“Grinch times square” by The Arch from Flickr.com

Summary

The goal of our film was evoking a sense of unease and tension through aspects of cinematography and music in our silent film. Our film, “How the Gronch Stole Valentines”, was about a pessimistic boy who finds new value in Valentines day when a girl shows bravery and confronts him about his anger towards the day.

21st Century Skills

While we were producing this film, we overcame our challenges by finding ways to communicate and overcome problems through finding creative and simple alternative options. We worked together and used creativity and critical thinking to sort through or tasks and produce a film with the restrictions and requirements impressed on us. our communication was a group chat we could use at any time through SMS and MMS messaging, and our critical thinking was used when we had to fit our entire crew with personal lighting into a small space with limited time, so we had to evaluate what we could cut out of our

The Film

Reactions to Final Version

Reactions from adviser James

“Camera Discovers actors.”

“Negative lighting technique was excellent!”

Reactions from Peer Adviser Silas S

“The lighting was cool!”

This was an evaluation of the lighting which was my main personal goal, and they evaluated it as an excellent choice of visual techniques to resonate with the mood of the film.

 Evaluation of Final Version

In our film, we used concrete and emotional story telling, evoking the empathy of the audience to feel for the Gronch who lacked the very basic human need of feeling loved. We kept a strong visual sense of story telling to let the audience feel connected in a way that was more than just observant, letting the camera discover the actors and have long drawn out shots.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I had to find a way to  orchestrate the team in order to create a seamless Idea that wasn’t all over the place, and make sure we were organized and making good time while getting our takes and edits as close to perfect as possible. Because of this I had to figure out how to communicate with our team such as frequently texting in a group chat to organize us and assure we all have the same idea moving forward. I would help the screenwriter and cinematographer and editor to make the right “look” of film to

“Cowboy” by PearlsandaCardi on creative commons

Summary

The goal of our film was evoking a sense of unease and tension through aspects of cinematography and music in our silent film. Our film, BestfriENDS, was about two best friends who get in a massive prank war over one friend who spends too much time on his phone.

21st Century Skills

While we were producing this film, we overcame our challenges by finding ways to communicate and overcome problems through finding creative and simple alternative options. We worked together and used creativity and critical thinking to sort through or tasks and produce a film with the restrictions and requirements impressed on us. our communication was a group chat we could use at any time, and our critical thinking was used when we had snow on one day and the next day we didn’t, so we realized we had to find a way to make it so that the snow wasn’t visible.

The Film

Reactions to Final Version

Reactions from adviser James

“Whistling reminds me of Western. Good choice.”

“Music at the end (gunfight) worked really well.”

Reactions from Peer Adviser Silas S

“The Score worked really well with the movie. I especially liked the stand-off music.”

This was said about the sound design which was suppose to reflect the Jovial nature of the film and communicate the intensifying strain between the friends relationships.

 Evaluation of Final Version

In our film, we used concrete and emotional story telling, evoking a sense of unease and degrading status of our characters through the interactions of the two actors and the setup to each scene. we also kept a modest, yet entertaining design to our story ending in a quickdraw between the two actors. The film had only one line that was able to be judged by the interactions of the characters even without sound.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I had to find a way to make the best possible music without having any professional audio recording equipment except my microphone at home. seeing this I knew I only had 3 audio tracks on premiere pro and I needed to make a nice layered piece with as little cuts as possible, so I learned how to record the best possible take I can and found out its better to just play the whole film instead of cutting it up. less sound editing.

Chocolate by David Lebovitz on flickr.com

Summary

The goal of our film was to evoke a sense of suspense using beats and cinematography. Our film, Chocolate Love, was a simplistic plot about another student who was madly in love with a kid who wasn’t fully aware, and when confronted decides he doesn’t even want to entertain her.

21st Century Skills

While we were producing this film, we overcame our challenges by finding ways to communicate and overcome problems by finding creative and simple alternative options. We worked together and used creativity and critical thinking to sort through or tasks and produce a film with the restrictions and requirements imposed on us. our communication was a group chat we could use at any time, and our critical thinking was to find a way around restrictions of light and sound in the rooms and time we had available.

The Film

Reactions to Final Version

Reactions from adviser James

“Excellent audio transitions and extremely smooth flow.”

“Looks like you and the cinematographer worked together for flow.”

Reactions from Adviser Michelle

“The actors looked like they worked really well together.”

This was said about the editing in which the scenes were cut to be clean and tight, and the cuts and how they provided good story telling and no awkwardness with acting.

 Evaluation of Final Version

In our film, we used concrete and emotional story telling, evoking a sense of melancholy and confusion through the interactions of the two actors. we also kept a simple, yet unexpected design to our story. The film had little actual dialogue which let it tell the majority of the story through cinematography.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

From this cycle I learned so much about audio transitions when asked to use the J-cut and L-cut. It was extremely helpful to have those required because it made be change things for the better in order to fit those cuts in.

Suspense- Andrea Massoli at Flickr.com

Summary

The goal of our film was to evoke a sense of suspense using beats and cinematography. Our film, The Text, was a simplistic plot about a kid at school who receives a text telling him to watch out for his own mortality.

21st Century Skills

While we were producing this film, we overcame our challenges by finding creative and communicative options. for example, we did not know how we would show our protagonists death, and we realized that we could do it by only using sound instead of handing it to the audience. Along the way, we set up a shared drive on google, exchanged numbers, and kept a list for all of us to communicate our ideas and share our work with each other. Because we put all this preparation in to our production crew, we all got along and mitigated our stress that we could have had.

The Film

Reactions to Final Version

Reactions from adviser James

“Work on having consistent audio levels”

“need louder room tone to smooth out the audio”

Adviser James gave good feedback about the consistency and importance of smooth audio, which taught me a lot about the importance of precise audio and sound design.

Reactions from Adviser Brian

“nice visual rhythm”

This was said about the editing in which the scenes were cut to be clean and tight.

Evaluation of Final Version

In our film, we used concrete and emotional story telling, evoking a sense of suspense through emotions and the relatable reactions of the nervous protagonist. we also kept a simple, yet unexpected design to our story. He let the events be simple things that could happen everyday, yet we ended the film with the unexpected death of a character right after a release of tension.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

From this production cycle, I learned the absolute importance of audio, techniques for maximizing audio quality, even sound editing, and character based directional editing. I am excited to be able to apply my new skills to the next production cycle.

Summary

During the Production of our project we focused on experimenting with perspectives to create a story that wouldn’t be vague, but could still end with  unexpected dark humor. Throughout the project, I wanted to use angles that would leave a lot out of frame, centering the actors in the 1st and 3rd columns of the camera grid, using the rule of thirds. I produced a few shots of the film, but sadly wasn’t there for the majority of it.

21st Century Skills

During production we were focused on creating team ideas and collaborating instead of having a tyrannical system, such as completed with our story and idea for our film, we all gave feedback and contributed to help our screenwriter refine his script. During production, I problem-solved and kept my mind open to create the best content with what I had to work with. For example, during production days when Leduc was gone, I didn’t know where a light bounce or diffuser was, so I positioned multiple lights at different settings to get a softer light at different angles.

The Film

Reactions to Final Version

On the panel, Everyone was complementary of my shot list and knowledge of cinematography, Michelle in particular said I had “good eye contact, good presenter, knew his content.” This was a nice review of my personal skills that I try to cultivate.

Evaluation of Final Version

Overall the final version was able to touch all points of the SUCCESs acronym, however it failed to solidly inhibit all the traits therefore the panel was confused by certain aspects, and didn’t fully grasp our purpose. The panel seemed most confused by our plot, and that was result of our lack of concrete, emotional, and story traits.

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned a ton about time management and managing expectations. Throughout the project I needed to manage my expectations to create the best film possible, but not dwell on certain things that would just consume time.

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CC Image: “Inspirational” by WinMeNot on Flickr.com

• RadioLab.org – Your Future in a Marshmallow

• *Delayed gratification*
• The average kid could last 7-8 minutes
• Kids who could wait longer did better in school
• Kids who couldn’t wait did worse in school
• Whether you could wait longer or shorter changed your success or failure chances
• It is still in question whether or not the ability to wait and discipline yourself is hard wired or can be influenced.
• It was also noticed that kids who could wait when they were little got better jobs, were happier, more successful, and healthier.

CC Image: “Success” by Kevin T. Houle on Flickr.com

• This American Life podcast Back to School

• Parents and people were constantly worried about getting their children to have the highest processing ability as fast as possible.
• The average G.E.D. prep time is 32 hours, while the average high school student spends around 1000 hours a year
• Wanted to study whether or not G.E.D. students go on to do as well as people who went through all of high school.
• Consistently G.E.D.s are performing slightly better than people who dropped out of high school and didn’t pursue G.E.D. however did not perform nearly as well people who graduated high school.
• People who had dropped out of high school are far more prone to dropping out of other aspects of life, such as relationships, jobs, and connections.
• Tests do not measure everything, G.E.D. students were less successful but judging by the test had the same testing skills.
• What is the “dark matter” that lies between cognitive function and success.
• Two people with the same cognitive function can have two completely different skills and paths in life.
• Uses the term character to define these ghost skills. However, not in a moral aspect.
• Schools abandoned teaching character, because they are not cognitive skills, and we cannot measure it with tests and analyze them.
• Lots of the non-cognitive skills have to do with self control.
• Parents administer the Marshmallow test on their own kids to test results.
• Some kids could delay gratification, with lots of crying and tantrum, but would make the threshold for getting the reward.
• Stress is what makes people in poverty(with more stress) less likely to bridge the success gap.
• Stress prevents people from developing certain non-cognitive skills.
• Cortisol is the longterm stress hormone.
• 2/3 of kids have a secure attachment, kids with secure attachments are far more competent in all areas of socialization, confidence, lack of inhibitions, etc.

CC image: “Safety Car” by w3i_yu on flickr

• Informative Videos: https://www.missingkids.org/netsmartz/videos#middleandhighschool

• Give as little public personal information as possible.
• Make sure you know who you are talking to online
• Many people who are on the internet will impersonate people you know
• Don’t tackle serious matters on the internet, wait till you are in person
• If someone is harassing you on the internet, remove them
• Don’t believe many things you see on the internet
• Do not spread fake news, check before you repost.

CC image: “Rootcat Studio” by Laurent Graudens on Behance

• • Can You Hear This?
    • Hearing Test: http://www.noiseaddicts.com/2009/03/can-you-hear-this-hearing-test/
    • Sound Levels: http://makeitlouder.com/Decibel%20Level%20Chart.txt

Listen Smart – Safely Handling the Power of Sound

1. Listen Smart– listen in a way that enriches you and doesn’t hurt you.
2. Do not be in an environment above 90 decibels for more than 8 hours
3. 100 decibels do not stay longer than 2 hours
4. 120 decibels you shouldn’t be in at all.
5. Hearing does not regenerate from actual damage.
6. Hearing loss can happen over time or in 30 seconds but once you have it its irreversible.
7. By the time sound gets to the stage after your eardrum, its amplified by about 22 times.
8. it is common for most people over 25 to have hearing loss and not be able to hear things above 15khz
9. Tinnitus is also a sign of hearing loss.
10. Musicians have one of the highest losses of hearing.
11. Keep a distance of at least 10ft from the speakers at a concert.
12. Stimulants cause an increased risk of hearing loss.

Image from hearnet.com

• • SoundAdvice.info For Audio Career Tips

1.  In a noisy environment take breaks from the sound if you work in a noisy environment.
2. Primary Responsibility for complying with noise regulations and routine breaks from a noisy environment rest with the employer.
3. Make sure legal limits on noise exposure are not exceeding their limit.
4. EVERYONE involved in music and entertainment has a responsibility to help with noise management.
5. Carry out noise risk assessments of new venue’s and loud jobs.
6. Make sure that the balance is optimal on the mixing desk so that there is no need to turn up the volume past dangerous levels.

• • Chart of Sound in the Environment

Image from soundadvice.info