Cucalorus plan

For Cucalorus, I will be volunteering and I am planning to go to different screenings around my volunteering shifts. I will be working with Virtual Reality on Thursday and Friday, and will be doing surveys for the Elephant Seal shorts block on Saturday. I plan to go to any available screenings after my shifts Thursday through Saturday, currently planning to do, at least 2 or 3, on the latter day. Then, I plan to do some more on Sunday, seeing I don’t have any shifts that day and will have all day to see as many films and mingle with as many filmmakers as humanly possible.

Photo Assignment

Self-Reflection

                An idea I have for the self-reflection, is to incorporate a short story I have been working on and use that as a narration. The story will be come off as the inner monologue of an individual from birth up to the age of eighteen, and observations he makes. I want to incorporate into the story, aspects of how I see myself and how others see me. I want to incorporate aspects of anxiety and paranoia, for those are examples of how I view myself at this point.

                Seeing that this version of myself goes from infancy to young adulthood (18), part of me is concerned of how I will go about this in terms of the actual footage I will actually make and to coincide with what my story will be telling. I am also concerned with how I can make this reflect how myself, and others, see me. I feel that this would be an interesting approach of reflecting on myself, as well as something that can possibly be very humorous. I like to make people laugh, it makes me feel better when I can put a smile on someone’s face.

                With that being said, I see my approach to this project as a challenge. I see in as a way I can challenge myself not only as a filmmaker, but also who I am as a writer and as a person. As the project type entails, I think it will truly help me reflect on who I currently am as a person, who I used to be, and who I strive to be (I know that sounds like an overused cliché). I know that using a short story as a voiceover narration, even though it has been done, will definitely be a challenge for me, as a film student. But, figuring out the direction of the story and coming up with ideas for the footage to use, will be the true challenge.

Approach to Music Video

                The ideas I have for my role, for this project, involve making sure everything goes smoothly during filming; given the ideas my group has for approaching this project.  Seeing we plan to do this a single shot, or at least that illusion (if deemed necessary), I want to make sure we have enough rehearsal time with cast, crew and equipment to which we can make this style of filming comfortable for everyone on set.

I am planning to focus on the blocking for both actors and crew.  I want to make sure that we get any equipment or cast and crew members, who are not supposed to be in the shot, out of the frame while we are recording the entire video, or section of video. Also, through blocking, I want to make sure that everything has a nice flow to it, as we move through the two rooms, as the camera follows our five actors.

Also, seeing that the context behind our video will take the “(500) Days of Summer” approach, in which we will give off the sense of jumping back and forth through time. I will work with my actors, especially my main actor, to put them in the mindset of this approach. I will also work on the emotional approach with each actor. For example, with the main actor and the aspect of love, I will work with him and see if he can express a unique love for each ex, and then for other moments get an expression of anger or sadness.  I will also be working on instant transitions throughout the video, such as going from anger for one ex and then instantly transitioning to loving another as they switch out being a certain object throughout the video.

I am looking forward to making this project and the challenges that await. 

Location and Talent for Music Video

Our location for the music video will be David's apartment in Seahawk Village.

Our talent consists of:

Guy: Ryan Ayars

Exes: Alexis Terrell, Morgana Callahan, Tess League, and Wesleigh Neville

Microcinema

With this article, this was the first time, that I can remember, hearing about the topic of Microcinemas. But, find it interesting about these small, non-conventional places, such as bars and so on, that can serve as little community movie theaters from time to time. Reading about what makes a Microcinema, reminded me of an area where I used to go camping when I was growing up. In the campground there was a pond, where people went swimming in the summer. Every Monday during that time there would be a movie that would play, in the grass area, at the pond and that was something I enjoyed thoroughly.   

What I Learned from assignment 1c

What I learned, from shooting on film, for assignment 1C is incorporating time into production and being more cautious with what needs to be shot. When working with digital, one may be able to take as much time as they would like to take as many pictures as they would like. But, contrary to what the Rolling Stones may have said, time was not on our side. My group and I had to make sure we took the pictures that we needed, but made sure that we had incorporated time to make sure that our pictures developed. Also, seeing that the we had a limited about footage space for the pictures we needed to take, we had to be cautious, with each and every shot.

Our group had four people, four shots each, and (for each shot) three takes each. So, we took 48 takes total and we only had 20 plus spots available on each role. So, my group and I had to make sure each and every shot was well thought out and close to perfect as we could get it. With that, for me, having digital cameras (both picture-taking and filmmaking) for most of the stages of my life gave me the benefit of having the actual image immediately, where with the cameras we were given for this project, we didn’t have the instant gratification of seeing the pictures, right after week took them. All we had was the camera’s viewfinder to help set up each shot, and we all hoped that by the time we got the pictures back, that they had turned out ok. If they turned out great that there would be a sigh of relief, at least from me, but if there were any that sucked, there would be some swearing made, as we would get ready to make some more.

                I had realized with this project that I had taken advantage of digital cameras, and wondered how much of pain it was to take pictures for digital cameras came into play.