Portfolio Final Reflection

 Hi blog, so I am at last done with my portfolio project. After 8 weeks of editing, filming, and practically crying from the stress, I am done. Now that I get a chance to look back at the whole process I think we should have a recap. So, I started this whole process by researching and researching and more researching. I analyzed countless romantic comedies, looking for what I liked and what I didn't. After choosing what type of way I wanted to approach the credits, establish character, and display opposites attract, I began to brainstorm with my team how we would like to depict all our ideas into a cohesive opening. This brainstorming process proved to be a lot more difficult than the research. I felt as though I succeeded in researching too much, if that was possible since all my ideas seemed basic and seen already. At this point in the project, we were due to film soon and were expected to begin making storyboards and scripts. Yet, we could not decide on an idea that we genuinely liked. That is until one late Facetime call between all my members turned into a brainstorming session that basically answered all our prayers. As soon as my team member thought of the meeting by getting the wrong apartment, I jumped into making a script and planning a storyboard. This idea gave me so much excitement as it was one that I felt like we began to build upon. Most of my blogs from there on out were all different ideas that I wanted to include within the opening. How I wanted to play around with the sound, by making it cut off as they meet, and how I wanted the credits and colors to match the personality and mood of the film. To say the least, I became completely devoted to the planning out of the process, and the lack of creativity I had before seemed to have stopped being a problem. 

 All this excitement was dampened though, as I had trouble with the filming. At first, it was because my actors had athletic tournaments over the weekend and could not miss them. Then it was a matter of finding an apartment to film in. When I realized that my aunt has a beach house/apartment here in Miami, I was elated. I thought this was the perfect setting and even went as far as buying a UM flag to go with the Miami setting and use it as a prop. Unfortunately, even after I had communicated with my aunt about wanting to go film there, it seemed I did not communicate enough as she notified her security too late and we were unable to film on the weekend we wanted to. Now something about me is my love for balance and schedules. If something happens to go awry, I tend to get overly stressed. This is what happened to me when I heard that the day before we were set to film, we had nowhere to actually film. I am guessing my dad saw me in my time of need and called his friend to help out. His friend offered his own apartment and we were able to film after all. The filming process was a little chaotic, as it was a completely different setting than what I had envisioned, but nonetheless, I was grateful to have an apartment to film in.

Then, when it came to editing, I realized that one just has to have patience. At times, I would get frustrated with Adobe Premier Pro and Adobe Express, but eventually with a little help from classmates, I got the hang of it. I used my previous blogs to create the credits that I was planning on making and made sure to include all my ideas such as the sound. I may have gotten a little crazy while editing trying to make everything perfect, but I realized that I just have to try my best and be content with what I create. This process was the same with my CCRs as I re-filmed and re-edited until it was as close to my end goal as possible.

Overall, looking back at the whole process, I have realized how far I have come since the beginning of the year. I knew so little about the media world in general, let alone how to edit. But after consistently going to class and constantly giving my all in all the projects I was able to learn so many different techniques and aspects of films. I believe I could have improved some things within my project such as procrastination, and watching more editing videos to enhance my skills. I learned to communicate more with my team members as well, since at time we did not speak for days and it took a toll on my stress regarding the project. If I were given the opportunity to redo it all, I would go back and pay more attention to these aspects and ensure that not only are we ahead and well-planned, but we take a better use of the time we had in class to develop more of the project, instead of doing most of it at home. Other than that, I am pretty happy with how it all turned out. Stay tuned for my film opening and CCRs!