May 30, 2011 - FINALLY DONE

I have not made the DVDs yet, but I have finished the film, minus the credits, which won't take long, maybe 30 mins at the most.  I am having a private screening for those that went on the trip tomorrow.  I will be working on the DVDs and the paperwork for my Senior Project in the afternoon, and I will be handing out the 1st 43 copies of the DVDs tomorrow during the Senior Project Exhibit.  Then Wednesday afternoon at 4, there will be the opening of my film in the theater.  Everyone is invited and encouraged to go.  I am proud of my work, and the majority of the stress is gone.  It has been an incredible journey, and a memorable experience.  I am very lucky to be a part of this school, and I am very lucky that this project was approved.  And thank you to everyone who has supported me over these last 3 years.  Had I not come to Proctor, I would not be headed down the road I'm on.  Proctor has made me me, and has allowed me to discover my passions and talents.  This place has changed my life, and has been my home away from home for the last 3 years.  I have never had to deal with the emotions of moving away from home until now.  Graduation from Proctor Academy feels like I am moving away from home.  It is bittersweet.  I know I will be leaving great things, but I know it will allow me to move on to even greater things.  Thank you for the support, and thank you for the life changing experience.  Come watch my film!  It has been an entire term's work, and well over 70 hours of time put into it.  I hope you enjoy!

Weekly Reflection 5/21/11 - 5/27/11

This week has been a long week.  I had to mix my audio myself, adjust all of the levels for the entire movie, finally realizing that I progressively lowered the levels towards the end of the movie and needed to redo it, and start the narration.  I now know why big budget films take months and tons of people to make it happen.  I’m doing the majority of it myself, and it is taking its toll on me, and it has yet to show in the film.  At least I don’t see it.  I show it on Tuesday as a private screening, and I show it on Wednesday to the whole school.  I am nervous, I still have a lot of narrating to do, but I have to get it done.  I know I can.

            I did not get my time sheet in on time, and I don’t know what is going to happen with that, but I have proof of my logged times.  I also know that I have a lot of reviews and evaluations I need to get done over these next few days and nights.  Now that the play is over, I have even more time during the day and during the night to get things done.  I have less than a week left to finish the film, and make at least 43 DVDs of it.  I have the skill and efficiency; I just need to do it. 

            I have been getting a lot of requests, and a lot of comments about how excited people are to see it.  I feel like I am dealing well with the pressure, and it is making me work harder.  It is just that the harder I work, the more I find I need to fix, or realize could be better.  Overall I have been happy with my work on this film.  This has been an incredible experience for me, and it has taught me so much.  I am very lucky to have been given this opportunity.

May 27, 2011 - How Close Am I To Finishing?

I feel like this movie has something that makes it like a fibonacci sequence.  Meaning that I will never actually finish it, I will always get closer and closer and closer, but never the true 100%.  I got more narration done today, finished the highlight film, and finished the trailer yesterday.  I just need to finish this narration.  I had opening night of My Fair Lady tonight, which was AMAZING, and I have the closing night tomorrow.  Then striking the set on Sunday.  I found out that I am busy Sunday night, and I am trying to get my video shown at 3:45 or 4:00 on Wednesday after "Dorm Cleanup," but I haven't heard back from anyone.  That is the only time I can show it.  So I will not be showing it Sunday, I am almost done (still).  I hope I can finish tomorrow.  Then the beginning of the week (1 week after I had planned on working on the DVDs) I will make the DVDs.  I will have 43 copies to give to everyone that went on the trip (depending on who went on the trip, there may be more than 1 per family).  Email me if you want a copy, I can't guarantee I can get it to you by the end of the week.  If you add your address I can send it in the mail.  I logged 4:35 today, and found out I had 26:42 logged for the whole week, and 74:18 for the entire 3 weeks period.  I'm still working, and can still log more, but I only needed 45 hours, and I nearly doubled that.  I am happy with my work so far.  I forgot to hand in my time sheet yesterday, which is not good, but my mentor knows I have worked, he signed the paper, and I have updated each day on here with the hours logged.  Again, keep checking in to see where I am!

May 26, 2011 - Narration Has Begun

Today I logged 5:15 hours.  I have been stressed these last few days because I thought I wouldn't get finished in time.  But today, I finished the preview, met with Swill (Sarah Will) during B block for some pointers on narration.  She gave me some, and I think that is all I needed for ideas on what to say.  I went back to my room, made the trailer (which I can hopefully get approved for tomorrow's assembly), and have narrated the majority of Beijing (around 30 minutes of the movie).  We had our dress rehearsal tonight for My Fair Lady, which went very well, but has drained my energy.  Tomorrow morning I will be attending my first and last polar swim.  For now, it is bed time for me.  I am happy with the day's work, hopefully I can do even more tomorrow.  Keep checking in!

May 25, 2011 - Perpetual Setbacks

Today was a Wednesday, which makes everything harder right off the bat.  I only logged 3 hours today, and I worked on a highlight film I need to have done soon this afternoon, and I met someone in the Live Sports Television aspect of film, and realized (after talking to him for 1:30 hours that I needed to edit my film.  I am really disappointed with my progress today because there was no progress.  This was not the best day for this to happen.  I think I will just ask if an English teacher can watch parts of my film with me, and help me write narration.  It is past the point where I can write it and get it corrected.  I need to write it correct the first time, and I feel that this is the only way I can possibly do this.  Hopefully I will get this thing done by Friday, but I am stressing myself out, and this is not the time for this to happen.  This is a short entry, but I basically wasted this day.  Again, this really was not the day to be like this.  This must be done before Saturday because I will be showing it soon.  I had rehearsal from 6-10:20 tonight, so I am completely exhausted right now, but I can't let it stop me.  If it even slows me down slightly I will not get this film completed.  From now on, there legitimately is no time for errors.  Keep checking in to see where I am in this now slow ending process.

May 24, 2011 - Levels Are Equal

All performances are done, all clip levels have been adjusted, and to my ears they sound fine.  No clips are too loud, none are too soft.  I watched the entire film today listening to the levels, and adjusting things.  I took out a few more clips and I am down to my absolute final edit.  I still have some ideas for narration, but I haven't laid them down yet.  I tend to talk a lot, so I need some help with when, how much, and what I narrate during this film.  Like I said yesterday, most of it is self explanatory.  When I got to the end of Beijing, which is 40 minutes, and the longest section, I didn't realize it had been 40 minutes.  For me, this film is interesting, and it does not feel like an hour and a half by the end.  Then again, I made it, so I am slightly bias and more interested no matter what.  I logged 5:08 hours today, and I will get another 1:30 this afternoon at rehearsal.  I hope to edit the preview tonight, or tomorrow afternoon, and write out the narration this afternoon, and record it tomorrow morning.  I have been getting a lot of questions about when/if I am going to show this film.  I am absolutely terrified to show it, but I am still very much excited to show my work, and what 43 students experienced.  I hope everyone else is excited about it, I am still a little bit behind, but I should be caught up soon.  I may decide to burn the DVDs next week and focus on just finishing the film this week, even though I need to be done this week.  We'll see how the next few days go, then I'll be able to decide.  Keep checking in to see where I am as this exciting and stressful process winds down!

May 23 - So Close, Yet Still SOOOO Far Away

I have less than a week left, I found out that my audio was not mixed, it is Hell Week for My Fair Lady (which you should go see if you are around, dress rehearsal at 7 on Thursday, and Opening night at 7 on Friday, and Closing night at 7 on Saturday, admission is free, but donations are accepted), and I am 2 days behind where I should be.  My audio was not mixed, don't ask why, its a long story, so I kept the performances last to edit, when I could have just edited them all along.  So today I logged 7:30 hours to try and finish up all of the performances and the ENTIRE film so tomorrow I can legitimately work on narration like I wanted to Sunday and today.  Also, Sunday's rehearsal was very busy, I thought I would be able to edit, and I thought I would be able to edit other projects I have on my plate, but I had absolutely no time to do it.  So I lost a day there, and today.  I can't narrate the entire thing, I don't have the time, fortunately, a lot of it is self explanatory, I am just praying that it isn't only self explanatory to me and that everyone can understand it.  I finished all of my editing today, and even though I woke up 45 minutes late, and didn't get started until 8:30, I edited from 8:30 until 2:30 with a 15 minute break at 1:45pm.  Then, since night rehearsals now go until 9:30 or 10pm, in the afternoon, actors get work done, so I edited for another 1:30 until dinner, then had play rehearsal.  I received 75 DVDs today, with over 100 labels and covers to print on.  As long as I get my narration written out and partially recorded tomorrow, I think I can complete this thing on time.  Tomorrow afternoon during rehearsal time, I will edit my preview to show on Thursday or Friday in assembly.  I still don't know when or where I will be showing it for sure, but I will find out soon.  I am stressed beyond belief, but it will all be over in a few days.  I know that Senior Project ends this week, the play goes on this weekend, and I get to see my mom and sister closing night of the play.  That is what I am looking forward to and allowing me to get through this.  Again, the stress easily could have been avoided, but stuff happens.  It is all a learning experience which is what this is about.  Keep checking in to see where I am in the exciting/nerve-racking process.

Weekly Reflection 5/16/11 - 5/21/11

  This week was an amazing week.  All I did every single day was edit.  Over this whole week, I logged 26 hours, and finished up the main editing of the film.  I still have some details to edit, as well as the narration.  But the majority of this coming week is dedicated to formatting and burning DVDs, and making everything perfect.  I learned how important it is to have everything together and ready to go at the start of editing.  I did not have all of my music mixed, and it is taking a little longer than planned, so I can’t truly finish the editing until I get that done.  I wouldn’t say it is wasted time, but I am losing valuable editing and working time in general to wait for something I should have had done earlier.  

     I did experience a lot of stress this week, which highlighted my time-management skills, and my efficiency in general.  I am finished with one of the hardest and definitely most time-consuming parts of this process, and I can honestly say I will not miss it for the next few weeks.  I still love film, but working with a project this size, with this much pressure, for the first time, is definitely not the best feeling in the world.  I work well under pressure, and I feel like I have, but I could have taken steps to prevent the stress level from getting as high as it did.  

  Again, this is still my first time working on such a huge project, and I have been working on it by myself (aside from mixing the audio), so anything I do is an improvement, and a lesson I can learn from in the future.  This week has taught me well, and I know that what I have learned from this week and last will stay with me forever.  This is not something that can easily be forgotten.  I look forward to my final week on Senior Project.  This is when everything will either come together or fall apart.

May 20 - Stage 1: Complete

I think it might be the weather, but I feel like I have been very very slow with my editing.  Today I finished the main editing.  Unfortunately, I can't get an accurate look at things until I get the final audio mixes.  I was told that I should have them by Sunday, hopefully earlier.  That way I will be able to take out some of the clips that don't need to be in, and put them in during the performances.  When I finished today, I had 1:45 edited.  I watched all of Beijing afterwards, and cut it down to 1:35.  Beijing had the most footage that was useable, with important and funny things happening, whereas other cities had a lot of lesser important activity footage.  I think I may actually be able to edit this thing down to 1:15 or less.  I also thought about what I would say for narration, and I realized that there are a lot of quick cuts.  This makes it hard for narration because I don't have enough time to say what I want, so I will either be broad, or sound like a horse racing announcer.  I will need to edit accordingly to fix this problem.  I feel like there is not a lot left, because going through it in my head doesn't take into account possible errors to fix, or how long everything will actually take.  I still feel confident, although stress levels are quickly rising.  The process is nearing an end, so keep checking in to see where I am!

May 19, 2011 - The End is Near

I had planned on finishing the main editing of the film today, but unfortunately, I was very slow with editing.  I attended the 1st two class periods today for Band (which we perform tomorrow and Saturday), and Choir (which I perform with at Senior Dinner and Graduation in 2 WEEKS!!!!!).  I logged 4:12 today, and have the film at 1:36.  Tonight I will be editing more, and hopefully finish it.  If not, it WILL be done tomorrow, and I have been told that I will get the final mixes of the songs tomorrow, so I will be able to finish up the concerts tomorrow as well.  I will hopefully be able to finish up the complete editing, review what I have and take out what isn't needed to shorten it down to around 1:15, if not shorter.  Any work done Saturday and Sunday is strictly dedicated to working on writing the narration.  I still don't know if the people that have been suggested to narrate will work out as far as the voice, and time goes.  I think I will just do it myself.  The rest of next week will purely be for creating and burning the DVDs.  I am just about 2/3 of the way through Senior Project, and I am continuing to work hard on making this film.  Keep checking in to see how this process finishes up over the next week.

May 18, 2011 - Almost There

Today I had less time to edit, since it was a Wednesday.  I should be able to get another hour or two later on.  I logged 3:23 hours today.  I am working on Day 7/8.  They are combined because day 7 was the long bus ride to Shanghai, and a few short activities, and day 8 was a short activity with a performance.  I have 1:20 of the film edited.  I have Shanghai, and Hong Kong left to edit.  Then I will make the credits, and go back and re-edit anything I need to.  Beijing takes up 40 minutes of the film, and although I told people it will be around 1:30 in length, I have decided that I would rather have less, and people wanting more, than having too much and losing people's attention.  I will add extra features (maybe an original cut or something) in the DVD.  My goal (that I just thought of, and is only a side goal, after I finish my others) is to have a DVD, and a CD of the songs I used in the movie that the Choir performed.  I will be able to finish the rest of the editing by either tonight or tomorrow.  Then I will need to work on the narration.  I have allergies right now, so my voice will probably not be the best thing.  I am not sure who I want, but I can figure that out afterwards.  Worst case scenario, I narrate it myself.  My plan is all next week is dedicated to making the DVD format.  I can easily make the preview I want to show in assembly over the weekend, or in my spare time.  I am in the process of gaining materials and ideas for the DVD format.  I will just say that there will be a lot on it, and it will not disappoint.  It will be professional looking.  I am nearing the end of the hardest part of this process, so keep checking in to find out where I am in this exciting process!  It will all be over soon!

May 17, 2011 - Continuing On

Today, I woke up with an allergy explosion, eyes barely open, stuffy, and feeling really slow.  I didn't want  to make it worse by singing or playing the trumpet, so I did not attend either of my classes today.  I was able to log 6:08 hours today.  I re-edited some of days 4/5, and edited the majority of day 6.  I have 1:07 hours edited so far, it is getting a little long, and I still need to make sure I don't lose viewer attention.  I feel like my posts are very similar from day to day, and I am sorry, but there isn't much more to say except that I edited, looked over, re-edited, and thought about organization ideas.  I edited 6 hours today, and I feel like I am only slightly further than I was yesterday.  Tomorrow is Wednesday, but I need to find a way to edit at least 5 hours.  The overall film needs to be done by Friday, so early on next week (maybe even the weekend, which is my plan) I can work on writing and recording the narration.  I am having so much doing this project, and I am very happy I attended Proctor Academy.  Had I not, don't even get me started on where I could be, I would not have discovered my passion for filmmaking, and who knows if this large of a project would have been possible.  This is what I love to do, this is what I know I want to do for a living, and I know that I can complete this project.  Keep checking in to know where I am in this process!  I plan to have a lot more finished tomorrow.

May 16, 2011 - Layin' It Down

My goal is to have the entire movie finished by the end of this week, and spend extra hours over the weekend writing out the narration so I can record over the weekend and early on next week.  Then I will need to make a quick 2 minute preview for the movie screening.  With this time crunch, I knew I needed to get a lot done today.  I do know that the group spent the most time in Beijing, and we did the most in Beijing.  The city does take up 40 minutes of the movie, and it will need to be cut down, but the section for Xi'an is only about 7 minutes, and the following cities were experienced for a short time.  I am stressed about this week, but the good kind; where you know your goals, you know how well you work under these circumstances, you know your deadline, and you know it can be done, so you push yourself to work above and beyond to exceed the expectations.  The other movies I have made have set the bar for this movie really high.  Where I am right now is far below where my expectations are, and this week I NEED to get the entire movie done.  Next week is Hell Week for the play, so getting extra hours in at night time is not at all possible, so I will need to work diligently in the afternoons to get this film out.  It is still early in the process, I did log 4:30 hours today, and I am onto Day 6 of the movie at 53:47 for the overall film length.  I look forward to seeing where this goes.  Continue to check in to see where I am in this exciting process of the making of "Proctor In China."

Weekly Reflection 5/9/11-5/14/11

This has been an incredible week.  I can definitely say that I have made great progress on my film.  I learned how important organization truly is.  One of my favorite quotes, “Perfect prior planning prevents piss poor performance,” really is true.  Because I logged all of the pictures and film I took in by date and activity order, I was able to find everything I needed for this week.  I now have 47 minutes of solid film, and I am happy with the majority of it.  It is a 1^st cut, and it is meant to be rough, but I have more than I thought I would.  

I did not like how slow the beginning was and how long it took for me to get up to speed.  I have run into roadblocks, but they have not stopped me from continuing on with my project.  I have 24 hours of editing and working 100% on my film, and although I will probably end up cutting the 47 minutes I have down to 30 minutes, having more is better.  

This is all very new to me.  I am used to filming sports, spending a few hours putting the clips to music, and having a 2-minute video I can show in assembly.  I traveled 7,000 miles to have 1 chance to capture an 11 day adventure without any mishaps, and spend 3 weeks putting what I have together into a feature length film that makes sense.  

This is the biggest project I have ever had to do, and the most important so far in my life.  The point of this senior project is to see how I do with specific deadlines, and basically seeing what it would be like to be doing this for a living.  As of now, I am absolutely loving this experience.  There is a lot of pressure and stress that comes out of this, but it makes me work harder, and I am realizing my goal.  If I stay on this track, I will have a great film by the end of the three-week period.  I look forward to seeing how I can adjust as the deadline approaches.

May 13, 2011 - Staying Focused

Last night, I previewed a short 5-10 minute section to someone, and I did not get the reaction I had hoped for.  When I am editing, I need to be sure that I edit as if I never went to China and don't know anything that happened.  That is where I had the problem, I made a section that I thought was funny earlier in the day, then after I had significantly less energy and less interest, I realized that the section was not really that funny.  It was too long, and it lost my attention.  So today's goal was to watch everything I had to see if I had similar problems.  I encountered a lot more of those situations than I should have.  I also will be narrating this film, so even though there is nothing absolutely key, or very entertaining/interesting to watch, there will be something said that could hook the interest of people.  Since the narration comes much later on in the post-production process, this imagination of what will be said needs to be written down, and timed up to save time, and truly see where this movie is going.  I am still going full speed and being very meticulous with my work, I just need to make sure I get things right the first time.  Getting closer and closer to the final screening means there is less time for redo's, so avoiding them completely will be my best bet at completing this project prior to the deadline (which is a necessity if I want to make a professional looking DVD for each of the 43 people that went on this trip).  I have edited for 22 hours so far this week, I logged in 4 hours and 10 minutes today.  Keep checking in to see where I am in the editing process of this monster project!

May 12, 2011 - Full Throttle

*Blogger.com was down the 12th, so I am entering my post from that day today.  I will have another post up later tonight regarding today's work*

Today was Earth Day, so I didn’t get as many hours in as I had hoped, so I edited during study hall as well to make up for lost time.  By the end of the night, I had reached 5 hours and 47 minutes of editing time, which is less than I thought I would have for the day, but more than I had by the time play rehearsal came around.  Today I worked on the organization and how I would go about showing what we did the 2^nd day, and the performance.  It is an interesting order I edited the days, but I think it works now.  Then I edited the concert in Beijing.  The song I used was not re-recorded when we returned to the U.S. like all of the other songs I will be using.  Unfortunately, the tempo between the concert I used it from, and the key are slightly off, so I need to use what I have, and deal with it.  There will not be any troubles of this sort with the other concerts because they were recorded in a more controlled environment, rather than a performance.  I have 47 minutes of the film.  I feel like I lost attention when watching it back, so I do have some editing to do to maintain viewer interest.  But I will edit the rest of it first.  I am still very much excited about this project.  With every film I make, it is a slow start because I don’t have enough to work with just yet, or I don’t know where to start.  I often will put random clips in to start, and I end up taking them out by the end, but it pushes me to start the process.  Once I get going, there is not much that can truly take me away from editing.  I am at that point with this movie.  Any spare time I have I plug my hard drive in and I edit.  The nice part about this is that I am instantly 110% focused on editing as soon as the program opens up.  I feel like these next few days will be the most challenging, yet the most productive, until I finish my rough cut.

May 11, 2011 - Filling in the Gaps

Today was a more productive day, although I only logged 3 1/2 hours.  I started at 8:09am and finished up at 11:30am.  Since it was a Wednesday, I didn't have as much time to work.  I do plan on making up for that tomorrow night during study hall hours.  I now have the first 3 days completed.  The Great Wall section was completed before the start of Senior Project, and the gaps I had at the close of yesterday have been filled and the 24:48 minutes I now have are smooth and full; no empty spaces.  Now I don't have anything for day 2, which is when the group took a tour of Hutong (the older section of Beijing) by rickshaw, and had a concert.  I went with non-performers to the Forbidden City again, but I was not allowed to film or take pictures in the places we toured, and I also had a problem that I have 15-20 minutes for the 1st day alone.  My previous plan was to pick one song to play from each concert, and have it recap the trip.  I had an epiphany last night, and I decided that in order to keep the Beijing section to its shortest, that I will include the parts of day 2 I missed in the recap of the City.  We did the most in Beijing, so I don't think I have anything to worry about with the rest of the cities.  Keep checking in to know how the film is progressing!

I also found this on Yahoo just now, and I thought it was interesting that as soon as I finish up the section that mentioned the Forbidden City, this happens.
Forbidden City Heist

May 10, 2011 - Minor Delays for Detail

Today, I got a little too excited with how the film looked, and couldn't move any further until I made what I have look good.  I still have not done too much as far as sound, but I made the flow of the film smoother and easier to follow.  I logged a solid 5 hours today, and hope to get around the same tomorrow, although it is a Wednesday.  Today I did not procrastinate at all, and got down to business at 8:08, and went non-stop until 10:30, which is when I went to my E block class.  I edited more during D block, had my lunch, and was back and editing by 1:10.  I finished up my day at 2:30, and I feel confident and content with what I have so far.  I still have 25 minutes according to the timecode, I have just filled in a lot of the empty spaces, so I have closer to 25 legitimate minutes of footage, whereas yesterday I had around 7 minutes of empty spaces.  Tomorrow I work on editing Day 2, and part of Day 3.  Day 2 has a concert, so that will be done when the music is done getting mixed.  And Day 3 was the Great Wall excursion which is already done.  Stay tuned for more on how the film has progressed.

May 9, 2011: Starting Up

Today was my first day editing my Proctor In China documentary.  I attended my E block class first thing this morning, then I arrived in the tech lab at 9:05 and began setting up and getting myself situated.  Jim was out today, but I received help from Anna when I needed it.  Tomorrow will be my last day testing out the setup for my "work station" down in the tech lab.  Today I just used my personal laptop to edit.  I learned how important it is to keep my clips organized when I download them during the filming process.  Fortunately I kept a log every day of the trip.  I logged what tapes I used, how many minutes were used, what we did that day, and when I put it into Final Cut Pro, I organized them into folders according to the day and the activity.  That made today a lot easier.  Thank you mom, dad, and Kristen for teaching me to think/plan ahead!  After taking about an hour or so to figure out how and which computers I could use to edit, I began to work.  I am editing everything in a very rough way right now.  I have about 25 minutes with a lot of empty space in between, and clips that don't flow together.  I edited a lot of our first day.  Tiananmen Square, and the Forbidden City are all that I worked on today.  I have previously worked on the Great Wall section, the Pre-Trip section, and the intro to the Hong Kong section.  My plan is to edit as much of each day, in order, as possible.  Hopefully by the end of the week I will have a rough cut of the entire film so I can begin to add the details that will make this film a quality one.  As a first day, I think today was fairly productive.  Tomorrow I will be in at 8:15 editing away.  I am happy with the footage I have to work with, and I can't wait to make it.  Just so everyone knows, my goal is to have this be a feature length film, I am expecting it to be just over an hour in length after everything is cut down.  Keep checking in to find out my progress!