The concept of our music video was that we wanted a guy that somehow couldn't form a connection with anyone. We used the song "Connection" by One Republic. Our pre-production was pretty simple, we just wanted to have something that could relate to almost anyone and we wanted to show the various attempts to get the girl. That was also our idea, we just wanted to show a guy not being able to get the girl and then in the end he gets one of the girls in one of the montages. For storyboards, we wanted a lot of medium and close up shots to show the emotion that was being conveyed throughout each character. The beat sheet was pretty simple since we printed out the lyrics to the song and then blocked them and counted how long they were, then we would title them; such as "scene 1" or "montage 1" and then go on from there.
The production bit was a little harder than it usually is since the actors we had wanted did not show up to our first set so we had to recast and we were set behind. Although, I believe that we made up for that time by editing outside of class and working on that for multiple hours. The filming itself I was not there for since I had to work but from what I heard, all went well. Location was the bit that we had a little bit of a disagreement about. Our director and cinematographer were having a bit of a quarrel about the park scene and where it should be, I'm not sure how they figured that out but the park they chose was very pretty and I'm glad they chose that one.
Post-production was a bit of a struggle with meeting what both the Director and DP wanted. Our DP wanted to add more shots of a different variety while our Director thought that it would lose the story, so it was a bit hard to find the line where they were both happy. I worked with the DP for about 3 hours in editing but he edited it for a total of 9 hours, so the product we made was very close to being the best we could do. I personally really enjoy this video, I love the editing and the colors.
I personally learned along the way that hiring actors is a tiring process and we need to have more than a day to find someone who'd be willing to film with us. In use of the five guarantees, I believe that we communicated a lot, even when it was talking about what we didn't want to do. Our collaboration was definitely used properly, I've never had a group where we talked so much about what we wanted in this video. I think that we had used our leadership skill very well, we were all stating what we did and did not like when it came to shots and such. Technical skills were used very nicely in my opinion with the editing and our DP's beautiful shots. The only part where I thought we were lacking was in the project management in the beginning when we didn't have actors for our first shoot.
For something that I would do different, I think I would try to take the time off of work to actually be on set and give my opinion on some of the sets and such. For something I'd do the same, I believe I'd like most of the shots to stay the same, I really am a fan of the whole arcade scene and all the beautiful colors and the use of focus in that scene. I think I will take away that these videos take time and trying to rush it by saying "that's good enough" doesn't really fit. Overall, I really enjoyed working on this video and I am very proud of it.
In this commercial, my group decided to use Dr. Pepper as our product. The concept of our script was that we originally wanted a more general commercial, we wanted one that had seemed a bit light-hearted and a bit like what'd you see on a television. We also wanted to add our own twist in the way that there was a subtle hint of a LGBTQA+ undertone. The two girls were supposed to be in a relationship but we didn't want that to override the commercial so we made it extremely subtle and overall up to the audience to catch.
Our process for this film was pretty simple, we wanted to create a commercial that was pleasing to the eye and simple with not much of a plot other than having fun. The storyboards were also pretty minimal because we didn't really have a set idea of what we wanted, and we drew down some things but in reality we wanted the actors to sort of do what they wanted. I wrote the script and since there was no dialogue I had to write out the actions. The actions were very different from what had happened on set and I was not personally on set so I have no idea what happened but I think I like what they did instead of what I had written down. I was supposed to be the Casting Director, but the actors that I had talked to couldn't show up on set so the Director found other actors to fill in their place. I didn't hear of any complications from other people that were on set so I don't believe that anything happened that we didn't want. I chose the song for this commercial and I thought that it fit very well with what we wanted to portray and such. I wasn't apart of the editing process much since I created the animation at the end which took longer than I wanted it to.
I really didn't have a set production role, I was sort of bouncing around everywhere. I learned that animation is hard and you have to dedicate a lot of time to making it and getting it right. For the five guarantees, I believe that my whole group communicated well, as well as collaborated nicely. I also think that we had done extremely well at project management since we had started our project early on in the week. I'm not sure we did that great on the technical skills but I think we just did basic editing and such. I think I would have liked to be on set so I could maybe talk through some of the shots with our cinematographer and overall just speak with the director about how things should have been done differently. I think I would have kept the music the same, I think it fits well in this scenario. For lighting I thought that the limited information was something we did well on as well as the positive association and proper call to action. I'm not sure we formed an emotional connection or trust building though. I thought that we did well on having good audio with our song, since we didn't have any dialogue. I thought that the lighting was good although we had to use natural lighting which I think is probably good for what we wanted to achieve. I think that our editing was a bit choppy and I am not sure how I would change it if I could, but I think with a bit of time we could make something a bit more attractive to the eye. Overall, I was happy to create the animation for this commercial but I am also not sure how well we effectively created an advertisement for the product. Although, it was a fun topic to talk about.
In the Kansas City Savior, I was the Production Assistant, which means that I did odd jobs on set and did what was asked of me by others. Whether it was help with lights, coffee runs, or marking off scenes, I was the one to do it if the one who had that job wasn't there. I faced a couple challenges being the Production Assistant, mostly when the director or someone would ask me to do a job and I had no idea on how to do it and such. I learned how hard it was to actually make a film with a lot of long film days and how important it is to make sure everything is on set that needs to be. I also learned how hard it was for the Director to make everything happen, Sarah did really good on making sure everything was perfect, even though she's not the Director. I wasn't given any feedback since I was personally a PA, so I was sort of more behind the scenes. I changed my attitude real quick in the beginning of production. At first I wanted literally nothing to do with this film but then being on set really helped me understand that even if I didn't want to be there, I sort of had to. So, I just made the most of it and had a lot of fun. I personally did not really like the film, there was some parts of it that made me cringe a little bit, but then I remember the filming and being on set and how much fun we had and all the laughs and it made me sort of fall in love with the scenes. My work on set made a little bit of an impact when it comes to the scene mark off for the editor, since I marked which ones the Director wanted to use.
In class, I didn't really have a lot to do because my job is more of on set type of thing but I made the Craft Services list and got down peoples' allergies and such so we didn't get food that could potentially hurt someone. I also helped a lot with props, I would go through the script and write down what props were needed and then I would go around asking people what they could bring. I also made a lot of checklists to show what we needed before we left to go to set. When I thought I was done I usually just drew or did classwork for other classes, which I believe is still productive use of my class time. To better my work as an e-Comm student, Armin and I would go out to random places and take pictures or videos of stuff we thought were interesting.
I believe as a student, I have a strength in doing what is asked of me and I try to do it as quickly and efficiently as possible. I use this on set a lot when I have to learn what I'm doing very quickly and try to do it in a timely manner. I really need improvement on my cinematography, I am not really sure what I'm doing with that and I would like to understand.
I really liked how it was playing on a real screen in front of a ton of people, it was very surreal. I think I loved talking to the actors and joking with them on set while trying to get the scene done and just overall working with the crew. I don't think I would change anything about the premiere, I thought it was fun, even though there were some seating issues. I learned on set how tedious and how rough it is to make a film and trying to get everything perfect, especially with the weather, is rough. I think I would like to enhance my cinematography skills or another skill so I can work harder on set and understand completely what I'm doing. Overall, I really enjoyed the process of making this film on some days I hated it so much, but I thought it was fun now looking back on it. I loved watching the film and laughing at some points and cringing at others, it was interesting. I loved it.
In the feature film that my school created, I was the PA, or Production Assistant, on set. The role was a little tough because I didn't know what I was supposed to be doing on set. My teacher gave us this assignment where we go to the website No Film School and study our role to learn how we could successfully act out our jobs and use them in the future. The article I found talks about the ins and outs of being a Production Assistant on any set; whether it be a Hollywood movie or an indie film. The role of a PA is "more than just dolling out water. You're there to help the 1st Assistant Director make sure that the production has everything it needs" (Renée). The author talks about several specific ideas that a PA needs to know: communicate clearly and promptly, be present on your walkie, always have "hot bricks" on hand, think ahead, make sure set is clean, don't be shy to lock up the set, and find ways to speed up production.
He states that communication is key between the PA and the 1st AD, or Assistant Director. The 1st AD is practically your boss and you need to let them know "[if] there's a problem with getting [a] task done—bad news is better than no news" (Renée). This is pretty significant on set because I was asked to do several tasks, luckily none of those were unable to be done. The second thing the author talks about is being present on your walkie, which is incredibly important because you need to be able to communicate whether someone has something on set or where someone is and such. We didn't have walkies on set; although, we had phones, which worked just as well. Another thing the author talks about is having "hot bricks" on you at all times, which I read later that "hot bricks" are batteries. I believe this is a little less significant though due to the batteries being used for mainly walkies; although, I could see it being used for other set items, maybe props and such. He also talks about thinking ahead, this includes "anticipating what people on set are going to need, whether that's a pen/pencil/sharpie, fresh battery, or shoulder rub", which I believe is essential to being a PA because it will make everything go faster on set (Renée). When talking about keeping the set clean, it's the PA's job to make sure everything is neat and clean for the set to either reset or for the actors' safety. The author has a nice line in the article where he says "don't let it fall by the wayside, because when your 1st AD has to remind you to pick up the messes, that means they've taken their focus off of the project and put it on something silly like garbage" which I believe is important because it shows the significance of the PA in making sure distractions are set to minimum on set (Renée). He then talks about how "locking up set" means that when you hear over the walkie that cameras are rolling then you need to tell the people around you that they have called action and need to be quiet. This is incredibly important because the background noise could completely ruin a shot or mess up the audio in post. The author also shares that it's needed to be kind when telling them to be quiet, don't snap at them. As for speeding up production, the author talks of how the PA is used to pick up the slack in hopes of helping "the cast and crew...really focus on making the project the best it can be" (Renée). The author uses evidence from personal experience to create this article and uses it effectively to teach others how to help a production run smoothly. I believe that this article holds all strengths due to it being helpful to those who are needing help on what their role is and how to efficiently use their new-found knowledge on set. I believe that there are some points on this that may not be too important for small indie sets like the one I was on; for instance, the tip about keeping the batteries on your person at all times seems to be a little excessive, but we also don't have walkies so I'm sure if a set used walkies then it would be more important. There was really no argument in this article other than it talking about how important PAs are to film sets. I believe that this article uses the information to successfully teach those who read it about the jobs of a Production Assistant and how they should behave on set. I understand all the article and I had no trouble absorbing the knowledge that Renée had shared with me. Overall, I thought this article was helpful in teaching me how much more I need to do the next time I'm a PA on a movie set. I would definitely recommend this to someone who would like to know more about being a PA or what they do. You can read the article here.
This semester we worked on making a short film, a PSA, and currently a feature film. For the short film, we were asked to make a script based on a treatment that we had made earlier in the year. We got in groups based on who we wanted to work with and we all decided on a script that we liked, my group decided that we liked Skai's. Her script was about abused children with an alcoholic mother and their story on how they are treated.
The project took about a month from treatment to editing. Though, the filming only took one day, the editing took several days and the scripting took a couple weeks as well. We faced a little bit of challenge in attempting some of the effects we wanted to add, such as the glass breaking. We actually had a mat on the floor in front of the fireplace that would catch the glass. We had thrown the cup twice and had struggled with making it look as we wanted, even though that scene is the one we didn't really like, the other shot was not in focus. We also struggled with making the plate falling off the counter look as smooth as we wanted instead of just setting a camera down and hoping for the best. We, unfortunately, damaged a the floor a little bit after so many takes of dropping the plate.
I didn't really learn much other than that the making of a short film is incredibly hard and it needs to be taken seriously and you need to work out every detail before filming. I believe most of the feedback was good, other than some people were wondering about the ending, in which we lost due to the footage corrupting on the SD card. Though, the actress that played the mother had cussed, in which was not acceptable, even though I disagreed, we had to get rid of it. The bleeping at that scene is where we had to change it. Though, I believe it really represented the feeling of abuse in that household and a classmate of mine stated that she got chills when the mother said that, which shows the impact of the language being used to really drive home the reality of abusive homes.
We changed a lot about the script, we were originally going to make this movie about the real story of Christopher Robin and how he was abused by his parents and such. Though, we had to accommodate to the fact that we didn't have the actors that would fit the role, so we changed the script based on what we had and what we could do. I really enjoyed this short film, we had cast my mother as the abusive mother and she was incredible in my opinion, though being mean did have an impact on her and made her upset, which I believe shows that even with a small production, we can make an impact that affects everyone, not just the actors. I loved working with the crew as well as the actors, we had a fun time and even had a crew breakfast, which we used the leftovers for the film. It felt like we were really making a film and it really projected us into the spots of actual filmmakers.
The other video we made this semester was a PSA on a pressing issue that we believed needed to be talked about. I was in a group with a friend of mine and we decided that, from the list we got, we wanted to do a PSA about racism because of the pressing issue it still plays in our society today. I believe that the project took about two weeks to complete and filming did take a couple days due to the people we wanted in our film not being available at certain times. We were challenged when we had to somehow get pictures of about twenty or thirty people. Though, we figured out that we could just take pictures of other classes during the hour that we had video class. Although, taking pictures of peoples' shadows was incredibly troublesome and at first we were unsure how to go about getting the silhouettes that we originally had wanted in our film.
I didn't really learn much when filming this other than that, especially when filming a PSA about racism, that you talk to the actors about the PSA and ask if they are comfortable with being a part of the film. We had some people that were not as comfortable being in the film due to it being about racism. The feedback was relatively positive; though the sound in the film is a bit off, which I was not able to fix in post-production because of my inexperience with sound. Although, I was told that the voiceover was strong and had a strong message, which I was pretty proud of because I was the one that wrote it.
We changed a lot when we had little of our actors show up to one of the last shots we had to do, which was frustrating, but we got a good shot anyway. Unfortunately, I was not as happy with the video as I wish I was. This film was extremely frustrating and there was more than a few times where my patience had run out on one or more of the crew. Though, I do feel as though I needed to experience making a PSA due it being something different.
I believe I used my time in class wisely; though, there were some days that I was drawing due to the lack of things I could have done. I did use a lot of my free time watching short films and animations, just seeing how they did things and how I could integrate it into my films in the future. I also took notes on how to catch people's attention with trailers and films in hopes to keep the audience interested in the film. This was how I stayed productive and how I "studied" for this class when I finished early. Though, when there were times that I had nothing to do and watching short films and taking notes seemed to be not what I wanted I would work on other classes homework or projects.
I watch a lot of short films outside of class and watch trailers to see what I can gain inspiration from. I have also dedicated a notebook to taking notes on video and have done a little bit both in and out of class. I believe that I am hard working, especially when it comes to getting editing or filming done. When I edit, I stay after for hours and attempt to make a film that is intriguing and causes people to want to watch more. I maximize these strengths by investing myself into these films and working my hardest to make sure that the film turns out as the director wants. I believe I need improvement on being the leader when I believe there is anther way we could make a video better. I do not like to speak up when it's not my idea, I suppose. I do sometimes speak up when the director is a friend of mine or I feel comfortable enough with them to say "Hey, I think we could do this better,"; though, most of the time I don't know the director very well and follow their instructions to a T.
I learned from our guest speakers that being in the film industry is incredibly hard and it is exhausting; though, it pays off in the end. I also learned about the roles in filmmaking, such as the equipment we will be using for our feature film. I also learned from them that, when working on a larger production, storyboards are needed, even if I don't like using them, to set base on what the shot needs to be and how you can make the film fall together perfectly.
I learned a little bit from our experience in MX-4D, though not about the film industry. I mostly learned that the use of movie theaters is becoming less and less of an occurrence. People just wait until the film comes out on cable or on Netflix to watch it, which is causing movie theaters to lose money and probably eventually close them down. I believe that the use of MX-4D will cause more people to be interested in seeing the movie of their choice in a way that they have never seen before and would like to experience. Which could save the movie industry if people decide they want to see movies this way.
I really enjoyed this semester, though I believe I really enjoyed going to the theatre for the field trip and seeing Justice League in MX-4D the most. Even if it didn't enhance my experience much, I really enjoyed seeing the film and feeling the seats move. I don't think I would do anything differently, other than getting more shots for the PSA. I learned that making films and getting them to actually fit together is really hard, and you have to work to make it fit the way you want. I believe that my goal for next year is to make short films outside of class with just myself or others. Overall, this first semester has been a little intense, but the projects really paid off in the end and now I can look back and think of the good times we had on set, or making the film.
Recently in my video class, we went on a field trip to see the Justice League in MX-4D. MX-4D is used to immerse you in the movie and activate four of your five senses; sight, sound, touch, and scent. Though, for the touch, it was movement of the chairs and water as well as wind that signified as the sense of touch. The sight was the movie in general as well as snow falling from the ceiling when the screen showed it, or ash in other parts of this film. The sound was wind and the movie. The scent was fresh mulch when grass was interacted with on screen and alcohol when it was being poured or drank. Though, the scent was incredibly strong and it didn't smell the same is it would in real life. Before I went to see the movie I didn't know that MX-4D existed in all honesty. I was very surprised when I was told what could happen during the movie, but also excited. I was actually pretty happy with the outcome of the movie, even though some of the effects were a little distracting, I loved every moment of the film and the use of the 4D. Though, I am an easily entertained person.
I believe that my favorite part of the experience was just the movie in general. The film was incredibly humorous at times and serious when it needed to be. I'm also a fan of several of the actors in the film, therefore, I adored the movie. I think that my least favorite part of the experience was the use of the scents, it was a cool feature, but the scents were off track and they didn't smell as they should have.
I don't believe that the use of MX-4D enhanced my opinion of the film, though it was fun to experience. With everything that was happening, it was just a big sensory overload. I believe that we might be able to use MX-4D in our feature film because it is a superhero cliche, that might be something that we could film to fit. I think I prefer a regular 2D or 3D movie, the moving of the chairs was nice, but it made me a little sick at first.
I believe that the creation of MX-4D was a smart way to try to get people to the theatre, but I think that only the people that would really want to go there would be mostly children. I was talking to my friend while we were waiting for the movie to start and if they had this MX-4D technology with a Virtual Reality mask of sorts where it's a 360 degree view of the movie, then I'm sure people would be incredibly interested in going to see the film in theaters.
Overall, I really enjoyed the movie as well as the experience of the MX-4D, and I would recommend it to people. I actually already have. Though, it is a little off since it is new technology and I believe there is a lot of improving we can do on this type of film watching experience to make it as close to perfect as we can get it.
Trailers are used specifically for the promotion of a film or television show, but what causes us to stay interested and, for some, even watch the trailer over and over until we see the film? For instance, the Incredibles is a classic that most know very well.
In the trailer, the opening scene is Mr. Incredible in a large car, looking annoyed. There is so much about this scene that catches our eye without our knowing. For instance, the colors seem to be dull and washed out in the background, keeping our focus on the parts that the directors want us to see. When we see this opening shot, we can already see somewhat what the backstory is of this man. He's wearing a tie with a plain white shirt, this can show that he has an office job of some sort. This can give us a sort of normalized thought of the film, he probably has a family and lives a, what we would call, routine life. We can also see that he may be deemed as a misfit of some sort due to his head reaching the top of the car and, with the help of the people behind him giving a sort of scale to him, we can tell that he is pretty large. Which catches our eye, since something is different. This minor detail can cause people to want to see more of the trailer to understand how this affects him and the world he lives in. Although, I have a biased opinion on this movie and have seen it over a dozen times, therefore, I already know what the background of this man is and how it all plays out. Here's another example:
The video immediately begins with a series of shots showing who is in the film. I have not seen this movie yet nor do I know much about the characters in this film. Though, I can already see how hey would pull you in with barely even a second into the video. In this trailer, the first shot you see is of Cyborg. Now, we all miss Cyborg, if you're like me and grew up with the Teen Titans on Cartoon Network, then you'll probably agree that blowing the dust off and making a movie with him as one of the main characters is a huge relief. Even if you didn't grow up on the Teen Titans, then his character design will pull you in almost instantly. The projection of light naturally catches our eyes, so with Cyborg's design being the shot you see first, it's not a surprise that you have to take a second look at him. The second shot is the Flash, which once again, the lightning naturally catch our eye due to the quick bursts of light that dance across the screen. That is not even two seconds into the trailer and without even knowing it, you are caught in this trap of interest in this trailer and, most likely, the movie when it comes out.
