Prep for CCR 3

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Update: This will no longer be a news interview, I will only say my part.

CCR 3: How did you integrate technologies in this project?

Interviewer: Hello!! Did you watch the new hit film, "When the White Seeds Fall?" 

Me: Yes, I did! I'm actually one of the directors of the film.

Interviewer: Are you really? Sofia Fernandez?

Me: Yep! Sofia Fernandez.

Interviewer: Oh no way!!! What a coincidence! Wonderful to meet you! Do you mind if we ask you a few questions about the film for Star News and Entertainment?

Me: I'll be glad to answer some questions!!

Interviewer: Well, this film is so well-made, people are dying to know, what gear or tech you were using to capture that look?

Me: I'm going to be honest, I really didn't use all that much. I am a beginner so simple to use or low-cost supplies were all that was used. Starting with the basics, we used Arantza's iPhone to film the whole project as it had amazing camera quality. And we actually didn't use a tripod or anything to film, all of our shots were handheld, which I feel made the film even better and personal since it really immersed audiences into the story and our character's lives. We did, though, find a stabilizing setting on Arantza's phone that allowed audiences to be immersed but still kept that professional look that films usually have. We found that background noises and music on the website Pixabay and I recorded a few foley sounds using my bluetooth earbuds as mics and recorded videos on my Samsung's camera app, which I later converted to an mp3 file on my laptop. We used Premiere Pro to put all of the shots and sounds together and, well, we made "When the White Seeds Fall." I would also, though, like to emphasize how much technology helped us in the pre-production process, as well. We made most of our props ourselves, so my printer was a lifesaver. For example, we placed the NYU logos, addresses and names for the envelope and acceptance letter in a Word doc, printed it out, and glued it all in its place. Google was also our best friend. So, Arantza and I were not alive in the early 2000s, so we had to research a lot about the fashion style, how college acceptances worked and more from the time period this film takes place in. Well lastly, and arguably the most important technology we used was Blogger. Throughout this whole process we each kept a blog that really helped me, at least, stay organized and reflect.

 

Prep for CCR 2 (Oscars)

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CCR 2: How does your product engage with audiences and how would it be distributed as a real media text?

Interviewer: And what in your film do you think resonates with audiences so much?

Well, our target audience was teen girls since... well, that's what the film is about... and I feel that many of our watchers have or had a strong friendship like Jackie and Lily's that they are able to feel some sort of connection to. And I think this film also brings comfort to teens regarding hardships they may encounter and proves to them that they will be able to overcome them. Even with older audiences, that fun youthful innocence and excitement combined with the 2000s style also adds to that nostalgic feeling that we wanted to include that some are able to reminisce on.  

Interviewer: Respond/react to that. The attention that "When the White Seeds Fall" received was overwhelmingly positive. So, how did you get to sharing this film to the world as a small, independent creator?

Well,  I started out by just submitting the opening to local film festivals for fun, when I received a lot of good feedback I realized, "wow this could actually become something." So I decided to post it on Youtube and eventually researched how to release it on Tubi, which is a great starting point for beginner films. And yeah, since it was put on Tubi, it gained wide traction, was watched by thousands of people and well, got me to the Oscars!

Sources:

Tubi. (2025). Tubi unveils insights on how marketers can navigate the shifting entertainment landscape in “The Stream 2025.” https://corporate.tubitv.com/press/tubi-unveils-insights-on-how-marketers-can-navigate-the-shifting-entertainment-landscape-in-the-stream-2025/

Global Media Insight. (2025). YouTube statistics 2025: Users by country + demographics. https://www.globalmediainsight.com/blog/youtube-users-statistics/

Prep for CCR #1 (Oscars)

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So, another big part of our AICE exam are the CCRs, Creative Critical Reflection. Basically, each student will answer 4 questions about the process of producing our film opening and reflecting on it. We are also supposed to do them in a creative manner, hence the name of them. I don't really know exactly what I want to do but I do want to make it fun to film and watch. Arantza and I plan to help each other film next week Monday to Thursday (also includes coming up with script and memorizing it). So in the meantime, I'm going to start researching about each question and find a bunch of information I could include in my CCRs. So here's the first one:)

1st Question: How does your product use or challenge conventions and how does it represent social groups or issues?

Interviewer: Sofia Fernandez!! It's so lovely to finally meet you!!! ... talk talk talk

So, tell me, how did you even come up with the idea for this film? What makes it unique and different from others?

So, it actually isn't that different. When my partner Arantza and I began brainstorming ideas, we already knew we wanted to make a typical coming-of-age film. We grew up watching and loving these types of movies, so, we chose to follow a lot of those genre conventions and stereotypes. Already in the opening, we included upbeat music, natural lighting, and a warmer color scheme, all of which tie together to bring that nostalgic joy coming-of-age films always have right from the start. "When the White Seeds Fall" also really dives into the classic themes of self-discovery, resilience, and grief which shows the shift from childhood to adulthood Jackie and Lily go through during this time of their lives. All of these were also meant to help our audiences feel seen and relate to the characters on screen. The film focuses on Jackie and Lily's last summer before college, a point in life many people experience and can or will relate to. Our protagonists are also 2 different representations of teenagers that I'd hope today's youth can connect with: Jackie portraying the creative, artsy teens, and Lily the caring, quirky one. But there is also a challenge that must be overcome that, I feel, those who have experienced the loss of a loved one can attest is a very difficult time period that we thought was important to add into this film, as it can be a very important part of growing up.

Sources:

MasterClass. (2021, September 24). Coming-of-age movies: What is the coming-of-age genre? MasterClass. https://www.masterclass.com/articles/coming-of-age-movies

Kench, S. (2023, September 24). What is a coming of age movie — Examples and characteristics. StudioBinder. https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-a-coming-of-age-movie-definition/

Editing 2.0

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So, we haven't finished filming everything yet, but we thought we would start editing to get ahead as much as we can. Thank goodness we did do this, though, because we weren't really paying attention to continuity on our first day of filming, which led to a few scenes looking weird or straight up impossible (our characters teleported like 3 times). And now we have the chance to reshoot those few scenes on Sunday. 

Arantza will be in charge of editing the actual visual portion of our opening and after I record the foley and find all of our sound effects, she will put them into a basic order and she and I will edit it till perfection (or as close to it as high schoolers who have only completed like 3 film projects in their lives can). For the visual portion of the editing, though, it has been a little difficult and time consuming because everything is so specific. We have to be careful that you can't see our actors waiting for their cue, my brother talking in the background, or even a small snip it of me saying action (all things we've found while editing). But I think we so got this and will be able to make it work perfectly in the small time we have. These next 2 days we will only be focusing on cutting and trimming the videos and adding any transitions we think are necessary. We plan on adding a filter or changing the colors, saturation, and vibrance of the clips, as well, but that is a later problem.

So, here's a small screen recording of our editing:)

Filming part dos

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So... We finished our 2nd day of filming and somehow we lost daylight and could not finish! The plan is to wrap up on Sunday because we do not have much time left so I will keep you updated on that, but in the meantime... WE FILMED THE BIKE SCENE. Literally the scene that inspired this whole film, look at how far we've come. The temperature finally got warmer (why was it cold in the first place it's February???) and we filmed 🎉🎉🎉

Today we started out by getting ready, inflating the bike wheels, and fixing a seat problem we had with Lily's bike. We also had to get Arantza's/Jackie's bike out of Arantza's car which was such a hassle for absolutely no reason. Then we also took a gazillion years walking to where we were filming for the day, which isn't even that far but it was very time consuming. And we started filming the infamous bike scene. Something else that was very time consuming were the passing cars. We were filming quite literally in the middle of the road (don't worry I promise we were careful). But we had originally chosen this road because of how little cars passed by, but wow were we wrong. Arantza was mostly the one filming today and our actors were, well... on their bikes, and after explaining the scene, I would stay on look out, constantly screaming "CAR," whenever I saw one, where we all quickly moved to the side before the driver even saw us on the street (you see, I said we were careful). HOWEVER, there was one instance where Arantza almost got run over (for the sake of not being called careless, I'm exaggerating a bit) because we were almost done filming this really good shot and, well... a car interrupted it. So she waited till the very last second possible to move, BUT WE DID NOT STOP TRAFFIC. 

SO! Here are some behind the scenes!!! +another sneak peek!!!

Walking to our location

Filming very first scene in opening

Filming biking

Getting stuck at huge intersection

Arantza almost getting runover (through sound)

SNEAK PEEK + Arantza almost getting runover again (for the funsies)

Editing Part 1: WE CHOSE OUR FONTS

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So, if you remember, I made a research post not too long ago about researching possible title fonts we could use and, as the title states, WE FOUND EM. 

We were kind of stuck because we genuinely could not choose what we liked more for our title between the fonts Alice and Sunday, since they both gave off different emotions and "vibes."

Alice:

Sunday:

So! We decided, why not just use both? We thought Sunday would be too distracting and artsy for the credit sequence so it would be used for the title sequence. Since Alice is still a pretty font, but much more "normal" than Sunday, including it not being in all caps, we thought it would be perfect for the opening credits. You'll see Alice start to shine from the very beginning throughout the bike scene, which is where we will have all the credits play (or at least we really really hope so, we don't know if the scene is long enough). And Sunday is able to pop up at 2 different times throughout this opening, we are still unsure if it'll happen in the last shot of the bike scene or in the mailbox scene. We will find out what looks better when editing!!

Filming!!! Part 1

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So, if you couldn't tell, Arantza and I are quite behind schedule... We ran into many problems including forgotten trips and unexpected illnesses, but nothing that we cannot overcome (please send help). Today we finally started filming our opening. We only filmed the 2nd half, though, because a cold front came out of nowhere and it was way too cold for our actors to wear sleeveless shirts while riding bikes outside. So, we decided to film that part on Thursday and focus on the scenes inside my house today. 

I believe it is also worth mentioning that we had to switch a scene we had planned where Lily's mom reminds her to take her medicine, played by my mom. You see, the issue was that my mom's accent did not match with Lily's, who does not have any Hispanic background, and whenever she said her line, she sounded too excited and happy for a mom reminding her (sorry but dying) daughter to take medicine. So! We changed that scene to add in Lily's annoyed younger brother.

So, today we filmed everything from Lily and Jackie entering the house; the conversation with Lily's brother, played by my brother; and the pills scene, before we finish the opening. 

Here are some behind the scenes (+ a sneak peek???)

Setting Up Meds Before Filming

Filming Final Scene

Filming 2nd to Last Final Scene

SNEAK PEEK (unedited)