Reflection

     I would have never guessed this project would turn out the way it did. When we first got assigned the Portfolio Project in class and started brainstorming Raul and I were really having a tough time coming up with a story. We settled with a story that was adventurous and creative, and I even wrote up a whole script detailing events in a group of teenager's lives. But suddenly, a big scary virus known as Coronavirus shut the entire world down, including all possibilities of Raul and I filmed at public locations with actors let alone each other. School was cancelled too, and our fourth quarter was to be finished via online learning. With my senioritis raging at full capacity, I had to find a way to come up with a story that can be filmed at my house, include only my family as actors, and fit within the five-minute cap.

     Somehow, I did it and spent a lot of time just kind of thinking of new stories that I could tell. Don't ask me how ended up making a story about the government being taken over and forcing you to remove everything individual in your home, but it is something new and spicey. After some mental planning, I got the filming done around two weeks before the deadline and I don't think it could have gone even smoother. I was filming with a purpose, and I knew exactly how I wanted the story to develop in my head. My parents kinda killed it with the acting and I barely had to reshoot the scenes with them in it. Heading on into editing process, I fixed my computer storage issues by getting a flash drive, and started with laying all the footage out on Premiere. I was extremely happy to get permission for the song Chapels by Giant Rooks as I feel it really fits with the footage and the overall vibe of the film. I basically edited the non-dialouge footage completely around the song, and I made direct edits to the song such as slowing it down and rearranging the chronology of it in order to match the direction of the movie. Color-corretion was pretty simple, I just added some orange and blue highlights, added in some fade, and adjusted the exposure and contrast accordingly. Overall the edit went smoothly and I comfortably finished the film before the deadline.
     
       Working with Raul as my partner, he definitely took a lot of weight of my shoulders by taking control of the website and the post card. Staying connected with him has been extremely vital throughout this process as we have continuously been bouncing ideas off of each other and collaborating since this project began. I think we really stepped it up from what we did last year, and I think that says a lot knowing we had to complete this film under lockdown.