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Showing posts from December, 2022

a lot of... Reflection!

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 1.  Because my partner and I was restricted to what I as a teenager was able to reasonably access to generate a music video, there are some differences from a traditional rap video. An example of this is how conventionally, rap music videos tend to show off how well they are financially. This can be seen through fancy cars, large houses, expensive jewelry, or large stacks of money being displayed throughout the video. I did not have access to these props, so to combat this I used similar looking props to parody the traditional aspects of rap videos. I used Monopoly money as a prop for real money and cheap sunglasses to impersonate expensive jewelry. Along with financial superiority, often rappers will implement weapons in their videos, in order to demonstrate a sense of power. Again, while my music video challenges these conventions by not actually displaying live firearms, it does follow the convention in symbolic sense, where I used a water gun and nerf gun. to parody what is typi

a lot of.... COMPLETION !

 I hope you all enjoy our final product!

a lot of... Retrospect!

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  Welcome back! With my final production blog I decided to  look back at our progress and see what proved challenging and what I had to do to overcome things in our production. Making a music video with friends was a new and exciting experience for all of us. I had to overcome the challenge of coordinating our schedules and finding a time that worked for everyone. One of the biggest challenges was finding the right location for the video shoot. I spent a lot of time scouting different locations such as Dania Pointe, Sawgrass Mall, my house, Lauren’s house, and eventually settled on spots that I thought would be perfect. Another challenge was coming up with a concept and storyboard for the video. I had to be creative and think outside the box to come up with a unique and interesting idea. One of the biggest obstacles was figuring out how to execute the concept I had come up with. I had to be resourceful and find ways to use what I had available to us to bring our vision to life. Another

a lot of... sickness?!

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  I woke up to a text from Lauren saying she wasn't feeling well and wouldn't be able to meet and record our video. Concerned, I called her to check on her and see how she was feeling. Lauren told me she had a fever and a headache and wasn't sure if she would be able to work on our upcoming video project as planned. I offered to help her out and suggested we work on the project over FaceTime. Lauren agreed and we set up a time to connect later that day. When I connected, I asked Lauren what tasks she needed help with. Lauren explained that she needed help editing the video footage she had collected. I offered to take care of the editing while Lauren rested. Lauren was grateful for my help and told me she would provide guidance and feedback as needed. I spent the next few hours working on the video, pausing occasionally to check in with Lauren and ask for her input. Despite feeling sick, Lauren did her best to stay focused and contribute to the project. I was impressed by he

a lot of... hanging out!

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 Welcome back! As I’ve mentioned in my blogs talking about me specifically, I do debate. And last Saturday I had a debate competition called the SFCFL, or the South Florida Catholic Forensic League. Traditionally at these CFL’s the tournaments last for most of the day, meaning I’m leaving home early and getting home late. However, this tournament was located at JP Taravella Highschool, a Highschool that is conveniently less than 2 minutes away from my house, so I decided we could have some fun after the Tournament. I had invited my debate partner Brianna, and my 4 friends who were also competing that day Zack, Kayla, Yaz, and Chris. For those who have read my previous blogs, you might recognize Yaz as she was my previous partner for past media projects. In any case I invited them to come over to my house after the tournament and to hang out at my pool. Along with the 5 people I mentioned, I naturally also invited Lauren, even if she wasn’t competing, she lives too close NOT to invite h

a lot of... upgrades!

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  Welcome back! As I mentioned in my previous blog, I got to film a little bit more. Our setting was Dania Pointe. Lauren and I got around 2 o’ clock. The lighting was bright considering it was mid-day. When I was about to film, I realized I had forgotten the props at home. I was supposed to bring my sunglasses and a nerf toy. This was a big problem. To resolve this I had two options to fix this. Either I go back home and pick it up or I buy one on the boardwalk. My house is really far, and my mom had already dropped us off, so I decided to walk around and find a store instead. Along the boardwalk there’s mostly restaurants and a few clothing stores. But none of the stores had what I was looking for. After some more brainstorming I looked at stores in the area. I ended up finding a Five Below, the perfect target for what I needed. This was very helpful because everything in the store was under 5 dollars. I found a pair of sunglasses and a small toy gun that worked perfectly. The props

a lot of... improvising!

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       Recently my sister, Sara was invited to go to Dania Pointe to celebrate her boyfriend's birthday. Naturally as her “protective older brother” my father had sent me to go chaperone the two of them. At first, I didn’t want to go because I would’ve been bored and me and my sister have an agreement where I let her get away with her secrets and she lets me get away with mine. Not only that but I like my sister’s boyfriend Lorenzo, because he’s respectful and I trust enough to not mistreat or hurt my sister. In any case I was not looking forward to going to Dania Pointe because I wouldn’t have anything to do, but then I came up with an incredible idea: invite Lauren to join us and record a few shots I was missing. So within an hour before I was supposed to be at Dania Point, I had called up Lauren, told her about my circumstances, what I wanted to do, and if she could make it. And lucky enough, she was! Because Lauren lives so close, I was able to pick her up and take her with me.

a lot of... Pizza!

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     As Lauren and I had planned, I had met at Lauren’s house and invited our 2 friends, Charlie, and Victoria, to help record our videos. I invited Charlie as he had already taken a year of AICE Media and understood what it was I was looking for in our shots. I also invited Vicky, in case I would need another person and because she lived right across the street from Lauren, it would’ve been fun plans to make and include her in. Our first order of business was to record the first shot in our storyboard. I figured to start here as I needed the studio equipment to use as props and I was only going to find those here. It took a couple shots as I realized this would be one of the longest shots in the music video, so to best assist our timing in the clip, I played the intro to the song on Lauren’s phone for Charlie to use as reference to optimize his timing for the shot. Shortly after I finished my first shot, I decided to jump ahead to one of the last shots in the music video, and work wit