Project 1

The first ever project was a short horror film of a person, searching for his friend, Josh, before finding a mysterious mask and realising someone is after him. He tries escaping when he realised it's too late, and is caught by a unknown killer known as the Boogieman grabbing him from behind. I gave it the title called "The Boogieman" just because the killer isn't known and catches his victim when they find his mask.

I was grouped with Joey Miradita, Luke Martin and Josh Coles with the project. I was not only the actor for both the victim and the Boogieman, but I also edited my project much like the others for their own project. I worked from the lighting to the sounds to being the actor of the project. In here, you will see me explaining about my experiences about my lessons of this work on this reflection journal, showing each week and day of my college work of Project 1.

Reflection Journal

Week 1

Day 1

The first day of the first week, I worked on a website about my projects and rated some movie posters and synopsis. Why I worked on a website of my portfolio is because I did this is to prepare myself in the future of each of my projects. While for the posters, I worked with two other students to show how creative the picture of the poster, the synopsis and the tagline is together.

When it came to problems from the website, I encountered slight writer's block problems that went away. So long as I find something that fits with what I'm saying, it's all good. I had no problems with rating the posters. Next time I will like to add a photo of myself to show everyone who's working.

Day 2

On the second day, I have to write a story from beginning to end. I did this to show off my creative skills on writing a story.

However, like last time, I was stuck with writer's block, but this time, I didn't know where to start off with and couldn't think of anything. But, I overcame this as Pete has given me choice, instead of writing something, I should adapt a comic book. Giving me three choices between Dark Knight Returns, Miles' Spider-Man and the Walking Dead.

I chose this method because I didn't have any original ideas I want to think up and it'll be a lot easy for me to adapt a comic book and make it as faithful as I can. What I've learnt is that even if you can't think of something original, you can always adapt something while giving something unique and keeping it faithful. Ask my teachers if I'm struggling with coming up an idea.

Day 3

On the third day, I continued my work on the script from Yesterday to try finishing it up. There were few problems that were minor to me, one was the writer's block that went away easily unlike last time. The other was adapting the comic a bit differently, which was a bit harder because it was a new experience I haven't tried before. Thankfully, I decided to overcome the problem by changing some unnecessary text in the comic to make it like a film.

I chose this method because I want to make sure the adaption had some nice changes, fits well with a movie screenplay while keeping it faithful on what it's adapting. I learnt to make sure to adapt the story, make sure the storyline also makes sense like the original source and give it some unique flair for people to enjoy. Next time, whether, I'll come back to my the screenplay, I want to try completing it, but, that will depend if we revisit or not.

Day 4

Final day of the first week, I got to continue writing the screenplay, which surprised me because I thought it was done. But, it's not the only work, as there's also storyboarding as well, which... sure shows doing it with a comic adaption works. Why I did it was to simply finish the screenplay and move onto storyboarding. I had encountered no problems when it came to writing the screenplay, besides going with a storyboard, which I struggled a bit with the scene framing.

By overcoming this, I looked back into the comic to use a bit inspiration and alter it a bit and even changing the scene's framing. Choosing this method, I thought was affective because it would show a bit of uniqueness to the comic but keep it faithful as well. What I have learnt today is to keep imaging some shots to make some unique pictures. Next week, I'm likely going to try storyboarding again but with 3D models instead.

Week 2

Day 5

Today, I have learnt about 3D storyboard to create a story through images and actions. Problems arise when I was confused on how to place the characters or objects. But, I was able to overcome it through looking at every function. (e.g. camera properties, the scene's graph, etc.)

Why I chose this is because I wanted to explore how Storyboarder worked and looked at the tools and models before I get cracking. And with that, I have learnt to change positions, move areas, switch objects, etc. Finally, next time, I hope I can get the positions right without needing to press on the options that change it and just change each body parts.

Day 6

On the second day on the second week, I grouped myself with Joey, Josh and Lucas to create a short horror film. Why we planned it is because it is to show each skill of us, for me, I picked acting as I wanted to be a voice actor in the future. The problems we encountered were finding who should write the horror project, since we were unsure who should be the writer.

It was a long choice on who's going to be the writer, but eventually, one of the guys has finally decided to write the script for us. And obviously, no method was chosen. Though, what I've learnt is that I should think of ideas for the horror story or even suggest comedy and fantasy to see if people agree or not. Maybe, ask the ideas on what we doing for the script and see whoever is the most creative, writes it.

Day 7

On this day, I went to the TV room, testing the lights for movie productions and framing the camera's shot because it's to test the equipment on how it work, what it's meant to be used. There were zero problems I had with the equipment so there were no methods to overcome. Though, there were some confusion with the buttons, which I was solved by pressing the buttons carefully.

My team were completely fine with taking photos, so we had zero obstacles to pass. There is a lessons to learn like looking my surroundings and make sure no person was in the way. And there was nothing different I could do next.

Day 8

On this day, me and my team worked on our script for the horror slasher film so we can create while adding more to my acting word and record our film project. We struggled a bit on what was wanted our slasher to be for a bit like the title and what it should.

Thankfully, we were able to look into titles and settled with "He wasn't alone." And we're able to write down the script for our movie project in time. There wasn't really much method other than "it's cool." And I think the only thing we learnt on how difficult coming up a story and script for a horror slasher is, at least for me. Hopefully, we can communicate a bit more next week.

Week 3

Day 9

Today, I've listed down all examples of editing transitions and their meaning. Why I did it is to show what's effective for the tone and purpose of a scene when recording for a film like with fade to show it works for opening and ending a film. The problems I encountered was more of finding a way to write down their meanings or how they work.

This was really simple to get past since all I need to do was look through a video and Peter even suggested to do this method to everyone, and I did this before he gave anyone this suggestion. What I learnt is a reminder that transitions and camera effects are very effective to use as to show the meaning, tricking the audience or impactful it was. As what to do next, remember everything about transition, camera movements, effects and more.

Day 10

The next day, I focused on checking on the script and revised to see what needs changing and what can stay because the original script is only a draft and sometimes, needs to be updated like describing the camera angles or directions.

There weren't any problems I thought needed to be solved. Unless you want to count accidentally saving both the script and my Spider-Man comic adaption in one thing, then all I did was save it as a Microsoft Word page and edited the Spider-Man script out.

Choosing this method was to look at WriterDuet's file and find the file that would allow me to edit out any unnecessary details. There wasn't much to learn about, just check what file is available and next time might be using the TV room.

Day 11

Today, me and my group recorded some test footages for our short horror film because we need to experiment on our shots, retakes, acting and camera angles. Some problems that needed to be solved were the lack of sound that didn't have any work arounds, some outtakes that I gladly told my camera the directions of the film to make it effective.

The choice of these methods to make a really effective horror film to make it tense like the full shot of me walking towards the camera. As for what I've learnt is to always write down the frame of the camera shots to get what you want. Hopefully next time, by the time we get to record the actual thing, we get everything as perfect. Though, I should rewrite a script a bit more.

Day 12

On this day, I've organised all the clips my group recorded of me acting and editing the visuals of the clips as well to make it fit with the dark and night aesthetics. Because it was a good idea to show what the order of this film was going, how framing can be improved, change daytime to night time and show the spooky vibe.

There were no problems with the editing process nor the timeline order. Maybe for a few shots, but that can solved by re-recording the scene cause there would be some shots that looks ugly. Visuals editing, I had a harder time with since I haven't done too much with it besides making video footage outdated and coming from the 80s or 90s. But, there was a simple solution to overcome: YouTube. As underwhelming as the answer may be, YouTube showed me how to change the daytime we recorded at, into night time, so there was no need to record in the dark.

It was easy to learn that we should experiment more with the tools of Premiere Pro a lot more or look into some videos on YouTube to see its effectiveness. Next week, will be the day my group will have to record the entire short film.

Week 4

Day 13

Most of the time was spent on visually editing short film from last week and write about the media production. This is to test out a bit of my editing skills and make sure I haven't lost them, but also, to prepare for the film production for tomorrow.

Mostly some confusion on what to do, whether it'd be editing or writing down the Project 1 Media Foundation. It was sorted with Joey from my group helping me and writing down the equipment request, a method I didn't really choose, but was a big help from him.

And what have I learnt is that it is worth a helping hand from my group if I ever struggled to do with my work. Next time, my group will be working on recording the film from 13:30 to 15:00, which is about an hour and a half.

Day 14

Right now of the day, me and my group were planning for our recording as mentioned from yesterday for today. This is because we were prepared on working on the film project.

Unfortunately, we encountered a big problem with finding the cameras that lasted a hour and minutes. Fortunately, Pete came in at the end of the first lesson and we finally got the camera to record our short film for the second lesson. There was method, we were just searching to find Alex, it then later became us talking to the teachers on where she is before Pete told us about the mistake he made.

What me and my group learnt is that we should find the teacher from our last lessons and talk to them about the requested equipment. Next will be back in the TV Studio and learn more about the lightings.

Day 15

It is Thursday and we were learning about the lighting with backing lights, shadow lighting, etc. It was the entire class working on it, taking pictures of the lighting and experimenting the lightning to see all the appeal.

There were no problems to encounter as me and everyone in the class had already encountered lighting from before, so there was no need of method to overcome any problem we possibly have.

On the other hand, what we learnt, it is worth experimenting lights for a nice style of colours mashing together. Next, will go back to editing a bit of the short film, replacing the old clips with brand new ones.

Day 16

On the final day of the fourth week, I added in the clips into Premiere Pro, but, not before changing the file from MTS to MP4. The reason for this is because the MTS doesn't have any sound when editing for Premiere Pro, while MP4 absolutely does.

Unfortunately, when I used FreeConvert for the files to convert, it is only limited to a ten amount of files daily, I accidentally converted and then deleted the group of files. Thankfully, I overcame this problem by searching to other convert sites. While they are all limited like FreeConvert, I was able to get all files converted from websites like ConvertFiles, Convertio and Online-Convert.com.

Admittedly, this method was hard to choose knowing there are malicious websites on the internet, but, I was willing to do it because I wanted this project to be updated and get closer to completion. Make sure to always check if I downloaded some files for the short film. And also, website that limit the person in using them are terrible for this limit. Next week, me and my group go back recording our project twice.

Week 5

Day 17

On the first day of the fifth week, my group rerecord some scenes of our practise footage we did before. Why we did it is because one, my clothes in the old footage are completely different from now. And two, they're old and outdated.

A lot of people walking in the scene, moving from their lives were a pain to handle and there would be times people talking while we record. I overcame this problem through waiting. A really unsatisfying answer I know, but there's also moving onto other measures in recording.

The choice of method was chosen because there would be alternative versions of recording other things. What I have learnt is that it is always best recording when no one is in the building. Tomorrow, we will be recording again and hopefully, in the end, we can finish up everything.

Day 18

On Tuesday, we have finally finished all the video recording of our horror project because we wanted to move onto the editing stage of our project after recording. Problem were, again, a lot of people walking in a room. This time, there were a lot more people coming in. Some of them actually being very close friends of them.

I did overcome this problem with the same unsatisfying answer of moving into different rooms or places. And as why I chose it is because I could alternate and continue recording. I didn't learn much but the same thing from Yesterday. Next day will be back to the TV Studio as it's Thursday.

Day 19

Today wasn't in the TV Studio surprisingly, it was editing because Pete wanted us to edit our work before next Tuesday, which made us have to edit quickly. There was a struggle with Premiere Pro as I was editing like normal, until suddenly, I clicked something and everything went away.

And unfortunately, I had to go back from scratch with my work and created a new file to make the project. I had to choose this method because I can't find any other solution to overcome it that isn't just doing it all over again. What I have learnt is never touch anything that can remove the timeline of the project. Next time will be more editing like before.

Day 20

On the final day of the week, I had completed my version of the horror film that I called "The Boogieman." Reasons for why I had to complete it was because next week will be the deadline of the first project of my level 3 of digital media.

Some lighting problems in how I did it, but with some experimenting, I was able to overcome my problems to finally see myself in the film. It's a simple method that while is long to control, is simple to overcome.

What I've learned is to make sure the actor can be seen in the film. Next week, is the final week for the term and I be able to complete it.