Film Opening

 I hope you enjoy it!

Click here!

Oh, and if you're bored, feel free to watch my other postings on YouTube!

Creative Critical Reflection

CCR Part 1: Click here!

Covers the first two mandated questions being:

How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

CCR Part 2: Click here!

Covers the last two mandated questions being:


How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

Final Posting

 Hello Earthlings, or should I say fantastic blog readers! Let's just skip the introductions, I'm already emotional enough. LOL. This blog post will be my final content-filled post regarding the portfolio project, so I hope everyone is ready. It will also probably be the longest because there is so much to say for me to truly "express the production process" in this blog. Get ready!

My Apology

I think that before I can even begin discussing the actual process, I first need to apologize. Not really to you the reader, but more so to myself. I procrastinated a lot on this project, which caused so much unnecessary stress and issues this weekend (when the project is actually due). But, at the same time, I'm also kinda happy I procrastinated a lot on this project. Simply because of how much I learned. Apart from leaning to do future projects more efficiently, I learned how to edit under pressure and during a time crunch. I've really never felt that type of pressure before and I must admit it was a very new feeling. However, I loved it. Being under a time crunch also showed me that I need to really learn what's important to prioritize and what's not. I can skip a shower if that means I get more time to edit (just kidding!!). Not just external prioritizing, but internal prioritizing. Should I focus on color grading this clip if I'm not even done with the whole video? Questions like these were difficult ones that I answered, and more importantly, gained more experience with. Thankfully, I am a lot better prepared now if I had to face a situation like this again. 

CCR Part 2

I figured I would start off with this topic because if you just watched it, you might be coming here to get more information on it. I did have a time limit of 10 total minutes for both CCR's and since CCR 1 took up 8 minutes, the other CCR could only take up 2. This situation itself left me to believe that maybe the best way wasn't to do a PowerPoint or myself talking. Instead, I needed to be creative and think of what I could do that would be the most time efficient but also demonstrative. Thus, I decided to make a graphic video that answered the two questions:

1. How did your production skills develop throughout this project

2. How did you integrate technology into this project?

To me, both of those questions seemed easy to answer together, and I thought that I could actually answer those questions through demonstrations. Thus, I wanted to show what I learned and the technology I was using, while talking about how I learned and how I used it. To be honest, I thought that I did a great job creating an engaging video that not only explained the techniques I learned but also showed it. Believe me, before this project I would not have been able to make a video like that, especially not in a time crunch. The different graphics I made/used were all exhibitions of production skills I developed throughout this project, as well as the time management skills to finish that video promptly. And, I am also showing how I integrated technology into the project, by quite literally making the whole CCR through and on technology.  I'm going to answer the questions below in more description, in case you weren't very sure about my answers in the video. Also, credit to Riley Orovitz and Mara Lustig for assisting in finding and taking the videos/photographs of myself used in CCR 2.

1. My production skills developed a ton throughout the project. I became a faster and more efficient editor, using constant experience to know which effects do what and what effects to use. For example, instead of having to google how to fade a clip, I now know that I can use a "dip to black" effect, or a "constant power" effect for sound. Not only was it my editing skills though, but it was also my cinematography skills and my directing skills. For the basketball shots I used a gimbal to steady the camera, and man did I need practice for that. The gimbal was so heavy so I walked around the basketball court multiple times to get used to maneuvering it. I also got better at controlling the ISO and lens of the camera, to get the most wanted shot. Even more than camera talent, I got so much better at directing. I haven't really fully directed a film opening before (I've done music videos but it's a little different). So having people waiting for me to tell them what to do was a neat experience, and as I became more friendly with them, they became more friendly with me. Overall, I learned that one of the keys to being a good director is getting your cast to be on your side, and the best way to do that is by being friendly with them.

2. Technology was quite literally integrated into everything for this project. Ranging from the camera I used to film to the editing software technology was everywhere. In today's world, with so much technology abroad, it is essential to take advantage of it for the best uses possible, and that's exactly what I did. 

CCR Part 1:

I feel my CCR part 1 is pretty conclusive int terms of details and everything, however, I am uploading the transcript for you to see. 

Hello everyone, it’s josh burke just wanted to apologize for any raspy voice I have been sick, also the music is so it’s not just my borin voice youre hearing.
·          
·         How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
This is a great question. And you know one of the even better things was how I really started off creating this project, having a social issue I wanted to address in mind.
As of last week, gun violence is the leading cause of death in children under the age of 18. That fact and statement right there is just unimaginable. Clearly, America isn’t doing something right, and if it’s not going to be addressed (which it certainly looks like it’s not) then I want to at least bring more awareness to it through my project. I mean, the whole film revolves around Blake Kazinec, a soon to be NBA star projected to get drafted #1 Overall in the NBA, but then a tragedy occurs. There’s a mass shooting at his college. It’s ridiculous to understand how many lives death touches. Fortunately, Blake didn’t die, but so many kids get their lives taken away from them because of guns. In my film opening, I specifically used gunshots from an AR-15, the most common type of weapon used in these mass shootings because of how powerful it is and deadly. Back on track, but I’m really trying to represent the issue of gun violence in America. With my film opening, and the rest of the film showing how torn apart Blake’s life is because of that shooting, I’m trying to send a message to everyone to do what they can to stop these terrible tragedies from occurring. It could be them next, that are getting shot, so we need to stop this before it’s too late.
Another typical stereotype or, I’m not really sure what to call it but the social standard is what I’ll use. Another social standard I am challenging is the idea that athletes aren’t human and they’re better/different than us.  By making Blake, the athlete that’s soon to make millions of dollars every month from being the first overall pick in the draft get shot, I’m showing to the world that hey maybe these athletes are human. They can get hurt just the same way we get hurt. So many publishing companies write articles about how athletes need to be held to higher standards than the average citizen, but it all just separates them from the public, making them seem superhuman. They’re not. And that was one of my main goals with this film, allowing the public to be one with athletes, and not hate on them for one bad move.
Additionally, I really wanted to bring up the social issue of less female representation in sports. With Zippia stating that 16% of sports commentators are female, that’s a huge minority. I believe in equality and justice for all, so that’s one of the reasons I chose to have a female sports commentator talk after the draft occurred. This issue is becoming less and less critical as time goes on, which is really good.
Even more, I also wanted to bring up the social issue of people presuming that size is everything that matters, or looks, or just more on the physical aspects of a person. With the average NBA player height being 6 6, Blake is well below average, but that doesn’t matter. I want to show the world and all my young fans that no matter how tall or small you are, no matter what you look like, anything is possible. If you work hard nonstop, like Blake does, you can get to where you will be.
I mean, at the end of the day I tried to implement a lot of social issues into this film opening, but for time’s sake, I decided to move on.
 
·         How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
Our product engages with target audiences by being relatable, which was really one of the whole goals of our project. I’ll explain that in a second but let me first just talk about our genre. The Comeback Sports is part of the sports drama genre. Most sports fans in this genre played a sport at one point in their life, so that’s our first method of connecting with the audience. Additionally, many of our viewers know what it’s like to suffer a big injury that can really disturb one’s daily activities. According to WebMD, half of Americans broke a bone by 45, so we’re really able to connect with that audience because they know what it feels like to severely injure themselves and not be able to keep on the same course they were previously on. Even more, my movie plans to show more about the main character’s relationships and how they are affected with his injury. With almost every single American having a relationship at some point in their life, they really know what it feels like to go through a hard time with their significant other, and can feel more involved in the movie as they can relate to it more. I mean overall we really try to engage with our audiences by being relatable, knowing that they will want to watch more if they can relate to the characters or issues.
Obviously, this movie can’t really just make it big at the box office yet, simply because of the lack of capital. Therefore, the first step to really distributing this film will be to get some investors. To secure these funds, I will go pitch my film idea through cold emails and cold phone calls. Once I’ve reached out to all the different investors and secured the deal, I will focus on finishing the filming for the entire movie which will involve hiring a production crew, hiring more actors, and planning schedules to fully film the entire movie. Once the movie is complete, I will work with a distribution company to start marketing for the movie and publicizing it, as well as pick an official release date and start getting box offices to be prepared to show the movie. Most of the marketing would take place during current sports drama films or TV shows, sporting events, anti gun violence events, and more. Since I’m not the best at marketing and publicizing the movie, most of these tasks would be outsourced, however, I would stay the executive director of the movie. Once all these tasks are accomplished, opening day for the movie would come, and box offices all around the world will start showing young fans the best movie ever!

What I've done the last 2 weeks:

I have worked so much on this project over the last two weeks, but more so the last 5 days. So, what have I really done? Let's just say that I started off with just my video edited to the first NBA highlight videos, with no more edits besides that. So, I essentially edited the whole entire video, putting all the clips together, adding effects, voiceovers, and so much more, AND I also created both CCR's. Let me just say it was quite a weekend, and probably the reason I'm sick writing this right now. So with all the stuff I did recently, you might think everything went perfectly! Wrong!

The Mistakes/revisions.

I don't know why or how, but I edit the best just in the moment without a set plan. And that's exactly what I did. For some base editing, I really started off by putting all the clips in the right order. I had the NBA draft, highlight video, and everything in order but then I ran into some issues. I knew I wanted a shooting or cop scene but I had no idea what to do for it so I just left it completely blank as a black screen and fill in all the other clips including Blake sitting up and recovering and eventually lifting weights. And then I looked at the time and realized the film opening was super overtime. Time to backtrack! In the end, I remembered what I wrote down previously and knew that since it was just a film opening it was better to end on a sort of cliffhanger, so I decided to end on Blake waking up. I tested this out, and it just looked so blank and boring. So I thought about the messages of the story and what I really wanted to show with my project and decided that it'd be really neat if I showed the interview with Blake in bed, where he was speaking to the microphone saying how he is motivated to keep working and be that draft pick he wanted to be. I felt this would perfectly work in the movie because its him literally saying the future, and then the audience gets to watch how he progresses and achieves his goals. Funnily enough, that whole video clip wasn't even supposed to be used. I only filmed it so I could use the audio, but when I only input the audio I ran out of blank video clips, so I had to use the actual video clips from that shot. And then there I realized wow I could totally make it look like a press interview, and that's where I edited the sound to make it sound like it's coming from an interview, and overall, I'm really happy with how that shot turned out. 

Another incident that occurred during all of my time working on this was a background sound/music ANYTHING for the NBA draft and highlight reel. I practically left this whole spot blank until the very end, and when it came that time I had no idea what to do. I wanted to do a rap song, but knew that it wouldn't be realistic for live TV so I looked at lots of samples from previous drafts and saw that they all used music that had no lyrics but was kinda just there and popular and catchy. This got me thinking... what if I could use a marching band performing? Even more, what if I could use the Ohio state marching band?? And so, I started researching some of their songs but none of them just sounded right or sounded like they would fit into the scene. And then I found Seven Nation Army as performed by a band, and the rest is history! Seven nation army was the perfect pick because the music really demonstrated and set the tone for the movie, as well as the context for the specific scenario that was occurring.

Another issue that occurred during this editing situation was the voiceover problem. I really really wanted to include female representation in terms of sports commentating for my video, I just had one issue: Riley couldn't help out. She was very busy with school and other activities and told me I would need to find a replacement, and that's when things started to get tricky. I didn't really know many individuals that had such a passion for sports, had a good commentator voice and were females. And somehow, I became friends with one at just the right time! Tai Cummings and I randomly met and became friends so super last minute I texted her and asked her if she wanted to record her voice for like 40 seconds for my project and the rest is history! (I wonder how many times I can say this)

Additionally, picking the right font was such a time-wasting issue. I left all of the titles and fonts till the very end so I could save time doing everything else, and when it was time to pick a font, I had no idea what to do. I wanted one that showed the movie and tone of the movie very well but I just didn't know what to do. At the end of the day, I literally just started googling the best fonts to use for sports videos, and "impact came up." I tried it out, and I LOVED it! It worked for every single scene, and I loved it so much that I carried it over to CCr part 2!

Moving on, I showed some of my friends the video when I thought it was finished. 3/4 of them (16-year-old females that pay attention to sports) completely got the idea of the opening, but one of them didn't. None of them actually noticed the gunfire. To fix this issue, I raised the volume and severity of the gunshots and also added the text that said it was an active shooting scenario at the Ohio state university. I knew that during the whole gunshots and police radio scenes, my goal wasn't for the audience to focus on the screen but rather on the sounds, and that's why I didn't put many entertaining graphics on the actual screen. However, I do understand that sometimes people can't hear everything 100% and that's why I added context for what the situation was.

Once the video was for sure finished, or at least I thought, I showed it to lots of people that had taken Aice Media AS previously and they said that something I should really do was either move the title to the beginning of the movie OR add a clip after the title to show where the movie would continue to progress. I loved the title where it was so knew I would need to add something after it. Therefore, I took the clip of Blake lifting weights to be the next clip. Realistically the whole movie would be about the process of recovery and getting to be that #1 overall pick, so it starts with the physical recovery from the shooting, so that's exactly what I did. I depicted the first steps of Blake's recovery process. 

The last production issue I will be mentioning was not during the editing of my actual video, but for my CCR.I knew that I needed to answer the 4 questions in two different creative ways, and I thought that for the first 2 questions, the best way to answer them would be through a podcast specifically because I wanted the audience to hear what I was specifically saying and understand the tone of my voice.  I wrote the script for my podcast and just started recording and I personally thought it went great. I am sick, so I had to stop often to cough but apart from that I kept on going and cranked it all out. The issue was when it became 8 minutes long, meaning I only had 2 minutes left for my other creative entity. I originally wanted to do a director video that would cut back to me talking and be like 5 minutes long so I couldn't do that. I ended up choosing to do the 2-minute-long animation video for the reasons stated above, which you already read!

In Conclusion/Summary. 

One of my biggest takeaways from media studies class this year with Mrs. Stoklosa was not actually how to produce or edit films, but actually to have the desire and passion to learn. Not to just do an assignment to earn a good grade on it, but to do an assignment to learn from it. This whole philosophy is something I really wanted to carry over to my project. I did my project so that I could learn from it, get better at my skills from it, and have fun with it, not to get a good grade. Frankly, grades are subject, especially when grades are based on art. Some people may love my film opening, while others may not. And that's okay. The whole purpose of my creating my CCRs, my film opening, was so that it would help open my eyes to different areas of production, to different skills, to help me improve as a person. NOT to get an A on the Cambridge exam, or to get a perfect score. And so, I thank Mrs. Stoklosa for helping teach this idea to me.

Anyways as this blog comes to a close, I really must say that it has been quite a joy to work on this project. I must thank all of those that have assisted or helped me in any way, and just truly am so thankful. I wish you (the reader) to have a great day, a great week, and I hope you love my film opening and my CCR! Well, that's all. Josh Burke. Out. 

BTW, any clips or sound or anything used in my videos were noncopyrighted, and I was allowed to freely use. 

Also, sorry for the lack of pictures on this one! I felt typing was the best way to express everything!

Group Discussion

Hello all. Good day to my fellow realists. I hope everyone is doing great on this fine day. 

Huge news! In Aice Media Studies AS class today fourth period, our praised and great teacher, Mrs. Stoklosa, assigned us into groups to discuss and learn information from each other's ideas. This was the second time we had done this in class, and it was an excellent idea. Today, my group, as pictured below discussed different CCR ideas, as well as other ideas for our actual film opening.

To start off the group discussion, every member shared their current film opening or project ideas. Some members of the group were not all the way prepared and actually one member had not filmed yet. Our group was able to bond over the fact that we were all almost completely behind on our projects, and understand together that we need to catch up on our projects. 

After discussing with everyone and sharing our project ideas/film openings, we were able to give each other advice and ask each other questions. Next, we analyzed the different CCR questions and discussed them. One of the most important questions we discussed was the fourth one, regarding what technologies we used to help us with our project. I was a little confused about it because it seemed so straightforward, I thought I would just answer that I used a computer. The feedback I received from my peers helped me understand that I would need to elaborate further on my answer, but the basis of it was accurate. 

After this discussion of the CCR, we analyzed past CCRs and examples of it. We went onto specific samples that were given to us by our teacher and took specific things from them. I understood that the CCR is supposed to be really fun and upbeat, as evidenced by some of them portraying a vlog-type of vibe. They also had lots of edits ranging from clips from their film opening, or different case studies. After this research, I am looking forward to doing my CCR and doing it as a PowerPoint with voiceover, or my face speaking. I would do either 2 PowerPoints total, or more but a minimum of 2. 

Anyways, that's it for today, I look forward to going home and editing my film opening! See you all!

P.S. From the film opening basic version I showed my peers in my group, and they really liked the ideas which are awesome. 

3/26 - mental health day

 Mental health days, defined as really just a day of rest, a day where one gets to relax, is exactly what I will be doing today. I'm not going to work on my project, edit on the premiere, or think about the CCR. Rather, I am just going to talk to you, all my viewers. I have been feeling very stressed out and overwhelmed with work, college thoughts, DECA, and spring break. Mental health days can dramatically increase one's performance the following day, or later when working on the project, and that is exactly what I'm hoping for. Not to be burnt out! I also figured this was a better chance for you all to get to know me.

So, who am I? 

My name is Josh, an 11th grader at Cypress Bay High school, and I love to learn. As part of my desire to learn, I take lots of advanced classes at school including but not limited to AICE Business, AICE Global Perspectives, AP Environmental Science, Pre-Calculus, AICE Media Studies, and AP English Language. Despite the so called motivation brought by CollegeBoard and colleges to take hard classes, I do not give in, and rather take these hard classes because of my desire to learn. 

Apart from my desire to learn in school, I have a huge passion for business outside of school. I am very involved in the business club called DECA, and am currently the state's Executive Vice President, tasked with managing over 12,000 members. But apart from business, let's talk about my passion for film and tv production, since it more or less fits in with this class. 

And before you ask why I'm talking about this, it's because I think it's important for me to humanize myself and make myself more relatable to you, the readers. This will allow us to form a better bond, and to allow for mutual respect, as that we will understand that everyone is human, we all make mistakes. I have made some mistakes recently concerning my blog/film opening. I haven't truly been prioritizing it like I need to because I've been a little more focused on other events. However, this will not happen in the future. Next week is a very important week, and I will be 1000% focused on this project.

Anyways, back to my history in film and media. Growing up, I loved making YouTube videos, and I would record videos of myself playing video games and upload them to YouTube. (They are off now, but previously existed). Later on, I would begin to make vlogs of my daily life and post them on YouTube. I also make videos of product reviews and post those on YouTube. (I email companies and request free products in exchange for a promotional YouTube video). When I turned 15, my birthday gift was a year's subscription to Adobe Premiere Pro. I would also make vlogs for special trips I would go on in the summer or in DECA. Examples are below:

As you can see, I love editing and filming different projects. And, I don't want to lose that passion. There is a term in Psychology called overjustification. Overjustification is when external motivation overcomes internal motivation for certain topics. For example, a passion for film getting overrun by the desire to do well in school. Essentially, what I've been leading to is to say that my goal for this "mental health day" is to stop overjustification from occuring, and truly mantain my strong desire for film. 

Anyways, it is getting late, so I must go to bed for school tomorrow morning, but my whole point was to humanize myself to my readers, but also to get my internal motivation for film back. 

Before I end this blog, just so I have some more project-related data going on, I will give a brief schedule for the next week

Monday - edit film opening

Tuesday - Blog post about more dits

Wednesday - prepare for CCR

Thursday - Blog post about CCR

Friday - break day

Saturday & Sunday - Hardcore editing and finishing CCR

I hope everyone has a blessed day. Thanks!

3/22 Update - Highlight reel continued

 Today we are back to editing the film opening! 

My process of editing is a little unique to people, because well it's just something that has worked for me, but I don't know how well it works for others. I personally like to just base combine different clips, AND THEN go work into the details. So, that's exactly what I will be planning on doing. I'm more or less combining the clips, and next week I will be editing them. So this was my plan for today. I really wanted to finish the base edits of the NBA draft highlight scenes, so I watched some former NBA draft videos to get inspiration. 

This clip shows Giannis getting drafted and some highlights of his play, along with some commentary. I thought it would be best to do that, and since Riley hasn't been able to record her voiceover commentary for me yet, I will be doing my own little mock commentary just so that I know the right amount of time it will actually take. 

I started off with just the 3's from earlier and wanted to add all the different elements of basketball. It's widely been said that defense with games so next up I included clips of him playing defense as in getting steals or blocking the ball. Next up, I wanted to show his very talented skills that being his ball handling and movement, so I put videos of him dribbling and moving the ball around. Lastly, I included a shot of him getting off the bench and running and making a good shot. This whole idea is to number one show that he's not superhuman, and he is on the bench sometimes, but when he's given his moment to shine, he will make the most of it. A message to all viewers and something that will hopefully motivate others. 

Lastly, I wanted a way to connect all the clips. I thought that one of the best ways would be to include various clips of Blake celebrating after making some good shots and randomly placing them, or to place them where defense separates vs offense skills. I tried that out, but it didn't really look so clean, so instead, I wanted to use a motion graphics medium to connect them and to more or less stimulate the tv broadcast. I ended up getting a good one, and use it in the beginning and the end of the clip, and keep the clips of Blake celebrating. I figured the best way to transition would be through the commentator's voice. Here is what the clips look like now. I also do plan to add some music or sound effects to the background so my voice isn't in it and so it isn't so dry. 

Also, another way I wanted the clips to flow seamlessly (I got them from the NBA draft videos) was to intersect the videos of Blake getting drafted with the highlight reel. That way, when the highlight reel ends, we go back to seeing Blake celebrate being drafted, making the whole scenario easier for the audience to understand. 

While the video may seem a little dry and passionless, you have to understand that I can see the vision and how I want it to be, and right now I think it is at a great stage. I will continue to work on it more in the future!

Thanks for reading!

3/20 - CCR Thoughts

 Good evening everyone. It is now time for me to think about the CCR and get at least my brain starting to think about it because as of right now I have no idea what it is LOL. 

This blog is a little different because I'm writing this as I am going to be researching and answering the CCR. So, what is the CCR? While I make this blog, it will also be a brainstorming process so it may be a little messy. 

This is the description for the creative critical reflection I was given:

On completion of the product, candidates must reflect upon their work, using digital formats such as director commentaries, slideshows with voiceover, or screencasts. The emphasis should be on the creative use of such tools to critically reflect on the production, guided by the following compulsory questions:

• How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware, and online – in this project?

Now, this is great information, but I actually need to analyze it and understand it!

Overall, as I read through the descriptions, I begin to understand that the whole point of the CCR is to reflect and engage in metacognition, or thinking about thinking. 

Right now I'm not going to fully answer the questions, just give simple answers

For question number 1 I have great answers. 

I can talk about the whole gun violence in schools

as well as female representation in sports commentating

but also normalizing athletes. Athletes are made to look better than everyone else but in reality their not they r just the same as us, evident through name of blake but also making him relatable to the audience

Question 2

Project engages with audiences through reliability but also realistic fiction

story could just as well happen in real life

a lot of topics discussed have happened before and are real

can be distributed through the sports world but also through the activist world

use other successful film distribution practices as samples 

Question 3

cannot answer yet

Question 4

used online sound effects

don't really understand full question

will have ot look at other samples for guidance for answering this question

but i used technical editing software and a computer and advanced equipment to film and stuff soo

Overall, I will have to look a lot more at the CCR questions, but what's more important is actually finishing my project as a whole first. This was great in my opinion to begin the CCR and just brainstorm on the computer real quick. Anyways, tomorrow or the next day will be some more editing so I can speed this project along. Thanks!