Napolean Dynamite Opening Project

 The original opening of the movie (what we based our project off of) offers a quirky sequence of introducing the credits. As a group we were tasked with recreating the series of clever shots in a manner that followed a general theme while reflecting the integrity of the original sequence. In other words we needed to shoot the credits while keeping our camera at a unmoving, birds-eye view. For our theme we decided to preserve the teenage/high school mood by basing our shots around school-related props. The first step to this process was planning who was in charge of what. Luckily this time around our project didn't call for any actors so we had no problem volunteering ourselves with the sufficient roles. I chose camera man due to the need to feel comfortable with being in a role that carried power in our group of 4. Next I was able to collaborate with my classmates to come up with ideas for our 14 shots. Some of our ideas required much trial and error. For example, for one of our shots we had the idea to write a classmate's name on a piece of paper and place that page in the sink. We then covered that page with a blank page in hopes that the water would bleed through the top layer and reveal the name underneath. Our first attempt crashed and burned as we quickly realized the sinks we had access to did not maintain sufficient water pressure to soak through the page. We tried again by waiting for the top page to gain enough water to reach a fully marinated status but still were not able to see the page underneath. I then suggested that we should use thinner paper such as toilet paper or tissues. We decided to try again wielding the power of Kleenex. This adjustment allowed for a somewhat successful reveal of the name; even though it didn't exceed our expectations we decided we were satisfied with the clip. After the first day of filming our progression dwindled into a few days of little to no progress. A few crucial crew members seemed to be overcome by fatigue and fell into a trance of little to no effort or sense of urgency. It was difficult to try to convince these group members to get going when when of them was spending class time with other teachers and the other was asleep on the table. After a weekend of rest our group came in on Monday ready to work hard and pump out the rest of the clips. By Tuesday (day 7 of our 10 day time frame) we were done filming and ready to begin the editing process. My classmate that volunteered herself to headline this work is trudging through with promise. This project's concept does not require substantial editing as we are just lining of the clips and adding simple transitions. I was able to upload all of our shots to OneDrive and share the folder with my crewmate. Editing took a turn for the worst when we ran into much technological difficulties. First, after three days of progress and 5 minutes before the due date our project seemingly disappeared from Adobe. This prompted our editor to restart the entire process this time backed up by a flash drive. Though the flash drive itself did not prove to be a guaranteed method of successful storage the project was eventually finished and shared with the group for submission.

1. How does your opening use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues? 

Our opening utilizes common high school materials such as scissors, hydro flasks, backpacks, and tape. Our setting clearly takes place at a school to reinforce our theme, thus using common conventions to establish the social group we are representing.

2. How does your product engage with audiences?

Our final product engages with audiences by reflecting common teenage symbols and school-related materials. Viewers would be engaged by recognizing what is on the screen and relating that to themselves. This also establishes that our target audience is high schoolers.

3. How did your production skills develop throughout this project? 

My production skills were refined through much learning from trial and error approaches for this project. As previously discussed when filming we had to redo and rework many shots after a not-so successful first time run. This taught me that if you are committed to a shot you can make it work if you really want it to. I am proud of all the clip ideas I came up with as this reinforces my confidence in my creativity. In a group context I find myself appreciative that after all of the bumps in the road we continued to push forward and were able to finish the project. For future work I have learned that I should take a more prominent role in post-production editing to ensure that the project is completed well and in the time frame it is supposed to be completed in.

4. How did you integrate technologies - software, hardware and online - in this project? 

We integrated technologies by first filming on an iPhone. From there I downloaded our clips onto OneDrive on my phone and then shared that folder to my classmate that was in charge of editing. By sharing the shots this way, we made it accessible for the clips to be accessed on a computer and from there exported to Adobe. To find our music we searched YouTube and then downloaded our pick onto the computer so it could be applicable to our editing software. Our final product was stored on a flash drive and from there it was uploaded onto our individual YouTube accounts.