Final post

Overall, the class has given me all the basic knowledge and what to expect, from the broad sense, of the program and film production in general. As a filmmaker, I was able to learn how important sound, lighting, and producing are and its not just about directing and cinematography. Filmmaking in general, I learned the same thing and the difficulties of directing a bunch of individuals (even though I wasn't a director) can be tough, especially when nobody is getting paid. However, I think the best ideas come from groups that aren't getting paid and where the most genuine work is.

plans for next semester

For next semester, I would like to have an internship lined up for the next summer while doing well in my classes and possibly join Flicker. First I would like to find what I enjoy and what I'm good at in film. I really enjoy editing and would like to direct sometime thus I am taking the 331 editing course and working on some films over the summer as my own director. Even though I would like to try acting for the camera as well, it is on the "back burner" and something I would consider in later semesters. Therefore, to reflect, I would like to continue to maintain my 3.5 GPA and get involved in Flicker. I believe those are the set-ups for me to be able to select an internship that best fits and interests me.

Crew position on Wild Card

As the sound recorder for this last project, it is very important for me to take what I've learned on the last project of recording sound, coming up with creative sounds and deciding what is appropriate along with our director (Jonathan) to effectively present the best final product we can. For his script, sound is very important to this project and is the main aspect of our film. The most exciting part will be recording the sounds on the phone for our voice mails. I've always wanted to use the "scratchy" sounds of a phone conversation for a film and now I will have that opportunity, thanks to Jonathan. We also would like to do most of our sound in post-production and just worry about image on set. We plan to couple the main recordings with limited film in order to let the audience take in the sounds that will give two important parts (and from where I stand, both highlighted separately in the last two projects) together for our best work individually and collectively yet.

Experience editing 3b

As far as editing sound, the most difficult part is staying away from the narrative structure. As we are "tuned" or inclined to create a narrative story no matter what we see/hear in our brains, it is incredibly difficult to NOT create some sort of loose story from our project. My editing partner was easy to get along with and we shared the same "vision" on our project. We had a lot of the same ideas as far as what sounds to group together and what kind of theme we would tie to our title. The most important part of our editing experience was getting the sounds to string along, abstractly with a loose structure. We probably could've stayed away from the story more, but overall, I felt that we did a good job on the project.

Experience on sound recording

Sound recording was an interesting experience because of all the sounds we were able to capture. Using the H4N as our sound recording device was simple and easy to use. We tried to think, for most of our sounds, of sounds that other groups wouldn't think about and use unique sounds that would stand apart from the rest. The most trouble we had was keeping the boom mic still during recording. The slightest movement of the cord/mic would be captured on the device and we would have to not use certain sounds because of that. We also had to work on meeting together at the same time and had a designated "producer" who checked out the H4N and gave us a time to meet to record our sounds. Overall, our group enjoyed making, creating, and coming up with creative sounds to use for the project.

Review on Editing Mastershot

As a group, we were able to plan, edit and shoot in a timely manner as well as work together and find common ground in our project. There wasn't once a major disagreement (at least to my knowledge) and everybody in the group had something to contribute. Editing was fairly simple and quick because our director (Caleb), DP (me), and sound mixer (Ben) had, basically, the same vision as far as our final product and the meaning we would portray in the mastershot sequence. Even the gaffer (Naomi) and our producer (Molly) pitched in during editing and we all were satisfied with what will be presented in class. I look forward to working with each of our group members again, because of how well we took care of business.

Pre-Viz review

Thus far, the most difficult aspect on previsualization materials is planning in and around each others schedules. With spring break approaching and the midterm this week, we are finding out that we have to coordinate during the week after we return from the break. One of the more helpful things is pitching our idea in class. This allowed us to rethink our master shot sequence and get a true feel for how the movie should turn out, as well as our shot list and storyboards so that we have the organization of putting it together during the shoot and a plan for the editing. With editing possibly being the longest process we may be in a crunch, unless we film ahead of time. It will be our collective job to finalize our location, equipment, and actors to accommodate our desired time frame in order to complete our task in a timely manner and efficiently.