3 Hours of Failure

I was a little disappointed in last week's class. I felt like it was very unorganized and as if nothing was really accomplished. I am really thankful that our footage was digitized first! But even having our footage digitized didn't help with getting a heads up on editing our movie. Rather Austin spent some time in trying to find out how to work the program for editing in general. That moment, I wish, like how the cameramen had the chance to play around with the camera, I think the editors should have been given the opportunity to play around with the software for editing. But after fooling around with the software, I think as a group we realized it would be better if we just stick with the editing program we already know how to use: Windows Movie Maker. After realizing this, we needed to get our footage onto a flash drive. I left around 9, but Austin waited longer to get the flash drive, and after waiting for an hour or two, sadly all of the clips did not even fit on the flash drive. So we practically waited for 3 hours to accomplish something in regards to our film, but all we accomplished was digitizing our footage! But it probably is more progress then a lot of the other groups' progress!

Aside from so many technical difficulties in class last Thursday, we also got to film our movie last week! Overall, it was fun, and surprisingly not stressful at all! On Tuesday, we filmed our main scenes, and some of the other side scenes. Overall, it was quite successful, because we would shoot a scene and actually be substantially satisfied with it, and so we would just move onto the next scene. I noticed that our screenplay was important, but didn't play the most vital role, it was there to just remind us of what scenes we need to shoot, and an idea on how the dialog should be said. But this probably was more true because our team worked as a group for each scene, everyone needed to agree before we started shooting the scene (which was not hard at all to accomplish). One of the greatest things was that as we were making our movie, we made some changes in scenes and even created new scenes on the spot!

I think our first scene we shot had a lot of detail, which made me really happy. In fact, I felt like all of our shots were well thought out, and tried to make the scenes as crazy looking as possible. I once watched a movie directed by Farhan Akhtar (Bollywood director) and I really liked how there was distinct detail in even background objects, and long shots with less cuts. This seemed pretty cool and sufficient! And when our group decided to do a similar shot, I then realized our movie is going to be pretty legit.

Matt was a really good camera dude! I really liked how he experimented with shots, recorded it, and then as a group we watched the shots played back and thought, "wow, Matt! good job!" Jo Beth was pretty darn awesome on acting like she was trying to commit suicide with a bottle of ibuprofen and gallon of chlorine. And I think Austin and I did a pretty good job in trying to act like a couple!

I'm quite happy about the footage we have collected, a little nervous on editing the movie in two weeks. But I think once we get the entire footage on to the flash drive, we can work on the movie on our own time and actually get it done. But from what it seems, our movie won't require that much editing either, but we do need to put our scenes in order! And hopefully next class will be more productive!

Technical Difficulties

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So we were all set to film our movie last week, we meet on Tuesday to learn that both batteries are dead and that we can't even record because we don't have a cassette to record on. Basically it was a disappointing day! Then we sat down for a while and realized that we can organize things and figure out a few things which were never confirmed plans. In a way, it was a blessing in disguise. We basically figured out our sites that we will shoot at, which was already decided, but I think we came up with better ideas! Then the next day was when we thought we should just rehearse a scene (our hardest scene to be specific). It was great, because at first we were never even sure how it was going to look in room, but we decided/tried a new location, and it actually looks/will work out better than before.

I was really happy to see both Eric and Donna in class last time. Class before that, everything seemed to be really scattered, it was relieving to know there was someone there who is going to take care of all of the camera issues. The entire set-up seemed to be crumbled, but last Thursday it felt like everything was gradually coming back together! We finally got a cassette and were allotted more time to gather our footage. We basically made the same plan of just filming on Tuesday and Wednesday, since that seemed to work-out last time we were going to film.

I also really like my group/team! We never fail to come up with another new brilliant idea! We have these few random scenes that our group likes to call suicide scenes, and instead of making the camera angles look wild, we agreed to having these scenes look like home videos. It will just make those scenes look even crazier.

I'm no longer nervous about filming, I think I'm at the point to where I just want to film already. It's not overwhelming any longer because we practically rehearsed with the camera on, just not recording anything, so we've had the half experience of shooting a film. Later the element of sound and watching what just happened will be added.

Editing the movie shall be interesting. First of all, I think we only have about two or three weeks to edit, and six groups, and we need a supervisor there! Its going to be another tough thing in trying to play around your schedule and get a good time to edit. At this point, it will be important to know what you want your movie to look like! For our movie (experimental), I think editing is going to play a major role for all of those moments of footage that look normal. Our intention is to make our movie as crazy as possible!

Week of Filming!

This is our week to have the camera and get our footage for our movie! Last week coincidentally both Donna or Eric were not there to greet us for class! It was a sad day! But all in all, I think our group actually got an efficient amount of work done. Although sometimes I feel like I'm way too organized for the class, but then I always remember how I'm the director after all, so someone has to keep the group on task!

I'm not sure what the list is called, but we had previously gone through each scene and figured out what materials, people, and location for shooting will be needed. So last week, it was simply trying to figure out how we should split up on when we are going to film what, also concerning with everyone's schedule. Luckily everything seems to be working out. Also, our timing is so critical because the amount of sunlight in the background is suppose to be gradually getting darker as the movie goes, so we can't shoot the last scene at 5 and then shoot the first scene at 7:30!

Tomorrow shall be the first day for filming, and I'm kind of glad that this day is finally coming, I finally get to experience what it feels to actually create a scene for a movie. I can't wait to have subtle details in our movie that won't be noticeable to others unless if you were there for the shooting. Can't wait to know that even though there is a whole different atmosphere in front of the camera (like serious), behind the camera people might be laughing their faces off on how we are trying to be serious in that situation. I think overall its going to be fun, and hopefully we will get a lot done, that way we will not have to depend/wait for pick-up shots time!

Another thing I'm sure we will have fun with is that we are literally taking this film as experimental. We have some thought out shots, but the rest of the shots for any part of the movie are going to be thought of on the spot! This just is awesome, cause even with less resources I think we will be able to show an effective experimental kind of movie. I'm kind of excited that there is no limit to what we do in this movie, and no boundaries! I think this is by far an advantage in many ways, and especially how our story and various scenes in the script seem to be crazy thoughts! It shall be fun to see the outcome of this movie!

You are what you love, not what loves you.

Last week was our last movie night, and surely we still watched a really good movie. The movie we watched was Adaptation directed by Spike Jonze.

In general the movie was about a screenwriter and his struggle to make a book into a movie, the problem is that the book is complete as itself, but there is no concrete story in the book which could make it into a good movie.

I thought the idea of the movie, and how it was edited and portrayed was phenomenal. It first seemed to save so much time, by showing the screen-writing in working, but also showing a side world where the screen-writing is being acted out and we get to understand the story of the book in a better way. Along with how the story was portrayed, another thing that I loved in the movie was the extreme "pouring of the mind," or having the stream of consciousness of the main character Charlie Kaufman as a voice over. It made me feel like he was more of "personable" character, almost where I could relate to him, it felt as if he was not a character from a movie! This movie was post-modern, which could be seen throughout the movie, for in a way we had control of what we were watching, constantly we were reminded that it is a movie. I thought it was ironic that until Kaufman believed in being a true writer, and producing something unique the movie that was being played on the side also seemed very unique, but after he met Orleans and went to McKee's class suddenly the movie joined the world of Kaufman and everything started to happen similar to what happens in cliche movies.

Everyone in class seemed to agree that around the ending (when Orleans and Laroche meet up, and then a series of events happen which include Orleans taking drugs, both Orleans and Laroche running after Kaufman with a gun, etc) was very cliche and expected. But I was quite startled when Donald flew out of the car, after just being shot and how both Charlie and Donald were glad that they were still alive. And I do agree that everything in the end started to follow the genre of trying to have a successful movie in the box office. The trailer has a segment from 1:33 to 1:47, where it basically shows the irony of the ending of the movie. The ultimate was also very surprising, when Charlie gets away with any crimes done, and also finally kisses the woman he loves! I was surprised that the girl replied with "I love you," also, surely that wasn't expected after knowing the story but to have a cliche ending everything had to end happily. And the scene after that, watching the flowers go through seasons practically was also a great idea. Without having dialog or actors, that scene yet seemed so perfect with the song.

In general, Kaufman wanted/had to write a screenplay for a book that Orleans wrote on Laroche. The idea of making the book into a movie was not a problem, for movies are often made from little things like newspaper articles. The problem was that Kaufman wanted to live up to the expectations of the author, and not add the cliche hollywood aspect into the movie, since it was not like this in the book. Overcoming this problem is what Kaufman faced, and in the end used the hollywood aspect in his movie, but the movie made it seem like it wasn't Kaufman's fault since that is what actually happened in Kaufman's life. I think this movie played around with reality and what's not reality a lot!

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.