Kansas City Savior Reflection

The Movie

I would like this to be somewhat of an extension of my end of the year reflection. my production role for the film was the documentarian. one thing I learned is that juggling work and school is a very hard thing to do. I could not go to the after school shoot because they were scheduled on days that I had work, every time. I think if we had more all-day shoots, more people would have been able to come. if we had maybe 5-6 shots starting at 8 am and ending at 11pm that would have been much better. plus, that’s how it is in the actually film industry, full days of work, not a few hours in the afternoon and isn't that the goal of Ecomm? to teach us about the industry? Even though I did not work on the film, I do have an opinion about it. I think it was an unfinished product. there was no character development at all, when the stakes were high, you didn't feel anything for the characters. they had no back story or anything to them. the costume design for a superhero movie is one of the biggest parts of the film, if not the biggest. its what captures the audiences eye. our costume design was not good to say the least. the film over all was a boring story and boring to look at. As most high school films are. one last thing, I did not appreciate not being in the credits, I know I didn't do much at all, but I did more that others (I wont name names) and I feel like I wasn't even part of the class this year, I feel hurt. 

Strengths/ improvements

My strengths as an Ecomm student would have to be my collaboration skills, I do not like film anymore and I couldn't find any time to go to the shoots. my straights could not be used this year because of that. I wish I could have showed up but I just couldn't. I do not believe that I need to improve on anything when it comes to this class. I am not going into the film industry so I don't need to improve my skills. I do not want to improve.

Summary

The only thing I liked about the premiere was getting to see my "friends" before the movie. the seating was all messed up, the movies were boring and not good. but that is partly my fault, I did not work on them so I didn't get the pride of seeing them on the big screen. I would say that assigned seat would be nice. also, the limo ride was nice and all, but it took away the students from their families and guest who came to see the movie, they were there for them but didn't even get to be with them very long. My over all take away would have to be that, in this whole process I have learned something, I do not like the film industry and the people in it. this whole process really helped me in finding what I really love doing, teaching and animals. what I would change for next year has already been said. I would like to thank you for this experience and I wish you the best of luck next year. 

End of the Year Reflection

Tanner McBee

Ecomm

Mrs. Smith

5/1/18

End of the Year Reflection

Technology

My biggest take away from the technology aspect would have to be that I learned so much about how to use things like final cut pro, premiere pro, and other editing softwares. I also have just become more technology smart in general. I learned how to use these softwares through experience when working on projects. It's important to learn these things because of our ever growing society, these skills will be very useful. The only challenges i faced along the way would have to be when I didn't  know how to do something, but that was just a quick google search away.

Collaboration

My biggest take away from the collaboration guarantee would have to be how much i learned about people when it came to working with others. I learned this through working with tons of people over my four years of being in Ecomm, some of them for just one project and some of them for all four years. Having good collaboration skills is a good skill to have in general. You will always be working with other people in your life and they won't always be people you like. Challenges along the way would have to just be the people that I didn't necessarily like working with. This year in particular, there was barely anyone in my class I liked working with.

Communication

The takeaway i got from the communication guarantee would have to be how well I can communicate with others now. I learned this through all of the projects i have worked on through the years. Not only were they different projects, but I also had to work with different people during those projects with gave me the skills to communicate with different types of people. This is important because good communication skills is just a really good thing to have in life, it doesn't matter what you do with your life, you'll always have to communicate with others. The only challenges i would have to say i had with this one would have to be when i didn't get along with someone, but everyone has that.

Project Management

My take away from project management is going to have to be that i just got better at it, there's really not much to it. I learned this from all the projects i have done and the deadlines that come with them. But the ones that really taught me this were the client work, they felt way more important and had a very firm deadline. Project management is, again, one of those general life skills that people need. Almost every job has deadlines and project management will help with that. Challenges along the way would have to be just getting things done on time and feeling rushed or overwhelmed. But in the end, it almost always works out.

Leadership

My biggest take away from this one would have to be how much i learned how to be a leader in these classes, not very much. I've got to be honest here, leadership is mostly for those in this class that want that job. I am an introvert and don't really like that job when it comes to Ecomm. If i learned this skill anywhere, it would be boy scouts. Leadership is a very important thing though, with good leadership skills, you can get a good job, lead a team, or even a family. My challenges along the way could have to be when ever i wanted to take the role of leader, it would play out two ways. One, a more extroverted person would step in or two, the tam wouldn't respect me or not listen.

Strengths/Weaknesses

My biggest strengths in this class would have to be my editing skills, even though I'm not the greatest, i can get it done. Something else would be my collaboration skills and being able to work with others and get along with them. My weaknesses are that i'm not very good and actual filming or audio, but these are not things i like so i don't feel i have to get better at them. The only way  feel i have improved is through experience and being around the filming environment. I don't feel as if i need to work on anything else, i feel as if i learned the life skills that came with Ecomm and not the technical skills. Because i am not pursuing anything that has to deal with film i don't need to work on anything else.

What am i going to do with what i learned?

I don't plan on using any of the technical skills i learned in Ecomm like camera skills, editing skills, or anything like that. The things i plan on using are the life skills i learned. I am going into secondary education with and efisis on FACTS. When it comes to that field, i will need to deal with a lot of different types of people. That is what I have taken away from Ecomm, skills to deal and communicate with others that are much needed in education.

Change

There's a lot i would like to change about the entertainment strand of Ecomm. First off, i think the the shoots should have been during the school day 8:00-11:00, we would have gotten a lot done and not had to take up so many days of filming. It would have changed 20 days of filming into 5-6 full days of filming, like a real set. Second, this class never connected with each other, there was no effort towards getting everyone to become friends and that is a very important part of having a good production team. The only ones who got this experience where those who could make it to the filming after school. Team building during class or even just get togethers on the weekend would have brought us together. Becoming better in the film industry comes with experience, it can't simply be taught but as this year went on, it felt more and more like a class everyday.

Conclusion

Ecomm itself is a great program and is unlike anything i have done in my life, i loved it. This year was not what i was hoping for though. I looked forward to the entertainment class so much for this year because last year was awesome. But something about all the changes and just the general feeling of the class entirely changed. Coming into this year, i had a passion for film but after this year, i lost that. That is not to say i am not grateful for being in this program, it has taught me so many things i will use later in life. The communication, collaboration, and people skills i have learned in Ecomm will help me a lot. I can deal with people i don't like and make friends with people i don't know. I thank you for this experience and everything it has taught me.

1st semester Entertainment final

1.This semester I worked on these projects, the PSA video, and the short film.

The first project was the PSA video, it took us about a week to make. I was the production designer for this so I decided the feel and how the film looked. some challenges we faced during this were the actors not showing up and not having enough actors as well. I learned that we should get the actors in place and ready way before filming, basically, better planning. I don't exactly remember the feedback for this one but I think it was along the lines of, needs better lighting and audio.

The second film we worked on was the short film. This project took us about two weeks to make. some challenges we faced during this were things like lighting, audio, and special effects not working out. Also a major thing was that our original script didn't work out at all and we had to change it half way through. I learned that some project just don't turn out but thats good because you can learn from your mistakes and improve on then next time. Some feedback were given was that the silent aspect didn't work out because we did eventually add some of the video audio to the film, we probably should have just kept it out. I really liked dong this project, it was very fun to film and I Really liked working with the special effects 


2. I would say that my time in class has been.... well spent. I know that I do watch youtube and play on my phone a bit to much but I also think that I did my stuff. when I finished early, I wouldn't just watch video games or something like that on youtube, I would watch things that relate with film and that expand my knowledge of film.
If my boss gave me 8 hour to finish and I finished in 7 I would probably use that other hour to analyze the film I made and pick out the small stuff that I may have missed or I would research other ways of improving on it.
Outside of Ecomm, this semester I made a music video for my math class.

3. I think that my area of strength for this would have to be my idea making and my drone skills. Now I know that just having a drone doesn't take skill but have knowledge on how they work, how to fly them, and how to use the shorts you get from them. I maximize my strengths by bringing y input in on things and using the drone when it is needed.

4. Areas I would like to improve in would have to be my Camera skills and for some reason I have really started to like working with audio lately. I didn't do much with camera skills this semester, but I did work with Wes on audio in the sound booth this semester.

5. I really like the 2 guest speakers we had this semester. I liked how I felt like I could connect with both of them on a certain level. the first one, it was cool to see someone who is in the actual industry and could show us all of the awesome equipment they get to use. the second one was really cool in that he was just like us, he was a kid that liked film and got to go into the industry after college. I could really connect with him because we was somewhat our age and we could relate to that.

6. the MX4D was not what I was expecting. I learned that some ideas sound cool on paper but in real life, they can fail. I think in 10 years the MX4D experience will be much better. if I were to apply things to my film that deal with MX4D, I would addd more scenes with wind and lightning, that was my favorite part of the MX4D. I do not think this tech will support the industry. I think that films make enough money, but in the future is when we willed the technoloy.

7. My favorite part abut this semester would have to be the prep night for the lip dub. it was fun to get to know my classmate and finally take to them. If I were to change anything in this class, it would be the menu items. I thinks its a good concept but it needs some improvements and clarification. My overall take-away from this semester is that I found out film making is not what I want to do in the future. Thats not to say I don't like it, I love making films and stuff like that, I just think that the chances of making it as so slim because people much better than me are out there and they deserve it. My goal for next semester is to make an amazing behind the scenes for our film, I am so excited to make it! my final thought for this semester would have to that it has been a fun semester.

justice league in MX4D

MX4D is a new way to watch movies by making you part of the movie. With things like air in your face, smells, snow, strobes, water, and much more, MX4D is an entirely new way to watch movies. Now that being said, does it really enhance your experience, in my opinion, not a all. If anything it made the movie worse, I would have much rather seen the movie in the regular theater. Before going I was really really excited but then after experiencing it I was very disappointed. I was hoping for something that would make the movie I have been waiting for since I was a kid, even better than before but in the end it just made it worse. there are a lot of things that contributed to the MX4D being bad, for example, there should have been different color strobes for the gun shots and explosions, the contrast of orange on the screen and blue strobes was very distracting, they need separate strobes with different color based on the specific thing happening in the movie. Thats not to say they were bad, the stone light were actually my favorite part of the MX4D, during the flash scenes, it was absolutely amazing and it was giving me goosebumps during it and even on top of the building with the lightning, it was awesome. The MX4D did not enhance my experience of Justice League. The entire experience was a big gimmick and it was very distracting. I would love to kind of simplify what is in the MX4D experience, take out things lie the smells and find better ways of doing the sports of water and air to take away the loud noise it made. I much more prefer the 2D experience over 4D and even 3D. like I said before, 4D is very distracting and when it comes to 3D, I wear glasses so I just don't like having to wear 2 glasses at once. I like 2D because there is almost nothing to distract me from the film I am watching. I think we could invite something lie the MX4D but have movies that are exclusive to those theaters, thats why the ones at the theme parks are so good because the film you watch id made for the 4D unlike the feature films you watch now. So in conclusion I think that the MX4D is a very cool idea but it was not executed very well, I think that 10 year from now, they will have a very cool experience. All they need to do is get as much feedback as possible and use it to fix what they have and make it great.

Short Film: chopped

The original script we were going to use was my script about the guy at the dinner and the waitress loses her finger. Problems arose and we were not able to use that script because of location problems and not being able to get actors for the characters we had. 

So our process started with me writing the treatment for then story and then eventually writing the script for the film. We then chose this script for the project. As we started to try and find locations and actor, we soon found out that we could not use the original script. We then changed the script, got actors, found locations, and made a story board. On the weekend we filmed at someone’s house and got the footage we needed. After looking at what we got, we realized there was not enough dialogue for the film so we made even more changes. We had decided to make it into a silent film so that the small amount of dialogue would make a little more sense. As we did the editing, we researched silent films on our own and applied what we learned to our film. We eventually had a final product and we were finished. 

My role in all of this was that of director so I was in charge of the film so I needed to help with everything. I learned that being the director can be stressful when you have as many problems as we did during this project. I am glad we had all of these problems because I learned a lot about what not to do next time.

 For this film we use Final Cut Pro to edit and a 70D DSLR. Professionally I think this film was not to bad, it was short but I think the quality makes up for it. We all worked well together and figured everything out as a team and eventually had a final product. 

There are not to many things I would do different because while doing this I learned a lot. First off I would have gone with a different script and figured out if I could actually carry out the script before we decide on it. I would also plan out more in general, we had to do a lot of last minute decisions and I would like everything to just work smoothly, but that never happens in film making. 

There is a lot I would do the same, that being, I would have the same people in my group, we all work together well and we all have our own pros and cons. I really liked our editing style and I would like to do more with silent films, they interest me quite a bit. I think I will do much better doing the next project, this was my first real project this year and now 

I'm back into the film making mood and want to do more with film this year. This also makes me excited for making our feature film. in conclusion, I think we did a very good as a group for what we had to deal with, we took something very unorganized and not planned very well, and turned it into something.... better.