My Creative Critical Reflection

Week 8: We're Done!

Enjoy my Creative Critical Reflection! <3

Creative Critical Reflection: It's Complicated

Now Showing: It's Complicated

Week 8: We're Done!

Here she is. My pride and joy. My blood sweat and tears. Please enjoy :)

It's Complicated

COMPLETE RECAP

Week 7: The Final Countdown

    That's it. Tomorrow at 11:59 PM, this entire experience is over and I will just have to sit and wait for my score. I can't believe I actually got through the entire thing!! Tomorrow I'm going to film my CCR and I am a little nervous. I'm good behind the camera, not so much in front of it. But regardless, I think it will be really fun to make!

The 4 questions we need to answer in our reflection are:

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

Question #1: Gay!

Question #2: I have to talk to Gianna about this to make sure we are on the same page, but I wanted to possibly create a film festival at my school where we would have different categories (such as a possible LGBTQ+ genre). 

Question #3: I can talk about this for DAYS. 

Question #4: Our phones, Premiere Pro, and obviously blogger, were my best friends for the past 8 weeks.

    My CCR is pretty much done content-wise. I just have to write a script and put together the video in a funky, fresh way! Also, we are almost done with our film. The only issue is we have two versions and we need to decide which one we want but Gianna is currently asleep so I will discuss it with her tomorrow.

    Tomorrow is submission day!! I'll see yall tomorrow for our last blog ever 💔

Holy Time Crunch

Week 7: The Final Countdown

    I don't want to expose us but let's just say our film is not done yet and it's due in two days... yeah. We are obviously going to finish but all I keep thinking about is how I would have done everything differently. Basically, all we needed were fonts for the credits, music for the entire project, and fixing any shots we didn't like.

    We were picking between three different fonts:

    We ended up choosing Marvin for the credits and Chinchilla for the title. Discovering Adobe fonts may have been the best and worst thing I have ever done... it took us a very long time to find these fonts.

    Music has been a HUGE pain in the butt. We originally didn't want music so we thought we were good! We thought we didn't have to deal with any of the issues all of our friends were dealing with! No. We changed our minds. So I went on the search for royalty free songs and let me tell you, when you search up "royalty free teen gay indie angst songs", not much pops up. I consulted a friend and ask what he did and he informed me that acient songs, a.k.a. songs before 1930, are on the public domain; therefore, totally legal for us to use in our film (shout out to Jack Sussman!!). So we chose "Little Jazz Bird" by George Schwab and Ira Gershwin (very much written in 1924).

    We changed the set up of the opening to what I said we were going to in the last post. Antoher change we were thinking about was possible adding a short voice over the last few shots to tie in the fact that the girls are laughing at the end. I don't know! I guess we'll see. I'll come back to you guys with a complete update as well as a CCR (Creative Critical Reflection) post. It makes me kinda sad that this is one of my last posts... I'll miss you guys :(

I'm Not Sure How to Feel About It

Week 7: The Final Countdown

    Gianna titles her last post "I Hate It" so I decided to title mine how I feel about our project at the moment, which is essentially unclear to myself. If you were to ask me how I felt about it this morning though, I would have agreed with GG. Before class, our project looked like a very unclear, amature short film, NOT a film opening. When Gianna brought this up to be, at first I was just frusterated. I almost felt like she thought it was my fault and what she was telling me about it just seemed like she wanted to completely scratch the entire film and make a new one... yeah that wasn't going to happen. After taking an entire 24 hours apart, Gianna and I then got back into class, discussed our feelings, and got on the same page before reorganzing our film (I like to call this therapy).

The order of the scenes before class today went like this:

        1. Nature shot #1
        2. Nature shot #2
        3. Nature shot #3
        4. Bike scene
        5. Entering house/door scene
        6. Sami looking at vinyls
        7. Maxx reading a book
        8. Both girls doing their thing
        9. Maxx gets bored
        10. Wrestle scene
        11. Intimate scene

Please, picture that in your head and imagine it as an opening to a coming-of-age, teen, gay romance movie. Yeah... you can't.

Now, this is how the order is:

        1. Nature shot #1
        2. Nature shot #2
        3. Nature shot #3
        4. Bike scene pt. 1

        5. Neighborhood shot #1

        6. Bike scene pt. 2

        7. Neighborhood shot #2

        8. Bike scene pt. 3

        9. Entering house/door scene

        10. Poster shot #1
        11. Sami looking at vinyls

        12. Poster shot #2
        13. Maxx reading a book

        14. Poster shot #3
        15. Both girls doing their thing
        16. Maxx gets bored

        17. Wrestle scene

        18. Intimate scene

    Okay, so this may seem like there is a lot more going on. But when you watch it all together, it honestly makes it look like there's less happening. It's more focused on establishing setting and characters rather than giving away too much of the storyline. We also decided to choose a blooper for the last scene (fun fact about me: I LOVE when this happens). Gianna and Gianna cracked up at the end of the "intimate" scene. GG and I thought that by using this scene, it doesn't give away that they are in a relationship or that they are queer. The audience has to infer that from the room and through their chemistry. 

    Simplicity. I get it. Just kinda sucks that I just now finally understand it... when our project is due in 3 days... full circle.

I Am Steven

Week 6: Filming Week! 

    I'll start by clarifying that the Steven I refer to in the title of this blog is of course the one and only Speilberg. Through this whole process, I knew what I was doing was essentially being a director, producer, and cinematographer but it wasn't till I wrote yesterday's vlog that I truly felt like I was in the film industry. I am going to break down my entire thought process for your enjoyment now!

Gianna S. and I working together:

As you know, I have explained my fear of rejection and judgment. It has nothing to do with Gianna, she even called me out on it, but I feel like I have been working on it and have been much better and sharing my ideas. To be completely honest, I already knew how it was going to be with me being the camera and Gianna in the scene. I have been working with her since 6th grade and I have come to learn she definitely has control issues (sorry G, I love you!). It's not a bad thing but there definitely were moments of weirdness. I say weirdness because I think Gianna thought I was hurt or offended by her comments but I totally understood. It was as much her project as mine! So Gianna, when you read this, please know that when you told me "no I don't like that" or "switch places with me so I can show you," I did not take it to heart <3

Exhibit A

Exhibit B

Location:

We started at Schultz's house to film the bedroom scenes. We needed to make a few adjustments, such as ironically putting her gay flag back in her closet, but other than that her room was perfect just as. She had a record player, angsty teen posters on her wall, and just the right amount of lighting. We then went to Gomez's house to use her bikes (and her mom lol) and the bright, green nature of Weston, Florida.

Me Shooting Nature!

Self-Reflection:

I am pretty proud of myself! I didn't think I would be able to use my own judgment to shoot all of those shots on my own. I know that might sound stupid but I have a lot of self-doubt in this field (even if it is what I want to do for the rest of my life). Being able to film this project (for the most part) completely on my own was so insane to me that it makes my heart full :) :) :)

I Literally Am Spielberg and No One Can Convince Me Otherwise

FILMING DAY RECAP!!!

Week 6: Filming Week! (Finally!!)

    YAY, WE FILMED!!! Clearly, I am ECSTATIC shown in my use of exclamation points!!!! I am so happy and proud of what Gianna and I did. Not only was it so fun to film but I learned so much about filming and the process of shooting a piece. Here is the overview of how the day went:

9:30: Wake up

10:00: Our original call time but an emergency delayed my arrival...

The Emergency

10:12: I arrived at the first location- Gianna Schultz's house

10:30 (ish)- Gave Gianna Gomez the rundown and created a time schedule on when we should be finished shooting (this was a Schultz thing... always very, very organized). We said that we should be done filming by 12 so that we can get to Gomez's house by 12:10 and be done by 1:30/2:00.

11:15- Thought we had finished...

12:00- Finished right on time!

12:10- Got to the second location- Gianna Gomez's house- where we have access to bikes :)

12:15- Asked Gianna's mom very nicely to drive her car at about 10 miles an hour while I sat on in the truck and filmed the Gianna's riding their bikes and acting like they're in love... as a responsible adult, she obviously said yes.

Me Literally in the Truck of a Car!

12:45- Went to the park and filmed a few nature shots, thought about filming our deleted "swing" scene, decided no thanks, and wrapped up filming.

1:00- Went to a very yummy celebratory lunch 😎

That's all you guys get today. You know, gotta keep things interesting. Tomorrow I will be back and tell you all about my thoughts on today and all the fun we had and a ton of pictures which Mrs. Gomez geniously (my Grammarly is telling me I made up this word but it is very appropriate for ) took of Schultz and me being super cool little director girls!

A Weird Stand Still

Week 6: Filming Week! (Hopefully...)

    If you were expecting a film, we’ll im sorry to disappoint. We are filming tomorrow though! I am thrilled to finally say Gianna, Gianna, and I have finally found a date in the modern calendar that all of us are available. Given, it is a small slot in our day right in between my breakfast with my grandparents and Gianna G’s work call in, but we are making it work! 

    I am slightly worried that we won’t get it all done. It took us so long (so extremely long) to finally find a day and time that all three of us were able to film. If we don’t get it all done tomorrow, we’re going to have to go through that whole process again to find another time. We also have to improvise with a few scenes such as the bike scene. We do not have bikes. We do not have a driver (Zoe is out of town along with everyone in our small town of Weston). So we adapt! I’ll let you guys know how everything goes tomorrow… slightly nervous but slightly excited. #directorhannah😎

The Correlation Between Communication and Success

Week 5: Last Minute Improvements

    I have come here with bad news: my worries were not over exaggerations. the question I am talking about in specific is "What if Gianna (Gomez) cant film on Thursday/Friday?" Well, turns out she couldn't. I am slightly frustrated because it was Gianna's (Schultz, a.k.a., my partner) job to make sure she was available. Yes, I could have definitely texted her myself or pushed Gianna S. a little harder to get a response faster, but regardless, she was not and we did not film. I have no idea when we are going to film and that scares me a little (okay, maybe a little more than a little). I have no doubt that we will figure it out but spring break just started so both of our schedules are all over the place.

    We are now faced with two choices: we either change our actor or change our story. When Gianna S. proposed this ultimatum to me, my heart jumped. I just wanted to scream "YOU REALLY THINK WE'RE GOING TO CHANGE THIS STORY ONCE AGAIN FOR A COMPLETELY DIFFERENT IDEA THAT INVOLVES ONLY ONE ACTOR????" But after chilling out a bit, I realized it doesn't have to be like that! Our filming is going to take an entire day and reshoots are going to take maybe half a day. So as long as we shoot this week, we can edit the week we get back and work on final decisions until the deadline. Honestly, I think the solution to our problems is better communication. I am going to talk to Gianna S. and create a game plan so we don't fall behind. 

(P.S. I know this double Gianna thing is getting confusing and I apologize.)

Teamwork Makes the Dream... Better!

Week 5: Last Minute Improvements

    As the title insinuates, today we got to work in teams! Mrs. Stoklosa put us in groups of 6 to 7 people to spread ideas and suggestions. We went around our group, telling each other a synopsis of our films and what current issues we are having. To be completely honest, Gianna and I aren't having any issues (at the moment) given we haven't filmed, but it was really interesting to hear about my classmate's different projects. I didn't realize how unique (and one might say cool) other people's openings are. Here are my favorite discoveries:

Isa: Coming of age story about a teen model who struggles with the balance of school and her passion.

Sabrina: A teenager struggles with her passion, track, and her past issues.

Miguel: A mob story. That's it. Mob stories are freaking cool.

My Pretty Group Helping Each Other!

    I started off this group meeting thinking "Gianna and I are good! We have absolutely no problems with our project!" Well by the end, I realized how many potential problems we were going to have. Are we going to need music? If so, how are we going to pick it? What if we find the perfect song and we can't get the rights to it? Has Gianna asked Gianna if she's available sunday?? What if she's not??? When are we going to film???? Clearly, it has sent me into a spiral. 

    I'm glad I noticed these things because now I'm going to talk to Gianna about my crazy head explosion of questions and figure out everything we're missing. I also remembered that I have never shared anyone's blogs on here... I know, selfish move. I'm going to link my beautiful partner's blog as well as the three shoutout's I mentioned today. Make sure to check them out to see their insane journeys and projects as well! Till tomorrow :)

Gianna (Partner in Crime): https://theschublog.blogspot.com/

Isa (Model): https://ignzr.blogspot.com/

Sabrina (Track): https://sabriilv05.blogspot.com/

Miguel (Mob): https://suggestlist.blogspot.com/ 

Running Down the Logistics

Week 4: Beginning to Form a Film

    We're getting close, the moment we've been waiting for, actually filming "It's Complicated". But we can't just grab a camera, point it at someone, and wait till something happens. We need to plan out exactly the "who, what, where"s of our project and we have pretty much have it down.

WHO: We have our two leads, Sami and Maxx. We have chosen to have our friend, Gianna Gomez, play Sami. Gianna, Gianna, and I were in theater together in middle school and she has always been the sort of underdog actress I wanted for the role of Sami. And for Maxx, we have decided that out very own Gianna Schultz will be playing her. Both Gianna's are extremely talented but they also have amazing chemistry on and off the stage. I have seen them play roles off each other and I love how their dynamics work. 

WHAT: For our film opening, AICE requires us to include our credits in some way, shape, or form; therefore, here is what we have so far:

    Maxx- Gianna Schultz

    Sami- Gianna Gomez

    Director- Gianna Schultz, Hannah Ackermann (that's me!)

    Cinematographer- Hannah Ackermann (that's also me!)

    Production Assistant- Zoe Reimer

WHERE: Originally, we wanted a more rural city, like Miami, to fit the more "queer teen angst" vibe we are trying to create. But after discussing it, and remembering Gianna is an angsty queer teen, we decided we are going to her room and neighborhood as our location. Her room is exactly what I pictured Maxx's room to be and honestly, I'm disappointed I didn't think of it sooner. 

    We plan on filming Thursday, March 17th, after school and Friday, March 18th, for the whole day. That's not finalized yet but we wanted to film then so we can edit over spring break. Exciting things are coming...