Final Reflection

 As this process comes to an end, it's hard not to look back on this process and not reflect upon the moments that got me here. This is one of the best experiences I've ever had with a project and I truly believe it is due to the immense amount of time and planning I put into every stage of production.

Pre-Production: 

This is always, in my opinion, the most important stage of production when creating something. Without a well-developed idea, you'll get nowhere in the production stage. You always need to have a plan and understand what you are trying to accomplish. During this stage, I did lots of research on my genre, psychological thrillers, as this was a new experience for me and I had no prior knowledge of the conventions of this genre. The research helped me truly understand my story and how to develop it more to be at the level I had envisioned it. This stage also included the time of creating my storyboard for my opening. Without a storyboard, I would be absolutely clueless. Not only do they make line editing a breeze, but they also help you stay organized while filming. Shooting days can sometimes be a stressful time and you can easily forget things as time is of the essence. However, if you have a structured plan of what needs to be shot, like a storyboard, filming can be a piece of cake.

Production: 

All thanks to my storyboard, filming day was very successful for me and my actress, Gabbi. At first, we ran into a little problem when it came to the setting of the opening, as the plan was always to film at Gabbi's house. However, Gabbi is currently going through the process of moving and breaking down everything in her house. This was not exactly the scenery I envisioned for my opening, so we had to push up filming day to take place before any packing was being done. However, once we solved that issue, everything was smooth sailing, and barely any reshoots were needed.

Post-Production:

Finally, when I started the post-production stage of my project, I was so excited to finally put together the vision I had been developing for so long. Editing, though, is a tedious process and because of some outside events in my life, I had to adjust my schedule and only block out a week and a half for editing. This meant I really had to use all the time I could to edit in order to make sure I had the time I needed to make my project the best that it could be. During this time, I was also able to try a new software called Adobe After Effects to create the title graphic for my opening. I had heard of this software before but had never had the opportunity to play around with it and try something new. This, I believe, helped bring my project to the next level as I was able to animate a title graphic rather than having boring text. It adds dimension to the project. I am so excited to continue to use this software for other projects in the future.