Semester Reflection

These last couple months have been very productive. I have created my most favorite video projects I've ever made. I was editor for each one, so my skills in that regard have increased significantly. The projects in question were a Commercial for Reese's Puffs, Music Video for Seventeen by Peach Pit, and an original short film named Roughhouse Rock. I have grown a lot as an editor.

Reese's Puffs Civil War Commercial

This was my first project of the year, and definitely my favorite. My team of five was assigned to make a commercial either 30 or 60 seconds long. Deciding on Reese's Puffs as the product, and the American Civil War as the setting, I was already very excited about the project. 

Filming went very smoothly, taking only 2 hours to get everything we needed. Our actors worked with us very well, with our own Courtney playing the wife as well as directing.

In editing, I learned how to color correct with Courtney's help. It was also my first time in editing music to fit what we filmed. I remembered a certain part from a favorite classical piece of mine and dropped it in. It fit pretty well, but not perfectly, so I made many splits and crossfades to have It match as well as it does now.

Everything about this project was nearly perfect, and it turned out excellent. That's why it's my favorite.

Music Video

Our second assignment of the year was to create an original music video for a song of our group's choosing. My group of four had some trouble picking a song, though. It took us 3 days to finally decide on Seventeen by Peach Pit.

We had our first shoot day on a Sunday night, and it did not go too hot. We filmed the intro scene too late in the evening, so we had to scrap that. We got some workable shots that night, but we were kind of down. Wednesday afternoon was our second shoot day, and we got the bulk of the video filmed that day, burning through the park scenes, intro, and closing shots. Our last shoot day was Friday. we shot the colorful band scenes that night in front of my projector and were finally finished with production.

In post, I went OFF. I had about three days to edit everything, and edit I did. I submerged myself in the effects tab of Premiere Pro, finding cool effects and figuring out how to make them look good. After a total of 14 hours spent in front of the Mac computer I took home, I was finished with editing.

I learned many new effects and techniques in Premiere with this project. It's the one that taught me the most.

Roughhouse Rock

My last project of the semester was to create a short film. My group was three strong and we were itching to make something we were proud of. Individually, each of us had written a short story script for a previous assignment, and we decided to pick from there. My script was just plain bad. It was about a plane crash and there was sand everywhere in it. It didn't make sense and it was not feasible.

We chose Jack's script. His was about a band manager who is in charge of an awful group and finally snaps. It was the most realistically possible film of ours. I took the script and re-wrote it into something fit for the screen and drew up some story boards. There was a problem, though. We could only film on one day. We couldn't mess around.

It was Saturday and time to film. Things got off to a rocky start, but we got on track eventually. Filming at three different locations over the course of 8 hours, we managed to get done. 

Editing at home in my bedroom was a new experience for me, as well as a stressful one. I got through it ok though, even with the multiple instances where Adobe crashed, erasing half an hour's worth of work each time.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out, but if I was able to I'd fix the music in the transition from the bedroom to the parking lot.

Guest Speakers

Social Media Apex came in to speak to us one day. Their whole presentation was a sell for us to come and intern for them, and I was interested at first. But after seeing what they were offering for us to edit, I became uninterested. I hated doing unimaginative commercials.

I was not present when Gordon Lamb came in.

Drew Connors, a recent graduate from my Northwest came in as well and talked to us about the importance of character arcs and development. 

Reflection

I am now embroiled in our class's feature film as an audio engineer, editor and script writer. I can't wait to get started and exercise everything I've learned.

Roughhouse Rock Short Film

Dominic Vergara, Jack Weidner and I decided to make a short film together. Jack had written a script about a band manager being in charge of a really annoying group of people, so we decided to make our film based on that. Roughhouse Rock is the product.

Pre-Production

We started with revising Jack's script. I headed that operation, and operation it was as I practically rewrote everything past Marc waking up. 

We wrote some story boards so we had a good idea for the beginning shot of Marc tossing and turning in bed before waking up to Kacey's call. Except we scrapped that and put in AFTER Kacey's call. I think it turned out better, honestly.

We got our actors, script and costuming the day after, as well as our locations, so we were ready to film it all on that Saturday.

Production

I worked that Saturday from 10-3 so Jack and Dom had to start without me at 1 pm. When I got to their location however, they said that they were unable to get anything good yet. The camera didn't fit on the tripod we checked out so Dom had to go find one to use and they couldn't find the mic for the boom pole (which I found sitting in Jacks car). I helped Jack get everything rolling, though, and we finished filming that midnight phone call and bedroom scene in about an hour and a half, ending a little before 5 o'clock.

Next was the shot of walking into the studio. Jack Avery and I rolled up to the Dillard parking garage at the Oak Park mall while Dom went to go pick up Quinn. While I was getting the dolly out of the car Jack just went ahead and filmed Avery walking into the building in a really long (almost a minute) tracking shot. It looked good, and the cops showed up, so we called that scene a wrap and headed to our next location.

Jack Avery and I arrived at JCCC at about a quarter 'til 6 o'clock and found a nice spot for our hallway and stairwell fight scenes. We figured out shots and sequencing over the course of about 5 minutes or so and head back to where we parked to wait for Dom and Quinn. They arrived some couple minutes later and we explained what we were shooting to them on the walk back over to the building. We reached it only to find it locked. JCCC closes at 6. We panicked slightly, but luckily there was a different building they kept unlocked. We headed in and the first thing we found was a perfect staircase - better than the one before. We filmed the first part of the fight scene in less than an hour.

Finishing up in the building, we moved onto the ending scene of Marc knocking out both Kacey and Bradley. I played the part of Bradley after our actor bailed. I choreographed the punches like I did the stairwell and we filmed it in about 15 minutes. It was time for our final scene.

It was around 8 when we got to the Iverson's house. We went into their studio (which I prepared the day before) and got to filming as quick as we could. We filmed all the shots with both Marc and Jacob in them first, but then our camera died. Luckily we had a battery charger, and Jack's personal DSLR, so we just kept going, hoping that what we shot with the new camera wasn't to different. We filmed some more, then Jack's camera died. We kept doing this back and forth until eventually we finished with Marc's solo shots at 9:45 pm, concluding our NINE-HOUR shoot for our FIVE MINUTE film.

So Basically

Editing is editing. I did my thing - went ham and all - and turned the film in a day late after a couple days spent in front of my computer at home.

I am pretty happy with how this turned out. Very proud, in fact. I still can't believe we filmed it all in one long day, and I can't FATHOM  how Avery stuck through it ALL with us. 

Shout out to Avery for being a great actor, in more than just the traditional sense. He sacrificed his entire Saturday and kept encouraging us to keep going when we thought we wouldn't get it done.

The only thing I wish I could change was how the music cuts pretty bad at the jacket transition from bedroom to parking garage. That's about it though. 

Very satisfied with the finished product.

SEVENTEEN MUSIC VIDEO

Pre-Production

Our concept at first was just a group of friends hanging out around town to the song Seventeen by Peach Pit, but we realized that we’d need a bit more substance to make it good. In the end we decided on a boy driving around his friends, but he is constantly left out of the loop. We also wanted contrasting scenes where he plays with a band and is living it up.

The pre-production was a little lengthier than for our commercial, as we had a lot more to storyboard and more paperwork to fill out. 3 days later though, we were ready to film over the weekend.

Shooting

Sunday was our first shoot day, which did not go as smoothly as we hoped, but we managed to keep some car driving shots and the park scenes at night.

The Wednesday after was our second film day. We got all of the park scenes in the day as well as the intro and everything else we needed of the friend group. It was a great film day.

The following Friday we filmed at my house for the scenes with the band, which finished up production.

Post Production

I had been editing since the day after our first shoot, so I already had some clips and scenes in a rough cut, but when I got the band scenes everything started to come together. I lined up all the clips, got some color grading going, and the beginnings of effects.

I watched that cut through, and though it was ready, it was severely lacking. I didn’t really know what it was lacking, however, so I went into Premiere and just started fiddling with any effects that sounded cool. I probably went through 15 by the time I stumbled across Turbulent Displacement. I immediately knew that Turbulent Displacement was the one, and went ham for like 6 more hours.

After a total of 14 hours of editing, I was actually done. I am quite happy with this finished product, as I think I conveyed my ideas effectively with the TV bars and Vignettes.

I wouldn’t change it in any major way at all, other than making the relationship between the two main characters more obvious.

I’m very proud of my work.

Reese's Puffs Civil War Commercial
(AKA Courtney never turns off BEAST MODE)




Product

For our first assignment of my junior year, we were assigned to choose a product to create a commercial for. Our group was composed of two seniors and three juniors, and right off the bat one of the juniors, Courtney, suggested we do Reese's Puffs. She pitched the idea of it taking place during the civil war, drawing inspiration from Jane Austin novels. Instantly we agreed. 

Pre-Production

The same junior wrote the out the script, with input from the rest of the group, and I wrote the pitch of our idea to turn in. A husband leaving for the war, whose wife drags him back to spend one last moment together. 

We settled on a gazebo for the location, as the seniors knew of a nice park nearby, and I bought the hat and bowls on Amazon.

Courtney also offered herself up to play the wife, and we had no reason to disagree. Our first choice for the husband was not available, however, so we contacted our friend Mason instead. He agreed to take part in this undertaking, and we were set to film on the upcoming Sunday evening, after figuring out the costumes and such.

Production

The day of filming we met at the park around 7 o'clock, and quickly got to work once Mason arrived. I was assigned to be script supervisor, so I went over the lines with our actors.

Our first scene went very well, shooting it about four times from different angles so that I would have many shots to switch between when editing. We continued that for all scenes for the next two hours or so, wrapping up that same night, thanks to our stellar actors, Courtney and Mason; director, Courtney; camerawoman, Lauryn; and audio guys, Ryan and Jack.

Post-Production

After we wrapped everything up, it was time for me to start editing. I looked over all the clips and audio files and got straight to work making a rough cut, syncing the audio as I went.

Courtney came over halfway through the process and blessed it with a perfect warm yellow color grade. It really made my cut look very professional, and it invigorated me to make this the best I could. I found the perfect music, Strauss's El Murcielago. The Vampire. I remembered a very slow part in the middle of the song, so I utilized it. It fit perfectly, basically.

Takeaways

After working for three class times, I finished. I am very proud of this, and I consider it to be my finest work so far. The color grading really made all the difference, though, so thank you Courtney.

A big thanks to my teammates as well, this was obviously a group project and we couldn't have done this if we hadn't gotten along so well. Hopefully I get to work with them again.

Sellout

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=IdcPqFW1lIs

My final project in e-Comm was to make a short film. 5-7 minutes long. My group decided on Carson’s script about a store getting all of its harvest cheddar SunChips robbed. We don’t have a tag line because taglines are dumb. We kept in mind the shots and angles possible while revising the script and had some good ideas. We finished revising the story, adding an ending that made sense, and got started filming at Goodcents.

Our first day of filming at the location was a bust. We food establishing shots, but all of our dialogue ended up being worthless due to loud background noise and talking. We scrapped that footage and returned a second day, re-filming everything and getting more scenes on camera. We still had about a third left to go, so we went back for a third time. We got the rest of our shots done that day, (jack and carson couldn’t make it) and carson and I got started editing.

 I was one of the two editors for the film - carson was the other, and jack was the color corrector. I edited my half of the film fairly quickly, and Carson improved what he already had significantly. I learned how to overlay different footage onto another as if it was a computer screen, which is very useful. That’s about all I learned though.

After editing, I suggested the name ‘sellout’ and everyone else agreed. So I did that. I came up with the font as well, and made the outro.

Overall, I’m very happy with the outcome. A great note to end the year on.

Introduction

This past school year has really been something. I still remember back when Mr Olson was showing us how to animate a worm with the puppet pin tool. The most important thing I’ve learned these past 9 months is that what you plan will be very different than what you end up with. If you don’t prepare yourself enough.

Project Management

Getting things done in time is somewhat of an achilles heel for me. I’m a lazy worker so I push things off, or I do them extremely slowly. This was especially true on the animated story project:

It turned out decently I’d say, but that was only about half of what I had on my story board. Two weeks spent on designing the bird and the first scene really came to bite me when I only had one week left. I had to stay after school multiple times a week for hours to finish half of it. I really need to curb that habit of procrastinating.

Technology

Before we got to our story animation, however, we had to learn how to use photoshop and after effects. We first started on Photoshop to draw our worms and background scene. Then we moved on to After Effects and learned basic 2D animation. Our final product was a cute worm wriggling about:

I learned how to use the puppet pin tool, making basic shapes and shading, and then how to use keyframes in Adobe software - the most important thing of all.

Communication

Me and my fellows would often talk about our project ideas together. Take, for instance, our container project. Me and my classmates would discuss our ideas for different containers - mayonaise jars, soda cans, etc. Because of that, I was able to come up with my own idea very quickly. They helped inspire my muse and as a result Savannah Soda came into existence:

Collaboration

Working together is an integral part of any team, be it one member or twenty. Being able to successfully finish a project with others not only cuts down the workload, but the time as well. That was put in practice just last week, where we made a video with special effects and 3D modelling:

I was in a group of two, so the workload was distributed in two. We managed to finish on time and turned in an okay assignment. Proud of it.

Leadership

We didn’t really have much opportunity for leadership in animation this year as there was only one group project. But I did try to be a good leader - egging others on to finish their work and such.

Self-doubt

I think my greatest strength would have to be in VFX, and my greatest weakness Photoshop. I am not very good at design in general.

Thanks to this class I have become more accepting of turning in subpar work, as long as it’s done. I hope to improve and grow more as a person in general once I leave the program.

Bye Mr Olson E-con will miss you.

Bouncing Balls Maya

A while ago now, we went into the dock at school, and dropped a bowling ball, tennis ball, and then a golf ball. We then marked each time every ball hits the ground and their maximum height on an Excel spreadsheet. That took a while.

After that, we made the actual ball models. That was easy.

Then finally, we animated the balls to match up the bounces with the spreadsheet. That took a while as well, and was very monotonous. 

Overall I think I made the bounces look pretty good, but I messed up on the shadows. Mainly because there aren't any.

Soda Bottle

One of our last Maya projects was coming up with a drink or food product of our own imagination. I decided on a soda made from real savannah extract. Alcoholic too. Your welcome.

Anyway, I made the label in PhotoShop over the course of about two days, and this is what I came up with:


As you can see, I stuck the label onto a bottle. How? By using Maya of course.

I made a soda bottle shape using Nurbs and revolved it around 360 degrees. The cap I just made a solid purple color to match the label. I filled it up with a cut duplicate of the bottle, pasted on the label, and viola. Soda bottle.

Thank you.

Napoleon Dynamite Trailer

We recreated movie trailers this time, and got new groups. Sadly, we could only choose a High school related movie trailer. We went with the cult classic Napoleon Dynamite. 

Now I still haven't seen the movie, so I'm sure I did not do it any justice at all. But here's how it went down.



After choosing the movie Gaige and I filled out a beat sheet on google docs, which we did not use at all while filming. Then after that we decided on my friend Dayton Henke to play Napoleon. 

He came over to my house to film, but I forgot to check out a camera so I ended up using my mom's iPhone 7. Still looked good though. We filmed half of the scenes, and then at school a couple days later Gavin and I filmed the scenes with Trisha, played by Lindsey Ling. And we finished the scenes with Pedro with myself playing him. 

Editing was just overlaying our shots on the original video, and lip-syncing. Didn't take long at all, as you can most likely tell. I'm honestly not proud of this at all.

Victorious Music Video

So this was the most ambitious video project I've ever done. Which is kinda sad now that I think about. But anyway, I chose the music video Victorious by Panic! at the Disco to recreate because I wanted to have fun actually filming the scenes. Lauryn mostly filmed though, because she's a champ. 

Pre Production and Production

Before even starting to film, Jess had to fill out a timestamp sheet, Lauryn figured out the cast, and all three of us came up with props and costumes needed. We filmed the dodgeball scenes in the gym at school, but we missed some scenes due to time constraints. For the rest of the video, Jess kindly offered up her house, and so on a Sunday we headed over there, made some props, and started filming with the cast and crew. 

It took 5 hours, but we got all the shots needed. It felt amazing. We also had lots of fun.

Editing

Then came editing. You bet everything you own that I stepped up to the plate. I swung and missed the first two times, but on the third swing I cracked down and annihilated Adobe Premiere Pro. I added some slow sliding effects, zooms, slow-mo, color correction, plopped the audio of the actual song in, and all the transitions by hand. 

Lauryn made the credits, and Jess made the little intro stamp of the song. Copyright stuff. Surprised we didn't get striked, honestly.

Haunted by Regrets at Fifteen

What I wish we would've done was get the last couple of shots for the dodgeball scenes. Next time I know to not skimp on anything. The audio transition past that part really hurts the video and flow of the music. Oh well.

Please watch it we all worked hard. Shout out to my boy Jack Weidner though for his great performance as Breadbin Urine.

I didn't mean for it to look so sad, but I guess the art reflects the artist. I made a cone, some ice-cream balls, a bowl, a spoon and a super cool table. It took a while to texture and bump map everything.

sorry for turning this in late.

an REVOLVE an LOFT an CUP

REVOLVE

In Maya we once more created art. This time it was a chalice, along with a salt shaker. First was the cup, which we made using NURBS to draw a 2D half on the cup, and then pressing REVOLVE to make it go full circle and fill out the shape.

LOFT

For the salt shaker we drew a circle using NURBS, and shrank the corners to make it a sort of plus sign. Then I copy-pasted them 4 times to make the skeleton of the salt shaker. I then selected them all from bottom to top, and clicked on LOFT, which smoothly connected the wireframe with the base material.

After making them, I just put them in a big box and textured them. Oh and added some lighting.

HAMMER TIME

MODELING

This is my favorite thing I've created in Maya so far. 

To make the handle, I created a long and tall rectangular shaft. I extruded said long and tall rectangular shaft's face to start on the head of the hammer. I extruded once more and spilt it into two pitchfork-looking things. I then rotated said forks down to make the claw of the hammer. 

For the striking part of the head, I just beveled it enough to round it off completely. 

Lastly, the handle. I split it into three distinctive parts and manipulated to look like a modern rubber handle. 

TEXTURE

Then I was on to make it actually look "real", and not like it was 3D printed. I used the phong shader for the metal head, dark grey for the rubber handle, and a seamless grass texture for the ground for über realism.

LIGHTING

Finally, I was ready to light it up. I used 3 directional light to simulate sunlight as well as natural light. Then I put in ambient light to really make it pop