Assignment 14

     This class has really helped me to develop my style and voice in film.  It’s made me realize what I want to create and show as a filmmaker. Also, I’ve come to realize that I am very good at producing. I am very good at organizing, making things come together, and planning.  I am all about some planning, so much, that it might become overkill at sometimes.  Another thing that this class has shown me is that I definitely have clear and concise visions about what I want in a film and what I don’t.  I’ve realized that I am kind of a perfectionist when it comes to films.  I focus on tiny details and think that this is what makes films stand out from the rest…which is where planning comes in and kicks ass.  Another thing that this class has been of help to, is showing me what type of people I want to work with in the future and how great it can be to have a group of people just as motivated to be filmmakers as me to work with.  With filmmaking in general, it is definitely a team effort.  I knew this coming into the class, but it definitely hit home after a couple projects.  I learned a lot from people in the class that are better at certain aspects of film than I am.  This class was a fabulous way to start my career and journey through becoming a filmmaker. 

Assignment 13

     Ughhhhhhh!!! Next semester is going to suck. I am NOT looking forward to it…at all. Not only am I only taking one film class, Contemporary Latin American Cinema, but I am also taking 18 hours. Other than that one class, they’re all general ed classes. Boooo! I really got screwed by a glitch in the system, so I couldn’t register for film classes. At least I can knock out the remaining general classes I have left.  During next semester, I plan on traveling to various countries on every break, as well as, continuing to make short films on my own.  I’m also hoping to go ahead and start entering some short films into smaller film festivals.  Hopefully, I can continue to learn the production side of film on my own until I take summer classes.

Assignment 12

     So with this wild card project, I have the role as director.  As director, I am going to put my creative vision into the piece.  I have come to find that I am geared towards more visually appealing films with not a whole lot of dialogue.  I think that a unique look and interesting shots make a film a ton of a lot better.  As much as I want my story to be strong, I think the visual of the film should be come off even stronger.  I’m huge into making sure every detail on the mise en scene enhances the film and has a reason. I definitely like landscapes to play a big part in my films as well. Also, I like to use different durations of shots as well for contrast.  During this project, I want to use these things I’ve mentioned to make my film unique and obviously my style.

Assignment 11

     My ideas for the Wild Card project are definitely geared towards comedy.  I like darker and very dry humor. The original idea that Caleb and I came up with was a cuter, happier comedy about a girl working at a coffee shop who gets robbed by a guy around her same age.  This idea was focused around the juxtaposition of the two character’s stereotypical personalities being switched.  The girl would be a pretty horrible person, while the guy would be a sweet guy in a bad position.  This is idea is honestly pretty boring and has already been done.  However, if done right, it would look good just not really my style. The main thing needed for this idea other than the cast is the coffee shop location, which might be hard for the producer to get.

Assignment 10

     The Experimental Sound project was definitely different.  The hardest part of this project was sitting down and deciding where to begin and where we wanted the sound to go.  At first, we decided to split the assignment and each do a minute of sound then mesh them together as a pattern; however, as the project went on, that method seemed to not be working.  Instead, we switched to a straight pattern approach.  Growing up playing different instruments, I was always prone to liking and playing more rhythmic and patterned music so this decision made sense to me.  It was really fun and interesting to play around with the filters to alter each different sound.  Making the pattern was actually pretty time consuming and tedious.  All in all, I think that I was more wrapped up in a very cut and dry pattern that I lost the original story behind our project, but it was a great learning experience and practice.

Assignment 9

     The day we went to record our sound effects, Hurricane Sandy decided to come along as well.  So, our plan to get outside noises was slashed.  We decided to go to the mall to record lots of interesting noises.  The hard part about that was, was that the background noise was always loud.  A lot of the sound effects almost sounded like ambience because of that reason.  After we got as much as we could at the mall, we traveled to my house, which is located on Wrightsville Beach and also supplied us with dog my Moose.  We recorded as many house hold sound effects and noises as possible while waiting for the storm to subside.  Since the rain and wind never let up, getting beach noises was going to happen.  Instead, we recorded rain, wind, wet wooden stairwells, and cars driving by sloshing water.  Overall the noises turned out well.  The biggest thing that needed to be done was to either cut the clips down more or be more conscious of making noises that interrupted our recordings.