CAP Hollywood

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Assignment/Activity Title— CAP Hollywood Year— sophomore

Skill— Writing, Media           Portfolio Category— Social Awarness

CAP Hollywood was a really great experience but it was also very stressful and a lot of hard work. The first thing we did when we got put in groups was read Judy’s story and decide how we were going to film it and what parts were important enough to include. Her story was really great and it had a lot of potential to be a great movie but we knew from the beginning that it would take a lot of work to get it to that point because it was somewhat complicated. Writing the script was hard because there was so much in the story and we only had eight minutes to get it all in, so we had to decide where we could cut parts down and what parts were absolutely necessary to our movie. It was also hard because we had to create realistic sounding dialogue which was a lot harder than I thought it would be. After writing the script we began on the storyboard and then started filming which was one of the hardest and most fun parts of the entire process. We filmed in many different locations and it was interesting to see how the shots we had planned out on the storyboard manifested in real life and it was amazing to see them come to life. Filming was such a time consuming process and it actually took a lot of thought and planning to get the shots done well enough to use. Even though it was hard the filming part also created a lot of great memories and funny moments which made the project even better.

            My official role for the movie was editor so I was really involved in all the post-production stuff. Because we were creating a horror movie as the editor I had to make it suspenseful and of course scary. I was able to do this by slowing down and drawing out the shots and well as using different filters in order to make it look dark and ominous. The best part of editing was when I got to edit my own death which is the moment that the audience realizes that something is off and that this isn’t just another cute love story after all. I was able to build suspense using blackout frames and slow motion, I also had a lot of fun with this in the acting stage because we used a lot of fake blood. Another great scene to edit was the end scene because it ended on a cliffhanger and getting that just right was really a challenge.

            Through this project I learned how important it is to pay attention to the small details because those really do make a difference in the quality of your work. There were so many small things that I spent so much time fixing but in the end that is what made our movie better. I also learned how to work effectively as a team because even though we did have many different ideas we were able to combine those ideas and work together to create a really great product. The red carpet event was super fun and it was great to see our movie on the big screen, some people even told us they were scared to that was a compliment to us. The best part was when we received the award for best editing and saw all of our work being recognized.