Film reel

My film reel has stayed almost the exact same as the last one, I just replaced certain shots with clips from my new short film, Blood, furthering the theme of things not going the way you plan with the argument of Jude and Scott in the car.

I am working on a completely new film reel, however, which will focus on relationships between people.

Music Video Analysis



This music video is a story about a group of friends who lose all inhibitions and do anything and everything they want. They raid a gas station, steal a car, rob a pizza place, and dance through the aisles of a convenience store.

All the lighting and camera work lend a homemade do-it-yourself look to the whole video, which I think really fits the style they have.

One aspect I would like to apply to my own work is the amateurish style of the photography. Although it may not look as pretty as an 80D with a 50mm lens on a tripod, it definitely conveys emotion and excitement much better. It gives an almost child-like sense of exhilaration.

Ashlan, the DP, does make use of the 6-shot system, however. There are many close-ups and mediums, as well as one over the shoulder. He could improve with better tracking of subjects.

Overall, I like this music video. It's fun, upbeat and carefree.

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.

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.

Public Service Announcement

My group of three decided tone again come together and make a video. At first we thought to do a PSA warning against Juuling, but ended up going with a video promoting stretching instead! I think it was the right choice for us.

Jack drew up a story board for the idea while Dom and I wrote the script. We finalized our vision for our PSA, and we were ready to film in a couple days. Come our first film day, though, and one of our actors aren't able to film. This was a setback, but we still had our violin player available. Filming the violin playing scene in twenty minutes, we were done for the day.

Our next filming day was much more successful. We knocked out the two remaining scenes in under two hours and called it a wrap. While we were shooting, we came up with the idea of making the whole PSA look like a VHS, to give a kind of PE Health class video vibe.

The next day, it was all up to me as the editor. I had a day to edit it all, so I had to stay after class all through lunch and history. I managed to crank out a decent looking video though, even with a difficulty in creating the stereoscopic anaglyph.

I'm happy with the final product, but one thing I would do different is make the pink slides in between a lot cooler with pictures.

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.