Finally Yay Filmmakers! :)

I think that I have somewhat grasp the right idea on how to successfully make/edit experimental footage. I have been able to expand my creativity and taught myself to let the film guide me where ever it goes instead of me trying to guide the film. I have learned to take in the image and absorb the film as a whole without 50 questions racing through my mind. I realize that there is a sense of freedom and individuality in everything we have seen and done throughout the semester. I also like that most of the videos we watched were open for interpretation and I like having an individual opinion on something and being able to share it without all the crazy looks form outsiders. I especially love the bond and level of understanding filmmakers share even if they are complete strangers.

Installation

For our installation we want to go with a comedic route. We will use found footage of Miley Cyrus, Lindsey Lohan and Amanda Bynes to edit together a video portraying how each of these girls has rebeled and "fallen of the band wagon" so to speak.

We will edit it in one of these ways:

• Split screen 3 ways. In each slot will be one of the three character.
• One Screen with no split screen

Our potential moral and purpose:

• Opition: Miley Cyrus is the better of the three

We plan on making our video look something along the lines of Aaron Valdez’s work. 

It is a possibility that we will have three different tvs each playing different clips from either their past or news reels.

While playing the projection on a screen there will also be actresses that will come out and preform the rolls of the three celebrities.

We want to end with possibly a Split screen of Bynes and Lohans mug shots. Since cyrus doesn’t have a mug shot she will be in the middle and as the mug shots zoom and blur Cyrus’s picture will grow larger eventually fitting the full screen.

Cucalorus Response

I had such a blast at Cucalorus. I was able to go with some fellow classmates as well as some friends that heard me talking about it and became interested as well. Every screening I went to was unique in its own way. Unfortunately I was limited to the viewings at the Thalian Hall because of show times and my schedule. I wish I could have made it to a different location but I will have another chance next year.

In one of the screenings, Pioneer, I was initially intrigued by the performance at the beginning. The lady got up and sang a song in some foreign language and the reaction from the audience was amazing. After, during the actual screening, im not sure if this was intentional or not but I liked it. There were moments in the film where the speakers would switch and the audio would get louder or there would just be a faint sound coming from the left or right speaker. The speakers happen to be behind me so every time it happened it almost startled me and made me look behind me to see who was there or what was happening. It kept me on my toes and if it was in fact an accident it was a good one!

I had different reactions to all the screenings but this one in particular was the most unique. 

My Focus

I would really like to continue to focus on expanding my editing skills. I want to be able to graduate knowing how to successfully edit any genre of film. I personally think my skills have improved significantly. I know the basics, give or take, for editing narrative and I love learning how to also edit experimentally. I would love to further my skills and one day be a bad ass all around great editor. I want for someone to mention my name as a potential editor on his or her project and someone else say “she is awesome, she can edit anything you give her and make it look amazing! I say we use her!”

As for Cucalorus I have a ton of films picked out that I want to see. Which ones will depend on what time I get off work. 

Self Portrait

For my self portrait I really want to film everything with a GoPro. I really like the way the image has that fish eye look.

My life is very chaotic and stressful at times and when I was young I struggled to find a way to calm myself and relieve some stress. I always knew that just simply sitting outdoors alone or not made me begin to relax. Then I started swimming in the 3^rd grade and continued to swim year round until I was 18 then became a coach for a few years. I even worked at a pool facility year round for 5 years. Once I reached an age where stress became more of an issue I realized that I love swimming not only because I love the exercise and the sport itself but also because I realized that it was my way to escape even though it was just for a few min. Swimming is my meditation.

For this project I want to use the GoPro to film various shots of me swimming laps in a pool. I want to have multiple underwater shots and some out of the water too. I hope to start my video with a dive into the pool and end with my hand touching the wall at the end of the swim.

For the chaotic part I wasn’t really sure what to film until someone started talking about the fair. I planned on going anyway so this gives me a reason. I don’t know what I will film so it will probably just be everything.

Somehow I want layer the two images to show how swimming pulls me away form all my life struggles. 

Ideas For Music Video

Our Director Josh has decided to make a video to a song called Midnight Workers. This song is completely instrumental and almost 5 min long. At first the length of the song came across very intimidating and nervracking but after discussing a few times with Josh what he wanted the final video to look like it became less and less of and issue. We were able to talk about a few different routes we could take if need be and eventually got on the same page as a group.

Josh wants to film mostly human shadows on a wall. He wants this woman’s shadow to move and dance in a poetic soft manner. When he mentioned this and then played the song I could vision my idea of what I though he wanted.

Being Dp and lead editor I plan on helping Josh  receive the shots and angles that he wants to the best of my ability. I have some great ideas as far as the angles go, such as one laying on the ground looking up at the wall and the shadow. As far as editing, I always have fun ideas. I'm really excited to edit his video. I really like the look of film when it is layered together and I think I could have a lot of fun with this piece. And I believe in myself to have the ability to make this video as close to josh’s vision as possible!

Shooting with Film

What did I learn? Along with the sound project, this question, to me, is more of a “What did you do before and how are you going to fix it?” question.

I have also previously worked on a project very similar. Last time we ended up exposing half of our film because we opened the back of the camera and did not wind the film back after shooting the last photo. So this time we made sure it was rewound all the way. Also we picked two locations that had quite a bit more to work with.

One thing that was different this time from last time was that we were using me Cannon digital camera to test the photos before we took the actual picture but the photos on film looked nothing like what they did on the digital. I did this with the last project and it seemed to work fine so I’m not sure what went wrong this time. Our experimental roll wasn’t very experimental and I will take blame for that. Although they weren’t very experimental I still wish we had done more to alter the way the film looked. For example using a glass cup or cling wrap etc.