End of Year Reflection

Mario Bustos



Commercial

At the beginning of the year my group and I made a Reese's Puffs commercial set in the Civil War. This is one of my favorites because its still very professional, has great acting, a good location and perfect music. It took us around three days to prepare everything beforehand, and just 3 hours to shoot it all on the fourth day. A challenge we did face however was the dimming light go the evening, but I think we still managed pretty well.

As my first video project of junior year, I was very pleased with the result we achieved. It helped me learn how to edit between conversation naturally and seamlessly, and I also got a quick intro into color grading in Premiere Pro. We won first place for best commercial in my class, which was really cool, and it only made me more motivated to keep making videos.

I love this video. It's fun concept, easy enough to shoot, and it turned out pretty good. It's aged well these past couple of months.

Short Film

Toward the end of the first semester, Jack, Dom and I made Roughhouse Rock. This is also one of my favorites because its the first short film I've made that I actually like watching, and because I got to make it with my best friends.

At first, we were unsure about the script, but after making significant edits to it I was ready to dive in. Preproduction took around a week this time around, as we had to make sure we had costumes, locations and actors down. Once we had those on lock it was time to film.

Except, our three film days we had planned were cut to just one. One film day for four different locations. And I had work for the first 3 hours of it. We decided to go ahead regardless and try to get as much done as possible. After a nine hour shoot with no breaks, we somehow managed film everything. We were ecstatic.

Although it turned out alright in the end, this project made me realize that you need some good plan B's for videos at all times. It also taught all of us how to work under pressure.

Our short film received generally positive feedback with the exception of one particularly harsh review. When we entered it in a school film competition, however, we heard "Roughhouse Rock" called for first place. I couldn't believe it. Looking back at it, I'd change quite a few things with our script and shots, but overall I am happy with the film.

General Thoughts

This year, I do think I used my time wisely in classy as well as outside it. I put e-Comm first in my priorities a lot - sometimes to the chagrin of my mother - spending many hours editing clips and making films.

My strengths would definitely have to be in post production, specifically editing. I take the raw footage and clips and put together a cohesive story and enjoyable video. I am well versed in audio recording and editing as well, being as that was my production role for my class feature film. I would also say that I am a good leader. When Jack or Dom start to get distracted or off topic, I bring them back in focus to the project at hand.

I would like to work on my camera skills, though. Being a competent cinematographer would be very useful.

Feature Film

As I said, my production role for this year's feature film was Audio Editor. My job was to take the footage and put in dialogue recorded from the zoom, as well as any special effects we needed. 

I think I really contributed to the movie's success, since I'd take scenes that had our directors cringing in embarrassment and make them look and sound more professional, more to the vision they had in mind. Sound is very important to a film, after all. I spent many hours in and out of class working on the feature film, and I think it all paid off pretty well.

Final Thoughts

This year, what I loved doing the most was making videos with my best friends. It almost never felt like homework, or an assignment we HAD to do - it was fun. We had a great time doing what we love.

I do have to say I look forward to what next year will bring, as I will be more focused than ever at making good engaging content. With my friends, I feel like we can make anything we want. Within reason, of course.

That's why next year I'd really like to be in 3rd and 4th hour Entertainment once again. I'd be able to make great projects with familiar faces, and teach the juniors important skills and advice I wish we were given.

In addition, for the feature film next year, I would absolutely LOVE to be the composer. Being in a band and the keyboardist and chief producer, I would put my all into making a great soundtrack for an awesome movie.

Here's to next year.