Project Countdown

This summer session in 6X1 has been hectic! However, now that 6X1 and French cinema is over, I can see just how awesome this class was. I believe in our many projects I’ve made more friends and connections than I have in my whole time at UNCW. Some of the projects were a little stressful because I somehow kept winding up in the bigger groups. Since I have to rate my projects here is the countdown.

6) I think that the media fast was my least favorite, and not just because I gave up media for 2 days. I believe that the project we turned in could of be better, but since we chose shadows as our subject suffered a little because we had to choose our concept and film it before the sun went down or the shadows got too long. I loved our shadow idea, but our product just wasn’t very good.

5) I’m going to say the Anaglyph was my second least favorite project. To be honest this project is low on the list because of my personal feelings towards it.   The people in my group were great but our group was way too big, I felt like a useless mule. There were a lot of people with a lack of ideas, and I felt that the few times I did speak up people didn’t hear me, or just didn’t care. I was also hurt that all the pieces of the set I worked hard on the night before was just thrown aside and not used. This project was just an emotional sour point for me but I did take some photos.

4) Now this is getting tough because I enjoyed the other projects so much! I really enjoyed the crowd sourcing project. It was just great seeing how so many people can come together and make on amazing project. My roommate was beast when it came to the making the frames, we actually finished all of mine by 9:30, and had plenty of time to escort some lost orientations to Graham and Hewlett. I also made a soundscape for the crowd sourcing video. I went in with one idea, but as I was trying to find static and chanting I discovered all these other sound effect that I personally enjoyed and made me want to rework my idea.

3) The cameraless project is number three just because the last two was sooooo fun to make. I love the scratching, bleaching, and magazine transfers. My favorite thing about this project overall is the fact that I can say “I know how to load a projector! Can you punk?!?!?!?”

2) Oh! The animation! I had a blast with this. Once again I didn’t do much, but I was so on board with every idea my teammates had! Plus the cigarette I mad for the anaglyph shoot got used. Only thing I regret is that I didn’t get to see Ryne’s soundscape with it. His and Danielle’s idea for the story and sound was so funny and awesome I couldn’t possibly come up with one to beat it so I didn’t even try.

 And a drum roll please

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1) As if you didn’t know it already #1 was the long-take. While yes I was so afraid if I touched the camera I would break it, it was still a great thing to see. This project was so impromptu, but in a planned way I couldn’t help but love. I was also behind and in front of the camera, and I hate being in front of the camera! But, the people involved in this project were so much fun to be around and brainstorm with. Figuring out our second sensory was tough, but one Channing found the Rapping app we knew that was it, I think we made about five different raps in the editing lab just messing around, seeing everyone’s confusion and then awe as we presented our second sensory had to be my favorite moment, not only in this project, but in this class. 

There you go! My project countdown and some photo's to boot!

Rough Theatre

Rough theatre. The Idea of rough theatre reminds me of short films. Stylistically it is different from popular cinema, cheaply made, not very popular and many people won’t see it. So, I can see the use of rough theatre when it comes to filmmaking, because as a film maker you have to use what you have. Especially with our age and experience the use of million dollar set, extravagant props, top of the line software is an impossibility. We have to use what is available and connect to our audience around us which will probably be family, friends, and fellow film students. We have to use trick in order to convey our film. In 6X1 we’ve used plenty of low grade film, with a few tweaks, but for some reason it all worked. The Rough Theatre concept really reminded me of 6X1 creating our Cardboard sets. My group built an office, but making many of the props just wasn’t practical. So, instead we created we created walls and painted objects you’d find in an office on the walls, the only other prop we actually created was a small detective for our main character. Our set wasn’t functional, but it got our point across. We’ve used the camera creatively too. For example, while making a short film in our 201 class we needed a character to just appear. However, we didn’t have the equipment or knowledge. So, we had the camera pan with our main character and freeze on her while the second actor ran on stage while the entrance was out of frame, and panned reviling him just to our main characters right. From what I understand, rough theatre is making something and conveying a message in a minimalistic way and creatively that will connect with your audience. 

Blog #Yo No Se.

Film manipulation: reflection and how is it relevant to you as a filmmaker

Our cameraless film project which included multiple kinds of film manipulation was a lot of work, but very fun. It’s amazing just to see how little things can really change an image. I have to say that magazine transfers were my favorite, but the effects of bleach and scratching were just so amazing and eye catching to me. I can see how it relates to being a filmmaker because if you really know what you’re doing you can pull off an image that in normal circumstances you wouldn't be able to accomplish. However, I can’t connect it to the majority of film projects that I would want to do. I can see how the color manipulation came in handy, but scratching, bleaching, and all the other fun stuff we did, in most cases would just take away from the overall project by being a distraction. So, I’m guessing as a film maker you need to know when these techniques will come in handy, but it is really something to play with and experiment with. Actually I take some of what I said back about how film manipulation could take away some of the overall quality away. Today, in my History of the French Short Film Class We watch a film that was lost for a long time, and when they found maybe the only surviving copy of the film a short part of the film was damaged, but along with my professor I found the damage wasn’t that detrimental to the film. It was actually pretty great. Some of the footage actually looked like it had caught fire in a projector and melted some, but it work for me. 

Blog #2

Wow!!! Synesthesia and Cymatics. Honestly, it’s amazing, and this isn’t just coming from the fact that I’m a double major in film studies, and psychology. Okay, maybe it is just slightly. The idea of unconsciously connecting a sound to an image or smell is astounding. The images from Evan Grant video almost made me want to change one of my majors. I’m interested in Cymatics, and the fact that sounds can make a beautiful, and stunning images. How would someone even begin to imagine that? To be honest I’m more drawn to the notion of synesthesia. To call it a disorder would be wrong, because it is so fascinating, but I don’t know what to call it, and it’s so unusual even if it is supposed to be apparent 1 in every 23 people(I believe). It makes me wonder if words or names can be associated with happy or bad memories. For example would the name Andrew create darkness or taste and smell like bad eggs if someone with that name broke your heart, or on the other hand would it be washed in a halo of light and taste like chocolate if you were over the hills in love with him. Daniel Tammet speech was just sooo… I’m not even sure I know how to describe it. To think of Synesthesia in theory is brilliant, but to hear a firsthand account of someone who actually has this ability, I was completely engrossed! A tiny part of me wants to know what it would be like to have the ability, but seeing as I don’t I think it would get annoying quickly. I thought I was going to be cool and connect Synesthesia and Cymatics to the sounds we heard from the projector, buuuuuuut……… someone stole it so I have nothing. Adio!!!

Blog #1