It's crunch time baby.

This weekend was time to film the two remaining scenes. We kicked things off around 4 PM, starting with the customer service scene in my house. We transformed my sister's old room into a makeshift office by setting up laptops, books, and carefully crafting the shot composition. 

However, we faced a little hiccup. Mateo had returned the microphone and camera we had been sharing, so I had to pivot and use a Canon T8i instead. I’m hopeful the footage will still look good, but I can’t help but worry it might not match the earlier shots perfectly. Fingers crossed!

After that, we made our way to Tequesta Trace to film at the track. I had assumed we would be faking sweat with water for the running scenes, but it turned out to be unnecessary since IT WAS SO HOT.  We ended up looking much sweatier than I anticipated. To combat the harsh lighting, we had to use a reflector to brighten our faces on camera. Let’s just say, I look a bit rough, but that’s part of the process, right? This is me making it work! Look how happy the team was to be there :) (sarcasm.)

On the editing front, I’ve tackled a few scenes that I had footage for previously. Now, it’s just a matter of wrapping up my critical reflection, continuing the editing, creating the postcard, and enhancing our social media presence. I’ve been enjoying sharing updates online—it’s actually quite fun!

As we near the finish line, I’m excited to see how everything comes together. Just a little more to go, and then this journey will finally be over. Stay tuned!

q & a posts!

I made significant strides in our social media marketing efforts today. I brainstormed more ideas for future content, jotting down several engaging concepts to connect with our audience. Here are some of the exciting posts and stories I’m planning:

Audience Engagement Questions:

"How would you dump your significant other?"

"What is the silliest reason someone could be dumped for?"

Meet the Cast & Crew: A post introducing the talented individuals behind our project (Me, Gio, Alex, Mateo)

Screenplay Sneak Peek: Sharing an image of the screenplay just waiting to be brought to life (to increase excitement for the project)

Creative Doodles: Fun illustrations that represent key scenes, such as a stopwatch for the track scene.

Editing Insights: Posts showcasing the editing process 

Video Snippets: Showcasing the cast having a fun time on shoots and our favorite silly behind-the-scenes moments.

Cast Confessionals: A more personal side of the cast:

"What was your favorite scene?"

"How are you similar or different to your character?"

Final Post Series: The last three posts will feature a split post of our title graphic, creating a cohesive visual finale.

I also worked on some Q&A graphics today, created a highlight for our stories, and crafted a post to encourage audience participation through questions and answers. Exciting times are ahead as we engage our audience with fresh, creative content! Here's a look at the start of the q&a highlight! (which of course, fits the brand theme colors and vibe)

Scene Re-writes

 Though I loved the original founding father scene... planning fell through and it just wasn't looking possible to execute under the circumstances. So, I brainstormed ideas of alternative silly "bits" the girls can rehearse while keeping a similar structure to the original scene. Some examples of ideas were: Golden Girls parody, News Anchor report, Reality TV confessional, and so on. Ultimately, I landed on a Boyfriend customer service skit because it is practical to film, and unlike some of the other ideas, could be written in the same structure as the original scene. Here's how it turned out:

Though I don't like it as much as I liked the founding father scene, it had to be done. I'm already uncomfortable with the fact that I haven't filmed this yet. Honestly, I contemplated cutting this scene for these reasons. Ultimately, though, I decided that a goofy scene was necessary to kick off the montage, and there wouldn't be enough without this scene. 

The next scene I rewrote, which very minimally changed, was the Boxing scene. I changed it to a "speed" training scene that will take place on a track. This change was necessary because I was unable to secure a visually "adequate" location to film... I didn't want to settle for a crowded garage. I ended up liking the brevity of this one more, though, and I like how Mia is taking control of the rehearsals. It really expresses her personality. 

Baby steps are being made! Now I need to secure filming dates with Gio and Mateo and finish that off! 

The Final Stretch

As I mentioned last week, I was in Virginia Beach for most of spring break for a national wrestling 
tournament! Despite the outcomes for my team, I had a great time. I learned a lot and even found an opportunity to hustle doing what I love (watching wrestling): making some money working tables! 

Despite this, it disrupted my workflow for this project. I am feeling very overwhelmed. But, instead of continuing to be stressed, I'm trying to get re-organized and back on track. So I put together a to-do list of everything I need to get done during this last stretch of the project.

I know I am behind. I'm working with what I got, and I'm gonna try and come back from it, though. Here's the schedule:

 Let's get to it!

Research for Critical Reflection Essay

When I was a freshman, I kinda knew a few seniors who took AICE Media since we were all part of our school’s TV club. One of these seniors was Virginia, who was known for being an exceptional writer within the club. I even vaguely remember hearing her and her partners talking about their portfolio project that year. So, when it came to sifting through old AICE Media blogs for inspiration, it made perfect sense to read her critical reflection. You can check it out here.  

As I read her blog, I noticed that the CR's goal is just to explain the motivations behind the project and how those factors influence decisions throughout the creative process. Virginia’s insights focused heavily on pre-production planning and conceptualization and how that shapes the final product.

However, something I noticed was the absence of a discussion about shortcomings or “failures” in her reflection. While she did an excellent job articulating her successes and behind-the-scenes inspirations, I found myself thinking about the importance of acknowledging our missteps as well. This is something I plan to include in my own critical reflection.

Reflecting back on our documentary project's critical reflection, I realized that one of the areas where I fell short was in the integration of multimedia elements—specifically, embedding more videos and photos to elevate the overall quality of the essay. I had some great footage and images, but I didn’t fully utilize them to enhance the narrative. This time around, I'll keep that in mind as I develop my essay.

Additionally, I’ve come to recognize that I often struggle to write AICE Media essays in a more personal tone. My other class experiences have conditioned me to adhere to a strict, formal writing style that feels a bit stiff at times in this course's context. While I understand the importance of maintaining a degree of professionalism, I think there’s value in adding a more relatable and lighter touch to my critical reflection. I want to share not just my successes but also my obstacles and mistakes in a way that feels accessible and genuine.

By doing this, I hope to shed light on my true experience throughout this project. After all, many people have faced similar challenges, and it can be comforting to see that we’re not alone in our struggles as young filmmakers. Discussions about our pitfalls can humanize the creative process and make our journeys more relatable. As I work on my CR, I plan to weave in some anecdotes about my experiences, the unexpected hurdles I encountered, and the lessons I learned along the way.

In the end, I believe that embracing both my triumphs and my failures will lead to a more cohesive and authentic reflection. I’m excited to take these insights from Virginia’s blog and my own experiences into account as I kickoff this final reflection of my time in AICE Media. 

Research for Print Component

 (This is a post I am behind on, but better late than never, right?) 

One of the components for the A-level portfolio project is the print component. For my selected option, short film, this is a postcard meant to market the film's screening at a film festival. I haven't been too stressed about this component since I was thinking of it as a thumbnail/sneak peek of my short film, just with information on where to catch the screening. I knew all this would come after filming, and now that I have the bulk of it done, I can start this aspect of the project! 

In class we went over some important features that MUST be included on the postcard. They seemed pretty self-explanatory to me, but I'll list them here anyway:

- title

- key art

- director's name (ONLY CREDIT ON THE CARD! This is meant to be minimal & not overcrowded)

- date & time of screening

- locatoion

- social media information

After some serious digging on Google and through old blogs, here's a sample project I viewed:

Cutting Room Floor was one I just looked up because it was a past project that I've seen before and enjoyed, but mostly just cause I remembered it by name. On the left is the back of the postcard. I included it because I want to highlight the simplicity. It is just a snippet from the short film with the necessary text over it. My main takeaway for this component is to keep it simple. While I don't think choosing a snippet of the main character's back profile was the best choice, the general conventions hold true: show just what you need to get the screening information across to the audience.

With that all said, I'm not too worried about this component. I plan to decide on snippets for the front and back as I sort through the clips and continue to edit. The front will likely be a two-shot of Mia and Rebecca and the back might be a picture of Liam looking like a douchebag. 

Filming + Changes

 Another great day of filming! As planned, Gio, Mateo, and I met up on Monday to tackle all of the bedroom dialogue scenes. This included the first scene between Mia and Rebecca, the 2 mini transition clips, and the scene where Mia pretends to be Liam for the final rehearsal. 

We started at around 9:30am and finished around 11:30, it actually took much longer than I expected but hey, that's perfectly okay. Afterwards, we got to celebrate with some pancakes that Gio's mom made! They were delicious. 

It was much easier to get into character for these parts of the script compared to how the other ones went, so I'm thankful for that! Gio REALLY threw herself into playing a "boy," it was hilarious. I can't wait to show off how the scene turns out!

I do have some readjustments to the project to report however....

There are 2 remaining scenes: the boxing scene & the "founding fathers" scene. I've decided to rewrite the boxing scene into more of a running style of training, somewhat like a Rocky parody, because I couldn't secure a location that I liked for it. I have 2 tracks to choose from for this scene however, so I feel good. And then I was always reluctant about doing this, but, for the founding father scene I am going all out and buying costumes. I've seen people (girls) online dress up as foundign fathers and it is the vibe I want Mia & Rebecca to emulate. Below is an example of people doing this online:

With that said, I had to reschudle the filming date to be when i get back from Virginia... so sometime after school this week. I know, that is cutting it close to the deadline, but I won't wait for those scenes to start editing. I am trying to balance my national tournament and making adjustments to this project at the same time, so we're working with what we got!