Last Post :(

Hey guys! Here is my very last post! Hope you enjoy my CCR! 

AICE Media Studies A Level CCR: https://drive.google.com/file/d/12i3T_vfE_o9klk5LoumXiFIykI-thPs6/view?usp=sharing

Thank you guys for following me on this journey over the past two years! This will definitely be a project I will always remember. For the last time…

                                                                                                                            ~rtmedias :(

Final Products!

Hey guys! I can’t believe we are finally done! Here is our final portfolio project!

Short film: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1GopL8JM4zxgJbHKuVsOPvcVbRzkFjYgm/view

Website: www.boxedofficialfilm.wixsite.com/boxed

Postcard: 

FRONT

BACK

Thank you so much for sticking around! I hope you enjoyed! Stay tuned for my CCR. Until next time...

                                                                                  ~rtmedias

Reflecting Back...

Hey guys! As I’m coming to the very end of this project, I thought it might be good to reflect on the past.

If I had to describe this portfolio project in one word, it would be WOW! At the start of the year, no one ever expected to hit these roadblocks forcing us to stay at home and physically distance ourselves from one another. Life was going pretty smooth up until March and everything began rolling downhill rapidly, both in my personal life and in terms of this project. Nick and I had an idea that we both liked. We spent a few hours inside of Jersey Mike’s brainstorming and finally agreed on one. We came up with an entire schedule to follow for our project in terms of when we would film and edit. Unfortunately, the moment we left for STN, our tv competition, things began to fall apart as the Coronavirus began to spread rapidly all over the world. Our competition ended up getting cancelled after arriving to Washington DC and once we got back home, school was closed and we were moved to online classes to social distance. Due to social distancing regulations, we wouldn’t be able to find actors, film together, or use the various locations we had planned. The Coronavirus pretty much forced us to start on a fresh slate after spending a few weeks planning our previous film idea. However, Nick and I didn’t give up. Of course we were both bummed out that our final senior moments no longer existed, but we still knew we had to get this done and we wanted to do a good job on it. Nick and I didn’t really have any ideas at first for our short film but then I began talking to some of our tv friends and they were able to lead us into a good direction. Since Nick has his whole family quarantined with him, we decided it would be better if he filmed and edited the short film since we would have a few actors, as opposed to only using my dad since my mom still has work if I were the one to film. Since I had a better understand and vision for the storyline, I wrote most of the script. I would ask Nick to look over it occasionally and he would edit it to enhance the story. One he filmed, he sent me the pictures using Google Drive and I began working on the website and postcard. Nick and I previously discussed some layout ideas for the website so it was pretty simple to put together since the idea was already envisioned. Everything is coming together really well and I think in the end, it may have been good that we changed our idea. This idea was more simplistic yet I think we pulled it off well. 

Overall, the main things I really learned from this experience was perseverance and making do with what we have. Sometimes we tend to overlook small things that we typically take for granted. So in way, the Coronavirus forced us to really look around and see what we were able to create from the confines of our homes. Nick and I have worked together in the past but I truly think that we are unstoppable now. We overcame so many obstacles that came are way and we helped each other the entire time. This may have even brought us closer as friends even though we did have moments of frustration, but we always found a way to make things work out. I’m glad that we were able to work together to create one of our last pieces during our high school experience. Stay tuned for my next post to see the final products! Until next time…

                                                                                                                   ~rtmedias

Sources:

https://media.giphy.com/media/xUOxfh6ZM75efM3Bqo/source.mp4

Grind Time!

Hey guys! As you may know, our project is due on Sunday! This post is going to be complied of a few different topics Nick and I discussed throughout the week.

First off, I just wanna say I’m so proud of how Nick and I have been working together this week! Earlier in the week, while Nick was filming, I decided to look at the list of font choices Nick took a look at while I was writing the script. He used the site 1001fonts.com which had a wide variety.

He was telling me how he liked the idea of sticking to a handwritten style of a font to fit the vibe of handwritten labels on boxes and I liked his idea. In the end, we decided to use the font named Berthusen.

Nick was able to finish filming the entirety of the short film on Monday. On Sunday and Monday, he was able to get some pictures to use as key art for the postcard and website and sent them over in my direction! Nick is well versed in Photoshop compared to me so he helped me adjust some elements such as photoshopping the curtain to fit the entirety of the wall. Once he was able to do that, he sent me the Photoshop file and I continued to adjust the saturation and blue tint until we were both pleased with how it looked. 

Here is a before and after:

BEFORE

AFTER

Here are some drafts of the postcard I created as well:

I was really happy when Nick told me he liked the postcard! I’m not the best at Photoshop so it took me a while to figure out what to adjust but thanks to Google, I was able to do it to our liking! Nick and I have finalized our postcard, but you guys will have to come back to see our final choice! :)

As for the website, I am pretty much completely done with that as well. Nick and I wanted to keep the website as simplistic as possible so it is easy to navigate through. Here are a few pictures of the layout as well as some designs I created in Photoshop for the website:

Nick is currently editing the short film and he said he will be completely done with it tomorrow! He’ll send it over to me and if we need to make any changes, we still have the time to do so. Nick and I are at the home stretch and I can’t wait to see it all together! Be sure to stick around to see the final products! Until next time…

                                                                                                 ~rtmedias

All the Essentials!

Hey guys! Throughout the week, Nick and I were able to come up with a title for our film opening! It took some time but eventually we both agreed on one. Earlier in the week, Nick wrote down some potential ideas for film titles on the Collaborative iCloud Note we have. Here were some of the ideas he had:

-Home

-Visit

-Nostalgia

-Nostos

I thought that “Home” and “Visit” felt too simple. The one that stuck out to Nick was “Nostalgia” but as we were discussing it over FaceTime, I told him that I think it gives away the plot involving Olivia’s blanket. I felt like the viewer would be able to easily determine what the story would be about within the first few scenes and he agreed. I liked Nick’s idea of “Nostos” since it’s the Latin word for returning home, but I felt like it was out of place. We portrayed the characters to act as a typical white family so having a Latin title seemed off to me. We ended up getting side tracked and started discussing the layout of the website. As we were discussing that, Nick mentioned how he liked the idea of having a pop up page which would be a box, representing the box in the film with her blanket and noise making toy. He ended up creating a rough draft of the pop up page for the website and then I had to go eat dinner so we ended the call. Later that night, it hit me. Why not name the film “Boxed”? So I sent Nick a text and asked him for his opinion on it and he said he liked it. 

Therefore, the official title of our short film is… “Boxed”.

I also began thinking of credits for the short film. I’m waiting on Nick to get back to me about these so that it’s official but here’s what I came up with:

Directed by: Nick Ramos 

Produced By: Rhea Thomas

Written by: Rhea Thomas

Cinematography by: Nick Ramos

Edited by: Nick Ramos

I can’t remember if I stated this previously but Nick filmed and will be editing the entirety of the short film due to quarantine procedures in place. I will be working on the website and postcard once I receive the pictures from Nick.

Thank you guys for sticking around! Nick and I are approaching our very last week to work on this project before the short film, website, and postcard are all due! Make sure to check back to see the final products! until next time…

                                                                                                                                     ~rtmedias

Sources:

https://media.giphy.com/media/l4FGnDqTrkewTIuRy/source.mp4

https://media.giphy.com/media/J1jmN9HW07HoRTe9X5/source.gif

Finalized Script and Actors!

Hey guys! As promised, here is the finalized script! I ended up writing most of the script and then I had Nick read it over and make adjustments.

Nick will begin filming on Friday with his family! Nick's sister, Sabrina Ramos, will be playing Olivia, the daughter. Nick's mom, Peggy Ramos, will be playing Olivia's mom and lastly, Nick's dad, Alex Ramos, will be playing Olivia's dad. Thank you so much to the Ramos family for helping us out!! Be sure to stick around for more updates! Until next time...

                                                                                                                   ~rtmedias

Final Schedule!

Hey guys! This is going to be a short post but I wanted to let you know what our schedule is for the rest of this project. As you may have heard, we had to start fresh due to the circumstances we had to work around from the Coronavirus, so we were unable to stick to our original schedule. 😕

As you may notice on the calendar, our advisor has pushed back the due date of the CCR! I’m so happy we get more time to work on that and make sure we provide quality content for it. Nick and I know how short on time we are so we are making sure we actually stick to this schedule! Be sure to check back soon for more updates! Until next time…

                                                                                                                  ~rtmedias

Scriptwriting Commences!

Hey guys! I have finally started writing the script. Here is a sneak peak and a look at my progress so far! 

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

I'm hoping to get the script done as soon as possible so Nick can begin filming with his family. Until next time...

                                                                                                                                     ~rtmedias