Wild Card: DP/Editor

For this project I am the DP/Editor. Let me start out by saying that I am not a DP. I perform that role only as a necessity, and have never given it any more thought than that. It isn't that I've had an aversion to it.. certainly the camera is interesting to me (or else I'm in the completely wrong field) but what has always interested me more are the other aspects of filmmaking.
Editing and DPing go hand in hand. I found when I created the shot list that I was making it from the perspective of the editor. So I had to go back and reorder it for efficiency. In order to do either job you have to be able to visualize the other. It's been a lot of fun putting the two together. I brought the script with me to the gym so I could add notes about what types of shots go where. I had planned to stay for 45 minutes but when I finally looked down I had been there for and hour and a half and didn't even notice. I just got lost in the script and all the different possibilities for shooting. It was a very exciting feeling, and a revelation that I should always bring a script to the gym if I want an awesome workout.

Editing 3B

I've done a lot of editing– sound included. So I was relatively comfortable editing this piece from the technical perspective. The main difference between this project and the ones I've worked on in the past is that all my previous sound edits have accompanied video. Creating a soundscape without a set story was a challenge. In my head I kept trying to force a story through sound, but I really couldn't accomplish anything until I pushed that desire aside. I spent a lot of time rethinking the different sounds and how they could be changed to make something new, or ways in which the context would change them. It's interesting how things change just by they way they are perceived. Perception tells its own stories, and that is a very exciting discovery because of how many avenues of storytelling it opens up for exploration. I'm ready to go!

Sound 3A

Coming off the Master Shot project in which I ruined/made awesome the sound design made me very wary about recording again. While recording I made sure to be extra careful and take my time, making sure I didn't compromise on anything. I planned out pretty extensively what I wanted to record and even practiced playing recorder in front of the Chick-fil-a associates. (That wasn't even the weirdest thing I did that day) My group was fun to work with and it was interesting to see what they brought to the table. I think what I enjoyed the most was trying to "visualize" the sounds before I was in the editing room. It's easy to picture something in your mind, but thinking in sound is a difficult task. I actually filled up my tub with water, put my head under and closed my eyes. That is the environment in which I thought of the sounds I was going to create.

Master Shot Editing

The edit bay seems to be where you discover all the little details you wished you'd paid attention to on set. That being said, there is also great opportunity for creativity..mostly where covering up mistakes is concerned. I've been editing on Final Cut Pro since 2006. So I feel fairly confident in my editing abilities, but there are some definite areas that I have/had not yet explored. I realized that the majority of my former projects have been journalistic, or require no sound other than music. Sound in the narrative context has been a stranger to me. For this project I embraced the sound mixer/editor position along with all it's little joys and frustrations. I have learned, first and foremost, to check, double-check, triple-check your work. I will never again say the words either out loud or in my head, "Eh, it'll be okay." Unless I want to spend my entire day in the editing lab. Secondly I learned that what seems to be a huge mistake is sometimes not at all. If you go back and think about your sound in relation to the piece that you have you might realize that you've stumbled your way into something kind of genius, and in that case it'd be nice to say that you'd thought of it before it was recognized as more than a mistake.

Master Shot Role

For this project I was assigned to do sound/sound editing. I plan to use the H4N to record with. I am very familiar with the H4N because I used to record sound for interviews during an internship. Since the focus of the script is the dialogue I will be recording the sound of the people as they speak with each other. Our stage position for the actors currently is seated side by side, or perhaps back to back. This will make my job easier, since hopefully all I will have to do is move the direction of the mic towards the speaker as they deliver their lines. Other than that I plan to record room tone and the sounds of actions such as lighting candles or the grinding of a mortar and pestle. I am looking forward to doing sound on this project because I haven't had a lot of experience with sound. What I love about film is that every person in the room is an artist who has the ability to express themselves creatively. As our idea develops more I plan to think of how I can use my creativity in sound recording.

Vox Pop/Interview Reflection

In high school I was part of a student produced t.v. show. Every week we would do a segment called "Question of the Week" where we walked around doing vox pops with students. So this project was very familiar to me. The main difference was that this time my group and I were outside in downtown Wilmington. There were different issues we had while filming such as wind (at 23mph), bright sunlight and building shadows, and heavy traffic. We used umbrellas to deflect a lot of the wind and it seemed to work really well. What I learned from the vox pops, and what I tried to carry over into the interview was the importance of taking your time setting up.

I'm really excited about out expert interview. We ended up interviewing Ron, the owner of The Wayfarer Deli downtown. The setting was perfect and Ron was very gracious and answered all of our questions thoroughly. We really lucked out, especially when you consider that I called Ron thinking he was someone else and he agreed to be interviewed without knowing who I was or what I was doing. We took our time and got a shot that, in my opinion, looked really nice. The expert interview set the tone for the rest of the documentary.

Change of Plans

Unfortunately, our endeavor into the land of comics was unsuccessful. We have since changed the topic of our documentary completely. Our new topic is "What is the perfect sandwich?".

Here is the new set of questions:

Expert: Dee Russell, Manager at Subway, Wrightsville Beach, NC

Shoot Location: Dee's house

Tone: Tongue-in-cheek 

Questions:

1. How long have you been creating sandwiches professionally?

2. In your opinion, what constitutes a superior quality sandwich?

3. What steps do you take personally to ensure that the customer gets the best sandwich possible?

4. Have you ever had a happy customer do any thing extraordinary because of how you made their sandwich? Explain.

5. Have you ever had an unhappy customer lash out because of their sandwich? Explain.

6. What is the strangest request you've ever had for a sandwich?

7. How specific do some customers get about their orders?

8. How non-specific do some customers get about their orders?

9. How confident do you feel in your sandwich making abilities?

10. What is YOUR perfect sandwich? Why?

Vox-Pop:

1. In your opinion, what makes the perfect sandwich?

2. Which component is most important?

3. Describe a sandwich that made you want to die and go to heaven.

Here is the production schedule:

Monday 11th-

1pm - Arrive at Kenan to pick-up equipment

1:05 - Leave for shoot location

1:30 - Arrive at shoot location

1:35 - Begin set up (Lighting and Camera)

1:50 - Start interview (Producer takes notes for b-roll)

2:20 - End interview, Start tearing down equipment

2:45 - Thank Dee and head out to shoot b-roll

This first picture is of our projected overheads, and the next is the storyboard for our interview.

Documentary

My group and I decided to interview John Hitchcock. He is a lover of comic books and even owns his own comic book store where we plan to interview him. Being that this is a subject of passion for Hitchcock, we hope to set a nostalgic tone in our documentary. These are the 10 questions we’ve prepared for the interview:

1.     What first drew you to comics?

2.     What inspired you to pursue comics as a career rather than a hobby?

3.     Has your passion for comics ever waivered?

4.     Which comics have inspired you most?

5.     Which comics would you recommend to a beginner?

6.     In your lifetime how have you seen the comics as a medium develop?

7.     How do you feel that the comic book-inspired films have influenced the comic book community?

8.     What, in your opinion, has been the “golden age” of comics?

9.     How do you feel you have contributed to the comic book community?

10. Where do you see comics going in the next 10 years?

Vox Pops:

1.     Do you read comic books?

-if yes:

      + How were you introduced to them?

      + What have they meant to you?

-if no:

      + Have you/do you watch any films or t.v. shows inspired by comic books?

      + Do these films/t.v. shows cause you to be interested in the comic books?

Let There Be Light

     I watch the sunset from my back porch. By now everyone has retreated indoors for the evening and I am left alone to watch the sky. As the day comes to an end the sun thrusts out its rays, clinging desperately to the western horizon. The light touches only the surface of the earth as the midnight sky reaches down to touch the remaining sunset. I can now face the sunken sun head-on, and we look at each other face to face. It's light falls softly on my face as the sky turns pink and orange and gold. Slowly, it slips from the earth, retreating from the looming darkness as it says goodnight. 

Now that it is dark I go back up to my room and lay on the floor with a book. I flick on the lamp and watch as light explodes from the tungsten-colored bulb. The light is incased in a small old bird cage, but escapes from behind the bars casting sunburst shadows on the ceiling and walls. I lay underneath the lamp, it's light reflecting off the satiny-white pages of my textbook. My dog wanders over and sniffs my face before plopping down on the section of the page I was trying to read. Her black eyes shine up at me in innocence, highlighted by the soft light. I ruffle her hair and roll her over on her back, rubbing her tummy as I continue reading.

This is Izzy. I never miss a chance to show her off. 

Sketches

The first is a medium shot of tires, the second and extreme close-up of broken glass and litter on the ground.

Introduction

    Stories have always fascinated me. Some of my best memories I have are of my dad reading to me from books like The Secret Garden, or the adventure tales my mom made up about "Betty Bunny" and "Bobby Beaver". I spent the majority of my childhood— my life really, coming up with every kind of story. What I like most about them is that a good story spans all cultures and social classes. They bring truth by relating it to a person's own life. Even the most unwilling have accepted truths they previously rejected because of a story they heard told. That being said, stories are far more powerful than we ever imagine.
 
   It was storytelling that originally led me to film. Film as a medium is complex— detail oriented, and yet simple. A good film is natural, in that you interact with it as though you were inside it. You see the emotions played out in facial expressions, body movements, music, sound, landscapes. And I, as a storyteller, find in it a natural outlet for my passion. I've been making movies ever since I could get my hands on a camera. When I got to high school I had the opportunity to work on a student-produced t.v. show that aired on public television in our town. It wasn't much, but it was because of that I realized film was the thing I wished to pursue.

   After high school I took a semester to intern overseas in Cardiff, Wales making videos for a nonprofit organization. When I got back I started college in Oklahoma, where I was born, and quickly realized that if I was going to pursue film I needed to get out of Oklahoma. I looked into a few places and fell in love with Wilmington. So here I am.

  I don't know where I will be in ten years, but it is unlikely that I will stray from the course I have been on most of my life. I am a storyteller and a filmmaker. I have the potential to take that anywhere— hopefully everywhere. I have a heart for travel, and have seen amazing places such as East Africa and most of the United Kingdom. I've seen three of the four corners (as I would define them) of the U.S. and continue to seek out new adventures in places I've never been. So maybe this will help in the location scouting department. :D

   I look forward to meeting all the members of 201 and reading about your interests in film!

Audra

This is from the top of mountain in Scotland. The picture doesn't do justice to how beautiful it really was. It's the most beautiful place I've been.