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!

3/18 Starts to Editing!

 GOOD DAY TO ALL! Today is a phenomenal day. Do you know why? Let's just say that my club application for the vegan club has been submitted! This is excellent news for all students at my high school because, with my submission to start a vegan club, I want to also help support the world and make a big change. Anyways, this is getting a little off-topic so let's get back to business! 

IT'S TIME TO START THE EDITS! 

It is kinda crazy I haven't even started editing and I only have a couple of weeks until the project is due. I have been very busy and underestimated the time and commitment this project would take to do. But, the important thing is that we live and we learn and I move on even better. The plan right now is to start some basic editing today, and then next week I will focus a little more on the CCR because that is a pretty important assignment to do.

Well, on to the edits!

To start off, I imported both folders of my videos into premiere pro so that it looks like this. 

Since I had a little bit of free time earlier today, I did add some other files in there. I added a motion graphics template for a sports broadcast that I can use for my NBA draft scene. It looks something like this. 

It may be a bit laggy because of the processing power my computer may be lacking. 

The other major file I uploaded into premiere pro was just some background NBA draft music that I will put when Blake's name is announced. By the way, in case you were wondering, I am sticking with the name Blake so that he is more relatable to the audience, as just an ordinary fellow. 

After I imported all the clips, I knew that I needed to start out my film opening with Blake getting drafted. I picked the best clip and uploaded it, followed by Blake's basketball highlights. Now, this is when I ran into some issues. I have so many clips of Blake doing good in basketball but I also had time constraints. The best way to move past this was to pick only the best shots, but also clip them and group them together. I want the commentator to be talking about Blake's best skills while those skills are being shown so I thought it would be neat to start with his 3-pointers first. I gathered all his best 3-pointer shots and put them together, into a more so collage of him hitting swishes. I then just combined these shots so it looks like this. 

 Before Blake shot the 3s I had a clip of Blake introducing himself and who he is like I typically see in NBA draft videos. The next step is for me to now create more highlight reels. I was going to start but it just seemed like such an overwhelming task I couldn't really do it today. I had too much other homework and exams to study for so I decided to push it off for another day.

Anyways, I have started to edit and have had some good progress. I will continue working on it later. And I do need to start really prioritizing this project because it is due soon. 

Thanks for reading everyone! 

3/16 Production Update: Really game planning what's going on

HELLO ALL, HOW ARE YOU TODAY? please comment and respond on this blog so I know everyone is good. Let's just get started though shall we? Lots of things to do and very little time. 

So, I just wanted to go out and be honest and say that when I planned for the filming, it wasn't THAT descriptive. But that was also good. When I created my storyboards and just general planning for shooting, I didn't necessarily plan out the specific shots I wanted to do that in-depth, because I wanted to do it while I was filming, knowing that I often think best and have the best reasons for the certain shots at the moment. And that's exactly what I did, AND looking back, most of the shots were great. This is an example of a great shot that I made up while filming. 

This shot was not originally planned, and I had never even thought of doing something like this, but at the moment, I thought it would be a great idea to have Blake go celebrate or to really show his emotions after a good basketball play. This way, Blake is becoming more humanistic to the audience, allowing them to relate to him in the sense that they also celebrate when they do something good they are proud of. While this shot is great, and it was a great idea to include it, it does mess up one major thing. Time. I have a strict time limit of 2 minutes, and the more random shots I do that really do add meaning to the story, may screw up the time, and overall mess up other clips I wanted to include. This blog posting is nothing less than me simply becoming aware of the consequences of my actions and stating that. It's also to help me plan for the future and acknowledge that there will be some time issues when I actually start to edit the film opening. I may have to cut certain shots I didn't want to cut. Who knows? 

Today I didn't really have a lot of time to begin editing, I am currently swamped with schoolwork from other classes and am prioritizing those at the current moment. However, I do believe that this posting was great in the sense that it helped me clear my head and understand the situation at hand with time and specific shots I made, and this will help make the editing process smoother since I know I can be a little stricter on what to include and what not to include for time's sake. 

Below is another example of a shot not originally planned for, but that I thought was a great idea to film. 

In this shot, Blake is in the hospital bed and pointing to his motivation, or why he is trying to keep going. (the dream to play in the NBA for his favorite team, the 76ers). 

And just to end well, and all on a smile for everyone, here are some bloopers from shooting!

Just kidding, I tried to upload it but Blogger said the file size was too big. Guess you'll have to wait and see it later!!!

until next time

Josh Burke

Executive Vice President Florida DECA

3/14 Blog Update

 Well hello everyone! How are you all doing today?

Before I get into the blog, I did just want to put a quick PSA out there for everyone and let you know that starting with this blog post, my future posts will get a lot shorter in length, and not be as entertaining, BUT they will contain a lot more media. That is because I am transitioning from the whole research stage to the actual production process, where I will be spending a lot of time editing. This editing process will be long and hard, so I will spend most of my free time doing that instead of blog posts. Well, on to the last entertaining blog post! (Ha just kidding)

As you all know, I've fully completed my filming for the project, and now I must begin the editing process. Man, this is going to be crazy. Today, I have a plan though. As an editor, one of the worst parts of making a project is having to go through every single file and categorize it by what it is, and also get rid of unnecessary files. That is my whole plan for today. One of the reasons this is a very tedious process is that I am forced to watch every single piece of media, which is at least an hour of footage.

A little flash forward, and, I did it! I successfully went through all my footage and categorized it, as well as removed some unwanted videos. This is what my folders look like now: 

As you can see, I already rearranged my clips into two separate folders: one for the hospital scenes and one for the basketball shots. This will allow me to speed up my editing process, knowing which clips I take from where, and so on. 

When I click on basketball shots, this is what is seen now.

As you can see, all my clips are categorized and labeled by what they are, so when I actually start to edit and just want the videos of  Blake making 3-pointers, it'll be super easy to do. Here is how the clips look for my other day of filming. 

The same is done here, so if I wanted clips of Blake just from the NBA draft, I can easily find them. 

This process and plan for what I did today really may not seem important, but believe me, it's one of the most crucial processes to creating a good film opening, or just a project. This process will allow for future editing to be very efficient and smooth,. 

SATURDAY FILMING!

 Good day to all! The Oscars are tomorrow night, I took an SAT today, filmed, and have so much other homework to do, so without further ado, allow me to go make this blog short and sweet, for both yours and my benefit! 

Last night I had a great filming session with Blake and Oscar at the basketball courts, and today will be the last day of filming (hopefully)! Today, all I had to film were the hospital scenes and the NBA draft scenes. The NBA draft scenes I would film them in my family room, for a more realistic setting since Blake is a real person, as well as a basketball player. He lives a normal life and is affected by tragic events in the same way as all of us. 

I filmed the NBA draft scene simply by placing the camera at different angles (left, right, and in front of the TV), and putting actual footage of last year's NBA draft on TV so Blake could get in the mood and spirit for everything. I told him to just get up and celebrate when he wins and then show off the t-shirt I gave him to wear, which was a shirt promoting gun control in America. When viewers see this in the actual movie, it will be some foreshadowing of the events that will occur in the future. 

Blake in the bed with the camera on a tripod ready to film. 

Moving on, once this filming was wrapped up, Blake and I move upstairs to the guest room, specifically chosen because of its sterile identity. The room had a white bed, white walls, and white bed sheets, and just overall looked very clean and orderly, just as a typical hospital bed would look. The best thing was that I was able to get some hospital equipment like IVs and needles from my mom (who has them for her job) and I fake-inserted them into Blake to get a more realistic image. When I edit the film, I want to add a heart rate monitor sound effect. in the background. 

P.S. My dog wasn't actually in the shot, he just wanted to be in the picture!

Throughout the filming, I had Blake lay in bed and did different camera movements and shots ranging from the tripod zoomed in to his face, or the gimbal slowly panning to him laying in bed and waking up. Afterward, I recorded Blake from different angles of the tripod trying to get up and told him to struggle, so that the audience can really see how damaged and injured he is. Next up, I gave Blake some 2 LBS weights so that he could struggle to lift them and I once again recorded this from both the tripod and the gimbal with different motions to see what would look best in post-production. I really like the shots I got out of this, especially the one with the camera panning to him just trying to lift the weights. I also purposely left the window open so natural light can flow in, and the trees in the window would look realistic for a hospital room that has windows. Also, I gave Blake a white v-neck shirt to wear that would resemble an actual hospital patient's clothing. All the medical items used in the film were donated by my mom via her job. I did use the boom microphone or just the microphone mounted on the camera for all of this audio except when I used the gimbal because I will be implementing the audio from these scenes in the final production. 

So yeah that pretty much wraps up all the filming! I will be returning the equipment on Monday, but it was such a blast to use high-quality materials to make (what I know will be) an AMAZING film opening! Hopefully, it'll like win the Oscars someday or something. And thanks to Jim from Shortcuts TV for letting me use the equipment! 

Josh Burke. Expert Filmaker. Out. 

FRIDAY FILMING!!!

Good day to all of you samaritans out there, I hope all is going well for everyone. 

SUPER EXCITED NEWS, as it is FRIDAY!!! Do you know what that means??? It's filming day! Before I get into the blog, I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously, but filming in the HOSA classroom didn't work out because of Blake's class schedule, so we decided to film it on Saturday. 

Well, without further ado, let's provide some updates on how the filming went! Today I had school, just like everyone else, but the fun stuff happened after school. At 7pm I had planned with Blake and Oscar to come to meet me at a local basketball park so that we could go film. I invited Oscar because naturally since it's a highlight reel, there needs to be someone for Blake to demolish. Oscar would essentially be the "clip bot," and just play bad defense or bad offense so that Blake would be able to demonstrate his skills. It would be bad if he looked like he wasn't even trying, so I did make sure that he was making it look as if he was trying, and he was trying... at being bad! 

Anyways, I arrived at the parks at about 6:30; and almost immediately ran into an issue. I didn't have a basketball with me, nor did I have one at my house. Before I even started filming, I had run into some issues! I first went through the possibilities of what I could do now in my head. I could either ask Blake or Oscar if they had a ball or just see if we could borrow one from a random already at the court. In the end, I asked Oscar if he had one and he did, but he wasn't home and he was coming from another event so that option was out of the picture. I asked Blake and he said he didn't think he had a ball. And just like that, once again, I had major issues before the filming even started. In the end, Blake ended up finding his ball, but this experience showed me that quite literally anything can happen while preparing to make a movie and being prepared to adapt is the best solution possible. 

Texts with Blake, where he stated he doesn't think he has a ball. 

Long story short, everyone arrived on time for filming and I was able to get all the camera equipment set up to shoot. I purposely wanted to film at night so that the footage would look cooler (in my eyes) and also because it was the most convenient for everyone. While setting up my equipment on the side, I had to stand in the middle of the court so no one would just come and play on it. While setting up the equipment, I had Blake go warm up because I would need him to actually make shots in basketball LOL! 

Me setting up the film equipment. 

Now since I had a loose idea of what I wanted the NBA draft highlight reel to look like, it was easier to shoot, but I purposely didn't plan it as much to specific detail beforehand because I wanted my creativity to flow in the moment, and because I'm not a basketball expert, and thought that Blake and Oscar could give me some tips on what shots I should include. 

To start off, I had Blake shoot multiple threes while moving the camera around so that it was positioned with the hoop and Blake both in view so that every time he made a three the audience could easily see his skill. After that, I had Blake do some layups without the defender guarding him just so that once again, the audience could see his raw skill. After this set of shots, I decided to move on to some real game experience filming, with Oscar manning up on Blake and playing actual defense. I used the gimbal for these shots so the camera was right up there in the action, and so that the audience, when watching, would feel as if they were right there with Blake, watching his amazing basketball skills unfold. I had Blake play against Oscar 1v1 for a while so that I could get a mixture of defense and offense, and I also filmed using both the gimbal and the tripod for this. At times, I would use the boom microphone to capture some great basketball audio in case I wanted to include it. After all of this filming, I had Blake do some "interviews" in front of the camera just like he would in real life for the NBA draft. I might or might not include these interviews, but I thought it was a good idea at the time. 

The images above depict Blake dribbling with Oscar holding the boom microphone to capture good sound quality, and then the camera focuses on Blake dribbling. 

This video is one of the interviews I had with Blake. During these interviews, it was very hard to get Blake to be serious since he would keep laughing every time and was also exhausted from playing basketball for like 2 hours. Eventually, we managed to get everything done, and while I haven't deeply examined all the footage, I am very happy with how everything came out, and think I got great footage. (45 minutes of film for a 2 minute film opening!)

Updates Before Filming

 Hello all!

Today is a fabulous Wednesday, March 8th, and I must admit I am starting to get a little worried about this project. 

On Monday, I drove to Shortcuts TV studio and picked up all the film equipment, and signed a contract saying I would give it back on the 13th. I am attaching the contract signed to show you the specific details. 

As you can see, I borrowed a tripod, Rode boom mic, Boom pole and Ronin S gimbal, as well as a XC10 camera. I specifically wanted to borrow the gimbal for the highlight reel I will be making to include in the NBA draft scene. It's very hard to shoot a sports scene while being close up to the action without having a shaky camera, but one of the best ways to achieve this is with the gimbal. I would use the gimbal to get up close with Blake as he is shooting the ball, and I would also be able to run and follow him as he's running. Additionally, I wanted to borrow the boom pole for scenes where the camera will not be as close to Blake. Also, since this movie will not have music playing the whole time, I would need actual good audio, achievable through the microphone. The boom pole would be used in scenes such as the hospital room, where the camera is a bit farther away for crisp audio, since I really want to give the effect of a very quiet and sterile hospital room. Here are some photos of me when I was picking up the equipment. They are currently sitting in my trunk, waiting for me to use them, which I will talk about next. 

The first picture is of the gimbal and camera I am borrowing, and the second picture is of the storage closet where all the electronics are stored. I also just wanted to answer this possible question real quick. Why am I using a professional camera instead of just my phone? First of all, I want this to be a great video, not just for AICE and Cambridge, but also for myself. I want to be proud of this, and I know I will be proud of higher quality content which would ultimately be a better camera.

On to Filming!

On Monday, I spoke to the HOSA teacher, as well as the nurse. The HOSA teacher (with the hospital beds in room) said the only possible time I could film in her room would be 4th period on Friday, which is fine for me since I have AICE Media AS, but for Blake it might be difficult. He has actual class, so he doesn't know if he'd be able to miss it so he is going to ask his teacher today. The nurse said I could film in her office, but the issue is that it doesn't look anything like a hospital bed. I'd actually rather film at my house than at the nurse's room. So as of right now, it looks like I will either be filming on Friday at the HOSA room, or at a later date. Also, since I only have the camera equipment until Monday, I have already planned to film the basketball scenes on Friday night at a local basketball court, and Blake will be there with some other friends that Blake can play against to make an awesome video. On Saturday, Blake will come over to my house, where we will film the NBA draft scenes, and then after that I will be editing everything together! 

Today's blog post was just me wanting to provide some updates on what's been going on, and how I plan to proceed in the future. I am a little behind schedule which is the reasoning for me being a little worried about the project, but as long as I'm able to film effectively and have no make-ups necessary,  I should be great. 

This is Blake by the way:

Thank you! See you all on Friday!

Filming Preparations!

 Hello hello! 

I am super pleased to announce that I have won my campaign for Florida DECA Executive Vice President and that I am so exhausted from this weekend, but it doesn't matter because the grind doesn't stop! Today, I wanted to talk about some realistic filming. 

First of all, I have already reached out to Shortcuts and confirmed that I will borrow the equipment starting tomorrow afternoon and going until next Monday. That gives me a reasonably short amount of time to film, which means I will need to be very productive. 

Costume Design: Since I will probably be filming the hospital scenes first because of ease of access, I need to plan for what the costume design will be. I believe that When designing costumes for a hospital scene in a movie, it's important to keep in mind that the clothing worn by the characters should be realistic and appropriate for the setting. Some costumes that the patient should be wearing will be gowns, since patients in the hospital usually wear light-colored gowns that tie at the back, easily accessed for medical procedures. However, this might be a little difficult for me, since I'm not really planning to just use my wallet for this video, so I was thinking of just using a white shirt or light green colored shirt and letting him sit on his bed sheets in the hospital bed, eliminating the need for me to change his full outfit. Also, I plan to film mostly only him in the hospital room, so no nurse uniforms or dresses will be needed. Additionally, for the NBA draft scene, it would be ideal for players to dress up and wear tuxedos, etc. However, due to Blake's past, I want Blake to wear something that resembles anti-guns which should be pretty easy to find since I think I have something. 

Set Design: So, I haven't actually asked if I can use the HOSA room or the nurse area to even film in yet BUT, I am decently confident because one of the main HOSA teachers (Mrs. Clarke) was a chaperone on the DECA trip, and she may or may not remember me. If I am able to use the room, I would be so perfect for the set design and wouldn't have to worry about a thing for the hospital scenes. For the NBA draft scenes, everything should be fine if I just use Blake's house with his couch and everything, providing a lot more realistic place for someone to be drafted if at home. Also, for the basketball highlights, those should be fine if just shot at a court nearby, because I don't really need that many people there. I would want to shoot at night though, just for the cooler looks from the camera.

Thankfully there are no real props I will be using that I have to make, and a simple basketball will be used. Anyways, I am super excited to get started! I pick up the film equipment tomorrow and will let you know about my next steps! Look at the background of the blog to see some film equipment!

Interviews Cont.

 Hello all, and I am back! 

Today is Friday, and it is competition day here at DECA states! Apart from my business competition, I am also campaigning and manning a promotions booth to convince voters to vote for me. Additionally, later tonight, I will have to give a speech and have a caucusing session with my opponents as well as all the voters. Anyways, enough about this stuff, we are here to continue my blog posts, and today I am here with Mr. Shust, to get an interview about my topic! Since I have very limited time, today's blog post will be mildly short.

Who is Mr. Shust? 

Mr. Shust, who prefers to keep his first name confidential for privacy reasons, is a recent graduate from Cooper City high school, and DECA alumni. He is a young sports fan, who loves to watch movies and help out the community whenever he can. For time's simplicity, I could only ask him two questions. I explained my film idea before the interview.

1. What are your thoughts on my idea? Elaborate on as much detail as possible

Well, honestly, I would just like to say that I am overjoyed to be speaking to the one and only Joshua Burke from Cypress Bay high school, and the future EVP (executive vice president) of Florida DECA. Anyways, back to your question Mr. Burke, I personally love the idea. I think that it's (school shootings) such a tragic issue that you guys have to deal with nowadays, and the thoughts and ideas to actually implement the dilemma into the movie will be a great way to spread the word. Coming from a huge marketing fan, it's truly a genius marketing move, and while you're not promoting a product or anything, you're absolutely trying to promote change. From whoever watches it being government officials, celebrities, or anyone, I know that if it were a real movie it would absolutely be able to lead you to the path to change that you want. Apart from the whole idea of bringing the issues of mass shootings into play, I love the idea of having a female reporter talk during the NBA draft. While it is a very small feature, it is something that will continue to defy society's constant stereotypes. I think that this idea combined with promoting government change is awesome, and will lead greatly to a resolution. Anyways, you asked me to elaborate on what I like, and being an Orlando Magic fan, I'm a little disappointed that Blake can't go to us, but I think that him as a basketball player and the movie being centered on him and his character development is AWESOME. 

2. What do you think is the best part of the film opening?

Hmm. This is tough. I would definitely say something along the lines of what I said for the previous question, but I don't really want to repeat myself so I'm going to think of something new and different. I think that from a tv production point of view, the story flow should be amazing, providing you film and edit this correctly. Also, the utilization of the black screens when you like can't actually film in a certain spot is awesome. It really shows some creative and out-of-the-box thinking. Also, if you do a black screen at the beginning of the film opening like while the announcer is talking about the pick, I think that'd be super neat. Best of luck, Josh, in this film opening project, and for your election tomorrow night! 

Displayed above is the sense the audience would hopefully feel by starting with a black screen. The audience would be so intrigued like they are watching the show but they don't know what it's about yet. 

Well, real quick, before I must go and attend to my other duties, I thought that interview was actually really good. To be honest, it's been a little hard to have high confidence during this whole process, considering I've like never done this before, but Mr. Shust really helped with that. I think that his idea about starting out with a black screen is a really neat idea and could bring the audience in and make them more intrigued than ever before the movie even actually starts. I'm so excited to continue this! 

Interviews

 Hello, my great fan base! 

It is currently Thursday, March 2nd, and I am on the bus for a huge DECA field trip! For this field trip, I will be traveling to Orlando and campaigning for the Florida Executive Vice President position. Not that it would mean much to you, but I just wanted to point out that I had something else going on, so this week's blogs might be a little shorter than normal. Anyways, since I haven't started filming yet (as I clearly can't this weekend), I need to come up with different ideas of things to do. So, that brings me to a great idea today! Since Ivette Barger (another student on the bus with me) is in Aice Media Studies, I thought it would be great to talk to her and see how she likes my ideas. Additionally, Mr. Shust (a TV production fan), is also on this field trip, so I thought it'd be neat to get his ideas for advice. The overall goal of this is to really get some of my target audience's opinions on what I plan to implement. 

Who is Ivette Barger?

Ivette, also known as "Ivy," is an 11th grader at Cypress Bay high school. She has hobbies of musical theatre and is currently in the school production of Fame.  Additionally, she has a strong passion for her school's DECA chapter, where she is an executive officer. 

Interview Questions:

1. What do you think of when you first hear of sports genres?

To me, when I first hear of sports movies, I think of underdog movies. Movies such as The Blind Side and Rocky really come to mind. If you are planning to make a sports movie, you would be great at it considering your knowledge and love for sports. Oh, and also, it'd be super neat if you added, like I said before, an underdog against some like massive monster or something. Wait is that sports movies? No, that'd be more like a sci-fi movie. 

2. What are your favorite sports movies?

Honestly, as I said earlier my favorite sports movie is The Blind Side. I don't really even like sports that much, but the movie was just like so good because of the storyline and drama it showed. The fact that it wasn't 100% centered around a sport made it such an awesome movie, and tieing in sports was a nice touch from the directors. Also, I love how the movie has like different colors used to portray the different types of society. For when the big guy is visiting his neighborhood, the mis-en-scene is completely different, with lots of junk everywhere, chaos, and a darker like color filter. When the big guy is visiting his "parents" house, where he sleeps now, the colors are all so much brighter and lighter, giving the awesome impression that like something drastic changed from the two locations. 

3. Do you like the proposal I have pitched for you? (explained my storyline)

Actually like to be so honest with you Josh, I do like it. A lot. Ha, I really wasn't expecting to say that, but I think that your thing will come out great. And like you're doing it kinda like The Blind SIde in the way that like the whole movie isn't completely centered around the sport, and more about the characters, storyline and plot development. I don't know a ton about sports, but I do love dramas, and I think that like giving the audience the little preview of what will happen is a great idea. 

4. What would you change about my storyline?

Hmm. That's a good question. Honestly, although I do kinda get why you're including it, I might remove the whole gun-shooting idea. It can be a super sensitive topic for people that were seriously damaged or injured from it and this could cause some backlash for you in the future from like news stations, obviously if this was a real movie. I would instead do just like a normal ankle injury or something. Well, actually, that's kinda what everyone does, so that might not stand out at all. Hmmm. Maybe the shooting thing is a good idea, if it's what you really said it was for, but it would definitely cause some emotions to jump from your audience.

Thanks, Ivette for the interview!

Now, that interview was great, but it's only helpful if I actually answer the results and opinions she gave me. A lot of Ivy's answers were great in terms of the genre questions, which proves that I have the right target audience, that has the same preset ideas about certain genres. Having Ivy think of an underdog story immediately is great, showing great genre recognition. Although my movie doesn't include a ton of an underdog story, it still has a little bit. Also, Ivy wasn't really sure about the whole school shooting idea for the movie. And personally, I think that's awesome. The whole point of my including is is to make the audience uncomfortable, proving that this is a real issue and it most certainly needs to be addressed. So, from what I learned today, my ideas so far are great and work well with the target audience! Now, since I'm low on time, I'll see you tomorrow!