My CCR!!!

Hey blog! I am somewhat sad to announce that this post will be my last one :( This project has come to a bittersweet ending. I had a lot of fun though!!
Anyways, here is my CCR! Super fun fact- I accidentally spent $60 trying to export this video!!! The editing software I used told me I did not have enough storage to export, so I had to pay some money. In my frustration, I did not read the thin fine print and accidentally purchased a year's worth of membership instead of the one month, that was only $5. So basically this video cost me 60 bucks so hopefully it is good enough for you all.
Here is the link:
https://drive.google.com/open?id=16PfDM5nssqDzrwUBigTJyhd4DwJhE9td

Project Reflection

Hi blog !! I hope everyone is doing well. Today in my post, I will be doing some *~ self reflection ~* and analyzing myself and my choices.

Working on this project has been a rollercoaster. At the beginning, I struggled to come up with any solid ideas. I had ideas of some cool shots I felt I could take, but I couldn't think of a story to back it up. Once I joined Paola and Val's group, things picked up. We had a really fun idea that required filming on location and we developed a calendar to make meeting easier with each other's schedules. I personally let myself fall behind with this project and it's my biggest regret about the whole thing. I went through a lot of personal issues throughout the course of the development of the project, and while its normal to have a small setback, I let my issues take over. I ignored not only this project for a while, but also my other classes and other priorities. It made it hard to keep up with my group mates and the project itself. However, after a lot of help from my teacher, I was able to catch up. I wish that I hadn't let myself become so distracted, but it is just something I have to learn from at this point.

Developing our opening was an interesting process. When we had to change our story due to the Corona virus, we all felt kind of stuck. We ended up switching ideas a couple times before finally landing on Kali. It was not our original plan, but we're all still really happy with it and the work we put into it. Though I acted in it, that wasn't part of the plan either. I wanted to be behind the camera, directing more, but due to social distancing and having to film at home, I didn't really have another choice. I was able to get the shots I wanted, so I still had that say in things, but I just personally don't like acting. I do wish we had incorporated some more visually interesting shots too, looking back on it. With the time constraints and circumstances, we didn't take as many risks as I would have liked to. But this whole process really served as a learning experience for me because it really showed that things can go very wrong during the development of a project, but you have to keep going. Even with all the obstacles placed in front of you, you have to work around them, and put out something that you feel proud of.
Ultimately, the biggest thing I learned about this project was that I need to manage my time better. Even with other things going on in my life, I need to be able to compartmentalize and put time into school and other things too. I am happy with our final project, but I wish I hadn't isolated myself like that. Overall though, I really like our film opening, and it was a super fun project. :-)

My Film Opening!

Kali

Hi everyone! I'm so happy to finally share the movie opening for our film, 'Kali.' A lot of hard work was put into executing this between Paola, Val, and I. I hope you all enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it! Thanks for being a part of this long journey :-)

We finally finished!!

Hello blog!! I am so relieved to say we have finished our film opening! We had to add a couple shots to our piece in these last couple days because we felt that there was something missing. Fortunately, having shot everything from home, getting these last shots in was not a problem whatsoever. They were also fairly simple shots that did not require too much work. We added the music I discussed in my previous post and it was the perfect finishing touch. It looks really cool and I couldn't have had better group members :-) Tomorrow I'm going to upload the film opening to my blog for you all to see. Also, I now have to shoot and edit my CCR. I finally picked an idea that I like and I'm going to run with it because if not I know I'll end up changing my mind another million times. I think the CCR will be fun to do as well, so I'm excited to work on that and share what it was like to work on this project. Though it was insanely stressful at times, especially due to the complications from the Corona virus, I had a lot of fun. It was cool to see all our hard work be put into one piece of work and see all the small details we thought about come to life. I can't wait for you all to see it! Also happy Easter to those who celebrate and happy regular Sunday to those who don't!

Almost there !!

Hi everyone!! I feel so happy because we're almost done with this project! Though it wasn't our original idea, I'm very pleased with how it is turning our and I'm proud of the effort my group members and I put in to create this piece. As of now, we are finalizing the editing and finding the music. We had originally sent an email to Universal Music Group, but we no longer needed the rights for the song as we had changed our minds. So we decided to look for loyalty-free music online and see if anything matched our vision. After a lot of searching, we were able to find Revelations by Tristan Barton. This song really went along with the vibe we were searching for, so we were super excited to have found it. We will be using this song for the dream portion of the scene, so we had to find something that had a dreamy feel to it and felt almost ethereal. This is pretty much the only thing we had left to do other than some small editing details. I can't wait to show you all the finished product in just a couple days!!

Some Updates !

Hi everyone. So after filming came the process of actually going through footage. I'm overall pretty happy with how everything turned out. I wish I could have used some more equipment to make it look more visually appealing and of a higher caliber, but I didn't have access to too much due to the virus. Also, in our original idea, I wasn't in the film, and for good reason; I am not an actress. Obviously we were never planning on hiring any professionals, but we were going to have people who were more comfortable in front of the camera. I think I did okay, but I hate seeing myself on screen. I think I cringe in every part that I am in.

As of now, I'm currently working on ideas for my CCR and figuring out how I can make it interesting. I have a couple ideas but I don't know if I will have time or the resources to execute it. I think I might have some random inanimate objects interview me if my other ideas don't work. Currently having a mental block though. It might be the fact that I have no concept of time anymore nor a sleep schedule due to being stuck in my house over three weeks. Who knows? Happy blogging!

FILMING !

Hi everybody !! Today was a great day. My group finally was able to film. Though we were unable to film together, both Val and I were able to get our separate footage. I don't know about her, but filming was quite interesting, at least for me.
My brother was the camera man for the majority of my footage, which was nice considering he's a film major. While I directed all the shots, it was super helpful to have some collaboration and advice from someone who's studied this more in depth than I have. We were planning on shooting with my Nikon camera, but since Val was unable to get a camera too, I ended up using my iPhone XR camera to shoot, which is still good quality.
Shooting outside at night was kind of hard with this and didn't have as nice of a visual effect as I could have hoped, but its okay. It was also a little hard considering I was shooting a scene with my dog, who decided not to take it seriously and just lay on the floor instead of acting. It was kind of rude of her but I have decided to forgive her because not everyone is born with natural talent and she is also a dog.

My parents were fortunately very willing to do whatever I asked, however it seems I overestimated my dad's acting abilities. Getting him to say a couple a lines proved to be a challenge due to his accent, but after about one million takes, it sounded good. Also I found out my mom can cry on demand? It could have been useful except for the fact that she refused to cry on camera, so I don't really know why she even showed me that trick, it's cruel. I literally begged her to but she was being super stubborn so currently a little mad at her but it's okay.

The scene shot in my bedroom was super frustrating, I won't lie. When the camera is only on me, I can't help but laugh. Also we wanted to do a trick with lights flickering, but the lights in my room don't flicker fast enough so it just looked really dumb. I also hit my head like twice while trying to fall back on my bed so I might have a concussion but I will keep you all posted.

I don't want to share any stills of the footage so you are all surprised later. ;-) Now all we have left to do is to edit, tweak some things and work on our blogs and CCR. I feel much more relieved now. Stay safe !

A STAR-STUDDED CAST!!

Hi everyone ! So dealing with this whole filming issue has been kind of a mess, but we've worked a lot out. Due to the virus and social distancing, we have to film separately. But coming from a family that studied film and media, my parents had no problem stepping up and offering their help with this. A portion of the film will be filmed in my neighborhood/house, and a portion will be filmed in Val's neighborhood. While it isn't ideal to film separately, we have no other choice and are going to work together to make it as seamless and cohesive as possible. We've figured out our actors:

KALI Starring:

Valerie Tiralongo as Kali

Julieta Argiro (I'm an insanely talented actress, which you don't have to even take my word for. Just ask any of my classmates what they thought of my inspiring performance as a ultra-feminist murderer in a previous project) as Aria Costales

Nacho Argiro as Lorenzo Costales

Macarena Leon as Guilia Costales