CCR #4

Hey, blog! I broke down question #4 "How did you integrate technologies- software hardware and online in this project?" into 4 sub-questions to ensure I fully answer the question! Here they are:

How did software enhance your project?

After filming our opening, it was time for editing. To edit we used Adobe Premiere. We have used it in previous projects and I have always hated it. For one of the special effects with the names popping up, I used a mask so it goes off the screen differently. Other than that we just cut and lengthened some clips, while adding transitions occasionally. To transport the clips, we airdropped the scenes shot through my phone or sent them through a Google Drive, to ensure the quality was up to par. 

 

What role did hardware play in your production?

To film, we used my iPhone 14. We did not use special microphones since we relied mainly on the music. We did use the simple microphone you get from Apple headphones to film some foley sounds. As for lighting, we used a small lamp in the house, since it just helped imply that this was occurring at night. I said before how we could not really play with the lighting in the gym since this film opening was filmed in a public space, but if we could have it definitely would have been taken advantage of. Unfortunately, we did not get to use a tripod since we could not sign out one due to our hectic filming schedule. 

How did online tools and resources support your project?

Before editing, I rewatched a video on Adobe because I was a little rusty. The video just aided me in using the platform saving me some serious time. As for our sounds, we used the copyright-free site Pixabay. All of our sounds and music, besides the foley, came from there. Without this software, I have no idea what I would've done, especially for the music since I am not a beats maker. Google Drive was probably the biggest eye-opener since it allowed me and my group mates to seamlessly share our clips and projects without the quality downgrading, I for sure got more comfortable with this platform thanks to the Portfolio Project.

 What challenges did you face with technology, and how did you overcome them?

The main challenge we had was with sharing the clips since we filmed with various different phones. It was mainly mine, but some behind scenes were shot on my group members phone. We sent all the clips in our group chat, but we realized the lack of quality the clips had, it was REALLY bad. Thankfully, we attempted to share them through Google Drive and success was found! Other than this, it was really time-consuming to edit since we overshot a little too much... We had over 20 minutes of filming in the gym alone since we were afraid of not having enough content because we only had one opportunity to film in the gym and we wanted to get everything done in one day.  I am just grateful that Adobe didn't break down on us and cause us to lose all of our editing progress. Unfortunately, that happened to my classmate. I think I would have sobbed for 20 minutes straight if that happened to me. In the future, I will definitely ease down a little on the overshooting to not overwhelm myself with the countless scene choices and editing. On the same note, even though this is not relevant to technology, the biggest aspect I will ensure to correct is scheduling and staying organized. We had to change our filming day(s) countless times and it simply added unnecessary stress. All in all, I am grateful for the opportunities and experiences this project has given me. 

I am excited to show you my CCRS, they are currently in the making!