2/29 Readings on Lighting

I have taken a few photography classes, but I have never learned how to use lighting as a way to enhance my image. I found these readings to be very useful. As I was reading, I thought about the film we are about to shoot. I tried to think about where we will need lights and how we will use them to help the image. I think that the 3 point lighting technique is a straight forward method to use when starting out on a set. I am looking forward to learning more about the ways to light up a set.

I thought it was interesting about the tip on how to light women versus men. I have noticed that the lights are a lot of the time almost blown out on a lady's face. I wonder if this is just more flattering because it takes away some of the flaws? I like to watch old movies and I have noticed this before.

Compositional Shots Assignment

Our group decided it would be best to study our locations for this assignment. Saturday we spent 4hrs at the outside location downtown and 2hrs at my house which is the second location. I felt that it took some time to feel comfortable with the camera. Actually as I was shooting I became more aware of what I was doing the more I did it. It was fun to plan where to get good compositional shots. It is not so fun having to move the camera and tripod around the site to get the position that you want. After the long and cold outdoor shoot, we got to my house where we realized that we had the camera's white balance setting still on the florescence. This was a horrible discovery, but on Monday we redeemed ourselves and did more shots around the school so to see the difference of the settings from the WRONG to correct white balance. It truly does make a difference!!! Monday we spent about another 3-4hrs re-shooting, and before that we did a little meet and greet with crew and cast, we are trying to figure out everyone's schedule so that we can organize our pre-production packets. After all that time with the camera I am starting to feel more comfortable. I just worry that there is so much to remember and think about when setting up and shooting. I do not think that our group will forget to set the white balance after that mistake! I really hope that we do not make another big mistake like that again!

Here are a couple of my favorite compositioanl images I took on our shoot.

Chris Irick- Visiting Artist Lecture #2

Today’s visiting artist was Chris Irick. Irick as a child moved around quite a lot, which gave her different views on cultures that she found very interesting at a young age. Her family landed in Texas where she was able to go to a larger high school and take her very first jewelry class. She was hooked instantly. From high school she went to receive her BFA in metalsmithing at Texas Tech University. There is had encouraging professors that allowed her to experiment with different techniques and assist them in the studio. Irick had made the decision to teach so she got her MFA in metals from Dartmouth. She currently lives in New York and is Professor of Metal Arts and the head of the jewelry program at Pratt MWP.

I felt that the lecture was boring in the way she talked and presented her work, but what kept me awake was how beautiful her pieces were. The presentation was well organized almost to a fault. Occasionally she would say something funny to make the crowd laugh which helped. She was definitely a complete opposite from Mel Chin’s lecture earlier this month. Her work that she did was very inspiring because she took her love for old industrial and Victorian items and incorporated it into her own work. One of my favorite pieces was one she did from grad school titled Submerge. It was a necklace inspired from an old timey submarine that was supposed to be used as a way to bomb enemy ships, but never made it to production. She liked the idea of making these small industrial wearable items because adornment is very important in our society. It means a lot to wear something and carry it around with you. Irick presented her work in very nicely taken photographs that gave it a professional and clean feel. Even though her presentation was just straight fact and details spoken in a very monotone voice, which made me sleepy at times, she still kept my attention with the wonderfully sculpted jewelry.

Readings for 02/22

Our group met over the weekend a couple of times to revise our script. We have been able to meet so far every week on Fridays and Mondays, which has really helped me out at keeping a schedule. Friday we worked on adding a few more details to certain scenes and we came up with some dialogue. We all felt it would be best to put some dialogue in to not make the movie without or a silent film. Yubu and Rah spent the rest of the weekend tweaking the script and dialogue so that it would sound more natural. On Monday they did a reading of what they had changed. For tomorrow Animah should have formatted the script and highlighted the parts. I staked out a few potential places to shoot our protest scenes downtown and took images (posted on the blog earlier). I also worked on a diagram of my house along with some images so that the group could see where Elizabeth lives.

The readings were slightly familiar to me because I have taken a couple of photography type classes. I went through them to make sure I remembered everything and to made sure I understood it all. I still sometimes get the DOF a little confused no matter how many times I read it, but I think I have a better understanding and I took good notes so I can refer to them if I do get mixed up again. I think that the equipment for the focusing is really neat and I know that it will be useful so that the filmed image looks smooth. I am getting excited about actually starting to shoot! I really hope that all of this planning helps us have a less difficult time when we are out shooting the movie.

Locations

My House/Elizabeth Fulton






Here are some places downtown that could work for protest sites. Let me know what you think!

Group rough layout of scenes

Rough layout for scenes to help with scripting

Scene1: Shows Elizabeth waking up very early in the morning. (dawn)


Scene2: Elizabeth preparing for the day; protest signs in hand as she walks out the door.

Scene3: Arrives at the protesting sight. Shots of her protesting with her group showing her really into it. Spends the day out there on site.

Scene4: Comes home to an empty house.

Scene5: Lonely, she she watches a sappy romantic film, and she is fidgeting with the wedding ring on her finger.

Scene6: She reminisces of her life with her deceased husband. Shows her longing to have a child of her own.

Scene7: She gets the idea to look up some of her options, runs across artificial insemination, prints up information on it, sets on table.

Scene8: Fellow, noisy protester friend stops by to say hello to Elizabeth.

Scene9: Noisy protester friend sees information of artificial insemination on table.

Scene10: Next day Elizabeth shows up to protest and the group is acting strangely toward her.

Scene11: Elizabeth feels defeated and starts to realize that there are other views on the situation.

Scene12: When protesting she becomes less hardcore with her actions. Unsure on what path to take.


Ok, I broke this down a little more than we discussed in class. I think that we need to elaborate on the middle. More importantly the ending still needs something, not sure what. Hopefully this is a good start for writing the script.

See you guys Friday@335. Please try to have each scene developed as much as you can and some ideas of back stories on husband and noisy protester(he/she needs a name)


Here are some scenes from two movies that go along with the aesthetic we want with our film. The tone and execution of the film will have little to no dialogue/actions through body language and camera angles. Wide angles will be used to emphasize the main characters loneliness. The appearance/aesthetic of the film will be real, down-to-earth, not a lot of make up or harsh lighting.

American Beauty




Slackers

Assignments 02/08

Well, the readings were all pretty much the same as last week so I decided to quickly go back over them to try and keep them fresh thoughts in my head. I also added a few more notes that can help me later.

Our group met up on Friday and Monday again this week. Monday, we finalized our pitch, and I think we are all feeling much better and clearer on our idea. I hope! We will find out for sure tomorrow I guess. We made up a blog that we can all go in and post to: Click Here to View


I am getting both nervous and excited about how all of this is going to turn out. I can picture our film coming to life but I wonder if what is in my brain will translate through the camera and editing. It seems like there is so much to do with very little time to do it in.

Mel Chin- Visiting Artist Lecture #1

Mel Chin is Chinese, born in American, and was raised in a poor neighborhood in Houston, TX. He is a conceptual artist using mixed media as a basis of his work. He has done sculptures and installations, made clothing, images, animations, etc. Chin stated that he “places art in strange places” like popular television shows and abandoned houses. Most of his work had a lot of political views that took him time and years of research. The first image he showed was from 1989, a sculptural piece of two large columns replicated and scaled from the White House with the horn of plenty sandwiched in between which represented “crushing policy.” He also did work as homage to people whom stories impacted him in some way. During the lecture he said “work can be made a tribute to people.” I think that Mel Chin’s goals with his work is to help out the community, to make an impression, to get people thinking and involved. He works to have meaning even if the viewer has to dig a little deeper to figure it out. One of the comments that Chin said during the presentation is “its time to critique myself” I found it to be a strong and honest statement. Even though this man is obviously talented and known, he still wants to take time to regard his work and be hard on himself. I honestly had never heard of this artist before today. I really did not feel like going tonight because I had a really long day, but I am very happy I did. I thought that the lecture was informative. He was really engaging with us and he kept things interesting by cracking jokes, singing, and changing clothes. He was well organized and if he slipped up he just cracked a joke. It seemed like he really loves what he does and completely appreciates every single day.