This was by far the most stressful week of the class. We ran into every obstacle you could think of trying to get this film finished. Preparing for finals and studying for tests did not help either. The first problem we ran into was that not all our footage had been given to Brian. He had a very narrow selection of shots to work with to try to edit the movie. Moreover, the shots were not all complete and not every transition shot was included in this set of files. Therefore, the first edit of our movie was filed with narrative gaps that would have made it hard for an audience that was not involved in the shooting to understand the premise of the movie. After contacting and conversing (via text message) with Eric, we were able to get all of our files. However, Brian used Windows Movie Maker to edit the film and the files that Eric gave on a DVD were not supported by Windows Movie Maker, only AVS Video Editor. Moreover, Brian could not get AVS on his computer. We tried using my computer, but none of the files would work in either Windows or AVS. We tried editing on Jordan’s computer, then Jo Beth’s computer, but Jo Beth needed her computer to finish her work. By this time, we were all frustrated with the editing process and how much trouble it was for us. Jordan stepped up and edited the movie on her computer. This also provided more problems than solutions because her computer kept freezing as she tried to edit the film; she had to restart multiple times before she could get a project started. And the bad news did not stop. I got a message this morning saying that the file was not opening. Jenny tried to open the film and edit on her computer, but it the file was not supported by her computer either. This entire process has been incredibly frustrating for all of us. We started with so much promise for this film, and it’s very disappointing not to see it come to fruition in a final edit that we are all proud of.
Despite the problems we faced in editing the movie, I think we all learned a lot about the film making process, and how demanding it can be. Making a 5 minute movie took time, energy, and dedication on everyone’s part, so I have more respect and empathy for people who can organize and complete larger, more extensive movie productions…
Now, I’m just ready to see how far we go with our film and enjoy the movies of my classmates…
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Digitized!
(The Week of April 22, 2010)In class today, we got our film digitized. It took forever, but it got done. We were all excited to finally get started with the editing/production process of film making. Thus far, most of the work had be done by Jenny and myself, and Jordan and Bryan were eager to work on the film. We reviewed our all of our shots and narrowed down the ones we thought would be good for the movie as well as the effect we thought would enhance the movie. We wanted to utilize slow motion for the fight scene (1. Because it was very quick and 2. To stress the conflict) and the shot with Justin jumping over the bench in front of Irby. We also wanted to slow down the final running scene as well as add sounds of heart beating, heavy panting, and his footsteps to slow down the scene, draw the audience attention, and have the on their edge. I was very excited about the ideas we had for the movie. We also decided to add a bloopers section to the credits or after the credits of our movie. We had plenty of shots where Justin fell or slipped, Brain getting dressed and preparing for his role s the professor, me dancing, etc. Other than those specific edits and ideas, we left the ultimate editing process up to Brain and Jordan.
The only trouble we had this week was trying to figure out the name of the movie. We still haven’t figured that out. I bet a good idea will hit one of us soon. As of now, our main concern is getting the movie edited in time for Jordan to incorporate the appropriate sound effects and music to the movie.
The only trouble we had this week was trying to figure out the name of the movie. We still haven’t figured that out. I bet a good idea will hit one of us soon. As of now, our main concern is getting the movie edited in time for Jordan to incorporate the appropriate sound effects and music to the movie.
No Digitized Footage Part II...
(The week of April 1th, 2010) This week’s class was even shorter than the last. All my group members were gone. Jordan could not make it and Jenny and Bryan were out of town. I came to class with the intention of digitizing our tape so that we could begin the tedious editing process. However, the camera was checked out to another group, so we could not do anything new with our movie this week. We had to go a second consecutive week without digitizing.
In class, Eric explained how the digitizer on the camera works. Basically, one can digitize while filming if they sync the digitizer with the camera. This sends the video from the tape straight to a hard drive. The alternative is to digitize the footage after one has finished shooting. This takes much more time and energy that the previous digitizing method. Our group did not digitize while we shot because we were shooting an action film. This required a lot of movement of the camera and having the digitizer protruding from the top of the camera made it very inconvenient for the camerawoman, Jenny.
In class, Eric explained how the digitizer on the camera works. Basically, one can digitize while filming if they sync the digitizer with the camera. This sends the video from the tape straight to a hard drive. The alternative is to digitize the footage after one has finished shooting. This takes much more time and energy that the previous digitizing method. Our group did not digitize while we shot because we were shooting an action film. This required a lot of movement of the camera and having the digitizer protruding from the top of the camera made it very inconvenient for the camerawoman, Jenny.
No Digitized Footage...
(The Week of April 8th, 2010)The group meeting was short this week. We could not digitize because the camera was checked out to one of the groups and they were behind on their shooting. This put our group behind schedule. We had hoped since we had to organize and shoot earlier than the other groups, we would have more time to edit and perfect the finished film. Despite this set back, we still discussed how we would like to edit certain shots and what kind of music we felt would fit best in the movie throughout the week. Other than that, we there was not too much communication about the film; we were just ready to start editing and seeing the fruits of our shooting labor.
Adaptation
The Adaptation is a movie about a screenwriter, Charlie Kaufman, who has to create a screenplay out of a novel. Kaufman is very impressed by the simplicity and honesty of this book about a rare orchid, and he wants to preserve the integrity of the novel. He does not want to use ridiculous hooks, ambiguous metaphors, or cliché endings in his script to entice people into watching his movies.
Kaufman’s struggle to stay true to the novel directly exemplifies the message the director, Spike Jonze, wants to convey. Jonze believes, like Kaufman, that movies too often rely on hooks and twist endings to draw an audience rather than telling a story that is original, simple, and true to real life. What makes the movie interesting is how Jonze uses characters and events that purposely contradict Kaufman’s and, ultimately, Jonze’s ideas on good script writing. Charlie’s twin brother, Donald, is one example of this. Charlie believes writing is an art form and should be approached with forethought and purpose. However, Donald finds success in using the methods that Charlie is annoyed by and Jonze is warning against. He writes a script for a story that does not make sense, he throws in metaphors that loosely relate to the movie, and he writes an ending to his script that is not consistent with the rest of the story. Charlie represents writers that do their job for the passion and enjoyment of the art while Donald represents the mainstream writers that do so simply for the money and acclaim.
The main problem that frustrates Charlie is how to end the film. The novel ends with no real concrete resolution; it is in no way flashy or exciting. Charlie is against recurring endings. He wrestles with the idea that a movie does not have to have a familiar or overly exciting ending for it to be good. Movies should reflect real life, and Charlie feels that life stories can be simple in the way they develop and end. I feel like Jonze shares the same view and wants the audience to feel the same way and notice when writers are using cheesy endings. Jonze does this by using those exact tactics to end this movie. Adaptation ends with a sex scene, violence and killing, and Charlie’s attitude and personality changing for the better. After hours of being told to stay away from such cliché methods, Jonze abruptly and awkwardly ends the movie with these scenes to show just how unrealistic movies are nowadays. He purposely wants the audience to feel insulted by the ending so we can recognize similar endings in other movies.
I noticed the shift in the movie from trying to keep away from falling into the stereotypical plot scheme and ending to purposely following that stereotype. And I admit I was very turned off once the movie started ending because I was sort of expecting an ending that would end differently. I wanted Charlie to find a conclusion that made him happy rather than him changing to follow the stereotype then becoming happy. The love affair between the autor, Susan Orleans, and the novel’s subject, John LaRoche, the fact that the orchids were really used as a drug, and the swamp death scene all seemed very fantastic and unrealistic. After discussing the movie in class I was less angry about the ending, but I would have enjoyed the movie better if the ending had been consistent with the rest of the movie.
Kaufman’s struggle to stay true to the novel directly exemplifies the message the director, Spike Jonze, wants to convey. Jonze believes, like Kaufman, that movies too often rely on hooks and twist endings to draw an audience rather than telling a story that is original, simple, and true to real life. What makes the movie interesting is how Jonze uses characters and events that purposely contradict Kaufman’s and, ultimately, Jonze’s ideas on good script writing. Charlie’s twin brother, Donald, is one example of this. Charlie believes writing is an art form and should be approached with forethought and purpose. However, Donald finds success in using the methods that Charlie is annoyed by and Jonze is warning against. He writes a script for a story that does not make sense, he throws in metaphors that loosely relate to the movie, and he writes an ending to his script that is not consistent with the rest of the story. Charlie represents writers that do their job for the passion and enjoyment of the art while Donald represents the mainstream writers that do so simply for the money and acclaim.
The main problem that frustrates Charlie is how to end the film. The novel ends with no real concrete resolution; it is in no way flashy or exciting. Charlie is against recurring endings. He wrestles with the idea that a movie does not have to have a familiar or overly exciting ending for it to be good. Movies should reflect real life, and Charlie feels that life stories can be simple in the way they develop and end. I feel like Jonze shares the same view and wants the audience to feel the same way and notice when writers are using cheesy endings. Jonze does this by using those exact tactics to end this movie. Adaptation ends with a sex scene, violence and killing, and Charlie’s attitude and personality changing for the better. After hours of being told to stay away from such cliché methods, Jonze abruptly and awkwardly ends the movie with these scenes to show just how unrealistic movies are nowadays. He purposely wants the audience to feel insulted by the ending so we can recognize similar endings in other movies.
I noticed the shift in the movie from trying to keep away from falling into the stereotypical plot scheme and ending to purposely following that stereotype. And I admit I was very turned off once the movie started ending because I was sort of expecting an ending that would end differently. I wanted Charlie to find a conclusion that made him happy rather than him changing to follow the stereotype then becoming happy. The love affair between the autor, Susan Orleans, and the novel’s subject, John LaRoche, the fact that the orchids were really used as a drug, and the swamp death scene all seemed very fantastic and unrealistic. After discussing the movie in class I was less angry about the ending, but I would have enjoyed the movie better if the ending had been consistent with the rest of the movie.
Shooting
(The Week of March 18th, 2010) This has been a busy and stressful week for our group. We spent a lot of time last week trying to figure out good times to get together to shoot our movie. Also, it took multiple attempts to get a cast for our movie. We simply needed a main character that was fit to play our action star. We wanted someone that looked like a normal student, but we didn’t want to cast anyone that was in honors to keep the audience (the class) to have preconceived notions, ideas about the actor. We tried three or four people that agreed to do the movie then had conflicts with shooting. We got lucky when we stumbled onto Justin Philips. He seemed to be very comfortable with the idea of shooting a movie and the role. As it turns out, Justin was easy to work with, took direction well, and enthusiastic about the film. The second role we had to cast was that of the antagonist professor. We had Doug Corbit as our first choice but due to time and our limited access to the camera before spring break, we used Brian, who settled into the role with ease. Finally, we were able to cast Stefani for the girlfriend role. If you’ve ever seen Stefani act, then you know she is very talented, so we were all excited to start shooting and see how the shooting process would turn out.
We shot practice shots Tuesday evening to get a feel for type of shots we would like and to get a better feel for the actual shooting process. Our first day of shooting was rough, but everything smoothed out quickly. Throughout the week, we got together whenever possible (8 am on Monday, X Period on Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday afternoon before spring break) to get all the shots we planned for. What I wanted for the movie was to have plenty of varying shots of the same sequence, and to have quick, coherent cutting of the shots to invoke the feeling of stress that Justin was feeling. The shooting was tough on everyone throughout the week; however, when we met to shoot, we were very productive. Moreover, fun wasn’t sacrificed to get the movie done; we had a lot of laughs and blooper while filming. I enjoyed every part of this process.
We finally finished filming Friday afternoon. The group was productive, easy to work with, and enthused about the project which made things immensely easier. Group 2 is the best!
We shot practice shots Tuesday evening to get a feel for type of shots we would like and to get a better feel for the actual shooting process. Our first day of shooting was rough, but everything smoothed out quickly. Throughout the week, we got together whenever possible (8 am on Monday, X Period on Tuesday and Thursday, and Friday afternoon before spring break) to get all the shots we planned for. What I wanted for the movie was to have plenty of varying shots of the same sequence, and to have quick, coherent cutting of the shots to invoke the feeling of stress that Justin was feeling. The shooting was tough on everyone throughout the week; however, when we met to shoot, we were very productive. Moreover, fun wasn’t sacrificed to get the movie done; we had a lot of laughs and blooper while filming. I enjoyed every part of this process.
We finally finished filming Friday afternoon. The group was productive, easy to work with, and enthused about the project which made things immensely easier. Group 2 is the best!
Tuesday, March 16, 2010
"So noir...so noir..."
Honestly, if it wasn’t for this class, I don’t think I would like or appreciate this movie as much as a do. I have a feeling that I would have watched the movie, judged it on the fact that it was made in the early 1990s, hated the ending, and called it a terrible movie. However, knowing what kind of movie it is (film noir) and discussing some of the themes and messages the director was trying to convey helped open my eyes to some of the other aspects of movie making and looking a little bit past the plot, effects, and ending for a good movie.
In summary, The Player is about a movie executive – very close to losing his job - that starts receiving threatening and blackmailing postcards and messages. In his anger and anxiousness to end this harassment, he accidentally murders a writer whom he thought the messages were coming from only to find that he killed the wrong man. He starts becoming a darker, soul-less person as the movie progresses and he tries to cover up his murder. Finally, he ends up keeping his job, marrying the widow of the person he killed, and getting away with the murder that everyone knows he committed.
We talked about a lot of the different cinematic aspects of this movie which makes it good. First of all, this was a film noir movie. It’s a dark depiction of the movie industry. It shows the evil, conniving, and, often, selfish motives of the writers, directors, and executives that make movies we all enjoy. The movie plot was very dark and the ending elicits an uneasy feeling. Some of the icons that let me know this was a suspenseful film noir were the dark, shady bar that leads to the murder scene and the alley way where the murder was committed. I did not automatically think film noir, but it started to click as the movie continued. Also, The Player is a good satire of the movie industry; it shows the lack of creativity and substance in Hollywood and the selfishness of many of the people involved in making movies. I thought it was funny that almost every movie pitch was either a sequel to another movie or a blend of two completely different movies. I also liked how every writer wanted to use either Bruce Willis or Julia Roberts as their leads because they knew the audience loved those actors. Moreover, I thought the cinematography was pretty creative. There were two things that struck me as creative in this movie. First, the use of the famous movie posters to allude to the plot of the movie and give the viewer an idea of how to feel about the movie was interesting. It was blatant and bold and the first time I’ve noticed anything like that in a movie (now I’m curious to see how often directors do this). Second, there are a few scenes where the sound and focus shift from something in the foreground to something in the background, vice versa. I liked that a lot. It was very striking, especially in the opening scene (which was an amazing single shot).
Overall, I liked this movie. Like the ones before, it was very eye-opening for me.
In summary, The Player is about a movie executive – very close to losing his job - that starts receiving threatening and blackmailing postcards and messages. In his anger and anxiousness to end this harassment, he accidentally murders a writer whom he thought the messages were coming from only to find that he killed the wrong man. He starts becoming a darker, soul-less person as the movie progresses and he tries to cover up his murder. Finally, he ends up keeping his job, marrying the widow of the person he killed, and getting away with the murder that everyone knows he committed.
We talked about a lot of the different cinematic aspects of this movie which makes it good. First of all, this was a film noir movie. It’s a dark depiction of the movie industry. It shows the evil, conniving, and, often, selfish motives of the writers, directors, and executives that make movies we all enjoy. The movie plot was very dark and the ending elicits an uneasy feeling. Some of the icons that let me know this was a suspenseful film noir were the dark, shady bar that leads to the murder scene and the alley way where the murder was committed. I did not automatically think film noir, but it started to click as the movie continued. Also, The Player is a good satire of the movie industry; it shows the lack of creativity and substance in Hollywood and the selfishness of many of the people involved in making movies. I thought it was funny that almost every movie pitch was either a sequel to another movie or a blend of two completely different movies. I also liked how every writer wanted to use either Bruce Willis or Julia Roberts as their leads because they knew the audience loved those actors. Moreover, I thought the cinematography was pretty creative. There were two things that struck me as creative in this movie. First, the use of the famous movie posters to allude to the plot of the movie and give the viewer an idea of how to feel about the movie was interesting. It was blatant and bold and the first time I’ve noticed anything like that in a movie (now I’m curious to see how often directors do this). Second, there are a few scenes where the sound and focus shift from something in the foreground to something in the background, vice versa. I liked that a lot. It was very striking, especially in the opening scene (which was an amazing single shot).
Overall, I liked this movie. Like the ones before, it was very eye-opening for me.
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
More Action!!!
We started off class by watching a couple short, low-budget films, so we could get an idea of the type of final products we could potentially produce with our resources. I really enjoyed the minesweeper video because I know a lot of people that were (probably still are) addicted to minesweeper, and I thought it was clever for them to portray minesweeper as a war movie. I think those short films were very inspiring in helping us develop our idea and understand that we could still make a very good movie even with our limited experience and resources.
Our movie is starting to take a lot of form. Now that we have the storyboard complete, we have an idea of the important scenes and desired camera scenes for each scene. We have a better understanding of the flow events, what scenes we need to emphasize, and what scenes we brainstormed but would not work out for the movie. Right now, we’re getting our actors together, finalizing our script, and getting a better idea of how the actual shooting process will go once we have the cameras on location. First, find our actors. We have two more characters that need to be confirmed, our main character and our main antagonist. For our protagonist, I think our group all envisions a regular student who has to endure exaggerated and extraordinary circumstances. I think it’s very important that they seem like a normal student so that our audience can easily identify with him (her maybe??? Lol). I don’t want to say much about the casting of our antagonist because I think that will be a nice surprise, but I hope we can get him confirmed. Our script is relatively short because this movie focuses more on the actions rather than the conversations, so I think that will be finished this week.
In my opinion, our movie is coming together very well, and I am very excited to start shooting. I kind of see this movie being something similar to Red Eye (yeah, the movie with Rachel McAdams!!!) in that this movie is more about the running, the stress of being rushed, unexpected occurrences, suspense etc. instead of having explosions, big fight scenes, ninjas etc.
Our movie is starting to take a lot of form. Now that we have the storyboard complete, we have an idea of the important scenes and desired camera scenes for each scene. We have a better understanding of the flow events, what scenes we need to emphasize, and what scenes we brainstormed but would not work out for the movie. Right now, we’re getting our actors together, finalizing our script, and getting a better idea of how the actual shooting process will go once we have the cameras on location. First, find our actors. We have two more characters that need to be confirmed, our main character and our main antagonist. For our protagonist, I think our group all envisions a regular student who has to endure exaggerated and extraordinary circumstances. I think it’s very important that they seem like a normal student so that our audience can easily identify with him (her maybe??? Lol). I don’t want to say much about the casting of our antagonist because I think that will be a nice surprise, but I hope we can get him confirmed. Our script is relatively short because this movie focuses more on the actions rather than the conversations, so I think that will be finished this week.
In my opinion, our movie is coming together very well, and I am very excited to start shooting. I kind of see this movie being something similar to Red Eye (yeah, the movie with Rachel McAdams!!!) in that this movie is more about the running, the stress of being rushed, unexpected occurrences, suspense etc. instead of having explosions, big fight scenes, ninjas etc.
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Blow-Out!
Blow-Out was a completely different movie from the previous two that we’ve watched in class. This movie was made in the 1980s rather than the 1950s, so the production value was much closer to movies we are used to. Blow-Out is about a sound man, Jack Terry, happening upon an attempt to frame a congressman who is running for president. The framing goes wrong and the congressman is killed, and Jack Terry is the only one of the few witnesses that is willing to tell the truth despite a conspiracy to keep the murder from becoming public knowledge.
I was not very impressed by the actors (though they were not terrible actors) as much as I was by the cinematography of the movie. As Donna said the director, Brian De Palma, was very “ballsy” in this movie. He knew what shots he wanted, what emotion each shot would convey, and how to captivate the viewer very well. And that’s what he did. One of the shots I enjoyed from the movie was in the scene where Jack loses the video of the incident and realizes that someone has erased all his tapes. The camera turns completely around the room a couple of times with Jack in the shot looking in different shelves and all over the room looking for a tape that hasn’t been erased. That scene captures the exact feeling of frustration, agitation, and excitement you get when you lose something. I saw that scene and right away thought about times where I’ve lost things and the feeling and emotion was very similar to what was on screen. I also liked the shot right after. If I’m not mistaken (because it has been almost a week), it’s a birds-eye-view of the room as Jack Terry walks out and you see the tapes and stuff scattered across the room just to show how frantic Jack was. There were a few chase scenes but I’m pretty sure they were car scenes so I don’t think it will help in our movie. However, this movie is inspiring in that it encourages me to analyze my scenes and try different ways to invoke the emotions of the characters and tones in the scenes.
I enjoyed the visual aspects of the movie as well as the overall theme. I think this movie said a lot about American’s and our attitude and culture. It depicted American’s as a whole as being very oblivious to some of the things that occur in government and politics. And I can completely identify with that. It’s crazy to think, but there are things going on every day within our government, military, even schools that we don’t and might never know about. I thought the fact that there was that bell ceremony occurring during the conspiracy sort of emphasized that obliviousness and that feeling of false safety. Moreover, the fact that Jack ends up using the scream of Sally dying in his horror film exemplifies the cold-heartedness and lack of sympathy in American movie makers. I remember asking myself why was that scream so important and having that question linger throughout the movie, so I thought it was clever that De Palma (or most likely the writer) had the scream at the end. I thought that was a powerful way of stress one of the overall themes of the movie. The two themes of obliviousness and a self-centered mentality are related because it says that Americans are very self-oriented and are more concerned about self improvement. Thought this movie doesn’t place Americans in a good light, it does convey those themes very strongly. It’s a good movie in my book…
I was not very impressed by the actors (though they were not terrible actors) as much as I was by the cinematography of the movie. As Donna said the director, Brian De Palma, was very “ballsy” in this movie. He knew what shots he wanted, what emotion each shot would convey, and how to captivate the viewer very well. And that’s what he did. One of the shots I enjoyed from the movie was in the scene where Jack loses the video of the incident and realizes that someone has erased all his tapes. The camera turns completely around the room a couple of times with Jack in the shot looking in different shelves and all over the room looking for a tape that hasn’t been erased. That scene captures the exact feeling of frustration, agitation, and excitement you get when you lose something. I saw that scene and right away thought about times where I’ve lost things and the feeling and emotion was very similar to what was on screen. I also liked the shot right after. If I’m not mistaken (because it has been almost a week), it’s a birds-eye-view of the room as Jack Terry walks out and you see the tapes and stuff scattered across the room just to show how frantic Jack was. There were a few chase scenes but I’m pretty sure they were car scenes so I don’t think it will help in our movie. However, this movie is inspiring in that it encourages me to analyze my scenes and try different ways to invoke the emotions of the characters and tones in the scenes.
I enjoyed the visual aspects of the movie as well as the overall theme. I think this movie said a lot about American’s and our attitude and culture. It depicted American’s as a whole as being very oblivious to some of the things that occur in government and politics. And I can completely identify with that. It’s crazy to think, but there are things going on every day within our government, military, even schools that we don’t and might never know about. I thought the fact that there was that bell ceremony occurring during the conspiracy sort of emphasized that obliviousness and that feeling of false safety. Moreover, the fact that Jack ends up using the scream of Sally dying in his horror film exemplifies the cold-heartedness and lack of sympathy in American movie makers. I remember asking myself why was that scream so important and having that question linger throughout the movie, so I thought it was clever that De Palma (or most likely the writer) had the scream at the end. I thought that was a powerful way of stress one of the overall themes of the movie. The two themes of obliviousness and a self-centered mentality are related because it says that Americans are very self-oriented and are more concerned about self improvement. Thought this movie doesn’t place Americans in a good light, it does convey those themes very strongly. It’s a good movie in my book…
Tuesday, February 23, 2010
Action Movie!
This week in class we learned about the structure of movies and how screenwriting fits into that structure. We talked about the structure, cycle, and act structure of movies. The structure of a movie is basically the selection of events from the character used to arouse a specific feeling. It is important that the events selected do a good job of arousing a feeling; Eric definitely stressed that. The movie cycle includes: goal, action, conflict, and reaction. Though regular length movies have three or four acts, we will have a one act movie that encompasses the aspects of all the acts, so we’ll have to include the exposition, build up, and climax in five minutes. We also learned the format of screenwriting, the job description of screen writers, and the relationship between the screenwriter and the director.
The highlight of the class, though, was finally getting the specifics of our five minute video! I was very excited to see what type of movie we were going to do. Some of the requirements of move include 1) a clown or mime 2) the lines: ““Why is this happening to me today of all days?” and "It would be better for us not to talk about that” and 3) a guitar, a cheese grater, and skull. Very peculiar stipulations for a movie, but I’m sure we can figure out creative ways to incorporate them.
My group (the best group BY FAAAAAR) was assigned an action movie. I think everyone in the group was very excited about the assignment. We started brainstorming instantly about possible ideas, characters, plots, and even cool screen shots we could include in our movie. As far as ideas, I think we all want it to be a suspenseful movie as well as action packed. We thought a lot about who our main character could be. We thought about a child action start, but it would be difficult to have a child come in whenever we needed and act without some kind of pay or reward. I think we’re pretty set on having a B.A. female action character. I like that idea and I think that we could have a lot of fun with that. As far as plot, we have not come up with anything concrete. We thought about having something very simple but stressful that a lot of people could identify with (like losing a key or paper) occur to the main character and showing all that action that ensues as she attempts to retrieve. A chase scene was agreed upon by all the members. I think a chase scene could add to the build of suspense and the overall entertainment of the film. Some shots we thought would be cool would be a staircase scene or a shot that focuses on the feet of the character and the pursuer. We have plenty of ideas floating around, but I think it’s important that we get them down soon. Develop our plot and work from there…
One of my main concerns is special effects. We tend to expect action films to have top of the line special and visual effects. We, as poor, uneducated (in the realm of special effects) college students, do not have the means to pull of blockbuster or even bad movie special effects. So I think one of our challenges will be to have special effects that are low budget but are still visually effective. I’m excited to see how our project turns out.
Also, Eric said something about having an award show. That would be a lot of fun…
The highlight of the class, though, was finally getting the specifics of our five minute video! I was very excited to see what type of movie we were going to do. Some of the requirements of move include 1) a clown or mime 2) the lines: ““Why is this happening to me today of all days?” and "It would be better for us not to talk about that” and 3) a guitar, a cheese grater, and skull. Very peculiar stipulations for a movie, but I’m sure we can figure out creative ways to incorporate them.
My group (the best group BY FAAAAAR) was assigned an action movie. I think everyone in the group was very excited about the assignment. We started brainstorming instantly about possible ideas, characters, plots, and even cool screen shots we could include in our movie. As far as ideas, I think we all want it to be a suspenseful movie as well as action packed. We thought a lot about who our main character could be. We thought about a child action start, but it would be difficult to have a child come in whenever we needed and act without some kind of pay or reward. I think we’re pretty set on having a B.A. female action character. I like that idea and I think that we could have a lot of fun with that. As far as plot, we have not come up with anything concrete. We thought about having something very simple but stressful that a lot of people could identify with (like losing a key or paper) occur to the main character and showing all that action that ensues as she attempts to retrieve. A chase scene was agreed upon by all the members. I think a chase scene could add to the build of suspense and the overall entertainment of the film. Some shots we thought would be cool would be a staircase scene or a shot that focuses on the feet of the character and the pursuer. We have plenty of ideas floating around, but I think it’s important that we get them down soon. Develop our plot and work from there…
One of my main concerns is special effects. We tend to expect action films to have top of the line special and visual effects. We, as poor, uneducated (in the realm of special effects) college students, do not have the means to pull of blockbuster or even bad movie special effects. So I think one of our challenges will be to have special effects that are low budget but are still visually effective. I’m excited to see how our project turns out.
Also, Eric said something about having an award show. That would be a lot of fun…
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Singin' in the Rain
So…Huntze I will say on my blog that you were right, Singin’ in the Rain is a really good movie. I thoroughly enjoyed watching this movie. Basically, Singin’ in the Rain is about a larger than life silent film actor, Don, making a transition from simply being a face in a silent movie to being an actor in a talkie/musical. It is filled with vivid, colorful musical scenes, fun and intricate choreography, and plenty of singing. The movie also depicts some of the problems that this transition created (i.e. the placement of the microphone, Lina’s annoying voice).
I thought the audio editing and the sounds of the movie were unique and different compared to Sunset Boulevard. A lot of the sound was used to emphasize the movement and action of the scene rather than emphasizing the mood. I forgot the exact term for it, something like Mickey Mouse, but the sounds very exaggerated and cartoon-like. One example of this was the make them laugh scene. Different, unnatural sounds were added to the scene to emphasize him falling, hitting the ground, or back flipping off walls. I don’t think this type of sound editing is bad, I just think it gives a different feel to the movie. I think it sort of takes away from the realism of the movie but adds to the overall excitement and entertainment. Also, this movie introduced us to the use of ADR, or additional dialogue recording, which is when lines or songs are re-recorded and added to the movie at a later time for clarity or better sound quality. This technique is also used to improve the sound of different actions like the feet tapping the ground during the tap dance numbers were re-recorded and added to the movie.
I was impressed by the skill level of the actors, also. The actors were multi-talented, so it’s kind of wrong to just call them actors. There were multiple song and dance scenes in the movie and the main actors were all able to sing, dance, and play their character. However, everything was very theatrical and over the top. Some of the musical scenes seemed to develop out of nowhere and have nothing to do with the movie. For example, a light-hearted song and dance scene starts when Don is getting lessons from a voice coach. Sometimes it just seemed like they just threw in musical numbers, but I thought they were all very enjoyable.
The theme of the movie basically suggests that the movies and the magic of movies are better than real life. The best example of this is when Don tells Kathy about his true feelings for her; he can’t say exactly how he feels unless he’s on set and lighting, mood, and scene are perfect. To me, this scene exemplifies the theme the best because this is supposed to be a very important and intimate part of a relationship starting and the fact that Don couldn’t express his true feelings without being on a set stresses movie rather than real life.
I thought the audio editing and the sounds of the movie were unique and different compared to Sunset Boulevard. A lot of the sound was used to emphasize the movement and action of the scene rather than emphasizing the mood. I forgot the exact term for it, something like Mickey Mouse, but the sounds very exaggerated and cartoon-like. One example of this was the make them laugh scene. Different, unnatural sounds were added to the scene to emphasize him falling, hitting the ground, or back flipping off walls. I don’t think this type of sound editing is bad, I just think it gives a different feel to the movie. I think it sort of takes away from the realism of the movie but adds to the overall excitement and entertainment. Also, this movie introduced us to the use of ADR, or additional dialogue recording, which is when lines or songs are re-recorded and added to the movie at a later time for clarity or better sound quality. This technique is also used to improve the sound of different actions like the feet tapping the ground during the tap dance numbers were re-recorded and added to the movie.
I was impressed by the skill level of the actors, also. The actors were multi-talented, so it’s kind of wrong to just call them actors. There were multiple song and dance scenes in the movie and the main actors were all able to sing, dance, and play their character. However, everything was very theatrical and over the top. Some of the musical scenes seemed to develop out of nowhere and have nothing to do with the movie. For example, a light-hearted song and dance scene starts when Don is getting lessons from a voice coach. Sometimes it just seemed like they just threw in musical numbers, but I thought they were all very enjoyable.
The theme of the movie basically suggests that the movies and the magic of movies are better than real life. The best example of this is when Don tells Kathy about his true feelings for her; he can’t say exactly how he feels unless he’s on set and lighting, mood, and scene are perfect. To me, this scene exemplifies the theme the best because this is supposed to be a very important and intimate part of a relationship starting and the fact that Don couldn’t express his true feelings without being on a set stresses movie rather than real life.
Tuesday, February 9, 2010
Making a movie...
One of the basic techniques we learned about is the rule of thirds which basically means to divide the shot of the camera into three equal parts vertically and horizontally. To utilize this technique, it’s important not to have the subject in the same third over and over and not to film the subject in the center third. Changing the positioning of the subject adds a dynamics to the shot and helps with the aesthetics of the movie. Viewers’ eyes are drawn to the top line of the horizontal thirds and the outer sections of the vertical thirds, so keeping the subject in those areas help emphasize anything important about the subject. Also, it can help convey different emotions depending on the mood of the scene. I think the rule of thirds will be a pretty easy technique to use in the five minute project because it doesn’t require anything but the camera and the creativity of the people making the movie.
Manipulating the lighting is another very important technique that can help enhance a movie. Lighting, similar to the thirds rule, is a technique used to emphasize the subject. V for Vendetta uses lighting very well. There’s a shot where the main, female character, Eve Hammond, is in the front of the shot and the lighting is placed so that her face and shoulders are more illuminated than the background and other character in the shot. Adjusting and manipulating the lighting of the subject and background would be an accomplishable task for student movie-makers; lighting is pretty cheap and easily accessible.
As far as composition, I think using the 180 and 30 degree rules will help in the editing process of the movie. These two rules will be easy to employ. Basically, these rules help with continuity. With the 180 rule, there is a line of action and the camera is not supposed to cross this line of action because it confuses the viewer. The 30 degree rules states that a new shot should be taken from greater than 30 degrees from the previous shot because shots taken from less than 30 degrees are deemed unnecessary. An example of the 180 degree rule is commonly seen during the conversation scenes of movie such as the conversation between Vince and Mia in Pulp Fiction. In this movie, close-ups and cross cutting were used along with the 180 degree rule during their conversation in the restaurant booth.
I think the techniques we’ve learned in class so far are easy enough to employ in our movies. Simple manipulations can go a long way in creating a mood or conveying a theme in a movie. I think it’s more about understanding the techniques and finding different ways to use them effectively and not randomly and without purpose.
Manipulating the lighting is another very important technique that can help enhance a movie. Lighting, similar to the thirds rule, is a technique used to emphasize the subject. V for Vendetta uses lighting very well. There’s a shot where the main, female character, Eve Hammond, is in the front of the shot and the lighting is placed so that her face and shoulders are more illuminated than the background and other character in the shot. Adjusting and manipulating the lighting of the subject and background would be an accomplishable task for student movie-makers; lighting is pretty cheap and easily accessible.
As far as composition, I think using the 180 and 30 degree rules will help in the editing process of the movie. These two rules will be easy to employ. Basically, these rules help with continuity. With the 180 rule, there is a line of action and the camera is not supposed to cross this line of action because it confuses the viewer. The 30 degree rules states that a new shot should be taken from greater than 30 degrees from the previous shot because shots taken from less than 30 degrees are deemed unnecessary. An example of the 180 degree rule is commonly seen during the conversation scenes of movie such as the conversation between Vince and Mia in Pulp Fiction. In this movie, close-ups and cross cutting were used along with the 180 degree rule during their conversation in the restaurant booth.
I think the techniques we’ve learned in class so far are easy enough to employ in our movies. Simple manipulations can go a long way in creating a mood or conveying a theme in a movie. I think it’s more about understanding the techniques and finding different ways to use them effectively and not randomly and without purpose.
Thursday, February 4, 2010
I like my films like I like my coffee...black!
Film Noir - a French term that translates into black film - is a style of American cinematography popularized in the 1940’s and 50’s. These movies were deemed “black films” due to the dark visuals, the common theme of violence, sex, and mystery, and the fact that the movies do not have happy endings. Film noirs have main characters, but never heroes; the main characters have major personality flaws that prevent them from achieving happiness or success. Visually, these films are just as dark and dreary as their characters and plots; they are shot in black and white and dim lighting. This type of coloring adds to the overall dreary, gloomy, or mysterious mood that is invoked by the plot and characters in film noir.
In class, we watched Sunset Boulevard as an example of film noir. I am definitely one of those people who was bias towards black and white movies; I assumed that old films were boring and not worth my time. I was wrong! Sunset Boulevard completely changed my idea about old films. From the creative and captivating opening scene to the ridiculous relationship between Joe and Norma Desmond, I was impressed by the entire movie. It was interesting to see the characters, especially Norma Desmond, so engulfed in their dreams and ambitions, but never being able to attain their dreams made for a good movie. I especially liked the fact that the movie starts by showing the death of the main character. I found myself half expecting some kind of happy or satisfying ending. I kept thinking something pivotal would happen so that everything would work out because you get attached to Joe and become sympathetic towards him. But in the back of your mind you know that nothing is going to work the way the characters would want or expect them to.
I really enjoyed this dark film. It’s very different from the movies that I am used to seeing, but I plan on watching more of them in the future. ..
In class, we watched Sunset Boulevard as an example of film noir. I am definitely one of those people who was bias towards black and white movies; I assumed that old films were boring and not worth my time. I was wrong! Sunset Boulevard completely changed my idea about old films. From the creative and captivating opening scene to the ridiculous relationship between Joe and Norma Desmond, I was impressed by the entire movie. It was interesting to see the characters, especially Norma Desmond, so engulfed in their dreams and ambitions, but never being able to attain their dreams made for a good movie. I especially liked the fact that the movie starts by showing the death of the main character. I found myself half expecting some kind of happy or satisfying ending. I kept thinking something pivotal would happen so that everything would work out because you get attached to Joe and become sympathetic towards him. But in the back of your mind you know that nothing is going to work the way the characters would want or expect them to.
I really enjoyed this dark film. It’s very different from the movies that I am used to seeing, but I plan on watching more of them in the future. ..
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Editing and Sound
We started class by analyzing different views, or focuses, a camera can capture. Close ups have the subject taking up most of the screen. This stresses the importance of the subject and puts the focus on the emotion of the subject in the frame. Medium focus gives you a wider view of a scene, and long shot gives a much larger view of a scene so that the viewer gets the complete outlook of a situation. Also we discussed the use of zoom and dolly panning in. As an example of zoom, we watched an interview scene from Citizen Kane. The camera starts with a medium shot. The interviewee was the main subject in the shot with the light and focus on him, to further emphasize the interviewee’s importance, the background was out of focus and the interviewer was covered by a shadow. As the interview proceeds, the camera zooms in on the interviewee’s face until it is a close focus, and the viewer has no choice but to concentrate on him.
I also enjoyed the scene in Citizen Kane when Kane was talking to his wife at the dinner table. Sound and visual transitions were used to show a change in time and a progression in their relationship. As the movie transitioned into older and older conversations, we notice the couple getting older and their relationship fading. Moreover, the distance between the couple increases after each transition and acts as a metaphor to reinforce the slow deterioration of their relationship. I found that scene to be very interesting.
We learned that there are four main story tellers in movie making which includes: the writer, the director, the editor, and the sound editor. Sound editing is a part of movie making that is very essential but often goes unrecognized by regular movie goers. One of the commentators in the behind the scenes features we watched explained that people would watch a movie if it had good sound and grainy video but would not watch a movie with amazing visuals but terrible audio quality. This stresses the importance of audio in a movie and sound editing.
We watched a feature on the sound editing that was used to make Lord of the Rings and I remember being impressed and awestruck by the ingenuity and creativity needed to “invent” sounds necessary for movie. For example, the sound editors had to think of a sound for a giant spider. They decided combined the sound of a steam blowing out of an espresso machine, the hiss of a Tasmanian devil, and the growl of an alligator to create a very unique, eerie the scream of the spider. I found sound editors to be the most creative and dedicated because they are constantly thinking and listening for ways to manipulate and combine different sounds.
I also enjoyed the scene in Citizen Kane when Kane was talking to his wife at the dinner table. Sound and visual transitions were used to show a change in time and a progression in their relationship. As the movie transitioned into older and older conversations, we notice the couple getting older and their relationship fading. Moreover, the distance between the couple increases after each transition and acts as a metaphor to reinforce the slow deterioration of their relationship. I found that scene to be very interesting.
We learned that there are four main story tellers in movie making which includes: the writer, the director, the editor, and the sound editor. Sound editing is a part of movie making that is very essential but often goes unrecognized by regular movie goers. One of the commentators in the behind the scenes features we watched explained that people would watch a movie if it had good sound and grainy video but would not watch a movie with amazing visuals but terrible audio quality. This stresses the importance of audio in a movie and sound editing.
We watched a feature on the sound editing that was used to make Lord of the Rings and I remember being impressed and awestruck by the ingenuity and creativity needed to “invent” sounds necessary for movie. For example, the sound editors had to think of a sound for a giant spider. They decided combined the sound of a steam blowing out of an espresso machine, the hiss of a Tasmanian devil, and the growl of an alligator to create a very unique, eerie the scream of the spider. I found sound editors to be the most creative and dedicated because they are constantly thinking and listening for ways to manipulate and combine different sounds.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
1st Day of Class
I have always been interested in knowing and understanding how movies are made. We all go to the movies with friends and family, talk about our favorite scenes or retell our favorite quotes, but a lot of times I am more intrigued by the actual ideas, inspiration, work, and techniques that are used to make movies. So when I saw this class listed in the Core IV classes, I was extremely excited!
In class, we focused on how the movie was invented and the most important early milestones and genres of movies. Understanding the history of movies was interesting to me because it was cool to see how simple and innovative the first movie makers were. They were able to take this new medium and develop new uses and techniques to convey very different emotions. I liked watching the short films by the magician George Melias. He would enhance his magic shows by using stop motion to make it seem as if people, objects, and, even, he was disappearing; this was the first use of the camera to produce movies with special effects and illusions. We also focused on aspects of movies that are thought of and planned before shooting begins. Some of these aspects includes: camera angles, choreography, video and sound editing, and set and props. Musicals and dance numbers are good examples of movies that utilize all of these aspects of movie making.
The cross cutting techniques is what the part of class that I enjoyed the most. After being explained how that worked, it was like personal epiphany. I started thinking about those lame sports movies that would have the action going in slow motion while cutting back and forth between shots of the game and the clock. My sisters and I would always laugh about how retarded the directors must have been, not knowing that it is a technique used to show things occurring simultaneously. I just kept having flashbacks of movies, most of them with time counting down, and thinking about how much more enjoyable they would have been if I had known what cross cutting was before.
I cannot wait to get my hands on a camera and begin on our projects! The most appealing part of this class, for me, was learning that we would be able to make our own movies in this class. I have always been more interested in making movies rather than watching them, and this class provides the perfect opportunity for that. I’m excited to see what kind of movies everyone’s going to make this semester!
In class, we focused on how the movie was invented and the most important early milestones and genres of movies. Understanding the history of movies was interesting to me because it was cool to see how simple and innovative the first movie makers were. They were able to take this new medium and develop new uses and techniques to convey very different emotions. I liked watching the short films by the magician George Melias. He would enhance his magic shows by using stop motion to make it seem as if people, objects, and, even, he was disappearing; this was the first use of the camera to produce movies with special effects and illusions. We also focused on aspects of movies that are thought of and planned before shooting begins. Some of these aspects includes: camera angles, choreography, video and sound editing, and set and props. Musicals and dance numbers are good examples of movies that utilize all of these aspects of movie making.
The cross cutting techniques is what the part of class that I enjoyed the most. After being explained how that worked, it was like personal epiphany. I started thinking about those lame sports movies that would have the action going in slow motion while cutting back and forth between shots of the game and the clock. My sisters and I would always laugh about how retarded the directors must have been, not knowing that it is a technique used to show things occurring simultaneously. I just kept having flashbacks of movies, most of them with time counting down, and thinking about how much more enjoyable they would have been if I had known what cross cutting was before.
I cannot wait to get my hands on a camera and begin on our projects! The most appealing part of this class, for me, was learning that we would be able to make our own movies in this class. I have always been more interested in making movies rather than watching them, and this class provides the perfect opportunity for that. I’m excited to see what kind of movies everyone’s going to make this semester!
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