my name is sky

a self portrait short film
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having been inspired by the 'this is me' short films I've seen across youtube, I've been wanting to create a sort of cinematic introduction or reflection of who I am for a while now. When I was assigned a short self portrait project for my graphic design in motion class, I knew this would be the perfect opportunity.

This film was a unique challenge for me as it was my first time working in Adobe After Effects. it definitely felt very different from other softwares I've used in the past, and I kept finding myself jumping to my normal hotkeys for other programs.

We were given one week to develop the whole project. While the video is just over a minute long, it took me around 10-15 hours to reach the end result. A surprising amount of components went into making the final film, starting with brainstorming and scripting. From there, I recorded my voice overs and over several days recorded my shots. I started off my post production in DaVinci resolve, getting the cuts, audio, and grading together. From there, I did my effects in After Effects, including the scrapbook letters, text movement, and animations. I initially did the drawings/doodles in AE, but found it was a bit difficult to get them exactly how I looked using a trackpad, so ended up creating my animations in Procreate instead.

One fun little fact is that my shots with the flowers, colored lights, and of my eye were taken in my dorm room by rearranging my furniture and setting up mirrors to be able to see the shot while also being the subject.

I had a lot of fun making this film, both in concept and in practice with learning a new software and experimenting with different shots. I find I overthink about how other perceive me, and it was an interesting exercise to try and reflect on how I perceive myself. In the future, I want to come back to this prompt again and see how I and how I view myself might change.


[ the prompt ]
a1: Self Portrait | CINE381 Graphic Design in Motion

[ specs ]
❀ software | DaVinci Resolve, Procreate, & Adobe After Effects
❀ cameras | Olympus OM-D E-M1, iPhone 14


#studentshortfilm #thisisme #shortfilm #cinematography #cinematic #aftereffects #selfportrait