Entertainment Video Final

by: Nathan Contreras

These are the videos that I helped to work on through the semester in order form top to bottom shortfilm, music video, and commercial video.

"The Delivery"

The first project is our shortfilm about a delivery boy who gets caught in the wrong place at the wrong time because he becomes the witness of a murder. The murderers are part of the mob so they take him to the mob lair for interrogation and finally gets saved in the end. Its a story told in the perspective of the main character Lewis and supposed to be a comedically shortfilm.

"The Ballroom Blitz music video" 

 The second video is our music video, the music we chose was Ballroom Blitz by the Sweets and is supposed to portray a jail break heist theme because the music is fast paced and high action. This video was also supposed to be a funny one that could catch the attention of the viewer and keep them watching.

"HP Computer Comercial Video" 

And finally the third video is our commercial video, Again supposed to show a fast paced run montage from the "enemy" than show that the computer within the video took to long "and thats why you should upgrade to the HP computers Faster and more reliable".

This Semester

I would say that all of the videos took around a week to setup with story boarding, locations, and scripts then filming for all of the videos took 1-3 days on an average to film with another 3-4 days of editing depending on if we could get everyone on site. Challenges faced through all of the videos would be film dates and actors I say this because this was the only problems that we ran into. For example we did not have actors for all of the videos that where reliable so thats why people from the group are also in the video which makes it hard if I am supposed to be the DP but also in the video. Than the only other real problem we came across was filming dated because people are very busy and have jobs and other commitments to keep, so not everyone was able to be on site every-time.

I learned that people have commitments so whenever making the scripts make sure that their schedules match up with the filming schedules so that the group can be very productive and not just "winging the video and edits" like on the first HP commercial the main actor did not communicate well so we had the director as the main character because we had to improvise.

Feed back that was given is sorta similar through all videos being, Nice shots, smooth editing, and very cinematic. especially on our last video "The Delivery" because on this video we had everything go smoother than normal so we where able to get really good detail and matched the story board almost exactly.

Something that I would personally change would be the locations because I feel like they worked but could've been better. For example I had to drive almost and hour away and hour back which is not bad but we could've done closer because I suggested maybe a group of robbers robbing a house instead of a factory, this would've been sayer to get to and sayer to portray their robbing someone. and also maybe take valuables instead of candy in the final cut because to me it seemed a bit childish for such a great film to end with the heist stealing candy instead of the diamonds. But other than that I think all of the videos were nice and showed the message well.

Time in class

I think that in the beginning of the year I was allot more productive when using time in class by working on video graphics ahead of schedule but now words the end of the semester I haven't really been doing that  but I have been staying ahead of the game at home instead of in class. Because with this new project I am the VFX editor so whenever I have absolute nothing to do I have been researching how to make some cool effects that I think can fit in the film. Also at home I have worked on some simple adobe aftereffect clips to recreate the VFX I saw in the video. 

Strengths and Improvements 

I think that one of my strengths are seeing the video or the ideas within my head which helps whenever we are filming and allowed for some more creative ideas through the video and somewhere that would need improvements really bad would be making scripts because I don't like making scripts but I like the recording and editing aspects of making a video not the scripting parts. even though that the script is one of the most important parts of developing a solid video so thats why I need to improve on script writing. 

Three guest speakers

1.) Drew Connors- I actually know him from marching band and we have became good friends because we share some of the same interest and play video games together but other than that Drew gave a presentation about how to further develop the characters when making a script or really anything. He said that characters can not be the perfect balance of charisma, power, and like ability because than you make a superman, so their needs to some imbalance within this chart and the villain needs to be the exact polar opposite.

2.) Brandon Preist- came in and talked about how the twenty-first century students can market themselves to find client work and selling items using all social media platforms by marketing they are the millennials and know how to use the social media better than any other business to get client work and other forms of "getting their foot inside the door" and making those connections. 

3.) For some reason I cannot remember who Gordon Lamb is I am thinking that this person came in whenever it was one of the 16 days I have been home sick with a stomach virus. so I do not remember anything about Gordon Lamb. 

Summary

I loved most about this semester is meeting new friends that share the same interest as me and love to create videos either for fun or for a specific reason, just depends. something I would do differently would be not get a stomach virus if possible because that made it really really hard to come to school and even harder to go to a location and film. I have learned allot this semester on how to develop a good feature, music, and commercial video and all the different steps in making them successful. One goal for next semester is to be more successful in showing the message this semester.

Music Video

Music Video Blog

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        Our concept for the music video was to make a fast paced street race, getaway, with a bank heist tone of video. we wanted to have something fast paced because we thought that everyone else would have a slower romantic video so our group wanted too catch the viewers attention and keep them engaged with whats happening on the screen. Something else that our group wanted to do was add some form of comedy into the video so that people would want to watch instead of having to watch. The song that we chose was Ball Room Blitz By The Sweet, our idea behind this music is that their is not much words and its was fast pace. the music not having any words helped us because we did not have to memorize and lip synch anything accept for a few words in the beginning.

         The process behind making this video first started off with the ideas, so we allot together and started to give ideas. I think that everyone on my group wanted to have the fast paced music video so their was no issue with trying to convince people to change their ideas. Carson already had a list of music ideas and we created the beat sheet to Ballroom Blitz because that was a unanimus decision. we then worked on the story boards while still coming up with ideas George and Spence Sid that they would use their cars and be actors. I recently got a new car which is the 350z in the video. But their was a problem with this, I was the cinematogropher and I was not going to let anyone be behind the wheel of my car 1 because I don't want anyone to wreck it and 2 I would lose the car because thats my parents rule, so this caused a problem because the group wanted to have my car in the video which lead to Carson the only one behind camera. 

         something that I learned along the way was to go to party city or a costume shop to get supplies. I went to party city and got masks based on car color and personality, I think that getting the props like the diamonds and the masks helped be even better than it could have been. technical skills where all used during this production because everyone become really good friends so we stopped if someone didn't like that idea so we reassessed the situation to fix the problems, we also had a group chat and communicated the ideas and the locations allot better than the last video team I was in. 

         Something that I would do the same is be with this group. I say this because the group all had diverse ideas so we made something that we all liked instead of someone in the group not lining the ideas and not participating like last time. Something that I would do different would be change the candy too stacks of cash and diamonds so that it would be really good and not feel like a high school film it would feel a lot more professional than what it became. Although we did use the diamonds that I bought too add some comedy into the video. The other big thing that I did not like in the video Is that I am really really short compared to everyone else and I know their is nothing that I can do about my height but we could-have hired a taller actor too make it look better. 

       experiences That I would gather is go and get some good props for the videos and too hire some actors instead of having the group as the actors this way we could've all been behind the camera and shared thoughts on that instead of letting the video turn into a high school video words the end. 

Comercial Blog

Hp Commercial Blog

By: Nathan Contreras

     Our groups project was a HP computer, and it was supposed to be a MacBook Pro but stuff happens so we had to improvise to an HP computer in the final. our concept was that someone is running with a computer with "important information" on the computer, the protagonist is supposed to be running from the antagonist and when he gets to the end of the roof the protagonist is supposed to hit upload and the computer does not work. so then we where going to have a voiceover that says "don't be like this guy upgrade to a MacBook Pro today"this way it would show that the HP computer  cannot upload as fast as the MacBook their the MacBook is better. 

       Process that our group went through in making this commercial, Carson and I did not really like the original idea of having the computer in a school environment so then we started to brainstorm after school when Carson the next day Brough the final idea to the group the next day. Skai worked on the story board and drew out all of the shots, as a group I do not remember making the script but Carson printed them out and brought them on site so I don't really know who did the script. I was assigned the editor in the beginning but could not see the image in my head like Carson so Carson took over the Editor and I took the role of the cinematographer, I would say that him and I both did edits on the video but I only helped when he needed.

        Professionally the group that I was in was really good at keeping everyone up to date and on track except for a couple of days that did not workout for everyone in the group so we got behind schedule. I shared my ideas and so did the rest of the group so we where on track and never really got off track. project management was ok besides the two days that because we had a group chat witch allowed us to add dates that worked for everyone in the group.

        something that I would do different would be, being able to go to the last film day. I was not able to make it on the last day scheduled because an emergency came up 30 min before film time. something that I would do the same is have Carson in my group because Carson is really good at filming and making good ideas which was important to being successful. I liked this project and think that it was awesome if you consider the problems that we ran into but I know some people do not like it so if we could've finished the video and make the ending more clear that would've been better. Finishing the ending is the only thing that a could'e been better. 

Captured

Short Film Blog Post 

             


Our short film was tilted Captured, it was written by Thomas Rex and directed by Cade Walkins Captured is a about two boys, one of them being a jock and the other is a normal middle schooler. The synopsis is that the normal middle schooler saves the jock even thought the jock is mean to him on a daily basis. The boys are captured by a recently released prisoner. The everyday middle schooler has one of two options, save the person that is mean to him or let him be killed.

we included key elements of filming with the locations, shots, and actors because our group chose all of these locations and actors very well and the entire project came together perfectly. During pre production the group decided to go with Thomases story because it was the best one that was not easy but gave us a challenge. My job was to draw the story boards according to the directors visions. our production schedule was during the weekend and film from 7 in the morning to 2 in the after noon starting at Cades house ending at mine. I learned along this project by watching Thomas and Cade because I think that both of them are really good at filming and so I watched them while we where setting up the cameras. During this project my group used the 5 guarantees perfectly because everyone communicated and everyone participated unlike some of the projects I've been in. something that I would do differently is reshoot some of the shots when the actors would over exaggerate things. If I could I would do everything the same because I think this was the best project all year.

bouncing balls

Bouncing Balls Animation 

This animation was different from all of the other animations because we had to first record the real world ball falling and bouncing back up, this was important because after we have the actual balls recorded we marked the keyframes and height of the balls in a google docs sheet. Then we went onto Maya and replicated the spread sheet so the animated balls are exactly the same as the recorded ones, this was really interesting to me because it was combining the real world with a animation, if that makes sense. We had to make the balls relatively the same size as the recording bot to make the balls we used a image from the internet and turned that into a bump map. This animation was also one of my worst because I missed allot of days this project and set me behind a long time, the other problem that I had was restarting the entire project three times because Maya would crash and not save. Then on the day I would render Maya would not render correctly so I spent a total of two day rendering this animation 6 times before it would save correctly. but I still liked how it turned out even with me rushing the entire project. 

High School Trailer Blog Post

High School Trailer Blog Post 

The trailer that my Group and I chose to replicate was Say Anything. Out of all the options on the list to replicate my group was a unanimous decision that Say Anything was a trailer that could be replicated without a budget. We incorporated the key elements of filmaking into this video by getting all the necessary shots, by that I mean whenever their was a wide, close up, extreme wide, and body shot in the actual trailer we made sure to get the clip as close as possible to the real thing. The processes I contributed to in pre-production was storyboards, production schedule, and editing. These where the main things that I would do, but whenever someone needed me I would help them. 

My main role in the processes was director of photography, however if we where on site and someone  with a different role the rest of us would take over the needed parts and spread roles. Technically I was behind camera a good amount of the time and we all edited our on trailers so editing was the other thing that I did technically. I think that everyone in this group used the five guarantees, unlike some of my other projects, the five guarantees I worked on the most is communication, collaboration, and project management. I say this because I, collaborated with the entire team to get the best product possible and project management I used to get the props, like the car and some locations. 

Something that I would do differently is filming in better locations instead of inside of the e-comm pod, because we filmed in the e-comm pod some of the shots jumped form past to 2018 witch did not make the video smooth and not as good as it could've been. If I had the choice I would try to get into a group with Thomas again, because Thomas was a really good director and leader. Experiences that I will use in the next projects is to film in the same time period throughout the video and to get better audio than what was used. My general thoughts about this video is that the high school trailer project went very well and well made. 

Container animation

     

Container Animation 

things that I learned durning this animation are how to use the revolve tool, shape, and add a label to the container. what we had to do durning this animation was create a label in adobe photoshop then put this label onto the container and make a product. This animation did not go as smooth for me compared to the others because I had to restart the entire project three times witch was very tedious and a wast of time. so I guess I learned that I should look at the directions a little closer that was I don't ae to redo the entire project and just do it right the first time. The actual animation part of this project was really easy, it was just rotating the object so that wasn't anything really new. The other thing that was not that new bit we haven't done in a while was sketching because we had to sketch the container before turning it into a polygon in a real thing. 

Snow Flake Animation

Snowflake Animation Blog 

           

This is a animation of snowflakes falling, outside the window. During this animation we learned allot of new things that we haven't done before, like making the snow flake you have make a polygon on the x-axis line then mirror the flake, then special duplicate the two, that way it ends up being a six sided snow flake. This was something that was new to us and was very different then the other methods. Once we got the one dimensional flake we extruded and rounded the flake to make it three dimensional. Making the window seal was really easy and was like the other projects we made, but this time we put the inside window into a one dimensional polygon and made it transparent to look like a window. After we did all this random stuff, we went back to the normal three point lighting and batch rendering.

salt shaker and cup

Cup & Shaker 

modeling 

Modeling these two things was very different than the other things that we have learned to use for example we had to draw the design of the cup in a 2d plane then use a tool that makes the 2d image into a 3d object, its kinda like when potters use the rotating table and shape their clay into something just this was using maya. The salt shaker designed a different way, basically we had to create a 3d skeleton of the salt shaker and use a took that would automatically make the skeleton into a actual body of the salt shaker. then the final part of the modeling process was using the vertex points to touchup the designs. 

shading 

we then used shading to give the 3d designs a realistic aspect for example I made the cup silver because I was reminded of a silver challis and on top of the salt shaker I made it look like metal and the body a bliyn shade so that it would not reflect as much light. I think that the shading was a lot better on this project than the last one because I had a better understanding on how the shading worked in Maya. 

3-pt lighting 

3-pt lighting is the most important park of making a 3d object look realistic because the three lights all work together to make it look like it is a real object. the three lights are the spotlight, fill light, and backlight. spotlight make the majority of the object visible and the fill light fills in parts that otherwise would not bee seen and the back light is used to give some color to parts of the object that would not be seen at all and lights up small but important details. 

Hammer

Hammer 

Modeling 

Modeling the hammer took almost two days because it was really complicated and most people did not know how to make the hooks on the backs. but other than that to model the hammer you have too make a square and then extrude the front and beck of the hammer, then go into vertex mode instead of face then slowly shape it until it looks like a hammer witch took some time but was really easy once you got the hang of it. The front of the hammer was really easy because it was just extruding and scaling. 

Shading 

We are supposed to add shading to the hammer so that is looks more like a 3D figure and helps add dimensions into the hammer and makes the final product look really good and well made. and plus the shading adds shadows to the hammer and on the ground so it can make it look like the hammer is resting on the ground instead of floating in the air. 

3-pt lighting 

Three point lighting is also used to make the hammer or the object look more 3 dimensional, in three point lighting you have to have the key-light, back light, and the fill light. The key light lights up the entire project, but that does not make the object look that good so you off the backlight to light upon things that are not seen on its own. so the final light is the fill light witch fills up some of the darkness in the animation.