Starting the Final Task

My name is Marckins, and I am a 10th-grade student at Fort Lauderdale Highschool. I like to listen to and play music often. I listen to a lot of variety of artist that usually make hip-hop or rap music. My two favorite artists are Kendrick Lamar and J. Cole and personally, I think they're at the top of the rap industry. I play two instruments as well those being guitar and trumpet. I've been playing guitar for an entire decade but the last couple of years I haven't been as consistent. I started playing the trumpet in 7th-grade in school but I'm also in a funeral band. I have other hobbies such as producing a beat on a laptop and playing video games. On this project, I'll be working with the same two people. Quincy and Aridsondez. This final project will hopefully be more fun as we know how each other act and are skilled at.

Throughout this school year, we've done two previous projects, the commercial and the music video. Out of the two projects I definitely enjoyed both but we as students were able to be more free with our recording with the music video. The time that we had to record the commercial was very limited as we had around 90 minutes (one class period) or less to finish everything. Although we were able to get it done, it would've been a lot better if we filmed it at home or a separate location like the music video. The music video was a lot more fun to create as we got to choose what song we used and where we recorded and what we wore. I learned with the commercial that we need to use our time wisely. On the music video, I learned that we need to pick the time for when we record wisely as the first day we recorded the sun went down quicker than we expected. When I think about what I bring to the group, I think that I bring the leadership aspect to it. There are times where Quincy and Aridsondez look at me to make a certain decision. With this trait, it also brings ideas that we might have to implement on the fly to get the projected finished.

A pitch is a Hollywood term to describe an idea where a film is encapsulated in 25 words or less. This is also known as an elevator pitch and is usually within one sentence. The first pitch idea that we came up with is based on an Iranian war. One day the main character receives mail that states that he’s been drafted to the next world war against Iran and after he forgets government officials knock at his door giving him the option to either fight in the war or go to jail for life. For our second pitch, we thought that we could possibly make a film out of a guy who’s a rapper and is angry at his mentor for murdering his father and he makes an oath to get revenge. Lastly, we thought that it would be cool to make a film about a student and his sensei. The beginning of the film would be a flashback from the sensei fighting his student and losing to him. The student has seen how strong he is and wants to use his power for evil. The sensei gets help from an old friend and realizes that they have to team up and wipe his memory of the martial arts he’s learned. As a group, we’ve decided that our last pitch is more thought out and would be manageable to create.

This is me and my group mates brainstorming different pitch ideas.

And this is me working on the beginning of this blog.

Music Video Editing Blog

For editing, we're going to attempt to edit separately. For the commercial editing blog, Aridsondez edited the final version that we turned it. He made the commercial look really interesting so he'll most likely be the one to edit again. But at the same time, I want to try to edit the video in my own ways. Maybe I'll make different types of edits that he might want to use. Although I don't know what software I'm going to download one. For the edits, I'm going to base it off of the type of edits I've seen on social media. I'll try to do cool transitions and overall keep the audience intrigued. But the most important part is keeping the audio in sync with the actual video. Hopefully, I'll be to keep everything together.

I don't think that the transitions will completely take it out of sync. The timing of a certain transition could take up time and throw off the video from the audio. But even if it does it shouldn't be that hard to put it back into sync. It'll actually be easy to put back into sync as all you would have to do is cut off the part that's not in sync. After you do that you can just move the video and it should be in the correct spot. The visual of the entire video will hopefully come out cool. Not only can you do transitions but the filter over the clips matter too. Putting a filter over a part could give it a different vibe. It can also change the saturation of the image. Adding a filter could, for example, make a click like it's from the '90s. It would have a vintage kind of look giving an old-school vibe.

Although, I'm most likely not going to be the one with the video we turn in. For a situation like this, experience really counts. Out of all three of us, Aridsondez has by far the most experience. He even knows how to add the glowing lines around an object in the video. He said it's a long process to do it but he might attempt it anyway. I'm not exactly sure what Quincy is going to do. I'm also not sure of his experience of editing if he has any at all. In class, he's never mentioned anything about it so I'm going to assume he doesn't. I have a good feeling that the video is going to come out well. The clips of recording we have, have a good energy that most artists/rappers have.

Music Video Post Filming Blog

    The music video had it's differences when comparing it to the commercial we made. When filming the commercials there was a lot less time to film anything outstanding and the location had to be at school as well. Our clothing and location really affected how the commercial would be seen. Overall the ideas and creativity for the commercial was limited because of time and a couple other variables. When told that we had to meet up with our group members outside of school I was a little confused. We weren't sure at all where we're were going to meet up to film, what song to use, or really if we were even going to get any content recorded. And whenever trying to compile details in the group chat I made, my group mates wouldn't respond in a timely fashion. Fortunately we all live pretty close to one another so it wasn't too big of a hassle. Making this project definitely had a lot more creativity that could've been put into the entire thing. The entire CLAMPS were different than compared to when filming the commercials at school.

    After Thanksgiving, we decided as a group to meet up on Saturday to film. We all said that will meet up at Quincy's house to review and film. I live in the same neighborhood as Quincy so I was able to get to his house in a really short amount of time. Aridsondez had problems with transportation and arrived at Quincy's house late. So late that night had already fallen and it was pointless for him to even show up. On that day before Aridsondez showed up, me and Quincy were able to chop up the audio for the song. We perfected it and used it to be an overlay on top of the actual film. With this audio before we all went home, we did record me doing the first verse. Later with editing we can maybe switch that recording within the other recordings. After that we decided as a group what time the next day we'll show up to actually have sun to film with. The filming process was a lot easier since everyone was prepared the next day.

Music Video Planning Blog 2

For the storyboard, we've started to map out how our music video will go. First of all, the song we've chosen is Under The Sun by Dreamville featuring J. Cole, Da Baby, and Lute. We chose it because all of us like the song as a whole. There's also three artist rapping and there's three of us so each of us has a verse. Other than the actual song playing throughout the video, there won't be any sounds apart of the recording process heard. When we record ourselves rapping, we'll be saying the actual words but mute the recording on the editing process. Unless next class we make a change so that in a car scene we actually hear the car turn on.

Aridsondez made a rough draft of the storyboard. It starts off with an establishing shot of the sun then an insert saying "Under The Sun, By Dreamville". A close up of the first character is in a bad mood, jump-cut into another close up of the second character also upset, and jump-cut to the third character who is also unhappy. Transition to a photo of the three characters having a fun time. The next part of it starts with the first character leaning on a car bored, then the second character playing basketball at the park until he gets a phone call from the first character to meet up. The third character then runs up to them as well. They talk and decide to hang out for the rest of the day. The storyboard ends with an insert of all three of their faces side by side divided with a line. We haven't talked much about the storyboard yet so he thought of a concept that seems incomplete. We'll start and hopefully, finish the storyboard tomorrow in class. I kind of like my idea of simply rapping in front of the camera.

The editing part of creating a video is the most important and fun. This part is really where the entire video comes together. All the cool transitions and lighting effects are added to catch the audience's attention. Depending on what camera angle we use the edits will be different. A long shot could possibly be used as a transition if you zoom in while spinning then does the opposite into a different scene. We must have a medium close-up shot climbing up the outfits that one of us has on. I would love to have a bird's eye view shot but that's unfortunately impossible unless we have a drone. Going back to editing, if one of us can somehow figure out how to do the edits to add lines around our bodies that'll really show modern-day society. That could also be used as a transition. All of these ideas will be finalized by next week.

Music Video Planning Blog 1

We've now entered the process of brainstorming our music video ideas. We've roughly got an idea of what the music video will be about and how it's going to be done. Although we've yet to decide when we're actually going to record. We started on November 19th, and it's due on the 6th of December. It doesn't seem like that much time to do a lot but since it'll be filmed outside of school we have access to a great deal of time. As for health and safety, there shouldn't be many hazards or any at all. We'll either be in a neighborhood in different locations or at Quincy's house in his backyard. We won't be doing anything crazy, it'll mostly be us just dancing around. Also, no one in our group has any physical conditions or injuries. There shouldn't be anything that could potentially harm any of us.

Like I stated before we're thinking of being in different locations for each of our verses. Or maybe well rap each of our verses twice in two different places and we'll be able to switch what setting we're in randomly for more effect. I'm really fond of that idea so we'll most likely end up doing it. If we aren't able to go around different places in our neighborhood we'll just do the same thing but in Quincy's backyard. And since there isn't much space we'll each probably be in the background when we aren't rapping dancing. The idea of recording each verse in different places or slightly different settings still stands. The lighting will be great since it'll be natural sunlight. We're still yet to fully discuss where else we're going to record if any. I'm aware that Aridsondez wants to go to the basketball court but that doesn't fully fit with the song. Although for sure the neighborhood we're filming in is the one that Quincy and I live in.

For the music video's attire, we'll all wear different outfits of modern-day hip-hop culture. I'm not entirely sure what Aridsondez or Quincy are going to wear, but I'll wear an all-white outfit. Most artists have at least wore an entirely white outfit once before so it'll fit the hip-hop culture. I'm sure that my other two groupmates will choose something appropriate for our video. It might also be cool to match the artist that's rapping the verse that we'll rap. As for the props, we'll most likely end up using nothing or maybe a car in the background. Other than that we won't use anything, maybe have some cash to gloat but that wouldn't follow our song properly. I did want to consider getting fake jewelry to wear in the video, but I'm not sure where to get it. Maybe Quincy or Aridsondez will have some jewelry that they'll be able to wear. If one of us does were jewelry it should be Quincy since the artist that does his verse often wears expensive jewelry like chains and watches. Next class, we're going to finalize when we're going to record, and all the minute details.

Intro To Music Video

This entire process of making a commercial has come a long way. In the beginning, I didn't really believe that anything that my group mates and I could think of could really be made into something. And the entire process has been really fun too. Even making blogs to see what we did that day I find it to be a really good idea. In the future looking back at these blogs can tell the entire story of how one of our projects were created. Hopefully, we'll be able to see the other commercial made by our classmates. In future projects, I honestly wouldn't mind working with the same group mates.

We're starting the music video and we've began to discuss what song we'll use. I want to make the video with a Michael Jackson song. I was thinking maybe Thriller or Rock With You because both of the songs are really fun and entertaining. Although Aridsondez wants to do something a little more modern culture. He wants to use the song Ballin' Roddy Rich or FN by Lil TJ but I rather not use something so explicit. Quincy on the other hand says that he want bly finalize what song we'll use next class period.

1. For the costume we'll all be wearing the traditional rapper outfit and maybe some fake jewelry.
2. The lighting we'll be natural sunlight.
3. Like the commercial we'll be here actors in different settings.
4. As for the make-up none of us will be wearing any.
5. We'll most likely use a car and some money as typical rappers do to float that they're the rich.
6. We're going to be in the hoodie as we're going for a video that shows we're in our neighborhood

For sound and editing we'll have a gritty type of video. We'll seem like we're the top of our neighborhood.

Editing Pt. 2

We started the editing process again but on the laptops. Every class whoever logged in the last class has to log in again. So we logged in on my account so we can get our clips through my google drive. I downloaded the entire project folder onto the laptop. We opened the software and cleared the video that was already being editing. That was the preset edit that's there to be an example of how to use the software. After kind of struggling trying to clear that preset, we started importing our clips. We decided to let each of us take turns editing how we want the commercial to go based on our own idea. The software was different from what I'm used to other softwares being like. The way you would trim a clip, move a clip, or insert a clip onto the playlist was hard to use. 

When we got to this part of the class it was already time to leave for our next period. We decided that we'll each try to edit the film ourselves and show each other the next class. This class period I logged in onto the computer again and went to my drive and my edited film didn't save properly. So Arisondez showed us his film and it was amazing! He had nice transitions and even motivating background music. He linked all the clips that we had together really well. He explained how it still didn't come out exactly how he wanted it but it was still incredible. In the end, we didn't have to decide which person's film we were going to use. He sprinkled different clips throughout our film somewhat like how Nike actual does it in their commercials. He also put an image of football players who are endorsed by Nike.

This entire process of making a commercial has come a long way. In the beginning, I didn't really believe that anything that my groupmates and I could think of could really be made into something. And the entire process has been really fun too. Even making blogs to see what we did that day I find it to be a really good idea. In the future looking back at these blogs can tell the entire story of how one of our projects were created. Hopefully, we'll be able to see the other commercial made by our classmates. In future projects, I honestly wouldn't mind working with the same groupmates. But we'll be even more creative and productive. If we edit again, maybe we'll be able to throw in funny things that'll entertain the audience. I want to be more hands-on. I enjoyed making this commercial, it was a lot more entertaining than most school assignments.