Pure Imagination is the biggest film project I have done thus far, and it gave me major insight in what goes on behind a big film production. Of course, my film is no Christopher Nolan, Spike Lee, or Wes Anderson work, but it is a lot for a single student-made film. I planned this short film my junior year and I knew that, for what I am going for, I would take a lot of time and preparation. At times, I had to bring myself back down to earth because the things I wanted to do were way too outrageous and out of budget for a senior project. For instance, I wanted Ela, the Knight, to ride on a horse. 

I ran into a lot of roadblocks as well even though I tried to prepare beforehand. Scheduling conflicts, unreliable locations, last minute shoots, out-of-focus shots, and a lot of editing issues. I have experience using Adobe Premiere Pro in other projects, but nothing to this caliber and I ran through a lot of software issues. This is my first time using After Effects for the special effects seen in the film and I had to learn everything as I go. The things I wanted to do, like make ice appear, and show the good and bad energies took a lot of trial and error. I had After Effects on one side of the screen and a YouTube tutorial on the other side. If I could not find a tutorial for what I was exactly looking for, I had to figure it out myself. Man, it was really tough. This was also my first time color grading, and the longer I edited the film, the more color grading adjustments I made. 
 

Some may notice that some shots are clear while others are a little out of focus - or not as clear as they could be. I started filming my actors with my self-taught knowledge of the camera. I did not know many techniques and could not reshoot the actors in full costume. When I started the Spring semester of my senior year, I took two photography classes. Both classes helped me improve my composition and framing skills. I also knew how to make sure my camera was in focus when I shot the other actors later on. This short film is an example of my growth behind the camera. The only person I did not shoot was myself; he Warrior in the water; my uncle, David McLorren volunteered to film me under my direction.

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Overall,Pure Imagination is a learning experience that aided in my growth in film and video production. If I had more time, I would go back and tweak things to my liking, however, I am proud of what I created with the time I had while being a full time student. I plan to make films and videos part of my career, but I think I'll focus more on directing.