Editing

Like I thought I really enjoyed the editing part of making a movie. It is a very time consuming process which I do not enjoy but only because it makes it stressful to spend the time on it that I want and have. I am a little worried about the quality of my edit compared with everyone else in the class. I ended up with 12 minutes which I think is a little dragged out but I felt like I would rather have a little more than what I need rather than not enough. I could totally see myself getting a job where I sit and edit all day long. I hope to learn a lot more on final cut so I can use all the tools that it has to offer!

Filming over Spring Break

Our group filmed all day on Monday and Tuesday, the beginning of the break. It was a long couple of days but I would say that we got everything completed and our script came to life.


I'm not going to lie, It was difficult... There are so many things to remember. I know that we forgot to do one thing and then remembered to it later and then forgot to do something else. Even with notes near by it was always something.

Our actors were great and stayed patient with us during the process. We were definitely lucky to find all of our actors outside of MCA so our viewers should not recognize any faces. The main two characters were a friend and a co-worker of mine. Aminah found the extra people to be picketers from the Actors in Memphis Facebook page. It was almost surprising that these actors were willing to help us for free. They followed directions so well and came very prepared. They were all very professional.

I know our biggest mistake was that we did not slate correctly the whole time. Which will make syncing our footage very difficult. Since we did not slate correctly, I went back and wrote out the video to it's matching audio. Some of it was a little confusing but I think I got most of it matched up. There are some other issues where that is concerned but I will wait till I understand how to do the editing part first before I go into that.

I think that I would have enjoyed the filming part a little more had it not been so stressful as a class project. If I could do something like this on my own time, I think that it would be better. I do know I learned a lot by just filming. I really hope that the next film will go much smoother. I think and I hope that I will like doing the editing part. I am very much a computer person. I wouldn't mind sitting at the computer making everything come together. I have never used final cut pro so I am a little worried about that. I hope that I can understand it well enough to make my movie the way I picture it.


Here are some stills of the movie! :)

Assignments 03/07

We met a lot this week to get the pre-production pack completed as well as the lighting assignment.

We have spoken to the actors and plan to shoot on Monday March 12th and Tuesday March 13th. I am excited to get this process going. I am getting worried though because it looks like it may rain those days and we need to get our outside shots then. So I guess we will be praying to the rain Gods that they hold off for us. If not we will have to just do the scenes in the apartment.

This coming weekend will be spent gathering supplies for the file. We need a few small wardrobe pieces, a tea kettle, and materials to make signs.

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.