e Comm Video Final

e Comm Video Final

        This first project was our short story project. My group and I planned out our short story for about 2 or 3 weeks before we spent a week recording the shots. We faced challenges when it came to casting and weather. We didn't have great ideas about who to cast, and when we did find people to cast, they weren't the best actors. The weather also treated us badly as it rained a lot the week we used to record. Along the way I learned the importance of planning. Throughout the year I've been improving and learning about this, and I feel this time we did fairly well. However, we still didn't plan for the unexpected weather and actor schedules. I was told the film was till pretty funny, which I thought was good, but others did share m concerns about the acting in the film. We changed a few of the scenes from the original script due to actors being too tall or not being able to perform the action. Overall, I think we made a decent video. It may not be the best but it definitely isn't the worst thing i've made.

        This second project was our recreation of Bastille's Pompeii. This project took about 4 weeks in planning and recording. Again, we faced challenges with weather. This time it was snowing many of the weeks we tried recording. Here, I learned about checking the weather and planning in advance for lots of snow to ruin your project. Many people told me the video was good and that I did a good job editing the eyes to be dark the first time, the second not so much. I did change the mask on the second one a few times to try and make it look good, though I wasn't very successful. I thought we made a pretty good video again.

Class Time

        I used my time in class fairly well when I had something to do. However, if I had nothing to do I would sometimes waste some time and do something not very productive. When I could, I would edit or catch up on our groups plans to record. I would spend a lot of time perfecting a project if it was complete.

Strengths / Improvements

        I believe I was able to maximize my strengths be editing videos at home, which gave me more time and I was able to make it as good as possible. I was able to edit many videos which is something I feel I'm good at and enjoy doing. 

        I could have improved when it comes to using my free time more efficiently. I often wasted time in class when I probably could have found something to do if i really tried. 

Short Film

        I edited our short film. We made a comedy piece written by another student in our class. I learned how to work with struggling actors while recording this film, due to our actors being less than perfect. I also learned how to write treatments, loglines, and scripts through this project, which I feel will be important in the future. 

Summary

        I loved making entertaining videos this semester. I didn't enjoy the news stories as much in semester 1, so entertainment was a step up for me. I also enjoyed editing videos. Editing is something I like to do and often do in my free time. If I were to do anything differently, I would have liked to get all of the clips I needed for a few projects, instead of cutting them out. This semester mainly taught me how important time management is. I often ran in to issues because our time was not managed well. Next year, I would like to make even better videos than this year.

E-comm Graphic Design Final

Graphic Design Final

Favorite Projects

        This first project was a vector portrait. I chose to use a picture of myself. The project took me about 2 weeks to complete. I found it challenging to get the shading right in many places. This however taught me how to shade graphics. Throughout the entire process, I would ask peers and my teacher about what needed to be fixed. They would tell me what looked weird and it helped me make the portrait look much better than what it would have looked like if I didn't receive constructive criticism. I originally planned on the final product looking much worse than it actually did. Overall, I think I did a pretty good job on this project. Some parts may not be as clean as they should be, but other then that I'm proud of my work.
         Another project I worked on was my special event advertising poster. I liked my poster the most out of everything I did for the project. It took me a week to make the poster. It was quite challenging to find a good font and font color for the poster, but what I ultimately decided on using looks amazing to me. While working on my poster, I learned how to make new bush styles, which was not only useful in the poster, but in other projects as well. I also asked my peers about what they would suggest I fix to make the project look good. I was again given a lot of useful information, which helped me perfect the project. My original plan was to have a picture of billy Joel during a concert with a bunch of musical graphics, but one thing led to another and I ended up with a piano on a stage. I believe I did well on the project.
         The last project I worked on was my personal logo project. The project took a week to design in illustrator and sketch ideas. it was quite difficult for me to sketch out a good design, but I eventually drew out some pretty good ones. I learned about experimenting with different colors to see what allowed the logo to stick out. My peers did give me ideas of what I should do for my logo, a few ideas which I did do. My ideas kept changing for the project and I never really had an original idea. The colors on my favorite logo did change quite a bit though. I like my logo, though I feel it could have been a bit better.

 Class Time

        I was able to stay productive in class when I was finished with a project by improving the project or getting a head start on the next one. I would sometimes look up tutorials on how to do cool things such as create a new path design, which I used many times in my special event advertising projects. At home, I have access to Adobe products, and would commonly work with Adobe Illustrator at home for personal projects or things for other school activities. I would also use these to finish schools projects that I wasn't able to finish in class. 

Strengths / Improvements

        I believe I am able to work hard on projects and successfully complete the goal I was going for with the project. I can use the applications required of us and learn new ones quite easily. I think if I put my mind to something I can always come out with a great product. 

        I could probably improve when it comes to self confidence. I never truly feel a project is completed, or when I tell myself it is, I think it isn't good. I could also improve on finding solutions to my problems by myself, instead of asking someone else for help. I tend to do this quickly. 

Conclusion

        Throughout the year, my favorite part of Graphic Design was the calm working environment and fun projects we got to work on. If I could change something from the experience, I would just add more large projects for us to work on. Otherwise there isn't anything I didn't enjoy. Next year I would like to put even more effort into my projects and make them the best they can possibly be. I want to come out of Junior year with things to be proud of. I enjoyed e-comm this year and I'm excited to do it again Junior year.