Spring Break felt like Summer!!

Two weeks ago, since we had lovely Spring Break last week, we had a class where Eric showed us tips and videos on editing and also a student named Corey Womack presented his film called "The Last Summer."

The short film was approximately 15 minutes long but yet it seemed like the timing was not enough for the movie to show everything, yet the film and storyline itself was kind of slow. It scared me, because in our films the average time should be 5 minutes; I was afraid that either we will have too much footage and need more time in our film, or not enough time to make the five minute line. Looking at our script right now, I'm not sure what to expect for the total time that the movie will run. I thought it was really neat to see a student made film, in some ways it made our confidence boost up, but then I realized that he was a film major student, this was his thesis...I wonder what expectations Donna and Eric have for our film then? Overall, the movie seemed very cleanly edited, and the background music fit well in each scene. I was a little disappointed in the acting and some of the lighting and camera angles. But then again lighting and camera angles are usually elements that the director thinks, but I felt that sometimes these elements were not relaying the same kind of message, or the correct message to me. But then that might also factor in with the fact that I could not relate to the character at all because I did not have similar experiences when leaving/making a choice to leave for college and which college to attend. But the complete project, I could tell that he worked really hard in the entire process, and one must consider that he worked with really low budget where the only pay that the actors got was being fed a meal; I believe in the making of this film, it is quite impressive.

After watching that film, we got to watch some fake trailers and movies, and some trailer versions of movies like "The Shining," and "Mary Poppins," but they were edited in such a way to show that sound and editing play a great role in film-making. Like Eric always says, editing can be so effective that it can even make a bad actor look good on-screen. I haven't seen "The Shining," but if my memory is correct I think it was a horror or scary film. And the spoof that we saw made the movie look like a "happy" movie.

But I think my favorite one that Eric showed was definitely the spoof for Mary Poppins which made it look scary. Honestly, when I watched the movie, I watched it in my teens one summer day, and I thought that this movie was really weird, and very happy like. When I saw the scary version, it made me laugh and glad to see it in that form also.

We also split into groups to work on our scripts and films. Our group seems to be pretty confident about our script. That day we just worked out the things we are going to need for each scene. We basically realized that everyone's schedules are crazy, everyone is going to have to make some sacrifices but we want to make the week with the camera as efficient as possible. I'm a little afraid that with so much concern in trying to be efficient with time and what we film, that the film will lose its detail part of the film. I intended to have a lot of subtle detail in the background of the scenes, but as we plan more some things are becoming easy to visualize but hard actually grasp on how we will obtain certain things. Maybe when we meet this week, things will go better, and the film will start looking like what we had visualized in the very beginning. Overall though, I'm excited about planning things for our film (since we get the camera last, we have plenty of time to plan things) and trying to figure out how we will accomplish the task of filming things that we thought would be so cool to have in our film.

Also, as discussed in class many times, to make a film you need to study other films! So next few weekends, my intention is to watch a lot of movies and analyze the movies! Which already happens now with anything I watch, which I'm thankful for, but also sometimes I wish I could stop thinking why the editor cut a certain scene or why the lighting seems to be dark in a certain area compared to the other places in the room, and actually concentrate on the story. But I do remember that there have a couple of times when I watched a movie, and half way into it, I realized that I haven't even analyzed this movie. In general, I think its really cool that I have a completely different understanding of films now.

So my question? I know that everyone plays a major role in film-making. But yet the director gets most of the credit for the film, and more than the director, the actor I think gets even more credit. Why? After knowing the deals that happen behind the scenes, do the actors even play a major role compared to the director and editor? I ask this, because I noticed in my group, that we didn't worry about who the actors were going to be until we had everything else decided!

Griffin is The Player

The movie we watched last week was very different: The Player. The opening scene was just brilliant, it was so cool to watch even as just an audience and not someone studying films. But because I knew that I was suppose to look out for things, it made that long 9 minute shot even more amazing.

The film has different genres that bring the entire movie together. There's suspense, noir, and because of that our main character is an anti-hero.

Griffin Mill was quite the interesting character. He had a lot of awkward scenes/moments in the movie for example when he is talking to June on the phone, and he's basically walking around her house creeping on her. Another time when he is sitting at the police officer's desk, and the camera does an extreme close-up to his eyes. This wasn't creepy, in fact I thought it was a brilliant way to show the perspective of what Griffin is feeling at that moment. I think the biggest thing I learned from this movie is that subtle things, and things in the background speak louder than the actual dialogs said by the actors.

It seems to be a running theme of watching movies which talk about the movie industry itself. And it seems like every movie is trying to relay the same message: Film Industry is fake, and not all glamor with happiness at all. This is mostly seen by the costume of the characters. Griffin gradually started to look darker. His clothes became darker, and his hair was more un-kept. There was a scene where he is sitting on the couch, he simply looked evil and tired (really weird combination). Another character, June who ended up marrying him in the end, was almost the complete opposite. She wore white all of the time, even at the funeral for her dead boyfriend. She represented an innocent and angelic person in the movie.

The story was also very convoluted. It came to a point where Griffin had killed David Kahane who happened to be June's boyfriend, but after time goes Griffin and June are in love, and Griffin is totally neglecting/ignoring his girlfriend Bonnie.

I really liked this movie, I think the movie got my attention from the beginning, because it looked so different that I felt it was really important to watch. Because often you find movies that even if you start watching it five minutes later, you haven't missed much, but this movie seemed important every minute of it. Another concept that I loved was how the police station was set up, and how it was completely not like normal police station set-ups in normal films. I laughed so hard, when Griffin continued to walk into the main room which actually wasn't the place he was suppose to go. And then when Detective Avery is having a casual conversation about tampons. That entire set-up was priceless.

Overall, I really enjoyed watching this movie. But I must say, I wonder how I would perceive the films that we watch if not in the environment we watch it in. For example, if I watched this movie at home on a Friday night, would I still be able to catch and analyze and understand the movies that we watch? So on that note, does the environment in which we watch a specific film play an impact on how we remember the film and how it affects us in general?

Making Progress!

Last week our scripts were due, and so our team finalized on a story and put a pretty good, but short, script together. It was a good thing that we had a working script to work on, so that when we got time in class to work on the scripts, more and more ideas and changes were brought to the script. That was a learning experience for me, because it showed me how when it comes to things with creativity, you will continue to think of different ideas and that to not make your first draft be close to your heart for the next day it will be even better than the day before.

I'm really happy that every member of my group is always bringing new ideas, that we actually have to stop and think which idea to include. Plus I think its easier to think of wild ideas and present them, when of course the genre of the film is going to be EXPERIMENTAL! The first time we got together, we were more concentrated on how to make the story be different but yet relative for the audience. The next time the group met, I think since our story was really established, we decided to think of adding other scenes to make the story flow in a better way, and also to relay the message without using a lot of explanation.

The story is set. I'm sure we will get even more different ideas for the different scenes, and sequence of the scenes. But I'm worried about the shots. We have an idea on how to do some shots. And since we have no rules or boundaries for our movie, I think it will be cool if we think at the set itself on which angle/shot any scene should be recorded in, but also it is quite risky. But I guess that will be the beauty in it, taking risks.

Last class, we also had a workshop for sound editing. Although I'm not the sound editor for our film, but I still thought it was really interesting. He also showed us the mike that we will use to record the sounds. I think it will be fun to find sounds that actually don't even go with the scene, and see how that will affect the movie.

Overall, I'm really excited about making this movie. Thinking about our present script makes me feel really proud of our team and I hope the final product reflects our hard work.

Blew My Mind!

Cover of Blow Out

Last week was another movie day! And we watched Blow Out by Brian de Palma. The film itself was great, the story showed aspects of film making and a glimpse of how this world is always trying to cover things up and showed this connection with how films are made today.

After the transition from silent to talkes movies happened, it didn't take long for film-makers to start utilizing sound as an advantage in their films, and manipulating all sorts of sounds and noises that aren't even the real sounds. The entire film had a background story going on, where Jack Terry is the sound editor for a film he's working on with a director who he often works with. he's looking for a particular scream for a scene, in the end he uses the scream of Sally when she is dying. The basic message was to show how America covers things up to present to the world, and how films actually do that also.

I've never been able to see the exact process of how films actually come together when it comes to the technicality, so this movie was almost an eye-opener. I was amazed on how he was able to use simple pictures from a magazine, put them together and make a little flip-book, and then turn that into something that is a motion picture. And plus, be able to obtain the sound and actually do a really good job in synchronizing with motion pictures.

Throughout the movie, I noticed that the sound of the movie was very detailed and sharp. Its something I've noticed in movies, where the director and sound editor can make you hear only what they want you to hear. In this film, I felt like Brian de Palma made us hear all of the little detail sounds that were occurring in the background. I know, after watching this movie, it made my senses of hearing much sharper for a while, because I was listening for little detail sounds which I probably never notice before because I never direct my attention towards them.

Another thing that was superb in this film was the cinematography. I could tell that a lot of thought went into each shot and how to actually present each detail needed. I think through the different kind of shots like the split-screen, Palma almost made us, the audience, realize that this is only a movie, and yet he made the story seem so real. As real as the story was, there were some shots and scenes that I didn't like much, and at a point reminded me of some Bollywood movie that was made off of cheap budget. The scene when Jack is in the ambulance, and he hears Sally's voice on the radio thing that was hooked up to her, he dramatically gets up (although he was just in an accident) and is able to run so fast through a large crowd and starts to search for Sally. This made no sense, and what made it worse was the slow motion scene when Jack realizes where Sally is, so he starts to run to her. It just didn't seem fair to have this in the movie, when before we were able to watch a story that has been told, but in a completely different way. But I really did like how the movie went in a circle and showed how Jack had grown/matured and how the movie ends when the scream is obtained! (which was the problem in the very first scene, where the scream was not working out for the film, so Jack was instructed to find a better scream sound)

I actually liked how diverse the characters were, and how some had importance but necessarily weren't shown that much. I also enjoyed some of the shots that in my perspective looked quite experimental. In fact, the movie as a whole seemed a little experimental, which made me happy, for that is the genre we have for our short film that we have to make. I think the idea of how a camera should just sit there and the actors do everything is what I use to think is a good shot and is a good movie, but after watching this movie I realized that some of the best shots are those that are trying to make the viewer more limited in what they can see, and more involved into the characters of the film by simply doing some camera tricks. I definitely would love to use some of his techniques of shots in our short film.

Over all, it was a great film! And I'm really glad we watched it, and surely was much different from Sunset Boulevard and Singin' in the Rain.