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William Acampora

Mrs. Lazarski

Video Production

January 2023

FILM FESTIVAL VIDEO PROJECT COMPLETION

SELF REFLECTION PAPER

Reflecting on the film festival video project, I realized that I not only learned about the

filmmaking process, but also uncovered so much about myself along the way. It was during this

learning process that I was able to recognize some of my innate strengths along with parts of

myself that require growth. To begin, my initial concept for my ‘Pitch’ was to explore ‘the

meaning of life through different lenses’. This idea was inspired by a cathartic experience I had

at the Hayden Planetarium, when I looked around at the bewildered eyes of those around me

during a show where a once dark dome became lit up with constellations and stars. As the people

around me were glued to the ceiling, I was looking around pondering how so many different

pairs of eyes could all see the same frames whilst holding such different perspectives. With this

in mind, I decided to try to create something off the beaten path, by making an experimental

piece with varying distinct images representing different ‘perspectives’ as I simultaneously

utilized voiceover to articulate these big ideas in accordance with sound and visuals. However,

my ideas and final ended up being an emptier version of the intended end goal.. Moreover, in

hindsight it became apparent that it is difficult to tame such an unwieldy idea and subject in such

a limited period of time. All in all, I felt that my final project had good bones, but could have
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used more of a focus. This project taught me that it is difficult to portray such a comprehensive

concept, especially when there are roadblocks during the pre production, production, and post

production phases.

The pre-production phase started out on a high, as I received positive feedback from my

peers and teacher about my idea. It was at this time I was also feeling grateful to be able to

access a lot of amazing shooting locations and equipment. I enjoyed cultivating the script;

including a shot sheet and spoken narration, as I attempted to direct tone with music queues at

different points in the dialogue. I enjoyed thinking up ways to make the viewer think about their

unique perspectives, by thinking up ways to illuminate different emotions or trigger memories

that could bring my audience closer to the film. However, this slowly changed as I struggled to

work through the technicalities such as polishing the script, choosing strong images to best

correlate with the script, and planning out the production phase. In hindsight I wish I sought out

help with organizing and planning, which are two areas that I need help with on a personal level

as well. Although I failed to plan effectively in some areas, I was successful at making myself a

shot sheet and music queue sheet that I used multiple times as a means to give the voice actors

more ‘direction’ / ‘something to visualize’ as they were speaking. My overall consensus of my

areas of strength and weakness during this phase is that I should have consulted my teacher in

the earlier stages of my project to help me redirect the focus and map out my steps in a more

concise way to prevent issues down the line.

During the production phase, I enjoyed filming at Garret Mountain, Ringwood Manor,

and to New York City to collect shots. I also enjoyed helping others with their projects and

learning from my peers. However, I experienced many challenges and roadblocks when it came
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time to the actual recording and importing side of my project. I must have recorded over a dozen

different times dealing with an array of technical software, format, file, and audio hardware

problems. This along with unfortunate outside attendance made it a slow laborious production

process.

Also, I realized that there are blurred lines between production and post production as I

witnessed how dependent the videos were on the audio’s scaffolding. I had to re-edit and find

new visuals and audio for the different voices, cadence, and emphasis used to create an intended

feel to the production. Just when I thought I finished my project, it became clear that the audio

was too poor or too low to use. Needless to say this was a discouraging, yet enlightening

experience. It taught me that combining multiple mediums is not an easy process and takes skill

and practice. I am grateful that through the many trials and tribulations I gained many skills

when it comes to navigating Adobe Softwares.

With that being said, my favorite part of the production process is usually writing the

script. However, during this project I found that I most enjoyed finding clips to use. At times I

felt like a chef testing out different ingredients and materials that would blend well together in

the hopes of making a masterpiece. The gathering of audio and visual images and putting them

together to articulate my message was enjoyable, but also frustrating when my ideas and the

reality of bringing them to life didn’t work out as easily as I hoped (when the audio would not be

syncing correctly to the visuals or footage/audio clips weren’t the quality I wanted them to be).

This project really served as a means of helping me recognize my strengths and that challenges

me. For one I realized that writing is a strength of mine, but I need to improve my skills of

revising, by either taking the time to look it over with fresh eyes or having a peer review it. I also
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realized that I have a lot of ideas and appreciate the amount of depth I bring to the table. I am

proud that I seek to provide ‘hopeful’ messages within my projects. On the flipside, this project

afforded me the opportunity to realize that I need to do organization and planning in the pre

production, by following up with shot sheets and other important tools. I also realized I need to

advocate for myself and seek help when I need it. Oftentimes, I try to solve a problem myself

and if I can’t overcome it I feel overwhelmed and lose motivation, instead of pushing harder

forward. In the future, my hope is to recognize this pattern and try to have a more problem

solving approach by reaching out for help when I need it. .

Overall, I do believe that my film was effective in part seeing that it covered the topic

that I had intended on. However, I think that it lacked the level of quality that a subject of this

nature deserves. Although I felt that the mix of audio content and voiceover was a powerful

means of storytelling, I think that the visual component of my project could have been stronger.

In retrospect I used a lot of storyblock content, which is recycled material, rather than shooting

new videos. In the future I would like to have more video content rather than still photos,

because videos are more dynamic in nature and would have added to the value of my film.

Moving forward, I hope to use what I learned during this project to help me grow as a filmmaker

and a person.