Weekly Update Questions.

How much time have you spent on your project?

I've spent about 5 hours this week thus far on my project, doing hands on (filming a skit in school), and research. Other classes have gotten in the way and made it harder, but none the less, I expect to have the minimum amount of hours done by the end of the week.

What did you do for Hands on?

This week, for hands on, I have been filming a skit, that is a mockumentary that takes place in school. The progress is a little slow, but we only need a couple of good days of filming, and there should be enough footage to complete the skit. I'm also planning for two other skits.

What did you do for research?

I researched documentaries. In my research, I looked up history, terms, and techniques about documentaries, as I figured it would help me in my mockumentary skit. You can see more detail in the post before this.

Were you in class this week?

Yes! I was present for class on Monday, and I plan to attend the red flag session tomorrow.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?

Yes, I met with Ms. Perl this week on Monday, and I plan to meet with her on Friday once again. We talked about what I did over break, and her concern about my WISE project, to put it as simple as possible. There is a blog post about it in further detail earlier in the week.

What do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was?

My accomplishments for this week was the doing of good hands-on and research work. I did a good balance between the two, and I can keep it up, my WISE project will be do done on time, in good shape.

What are your plans for next week?

My plans for next week is to continue doing research, probably do a blog post everyday like Ms. Perl suggested, continue on the current skit I am working on, and maybe even start a second.

Documentaries.

Since at least one of the skits I plan to film will be a mockumentary, I'd say it's a good idea to learn how to film one. The best way to do so, is to do some research on documentaries, since it's pretty much a mockumentary without the humor.

Definition:

Documentary film: is a broad category of motion pictures intended to document some aspect of reality.

Which basically means that a documentary is a film that is intended to expose a certain area of the real world. Documentaries usually follow some type of journey or research, and the sequences are not scripted and the people are not actors.

Techniques:

Actuality: the use of footage in real life events, places, and people essentially. This allows a record of events as they unfold.

Interviews: Probably one of the most distinguishable aspects of a documentary. This allows people to speak about a topic or events, answering questions prompted by the filmers, which will prove or disprove their case.

Archival Footage (aka Stock footage): Footage that is obtained from a library, and is used to further illustrate an event.

Montage Sequence: Coveys ideas visually by putting them in a specific order in the film.

A useful video:

Main points of this video:

-Directors opinion shouldn't be evident throughout the video, you are just an observer!

-People, places and events should all be real.

-Documentaries must be factually correct.

-Events must be in chronological order.

This video also had some basic, but useful filming techniques, like shot interlacing, the chase sequence, reverse zoom, slow motion, poor lighting, etc etc.

Mentor Meeting.

Monday, I met with my WISE mentor, Ms. Perl. It was helpful, as always. Having a WISE mentor makes a lot of things a whole lot easier. During our 15 minute meeting we, discussed a few key things.

Academics: One of Ms. Perl's worries is my overall grade in WISE class, because it is required for graduation. She pointed out that I may not enough WISE journal entries to pass a portion of this class, which is huge. She suggested that I write a blog post a day, even if I don't have much to say. I can't disagree with this strategy, but she also told me to check in with Ms. Gergely during my red flag meeting, then come back with news on Friday.

Progress: Ms. Perl was curious to see what I did this break, and I was more then happy to say I had one skit completed by the end of the break, which was my exact goal, and puts me on a good foot to get my new bare minimum of 3 skits. Also, I stated that my next few skits might be in the style of a mockumentary.

The Future: And last but not least, what am I going to do this week? Well, We're doing an in school documentary, which means that I'm working on another skit right now! Aside from that excessive planning.

It's Been A While.

Hello everyone! It's been a very, very long time since I've last updated this blog. To be honest, I almost forgot the the very simple URL of this website. Wow. Well, I hope everyone's break was good, mine was nice and relaxing. But I'm sure you are all not really wondering how my break was, but really, how my is my whacky WISE project going? Well, let me tell you!

As you know, I established a checklist for over break. I've checked off all

-Upload promotional photos to promote the film project (x)

-Film an entire skit (x)

-Edit an entire skit (x)

-Perhaps release it as a promo, and get more people interested ( )

-Do 5 blogposts, instead of doing just the regular 4 weekly posts. ( )

-Learn something about film making I didn't know the week before (x)

-Contact a source in the community (x)

I got 5/7 done, which translates into a 71% completion of goals for over break. It's a decent score for myself.

I'm also thinking of trimming down my goals. I may have mentioned this before, but this project is a little harder then I'd imagine. I had the original intent of doing of doing 5 skits. But since the organization of this is very hard, I'm going to possibly reduce it down to 3, maybe 4 if time permits. We'll see, I feel once my AP exams are over with, the scheduling of things will fall into place more. Anyways, It's good to be back.

Weekly Update Questions.

How much time have you spent on your project?

I have spent around 7 hours on my project. I am busting my butt this week because I did fairly little work on my project since I was ill with the flu. I want to hit about 11 hours by the end of Sunday this week, just to kind of catch up.

What did you do for Hands on?

I've finished up on most of the promotional photo shots. I've uploaded four, and plan on uploading more and more every week, to hype people hopefully, and catch people's eyes. Aside from that, I have chosen the official skits I am going to do, and I am now picking and asking people to be apart of it. I hope to do filming this week.

What did you do for research?

For research, I've just researched claymation. It's a pretty cool style of filming, which uses clay models, and makes a film wit them. It's basically just stop motion filming, using clay models. There's a whole community behind this style, and a lot of cool videos behind this.

I don't know, I find it SO COOL! Especially since I used to be really big on making clay models when I was a younger kid. As well as one of my favorite movies, Chicken Run.

Were you in class this week?

Yes! I was present for class on Monday, and I plan to attend the red flag session tomorrow.

Did you meet with your mentor? What did you talk about?

No, not yet. I plan on meeting with her tomorrow morning though. Monday was our original meeting time, but she was busy with a meeting, so we switched to Tuesday. Unfortunately, I had a doctors appointment Tuesday, so tomorrow will have to be the day.

What do you think your fulfillment of WISE requirements was?

I think just getting back into the groove of WISE after being absent for a week was the main goal, which is something I have done well so far. I've been working really hard to make up for the lost time, and with luck, I'll be on track, if not ahead in no time.

What are your plans for next week?

"-Upload promotional photos to promote the film project

-Film an entire skit

-Edit an entire skit

-Perhaps release it as a promo, and get more people interested

-Do 5 blogposts, instead of doing just the regular 4 weekly posts.

-Learn something about film making I didn't know the week before

-Contact a source in the community"

This is my checklist for the next week. I especially expect to be done with everything on this list by the end of break.

Promotional Photos.

Here are some photos that will be released on Facebook to promote my skits. As you can see, the pictures are typically just me hanging out in nature, which is where I find peace and happiness. I also kept them pretty simple, the hardest part was the enhancing effects. The font and everything else were quite simple. I hope you enjoy them!

This picture was taken at

Taughannock. It was at a very beautiful summer night, and it was at a barbeque. It was no intended to be a picture for promotion when it was taken, but none the less, it's one of the most beautiful pictures I've ever been in.

This picture was taken at a bonfire. I was just talking and having a good time, and telling jokes, and I guess someone decided to take a picture of it. It serves pretty good at a promotional picture.

This picture was taken at the Ithaca falls. All intent for a photoshoot. Did you notice my red shoes? We retook this photo several times because it didn't show them. They're important!

This was as also taken at Ithaca falls. It's truly one of the most beautiful places in the summer. It's so perfect. This was also intended as a photo shoot picture. It's a nice picture. There is no signature caption because one, the picture is far too small, and the colors didn't fit with the typical white font I use. Hopefully people can just assume it's me.

Sick.

Hello y'all! It's been a very long time since I've last posted anything. And with good reason. I haven't gotten lazy, or given up on my project. I've been sick. Very, very sick. I had the flu, and if anyone knows the feeling, it's the absolute worst feeling ever. So given, I've just slept the entire last week away. While I did some research, it was pretty minimal. But this means in the following weeks I will hustle pretty hard to get these skits done and ready for my WISE project. I also have other classes to make up work in, but luckily I'm almost all caught up. I am sure to make up the work I didn't do, and do a fair amount of journal entries. I feel pretty good, and I have a feeling this week will reflect my feeling.

Out of the Rut.

7 Things I want to accomplish in the next week:

-Upload promotional photos to promote the film project

-Film an entire skit

-Edit an entire skit

-Perhaps release it as a promo, and get more people interested

-Do 5 blogposts, instead of doing just the regular 4 weekly posts.

-Learn something about film making I didn't know the week before

-Contact a source in the community

4 Ways my project has changed thus far:

-It has gotten a little more stressful, seen more as a project and less as a hobby

-More simple, trimming down the skits, making them less complicated

-Less ambitious, original plan was to make 6 skits, considering making only 4, maybe 5.

-More realistic, and less idealistic. Doing is completely different than planning.

3 Problems I've encountered so far:

-Scheduling: School is still in session, and busy as ever. It is hard to work around people's ever changing schedules, along with my time consuming agenda as well.

-Technological: It's been a while since I last used these editing programs, I still need to get used to this.

-Motivation: Sometimes it's really hard to stay motivated and inspired when you're stressed out.