My Self Portrait

            My self portrait was more planned than I thought it would be, given my time frame. I basically went through my interests as I am typically closed to most people. The items were all pretty illuminating and they helped get an understanding of why I do what I do. My self portrait turned out to be better than I thought, but there were many I saw that were quite well made as well. One that I liked was the one by Andrew M, in which he used a very convincing set and planned the video down to costuming and even a microphone. Another one I liked was the piece by Caitlyn M, where she talked afterwards about her dialogue and relationships being more integral to her personality tan material possessions, which is true in her case. The third and final one that impressed me was Malik A, with his audio centered video. I was impressed in his technical skills and ability to understand all the technical blips. I really loved all those and will certainly hope to gain some skill from working with each person.

                  My original idea was to pretend to be writing a story but then run out of lead, after which I would run around my room stumbling over all my interests trying to find more. However, the idea was replaced almost suddenly while I wallowed in misery over the thought of showing the creation to the class. The new idea came from the idea from a you tube channel called studio c, in which the actors discussed comedic ideas for a sketch and decided on the whole occurrence to be their next sketch. I took the idea and changed out the premise. I used my room as sort of a frame to display all the items that interest me. The ending where I talk about the guy and the cellphone was me basically looping back to the idea of myself filming items in my life. The setup was actually fairly difficult, as my first task was to clean my room, a task I was previously putting off. I then arranged my items in small enclosed spaces so I could film without the need to address some more personal and private aspects of my bedroom, not to be shared. I then did a couple extra takes before actually filming and then just rolled through it.

                      The items I used were very well chosen and picked. The first ones that come into the frame are my Washington D.C. souvenirs and my WW1 museum ticket. I then moved to my feather and merit badge sash, both items from boy scout endeavors, and a huge part of my life. My books were next. The first one was the bible as a symbol to my faith and love of god. Next was my yearbook, to represent my Raven Pride and finally my star wars cross section to display my fan status. I then showed my trumpet to instill my love of band and my legos as a love of the plastic toys that will never die. Then I panned up to my Tolkien movie posters, as those are my favorite movies. I then ended with my Axis & Allies board, a board game I have played little of, but treasured the times I did get to play.

                      Reflecting back, I thought that I did pretty well on not procrastinating as the sun was still out as I filmed and I had some free time afterwards. The equipment used was also a very genius fix, with the resources available. One element that really surprised me was the sudden wave of inspiration that actually derailed my original idea. This showed me that I could sniff out a good plot idea and improve on it very quickly. I think the skill of digging around a writer's wall will be very useful for future projects.

                       Now for the self criticism, which will probably end up being shorter than I anticipated. My first mistake was getting more emotion, as I am actually a pretty crazy person-if you catch me with the right people. I was in my room, but did not want to get emotive in case my family thought there was a crazy dude in my room behind my door, hence the dull voice. My second mistake was the lighting, a very important item of consideration in film. My shadow consistently messed with the shot, a mistake I will always remember. The last mistake was not getting help. Many of my peer's projects had other people, and since I don't really like enlisting help from people, even when I want to, I could not get a video of elevated quality. All in all, I think that after positive criticism from my peers, I can now look back with confidence and see more good than bad in my project.

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