Erin's Blog

The past two years in entertainment video I have utilized the five guarantees multiple times when working on my projects. I learned technical skills through trial and error, tutorials and the help of my classmates. I learned communication and collaboration through working with other e-Comm students to create strong projects. I learned leadership and project management through practicing delegation and being able to complete projects on time even when there were time crunches or other problems that got in the way. Each of these skills were vital as I grew as an e-Comm student and a person in general. There were some challenges that got in the way, and stress was high at times, but I'm happy to say that I can generally look back on what I've done these past couple years and be proud. I'd say my greatest strengths in e-Comm have been editing and the ability to be flexible. Editing will always be my favorite focus and the thing I think I'm best at, but I've also...

The concept for this project was developed by Courtney Honors and Anna Sarol. They came up with the idea to tell the story of Anna's accident and how her life changed afterwards, from the perspective of both Anna and her Mom.  On the day of filming, I showed up to help do sound which was different for me. Then, after we were done filming, I edited as usual with Courtney's help to finish it.  Editing documentaries is different than what I usually do, so it was a little bit of a challenge but I think in the end I was able to cut the interviews into a compelling story that hopefully told Anna's story in a good way. I used adobe premiere to edit.  This project required a lot of project management and collaboration, along with the other focuses. I had to take the computer home in a blanket in order to finish the video and worked several hours on it. Overall, Courtney really put the finishing touches on the editing though through music and images and she really brought...

My group came up with a concept about pittbull protection. In it, a karate trainee is faced against a "scary" and "violent" opponent, only to realize he's not that scary after all. It was meant to be humorous and light-hearted. Courtney came up with the script and most of the concept. They storyboarded and filmed at one group member's house. Afterwards, I edited with input and critique from the other members.  I was the editor. During this project I got to practice editing suspense, comedy, and some fighting. I enjoyed the process of editing this video because it was different than what I usually edit. I used premiere pro to edit it.  I used technical skills while editing, communication and collaboration whilst working with my group members, leadership while being the main editor, and project management by getting it done on time.  I would maybe change the color lut. Besides that, I am happy with the project. Overall, I am satisfied with the final...

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 w...

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 wit...

           The first project I did this semester was a PSA. My group decided to make our PSA over depression and the importance of showing your true emotions, because many people going through depression don't convey it. In the video, we asked kids around school to laugh without smiling. The project took a couple days to film and probably about a week to edit. Some challenges I faced during it was actually going up to random kids and asking to film them. As you can imagine, it was usually pretty awkward. Some other challenges came from the editing process. I had some difficulty finding a fitting tone and pacing to the video. But, besides that, it was a relatively easy video to make. Along the way, I learned how to make a typing effect and how to add black bars on the top and bottom of the screen. Compared to older videos I've made, I think this one actually looks kind of professional. I was given positive feedback for the majority, though I didn't actu...

MX4D is marketed as being a step up from 3D. It attempts to provide a true immersive experience by making your seat move with the film's movements, emitting smells that correspond with what's on screen, and other cool effects like strobe lighting, snow, and fog. I was really excited when I went to see Justice League with my classmates for an e-Comm field trip (despite not knowing much about the DC universe, admittedly). I really enjoyed certain aspects of the 4D, like the seat moving during the fight scenes. However, I felt like some of the other effects were just distractions from the movie and seemed kind of  unnecessary, like the water spraying in our faces (it was loud and kind of jarring), and the smells which honestly just seemed "off."  My favorite part of the whole field-trip actually wasn't the 4D at all, but getting to tour the theatre and see all of the cool technology B&B had renovated. ...

For this menu item, I watched a variety of short horror films. I did so in order to get inspiration for my own short horror movie that's currently in the making, Black-Eyed Children. I enjoyed watching the shorts and was impressed by the professional look of them. Two of the shorts were by CryptTV, The Birch and Itsy Bitsy Spiders. The third,  The Moonlight Man, was by Danny Donahue.  Of the three I watched, my favorite would have to be Itsy Bitsy Spiders . It wasn't the scariest film I've ever seen, but I enjoyed thoroughly enjoyed the story and concept. It was about a little boy with a strange obsession of drawing spiders. In the end, you learn the reason behind why he developed his weird obsession.  After watching the short horror films, it helped me make changes to the script I'm currently working on with my friend for our own short movie. I want to make sure our movie has a good mix of character development and story as well as scares, as some of...

Wes Anderson is one of my all-time favorite directors. I enjoy his unique visual style, stories, and the way he writes dialogue. My favorite movies of his are The Grand Budapest Hotel and The Royal Tenenbaums. Most of his movies are immediately recognizable as being by him, because of his very distinct style.  One of the most noticeable aspects of Anderson's directing is that the shots in his films are usually perfectly symmetrical, with beautiful unique color palettes. His films center around unique and realistic characters, most of which have a memorable costume design that distinguishes them and emphasizes their personality. For Margot from the Royal Tenenbaums, this would be her big fur coat or the cigarettes she is often seen with. For Zero from the Grand Budapest Hotel, it would be his bell boy uniform. Another recurring trait in Anderson's movies that I especially enjoy is the often deadpan way his characters address and speak t...

In this tutorial by DSLRGuide, I learned how to properly color grade a film without defaulting to the common orange and teal color scheme most 'blockbusters' use. Color grading is a very important part of the editing process and can give a plain looking clip a visually appealing cinematic appearance that is fun to look at. He emphasized the importance of matching skin tones so they do not appear too red or cool looking. He showed how you can take two visually similar shots and give them completely different tones or emotions just by altering the colors of the clip. He also specified that 'there are no rules in filmmaking.' A film's colors do not  necessarily have to be realistic. For example, the Matrix used unrealistic green tints in scenes depicting simulations, and other movies use unrealistic blue tints to signify sad parts in films. 

One thing in common with many student films is that they lack the 'cinematic' look. This video by MATHIEU STERN showed me how to film and edit in a professional, cinematic-looking way without spending all of the money people spend while filming Hollywood movies. The ten steps included: 1. Framing shots with the rule of thirds 2. Create a shallow depth of field with a lens between F3.5 and F1.2Z 3. Stabilize moving footage 4. Use warp stabilizer in premiere 5. Add 'cine bars' 6. Color grade footage with the lemur color panel 7. When you slow down, shoot at 60fps 8. Use a histogram on camera 9. Use a slider to create depth 10. Use cinematic fonts like Roboto, Didot, and Adam Pro With all of these tips in mind, you are more likely to produce a visually appealing video.

We used Skai's script for our film. The script was originally about a little boy with an abusive father, and how the mother endures his abuse. We had to make several changes to the script because of what we had available actor-wise. We changed it to a little girl and her big sister, and how they dealt with an abusive and alcoholic mother. The storyline was still overall the same, however.  Our pre-production went well. We had a few script changes, but that was the only real road bump we ran into. Location scouting and actors were decided fairly early on. We finished all filming in a single day at Skai's house. It went very smoothly except for a camera dying, resulting in a few lost shots. Post-production went well and I really enjoyed editing it. I had to stay after school a few times to make sure it got done on time, but all things considered it went smoothly.  I was the editor for our film,...

What was the concept that your group came up with for the assignment?  For the assignment, my group took inspiration from a youtube video we had watched in which people were asked to laugh without smiling. We noticed how them trying to laugh without smiling always lead to them actually smiling. We also thought that the idea of having to laugh without looking happy could maybe tie into how people feel who have depression. We decided that we would go around the school asking various students and teachers to laugh without smiling, and record their reactions.  What was your process? First, we talked about what our ideas were and what equipment we would be using. Then, we began the pre-production process. I was in charge of making the storyboard while Mallory wrote the script and the others organized our schedule. We collaborated on editing the script and decided what roles each group member would have while filming.  What was your role in the process an...

This semester in video class was when I realized that video is something I would be happy doing for the rest of my life. I love the processes that go on behind making entertainment videos: storyboarding, filming, and editing. As we started working on more ‘creative’ videos like music videos and short films, this quickly became one of my favorite classes. I looked forward to coming in every day and working on my projects, more so than with other e-Comm classes in the past. I learned a lot and I believe that this class has opened up many opportunities for me. Technology This year in video class, I learned how to use real cameras and tripods instead of Ipads, and that was very interesting and important to how I succeeded in the class. We also were taught how to edit in Premiere instead of Final Cut, which I am grateful for because Premiere is an editing program commonly used by professionals in the real world. These things were very important to learn because a good grasp on technol...