Life After . . .

Next semester I have registered to take FST 330- Producing w/ Buttino and FST 302 w/Pack (wait listed). If I get into FST 302 I think it will go along great with FST 330. If I do not get into FST 302 I will register for another FST class to take its place. Due to the fact that I am a Business and Film Studies double major, I will not be able to allott as many credits per semester to film as other film majors. I will also be taking ACG 203, FIN 335, and MKT 340  . . . YIKES!!!! In addition to that I will be a new RA at the Seahawk Village and a continued Health Promotion Peer Educator so, needless to say I will be incredibly busy.

New Role

My role for the Wild Card assignment is extremely different from roles I have had in previous production groups this semester. For this assignment I will be the grip/lighting designer. This position is going to pose as a challenge for several reasons: (1) I know VERY little about lighting (2) I am going to have to surrender the control that I am use to having as a producer or DP (3) I am going to have to find a way to showcase my creativity through light design. However, I realize that all of these are reasons that I in fact SHOULD be the grip/lighting designer. For this position I am going to explore ways to manipulate light and allow light to convey an active meaning and mood for the film. I am going to experiment with natural light, artificial light, gels, bounce boards, reflectors, and even after effects to fortify the project.

Wild Card Overheads

Hotel Room

Hotel Hallway 

Hotel bathroom

Hotel Lobby 

Editing Lab . . .Enough Said

Sound editing is a foreign language to me but after this experience I can say that I can understand the language but probably couldn't speak it. I really owe my sound editing progress to the SOUND GODS that are Audra and Ryne *slow claps*! They are amazing and taught me a lot about sound editing basics. This project has given me a new found appreciation for the ability to manipulate sound during post-production . . .the raw sound recording is just a diamond in the rough but editing shines it up and makes it all nice and pretty. Sound editing is meticulous and requires a sensitive ear, hopefully as I continue this project in 3B my ear for minor details will become sharper and I will become more adventurous with sound.

Sound Recording Rookie

Sound recording . . . .the aspect of film that i am probably least confident in. This project was extremely necessary for me to gain some experience and confident with sound and I couldn't have had a better group. We all had our ideas about what sounds we wanted to create and thankfully there was not to much overlapping in sounds. I think we all tried to capture a lot of everyday sounds that we are all exposed to but rarely take time to appreciate. For my sounds I pretty much tried to capture sounds that I could capture simply in my apartment such as toothbrushing, bacon, soda can, and pots and pans. However, since I missed the "walla-walla" question on my midterm i also decided to capture some in Hawks at dinner time. I think i fully understand that term now! A few obstacles I ran into while recording were the noise of my upstair neighbors stomping above me as well as levels spiking during certain parts of a sound recording. For instance in the toothbrushing recording levels spiked when the sink turned on but came back down when the brushing started and so on an so forth. Thank goodness for post production editing!!!!!

Master Shot . . .Master Editor

Editing the Bran and Park project was a completely different experience than editing the Documentary project. For one, editing a narrative is so much easier due to the guidance of the pre-visualization materials and the chronology of the script. Our group managed to record a few seconds under the 12 minute recording allotment and I think that it help us immensely. We did not have to filter through all the extra footage and scraps that comes along with editing documentary interviews and b-roll and we were able to focus more on the variation of coverage and effects. Editing for Bran and Park was a great experience and everyone pitched in to create an agreed upon cut of the scene. This project particularly exposed me to challenges of sound recording and editing which is a much more prominent part of filmmaking than i could have imagined. Spending countless hour with my group mates and other film majors in the editing lab at 3 am is always a memorable and stamina testing experience!!!

Pre-visualization/Re-visualization

The pre-visualization aspect for our group, like other groups, was very tedious and definitely a learning experience. We found it difficult to accurately represent our vision for the project through overheads and storyboards. However, the process did emphasize the importance of detail orientation and articulation. The feedback from the class helped us consider a different potential for our project that we might not have otherwise thought of and although it was frustrating it helped us know that we lacked clarity in our creative vision. We were encouraged to redo the storyboards and overheads before shooting to ensure a maximally effective production and I think that our new and improved pre-visualization materials gives a more accurate and elaborate guide for the final product.