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.

Blog Assinment #6 Narrative Master Shot Sequence Previz

For the Narrative Master Shot Sequence I am in charge of lighting and also the Assistant Lead Director. Being a Gaffer, or Grip should be a lot of fun and I’m really looking forward to the experience. Our group met on Sunday and we discussed our ideas for where we could take this conversation. The setting we came up with is a secret society initiation ceremony, where two actors are tied to chairs, back to back. We are going for a creepy, ominous tone with a touch of dark humor. I wanted to use red and purple gels to help create the mood of the scene. I still haven’t seen the storyboards so I’m not sure exactly how its going to play out but I created a couple ROUGH overheads:

Blog #5 Reflection of vox pops and interview

Last Friday we shot our expert interview with one of the officers of Flicker. We ended up doing it in her office instead of the theater because we were unable to get permission to shoot in any of the theaters on campus. The office was fine though, it made for a nice shot with everything on and around her desk. The space was cramped with five of us in the tiny room, one huge boom mic, a tripod and a camera. I was so excited to finally be working on a real production and part of an actual crew! The vox pops were really fun to make too, it was thrilling talking to random people on campus. I have always been really curious about working with sound so I had a lot of fun with this project.

Interview Storyboard!

We plan to shoot our expert interview on Friday, February 8th. I think that Dallis is still working on getting an exact time for the meeting with the officers of Flicker. We want to interview them in a theater setting. Either in King, Kenan Auditorium, or Morton. Here's the storyboard:

Flicker Doc!

At first our group was going to do a documentary on “Chops Deli”, but today I found out that there was a change of plans. We will now be doing a documentary on a film society named Flicker. They are a student organization here at UNCW that creates films and encourages students from any major to join. “Students interested in every aspect of filmmaking — script writing, acting, cinematography, tech support, marketing and more — have a great outlet in Flicker for hands-on experience and access to industry professionals.” Our interview will be with the department chair of the film studies department, Dave Monohan. Today we talked about doing the interview either in his office or inside Lumina Theatre in the seats. I think that the office would create a professional and serious tone whereas the Theatre would make it more relaxed and comfortable. We could make either one work, but I think it would look better in the Theatre. The vox pops will be shot around campus. Not sure exactly where, we will be scouting for locations on Friday afternoon.

1.     What exactly is Flicker?

2.     How did you get involved with Flicker?

3.     How did Flicker start?

4.     Why do you enjoy student films?

5.     How does one become a member of Flicker?

6.     Where are the meetings?

7.     How many people are in Flicker?

8.     What is your favorite part of filmmaking?

9.     Have you worked on the films with the students?

10.  What encouraged you to join Flicker?

Vox-pops

1.     What do you know about Flicker?

2.     Do you ever go see movies on campus?

3.     Have you seen any UNCW student films?

Light Observations

Observation #1: Two weekends ago I went surfing on Carolina Beach just a couple of hours before sunset. The sun was really low in the sky, and the water was extremely glassy that day. As I was sitting on my board waiting for a good wave to ride, I couldn’t help but notice how beautiful the sunlight looked shining through the waves right before they crashed into white water. Right before waves curl over they become much thinner, allowing for the sun to shine through from behind and create a vibrant yellowish-green tint. This is something I have always noticed while surfing in the afternoon, and has always been one of my favorite sights to see.

Observation #2: Yesterday morning I was in one of my friend’s apartments watching my roommate, Kelsey, smoke a cigarette. Because everyone that lived there smokes, they let people do it inside. (Not something I could ever life with, but hey, to each their own.) The blinds were halfway open letting in little slits of morning light. Kelsey was sitting on the ground near the window casually talking to our friend Dax. I was sitting pretty far away, trying to avoid the inescapable smell. I found myself captivated by the way that the light was hitting the rising smoke. Slowing drifting around in circles and spirals, the smoke highlighted by the sun looked almost solid as compared to the smoke hidden behind the blinds.