We made it! The final Freestyle unit of Junior year. I had the most fun during this unit, mostly since we were able to choose whatever we wanted for our final project (provided it related to Film, Design, or Animation). We were also tasked with demonstrating 21st Century Skills with our projects, referring to essential skills for digital artists in the modern day.
I chose to create a video essay, analyzing 6 experimental narrative films from 3 different directors (2 films for each director). Film analysis was really the reason I became interested in the art form in the first place. It’s not too difficult to make the leap from enjoying the camerawork of a movie to wanting to work the camera on your own film. This project helped me to train my brain for film analysis, looking at story and visuals more critically than I might have done if I was watching the movies casually. I believe that this project demonstrated my proficiency in both visual and technological literacy, as well as self direction and high productivity. I was able to hone my skills in editing, both from an artistic and technical perspective. It was a great review of Premiere Pro tricks and abilities. I also set clear goals for myself throughout the project and my final video is polished and clean.
Explorations Process
Below, I’m going to highlight my process for how I researched, recorded, and put together my final project. First, I set up a Letterboxd account to detail my thoughts on each film after watching them. This way I kept my thoughts organized on a digital level. I also really liked the Letterboxd interface, which made it simple to write reviews in a few minutes’ time.
I also watched various interviews with casts and crews for each of the films after I had finished them, wanting to get insight on the director’s intention and discover tricks/trivia from on set during production.
I wrote out a 5-page script with an introduction, analysis of each film, and short conclusion.
From there, I set up a recording space using my record player, Blue Snowball microphone, desk chair, and various odds and ends from around my room. Unfortunately I have overhead lighting, which made me look washed out on camera, so I used an old makeup mirror to create my own lighting that highlighted my eyes and face.
I printed out my script as a reference. The basic pattern when recording was: I would read a line in my head, then look at the camera and read off the line. I would check back with the script and then read the next line out loud. That way I didn’t need to memorize the script, but I could still look up at the camera for most of the video.
As soon as I finished my script, I started work on my infographic, a 3-“page” leaflet that summarized the similarities between each director’s films and outlining their style. I knew essentially what I wanted the final product to look like, but I was having trouble with layout and color schemes, so I texted my friends in Design and asked them for feedback. They gave me some really helpful critiques and I’m much happier with the way that my infographic turned out!
Finally, I edited together my whole video using Premiere Pro. I took the time to color-code each section with rainbow colors, similar to how I set up my Reason interface. It was visually pleasing and it helped me keep track of which clips belonged to which section.
Explorations Final Product
Here’s the final product, the fruit of all my labors. I’m really proud of how this turned out, despite the iffy audio and soft focus at the beginning. I really took my time when editing this one and watched it over multiple times to make sure that everything looked good (no stray frames, poorly cut audio, etc). I hope you enjoy!
Explorations Infographic
While we created our final products in our respective elective classes, our main task in English was to study, analyze, and create infographics. I chose to make mine a summary of each directors’ style, highlighting each of the three directors that I had chosen to analyze. Since 4 of the 6 films were released in or around the 1970s, I tried to lean into that aesthetic with my color scheme, font choice, and image presentation.
I used Adobe Illustrator to make my infographic, a program that I definitely needed a refresher on. I was able to review keyboard shortcuts and other skills, which was really helpful since I’ll be using this software a lot next year (when I transfer to the Design elective).
Explorations Project Reflection
After 10 months of hard work, stress, learning quickly, thinking on my feet, and collecting a variety of useful skills, I’m happy to say that I made it through the year! I had so much fun watching these films and getting to analyze them. It helped me to realize something that I had forgotten: I really like movies! I mention in my video that I had been thinking of films as a time-waster, something that took me away from important schoolwork or other things that I should be doing. Since starting this project, I found a bunch of other films that were inspiration for the ones on the list/past projects of the directors that I’m going to watch over the summer. It was the first time I had really connected to my work since maybe the chase scene project, and I was happy to feel that connection once again. Overall, I thought this was a good final project as my last contribution to Film Production, and I’m excited for next year!
Explorations Presentation/Celebration Video
Due to shelter-in-place, we were unable to come together and present our final projects to each other. Because of this, we were assigned to record ourselves presenting our project in the form of a video. I created a script right out of the gate (when we were supposed to be making an outline), so it was easy to translate my writing into slides, supplementing my script with images.
Experimental Music
Finally, we were tasked with creating our own experimental tracks using the Pro Tools/Reason skills we learned in Digital Media. I really love music and have always wanted to make my own tracks, but I wasn’t very knowledgable on the interfaces needed to make music digitally. This project was really informative and I liked having the opportunity to use the skills I had learned in my Learning Project to create something of my own.
I used Reason when creating my track, since I felt it was easier to use when making music and it provided more loops and instruments that I could use to add variety to my sound. I’ve also had issues with I/O shenanigans in Pro Tools in the past, and I generally prefer Reason over it.