Final Thoughts

This class has effected my ideas about being a filmmaker in a number of ways. First of all, this is the first film production class I've taken and pretty much my first experience actually putting together and collaborating with others on films. Before starting this class, I had such little knowledge about things like coverage and lighting, and now I know how extremely important elements like that are. Also, since I never had much experience I wasn't sure what kind of films I would like to make (except documentaries.) Now I know that I have an affinity towards not only documentary, but experimental film as well. I also learned to love working with sound and realized just how important it is. I learned that I still am not really into making narrative films, except maybe writing the screenplays. Overall, I feel as if I ended this class with enough basic knowledge to begin working on projects outside of school. I was doubtful about becoming a filmmaker but now I am a little more confident in myself and my creative abilities.

Wild Card Crew Position

I was assigned director for the wild card project. At first, I was pretty overwhelmed because this project allows for more creativity - which is great - but I knew it would be hard to come up with a final idea. We ended up deciding to do an experimental narrative, and I'm pretty excited to make it happen. After the last project, I realized that I really like making experimental films so I'm super excited about that aspect of our project. I don't have much experience for narrative, but I'm glad I get to get more practice by working on a narrative project as well. I think I have a solid vision for the film and our group is cooperating really well; we seem to have the same or complementary ideas.
I'm especially excited about the dream sequence/alternate reality shots in our film. We're thinking of using filters and maybe some slow-motion shots to get the dreamy, otherworldly feeling. Overall, I'm very excited about this project and finally being director, I'm determined to make it my best one yet.

Wild Card

Our previsualization materials:

Unrevised Storyboard:

Marked Script:

Shot List:

Overheads:

Budget: 

Forms:

Editing 3B

I enjoyed editing 3b much more than I thought I would. I didn't really have much experience using Premiere or working with sound, but once I tried it I got the hang of it and it was actually really fun. The only problem we ran into is, when Troy was editing, Premiere unexpectedly closed twice, causing our project to be lost. In the future, we can avoid this by utilizing the auto save feature.
I found it really fun to listen to the sounds and put random ones together, layer them, speed them up, etc. I think manipulating sound made the visuals so interesting, especially making some sounds sound like something completely different. Since we did two soundscapes, it was a little tricky making the audio coordinate with both, but I ended up loving both of our parts. We put a lot of time into editing and overall, I'm extremely happy with the outcome. This was probably my favorite project thus far, which is funny because I thought it would be my least favorite. After editing, I feel more comfortable using Premiere and I even feel inspired to do more experimental and sound work.

Recording Sound

My group met Monday and Wednesday to record some sounds and overall it went well. It was really fun recording and trying to make sounds interesting; I think the dialogue clips ended up being rather funny and I'm excited to see how they're used. It was awesome to use such seemingly insignificant, everyday objects and then hear the sounds that came from them. I feel like sound is something very easily disregarded and this project helped me notice the sounds around me and what it adds to life in general. My favorite clip is probably the sound of a rubber band being flicked, it makes kind of an interesting beat and sounds really cool on the h4n. I also thought it was cool how some sounds that were made with objects mimicked the sounds of things like someone's footsteps, grinding metal, etc. I think a lot of the sounds can be interpreted by the listener and I'm interested in hearing how people use them.

Master Shot Editing

My group got together and edited the rough cut of our project on Wednesday. Most of the shots came out nice, but some cuts were a little jarring so we are trying to make the transitions smoother. Some of our shots didn't really work out, such as our close up of the phone. Unfortunately, we found out the camera and the H4N didn't stop recording at the same time, therefore the sound will be pretty hard for our sound editor, Adam, to sync up. We had to switch up a few shots because they didn't sequence very well, but we followed our storyboard for the most part. I think the lighting looks awesome and our project won't need much editing in that aspect. I also think we're adding some extra sounds to provide some background noise fitting a speed dating event.

Overall, the editing process went smoothly and even though we had a few minor setbacks, I believe the final product will be a success.

Pre-Visualization

Our group got our pre-visualization materials together last Monday and I think we have a pretty great plan. We made a final decision on the subject, which will be speed dating, and came up with interesting ideas for shots. We all threw in ideas about camera movement and which character would say what lines. I was assigned the role of Director of Photography and I drew the storyboard. Luqi, the producer, made the budget; Jacob, the director, made the shot list, and Adam, the sound editor made the overheads and helped us out by throwing in some ideas about equipment to use.
I find the pre-visualization materials very helpful. I feel like the project is much more organized and the shot list and storyboard really help me get an image of what the final product should look like. The most difficult part to me was drawing the storyboard, but I was probably just putting too much thought into it. I had never put together a storyboard before but my group was very helpful and I definitely find it a useful part of pre-production planning. Now that we have a detailed plan, I'm ready to start shooting and see how the project will turn out.

Master Shot Sequence Ideas

For the master shot sequence, I was assigned the role of Director of Photography. Due to having an assigned script, I knew it was probably going to be difficult coming up with ideas for an interesting film. Our group came up with a few ideas, such as two surgeons operating and speed dating. I wasn't sure if we should go for a more comedic or more realistic idea; one of my ideas was to film a really awkward drug deal scenario. Our group ending up choosing speed dating, which I think is a great idea that will fit the script naturally. We talked about doing some shots set up similarly to shots in American Beauty. I was thinking that using a few props would really add to the project and give us ways to put a twist on the film and create an engaging scene. I think our ideas will make for a visually interesting project, and I'm excited about putting it all together.

Documentary Interviews

We filmed in downtown Wilmington on the night of Valentine's Day, so we had some good opportunities for interviews. We did not yet get an expert interview, but we filmed a few street performers and got some vox pops of passerbys and people around Wilmington. The question we decided to use for our vox pops was "What do you think of Wilmington's music scene?" We had some interesting people to ask since there were so many people out. Among our interviewees were some cosplayers who provided pretty great answers and a man who just moved to Wilmington who was very eccentric about it.

The cosplayers ended up inviting us to The Calico Room, where we could film their Valentine's Day event. This event provided some awesome footage of a rapper's performance and some bizarre characters wearing intricate costumes that really contributed some cool color schemes to our documentary.

Overall, I'm happy with what we were able to shoot. I'm pretty excited about the sounds of downtown Wilmington that we captured and I feel that they'll really add a lot to the whole vibe of the documentary portraying the town's music scene.

Documentary Interview Plan

Your Documentary Interview Plan:  Who will be your expert interview?  Where will you shoot?  What tone do you want to set with your subject?  List 10 questions you will ask your interview subject.  Where will you do your vox pops?  List three questions you will ask your vox pop subjects. 

Our plan for the documentary, rather than focusing on Carolina Beach State Park, is to focus on downtown Wilmington, mainly the street performers and bands that play there on given nights. We are hoping to get lucky and come across a street performer or a few on the nights we plan to shoot, but if not we have back up plans to interview a local musician. We want to capture the streets of Wilmington at night because it'll provide interesting lighting and give the documentary an idealistic feel while still incorporating elements of a professional interview. 

A few questions I'm brainstorming for the interview are:

• What is your name?/age?/basic details
• What do you like about playing in downtown Wilmington/Why do you choose to play here?
• Do you find that the citizens of Wilmington are enthusiastic about the music and eager to tip?
• How long have you been playing, for yourself and for the public?
• Do you think the music scene in Wilmington could be better?
• What genre do you play/do you find gets the best reaction among the crowds?
• How long do you usually play on a given night?
• How did you get started performing for the public?
• Do you find anything especially cathartic about playing on your own with no obligation?
• Are you involved in any other musical organizations or do you just enjoy doing your own thing downtown?

For vox pops, I think it would be cool to ask questions to passerbys of the performance. We could ask a few questions like:

• Do you enjoy the kind of music generally played?
• Do you like Wilmington's music scene?
• Does the music give downtown Wilmington a different or better feel?
• Do you usually stay for or tip an artist if you like their performance?

Our shooting schedule so far is:

Friday Night 2/14 (7 or 8-11, while the nightlife is bustling): Shoot vox-pops and hopefully find a street performer or someone to interview.

Saturday Evening 2/15: Follow up with the prior night's footage, shoot more B-roll

Monday 2/17: Scheduled back up interviewee

Tuesday and Wednesday: Edit footage

Light Observations

Light Observation #1: Indoor Living Room

The lighting in my apartment's living room isn't very nice, but the patterns on the glass make some interesting patterns. Since the front door to the apartment is frosted glass, it creates a very soft light when the sun is bright enough to make it through the doorway. The lighting in the living room is very dull due to the thick glass and dark passageway. The window next to the door is cover by vertical blinds, creating slits in the light when it pours through. The only other source of light in the living room is one fluorescent light on the ceiling farthest from the door, causing one side of the room to be very bright and hardly lit in contrast to the dull light coming from the front door.

Filmmaker's Statement

Experience: I actually haven't had a huge amount of experience with filmmaking. When I was in the 5th grade, I got a camcorder for Christmas but I really only played around and videotaped my friends. As I got older, I became interested in photography and began making some short stop motion films. I also did some editing for my friend Mark who shoots music videos for local artists back in Fayetteville, and that's what really sparked my interest in film.

In this course, I hope to learn more about what goes into making a film, including pre-production, production, and post-production. I'm excited to learn more about editing programs and different effects. I don't have much experience actually using a camera, so I'm ready to learn different methods of filming.

I'm not exactly sure where I want to be ultimately in 10 years as a filmmaker. I definitely know I want to shoot some documentaries focusing on music or travel. I also love writing screenplays, so I know I'll be continuing that in the future. I guess my dream career would be being a film journalist, preferably for a company like Vice Magazine. I don't have huge dreams of being in the film industry, but it would be awesome to be involved in the production of feature films as well.

Something unique about me is that I love photographing concerts. Before the Soapbox Lounge shut down, I spent a lot of time going to shows and taking pictures of the performances. I was very rarely paid, but I still loved doing it because it incorporates two of my favorite things, music and photography. I don't do it too much anymore because the venue's gone, but I'm trying hard to get back into it.

Overall, I'm super excited to be part of the Film Studies major and learn what I am truly interested in.