First Semester Reflection
Coming into my senior year of e-Comm, I was ready to make the best work of my high school career. We dove head first into a refresher assignment over the 6 shot system, my group making a five minute short film about a young boy’s crush, called Dearly Departed.
Dearly Departed
My group and I came up with the short film after joining our two different ideas of a break up story and a little boy going to a park. After deciding on that, we got our storyboards and script written up and agreed on a filming day.
We got everything shot and filmed in about 3 hours, thanks to our stellar actor, Andy. Shout out Andy. Editing was a piece of cake, the only real issue being the audio we recorded sounded pretty muffled, but I did the best I could to correct it in post. Overall, I’m pretty happy with what we came up with in the end.
Tech Deck - “THE MEGA RAMP”
Our next assignment was to make a commercial. Right off the bat, we all knew we wanted to make it about Tech Decks, the finger skateboards. We originally wanted to just make a 15 second ad you’d normally see before a YouTube video, but with the ideas we had written down and drawn out we realized the commercial was gonna have to be at least 30 seconds.
Wanting to make something as close to a real commercial a kid would see on Nickelodeon, we knew all we needed were shots of flip tricks and shots of a cool looking skater dude. That decided, we went out to target, bought a Tech Deck skateboard and set up our ramps in the parking lot of the store. We filmed all my tricks in about an hour, and called it a day. Then for the second film day my group went to the skate park (I couldn’t go, I had work) and filmed Dom dressed up in early 2000s skater threads doing tricks with the Tech Deck. I looked over the footage and instantly knew we did it.
Editing this video was very fun. I got the best tricks and slowed them down, lined them up, sped them up, mixed and matched, and hashed and sashed. With clips of Dom sprinkled in, and the graphic Jack made for the end, the commercial was close to perfect. It was missing something, though. I watched a couple real Tech Deck ads and spotted the final piece: light leaks. I downloaded green screen light leak effects and wove them into our video as best I could. The finished product is what I’m most proud of so far this year, and I wouldn’t change a thing.
Film Reel
With every film reel I make, I try to do something different. This would be the first time I’d try to stick with a theme. I decided on Loneliness and Anger. Theme chosen, I also resolved to make the focus of this film reel be my editing skills. I wanted as many cool stuff I could fit without it being too much.
The song I picked was very intentional. Never Enough, by Rex Orange County. It’s about feeling like you’re not good enough, with an end resolution to improve yourself without the help or pity of anyone else. It’s fake deep, but I really wanted to see if I could stick with an overarching theme. In the end, I think I was successful in at least achieving a consistent mood.
Short Film
We have not been focusing on our short film much at all this past month, mostly because almost our entire group has been writing the feature film script. We have finalized our script, actors, costumes, locations and storyboards, though, so we’re ready. Our plan is to film our movie the first week of winter break, and finish editing it the second week. It’s gonna be my first time making a short film longer than 5 minutes, so I’m excited. We have a good solid story.
Skill Tree
My greatest strength is definitely in editing, both video and audio. It’s hard work - exhausting work - but the payoff is so worth it. I love putting all the pieces together and seeing a final product I’m proud of. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.
I would say, though, that my greatest weakness is camera work. I don’t really know my way around a DSLR as much as I should as a senior in e-Comm, so I plan to at least familiarize myself with them this year. Here’s hoping.
Feature Film
Since the start of the semester I have been looking forward to the feature film. Last year I wasn’t really involved with the actual production of The Ebony Codex much, so this year I intend to change that. I have been heavily involved in the script writing process of this movie, actually typing out about a third of the movie itself. It’s tricky work, but I think by the end of winter break we’ll have a clean final script.
I’m also in charge of the music for the feature, as well as all of the post production crew. It’s a big responsibility, but I’m sure I’ll be able to manage. I work well with others, and I know how to make people get things done.
Overall, this senior year is shaping up to be my biggest e-Comm year yet, so I am very excited. I get to do all the things I love: music, editing, and writing. I will not mess this up. I promise.
Here’s to senior year.
