44. final project! I wanna thank the academy, I wanna thank my mom, my dad, my bed…   No, but seriously, it’s been a long road to get here, so I’m excited that the final project is here! We had some hiccups along the way and she was a very stressful delivery, but we are here nonetheless. There’s not much to say here, but I will add in a couple of disclaimers and extra things. So don’t worry, you’re not missing anything too important (I know you just wanna watch the video, not read me talk endlessly like always)   DISCLAIMER: For educational use only!   The song at the beginning of the opening was done by me! I wrote the lyrics, sang it (…let’s not talk about that lol) and added in the sound effects (credits to my friend for the laugh, sorry for making you record it 20 times) I went more into detail here, in case you want to know the credits for the beat and one of the sound effects.   That’s pretty much it, so I hope you enjoyed this little journey with me. I certain...

43. dedicated to...   I’m warning you In advance, have tissues ready for this one.   I like to keep things silly and goofy on my blog, I’m a fairly light person personality-wise so It feels right to write like that. But I wanted to use this last post to dedicate It to someone really Important to me.   Earlier In barbie dream house films history, I Introduced you to my best friend and the light of my life, my dog Leia. you may remember her, you know, cool dog with glasses? yeah. that’s her. well, on november 14, leia passed away. we had to end our time with her much, much earlier than we would’ve liked, due to some complications with her liver health. throughout It all, leia had been my biggest Inspiration. I know I barely talked about her here, but she really was helping me backstage every step of the way. she sat with me whenever I would force myself to sit down and write up a blog, she comforted me whenever I got frustrated about an Issue, and she was my own lit...

42. the song (grammy-winner era) im working late... CAUSE IM A SINGERRRRR now, one might think that maybe, just maybe, making a new song just because you didn’t vibe with any of the copyright-free ones Is a little excessive. and maybe It Is. I wouldn’t know, I did It anyway. yes guys, Im an artiste now, go ahead and clap. yeah, I know. so cool. but seriously, this was so much work, and was It worth It? you’ll have to tell me. as I was In charge of the music for the film, I obviously had to find some tunes cool enough for the kids, yet serious enough for the tone of the movie. and, when I look at gigi, I picture teen girl sensation. think brat summer, ariana grande during her golden era. and none of the copyright-free songs were giving that for me. so, as one does, I found a beat on youtube and wrote my own. unfortunately for all of you I’m not the best or singers, so what you’re about to see Is what you will get. ….💩 lower your expectations, you have been warned.

  41. gigi's spotify wrapped no, i will not be sharing mine, thank you very much. all you need to know is justin bieber was embarrassingly high on my top artists 2024. maybe that's my fault for having a playlist of just his songs. but, anyway! since we're leading up to the final project, i thought it would be fun to do something a little different and share the spotify playlist i used when thinking about gigi or writing about her. im hoping this will give you guys some insight on who i picture gigi to be as a character, and how she would have behaved or evolved through the entire movie! the songs aren't in any particular order, so feel free to just listen as a regular playlist and have fun. i really wanted it to just feel like a mesh of what gigi probably has on her own playlists (she's most likely an apple music listener, though....) anyways, enjoy!

 40. my trip to mexico and how i became a capcut wizard okay, so I MAYYY have click-baited you a little. Doesn’t every successful micro-internet celebrity at some point? (I have 2 views on my last blog post.)   but the Mexico part is true! Now, if you’re some kind of weird, talented hacker who has been tracking my location based on my blog posts, you may be wondering what the heck was up with the period of time when I was posting from Mexico. Well, creepy friend of mine, I went back home for a week to celebrate my cousin’s graduation from her career! In Mexico, we study specifically for our career, for 4 years, instead of the multiple degrees we have here in the states. And when you graduate from your career, you get a prom! The only one you’ll ever have, lol. You can invite family, too, so that’s how I ended up over there.   And I know you’re probably thinking “how does this relate to becoming a wizard for a video-editing app?” so I won’t bore you much longer with the te...

  39. my inspiration (3) they could never make me hate you ever after high... mattel i will never forgive you for canceling them. if you don't know who these lovely ladies are, take a moment and step back... think about what you've done, and then go to time out in the corner. it should be a crime to not know them. but i'll let it slide this time, and educate you. these are my ladies. briar, apple, raven, and maddie. they're from a little franchise called ever after high, which is actually connected to the monster high universe. i know, crazy. however, ever after high is the story of the sons and daughters of fairytale characters. now, you might also be wondering what exactly that has to do with the film opening we created. well, i would say that ever after high really inspired me in the vibes. obviously, our movie isn't about a fairytale or anything, but there's that kind of girly feel to it. specifically, the ending was sort of inspired by EAH. the series has a...

  38. my inspiration (2) WE ARE MONSTERS WE ARE PROUD! banger of a song. madison beer the girl that you were back then was my it-girl, forever the goat. anyway! you may or may not recognize these ghouls up here. if you do, good. i see you and i are both scholars of good taste. if not... you're on thin ice, bucko. but like i said in my last post, we're gonna be going through my main series and dissecting the influence they've had on the work i've done for this project. because, honestly, these franchises shaped me so much as a person, it might actually be pitiful. today, we're going to look at monster high! now, monster high has not only influenced me, but also my teammate, gia! we both share a love for the freaky and fabulous ghouls of the franchise, so there's no doubt in mind that it has definitely blended into how we approached this project. in particular, i think it's impacted the fashion. while the outfit gigi wears doesn't really look like somethin...

  Nani, you say, what has Inspired your excellence to create such a beautiful film, a redefining piece In the coming of age space?   37. my inspiration (1) well, barbie. that might be obvious, or not. I mean, Its not likely I’ve basically built a shrine to her out of these blog posts or anything, hahahaha… ha.. ha.   but, will all seriousness, It really was barbie. I grew up on a mix of things, barbie, monster high, and ever after high. those were my girls (still are, Im just a doll collector now) and, with the greatness of the dolls, came the absolutely magnificent and life altering experience of the movies or series episodes that were made to market the dolls. I can easily pick out a few that Inspired me, but Im gonna spread them out over 3 blog posts, one for each. this one, of course, Is for barbie.   specifically, I’m gonna talk about barbie In a fairy secret, and how that Inspired me when we were coming up for the Idea for the title sequence. ...

36. wishlist if i could do anything differently for our movie, i would. in my perfect world, i would've liked to have built actual sets inside of a filming warehouse, and used artificial lighting to keep everything nice and constant instead of having to fight the sun for consistent lighting. for actors, i would've liked to have an actual man say the lines for Gigi's dad, instead of having to edit my own voice, and (gia i love you girl but i have to put the movie first....) i would've liked to have some better actors. there are a lot of nuances to a performance like this, and it can be hard to really capture it, so i think maybe someone who was more trained for it could've maybe conveyed the emotions better. i would've definitely made the setting a little different. in gigi's room, i would've put more clues inside. pictures of her mom, older-looking stuffed animals, presents for her birthday... just little things to elevate the story-telling. And then dow...

  35. specific camera shots and angles today we're gonna be going over a couple of the shots and angles from the film! as in.. literally a couple. this is our first shot! so, as i'm sure you can tell, this is a close-up. it's shot from the side, so we can see gigi looking at herself in the mirror. we chose to go with a close up because it's a classic, easy way to display emotion on a subject's face. it was fitting since, in this scene, gigi lets a tear roll down her cheek after finding out that her dad won't be able to make it back home in time for her birthday party. by showing her emotion, we can signify this as being an important moment for her, and set up the main issue and mental state of our character. this is our second shot for today. in this shot, we can see a wider view of gigi's bedroom, with her sitting at the vanity. we chose to go with this shot, coupled in with a dally zoom out, in order to convey the feeling of loneliness that now settles ove...

34. editing post 2 Editing has taken… a while. Aside from the editing that we were doing on the regular (cutting clips, adding new ones in, moving things around), the more hefty part of it has taken about 3 days in total. Now, I’m not exactly an editor team member, so I’m going off what I see. The ones who are editing team are minh and thu!   Most of what is being done centers around the title sequencing and the actual title screen itself at the end. Everything else is just the regular. It’s changed a little since last time we saw it because we added new clips. We had a sort of impromptu second day of filming, where we got one new scene and a dubbing for one of the pre-existing ones. In this new scene, it’s a closeup shot of gigi having a tear and looking at herself in the mirror. So, we had to add that into the already existing video and find a good place for it to go, which we did!

33. day 2 of shooting The second day of shooting was… last minute, I wont lie to you. We were originally planning to have only one filming session, but things happen. We only shot two things, really. A dubbing for one of the scenes, and a close up shot. It was shot in the same place as before, Gia’s house, and I… wasn’t actually there, lol. I was unable to come that day, but don’t worry! I got all the deets. The people who were there was Gia (of course, it’s her house), Thu, and Minh. now, the reason we decided to film again was because we just felt like some of the scenes before were lacking just a little bit. though we were mostly satisfied, something was missing, we needed to show a little more emotion and pause before gigi begins moving around and going downstairs. so, we added another scene, a closeup of gigi as she blinks away tears. we also filmed a dubbing for another scene that we needed, because, fun fact, every room has a certain "silence" to it, and not all silenc...

32. representation   Now… if you’ve ever seen Gia, I think you’ll know what the representation was like in the film. Since we only really had one character on screen, it’s limited. Especially because Gia is a blonde, blue-eyed Hungarian. But if you’re counting the dad, then its.. still not the best. There are some stereotypes, I’m not gonna lie. Teen girl getting ready, putting on makeup and listening to pop music… yeah. And the busy work dad? Definitely stereotypical. But, hey! It works, so I’m not gonna trash on it. Age-wise, teenagers and middle-aged men are represented, and gender-wise it’s just male and female.   I like the characters as they are, or at least as how I picture them to be. I think the tropes can get a little old at times, but they were kind of necessary for the genre and the plotline of our film. Gigi’s father had to be a busy work dad, it creates the issue of Gigi not feeling like she’s got enough parental love or support after her mother’s death, and ...

31. nani's totally superb guide to blogging!   now, now. I hear you guys. You’re all toooootally wondering how I get my blogs looking so cool, funky, and swaggy. And you wanna know how to do it too! (say yes.)   well, you’re in luck, because I have a free blog post and I need something to write about! So today, I’m gonna tell you all my secrets and dark magic spells.   Now, the first thing that you’re gonna want to do is find your theme. It can be anything (just like barbie..), capybaras, the color of dirt, that awful turquoise and chevron combo that we were all obsessed with in the early 2010s… whatever you want! And then, as if you’re building a mood board, you’re just gonna start pulling things you like. Pinterest is the best for this. Try to make sure your pictures can sort of match, like they have a common ground (which, if you picked a theme, they should!)   Then, you’re gonna write your blog. I know, I know, I’m kind of skipping back and forth a li...

30. updated storyboard   It’s been a while since we last checked in with the storyboarding, hasn’t it? Oh, boy… I sure do hope nothing bad has happened, we all know how things get when we take our eyes off of the storyboarding. But, I’m sure everything is fine, right? Let’s just see here… ah there it—     …NOT AGAIN!!   But, all jokes aside, the storyboarding has definitely been burnt down and then raised back up from its ashes. I will say, I do like this new one better, I think maybe Ive just been staring at it for too long, though. There’s been a couple changes, a couple revolutions you might say. For one, we’ve added in a couple of scenes, as well as taken some of them out. I’d say that the biggest changes center around the way the room is laid out, as well as the amount of time that is spent on the portion were Gigi is setting up her little pity party.