Erin's Blog

The first semester of my senior year has been very productive and educational for me. I've worked on three major videos: a commercial, music video, and short film. Each project helped me improve my entertainment skills in various ways. Whilst making them, I exercised technical skills, communication, leadership, collaboration and project management. Below is some information on the projects I've worked on and what I've learned from my experiences. ________ Floss Commercial The first project I worked on was a commercial advertising floss. The concept was a that a couple was out on a romantic date, but when the guy leans in to kiss the girl, she is disgusted by the food stuck in his teeth, and pulls out some dental floss for him to use. It was meant to be aesthetically pleasing and comedic. The video took around a week to make. There weren't many challenges, and the entire process went pretty smoothly. The filming process took one day, and I began editing whe

We used Courtney Honor's script. The concept was a short film about gaming. Two gamers team up and realize they have a lot in common. Eventually they figure out that they're brothers. They decide to meet up in person, but when they do it's really awkward. They ease the awkwardness by pretending they're playing video games.  Courtney wrote the entire script, and my group did the filming. I was in charge of editing. I wanted to push myself in the editing, so I added in a lot of sound effects, music, and unique editing like whip-pans and split screens. I was planning on using some adobe after-effects as well but I didn't have time.  I used project management and collaboration by taking lots of requests and ideas from the group when it came to my editing. It was definitely a group effort, conceptually, though I did all of the editing. If I had more time, I would use adobe after-effects to do some onomatopeia-like effects with sound effects. I would also improve

1) Who created the studio and when?  It was founded by David Sarnoff in 1928.  2) What major stars worked in that studio? The studio produced the Fred Astaire-Ginger Rogers series of musicals and Katharine Hepburn in her early career. 3) What famous movies did they make?  King Kong (1933) and Orson Welles’s Citizen Kane (1941) were some of the most famous movies made.  4) What is the studio known for?   It was one of the major film studios during Hollywood's Golden Age.  5) Is the studio a major studio today?  No, it became defunct in 1959.  6) What movies or TV shows have they produced recently? None. 

  The concept of our music video was a guy looking back on a failed relationship through the lens of the home videos he took of his girlfriend. We used the song "K." by CAS. We came up with the concept rather quickly, got our production roles sorted out, and then began storyboarding. We drew inspiration from music videos like "Daddy Issues" by the Neighbourhood and "Born to Die" by Lana Del Rey for several shots. We then filmed the entire thing in one night, and began editing the next day.  I decided to go out of my comfort zone for this project and tried filming instead of editing for once. I learned a lot! It was great practice and I had fun playing with different shots and learning various tricks for working with the camera. As for our  Technical Skills, Communication, Collaboration, Leadership, and Project Management, I think my group did a great job. We were efficient, communicative, and worked well together.  Next time, it would be nice to mak

The music video was for the first song of The Weeknd's album, Starboy. It basically introduces The Weeknd's new musical persona, and makes a statement about how he feels about his role in the music industry. The music video has amazing editing and cinematography. The rich blue, green and red color scheme is beautiful and fits the tone of the song very well. The editing matches the beats perfectly, which really emphasizes the catchiness of the song.  The story of the video is a bit vague and interpretive, but you can tell that the creators did that on purpose. It begins with the "old" Weeknd (long hair, etc.) tied up in a chair, sitting across from a masked man. The masked man gets up and suffocates the old Weeknd with a bag, killing him. This is representative of The Weeknd "killing" his old persona and moving in a new direction with his music. The masked man then removes said mask, revealing it is once again The Weeknd, but with a new short haircut si

My group's commercial was about dental floss. Our concept was to have a couple out on a  date in the park, but the romantic atmosphere gets interrupted when the boy smiles and his teeth are  filled with food. The girl then pulls out her floss and the advertisement's spiel starts.  Early on, one of my group members  proposed  the idea of having a commercial that starts out  beautiful  and cinematic, but unexpectedly ends up being comedic. We all liked that idea and started brainstorming different ways we could achieve that effect. We eventually came up with the idea of having our product be dental floss, with a date as the main  storyline. We drew up storyboards and wrote the script fairly quickly, then set up our filming schedule. I wasn't able to actually be there for filming because of work, but once I got the clips I started editing them right away. We worked together to create a romantic mood through a warm color scheme and calm country music in the background

1. What did you do for the feature film?
 a. What was the production role? 
 I was the supervising editor for the film. I was in charge of editing, delegating work to other editors, and making sure the entire movie was edited well without any mistakes. b. What were some challenges you faced? 
 It was my first time working with such a large project, and I had some issues with organization and knowing how to properly delegate to the other editors. c. What did you learn along the way? 
 I learned a lot. My technical skills, along with leadership and teamwork skills, have grown tremendously. I became much more adept in Adobe Premiere and started learning how to work in after effects. I also learned how to edit large scenes, instead of just short films or PSAs. d. What was some feedback you were given? 
 I was given a lot of positive feedback, although I was also told that I needed to get better at spreading out work so that it wasn't all on me to get things done. e. What d

What was the scope of the project, what was the assignment? The project was my classes' feature film, the Kansas City Savior. I was assigned to be the supervising editor of the movie. I was in charge of delegating work to other editors,  editing myself, and working with sound and the directors to get the right look. What was your process (speak to Pre-Production...idea, concepting, storyboards, etc.; Production...the actual creation; Post-Production...editing). The crew would come back from filming and give me an SD card containing all of their sound and audio. I would take them, organize what was needed, and then either give the footage to another editor to work on or start editing the scene myself. Once the basic sequence was together, I would start putting in the audio, color correcting, and adding music/sound effects. What did you learn along the way? I learned a lot. I learned how to work with boom audio, how to color correct more efficiently, how to work with gre