DVD So Far.....

Wow this has been a monstrous task. So today I finalized all a few of the menu samples for class tomorrow (This took about 4 hours).  Myself and Ben Blevins meet with Andre Silva for about 30 minutes.  Andre was awesome enough to make a demo sample so we could reference it for making the others.  After the meeting Ben had to go to work and I went back to the editing lab.  I worked from 5-920 today making the menu's.  Tomorrow after class I am going to try to compress everything and link them to the dvd.  I am guessing this will take about 2-3 hours.    On saturday I spent 6 hours going through the webpage deleting and updating pages to make it look post festival.  My group had a meeting on thursday with out me.  Ben Blevins said that he said I was in class and it wouldn't matter.  I called a meeting for friday thursday night, because friday was our normal meeting day.   Joey gladly came to the meeting on friday and informed me of what was going to be done.  I took over the webpage part and became an Admin on the public facebook page to do a little cleaning.  All in all that is all folks.    Next semester I want all the dvd menu's and artwork and everything besides the footage done before the festival.  I feel this will make the post festival time easier on everyone.  All we will need to do is edit the footage and we can send the footage off within a week of the festival.

4-16-13

For this week.  I have been in contact with Ben Blevins about the dvd details.  I have downloaded the manual on my computer.  Myself and Shannon Silva have agreed on the date to have the materiel in by.    Ben Blevins has created a schedule and assignments for the class to have their projects in for the dvd.  I contacted Disk makers to find out how much footage for each dvd could be used.  This thursday myself and ben will be editing the sections.  I need to contact Shannon about how we will pay for the dvd's.  I will make a schedule for a plan of wrap up for after event.

Visions 4-9-12

This last week we had the festival.  I had a really great time and enjoyed working the live stream camera.  I felt it was a great learning experience and I cannot wait to do it again next year.  I feel my team did a great job and we worked together perfectly. I am excited and I have lots of great ideas for next years festival.  I feel that I will be ready to bring more experience and be able to handle more next semester.  

4-2-13 Week

This weekend has been a waste.  I have not had much time to do anything due to a family emergency on friday that I had to leave wilmington.  The group had a meeting that I was unable to attend because I left friday morning at 4 am to Jacksonville.  I have not received any emails back from DVD manufactories.  I was unable to meet with Channing on Thursday to to running over a nail with my already needing replaced front tire.  Break has been a waste for me in-terms of film and I apologize now.

3-26-13

This weekend I meet with the PR department on Friday.  We set up who was going to be doing what during the Festival.  Myself and Channing will be running the cameras in the auditorium.  The meeting lasted about an hour and a half.  Other than that I spent 2 hours researching  DVD making companies and getting a warm and fuzzy about prices before my meeting with Shannon on Monday at 10 am.  I was unable to do anything else this weekend do to U.S. Army Reserve duty this weekend at Sunny Point Ammunition Port.

3-19-13

This week has been a rather interesting one.  I had class scheduling this week so I told Jon I would be late to the meeting.  After getting my pin I went to the meeting for them to meet and leave to go take a picture of the winner of the first tickets.  The meeting lasted 20 minutes.  I then meet with Ben on Saturday after my dr's appointment.  We went through and checked to see if anymore pictures or information about the films or speeches had been sent in.  This took about an hour to an hour and a half. We found that we did not have any pictures for Another Mans Treasure so I contacted Joey.  Before I contacted Joey we tried to find the video on Vimeo.com only to find out it had been deleted a few days prior.  After that Ben and Myself created a page about the lounge where Matt will be performing.  Ben showed me how to link the two pages together and then we tested the link.  This took about 10 minutes.  That is all for this week.  You stay classy blogger nation.

3-12-13

This last week I meet up with Ben Blevins over spring break.  We were assigned to do the pages for the film makers and their videos.  We scheduled a meeting time for Saturday  during our last meeting before spring break.  When we opened the pages and downloaded all the pictures we found out that Jon and Joey had done the pages already.  Joey was supposed to send us the information and let us know when it was available from the film makers.  Since we could not do that because it was already done by others we began to start to make the video for the Harlem Shake.  We ran into problems with the coding of the video.  It was not rendering.  So after an hour and a half almost 2 hours Ben said he would take the video home and let it render there.  All in all a very uneventful weekend.  More to come next weekend.

week of 2-24-13

During this week I have watched and scored all films.  It took me about 4 hours over 2 days.  I have sent a equipment request form in to pick up the equipment we will need for the 90's night this thursday. Planning the equipment took about 20 mins to put on the form and submit.  During our meeting on Friday I copied the regional contacts from the old excel worksheet to our google docs spreadsheet so we would be able to use it easier next year.  The coping of the 380 or so contacts took about 30 minutes.  I will when we receive the information and art for the films selected meet with Ben Blevins over spring break and put that information on the site as soon as we get it. I inquired to the photography club as Jon instructed i do.  My fiancé is a member and said they charge $20 an hour.  I went on the new Word Press site and and played around after I logged in.  I explored where everything was and how it was put in.  I am going to like Word Press more than the old program. I spent about an hour going over the site.  That is all that I can think of right now.  It has been a busy weekend.  I am looking forward to the party this Thursday.

2-18-12

During this week myself and Ben meet at my apartment for about an hour to post the new sponsor logos on the page.  We had technical difficulties and could not get the images to appear, but the links for the images do work.  We are going to consult Jon and see if he can help us out.  I have continued to read my online book and as of right now I am on page 50.  I have found a better coding for dummies book that I will buy in march.  I feel this book has better examples and will help me find how to do better design aspects of coding.  I spent about 3 hours on saturday and sunday watching the films taking notes.  Today I went through and re watched some of the films and graded all.  It took about 3 hours.  I also picked up the movie tickets from Carmike and will bring them along with the purses I mentioned last class.  Next weekend I am going to spend my saturday working on coding and any other projects that come up during the week.  I am going to see if Ben can meet up with me and work together on the webpage/ fix the problems we had this week.

2-11-13

Today I received the go ahead from Carmike Cinema's to give us 10 tickets.  Me and Ben meet on monday for an hour go over items to get done.  We were going to do the link the 1hour 1 take video race forms to the site but it was already done by someone else.  We then were going to continue to work on creating a webpage from scratch.  I have downloaded the E-Book from the library to study HTML.  I will begin to read more the book and practice the tasks that are being shown in the book.  I have also found a local business woman who said she would like to donate her handmade purses to the festival.  She just needs to know how many we would need and she can see what she can donate.

Work for 02-03-2013

This weekend I meet with Jon and a few others for our quick meeting in friday.  I am going to be taking my ipad to the regal and carmike on monday to ask them about free movie tickets for visions video race.  Some time this week myself jon and ben are going to meet and create the google documents for the abstract essays for grading when the time comes.  Myself and Ben will be working on building a webpage from scratch in hopes of creating a new visions look for next year.

Visions Work 1/27/12

I had my first meeting with the department.  I meet with Ben before the meeting and he showed me how to upload and edit bio's.  I will work with him on monday to go through and make the edits and add pictures.  I am also tasked out with helping get movie tickets with Ben for the film makers and scholars.  I have also acquired for visions some hand made purse's that will be donated to visions for the female film makers and scholars.  I am going to pass my information to Marge about my contacts in the SVO and TSO here at UNCW.

Made it into the Film Major

I am finally living my dream as a college film major.  The real hard work begins right now.  I am really excited about my visions class next semester.  It is going to be a real challenge but I know I am up for the task.  I would just like to thank my classmates and my teachers from FST 110-205.  Thank you all so much for helping me and helping me accomplish my dream.

Look Back

Looking back on this semester I feel I have grown as a filmmaker.  I have learned that I have a knack for producing.  I think it is because I am really organized and try really to stay ahead of schedule.  I have been the producer for for every project this year.  I have really wanted to put my hand in as directing.  I feel that editing is one of my strong suits and I really enjoy doing it.  One of the things I have learned about being a filmmaker is that if something can go wrong it will.  On everyone of my projects something has gone wrong from sound or batteries.  I am really looking forward to taking the directing course in the future as well as editing.  I hope that I can keep growing as a film maker.

Next Semester

Next semester I am taking the Visions, French Cinema, War and Cinema.  I am really looking forward to the Visions.  I think it is going to be an amazing learning opportunity.  I am really interested in my War and Cinema class.  I am wondering what we are going to be learning about and how I can relate it to my war experiences.  I really wanted to take 302 doc. class next semester so hopefully I can get it in the fall of next year.

Cucalorus Film Festival

During this past weekends film festival I went and say the Trigger Happy Bunny Shorts.  I really enjoyed them.  My favorate of the 4 was Nate Daniels film Jack to the Future and a film called The Guy Who's Fucking Your Girlfriend.  I found them really funny.  I did not really think Author and the Bunny's was funny, but it was really well put together.  I also saw the movie Holy Motors, and I did not like it.  I really just thought the movie had no point.  I really Liked the documentary by Dr. Shannon Silva It's a Girl Thing.  I really enjoyed the animation that was used in the story.  The use of expert interviews and then children interviews also worked really well.  My group also made a film called Oliver's Nom.  I think people really liked it.  Check it out.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3j8o5fJ1NDs

Position for Slender man JR.

I am the producer for Kyle's film Slender man.  I am in charge of getting the equipment checked out, location forms, talent forms and a budget.  I am getting the location form for the Wild flower Reserve at UNCW tomorrow.  For the other locations we are using apartments that members of the crew live in.  I will have those individuals sign for the location.  I have submitted and been approved for the equipment.  I will have lots of talent release forms ready for the days of shooting.  I have created a budget and submitted it to the director to post on his blog.  I will also be the sound designer.  I tried to get the H4N but was denied.  I will just use the boom and headphones to make sure we get the best sound ever.  Stay tuned more to come.

Wild Card Idea

For my wildcard film I wanted to make a narrative that I had been working on the idea for a while.  I wanted to tell the story of a couple on a blind date.  I wanted the two characters to be pons for a serial killer who will kill them if they do not do what he says.  I was not going to do the stereotypical serial killer demands.  I was going to make it funny.  Make it when they are on the date the guy cannot say his name.  The woman who loves her dog cannot talk about her dog.  During the meal I was going to have the serial killer send them text messages saying what random funny things to do.  Like dine and ditch.  Order weird drinks and foods.  Say random things to waiters and do random things like eat pasta without using a fork by just face first into the plate.  That was my idea.  I think I will make this movie late on in my free time.

Sound 2

For the second time doing a sound, I thought of redoing my old sound project.  I took my pet bird Rocky outside in her cage.  As I sat down in the chair next to her she started to chirp.  After 2 minutes of sitting down silently I could start to hear the wind picking up.  After 5 minutes as I opened my eyes and looked at rocky I could hear her feet moving on the wooden perches.  I could also hear someone’s small dog in the distance whining.  After 5 minutes I could hear a motorcycle across the apartment complex starting up and driving off.

For the second time doing the sound experiment I went and sat at the dog park with my dogs and my acoustic guitar before the storm started on Saturday.  After running my dogs around I began my silent time.  After a few minutes I started to be able to hear my dogs eating the grass a few feet in front of me.  I could also start to notice the wind was picking up fast.  After 5 minutes I could hear the small sound of my fingers touching the strings on my acoustic.  The little bit of movement that my fingers moved made a small sound like a pick slide.

I would really like to do this again but with the H4N and see what other little noises that I missed.  I have to admit my hearing isn’t the best.

Editing The Master Shot Sequence

Editing my own version of our group’s master shot is teaching me a lot.  I am remembering how to do editing tricks that I had learned in high school.  I really think the hardest part is matching on action of dialog.  I am finding it is hard to smooth out dialog between two different angles of people talking.  What i have found that works best for me is to wait till there is a slight pause between people talking and make the cut from one angle to another then.   I am also finding that adding my own music for sound effects is really fun and adds to my film.  I think even though everyone in my group has the same footage, everyone’s videos are going to be slightly different. I am really enjoying editing.  I think this may be what I would like to do in the industry after college.