Max's Media Studies Experience
Thursday, March 13, 2025
CCR Production Idea
Wednesday, March 12, 2025
CCR Question 3
This post will focus on the third question of the CCR. There actually won't be a post for the fourth question, since I uploaded a post on the group meeting we had yesterday in place of it. The fourth question is extremely straightforward and easy to answer anyway, so it won't hurt me that much if I don't prepare for it as much as the others. The third question goes as follows:
How did your production skills develop throughout this project?
Planning
Production
Changes
Reflection
Tuesday, March 11, 2025
Group Meeting #2
Today in class we did another group meeting. This meeting was a little bit different from the last one since we were not completely introducing our projects. This time, we introduced what the project is about in broad terms, and mainly focused on how our productions are going so far. Most of us showed off actual footage of our projects and got some advice from each other. We also talked a little about our CCR ideas and brainstormed together a bit to help hatch some. This post will be structured similarly to the last group meeting post, so let's get into it.
The first member of our group that I am going to talk about is Aneesa. She was in my last group meeting, and her project was the one where the planet was about to collide with Earth. I saw some changes to her project and also got to see some clips of it in action. The title used to be Rogue, but now it has changed to "Ataraxia", which means a state of serene calmness. This is due to the nonchalant nature of the protagonist in her film while everything around her is chaotic. She showed us the second half of her project and the shot that the planet would be edited in. It looks really good so far! She was still deciding on what her CCR might look like and was debating on possibly doing a hot ones-style video. That is the YouTube series where a celebrity is interviewed while eating hot wings.
The second group member who spoke was Nikita. The title of his project is still in the works, but he is thinking about calling it "Visionary". It is about Henry Flagler, a historical figure prominent in building the railroads of Florida. The intro would be him imagining a future where Florida's railroads are being built. He showed us a match cut where it goes from a newspaper image into a scene, which I thought was a cool idea. We gave him some ideas on how to make it flow a bit better to achieve the desired effect using keyframes. He is not sure how to do his CCR yet, but we came up with some funny ideas. One of them is him robbing a bank, but inside the vault are the answers to the CCR questions.
Next up is Dylan. His project is called "Mid Night". It has really heavy The Fast and the Furious (2001) vibes from what he showed us. It seems to start off with a car meet that quickly turns into a police chase. The cool thing with the production of it was that he got around 30 of his friends to coordinate a car meet just to shoot for this project. He also somehow got an actual cop to use his cop car and act in the film. Very cool large-scale production! He is still conceptualizing his CCR as of right now.
These are some pictures of his massive production I found on his blog:
After him was Ramos. He is still coming up with the title of his project, but I think the premise of it is actually pretty cool. It is about what professional athletes go through when they have an injury and how it impacts their career. The opening would be the protagonist training really hard after his injury, and while training he would have a flashback to when he got the injury in the first place. He was thinking about having his CCR happen while he races his friends.
The final person in my group other than me was Gonzalo. His project is titled "Insider" and is about someone trying to escape their kidnapper. It would start off with the classic trope where it is in the middle of the film, and the next scene would go back to the beginning of the story. For his project, it would begin with the protagonist being tied up in the bathroom, and trying to escape before being attacked. After this attack, it would flashback to the protagonist on a fishing trip which (if it were an actual film) would then lead up to the events we just saw. In his CCR he is going to bake brownies with a friend while answering the questions. Very cool!
When I went, I pretty much explained the premise of my project and showed them some transitions we had finished while also telling them what was to come. I also made the point of explaining why when the loop happens, the same scene needed to be shot differently in order to keep it interesting. The reception was pretty good, and they gave some tips on how to fix the lighting in some of the shots. I then explained my CCR idea to them and my teacher, and they thought it was really good. I am so happy because I was not sure what they would think about it. I will do a whole blog post explaining the idea for my CCR later this week, so keep your eyes out for that.
That pretty much concludes the second group meeting blog post! It was really fun hearing what other people were making and brainstorming with them on ideas for their CCR. Before I end the post, I do want to mention something. Our teacher said if we were good on our blog posts so far (like if we aren't missing any) then we could just upload the group meeting post in place of one of the CCR questions. I will be uploading this in place of CCR question 4. This is because that is the easiest to answer. I will be using these blog posts to make my script, so I want to blog about only the hardest questions to make that process easier. I will see you tomorrow with my now final CCR question post!
Monday, March 10, 2025
CCR Question 2
How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?
If you cannot decipher my chicken scratch, it is ok. It is an acquired skill that my teachers eventually learn throughout each year I'm unfortunately in their class. Here is what the notes say if you are not trying to read all of that:
- Discuss how you arrived at your target audience - cite necessary research
- Discuss how your production choices, content, etc. work to engage with your target audience
- Next, discuss how you plan to make your film available to audiences
- Response should address realistic options for an amateur filmmaker. For example, you would not release your film worldwide to theatres, this is only an option for major productions.
Target Audience
Distribution
Sources:
- One Hour Later... | SpongeBob Time Card #122. (n.d.). Www.youtube.com. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXcMV-d_2Js
- Oberlo. (2024). YouTube Age Demographics. Oberlo. https://www.oberlo.com/statistics/youtube-age-demographics
Sunday, March 9, 2025
CCR Question 1
The deadline for the Portfolio Project is approaching fast, and now is the time for our Creative Critical Reflection. This will consist of two products that I need to create myself that answer four different questions. The products that we make for this CCR are very open-ended, so as of right now, I am still figuring out how I will actually answer them on camera. I have some ideas floating around, but for this post, I will just stick to figuring out how to answer the first question.
How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?
Genre Conventions We've Used/Not Used
Representation
Sources:
- Conventions of Drama Films. (2011, October 22). SlideShare; Slideshare. https://www.slideshare.net/FarjanaTahmin/conventions-of-drama-films#2
- Max. (2025, March 8). Max’s Media Studies Experience. Blogspot.com. https://maxsmediastudiesexperience.blogspot.com/
Saturday, March 8, 2025
The Credit Effect
The Tutorial
Notes:
- Premiere is less powerful in automatic tracking tools, but there still are some options available
- Still frames are what you want if you are trying to achieve this effect on Premiere
- In the effects control tab, you can change the scale to maintain continuity with distance of the surface
- There are 3D options in the perspective folder, but you should really use the corner pin effect in the distort folder
- Once this effect is selected, you can drag the corners to distort the perspective however you want until it aligns with the target surface
- If there is camera shake, then you can use the warp stabilizer effect to smooth out the shot to make this process easier
- The warp stabilizer effect is also available in the distort folder
- If that does not work, the best course forward is to manually keyframe it (I already understand keyframes, so I won't be writing notes for this section.)
- Keyframes come with a lot of trial and error, but with enough time spent with it it can look perfect
- Another way to track is by using mask tracking
- The way it works is that if you need something in a specific area that moves throughout a scene, (in this tutorial it is a logo in a man's backpack) then properly place it where you want on the first frame of the clip and press play on the mask tracking option.
- This will autogenerate tracking to the item throughout the clip without the need for keyframes
- Mask tracking only works for 2D tracking
What Did We Learn
Sources:
Friday, March 7, 2025
The Editing Dilemma (I'm scared)
CCR Production Idea
In this post I will finally share my idea for the CCR. I have been pretty excited to write out this idea, since it has been in my head f...

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Today we worked on actual dialogue and the script for our project. We figured out a little bit more of who our protagonist is, and how...
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For this post, I will talk about a media theory I wish to integrate into my project. The media theory I chose is Todorov's Narrati...
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It is finally time to talk about the plot. Today in class our group discussed the plot heavily and really tried to reach a consensus s...