For my semester project, I learned how to build a website using Adobe Dreamweaver. I first started out with a pre-made template created by the teachers, then I started putting in a photo of myself along with entering my"elevator pitch" assignment where I was to create an "elevator pitch" describing myself and my talents. I then created a second page with my best projects from the semester. I included one of my animations, and my chase scene video. Once that was done, I put in some web links like my blog, my high school website, and the e-Com website. Once all of that was finished, I began to design the page by changing the text colors and changing the fonts. Once that was all done, I took a screenshot of my home page and my projects page.
What Did I Learn?
My Projects, or "best of" page
First of all, I learned how to make a website without using a website like Wix. It's astonishing to me that I created my own website through Adobe Dreamweaver. I also leaned more about codes and what some of the codes mean. At first, the coding looked like a big, complicated, big bunch of weird nonsense, but as I started learning what some of it meant, the code wasn't as complicated or a whole bunch of weird nonsense. Code, from what I learned, is like any other language. At first it won't make sense, but as I learned it, it started making sense and I started to understand it better.
My Opinion
Overall, I think I did pretty well. Some of the coding was a bit tricky when it came to stylizing the links, but once I figured that out, everything else was easy. I really enjoyed this project, and I would probably do it again just for fun. learning about code was one of the more essential focuses of this project, and I enjoyed it. Honestly, I had a grand time with this project and look forward doing a similar one in the future.
Coming up with three ideas was easy for the group I was with due to ideas thought of ahead of time. Many of the ideas included a thief. We finally decided to do a museum chase scene with lots of comedy. This project was really exciting to film, and be in. I learned that having a bit of fun behind the scenes is okay and makes the project more enjoyable to work on with others. The enjoyment behind the scene shines through in the project through the comedy and the action scenes.
Scouting and Filming
Scouting our location was very easy due to everybody's flexibility with locating possible settings for scenes. The filming bit was easy as well due to a great director and the actor and actresses very very open to listening and everybody had an open mind.
I was assistant Director and "Cop" 2 in this project. We didn't know who would be who for a long time. We agreed that our director would be Steven due to him knowing what he wanted, and his great leadership skills. I would be assistant director since . my part in the film wasn't as big. Ethan was the main Cop who was the stereotypical lazy guard. Anna was the thief due to her accessibility to black clothing. I wouldn't do anything different with this project due to how exciting it was to film, and be in. A lot of fun took place behind the scenes which was one factor as to why this project was a blast.
Editing
I used Adobe Premier Pro for editing. I have used Adobe three times now, and it is easy to use. However, I did have an issue where I thought I lost all my work. All the clips said "Media Offline" and I closed out of Adobe to find my folder on the school server. It wasn't in the spot it normally was, so I called the teacher over. Luckily, Anna, who was working across from me, found my folder. I moved my folder back to its normal spot, and found my project. I did have to come in during lunch to work on the project to catch up to where I was before it went "offline". One thing I can do better is save my project more often.
Overview
Team collaboration was awesome. We were having fun, but staying on task as well. The director did an awesome job politely criticizing what the actor and actresses can do better. The actor did a great job portraying a lazy guard, and the thief did a marvelous job adding comedy to the scenes. I did a good job of being funny and serious at the same time.
The six main shots for photography and video making are very crucial in order to make a good film. Each shot adds a certain part to a story whether it is giving us details of the setting or showing us certain emotions of a character. Along with shot sizes comes sequencing. Sequencing is also vital to film making. If certain clips were placed randomly together, the story in the video makes no sense. Sequencing makes the story fit like puzzle pieces. With these two components, anything can happen.
Brainstorming
Our idea for this project of sequencing was to do a thriller or horror chase scene. The idea of a chase scene was shot down by the teacher, so I worked around the chase scene to make our project more of a horror or thriller. Instead of a chase scene, the "victim" was to run towards safety while the "killer" can teleport anywhere. This still gave the impression of a chase without any chasing taking place. This worked better than a chase scene due to the fact that the "killer" can teleport anywhere. This gives the audience a sense of dread by reason being nowhere is safe.
Editing
For editing, I used Adobe Premier Pro. The goal was to try to cut the runtime to thirty seconds, but if needed, we could go longer than thirty seconds. Editing was easier this time around because I knew what certain things did. This time, I learned how to make a Title shot.
The title shot was interesting due to the possibilities of color and style an editor could add to the title slide.
Overall
the collaboration with a new team was interesting. The variety of skill in this new group was evident due to the two other people's knowledge in the thriller/horror genre. I have not seen any horror movies, so their knowledge benefitted the group as a whole.
I did not think this was the best video I made, but it is still good for a beginner.
