CCR #2 Q&A Rough Draft

 Hey blog!!! I've finally finished my first CCR and now its time to get to work on my second one as I am running out of time. After watching some samples in class I was inspired to do something similar to one that my teacher showed from a previous student of hers which used Vogues 73 question idea. 

I think this would be a great option specifically for me to do as these types of videos typically show around the house and considering that my house was the main "set" for the film I think my idea can be very unique. 

Here I will include a "rough draft" of points I should address in my answers to the three remaining questions: 

• How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

- our target audience is young adults and specifically women interested in STEM career paths,  we created this film by young women and for young women to try and inspire future generations.

- We engage with our audience by promoting our film on our social media accounts and uploading sneak peeks and behind the scenes footage for our audience to watch. 

-Our film will be distributed on YouTube to ensure maximum viewership 

• How did your production skills develop throughout this project?

-Starting off no members of my team were familiar with the topic of pseudoscience and after research we all understood it and developed our film

- We initially approached the project with our overall idea and this did not change throughout the filming process

-Nadia, Zain, and I have been working together since early on in the year. Initially, we approached most of our projects and decided to use just a simple camera. This project though we took more seriously and rented out better quality cameras, lights, and all sorts of equipment.

-As the main actress in this film, I learned what it was like to be in-front of the camera instead of behind it and because of this I pay so much more attention to detail. 

- Additionally, I didn't edit any major projects throughout the year but helped out when it came to this project. I learned how to use the VN platform and despite it taking me over 5 hours to edit a simple 2 minute clip I can say I have learned a new skill I am proud of. 

• How did you integrate technologies – software, hardware and online – in this project

- Apps we used to edit include photos, iMovie, and VN

- Additionally, in some instances we used our iPhones to film as well as digital cameras, tripods, and lights that we rented from a nearby place called "Beacon". 

- Issues we experienced with technology included uploading all clips so that everyone was able to view and open them.

- Finally, throughout the Course of the project I have blogged the entirety of the process using blogger.com, on my blog you can find anything from research to issues we experienced during the project. 

CCR #1 Editing - Ted Talk Part 2

 Hey blog I'm back and the clips have finally downloaded to my computer so its time to do the actual editing now. I haven't finalized which app I'll use yet but I want to try VN because it seems to have more gadgets and features than iMovie. 

Here is what it looked like once I had all the clips into VN and began adding titles..

I added my titles according to the different Ted Talks that I investigated such as this one, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qxgE0q1_m6U.

As you can see, titles such as the name are centered and kept together which is what I decided to implement in my CCR to make it look more like a ted talk. Although VN didn't provide the option to switch the font or color of the text I decided to simply capitalize the first letter of both my first and last name so that it would be clear those are the different parts of my name. 

The same goes for information such as the date and city filmed in. 

Here is how mine turned out!!!

I will continue editing this CCR using the VN application. 

CCR #1 Editing - Ted Talk Part 1

Hey blog!! I'm finally back from my trip and now starting to edit and finalize my CCRS. Unfortunately, I am not able to re-film this one as everything must be submitted by Tuesday April second and we only have one day of school before then in which I could use the auditorium. I would prefer not to risk the time that I have and instead try to make-up for the lighting and positioning inconvenience through different types of editing techniques. 

Also, due to a shortage on time I was only able to answer ¼ questions in this first CCR but am prepared to answer the remaining ones in the next reflection. First, because my CCR is in the form of a TedTalk I must take the TedTalk logo and recreate it. I did this using Canva, this is my final product 

Additionally, I learned how to use two different applications to do editing which are VN and iMovie. Ichose these apps as VN was recommended from a classmate who edited their short film using the app and I have previous experience with iMovie but would like to increase my knowledge on how to use it. 

One of the first issues I came across when trying to edit was getting the clips of my CCR onto my computer. Initially, I was fine with editing on my phone as that's how I have always used iMovie, but when I entered VN on my phone it felt too compact and I wanted to try on a bigger screen. Therefore, I downloaded the app to my laptop and sent myself the different videos I could use. Given that each video is  around 2:00 minutes long I knew this might take long. What I didn't know was that even after an hour of saving they still hadn't loaded onto my computer. Then, I tried signing into my iCloud account from my computer so I could have access to all the photos and videos on my phone and download them through there. At first this didn't work and an error message kept showing up but I left my computer open while I ate lunch and it thankfully loaded. Now, I chose the videos I wanted and started to download them which took a while. 

Part 2 Representation: Women in Stem

    Good morning blog!!! I'm currently in the airport on my way to Colombia and wanted to get in a final blog for the week. As the due date nears my team and I will continue to edit and find sounds for our project. 

    Our short film was inspired by the movie hidden figures, which follows a group of colored women during the civil rights era. These women were mathematicians and played a vital role in NASA's success. Now, this film focuses on African American women in mathematics while ours represents hispanic women in math. Because the genre is so under-represented it received three Oscar nominations. 

    Not only is it rare for hispanic women in STEM to be represented in the media but it is also quite rare in real life. According to the University of Texas Rio Grande Valley, Latina women hold less than 2% of the total stem workforce. 

https://scholarworks.utrgv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2147&context=etd#:~:text=Percentage%20of%20Latinas%20in%20STEM%20Careers&text=And%20while%20Latinas%20represent%20about,than%202%25%20of%20STEM%20occupations.

    Given that the media has an absurd amount of power they have the chance to try and diminish the gap in STEM representation or enhance it. Our character Tina is seen working tirelessly to complete her job and shows her dedication throughout the short film. Tina like many young girls is in a workforce surrounded by men and constantly trying to outperform them just for her to be noticed. 

https://www.srgtalent.com/blog/we-need-to-talk-about-media-portrayals-of-women-in-stem

Editing !

 Hey blog!! It's officially spring break!!!!! WOOHOOOO!! JK won't be much of a break I'm gonna use it to catch up on school work but it's okay. Anywayssss, today I met up with my team members Zain and Nadia to get started on some editing before Nadia and I leave for break this week. 

As mentioned before Zain is our main editor so we wanted to help her and get a head start on editing while we were still here. Unfortunately Clara couldn't join us as she left to Brazil Thursday afternoon. But thankfully she has been very helpful in finding and organizing our foley sounds. 

Nadia, Zain, and I met at 12 and sorted through all of our footage and titled each of our clips as well as tried to put them in order to our best ability. We got to edit the complete office scene but found that only that section took up 40 seconds of our allowed 2 minutes so we are thinking of cutting some of what we filmed. 

As I have little editing experience I will be helping Clara to find more sounds as well as background or theme music. I began to organize all the sounds we found into a notes document for easier access to all team members. 

Also, we came up with out production company name which will be ZVCN Productions, each letter represents our initials. Here is our logo....

CCR #1

 Hey blog earlier this week  my team member Clara and I went too the drama classroom to ask permission to use the auditorium some time this week to film our first CCR. I had the idea of doing something like a TedTalk and Clara liked my idea and wanted to do it aswell. The teacher said we are allowed to use the auditorium on Wednesday after school. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough time to write my CCR before Wednesday so instead I wrote it in class since we had a sub. My goal was to answer the first 2 questions but I only had time to write the script for my first one. 

I had relied on Clara to be there on Wednesday to help me setup my phone and computer as a teleprompter. Unfortunately, Clara woke up with an allergic reaction and spent the day at urgent care so I had to improvise. My other group members were either absent or unable to help me film on such short notice. 

When I arrived at the auditorium there was a group of drama students in there singing so I continued to write my script while I waited for them to leave.

Final Script for Question 1: 

 I ended up setting my phone up on top of the projector and somehow balanced my computer next to it. When I watched back the recording I noticed the camera was far too low to see me. See image below for reference. 

Additionally, the lighting is something I would like to have fixed as I can barely see myself in the video. I went to ask for help but the teacher had already left. I didn't want to press any buttons without supervision as I didn't want to break anything. 

Then, I decided to place my phone on top of stacked chairs to elevate it closer to my level. These videos came out much better. 

Although the lighting continued to be an issue this was out of my control so I am happy with the result considering I had to set up and film alone. I would still like to re-film this if given the opportunity as I know it could be better. 

Representation In the Media. Part 1.

 Hey blog!!! This is my final post for this week in which I will be discussing a very important part of our film which is representation in the media. 

With a female lead character there is automatically women representation. As a group of 4 girls we instantly knew that we wanted to represent mostly girls and this would also be most convenient for us as we wouldn't have to recruit any actors. Women representation I the media has been a touchy subject for years now as reflects societies ideas of gender roles and stereotypes. While attempts have been made to be more inclusive we are still far from achieving equality when it comes to representation of females in media vs males. According to a study in San Diego State University, only 29% of protagonists were female in 2020S highest grossing films. 

Recently though there has been a bigger trend in female characters and directors after the 2023 release of Barbie, and Mean Girls: The Musical - 2024. 

The Barbie film stressed female empowerment and leadership. Although the Barbie doll was once controversial due to it's unrealistic body shape and features the 2023 movie was created to erase the controversy as we are introduced to dozens of different "Barbies" with different careers, body types, backgrounds, and interests. In all, this movie was made to be inclusive of all women and diminish the standards that young girls playing with Barbies created in their heads when they were first introduced to the skinny, blue eyed, blonde hair doll that was praised by so many and therefore perfect in their young eyes. Aside from the cast being mostly female, so were the people behind the magic. This includes director, Greta German, and executive producer, Margot Robbie. Additionally, the soundtrack to the movie included hit female artists such as Lizzo, Due Lipa, Nicki Minaj, Ice Spice, and Billie Eilish. 

Showed feminine mise-en-scene through the use of the color pink in movie outfits, set and on Barbie press tour. 

In our film we included the use of pink pajamas to represent females and add a hint of color to the movie. Aside from this we used a light and natural makeup to make our main character look more presentable and feminine. 

The pajamas we used: 

Our difficulties so far

Hey blog!! Happy Saturday, I'm currently overwhelmed with work but trying to make the most out of the time I have left before spring break. 

In todays post I'm going to write about some of the main moments and troubles we've had so far considering planning and the time frame for our project. 

For starters, It was difficult for us to come up with and agree with an idea but luckily we got past it quickly. This was one of the downsides of working in a big team as each person has different ideas and expectations for our project. Once we had our idea set our teacher recommend us to do a different topic or to think of something better so that stalled us for a little longer than expected. 

Also, having a block-schedule, meaning that we only have the same class every other day, has made our project take a little longer as it is easier for us to communicate in person. Although we do share a group chat on messages each person responds when they get a chance and this typically takes longer. 

Additionally, scheduling everything has served as a difficulty and was the deciding feature in who the actresses would be for the project. 

Our schedules were as followed:

Clara- Usually available everyday with notice

Vanessa- Available throughout the week but busy on Mondays

Nadia- Usually busy, Dance 3-4x a week 

Zain- usually available wit notice but works a couple of days in a week

Although Nadia wanted to be an actress in our project we were unable to do this as her schedule wasn't compatible with the rest of ours. Another difficulty with scheduling is happening right now as Zain is in STN, a trip to California for our schools TV production class. This trip lasts 6 days meaning we didn't have the chance to meet or talk about our project for around a week. Zain is our main editor s much of her work will be done once she comes back from the trip. 

Finally, given that spring break is around the corner and ¾ of our group members are leaving we must ensure everybody does their part during break and everything is due only 2 days after school starts again. 

CCR - Lesson and Current Ideas

Hey blog!!! So, I can't lie I'm stressed about this project. With only 19 days left until I have to turn in everything I feel like I'm short on time. Im leaving next weekend to Colombia for spring break but sadly won't be able to enjoy much since 2 of my AICE final projects are due the same week we get back. Thankfully, my team worked ahead and filmed our intro last week so now we have time to work on our creative critical reflection. 

We learned about the reflection this Tuesday. This is the part that I am most intrigued to do for my project as we get to showcase and explain what our film is about in a fun way. We learned that the main purpose of our CCR is to respond to Cambridges questions about our planning, production, and final product. 

The ideas I'm considering most right now for my first CCR are a talk show interview or a game show. My ideas for my second one are TedTalk or an enhanced podcast. This week I will look into past examples and research the types f media as well as finalize my 2 options. 

In class I spoke to my teacher to see if we would be able to rent out our schools auditorium for my TedTalk idea. Unfortunately, I couldn't get an answer as the teacher that occupies the space wasn't in school. I will ask again next week. 

Additionally, last class we watched some of the old CCR submissions my teacher received for previous years and pulled apart the good and bad aspects of each one. This helped me get ideas and understand what I should and shouldn't do throughout my CCR. 

Filming Day 2

In todays blog I will be outlining our filming process on Wednesday. We got most of our shots filmed and done on Wednesday. All of our group met at my house around 2 pm and we worked until 7. On Wednesday we had the chance to fully develop Tinas character including her makeup, outfit, and overall persona. I wound up playing Tina as the part was between Nadia and I but Nadia is typically busy whereas my schedule is more flexible. 

The materials we used on Wednesday include a 3 point light kit from Sony so that we could maximize the potential of our lighting for the intro. The majority of the filming we did on Wednesday took place in my dads office. Below are pictures of how his office typically looks. 

We had to shift some things around when trying to figure out our setup as the desk is against the wall and most plugs are far from the desk. To fix this issue we had to use multiple extension cords so all the lights and camera equipment such as microphones were plugged in. 

This is how our office setup ended up looking. We had to be really careful with the placement of our lights as they might be reflected in any of the 3 computer screens or on the TV. My dad helped us by pulling up his stocks and trading screens so that the environment would match Tina's character. Additionally, we were fine with the office looking a little messy as we initially wanted the environment to be that way. Tina was supposed to be mostly put together while her environment was all messy. Above you can see our establishing and opening shot to our film. We wanted this to accurately reflect Tinas environment so we showed her surrounded by work at night. 

In this image you can see the book we used for Tina's math equations. This was one of my Dad's old notebooks. 

This picture shows Nadia trying to hold the microphone as close to me as possible without her sowing on the camera. We had to get in various uncomfortable positions to record audios when it came to walking, talking under my breath, and even circling something with an eraser. 

Filming Day 1

Hey blog!! Today I will be showing and describing what my group got to film this Tuesday. Tuesday was our first day of filming for this project so once we had all of our shots planned out we were ready to go. On Tuesday we used 30 minutes oof class time to go and film in the news segment we need in the TV room. 

This is the section of our schools TV room that we would have liked to have used but unfortunately the teacher didn't give us permission to. Luckily, he said we were allowed to use any other set up in the room. 

This is the outfit we planned for the news caster to wear as it matched the room and looked professional. In this picture my team member Nadia is wearing the shirt. At first Nadia was going to be the broadcaster but we were short on time and she had trouble remembering the lines so Zain would end up taking that role. 

In this picture you can see the set up we decided on using that day to film the news broadcast. This shot would be a medium shot therefore only showing Zains upper body. Our shots got interrupted by another group and we only had the chance to film two takes for this section. 

Shot List

Hey blog I'm back and happy to say that we have started filming!! In this blog I will share our shot list along with the ones we have done so far. We wanted to make sure that we filmed early as most of our group will be away during spring break, and our cinematographer/director, Zain Vidal is leaving on a school trip next week from Wednesday to Saturday. 

Our group met up on Wednesday from 3:00-8:00 pm and today, Friday from 6:00-9:30 in my house to film the majority of our film intro. The ones crossed out are the shots we've already completed. 

DESK (Vanessa) 

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  Establishing from table (redo)

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  High angle of her writing  

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  Extreme close up of her eyes looking all over the place 

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  Over the shoulder shot of writing 

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  Close up of her finishing book

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  Medium of her her closing pen

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  Close up of her closing pen

WALKING TO COUCH AND GOING TO SLEEP (clara)

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  Close up of feet pushing chair out 

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  Wide of her getting up and walking 

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  Medium of couch (she sits down)

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  Close up of her rubbing face

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  Close up of lamp shutting off

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  Wide of lamp shutting off

PHONE CALL AND NEWS STORY (Nadia)

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  Close up of face right when phone ringing (eyes shut)

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   Close up Phone ringing 

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  Wide of tina grabbing phone

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  Medium of discussion

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  Film 3 different angles of discussion 

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  Wide facing tv, tina walks towards tv

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  Medium of tv while she bends down to get a closer look

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  Tight close up of shocked face

LEAVING AND OFFICE (Zain)

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  Close up of grabbing keys

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  Wide walking out and slamming door (BLAZER AND PANTS ON SHOULDER)

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  Close up of tire pulling in

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  Establishing??

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  Close up of her getting out 

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  Tilt up fixing pants out car

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  Close up of boss angry

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  Over the shoulder of tina walking in 

• Medium of boss “we are screwed”