Bittersweet End

And here's the last part: my CCR! Sad to wish this project goodbye, but I'll be back next year!

Here's My Movie!

I hope you enjoy our COVID-sponsored art piece. Robert and I had a blast (more like a lot of tension headaches but that's ok) and I'm excited to upload my CCR!

In retrospect, this project could've benefitted a LOT from extra time and extra planning. However, due to COVID-19, that was a huge constraint. You can't plan for a pandemic to completely wipe out all of the plans you had. This project could've been better, but regardless, it's the result of the best efforts considering our situation. I'm proud of it, but I know there's much to improve, particularly with the rushed audio.

Project Reflection

I'm relatively satisfied with my project, but I do admit that there is a lot that could've been done better. However, I will be gentle with myself because a lot of the things I'm unsatisfied with were due to COVID-19 and outside of my control.

I wish I weren't the main actress so I could've been behind the camera. While I'm satisfied with almost all the shots we got, I feel like there are some things that you just can't satisfactorily (is that even a correct use of this word?) explain to another person. I wish there was more movement but also it wasn't fully possible given what we were trying to convey and my lack of editing prowess to animate multiple scenes (one is far more than enough).

Looking back, my costume didn't really convey the sci-fi feel that I wanted it to. I wish I leaned harder into the retro aspect of it, but I did have literally just one day to put it together and I feel that, given the restraints that I had, I handled it pretty well.

I do regret the holograms, sadly. While it looks really cool, it caused a major headache with our opening scene because of the editing. I wish we took another route while simultaneously being really proud of what we did.

I really enjoyed keeping up with the blog, but as the world essentially crashed and I started working 20ish hours a week, it started feeling like a chore and that feeling extended to my project as well. I learned that I should have only one big commitment when doing a media project like this. I don't think I want to stretch myself this thin again.


I enjoyed working with Robert. I think we had a good partnership and I'm glad I chose someone who had a similar creative vision. I think we'll be proud of the finished work once this is all done.

More Color Grading

So I don't have any clips to share, however, I did want to share my color grading and hologram creating processes!

So I used these two tutorials to help me out:

So I essentially just make the whites whiter, the blacks blacker, the highlights more highlighty, and the shadows shadowier! It ends up with a more intense color that gets rid of the washed-out look one can have, especially when filming on a phone camera. Then, I white balance to make sure the scene isn't too warm. This is especially important since I'm going to add a blue tint and it won't look right unless there's a bit of an equal balance with everything.

Then, I add a filter! I'm using Adobe Premiere Pro, so I use the SL BLUE MOON filter. I find that the blue doesn't wash out the scene while also making it look, well, blue!

If there's no hologram in the scene... I'm done! If there is, I follow the hologram tutorial. 

It's not very complicated but it is time consuming.

Crying in My Bed Because I Made a Hologram and I Feel So Accomplished

Hi this was really difficult even though it's the simplest hologram but I'm literally so proud of myself so I'm sharing more progress!

Anyways so that's just what it looks like with one hologram. I added in Donna's hologram and it looks cluttered but in a good way because the restaurant is really plain otherwise.

Color Grading

So I've decided that color grading and putting everything together before tackling the hologram would be a lot easier for me because the hologram feels so intimidating.

I decided to have it be relatively high contrast and have blue be a very prominent color. This is going to be a short post, but do enjoy this short scene showing off our colors!