Week 12 Update

Departmental Meeting

Jack and I met on Wednesday at 1:30 and he updated me on what he's been doing and how he plans to  handle social media. We also talked about the best way to convert the oped piece into a blog piece and I asked him to begin researching film blogs we might go after and their contact names. 

Director's Meeting 

Class without Shannon

Class without Shannon went well. We talked about the new name for Film Kid Mixer. I suggested just Film Mixer but people thought that was boring (I agree). So we brainstormed and someone came up with the idea of Cinemixer. We thought it was cool, but did sound slightly like a cereal, but we kind of liked that aspect. We gave Tyler the idea of laser turkeys to put in his thanksgiving animation because we thought it lacked some holiday cheer. I presented our marketing action plan, talked about my oped piece and brainstormed that with the class and which direction they wanted the call to action to go in. We decided on involvement. 

Treasure Hunt Meeting 

After class on Tuesday, James, Rebecca, Jack and I met to work on the treasure hunt. I had emailed my advisor from High School and she gave us some helpful tips on how to start planning it out. She said that the locations are the first thing you want to get, then you map it out, then you write the clues. I explained that to everyone and we picked buildings we wanted to tailor the game to and then divided them up amongst us and decided that we would find five hiding spots in each of the buildings. I am in charge of finding five spots in CAB. After we get all of the hiding spots we are going to map out the order of the clues and then write them to lead to one another. I'm very excited about this and they seem to be too!

Indiegogo Video Meeting

Adrienne, Michelle, Devin, and I met on Monday and talked about the calendar Adrienne made, when we needed to shoot it and the script Devin made. I was a little taken aback by how short the time frame for this was. With all of the film festivals I had forgotten that we didn't have that much school left, especially with break. Adrienne said that from her calendar we only had this week to shoot. I realize now that I should have come to her sooner about it, but I also wish she had come to the directors about it sooner. We informed the class the next day and not everyone could come. Michelle and I rewrote the script with Devin's help editing the wording and worked it out so that Kevin would be the star of it, but then he had a death in the family, and will not be able to make it. I wish we had more time to wait for him, because I don't want to film it without him. I talked with Adrienne and she said to go on with the shoot. Devin made storyboards. Michelle's made the shot list, and I'm making the shooting schedule. 

Cucalorus Response

FST 495 Cucalorus Response

Trinidad Shorts

            I watched the Trinidad Shorts at night, and so that meant that many of the filmmakers (and mediator) were all tired, drunk, and ready to get more drunk at Jengo’s. The mediator didn’t let the audience ask their own questions. When the filmmakers answered the mediator’s questions, I noticed that there were two types of answers – the dreamer answer and the funny, realistic answer. A lot of the short films I saw were dark or satirical (or hybrid) narratives. I figure that the reason so many shorts are dark is because it’s easier for us to bond and sympathize with the characters during hard times. Comedies also seem to be troublesome for short narratives, because the acting has to be timed right and timing is hard for anybody. Some shorts had better production values than others, but I noticed that as long as I was involved in the story, I didn’t mind the quality as much as long as I could see and hear what was going on.

            Most of the shorts lacked production design, which I believe would have made better films. All of the films focused on lighting and cinematography. One in particular had spectacular lighting, special effects, camera work, and acting. It felt like what an abstract would be to a paper, and showcased the real talent of the director.

Wilmington on Fire

            Wilmington on Fire was a work in progress last Cucalorus, and this year, he had a full fledged film. His documentary seemed to have lots of poorly compositioned shots, lighting, and not enough focus in the structure of the film. Although he used chapters to separate parts of his film, he was still focusing on a lot for one film. I think if he cut back, his film would have been stronger. However, the topic was so strong, relevant, and controversial that the audience didn’t care. In fact, Wilmington on Fire had the longest Q and A I saw at Cucalorus. The strong, strange characters and the director’s passion for the subject outweighed the mess ups the filmmaker had.

            I noticed that the mark of a good DP is to be able to pull focus fast, because the subjects don’t know about blocking or waiting to move to the next thing until you pull focus. One way to combat this I think would be to ask the subject to put the document out for us to see or get separate shots of all of those documents. That way they can be overlayed with the sound of the subject’s voice.

            Another thing I noticed from this documentary is that when picking a documentary subject, it’s always good if you get a subject that people are willing to talk about. Forcing people to talk about something they are uncomfortable with may prove to be a good film in the end, but essentially that’s a longer, arduous process.

Week 10

This week we held a panel to see what men had to say about Tinder. I brought Miller Lite to the set - a beer I thought is inherently manly. We had them drink a little and set up when they got there. Even though I checked the equipment before I left the equipment room, we had a bunch of technical issues on set. We had a lot of feedback from the lapels, and I'm not sure why. We had four plugged into the H6N, like Aaron said and then we were going to use the boom mic as a backup but that didn't work out. Our lights were also not going well, and I think it was because of the shape of the room and, in hindsight, maybe shooting in a larger room that wasn't under the light source would have been a better idea.

I thought that we had a lot of good discussions though, and I am hoping that we are able to fix the visual orange tone to the film and the sound quality. I also believe that maybe bringing on an editor with a bit more experience will be beneficial, and I know a guy who can sound mix that I think will help out.

I am discouraged by the workshops we have had and feel that I cannot keep up with the technological opinions of people. There are so many technical issues that I still do not understand, even though I've been through a lot of different courses in my college career. I have tried researching and playing with the lights, but it seems it's just not my forte, and I feel discouraged about that. I will continue to research.

Research:
http://nofilmschool.com/2012/05/interview-lighting-tutorials-thatll-kick
Soft Box: helps to diffuse shadows and add eye light
Hair Light/Backlight: helps separate the background from the characters

http://www.premiumbeat.com/blog/filmmaking-tip-gear-for-a-one-man-documentary-crew/
I think we have been missing the back light on a lot of our interviews and that's why it's been so bad.

White Balance for T2i DSLR
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SlPszRgHhUM
https://vimeo.com/9742411
http://www.learningvideo.com/custom-white-balance/

Change exposures:
http://www.dummies.com/how-to/content/exposure-mode-quick-guide-for-your-canon-rebel-t2i.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BgqB1L9jI74

Manual Focus:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTJikVeLu74