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.  

Pre-Visualization Planning

During our pre production on my groups awesome Bran and Park short I think the pre visualization process has greatly helped us.   I think that having a rough blue print of where we are going to put props and lights will save us a bunch of time when it comes time for shooting.  I think the planning of the lights help dramatically.  It will take less time to set up lights, in that we know where it is going to be.  Also knowing where to set up props will help take less time.  The faster we get set up the faster we can begin shooting.  I think pre visualization is very tedious task, but is really worth it.  This will allow us to get makeup done faster and costuming done faster.

Expert Interview

For our expert interview we interviewed Chancellor Miller of UNCW.  I was really excited about the interview.  I really did not expect him to do the interview to be honest.  When he accepted the interview I knew the hard work had just begun.  Prior to the interview when we formed 2 groups of 5 I asked my group to meet and we did a practice mock interview.  I think that helped a lot in that we knew what everyone was going to be doing.   The day before the interview I checked all the equipment to make sure everything was working.  About 10 mins before the interview the batteries in the boom mic and the sound mixer on the camera went dead.  In a frantic we had to run to the school book store and by batteries before Chancellor Miller came for his interview.  We got everything in the equipment and it was ready before the interview started.  The interview went really smooth.  Chancellor Miller had great answers and we were able to ask all 10 of our questions.  I feel that him being our expert interview really helped my 2 min video.  Next time I know to always have extra packs of batteries for everything.  Next time I will be prepared for everything that can go wrong to go wrong, just to be safe.