Project Selection - My Decision

I have decided to pursue my film making abilities for this project. I have found a group of people that share similar ideas and passions while having their own unique skills that would combine into a great crew to work with. Besides that group I am working with, the main reason that I chose to make a movie is my love of movies. Growing up I have always preferred to watch movies over television, reading, and the most important in this case; magazine. While it would be a new experience the magazine project would not gain enough of my attention for me to give my full effort and I don't like to give anything below that threshold.
My group is thinking of making a psychological horror. The story would be based on a reporting doing an overt (the cult knows he is a reporter) observation on a new cult that has been gaining numbers in a small town. The reporter will soon realize that they were in over their head when he figures out what the true ideas of the cult are based in, the worship of a prophet that has a supernatural ability. The film is similar to the story of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. My group and I are still flushing out the specifics but we have agreed to work within this range.
I will focus on editing and other behind the scene jobs that the film needs. Gabe will most likely write and direct. Dan will most likely film the scenes. The roles within the film that we need to cast are: Reporter, Cultists (3 or 4), and The Prophet. Our group has some ideas of who will be cast, but we have not decided on any specific person for any of the roles.

Project Selection - Film

The reasons that I would choose to make a film for my final project are my skills in video editing and my love of movies themselves. I have always been a fan of the movie making process and when I truly love a film I will spend weeks over analyzing every scene from it, for example, Lords of Dog Town, which is a story about a group of the "original " pro skaters that shaped the sport for its future success is actually a period piece that displays the disparity of the poor and wealthy of South California and the effects it has on impressionable teenagers. I want to go through the processes of creating a movie to see a different aspects and challenges that go into creating a film and how that would change my outlook of one of my favorite pass times.
I have been used video editing software before to make smaller montages of vacations and have a good understand of the basics to create an understandable path for a film to follow. After watching scenes from Newsroom and documentaries on the film-making, I understand the difficulties that film makers run into when it comes to creating a complete story in the editing room but I think that with proper planing the task shouldn't be too much to handle.
The make issue that I see happening with this project is the actual filming process. I am not very good with cameras, angles, or anything that has to do with getting the perfect shot. I would have to rely on my group to get good footage because of my inability to use the equipment needed.

Project Selection - Magazine

Choosing the magazine project would be a new experience that would be beneficial to my technical skills in photo editing. Over my high school years, I have become certified in two forms of CAD (Solidworks and Inventor), Photoshop, and Microsoft Office. While I wouldn't become certified in any new software, it would be a great chance to strengthen my photo editing skills with the inclusion of Adobe InDesign. Another positive would be the reporting. Although it wouldn't be like the Washington Post reporting on Watergate, I would love the chance to publish a magazine that had some kind of investigation behind it whether its an interview or finding a source for a topic. This hunt for the correct information is something that has always fascinated me about the news world. The best example of this is Season 2 of Newsroom when dealing with finding sources for Operation Genoa, although the final results were unethical and illegal. The idea of reporting the news through a form of media is a topic i have always wanted to try and the magazine would be a perfect opportunity to try and produce a magazine worth reading. The final interest of mine that is peaked by the magazine is designing of each page complimenting each other. When doing a magazine analysis on the Game Informer I realized how each page blended into each other with themes and designs that worked to create an entire section that was vibrant, colorful, and fit the topic extremely well (example below).