I am enjoying the readings so far. I feel like they are easy to following and keep me interested and engaged. It's definitely more fun to read about film-making and movies rather than it is to read art history. To me anyway...
I think I am starting to finally understand what a theme is and genre. I do not know why that always confused me. I have a small notebook that I have been keeping good notes in so that I can refer to them if need be when I start shooting. I liked how some of the readings had the actual scripts from the movies that I love. It was fun to read it in that way after I had already seen it(It's a wonderful Life)
The 3-act structure is a good way to help me think about and break down what I need to include in my film and when.
Tuesday, January 31, 2012
Group goals and meeting
So far, we as a class met on Friday where we were able to split up into our groups. The groups were split by who wanted to help Tyler with his vision for his BFA and the rest of us that are planning on doing something different.
Groups are:
Tyler
Carolina
John
Amanda
Yubu
Rah
Crista
Aminah
Angelique
Friday our group decided to meet on Monday with some character ideas to discuss. We have come up with some ideas, not completely worked out yet.
Our goal is to blow people's minds by enlightening them. We want our audience to leave the film having knowledge of both conflicts or issues within the story.
Groups are:
Tyler
Carolina
John
Amanda
Yubu
Rah
Crista
Aminah
Angelique
Friday our group decided to meet on Monday with some character ideas to discuss. We have come up with some ideas, not completely worked out yet.
Our goal is to blow people's minds by enlightening them. We want our audience to leave the film having knowledge of both conflicts or issues within the story.
Here are a couple of film ideas
Ok I have a hard time writing and coming up with full stories but here are a few ideas that have been swimming around in my head.
A reality Show- or maybe in our case it would be a fake one.
Basically I have had this idea to make a reality show where a crew of professionals in different fields go around town and get homeless people off the streets.
-first we would get the bum's life story of who he was before he was on the streets and how he came to be on the streets.
-second we would get him consoling and AA if needed.
-third we would get him all cleaned up while finding out if he has any strong talents or interests.
-fourth we would get him classes based off what he likes and then we would help him find a job.
I think this may be a difficult task to do for this class but it is something that I think could be really interesting. I like some reality shows but most of them are stupid because we are just watching people ruin their lives. This is positive in that we get a little be of drama of how the bum is at first and his sad story but then we get to give him a heart warming ending or maybe it is a beginning???
I am also thinking about doing some kind of silent film/ no dialogue just music or sound effects. I am not sure exactly what I want to do but I know I do not want a Charlie Chaplin type happy film. I do like those but I think it would be interesting to bring out some sad or dramatic elements without words. For this class I really want to learn how to do a time lapse. I have this idea for a scene of a young, pretty 20-something girl sitting balled up on the floor or in a corner- drinking a lot of alcohol- over and over and over, but I am thinking that occasionally I would cut away to her trying to get dressed such as putting on make-up, curling hair- but as time goes on her hair gets ratty and her make up runs. This is a vision of mine and I am not sure if I am explaining it well but I hope to have some footage of this before the semester is over whether I get a chance to use it or not.
-I also have a tiny idea about a superhero/or maybe she is a villain. I haven't worked out the kinks yet... This is Opossum or is it, Possum Girl. She would be this cute teen- that wears ears, a hoodie with a large pocket, and a tail. She is shy- She would play dead when her evil doers are about to attack which would confuse them give her time to wake up/surprise attack her villains biting them and giving them rabies. Her predators would be eagles, hawks, owls, foxes-in human form with features of these animals.
I am not sure if any of this made sense but it is a start at least!
A reality Show- or maybe in our case it would be a fake one.
Basically I have had this idea to make a reality show where a crew of professionals in different fields go around town and get homeless people off the streets.
-first we would get the bum's life story of who he was before he was on the streets and how he came to be on the streets.
-second we would get him consoling and AA if needed.
-third we would get him all cleaned up while finding out if he has any strong talents or interests.
-fourth we would get him classes based off what he likes and then we would help him find a job.
I think this may be a difficult task to do for this class but it is something that I think could be really interesting. I like some reality shows but most of them are stupid because we are just watching people ruin their lives. This is positive in that we get a little be of drama of how the bum is at first and his sad story but then we get to give him a heart warming ending or maybe it is a beginning???
I am also thinking about doing some kind of silent film/ no dialogue just music or sound effects. I am not sure exactly what I want to do but I know I do not want a Charlie Chaplin type happy film. I do like those but I think it would be interesting to bring out some sad or dramatic elements without words. For this class I really want to learn how to do a time lapse. I have this idea for a scene of a young, pretty 20-something girl sitting balled up on the floor or in a corner- drinking a lot of alcohol- over and over and over, but I am thinking that occasionally I would cut away to her trying to get dressed such as putting on make-up, curling hair- but as time goes on her hair gets ratty and her make up runs. This is a vision of mine and I am not sure if I am explaining it well but I hope to have some footage of this before the semester is over whether I get a chance to use it or not.
-I also have a tiny idea about a superhero/or maybe she is a villain. I haven't worked out the kinks yet... This is Opossum or is it, Possum Girl. She would be this cute teen- that wears ears, a hoodie with a large pocket, and a tail. She is shy- She would play dead when her evil doers are about to attack which would confuse them give her time to wake up/surprise attack her villains biting them and giving them rabies. Her predators would be eagles, hawks, owls, foxes-in human form with features of these animals.
I am not sure if any of this made sense but it is a start at least!
A movie that had an impact on me...
American History X
I had a little bit of trouble narrowing it down to which movies had a big impact on me. Growing up movies were kind of my babysitter. My parents were young parents, I honestly do not think they really knew what they were doing, but maybe they did... They were still young and hip. They loved the pop music of that time and every movie. They never really had any restrictions for us when it came to viewing a film (except they would make us close our eyes during the sex or violent scenes). Anyways, I had seen lots of movies, when American History X came out I was about 14 or 15, This is still pretty young for this intense movie but because of my upbringing it wasn't an issue for me to watch it. I also have an older sister that shared movies with me and that is who I saw it with.
American History X summarized by IMDB-"A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did."
So here is where it got me, one a young brother that loves, admires, wants to be like his older sibling (my sister and I) but the other was the issue with race. As we know a skin-head is someone whom basically despises every race beside their our white race. I am a half-Italian/half-Hispanic, which was never an issue until I moved to Memphis, where I was picked on for being Mexican by both white and black children. Before moving here though, in 1991, My grandfather was murdered in Memphis. He owned a liquor store in a not so great part of town and was robbed and shot five times in the chest by three young black males. My family(mother, aunts and uncle) all struggled with excepting and befriending blacks for a while after that tragic event. I never understood why they all felt that way because I know that we can not judge, and any race could have done this to my grandfather. Would they have hated an Italian man if he had shot my PoopyJoe? I don't know. It wasn't until after I saw this movie that really made me think that we need to give people a chance and should not judge them by the color of their skin. My family has overcome their feelings toward black people and I know that their were just hurting and had to blame someone.
This movie does have a horrible sad ending but it made me think about how you can affect someone else, that you should really treat people like you want to be treated. If you treat someone badly they may not handle it the way you expect. As surprising as the ending is in this film I think I liked it because I, in a way could relate. I felt that this could have been a real life story, could have really happened. It made me think and was definitely memorable, and I can honestly say that I have seen it several times and I would watch it again.
I had a little bit of trouble narrowing it down to which movies had a big impact on me. Growing up movies were kind of my babysitter. My parents were young parents, I honestly do not think they really knew what they were doing, but maybe they did... They were still young and hip. They loved the pop music of that time and every movie. They never really had any restrictions for us when it came to viewing a film (except they would make us close our eyes during the sex or violent scenes). Anyways, I had seen lots of movies, when American History X came out I was about 14 or 15, This is still pretty young for this intense movie but because of my upbringing it wasn't an issue for me to watch it. I also have an older sister that shared movies with me and that is who I saw it with.
American History X summarized by IMDB-"A former neo-nazi skinhead tries to prevent his younger brother from going down the same wrong path that he did."
So here is where it got me, one a young brother that loves, admires, wants to be like his older sibling (my sister and I) but the other was the issue with race. As we know a skin-head is someone whom basically despises every race beside their our white race. I am a half-Italian/half-Hispanic, which was never an issue until I moved to Memphis, where I was picked on for being Mexican by both white and black children. Before moving here though, in 1991, My grandfather was murdered in Memphis. He owned a liquor store in a not so great part of town and was robbed and shot five times in the chest by three young black males. My family(mother, aunts and uncle) all struggled with excepting and befriending blacks for a while after that tragic event. I never understood why they all felt that way because I know that we can not judge, and any race could have done this to my grandfather. Would they have hated an Italian man if he had shot my PoopyJoe? I don't know. It wasn't until after I saw this movie that really made me think that we need to give people a chance and should not judge them by the color of their skin. My family has overcome their feelings toward black people and I know that their were just hurting and had to blame someone.
This movie does have a horrible sad ending but it made me think about how you can affect someone else, that you should really treat people like you want to be treated. If you treat someone badly they may not handle it the way you expect. As surprising as the ending is in this film I think I liked it because I, in a way could relate. I felt that this could have been a real life story, could have really happened. It made me think and was definitely memorable, and I can honestly say that I have seen it several times and I would watch it again.
Monday, January 30, 2012
My Goals
My main goals are to learn all the technical skills that come along with Digital Cinema.
-Camera use
-Proper ways to frame the subject
-Lighting
-Audio
-Editing
I do not know much about anything on this subject except for editing a few times on Adobe premiere software, years ago.
Another goal is to actually feel confident about this subject when I am finished with the class. I hope to have a great understanding so that I can apply professional movie making to work outside of the classroom.
I would like to be able to quickly come up with a scenario/fully developed characters. It is one of the most important parts of making a successful film and I feel like I have a hard time coming up with a full fleshed out idea.
Honestly I do not like working in groups, with that said, I hope to make myself available and helpful to the other members of my crew in hopes that they will do the same for me. I know that we all have different schedules and lives outside of this class but we really need to work together and make this process go as smoothly as possible.
-Camera use
-Proper ways to frame the subject
-Lighting
-Audio
-Editing
I do not know much about anything on this subject except for editing a few times on Adobe premiere software, years ago.
Another goal is to actually feel confident about this subject when I am finished with the class. I hope to have a great understanding so that I can apply professional movie making to work outside of the classroom.
I would like to be able to quickly come up with a scenario/fully developed characters. It is one of the most important parts of making a successful film and I feel like I have a hard time coming up with a full fleshed out idea.
Honestly I do not like working in groups, with that said, I hope to make myself available and helpful to the other members of my crew in hopes that they will do the same for me. I know that we all have different schedules and lives outside of this class but we really need to work together and make this process go as smoothly as possible.
Tuesday, January 24, 2012
4 Minute Presentation and Readings Write up- Week1
I think the most difficult part of this assignment was getting my presentation to be right at 4 minutes long without going over. It is a challenge for me to present because I get extremely nervous when eyes are on me, which causes me to choke up and stumble more on my words worse than I already do. So when I stumble I loose track of what I am reading and need a second to regain my composer, thus running up some of my time. My biggest goal is to try and not to appear nervous while I am presenting. I am not sure if I can accomplish this goal but I have been reading my notes over and over and at this point I feel pretty good about what I am going to say. It took me some time to figure out how to answer each one of the six prompts. I guess I have always thought of the topic and the theme as the same thing, so I had trouble on answering those because I am afraid that I may not have to correct understanding. All in all, it was fun thinking about some potential films that I will be making this semester.
The reading was very informative and interesting to me because I think it is exciting to learn the behind the scenes. I read through everything and took good notes. I think that it was a lot of information so I just hope that I can retain everything. I liked the rule of thirds, I know I have heard of that somewhere before but it really makes sense to me to not just put everything in the middle because that would be boring. I know I will be mentally making that grid in my mind the first few times I am shooting until it starts to just feel natural of where I should place the person with in the frame.
The reading was very informative and interesting to me because I think it is exciting to learn the behind the scenes. I read through everything and took good notes. I think that it was a lot of information so I just hope that I can retain everything. I liked the rule of thirds, I know I have heard of that somewhere before but it really makes sense to me to not just put everything in the middle because that would be boring. I know I will be mentally making that grid in my mind the first few times I am shooting until it starts to just feel natural of where I should place the person with in the frame.
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