Its bittersweet to say that this will be my last HIYAA! I am so grateful I chose this Cambridge class as it has been an incredible learning experience. Now, whenever I watch a movie or a commercial, I can't help but analyze the director's techniques. I’ve also gained practical skills like editing and using gear like tripods which is a skill that I never expected to master. I have a new found appreciation for the amount of work that goes into production. These past eight weeks have been a full of stress, creativity, and fun.
At the beginning of the school year I was so excited to film something of my own. In this class I was lucky enough to make new friends like Luca and Mario who ended up being my partners for my final project. I loved this class so much that ive decided to take A level next year! I definitely have learned some new lessons that i want to apply for next year, like managing my time better. My biggest goal for 2026-2027 is to be able to compare my progress from this years project to next years and see a big difference! Im so glad that I learned so many lessons while doing a fun project! It was really great getting to know you! See you guys next year!
At first I filmed myself speaking about my CCR but then I decided that it would just be best for me to detatch the audio
Hi guyss! I started to create my CCR on Sunday and I'm super glad to say that I am almost done! I wanted to start working on my project early because I am leaving on Saturday to visit my sisters house during Spring Break. When I started to create my CCR I made my slideshow on Canva.
Some sources I used to make my powerpoint were:
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/genre-conventions-definition/
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-coming-of-age-movie-definition/
Basicallyyyyy the day that my teacher went over what a CCR is I was super sick and didnt go to school... but luckily my sister took this class and helped me out. I also looked at some examples to help me out.
To plan my CCR, I am going to start by writing a script and an outline so I stay organized. This will help me make sure I answer all four required questions clearly and don't miss any important details. I want the final video to be interesting to watch, so instead of just filming myself talking, I will include clips from my movie, photos of me editing, and behind-the-scenes shots from the set. While we were filming our opening we had so many bloopers that I want to include to make my CCR fun. This will help show exactly what I am talking about. I also plan to explain the why behind my work. I’ll keep an eye on the time to make sure the video is about 10 minutes long, giving each of the four questions enough space to be answered well.
I want my CCR to be an interview. My sister, Fabi said shes willing to interview me and record me.
How did you integrate technologies-software, hardware and online-in this project?
For this project we used a tripod, phones, and Luca's purple light. When I started to edit our project I used tools like filters, captions, and animations
Working on this project has made me realize that I continue to learn new things everyday. For example, today I found out how to use Clip Champs transcripts to make captions and yesterday I started to play around with the contrast and it has made me realize that a higher contrast helps the text messages stand out more. About a few days ago I also learned how to detach audios from clips we had filmed. I did this for the scene with Luca's mom to help her sound louder and clearer.
When we started to film our project I had no clue how to use a tripod and how to set it up, I even had to watch a Youtube video because I was worried I was going to break it. In previous projects my partners always knew how to set it up so I never bothered to learn.
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Honestly I was so lost when Luca and Mario first suggested to do this idea. We brainstormed different ideas for a week and I was always so confused on which idea we decided on. In other projects our group always procrastinated everything but for this project we all stepped up and did our parts. Luca took care of our setting and acted in it, Mario helped edit and do the films sound, and I edited and filmed our project.
At the beginning we did procrastinate a little bit, but it was just because we couldn't really find a right time to film. As soon as we started to film we were determined to finish our project efficiently. Filming took us two days and I started editing the day after. I edited our project in about two days and Mario started our sounds a day later. If you compare our storyboard to our actual film it is so different. We tried to stay on track with what we had originally planned but when we started filming we realized that the order we wrote our storyboard would look better if we changed the title scene and if we added a scene with Luca's mom to make it more engaging.
Before this school year, I had never filmed anything. The most i've filmed is a Tik Tok video with my bestfriend. When it comes to editing and filming I have learned so much. In the beginning of the school year I was never wanted to edit because I was scared to ruin what I had previously filmed but now I feel so much more confident in my skills.
How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
When our group started to brainstorm ideas for our film we knew that we wanted our opening to be something we could relate to. Thats why we decided that our target audience would be people ages 14-20. Some choices we made in our film to engage our target audience is the music at the end. The music we chose to play was house music. This genre has become really popular with this audience. In the scene where Mario is texting Luca to come outside, we used a digital party invitation because its something that is commonly used with this age group. In the text messages we also used a common abbriviation "pu" which means to pull up. The best way for an amateur to release this is to post a short clip of a moment that would catch the viewers interest, like Luca's mom yelling at him. Then, I would put the full video on YouTube and tell my friends on TikTok to watch it. This builds a big group of viewers just by being relatable.
Sounds
Today I started trying out sounds to put in for the scenes where we close and open the door and for when Luca is walking. The website im using to find sounds is Pixybay. I used Pixybay for for my last project and I loved the sounds and how easy it was to work with it. On Wednesday Luca wants to film foley sounds so we can compare which one sounds better. One thing that I want to try out is to find a copyright song for us to put into the credit scenes where there arent any other sounds we can incorporate into it.
