I had never used an Adobe product, or any decent film equipment before going into e-Comm. Throughout the years, I have been able to learn how to use multiple Adobe products as well as different pieces of film equipment as well as what they all do. Now I use Photoshop, premier, Illustrator, etc. almost every day. Through the help of many teachers and practicing on my own at home, I became proficient in the different products and using a camera. I often came across problems where I wasn't sure how to do something, but with the help of teachers as well as Google and YouTube, I managed to produce amazing projects.
Going into High School, I only knew 1 person from middle school. I was super worried I would never get to talk with anyone throughout the next 4 years because I was super awkward in conversation. However, that was not the case. thanks to e-Comm, I got to meet many amazing people who enjoyed doing the same things I did and I got to talking with people in no time. The years in e-Comm taught me how important it is to keep in constant communication with the people you are working with. Many projects went wrong because information or scheduling wasn't communicated with group members, and while it was rough at the time, it taught me how important communication was to the success of a project.
As stated previously, I was super awkward going into High School and was worried I wouldn't get to know anyone easily. I got to work with many different people on a variety of projects, and I learned how important collaboration is. Working together on a project makes everything easier. The project gets done faster, and group ideas help make the final outcome as perfect as it can be. It is often difficult working with new people for the first time, but once you get to know to people you're working with, everything becomes easier as well as much more fun.
Not only was I awkward in conversation, but I was a massive introvert going into e-Comm. I never thought I would ever love directing a film I believe would be fun. However, the many directing roles I put myself into helped me realize just how important it is to have good leadership in a group. Without good leadership, collaboration and communication can also be destroyed and the entire project will go wrong. A good leader will help make their vision a reality and ensure everyone in the group is a part of it. There were many times where I couldn't take the stress of leading a project, but those experiences are exactly what helped me become a better director in the future. Learning from your mistakes is the best thing to do when something goes wrong, and good leadership helps ensure that nothing does go wrong.
All of the guarantees together help ensure efficient project management. Good leadership helps keep everyone on track through good communication with group members who all collaborate well together when pairing their technical skills together. Making a film wouldn't be possible without good directors, editors, scriptwriters, etc. This is possibly the most important skill I have learned throughout these last 4 years. Project management is hard and very often went wrong. Not enough time to film, an actor drops out last minute, rain cancels a film day; project management helps work around these things that can cause a project to go wrong. Project management is something I definitely learned firsthand through various different experiences.
My Strengths and Weaknesses
My greatest strengths are definitely my strategic thinking and friendliness. Strategical thinking helps with starting a project and working through difficulties that come up whilst planning and filming. Being friendly with your peers is always a good thing to do, as it allows you to work well with anybody as well as have reliable people you can go to when you need help on a project.
My weaknesses would have to be organization and awkwardness. I continue to be awkward in conversation throughout High School, though not as bad as when I first started. Communication and collaboration can often be difficult when you don't have the guts to ask a group member for help or get stressed out about making a decision on a project that could also stress out your group members. The organization is important to keep a project on track. I plan to work on improving these weaknesses and becoming a better filmmaker.
These strengths and weaknesses have developed throughout High School and my strengths will help me continue to work well in the future, while weaknesses will tell me exactly what I need to focus on improving.
Top 3 Videos
Pac-Man Fever Music Video
The first project and my favorite project throughout all of e-Comm is my Pac-Man Fever music video. The music video is my favorite project because of the time I put into it with my group. We spent a lot of time location scouting, filming, and editing. I was able to get an awesome arcade location for the video, which is the first location I've ever gotten that was a public place and not in a family member's house. I worked myself to death editing the music video and I believe it was worth it. It was a combination of all my skills I have learned throughout the years all put together. The week it took to make the project was a super busy and stressful week, but we pulled it off even under the time crunch we were under. Our original few ideas weren't going to work, and we didn't know what to do. I remembered an old sound I used to listen to as a kid, Pac-Man Fever, and we decided to use it. Location scouting was brand new to me, so even though I failed at finding a location for the first few ideas we had, I managed to get a great arcade location for the video. I was given tons of good feedback from my peers, who all loved the music video. The compliments I got made my day and told me I finally succeeded in making something I can be super proud of.
Monopoly Commercial
I also chose my Monopoly commercial for my top 3 videos. While this commercial wasn't the best video I've ever done, I'm proud of it because it was done during COVID when filming was super difficult. It took my group a few days to make and a few days where we were filming another idea for the commercial that didn't work out. The commercial was the first time I ever tried setting up propper lighting on a set. After I learned to set up lighting on the commercial, I was able to use better lighting on my other projects throughout the year as well. I am quite happy with the commercial we were able to produce in a COVID setting.
2021 Final Film Reel
Finally, I chose to make my final and favorite film reel of 2021. I tried to edit this reel slightly differently compared to my reels in the past and I think it turned out pretty good. The beginning freeze frames of myself turned out almost exactly as I wanted them to, so I am super happy about that. I also had a lot of new clips to add to the reel, so I believe it shows my best work from my years at e-comm. I spent a good week editing the clips together and got to learn new editing skills in the process.
Final Thoughts
I didn't do tons of editing in class due to COVID, but I did watch a lot of videos on how professionals edit films both in class and out of class. Outside of class, I also put these skills I learned to the test and tried different editing techniques as well as filming techniques in every film I made this year. I would like to believe all of the time I put into practicing paid off, and I drastically improved my filmmaking skill this year.
In our featured film Cursed, I was able to edit a few of the scenes. It was a lot of fun and allowed me to show off the editing skills I had practiced on the big screen. I worked on editing the film a lot both in and out of class. And while I was super busy, I was able to make time for the featured film and help to create our incredible movie.
Summary
While COVID made this year more difficult than any other year in the past, I still had a blast in entertainment video. As previously stated, I believe my skills were greatly improved and allowed me to succeed in films such as my music video. I wish I could produce one more short film of my creation, as I was never able to direct a script I had written. I believe my scripts were decent enough to make a good film, and definitely be fun to make. This year was a changing point in my film career as I realize just how much I can really do when I put my mind to it. Pretty much everything went wrong for me this year. From COVID to not placing in the top 5 in e-magine, I was having a rough time and these setbacks caused me to enjoy my own videos less and less. I wasn't sure I was fit to be a filmmaker and nearly decided to quit and likely would have had it not been for the encouraging words from my teacher, Mrs. Smith, and peers in entertainment video. Their kind words kept me going and I'm glad I could finish my last year of high school with great people like them.
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