Blog Assignment #13

This class has taught me so much about being a filmmaker! Out of all my classes in college I feel like this one has taught me the most. Working in groups and switching out roles with every project helped me to realize what every job is like and better understand the entire process of making a movie. I found out that I don’t particularly like editing and enjoy working with sound the most out of all the jobs on set. I learned that sometimes its hard to work in a group with different personality types, and that you have to have a lot patience with everyone. I also learned about things I had never heard of before, like soundscapes, overheads and the three-act structure. Making these projects has taught me that there are a lot of unforeseen problems that can occur while on set. It’s always important to be a quick thinker and to not get discouraged when stuff like that happens. I really loved this class and I’m ready to take the next step to earing my degree here at UNCW.

Blog Assignment #12

Plans for next semester

Next fall I plan on taking four classes: 3D Computer Graphics, Modes of Animation Production, Special Topics in Film Studies: Politics in Film, and Sound Design. I’m on the wait list for Sound Design, but I am keeping my fingers crossed and hoping that I get in. I accidentally missed the advising session so I was held back on signing up for classes until the 19^th. I was really scared that I wasn’t going to be able to get into any of the classes that I need but I was pleasantly surprised with how my schedule turned out. There were a couple of things I was really curious about in film and I feel like I’ve explored all of them in 201 except for animation. That’s probably the class that I’m the most excited about. I think working in animation could be a lot of fun and look forward to learning more about it. 

Role in Wildcard Assignment

My role in the Wildcard Project is Sound. Out of all the jobs I’ve had in the previous projects, sound is by far my favorite. We have a really good story planned out, and there is a montage sequence included. I’m looking forward to making the montage and finding the perfect music to go along with it. One of Channing’s friends plays guitar and sings, she showed me one of his songs and I really liked the way it sounded. The lyrics even said something about a dream, which is perfect because the montage sequence is supposed to be a dream. We’ve changed the script a lot since we’ve started but I know that’s nothing out of the ordinary when it comes to movies. We shot on Saturday and Sunday of this weekend at Channing’s house and then at Airlie Gardens. I recorded sound on the H4N but most of my work will be done in post-production. We plan on having voicemails run throughout most of the piece with there being no other dialogue.

Blog Assignment # 10

      This week Jonathan and I edited our soundscape for project 3B. It was interesting to see that certain sounds sounded like a lot of other things. We still have about ten more seconds to add to the soundscape. So far I really like where we’ve gone with it. Our line was “thickly keeping the light out” so we wanted to make the tone more dark and ominous. We talked today about exactly what it meant to take this project from a conceptual angle, rather than a narrative angle. The idea we were going with when we first started was a guy trapped inside a house or warehouse and the sounds were everything he was hearing around him. We decided to begin with the sound of a door opening, and today we talked about ending with the sound of a door slamming. I can’t wait to wrap everything up today and hear the final product!

-KP

Blog Assignment #9

Creating the sounds for this project was a lot of fun. I worked with Mike, Kayla, Sarah, and Jason. We wanted to make a really unique library of sounds that would stand out among everyone else’s. At first we met at the library and tossed some ideas around. After a few minutes we decided that we should just get started and the ideas would come to us. We learned that you have to make sure you don’t have any wind or air conditioning units anywhere that you record. Also we learned that some sounds that you record sound like something completely different. We wanted to get really creative with the sounds so we went to Sarah’s job, which is a gymnasium. There we recorded people on trampolines and also walking on beams. We were trying to find sounds that could be used as a lot of different things. I’m looking forward to working on 3B. 

Blog Assignment #8- Master Shot

We haven't edited our project yet- we are meeting at Kenan tonight at eight to create our rough cut for tomorrow's class. So I don't have much to say about editing as of now, but I can post about shooting the Master Shot Project. We met on Saturday to scout the location and go to Halloween Express. Early Sunday morning we began production and wrapped somewhere around two or three. I had a lot of fun that day, and felt like I learned a lot. I thought our group did a good job staying positive when we encountered unforeseen problems. Working with lighting is brand new to me, and the lights proved to be critical to the film set. We we’re working in a dark room with fabric over the windows. We wanted a dark and ominous look, but not dark enough to the point where you couldn’t see the character’s faces. With only one power chord in the light kit, we had to get creative. In the end, I thought everything worked out fantastic. I loved the look of our shots and had a great time on the day of production.  

Blog Assignment #7

The Master Shot project is the first experience I have ever had with using previsualization materials. Now that I have used them once, I can’t see myself going to make any other film without creating storyboards, overheads and a shot list. They are extremely helpful with planning your movie and making your production process go a lot smoother. I am responsible for lighting so I created the overheads. The first set was a very rough draft, because I had not yet seen the storyboards or the shot list. After meeting with my group and checking out the previz materials they made I have created a new set of overheads. These are much more precise and congruent with our shots and scene. The most difficult part of preplanning was drawing the overheads without seeing the storyboards. Now that my group has all of our materials ready I am eager and excited to start production and get some hands-on experience with lighting.