Self portrait

For my self portrait I will be really putting myself out there and showing who I am as a person that struggles with social situations and a brain that can never focus on one thing and never stops. My idea for this is as follows:

I start by waking up alone in my apartment then leaving my apartment and getting lost in some sort of crowd or sea of people. I will then show a close up of myself looking scared and sweating as I look around intensely. Then I will show a montage of "thoughts" with a lot of voice overs over one another showing how my brain works in these situations. Then my thoughts are quickly interrupted by someone saying hello to me. I then say nothing but hello back, with a nervous tone, the person then looks at me and then walks away with a look like ok??? Then it will fade into a party in which I am drunk and I will have a montage of me being social and outgoing and the person that I truly enjoy being but struggle to be when sober. The ending will be me waking up after a morning of partying to show this vicious cycle. I will probably title it Outgoing Introvert.

My concerns are just about the crowd scene I'm not sure how I will achieve what I envision for this scene without a ton of talent although I have thought about animating that part. My plan to challenge myself will be the fact that I will be acting in it. I have never done any acting but I really want to do this I think it will be a nice outlet for me.


I want to add that I just read some other peoples ideas and I think this is an amazing project not only did I begin to discover film as an outlet but I also realized that I have a lot in common with you people as far as this thing called a brain :)

Music video Role

For the music video I am the director of photography and lead director. I am excited to be filming with super 8 but even more excited to be editing the project. For my DP role I will be working with still objects and using pans and zooms to bring some movement to the frame I also will be using the macro to focus on mechanical parts of some of the objects for a cool effect. As always I am excited to see all the footage and start to piece it together in the editing lab and really bring it all to life.

Editing Experience

Editing for me was a definitely a learning experience, due to the fact that I do not have really any editing experience at all. At first I was really shy about it but the more I watched other people interact with the computer and final cut the more interested I became in editing. I think at this point I would really like to get my own mac and version of final cut and begin to really play around with editing and get really familar with it. I feel like by editing on my own time and  after I really figure it out I really think I will become really fond of editing. I can see myself making even really short pieces and editing just for fun. I really enjoy putting things together I just don't know much about the program right now but in due time I am sure to love it and it will be right up my alley.

Plans for next semester

Next semester I plan on taking some interesting and fun classes. I plan on bettering my skills in editing by taking an intro to editing class and also learning even more interesting things about film by taking some interesting genre classes and I also am trying to get into the experimental class. I am really excited about next semester because I feel like I will finally really get to broaden my knowledge of film and maybe even find out for sure what it is that I want to do in the film field. Even if I don't find out for sure what it is that I want to do I know that by going deeper into the major I will feel that much closer to figuring it out.

Wild Card Preproduction

crew position

I am the director of the wild card project. I'm pretty shy and I've never really done anything like being a director so it's pretty exciting and new for me. I plan to accomplish quite a bit as director, as far as the way I interact with others as well as and my film skills in general. I plan to be more talkative and let my personality and creativity out I'm pretty funny and strange I've heard and if I am able to express that in my work I'm pretty sure it will be a lot of fun. I also know that by being director I will have a better understanding of what all goes into making a film. I'm really excited about being the director of this awesome short film.                                                                                                                

Sound recording

I really enjoy sound so this assignment was a lot of fun for me. At first it was hard to think if different sound that would be interesting and different, but after a little bit if thinking I think I thought of some pretty neat sounds. I think my favorite one that I thought of was water dripping from a faucet into a pot of water. I'm really excited to start in the second part of this assignment.

Master Shot

Yay lights! I am in charge of the lighting. We will be filming during the day so there will be a lot of natural light used and maybe some bounce boards to control any unwanted shadows and such from trees at our location. Our idea is a lot of fun and "trippy" lighting effects will really add to the over all feel. I can't wait to begin with this project and play around with the lighting. Colored lighting effects were mentioned a few times and with the subject matter this idea will really help out the mood. Maybe even some strobes and party lights? There will be some action in the background as well as the foreground and I could see maybe needing a little bit more than natural lighting for the background figures if we decide to have them in the trees. We may need that extra light to bring attention to them because they are an important part of the short. Who knows but like I said I can't wait to get in there and really play around.

Domunetary Reflection

My group has run into quite a few obstacles with shooting. We've had to change our topic and go back to square one a few times.  I've never done any shooting before so for me even with the challenges, the experience was very exciting. I was the sound person for the group and given that I enjoy music and sound very much it made the experience all the more enjoyable. At first for our vox pops shooting at the YWCA people didn't seem to be too interested, but after a short amount of time we began to get some footage. Surprisingly people were more interested in putting their kids on film than themselves. I enjoyed the expert interview a lot more because as the sound person there was more for me to do then just say I think it's too loud here or there is too much reverb being produced in the room. I liked being about to get close in the action with the H4 and headphones and be able to hear every little noise, it was really neat. I definitely learned a lot from this first experience.

Doc Storyboard and overhead

We had to change our topic to the YWCA

Our production schedule is

Monday Feb. 4th:

1:00 pm: pick up equipment
1:30 pm: arrive and set up
2:00 pm: film our expert interview
2:30 pm: pack up unneeded equipment
2:45 pm: Move to different location on property for Vox-Pops
2:45-4:00 pm: Film Vox-Pops and some B-roll

Tuesday Feb. 4th:

7:30 am: arrive at YWCA
7:40 am: film additional Vox-Pops
8:30 am: transition back to main office for interviews and additional B-roll
9:00 am: pack up and leave

Wednesday Feb. 4th:
Import footage in class, evaluate and determine if we need more or any re-shoots.

storyboards and overheads:




 

Documentary project

For our documentary project we decided on the smoking ban at the local beaches and the general effect of pollution on animals. For our professional interview we plan to get in contact with either an expert at the aquarium, a park ranger, or a professor at UNCW. We will be filming at Fort Fisher aquarium and the beach. The tone will be informative and serious. The ten questions we plan to ask the interviewee are but not in this order:

1. How does smoking effect the animal species in the area?
2. What animal is effected the most by smoking ?
3. Why was the ban proposed?
4. How Lon was this being planned?
5. What other kinda of pollution effect aquatic life?
6. Has there been an increase or decrease in people at the beaches since the ban?
7. Is there any plans for any other band?
8. Has there been a number increase in animals since the ban?
9. Was there an event that caused the ban?
10. Do you smoke? What is your personal view of the ban?

For the vox pops we will be at the beach and aquarium.

Our vox pops questions are:
1. What is your favorite animal and why do you like it? (For children)
2. What do you think if the ban? (For parents)
3. Are you aware of how littering effects the animals? (For parents)

Light observation 2

As I was sitting around in my living room I couldn't decide what light I wanted to observe next, when I looked over at my bearded dragon who seemed to be saying hey! Look at me. His light works kinda like a spot light on him, providing light on his left side and cast a shadow on his right. I like the way his spikes and grooves have there own little shadows kind of makes him look mean or evil. He really looks evil with how the light is hitting what kind of looks like an eyebrow but then has a shadow underneath it. Although he looks kind of strange anyways especially in the position he is in, this is really an example of how light can make the mood of a picture or video. If the light was hitting him a different way maybe he would look more approachable.

Light observation 1

I've always had a slight obsession with lights, especially colored lights. I decided to go and really look at and observe the effect of the colored lights that I have in my basement. I currently have black lights, a red, a green, and a blue light down there. As I turn them each on I automatically notice the mixing of the lights, creating new shades and colors. When I also turn on the regular white lights it adds to the effect although the white light overwhelms the other colors. I notice that the shadows created by the lights individually make some what of a creepy look especially with the red and the black one. I mostly use my basement as a party area which really works without the white light because its quite dark. I really enjoy the backlight because it gives you a glow while at the same time a lot of shadows it would be neat for any kind of creepy environment.

Storyboard

Establishing and close up. The close up is a wave washing on shore

Blog assignment #1 (about me)

Most of my "film" experience consists of late night random videos with my friends where I film us being singing, talking, or just hanging out being silly. When I was younger I would also film vacations and my siblings and I , which mostly consisted of me and my brother picking on my sisters or just being weird. I have easily over 100 home videos. In this course I hope to learn more about the art of the camera different techniques and tricks. I also would like to learn more about sound and editing to make my videos more Interesting to watch. In 10 years I will be 35 (wow) and I hope to be well into a career in film, maybe working on a big motion picture, or even traveling around the world capturing life on film. Currently I am not completely sure what part of the film industry I would really like to be in, but i do know that animation, cinematography, and sound are my top choices. Something unique about me as far as my school life goes, I own a house two hours away which I travel to on the weekends for work and up keep. As I go deeper into my journey as a film student I will need to figure out how to stay in Wilmington longer than just Monday thru Thursday. I currently have an apartment off campus, but it is hard having a mortgage and rent due every month but I manage alright. I am hoping to rent out most of my house in order to cover my mortgage, so i will not have that expense anymore. Overall I am very excited about this course and can't wait to really get into it and strengthen my skills as a filmmaker.