the scenes of our project. We both decided the best time to film was at school as we have a class together, so it's the perfect time! Amy has a pair of miniature microphones, and using those we found the best spot to film and began plotting. We knocked on vending machines, skipped down empty hallways, found a creaky door to open and close, and continuously messed around with an empty bag until we were happy with our results. For a bit of a comical/cartoonish effect, my partner and I decided it would be fun to emphasize sounds like the wind and the door creaks, which are commonly seen in cartoon media. However, we also thought it would make the plot clearer. To accompany these sound effects, we added a playful instrumental version of a song from the popular "The Nightmare Before Christmas"  because not only did it add to our Halloween theme, but it also highlighted our cartoonish themes throughout the project. I think that the end result came together nicely!

September 25, 2024

September 23, 2024

This month, starting September 15th, is Hispanic Heritage Month. In celebration of this month, my partner Amy Sadowsky and I  created a mini doc using our past knowledge of editing and research of this special month. However, we ran into a couple issues along the way. After discussing what we wanted to do for the project, which was to kickstart the celebration here at my school, we had issues carrying out the beginning of the video. Our plan was to film a short interview with some students to capture the attention of students when they eventually watch this mini doc in their class. The issue we ran into, was finding the right time to film. This week at school was spirit week, so I found it hard to film during lunch as it was very noisy and it would mess with the audio. It was decided that we would film them in the morning instead, when it wasn't as loud. We had a very small issue with voice overs as well, as my partner learned to better read out loud the script to make it erasier for the students to understand our words. In the end, we overcame our issues and took away some new skills from it. Opening up Premire Pro brought back some of my knowledge of how to work on it after not having opened it all summer, I still remembered many controls. I did the research, worked on the script, and collected images, while my partner put together a collage of videos, put them onto the timeline, and finalized all of the editing. Through this, I learned to better research topics and properly format scripts for projects, as well as how to work with the voice over and music volume ratio. Overall, this project was a huge success.