Media While Quarantined

   Socializing is an extremely important activity for everybody and the sake of their mental and emotional health. While it's tough for everybody to quarantine themselves and confine themselves to their four walls, with nobody but family for weeks on end, this is especially difficult for those who need routine and consistent socializing to help take care of the mental health that they already need extra help to take care of. I am one of these people, since I have ADHD among the common comorbodities that come alongside ADHD, this has been especially difficult. Nothing beats proper socializing, which is speaking with people you enjoy spending time with face to face in person, however of course this is not plausible with the extreme importance of social distancing to try and stop the spread of this pandemic as quickly as possible and to make it easier for our healthcare workers who are working tirelessly to treat patients with the virus, and coming up with a cure or some sort of vaccination for COVID-19.
  This said, I don't know where my headspace would be during this quarantine if it weren't for media. Like I mentioned, nothing beats proper socializing but in times like this, the media and it's different forms are the next best thing. The most obvious form being social media, especially the most popular platforms right now which are Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat, YouTube, and TikTok. Through these platforms we can empathize with each other, because we are all collectively going through the exact same thing right now. It also gives us a way to communicate with friends in fun ways. We can start new hobbies and share them with people in a way that promotes this chain of creativity for when there's not much else to do. TikTok is especially good for this, with people creating new dances to different songs for people to learn this gets us to be active in a fun away. I also love to follow the artists who promote their art on TikTok, who also create their own challenges and as an artist it has fueled my creativity so much considering I can't draw much inspiration from the physical world right now. I have also been teaching myself how to play the guitar through YouTube videos, and what better time than right now to keep learning!  People are using this time to make YouTube channels and TikTok content now that they have the time and enough boredom to begin a new project they may have been too hesitant to do before. As for Instagram, Twitter, and Snapchat they are also wonderful sites to keep in contact with your friends and even to make new ones! People all over the world are advertising making quarantine group chats to meet new people to talk to, which is a fantastic way to further understand different cultures and lives, and will really help develop empathy for another during these trying times. They have been especially useful in finding out what's going on in the world right now, things I may not have even heard about.
  Another incredibly useful form of media, though not much to do with socializing, are streaming platforms such as Netflix, Disney+, Hulu and Amazon. Personally, I've been watching a lot of Disney+ and Netflix. Netflix has especially been wonderful for some social connection because of a feature they have on Google Chrome, Netflix Party Google Chrome Extension. Once downloaded among all that you would Netflix Party with, you can pick a movie, share the link, and watch whatever was picked together. It includes helpful features , like when one person pauses the movie, it pauses for everybody else, same with playing, rewinding or fast forwarding. There is also a chatbox, so everyone can text throughout the viewing without having to pause or reach for their phones and can pay attention to the content. I have been using this a lot with my friends and girlfriend, it makes for an interesting movie viewing "hangout" or "date" and can be a lot of fun. I don't believe any other streaming service provides such an option, however I have also recently discovered an app called Rave. Rave allows you to do the exact same thing as the Netflix Party extension, not only with Netflix but with YouTube and music streaming services too.
  Finally, last but certainly not least (it is in fact one of the more important points to cover here) is the fact that most of our educational experience requires online sources. Out of all eight of my classes, only two have never relied on online sources to complete assignments, projects, or homework. While in the rest of them it is usually a combination of online and old fashioned pen-and-paper learning, they all rely on online heavily. I have been doing online learning within my classes since the fifth grade, which was the first year the education system really started integrating technology in the classroom. Without years of using these resources, we may not have been properly equipped to transfer from a classroom setting to an online setting nearly as easily. Let alone lack of media at all, then we wouldn't be able to whatsoever. Using resources such as Canvas, Google Drive and all of its sub-features (Google Docs, Slides, e.t.c), Zoom, Microsoft Teams, e.t.c. have aided in making this as smooth a transition as possible. Though there are currently some complications, mainly with Canvas as it is currently overwhelmed and doesn't have enough servers to function for all the students trying to log in at the same time, once it does work it's easy to navigate since I have been using it since the very beginning of high school. The positives outweigh the negatives to online learning by a lot. The only negatives being lack of socializing and having a more delayed response to any questions about a particular lesson, since we have to use email. The positives though, is that unless there is a scheduled Zoom or Microsoft Teams conference for a specific time and date, completing the lessons and assignments are much easier to do and more convenient for a flexible schedule.
  Overall, media while in quarantine has been vital to keep me level-headed and has given me as much of a structured day as being in quarantine will allow me to. After a while I'll admit it gets boring mindlessly scrolling through social media, and rotating between the same three apps, but balancing my media consumption healthily with other activities such as chores, taking walks in non- crowded places for some fresh air, making art, reading books, e.t.c. has helped me keep busy with and without media. Though it needs to be a healthy balance, I'm finding the media use needs to be there especially now as it is my only connection to the outside world and form of communication with those outside of my house.

Rescheduling Filming

  Many of my posts during this time will have much to do with quarantine, since it is a major obstacle in how I plan to go about finishing this project. Just as of recently, Sun Sentinel posted an article on the 27th discussing the new quarantine policy for Broward County which is that violators could be arrested and jailed for 60 days or fined $500. This is going to be a major issue for filming, mainly in having my main actress being able to return for the final shots. As of right now, I do not have a solid schedule for how the rest of my filming will go, I will first need to communicate with Morgan with what works for the both of us and what doesn't. As of next week, I will be working on the construction of the radio prop, including vlogs, and will start uploading and editing the footage I already have to make the rest easier.

My DIY Radio Prop: pictures, materials, steps

How to make a realistic cardboard radio

Example of the end result

Materials:

-  Pieces of cardboard box in the common size of three A4 sheets

- Paint

- Contact paper 

- 10 tooth picks

- 2 caps of soda bottles

- Hot glue

Step 1) Cut and assembling the parts.

  Print the pictures of the cut, paste on cardboard, and cut out the parts. Then, make three segments, a quad a cut to more frontal part without the holes of the speaker and the buttons and a rectangle to be bent and glued around the skeleton of the radio. After, place the "speaker" in front of a circle with tooth picks.

Step 2) Pasting the contact paper

  Cut contact with drawings on it (I will just replace the contact with paint.) Use bottle caps as buttons and dials, and secure them with hot glue.

Step 3 is about the electronic circuiting, which I will not be doing this.

citation: Instructables. “Recycled Cardboard Radio.” Instructables, Instructables, 3 Nov. 2017, www.instructables.com/id/Recycled-Cardboard-Radio/.

Legalities of Using "Alexa", an Amazon Product

    As per my last posting, I mentioned that finding a radio will be a difficult prop considering the limited areas surrounding me selling anything similar to what I need, and the fact that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, I cannot leave my home to shop for anything non-essential. That said, I did some research on using any Amazon product within a production, specifically their product "Alexa". What I found leads me to believe that it is best to stray from using this product from my film opening, both for legal and artistic direction reasons. When I went into Amazon's website, and on the Help: Conditions of Use page, it doesn't say much except for within the copyright section in which it states: "All content included in or made available through any Amazon Service, such as text, graphics, logos, button icons, images, audio clips, digital downloads, data compilations, and software is the property of Amazon or its content suppliers and protected by United States and international copyright laws. The compilation of all content included in or made available through any Amazon Service is the exclusive property of Amazon and protected by U.S. and international copyright laws."

With the most obvious point in mind, Alexa is an Amazon product and since it would be seen right in the beginning of the opening, it would be under the images portion of the copyright law. Not only this, but when brainstorming how I want those first few scenes to pop up, an Alexa device just doesn't fit artistically the way I envision it. As for the sound part, anything that is asked of Alexa she repeats back to you, which would have to be heard in the film opening, making it under the audio portion of the copyright law.

  After researching this, I came to the conclusion that it's best to be safe rather than sorry when it comes to the legal portion of this piece and decided not to use Alexa. However, artistically I don't agree with that statement at all. That is why since I won't be able to purchase an old radio of any sort, I am going to gather a bunch of cardboard, a carving knife, look up pictures of what I want it to look like as well as watching tutorials and looking up pictorials on how to make one, and then I will finally paint it, all of which I will be documenting on a vlog and posting within the following week. I have plenty of time to do so now that I am under self quarantine. It'll be my first time ever doing anything of the sort but it is ultimately the best option, and risks are important to take within art. It will also help show just how dedicated I am to taking this project seriously. Therefore, I will be attaching a tutorial and/or pictorial in my next posting with the supplies list I need and the steps.

More COVID-19 Updates!!

  Hello,  things are proving to be quite difficult and a little stressful as time goes on and I am unable to get as much done as the day before due to constant new strict quarantine rules. As you know, finding props was difficult to do and is now even more so, I mentioned that I will be taking a modern alternative route. My idea for that so far is to use my Alexa. I will be doing research on the legalities of that, which i will be including in my upcoming posts. If that is not possible I will just use a phone playing music instead. In regards to the outdoor filming, that is going to be taken out and replaced with some more indoor scenes, and I have some ideas for that, those scenes will be replaced by the flashback idea I had and allows for more time to do so within my time frame. For now, going outside in public is just too risky a position to put myself or my cast in. I deeply apologize for the lack of quality within my most recent postings, this week has been extremely disorienting with all of the COVID-19 information, news and need to start nationally socially isolating. My next week’s postings will be back to their normal standard of care and quality I usually do my best to maintain.

Editing Techniques Part 2

How will I utilize these techniques?

  Cutting is most definitely inevitable within this piece. It is a part of the majority of films and other productions out there. So are rolls, especially so in my own film opening because I have to provide the opening credits As for the rest, I have already come up with many ways I could use them in my film opening. For example, as soon as I saw the term J cut, I knew that would be used in the very beginning. The screen would be black for about five seconds as a song is playing in the background, and the title appears, showing the subject of the sound after it had been playing for a little while. Jump cuts can be beneficial for shortening the time so that I can fit it within the time frame. The montage editing technique suits the first thirty seconds of what I have already filmed to convey a message and emotion immediately from the start, so even though all I will be producing of my story is the first two minutes of it, the audience can already develop an understanding of the kind of outcome this film will have, as well as the underlying message of it.

Editing Techniques Part 1

  Since I have filmed half of the production opening already, and will soon begin editing, I figured it was highly important to do some extra research on editing techniques, and explore my options. To begin with, I am going to go over every term. Then, I will discuss how I can utilize each technique within my piece, how it works and how it may not work.

Cut - A transition where one shot is immediately followed by another. This is a commonly used     technique within film editing in general

Continuity Editing - Visual editing where shots are cut together in a clear and linear flow of uninterrupted action. This editing technique serves to maintain a continuous line of time and space.

Continuity Error - When the actions or elements of a scene don't match across shots.

Cross Cutting - Used to give the illusion that two storylines are happening at the same time by rapidly cutting back and forth between them.

Cutaway - The interruption of a continuously filmed action that is related to said action.

Dissolve - When the end of one shot overlaps the start of the next one to create a gradual scene transition.
Eyeline Match - A technique that lets the audience know what a character is looking at by utilizing a closer shot of their eyes looking at something, and then cutting to whatever it is they are looking at.

Fade - A visual effect used to indicate a change in time and place.

Iris - Not usually used in cinema anymore, though extremely popular during the silent era, a wipe that is a growing or shrinking circle depending on whether the film is opening or closing.

J Cut - An editing technique that first allows the audience to hear the sound from a shot, and then see it shortly after.

Jump Cut  - An abrupt cut that creates a lack of continuity between shots by leaving out parts of the action.
                                           ex: In the Mood for Love (2000)

L Cut - An editing changeover between one shot and another in film, where the visual and audio shift at different times.

Matched Cut - A cut joining two shots with matching compositional elements. This helps to create strong continuity of action.
                                                     ex: A Space Odyssey (2001)

Montage - A sequence of shots assembled in juxtaposition of one another, to create an emotional impact, condense a story, or convey and idea.
                                                           ex: Psycho (1960)

Roll - Graphics or text that move up and down the screen, typically used for opening or ending credits.

Rough Cut -  The first editing pass done for a film. Usually is polished up for final takes.

Shot Reverse Shot - The alternating of a series of over-the-shoulder shots, used to convey a conversation taking place to capture who is saying what, and their reactions.