Author: pjstengel

Introduction

Hearing a 1400 watt speaker system playing my music. The crowd erupting in cheers and shouts. The subwoofer shaking the wooden stage. All of these sounds are my own creation. Familiar faces scattered throughout the crowd of complete strangers, fans. A sight that ten year old me could have only dreamed of.  The experience of performing and connecting with an audience makes me feel energized and inspired to keep going and keep making music. 

Music. An art that I have found myself immersed in as long as I can remember. A language in which my fluency has taken leaps and bounds ever since I heard the first note of the first song, playing from the radio. My musical journey has never been linear. Waves of creativity seemed to hit me at random throughout my childhood. I can vividly remember being six years old, scribbling songs into my composition book to share with my parents. These early compositions lacked structure and rhythm, but they marked the beginning of my musical exploration. We all start somewhere. As I grew up this would continue. It wasn’t until the 6th grade that I finally put myself out there for the world to hear. 

So Far… So Good!

I’ve built a loyal fanbase in my hometown and reached people all across the globe. I continue to share my art and produce backing tracks for artists in my local area as an artist, producer, and audio engineer.

Building my industry connections and relationships has gotten me further than I could be without them. In addition, I’m a mentor for a local nonprofit organization called “The Bridge Music Project” 

dedicated to teaching the values of teamwork, accountability, leadership, collaboration, empathy, and self-understanding. As both a student and a mentor I have learned and strengthened these skills and values. They have greatly helped and motivated me throughout my journey as an artist. It really feels amazing to give back to my community and guide young developing artists who were just like me when I was their age. It is moving to see these  middle schoolers come into the program eager and excited to learn. Watching them grow and learn as I give feedback and support is truly powerful. 

 

Conclusion

My creativity through music expanded when I went to high school and  exploded during the pandemic lockdown. Music was my outlet for my extra energy and anxiety that I didn’t know what to do with.  During this time I realized how much music helped me with my education. Not only the therapy of making music that soothed my anxiety and depression, but also math and creative writing.  Music helped me learn through using tempo, and beat writer’s block. I am able to apply music to most things, it is a second language to me and its the lens in which I see the world. I am passionate about music as well as  excited to explore more options in this industry. I have a drive to make music part of my life journey.

P.S you can listen here on all platforms! ————> hyperfollow.com/PJTheRapArtist

PJ Stengel

Summary

Over the course of this week I spent a lot of time creating my script for this film. I made sure to document my Wednesday as accurately as possible so that I could focus on the aspects of comedy in my script more. There were some jokes that I had to edit or cut out all together as they weren’t school appropriate. Overall, I would like to say that this was an extremely fun project and it would have been even more fun… if I managed my time better and didn’t have to work on it late into the night before it was due.

Font

Color Palette

Pie Chart

Script

Audio Editing

Video Editing

Film

A DAY IN MY LIFE!

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

Importing color pallet was difficult into adobe illustrator was really difficult. I was able to figure it out with help from Meredith and it was good to learn some basic skills in adobe illustrator. I would also like to say that I learned a lot of useful technical skills this year in film class and it was a worth while elective!

Works Cited

Here’s a link to my citations 🙂

Summary

My involvement as director in the post production was complicated. I had to oversee edits and involve myself in the editing. I also had to ensure that all of the original pacing and and key shots were included in the final cut.

Working with the Editor

Some discussions held with the editor during post production were the inclusion of different sounds and or effects to better convey ideas. We intentionally chose to do minimalistic foley to better invoke emotion and expressing themes with camera angles, sounds, and actor placement. One of the most important aspects of editing was color correction and the desaturation of the film.

Changes to The Script

As this was a music there were no changes to the script.

Final Cut

My reaction to the final film was positive. James Clark, had nothing but good things to say about the film. He said that the passing and body language as well as how frequency of the cuts and edits were on point. the only constructive critique that he had was to very the body language throughout the video because in some cases it can become slightly repetetive.

Original Vision

This film met my vision with flying colors! Everything that I had planned for the final version went as I envisioned.

What I Learned

IT. IS. REALLY. DIFFICULT. BEING .THE. ONLY. PERSON. ON. A. TEAM!!!!

It was a big learning process as far as time management and the planning process. It’s a very different process when the only person that you could let down is yourself. This means that you need to find the self motivation to be on task and plan time wisely.

Edited by: Nathanial Harris

Session Number:	5
Week Number:	6
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	6.5
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	Final Edits and export!!



Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
5/8	put finishing touches on edits and add folly.	2 hours	yes this was required for completing my film. without this I would have almost nothing to present to the professionals.
5/9	review final draft of film and communicate with editor,	1 hour	this was very important for the flow of the film. The editing choices matter just as much as writing and directing.
5/10	Review Film in class	1 hour	This is important because I can get some general feedback on my film after class.
5/11	Organize blogs	1.5 hours	getting through the “Leducian work is just as if not MORE important than working on the film. Today I set aside time to organize my blogs and use my trusted system (whiteboard) to plan out how I am going to catch up on missing work in film.
5/12	Organize blogs catch up on missing work.	1 hour	At this point, I was able to set aside some time during class to work on missing work/blogs for Leduc. I it’s extremely important that I don’t give up and try my best to push my grade up to an A by the end of this semester.



Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Summary

My production was not perfect and I had to deal with several obstacles… That being said I am very proud of my film. Some challenges that I had to overcome were being the only member of my team as the whole “music video idea” doesn’t fit in the IB rubric and can’t be used for evidence for certain team members. I was forced to rely on friends who supported me along the way, to which I am very grateful. Over all there were some problems with the final product such as my friend who filmed covering the camera in certain key shots. Over all I am proud of my film, I just think that it can be further improved upon outside of class.

Production Notes for Each Day of Shooting

Day 1

Expectations:

1. Scout locations to see which ones work
2. consider possible ideas for locations and possible changes to the script
3. Be aware of other people and be respectful of the public park.

What was Achieved?

1. Found good location that would work for my film
2. Made changes to the script to make our film better
3. Respected the area and people around us

What was not Achieved?

1. I was unable to get a crowd to show up to the video shoot. The weather was supposed to be sunny and it took a turn for the worst. This discouraged the majority of the people who were expected to show up.

Day 2

Expectations:

1. Film several shots of me lip-syncing the entire song as well as cinematic shots.
2. Be considerate of others around the film crew.
3. Communicate different ideas or shots for the scene to my friend who I had film.

What was Achieved?

1. several useful shots were obtained
2. remained courteous and respectful of the public space and others around us.
3. left the space as it was before we arrived.

What was not Achieved?

1. some scenes were unable to be filmed due to lack of video participants and bad weather.

Day 3 

Expectations: 

1. review footage and begin editing

What was Achieved?

1. footage was reviewed and some editing plans were made,

What was not Achieved?

1. No editing was done due to personal lack of skillset.

Day 4 

Expectations:

1. research how to edit
2. start editing

What was Achieved?

1. ended up finding a friend who was willing to edit the film
2. he began editing and reviewing shots with me

What was not Achieved?

n/a

Day 5

Expectations:

1. Record folly sounds
2. begin editing remaining clips

What was Achieved?

1. folly sounds were recorded

What was not Achieved?

1. film in its entirety. This meant that I was forced to finish the edits myself.

Day 6 

Expectations:

1. Compose extended intro for the song to build more tension within the music video
2. Import and edit in folly sound effects

What was Achieved?

1. folly edited in
2. soundtrack was edited and imported

What was not Achieved?

1. n/a

Day 7

Expectations:

1. Final touches on edits!!!

What was Achieved?

1. Edits were finished!

What was not Achieved?

N/A

Ongoing Discussions with Film Team

Discussion with Editor:

Edited by: August

Session Number: 5	5
Week Number: 5	5
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 6	6
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	Film the majority of shots for a draft of the film and collaborate with editor.

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?
5/1	Film at selected location	2 hours	yes this was required for completing my film. without this I would have almost nothing to present to the professionals.
5/2	review clips and communicate with editor	1 hour	this was very important for the flow of the film. The editing choices matter just as much as writing and directing.
5/3	compose extended intro to the song to create tension.	1 hour	this adds more dynamics to the film and makes it overall more captivating to the audience.
5/4	Organize blogs	1 hour	getting through the “Leducian work is just as if not MORE important than working on the film.
5/5	final collaborations with the editor and review draft.	1 hour	Drafting the film is very important. This is a good way to catch mistakes and fix errors.

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Summary

Overall this film was really fun to create. As the only member of my team I learned a lot more than I would have about the production process. This film is something that I am very proud of and I would like to improve upon it more outside of class.

Production Notes

I had expected several people to show up for the video shoot but the weather turned sour and only a few people showed. Luckily I had two different ideas that I could execute for the video. One where I’m solo and one where there are lots of people.

On Going Discussions with Film Team

While I didn’t have a full team, I did have discussions with my friend who edited the video as well as my friend who filmed.

What I learned

Overall, it’s really difficult to be the only member in my team. There were a lot of problems to solve. It was way harder without other team members to talk to.

edited by:

Session Number:	# goes here
Week Number:	# goes here
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week:	# goes here
What is/was your overall goal for this week?	Goal goes here

Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why?

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Session Number 5	
Week Number 4	
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 4	
Film Rough shots for video.	



Work Tasks 

Date	Task Description	Time Spent	Was this a Best Practice?
4/10	Practice Filming	60 min	yes
3/28	creating shot list for second location	60 min	yes
3/29	taking notes on lighting	60 min	yes
3/30	watching videos for inspiration	60 min	yes
3/31	checking progress and planning for the future	60 min	yes



Personal Comments (Optional) 

Are there any other comments you would like to include? If so, please enter them here: 

Summary

As the Only member of my team, it was pretty easy to manage the work flow. Although this was a blessing and a curse because when I got distracted… My whole entire team was distracted.

Vision

I wanted to create a visual medium for my latest musical release and take inspirations from popular artists within the genre of music.

Target Audience

My Target audience is my piers and people in my general age group. Teens/young adults.

Influences From Other Films

This film is taking heavy influence from artist music videos such as Hell Boy by Lil Peep and Bad Boy by Juice WRLD. WARNING!!!! both of these have explicit lyrics. I am taking inspiration from the music videos and directing choices.

Location Scouting

Location Scouting is very easy using google earth and looking for dark rooms where the lighting is mainly coming from the window. I’ve looked into rooms in my house and the school. (See top of blog post for evidence)

Permissions

Filming at school should not be a problem and the location I have scouted is public property.

What I learned and Problems I solved

I have learned a lot about the creative process behind music videos. I never knew how complicated it really was. One problem that I solved was was fixating on my grades. After I focused on the pre production at hand, I was able to go back and discuss my poor grades with LeDuc.