Movie Trailer Critique

The most recent project we did in G.T. before the end or the quarter, and the end of the year, was a Movie Trailer. For this project we needed to plan out a story, dialogue, and scenes for our very own Movie Tailer. My teammates and I created a story about a man named Bill, from there we proceeded to pick which scenes were most important and yet wouldn't give away too much for a Movie Trailer. From there we figured out when to shoot the scenes and where to get all of it done. Throughout our trailer we used the green screen and did the filming during school. On my team was Maceo, Justice, and Noa. Maceo and Justice played as our two main actors in our trailer, Noa and I were the main people working the camera. We all contributed towards the editing, giving our input and helping when something came up concerning the editing.

For this project we needed to have at least five scenes, dialogue, foley, music, effects, text layovers, voice overs, a movie poster, it had to be suitable for children (G rated), and it needed to be between 1 minute and 30 seconds and 2 minutes and 30 seconds. These requirements weren't that hard, but we did run into a few stops with them. In our trailer the only thing we didn't include were the text layovers. Yes, we could've added them but we too focused on the scenes and editing some of the other things and we ended up not adding them. Our trailer literally came out at exactly 1 minute and 30 seconds, so if we put some text layovers in on their own screen it may have helped with our time.

After we turned in our trailers we did a class critique. We were evaluated on our creativity, the appeal to the audience, and if we met all the requirements. I agree with the scores we were given and am pleased with them. During this project I learned the different components needed to create a great movie trailer. I also learned the importance of having fun with a project. Yes, there are times when we need to be serious, but it's worth it to play with the project, to have fun with it, and not be serious all the time. Our movie trailer won for best overall and, just like all of my teammates, am very proud.

Movie Poster Promo

Our current project we are working on is a Movie Trailer. The story my teammates and I chose to do is titled Plain Ride Home. This story is about a man named Bill who is given a list of trials by a cop. This list is Bills written freedom because before the cop encountered him he was caught on camera steeling. This list will grant Bill his freedom to go home to see his family in time for Christmas. Now, every movie needs a poster to go along with it. In the poster is our main character Bill, Justice, and Cop DJMax, Maceo. These two characters will be the two main people you will see our movie trailer. In this poster they are in the airport featured in our movie trailer.

The title Plain Ride Home was actually supposed to be Plane Ride Home. But the word plane didn't really match since it doesn't have much to do with our story so we changed it to plain because this may not be an ordinary way home, but to Bill it's his ordinary or his Plain Ride Home. In my poster I have also included the names of both the characters and the actors playing them. Another thing I added was a movie review from Oprah Winfrey and John Green, because lets be honest who wouldn't listen to a review by Oprah? While working on our posters we used kerning, kerning is what we use to create spacing between words and letters to create an interesting effect so you have eye pleasing text. We use this to make text more interesting than it would be just naturally left, it grabs attention and as I said before it's eye pleasing.

Layer effects and filters can either ruin or make your creation amazing. Using layer effects and filters can draw attention to the areas you want and add interest to your image. For my movie poster I used the quick selection tool and color balance for my background and main images. I even added a blur effect to my background image. As for my text I used Stroke, Drop Shadow, Inner Shadow, Bevel and Emboss, a layer gradient, and a few other effects to make it pop. I was shooting for my poster to make a more comedic and Christmassy mood, since our movie is a comedy and set around Christmas time.

Visual Literacy

For our 7th period we did a project called Visual Literacy. Isaac Salazar, a man with no formal art education created a form of book origami. By folding pages of a book he was able to create words and pictures. And that is what we did. We folded pages of a book to create a word. This type of art is an example of Visual literacy because it interprets and makes meaning of an informative image in order to create art.

I chose to do the word Try for my book. For the font I just chose to do Arial and over all I folded 157 pages. The idea behind my book and the word wasn't too big, we were supposed to first do a word that relates to literacy or has a meaning. For some reason the word Try stuck out to me, it may be because whenever we do something we always try, it's just natural, the word itself is natural and so is the action to try. When people see my book I hope it gives them some kind of inspiration to try, no matter if they think they can't do it or don't want to.

I'm very happy with the way my book turned out. I folded it correctly and you can see the word clear. Some pages may be a bit off and I could have folded a bit more pages, like on my T, or folded a bit less, like on my Y. But over all I'm very happy with turn out. If I were to do this project again I might choose to do the word Greed, I think this would be a cool word to do and if I could make it in a book that is relevant to this word.

Proactive or Procrastination?

People of all ages are struggling between the line of productivity and procrastination these days. Are you proactive or a procrastinator? I, myself am a procrastinator. Though, I like to make sure I have things done beforehand and even do extra, but when it comes to certain things, school, I tend to wait last minute when doing essays or bigger projects. I push work to the side telling myself I have time and I can do it later. For some people when they do this they really won't get it done, but doing this actually helps me more. I become more motivated to do this project than I would've been had I done it beforehand. I also run into other things that I need to do, when I'm home I have chores to do and sometimes I need to help with errands. So, I get distracted and end up pushing things to the side.

The amount of free time I have depends how proactive I am. Before the weekend comes I try to be as productive as I can, that way when the weekend rolls around I can do what I want. But, sometimes my free time gets taken away because of sports or extracurricular activities. This also pushes back on me getting my work done. Sometimes I don't get home till later and just want some time to myself without having to do any work.

Honestly, I would like to change my habits so that I can get my stuff done earlier. I want to try to do my work before I try to do or think about doing something else. Sometimes it's hard for me to stay focused and I end up switching halfway through doing one thing and going to another. I'm going to try to stay more focused with my work and make sure that when I say I'm going to do something, I do it. I will try my best to be more productive and stop procrastinating.

My Visual Poem

Recently we did a visual poem. We were to write a poem about anything we wanted and to turn it into a video with visuals, whether with pictures or video clips. I did my poem on accomplishment. How we try so hard to do something and achieve our goal, but it doesn't always go the way we want. We run into trial and error, constantly practicing to perfect this skill and wanting someone to acknowledge this and compliment you. I wrote my poem on what its like to try and accomplish something that you, yourself really want. It could be math, singing, drawing, soccer, baseball, it could be anything, but in my video I chose to portray this concept with someone who wants to to acting.

In my video I didn't add that many special effects. In a few clips I did use color correct to darken or lighten it, but not any special effects that are out in your face and noticeable. I also used a transition in the beginning. For my visual poem I didn't want any big and out there special effects. Those special effects didn't appeal to me, so I only put in simple and very few effects. I think it gives my video a more natural mood.

I am satisfied with the end result of my visual poem, I do however think somethings things could be improved. Some of these clips weren't planned out as well as they should've been. I worked hard on my poem and did my best shooting the video clips to create this. Still, I could've reshot some clips or re-recorded my voice over. However I did not, but other than that I'm happy and satisfied with my finished product.

Finished News Story

As you know we have done a video for Hiki No. My teammates, Hannah, Aedan, Brandi, Miles, and I did our video on the effects of technology on adolescents. We interviewed several people about their opinion on technology, the good effects and bad effects. How it helps us, how we use it, but also how it's a danger. We interviewed KMS student Joshua, our teammate Hannah's mother, and Mr.Sanderl, one of KMS's technology teachers.

Personally, I think our final turned out quite good. We had three interviews that talked about the topic at hand, their opinions about it, and what they see from adolescents these does working with it. We were able to get applicable B-Roll that matched our interviews and voice overs. We put a lot of time and effort into this video and I am proud of the outcome. I do however think that we could have done some things better, but overall I am happy with our final and how it turned out.

After we turned in our final project we did a critique with the whole class. We would then vote on how well eachothers final video turned out. The highest you could get scored was a four; your video having stuck to the topic that is interesting and attention grabbing with very few and not that noticeable flaws. As you can see on our video we were mostly scored with threes. I agree with the threes we were given. Our video was not perfect, some of our b-roll could have been done and shot better. We have other flaws, some more noticeable than others. But overall I am happy with how our video was critiqued and scored.

Real World Report

Everyday we go through life and on the news or in the newspaper we always see things about the problems and activity in our community. But what is happening outside of our communities? Right now in Hong Kong there are protestors outside the government buildings. These protestors have been camping outside of these buildings telling Leung Chun-Ying, the territory of Beijing executive, that they want him to resign if he doesn't they will take over several of the government buildings. Obama and the United States have been told to stay out of this conflict and China work out their international affairs. Though they have been told this Obama has been keeping a close eye to see if there might be something he can do because he hopes China can settle this peacefully.

The people in Beijing are trying to reach out to those who run their country. But, these people were ignored and decided to take the matters into their own hands and are trying to reach out and make their voices heard. I think that though this is very brave and good for these people I believe there may be a downfall. When people protest, those who have more power want to stop them because of the bad attention they will get. So, already they have called the police and the police have sprayed tear gas and other things to try and get rid of this issue. This can cause many people to become injured or hurt. And though many people can get injured or hurt, by protesting and bringing attention the issue it will start to be questioned and may eventually get better.

Though this issue is not taking place in our own country we should care about this matter because the resolve in this situation may help us in the future. As we know there are always protests going on and many protests are similar. If we can use the past conflicts and their resolves to help us furthermore, I think that would be great. We could find better ways to be fair and keep in mind the peoples opinion. The people in Beijing thought their opinions were not being noticed and so they tried to help themselves. As we continue to grow more and more people will start to think like this, they will start to think for themselves and this is a good thing. But its the actions people take after that is the danger and not everyone can handle things peacefully.