Video - End of Year Reflection

Foreword

Back at the start of second semester, I was unbelievably excited to start entertainment, and to eventually continue it through my junior and senior years. Instead, I began the journey of realizing that what I had planned wasn't going to work out. The whole experience essentially led up to that moment in a lot of films with the freeze frame and a "Yep, that's me. You're probably wondering how I ended up in this situation." But I'll get to that.

Music Video

Our first project, the music video, seemed like a fairly easy task. All we had to do was pick a song and create a concept for it, then film it. This was my first project I was really, really excited about. Unfortunately, the film world loves to crush that wide-eyed wonder, preferably captured in a close-up of the victim's face.

Addie and I set out to make a storyboard for the song I Wanna Be Yours by Arctic Monkeys, choosing a less-than-romantic concept to further prove our Alternativeness™. What we quickly realized is that storyboards take forever.

After we finished that, we got everything else done in record time. We shot almost everything unskillfully in direct sunlight and didn't think twice. Until we started editing. Luckily, Addie is much better at this than I am, so she got extra footage when we went downtown, and put them all in to create what I feel is a much better product than the overexposed mess that I had contributed. (Spoiler alert: this is a pattern with my work.)

High School Trailer

This video will always remain the most memorable, I think, because it was the video that solidified my decision to switch from film to graphic design. Really. I turned this in right before spring break and proceeded to freak out and have a long talk with my mom about what I should do. Having reached a verdict, I came back, switched, and all my problems disappeared.

But back to the project.

We had to choose from a list of high school-based films, most likely because we were supposed to do more filming in, you know, film class. Addie and I chose to do The DUFF. Because, of course, two sophomore film students could easily replicate a professional 8.5 million dollar film. We shot this over an agonizingly drawn-out period of time, due to our lack of organization. I ended up editing this one, which was okay; I'm better at editing than I am filming. Still, this video was so, so awful. I'm taking full responsibility for that. I mean, I'll say it. The feedback for this video was similar. The punishment fits the crime, after all. Half of the class was silent, but not in the way that good film can create. It was more of an "if you don't have anything nice to say, don't say it at all" sort of silence. The other half showed no mercy and informed me of what I already knew: it sucked.

I'm not bitter about this project; how could I be? It helped me come to terms with the fact that I'm just not talented in this particular area. Also, it's kind of funny.

Here is the infamous video, for your viewing pleasure.

Short Film

This was a fitting end to my film career. It was an idea that I had wanted to develop for a long time, proceeded to do so, and in the process, ruined it. The concept was actually one of my favorite things I've thought of: based on the Shakespeare quote "These violent delights have violent ends, and in their triumph die, like fire and powder, which, as they kiss, consume", it was a story of two people who bring out the worst in each other. The boy is a narcissistic sociopath who tricks an unmemorable girl into joining him, and the audience watches helplessly as she slowly turns darker and darker, on a downward spiral of self-destruction. Or, at least, that's what it was supposed to be.

Instead, Violent Delights was a mess of my own creation, another wildly underwhelming technological mistake, produced by Blaise Keasler. Shocker.

When given feedback, the only positive things that anyone had to say were about my actors. I wholeheartedly agree. The only thing that could have possibly made this short film worse would have been bad actors. Being in the top theatre class has its advantages when it comes to casting.

This video was slightly better than my other two, but that was only because of experience. I knew when making this that I wouldn't be progressing to entertainment like most of my classmates. I think it shows. Regardless, here it is.

Applying What I've Learned

Although much of what I've written is self-deprecating, I do still use what I've learned in this class. One of my goals for the upcoming summer, and even for my life, is to take videos and pictures of things. Not just important things, but of myself and my friends and pretty things that I enjoy. We all have the ability to document our lives; our phone cameras are better than ever before. So, why not? Now, I have the basics of how to film properly, and I can use that forever.

Summary

This year has been wild; this semester in particular. I've gone from planning on being in entertainment class for the rest of my high school career to planning on being in graphic design, and even realizing that I could potentially continue with that as an occupation. Video has been a very valuable experience to me, regardless of how good I am at it. It taught me that plans change, usually for the better.

One of my favorite quotes is from the film American Beauty (dir. Sam Mendes, 1999). It's that "everything that's meant to happen does", and this has proved to be true, especially in this case. I will be forever grateful for the lessons I have learned, and although I may not be in class, I'll continue to use what I've learned.

Graphic Design - End of Year Reflection

Technology

From a technical standpoint, I've become not only competent, but proficient (at least, I'd like to think so) in the industry-standard software. With the skills I've learned, I now have the ability to create a semi-professional online portfolio (here) and I could potentially even do small freelancing projects. This process wasn't instantaneous, and I'm still not perfect- Photoshop is a formidable adversary- but I can still use the tools of graphic design effectively.

Collaboration

Due to a mistake in my class schedule, I switched classes halfway through the year. I view this positively, because it allowed me to experience two different ways of collaborating on projects. In my first semester, our work was reviewed as a class; in my second semester, we did smaller critiques. My own personal learning style tends to be one that works in more personal groups, as I find larger ones difficult to manage. This change was certainly welcome, and even influenced my decision to continue in the graphic design branch of e-Communications in the future.

 Communication

If you had asked me last August what I thought of this particular image, I would have said it was a billboard for a makeup company. Now, I could tell you that the sans serif font and that particular tint of pink combine to form a minimalistic yet feminine look, and that it isn't even a real billboard, but rather a mockup. Oh, and that I made it. One of the most valuable skills I have acquired this year is my ability to verbalize what makes something attractive or ugly. Our critiques often involved only my peers and I, so we had to learn to describe what we liked about the work we were reviewing. Simply saying a font is unattractive doesn't work; we had to be able to apply the rules we used. Once we did that, it was more along the lines of "this font is ineffective because it's a serif combined with another serif; try using a sans serif instead".

Project Management

my project, "Rose", without the background

I like to think of myself as a good student. I can't recall ever having late assignments. However, when it comes to graphic design, I spend so much time on everything that eventually I have to make myself stop, admit that I'm being a perfectionist, and put it up on Behance already. It's not a bad thing, but further down the road, I'll have to keep it up when doing client work. There's a big difference between an assignment deadline and actually working for real people and companies. I will say, one time I remember being particularly rushed to finish something was when I submitted work to eMagine, our school's media festival. Originally, I wanted to make a short film; that definitely didn't pan out. In fact, I had planned on doing that, and when I realized it wasn't working, it was too late to really start something else. Or, at least, it would've been, to any logical person. Not being that person, I decided to start a vectoring project within a couple of days from the deadline. In the end, I actually won third place, which was surprising, given the amount of work I put into it. This is what I have to say about that: If I won third place for a project I threw together last-minute, I can't wait for the next two years when I have time to plan.

Leadership

I've always been strong-willed. Independent. You know, all those adjectives that people use when they're too polite to say something like "control freak". But. I had to learn to apply that to projects and even when working on my own. If I made something and didn't like it, I had to organize my thoughts on it and solve the problem. I think a part of being a leader is eliminating traits like procrastination, and actually making your team (or yourself) get the job done. During critiques, when there wasn't a teacher or a more experienced graphic design student guiding the discussion, we each had to step up and give our constructive criticism. At first, especially since I was in a new class, this was a daunting task; however, I quickly found that as a graphic designer and as someone who is learning, I appreciated feedback, and so did others.

Strengths and Weaknesses

practicing with a waterbrush

The thing I'm most proud of is my handwritten typography. I've been interested in it for a while, but after actively looking at the way other people write, I've developed my own style. Sometimes I even catch myself staring at a certain letter in someone else's handwriting because I like the way they made it. I've made cards for many people with my lettering, and it even got me a potential job offer to design wedding invitations.

I'm still improving my technical skills, of course, but that's going to be a constant theme throughout my experience. The thing I look forward to most is expanding my creativity, especially when it comes to things like logo design.

a quote from American Beauty
(dir. Sam Mendes, 1999)
illustrated by me

The Past and the Future

One of my mantras (brought to you by the film American Beauty) is "everything that's meant to happen does". I wouldn't change anything about my experience, because I think what I've learned and how I've grown is so valuable the way it is. Looking ahead, I plan on continuing in graphic design, and hopefully becoming even more skilled.

Conclusion

This year in e-Comm has been wonderful, in all its challenging ways. At the start of the year, I thought I knew exactly what I was going to do: go onto entertainment video and make films with my friends. Of course, that didn't happen. I realized around spring break, when I 1.) couldn't make a decent video from my plan for eMagine and won third place with a vector that took me three days, and 2.) turned in a video for class that was so bad, I spent all of spring break rethinking my entire plan. I'm not trying to be self-deprecating; it's just a fact. I'm not upset about it, though. I think it was just something that I had to realize in time, and I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I've created a solid bond with my peers in both classes regardless, and I'm excited to be able to work with them as we progress.

Overall, e-Comm has been about passion and actively doing things. I was one of six presenters at eMagine, which was absolutely wild, and I even won an award. I enjoy creating media, whether it's in Illustrator or Premiere (although there's a difference in quality there; I'll say it). I hope to continue creating and loving what I do in these next two years. I wouldn't trade my experience for anything else.