"The Thief"
3/12/20
My latest project won’t be posted to my website for a bit. This project was a struggle to say the least. Many obstacles kept me from having an easy time doing this. I struggled to find actors to be in my video, I struggled to find a time when all of my actors were able to work with me, and I had many shots to film and not a lot of time to film them. The main obstacle that set back finishing my project to after spring break was my main actor hurting her hip at track practice the night before we were going to finish filming the chase scene. The idea of my video is an old action movie inspired chase scene. The storyline is that a thief is going through lockers and stealing anything valuable that she can find, until a boy at his locker sees her stealing his friend’s jacket. The boy chases her through the halls only for her to escape in a silver Mustang. The film “Baby Driver” directed by Edgar Wright was my main inspiration for the chase scene. I really like how the film’s shots are cut to be in time with the music. There are also very interesting shots and great color schemes in the movie that I wanted to try incorporating into the style of my chase scene. Although finishing my chase scene was set back until after spring break, I have some very interesting shots that I am proud of. I’m sure that I will get the rest of my chase scene done in no time after spring break and it will be great.
"The Sirens"
2/12/20
My short film, “The Sirens” is probably my favorite project I have done in Digital Media so far. I had so much fun writing, filming, and editing it. In “The Sirens”, a rock band lures a girl into an auditorium with their hypnotic song and murders her. I have wanted to do a vintage horror movie inspired short film for a long time. When getting inspiration for my short film, I watched old horror movies from the sixties. I really love the writing, cinematography, and graphics of old horror films. I asked the lead guitarist of my band, Diego, and the bassist, Clare, to make a spooky song for my film and they did a great job. The song has lots of spooky minor chords, which I am a big fan of. My bandmates also agreed to be in my film, for which I am extremely grateful. We played the song we wrote and pretended to murder our good friend, Tamara Rodriguez. Everything I do with them is a blast, so I had a lot of fun getting to film with them. My good friend, Victor Martinez, who is in the advanced digital media class, helped me film which was such a big help. I don’t think my short film would be half as good as it is without Victor. I also got Blake Kane, who runs lighting for school production to cast a red spotlight on the stage to make the scene dark and creepy. I am very proud of this short film and I am so grateful for everyone that helped me make it. I hope to do many more projects like this in the future.
Anxiety PSA
2/3/20
When Mr. Holt told me that my class had to make another PSA, I was a bit frustrated if I’m honest, but after thinking about it some more, I realized that it was a good thing. I remembered that I wasn’t as proud of my previous PSA as I would have liked to be. My Domestic Violence PSA had a very important message and I liked the style of it, but I felt like I didn’t have enough time to make it as good as I wanted it to be. I decided to take this second PSA project as an opportunity to make something that I would be very proud of. When coming up with ideas of what to do my PSA on, I put a lot of pressure on myself to have a good idea that I could do well. I began to think of things that I struggle with and that many other people struggle with as well. My first idea was general mental illness, but I decided to be a bit more specific and do my PSA on anxiety. Anxiety is a struggle that I am very familiar with, so I thought that I would be good at showing people what an anxiety attack feels like. What I describe an anxiety attack to feel like is your brain filling with different sounds, thoughts, images, and many other things that you don’t know how to deal with or receive, until you implode. I tried my best to convey this by adding audio of rushed breathing, racing thoughts, and tense music. I also added shots of myself panicking under red light to add to the fear of the scene. I am very passionate about mental health and I feel that it is important that everyone that is struggling with it, has somewhere they can turn to for help whether that’s a school counselor, a therapist, or just a friend. No one fighting the battle of mental illness needs to do it alone.
Getting Back Into the Groove
1/14/20
I had a pretty good winter break. I had dinner with friends to celebrate my 16th birthday. I celebrated my actual birthday on December 24 and Christmas in California with family. One thing that I did miss over winter break was Digital Media. I came in ready to get back to work. The first few days that we were back, Mr. Holt had us play around on Premier Pro to refresh our memories. I took this time to work on some projects I had started before break. I had been working on a promo video for one of my band’s songs, so I finished that and added some cool effects. I’m planning on collaborating with another student in the advanced class, Christian Wright, on a music video for a different song. He really knows what he’s doing, so I’m excited to see what I learn from working with him. I think that the video will be very creative. I don’t want to spoil anything about it, but it’s most likely going to be filmed in a very unique setting. There are many ideas I want to try this semester. My band and I have been talking about doing a skit about the band, so I think we will try to make that after the gigs we have coming up this month. Overall, I think that I will do a lot of interesting projects this semester. I’m very excited :)
PSA
12/18/19
For my P.S.A. project, I made a P.S.A. on domestic violence. I gathered two other girls from my Digital Media project and shot close ups of them speaking. I really like the simplicity of the video. The black and white filter really adds to the minimalism of the video I was going for. I think that the camera quality and the way I spoke in the video could have been better, so that's something I'll work on improving in my next project. I really appreciated the girls who helped me film this. The reason that I chose domestic violence as my topic is because it is a present and horrible issue in the world. So many people are affected by domestic violence and there needs to be action taken to end it. Something that I really wanted to get across in my P.S.A. is that victims of domestic violence are not alone. It is everyone’s responsibility to take steps to end domestic violence. Actions such as finding resources to learn what to do if you or someone you know is a victim of domestic violence can help dramatically. Thehotline.org provides ways to get help if you, or someone you know is a victim, ways to help survivors and their families, and ways to stay safe when reporting domestic violence. For more information on domestic violence, visit https://www.thehotline.org/
Holiday Greeting
12/4/19
When we came back to school from Thanksgiving break, tired and unpleasant, Mr. Holt had us do a small holiday greeting project to put on our TV channel. We recorded a voice over of our holiday greeting and put it over a holiday photo. I enjoyed this project because it was a small project that I felt that I did well on. I really enjoy editing, so it was nice to have a project that didn't take long to capture and was mostly editing. I'm pretty excited for the holidays. I'll be going to California to see my Grandma for Christmas. Happy Holidays to everyone reading this. ;)
Radio Commercial
10/25/19
My latest assignment in Digital Media was to create a thirty-second radio commercial. I decided to advertise my band, Cliché. It was good practice for if the band and I were ever to do a real radio commercial advertising a performance or song in the future. The whole process of making the commercial was very fun for me. I really enjoyed coming up with the script, editing, and adding effects. Music production is something I can honestly see myself going into as a career, so this was very interesting. I don’t know what it is about editing, but it calms me. I enjoy the process of trial and error and playing around with ideas of what you want it to sound like. The only frustrating part was cutting. There were more elements I wanted to add to the commercial, but couldn’t because of the thirty-second time limit. If I had done it exactly how I wanted, there would have been two people talking about an upcoming Cliché gig on the phone at the beginning. Nevertheless, I am satisfied with how the commercial turned out. I liked this project because we were able to play around with effects and different elements of audio production. Maybe a real radio commercial for Cliché will be coming soon!
Thirty-Second Video Commercial
11/21/19
For my video commercial, I added clips of my band to a radio commercial I had already made for the band. It was…an experience. At first, I had the idea of making a commercial about a pie shop, but I ended up not liking that. So, I decided to make a commercial for my band. The process of getting everything I needed for this project was stressful if I’m honest, but getting all of the shots with my band mates was really fun. At the beginning of the project, my Digital Media teacher, Mr. Holt, said that it is probably not a good idea to rely on people that aren’t also in the class because it’s not their priority too and they might let you down. Because my band practices every week, I thought I could for sure get all of the shots I needed of everyone, but because of people being sick or not being able to make it, I had a hard time getting the shots on time. When I finally had everyone at practice, I could get my shots. My band mates are some of my best friends, so anything we do together is a blast. They were very helpful and cooperative with me getting my shots. After the stress of filming was finished, the rest of the project was smooth sailing. I really enjoy editing, so that was also one of my favorite parts of the project. Something I would do differently is plan better, but other than that I’m very proud of how it turned out.