Final Blog

I wasn't sure what to expect when I first arrived in 201. I had some production experience in my previous school and had a little bit of a head start. But that was short lived. I had never been exposed - haha get it - to learning the actual settings on the camera as in fstops and the like so it was a little confusing at first. The technical aspects of filmmaking have been my biggest obstacle to this point in my new career choice. I need to learn a lot more as I go but this class was a good learning experience. The way it has effected my way of thinking is simple, I need to learn more, work harder and become more involved. Creatively I feel like I'm on the right path and I just need to let go more often and allow ideas to work their magic on their own without getting nervous about a grade.

As far as what I learned about filmmaking, that question deserves a long answer than I'm guessing you have time to read so I'll nutshell it. I learned that previsualizations are paramount to a proper shoot. Time is always against you and people need to do their job as titled. The technical aspects of filmmaking are so extensive that it will take me many years to become as good as I hope to be. Sound and light make more of a difference in the outcome of a film than anyone will know outside of filmmakers. More shots, more shots, more shots. And I learned that no matter how much you plan for, you didn't plan enough!  

Wild Card cew position.

For the wild card project I was assigned as a Director of Photography and Lead Editor. I am trying to get back into a creative frame of mind as I've somehow become consumed with the technical aspects of shooting. I understand that that is an important aspect of filmmaking but my creativity has taken a back seat to "filling in the blanks" of filmmaking and not been a primary focus. So with this project I hope to be more creative with my shooting style. I plan to mix many of the styles I've been learning from all types of films in order to make the film visually appealing and to keep it moving in an exciting manner. As a group we want to use filters and lighting to enhance dream-like sequences and close-ups to stress the importance of the action in the film. Our goal overall is to indicate to the viewer that our female lead is wandering in and out of reality as she is being abused. In the edit it will at times become quick cuts and jarring images that will lead to calm and serene settings as our female lead is removing herself from her current situation and into her dream state. So I am hoping to utilize extreme shooting styles from quick close-ups and hand held shots, to wide, calm, dreamy sequences.    

Editing Sound Project

The edit on our sound project proved to be a little more challenging than I had anticipated. I have edited hundreds of hours of video and other than the usual "getting used" to mistakes and trials, it was usually a bit easier than an open, experimental style film that I have never done before. Not having a specific storyline to follow and shot list with script, it was a little more evasive of an edit than a story with continuity and specific dialogue. The sounds were numerous and the options were a little overwhelming, but once it became evident that the "flow" of the edit would take on it's own shape it was a little easier. Sound poses many obstacles for me but I am growing to become much more interested in it than I had been previously. The edit was a success and I feel that my team put together a pretty solid project.

Sound Recording

Sound recording seemed to begin as a task and quickly evolved into a full blown audio smorgasbord! I started slowly with a few ambient sounds of the outdoors and moved to some household items. But soon after I was excited to being making items take on new sounds. I began to explore new ways to breath new life in to objects that never really contributed itself to my world of sound and had them squeeking, scraping and thumping in many ways. I made a shower curtain sound like a record scratching, I made a dinner plate sound like something from outer space and my guitar strings were in pain. There are so many different sounds that any item can create that we miss them constantly. We take advantage of nearly everything around us and bypass what they can contribute to one of our most overlooked senses. Sound is so overbearing that we actually miss it. Sure we hear horns, sirens, doors closing, iPods blasting in our ears, and people talking, but we often miss the bees buzzing, the wind through the screen, the breathing of the person close to you, tall grass blowing in the breeze, water trickling over rocks and even an ant carrying something ten times its size walking over dry leaves - if you listen closely you can hear it crackle the leaves. We take sound for granted and I try to remember to close my eyes every day and just listen.    

Editing Master Shot Sequence

The edit to the master shot sequence was quite easy initially. I put together a quick edit of the shoot the night of the shoot and it looked pretty good. We needed to grab a few shots for cut-aways and an establishing shot, but we captured everything we hoped to get for the bulk of the short. Time was against us as we all work and and many other projects to pay attention to, but we got the edit finalized. At first syncing up the sound was priority but went pretty easily as we marked our spots and could sync without much trouble. As we did get all of the shots on our list for main story to hold true, continuity was no issue. I was able to add the establishing shot and a couple of cut-aways and we were fortunate enough shoot just enough footage with plenty of angles to make some good cuts and keep the story moving forward. After I finished the full story with synced sound and adding music it was time for color correction. I am somewhat new to color grading and found it to be a bit time consuming as the light outdoors changes frequently and matching each shot is essential. I didn't do too much other than working with some balance, but mostly worked with exposure and contrast. Editing is time consuming but quite rewarding when you see the final product.  

Previsualization

At the onset of the second project idea I was excited to finally get the opportunity to make a narrative. As with any project it is a time consuming and a painstaking task. But with film, and working with a group, much has to come together in order for it to be a success. In my past I usually worked solo and had little knowledge as to previsualization and all of the issues that arise in preplanning. Normally I would write the script, get the actors, secure the locations and shoot. I had my share of obstacles and overcame them, but had I known more about the "previ's" I may have encountered less. Using previsualization was an incredibly helpful approach to preparing for the shoot. Although it was quite foreign to me, after getting the hang of it it was helpful. The shooting script I think came in most helpful as it was right on the script as we shot and each scene was laid out for us. The shot list was useful as a guide to keep us on track. As we know nothing is set in stone and we did have to vary from the original previ's as we went along, but found the shoot to be easier and less time consuming that we had more information to keep us on track. The overhead was used a little less as we shot on the move mostly and only had three scenes where the characters were stationary. Overall previsualization is a solid and proven method that will be useful every time I shoot.