- Planning and research--Discuss how you came up with your idea and how you went about putting your plans on paper. Did your final product match? What changed and why?
- Reflection and evaluation--Include artistic and logistical analysis of your production processes and provide critical evaluation of the project as a whole.
- Effective use of film language--Discuss your use of film language throughout the project.
Due: Wednesday, 2/8 (half day)
I came up with the idea while brainstorming ideas for the project with Matt. Matt came up with the idea of featuring interviews of people insulting me in the film. I followed on the idea and came up with the idea of featuring my uninteresting daily routine, which was similarly self-deprecating. I wrote these ideas down onto a minimal storyboard in which I outlined what would happen in the film visually. The final product was essentially the same as what I had written in the storyboard. I did not have a script written out for the dialogue present in the film. The only ideas I had for dialogue were written out in small fragments on the storyboard. In the cases of both my dialogue describing the purpose of the film, and the dialogue of my friends insulting me, the dialogue would be created shortly before the scene was filmed, and there was usually a great deal of improvisation in the dialogue as well.
ReplyDeleteThe film itself is fairly simple. It is presented in a mockumentary style. The shots are all presented in a handheld style, which adds to the faux-documentary feeling which I mentioned before. I feel that the film turned out very well, although it definitely could be improved. One way it could have been improved is if the film had been made in a less rushed way. Most of the interview segments were filmed shortly before the editing started, so they had to be finished very quickly. Also, I would use a boom pole in certain shots because the dialogue is hard to hear at points (I noticed this the most when Joe and Conor were speaking their respective lines). I think that the film turned out fairly creatively and funny as far as the dialogue and story went, although I felt it definitely could have been more creative from a visual aspect. My favorite part of the film is the end credits, wherein Stephen provides a beautiful rendition of "Twinkle Twinkle Little Star" in his famous classically trained tenor voice, that is fairly superfluous to the rest of the film.
Most of the shots in the film are medium shots and are presented at an eye level. However, some shots differ from this model. The shot of Conor delivering his line is delivered from an extreme low angle. This was mainly done as a joke. I felt that considering how ridiculous his line of dialogue ("James Werick pets dying animals") was, that filming him from a low angle would make the shot even more ridiculous, because of the unnecessary and bizarre implication of power that it creates. As well, high angle shots are used during two of the daily routine shots. A high angle is used in the shots where I am lying in my bed and on my floor listening to a record. This is done to imply my patheticness in these two situations, as well as displaying the dreariness of my daily life. The shot of me looking at the TV while watching a film is presented in a long shot, although this was done because the camera had to be at a distance to show both myself and the television, rather than being an aesthetic choice. All of the shots in the film are presented in unbroken takes. The shots in the interview segment are all very short, whereas the shots depicting me describing the film and going about my routine are all very long, with most of them being longer than ten seconds. The length of the shots was deliberate, and was done to add to the tedious and boring feeling that they present. As well, none of the shots pan or move at all, except for any minor movements that come naturally with filming handheld. In the shots depicting me, my body language remains tense or shows very little movement, which displays both my intentionally uncomfortable and nervous appearance (particularly in the beginning shot), as well as to reinforce the boredom depicted in the film. Costumes were not an issue in the film. All of the people in the film just used what they were currently dressed in rather than changing into a different costume, to give a natural feel to the film. The lighting and color in the film also remain natural throughout, to add to the documentary feel and the boring atmosphere being presented.
ReplyDeleteI found the All About Me project to be a struggle from the very beginning. Immediately I thought of an idea for James that fit him well, but I could not think of something original and indicative of my personality. I liked the idea of being self deprecating and humorous, as I have always liked the idea of subverting expectations and making fun of myself. I also like the idea of fake, comedic personalities being borne out of real people's lives - comedians like Tim & Eric and John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich who create characters out of themselves and keep their real names in order to mock themselves and comment on their public persona. I felt that a song would be the proper way to go, but I tried to think of a humorous way to spin the traditional gangsta rap brag video to be about a desperate, pathetic version of myself.
ReplyDeleteImmediately I referenced several rap videos and studied the way they were edited - I noticed they were edited in a quick, blunt way free of frills and long shots. I made a beat on my computer and wrote two raps - one that sounded more in line with traditional braggadocio rap (replete with references to Clipse, haters and Kojak), and one that painted me in a much sadder, nerdier light. I quickly recorded them both.
The film ended up much differently than I thought it would. Several shots planned out in the storyboard turned out differently than I expected due to changes in filming locations. I originally planned for the majority to be filmed at my house, but as the due date rapidly approached and I found that several shots I'd filmed early on were unusable, the majority was filmed at my friend Alex's house. This changed the layout of several shots, namely the one where I am ambushed by prankster neighbors, as I originally planned a panning shot which could not be achieved due to the high incline of Alex's porch vs. the neighbors' backyard.
The shots are similar to those heavily featured in '90's hip-hop videos. It alternates between intense close ups (me waking up, the crossword puzzles) and mid shots of me attempting to look cool. The editing is very rapid, matching the beat of the song. I believe I achieved the hip-hop look, especially in the first half where that was more important. When Olivia interrupts the song, a major dichotomy can be seen in the two styles. The rapid editing and close ups are replaced with a long scene presented in a wide shot where Olivia scolds me for fabricating the events of my life in an attempt to look cool. This ends up being a bridge between the editing and style of the two halves of the video - the archetypal fast hip hop editing of the first half and the slower, more comedically dragged-on editing of the second half.
The second half begins with the same close up shot of me waking up. However, things are different. This time the song and the shot are slower. This is to symbolize the disparity between the "speed of life" of the hip-hop me and the "real" me presented in the second half (for the record I'm not actually like that). The close ups and quick editing of the first half, used to symbolize my big personality and fast life, are replaced with wide shots and slower edits, symbolizing my smallness and weakness as a person and slow life. Where the first half had me moving around a lot, clearly confident and excitable, the second half shows me looking small and barely moving at all. In several shots, including me watching a documentary and eating ice cream, I barely move or blink for shots that last several seconds. Also in these shots are a subtle, slight high-angle that helps to accentuate my powerlessness. This was to depict me as ultimately pathetic and boring, an admission that the hip-hop version displayed originally was merely a manifestation of my love of Notorious B.I.G. and my desire "to be a G", as I say in the rap in the second half.
ReplyDeleteUltimately I feel I managed to realize my vision well. It received a warm reception and the video matched well with the beat of the song. I wish I had been more proficient in terms of time management, as most of the shots were done quickly near the end of the project's alloted time. With that in mind, however, I feel that I achieved my vision well. Especially for a project that was done by me alone (I had no help in the music production or video recording, set everything up myself, and had only two actors appear - mostly out of a feel of discomfort asking people to help me), the shots are serviceable at least and the video looks like a respectable attempt at a hip-hop video.
This video was quite a difficult assignment. The planning for the video was harder than I thought, because I had to think what would be a fun video to make and what describes who I am. I originally had a narration about my life, but it seemed lazy and too easy. Then another idea came to me, I know that I love TV and cannot really survive without it. This seemed a good idea to me, so I developed it into a video. One major thing I had to think of was: ‘how can I use cinematic language effectively?” So, when I was making the storyboard I made sure to convey meaning through the camera angle used and size of subject. Also, I remembered the 180 degree rule, but when I went to shoot, the shots seemed too similar and boring, so this worked on paper, but not when applied. I originally had the idea of having all electronics not working, but when I went to shoot I realized that I wanted the room to be lit correctly and the lamps would be in the shot, so I had to change it to just the TV. Another problem occurred when I went to shoot, because I had a sequence that included multiple actions that took place using a long shot. So I had to move everything around to look pleasing in that long shot and to light the room properly and to try to apply to the rule of thirds. This was hard and took an hour or two to think about, but then I realized that this would look boring, so I broke the sequence into individual shots for each action. This made it more interesting. When I started to shoot there was another problem, all of the shots looked slightly orange. It took me a while to realize that I had the white balance on florescent, but my lights were tungsten. Once I changed the white balance, the shots looked a lot better. Once these problems were solved the video as a whole came out quite well. I was impressed with the quality of it considering I did the shooting in one day and got really tired and just wanted it to be over by the time I finished it. Also, doing it by myself was very difficult. The overall video was not too different from the plan. I just needed to change some things that did not work or change it for a better idea. I learned from this experience (and previous ones) that it is important to do better pre-production in order to make the production easier. Unplanned production is so hard to do and makes the video less fun to make.
ReplyDeleteI found myself improvising shots quite a bit and it became a headache to do it. I was tired, impatient, and wanted the video done, but I wanted it good, so much of my production was planning (which should have been done in the pre-production). I understand that this is learning experience, so I’m happy to learn from this experience. The use of film language in this video is good I think, because I put a decent amount of time thinking about. I used low angles of the TV to represent the power it has over me, I used high angles for myself, because I am vulnerable without TV. Also, I made the TV very big on screen to represent its power, and I made myself smaller to represent my lack of power. That was about all the film language I used to present meaning. Another thing I tried hard with this video is to use the rule of thirds effectively and not to center myself. I tried an eye-line match cut, but it did not work perfectly, because it was an eye-line match cut of me staring at the ceiling fan and I was looking screen left while screen left, then I had the fan in the next shot in screen left. I should have moved me to screen right and it would have looked better, but it was still good and clear that I was staring at the ceiling fan. I was influenced for this shot by Apocalypse Now. One thing that helped me out in this video was my brother. He helped with the shots that used the dolly, panned, and the shot of the book that was out of focus then put into focus. The problem with the book shot was that his finger got in the shot each take, so I decided to just crop his finger out. I had a lot of fun making this video, I learned a lot from it and I look forward to more videos in the future and to constantly improve.
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ReplyDeleteI really had no idea what to do for this project for weeks after it was assigned. I didn’t think my daily routine was anything interesting or original enough to base my short film on and I couldn’t figure out how to create any sort of narrative arc out of my interests or things I particularly enjoy doing. I guess I remembered then how I’d always wanted to film the scenery whenever I go on a walk. So I created a storyboard as a rough outline of the project and started filming it that week. Unfortunately, a number of things went wrong and much of the film turned out as a horrible travesty of its original intent.
ReplyDeleteFrom a technical perspective, despite the multitude of changes, I don’t think it was too shabby for my first independent film project. There were some shots that, in terms of composition, I thought ended up looking rather nice, particularly the shots in the parking lot. However, the initial plan was for the entire film to be shot during a snowfall which I thought would give it a quiet, serene atmosphere as well as being aesthetically pleasing. Being pressed for time, I ended up shooting all of it when the ground was bare which I strived to use for a look of dreary beauty, sort of like Antonioni’s Desert Roso (name drop LOL).
Because of the lack of snow, I also had to cut out a few shots-a few of me throwing snowballs, kicking snow, etc. (and thank God, as if the film didn’t look idiotic enough). Also, a few shots were cut or modified because of time constraints, compositional preferences once I arrived at the location, or for the sake of coherency in the film. One issue that changed nearly a third of the film’s shots was the size of my room, it being much too small to accommodate the space needed for certain shots. I also struggled with the first day of shooting because I didn't have a tripod. In replacement, I would set up the shot the way I thought I wanted it then have my girlfriend film it. Finally, my plan to end the film with an homage to Ikiru’s swing scene had to be nixed not only for the lack of snow but the fact that such a sequence would require lighting, which I had neither the access to nor the knowledge to use.
The editing process I found to be time-consuming and arduous, particularly because I hadn’t yet edited a film on my own and found the program to be frustratingly involved. The flaws in my editing can be explicitly seen by the amount of brief interspaces between shots-an indication that I ran out of time to even watch the film in its entirety and go through and correct these mistakes.
During the editing process I was able to determine the length of each shot, something I hadn’t previously given much thought to. With this in mind, I decided to make the shots in the latter part of the film chiefly long takes to give the film a forlorn, pondering atmosphere much like Bela Tarr’s films (I’ve realized much of the film was intended to be modeled after the works of him and Tarkovsky, such as the dreary look and the voyeuristic aloofness of the camera from the character.) However, the long shots awkwardly clashed with quick takes of the former half. And besides that, I’m simply not Bela Tarr so the montage of long takes just ended up seeming too narcissistic and trying too hard to be serious. As a sardonic redress of this, I included the hit song “You’re Looking Sexy, Stephen ” as the soundtrack.
ReplyDeleteThe film is essentially divided into two parts: me preparing for my walk and me on my walk. These are divided by the opening of my room/the front door. As I said, the shots in the first half are all rather quick to flow through the process of my preparation. The shot of me looking down at the film was supposed to be a sort of meta reference to the medium itself and the title was to appear on the negative (until I realized how stupid that was). I strived to exclude any view of my face from the shots until I walked outside (and even then as little as possible) to, like I said, produce a feel of voyeuristic aloofness. The over the shoulder shot, shot from above the cliff, shot from across the parking lot, shot of me climbing, and any other shot in which I was presented in a high-angle shot had similar purposes-they were all to make the viewer feel as if they were an unseen observer, taking a passive part in someone’s private life.