Thoughts On The Class

I think this class has been EXTREMELY beneficial to me. I think the most important thing that I have learned in this class is that I CAN do this. I CAN make my own films. This was my first production class as a major. Before I was a major I was really questioning if I was even going to be good at this--mainly because I wasn't getting the grades I wanted in the classes. I thought I was not cut out for film. Even throughout the semester when I kept facing challenges along the way I thought that maybe I wasn't cut out for the film business, but I found solutions to those challenges. I now know that I can be a film maker. I think one of the hardest-and most amazing experiences I had in this class was making my self portrait and showing it to the class. I had a really hard time making it because I had never opened myself up like that. After I showed that film I felt extremely proud of myself. I also felt like a weight had lifted off my shoulders.
I also was very nervous about directing the music video. Since this was my first production class other than 201 I was really nervous about being a director. I also knew that most everyone else had more experience with production. I was also really nervous when things went wrong. I thought that maybe I wasn't going to be able to be a good director for the project, but I worked out everything and the music video ended up looking pretty good-even though most of our footage was extremely overexposed.
So I think this class has really made a difference on my thoughts on myself and on myself as a film maker. I've really enjoyed this class a whole lot.

Thoughts On Sending My Films To Festivals

I'm a little nervous about sending out my film to festivals. I am worried about how much money I will spend sending them out. I know I just need to find festivals that like the kinds of things I make. I think that my music video definitely has potential to go to festival. I'm just concerned about finding the right festivals for my stuff. I'm also concerned about how I will feel getting rejected from festivals. I know being in the film business I MUST have a thick skin for that since it will happen hundreds of times. I just know I might feel bad getting my first rejection letter especially. I'm definitely considering submitting my music video to festival. I will most likely start by submitting it to festivals around the area. I'm thinking about submitting it to reel teal as my first festival. I think that will be a good start for me and I'll just go up from there.

Films At Cucalorus

Well I ended up only going to see 2 of the films I was planning on seeing this weekend since the other one was in the morning and I didn't feel well that morning. So I went to the Whirligig Beetle shorts and The New Year. I loved the shorts. I'm extremely glad that I was able to see them. I loved seeing a bunch of different people's short films. I think all of the ones I saw I enjoyed. I definitely thought that Stanley Pickle was more of an experimental film since it had almost a stop motion feel with jerky motions. I really enjoyed Successful Alcoholics, cried suicide, and Dragon Slayerz. I thought those were all really well done and I loved the comedy in them. I also went and saw The New Year which I enjoyed a lot. I thought it was a nice story. It was a little slow at times, but overall it was good. I love how they left the ending somewhat open for interpretation. I think they left it with an optimistic feel, but they didn't tell us what the girl ultimately decides. I thought it was a great experience to go to these screenings and I wish I was able to see more. Maybe next year I'll be able to see more!

Cucalorus

I'm really upset because this weekend I ended up having to do a lot of work over the weekend for a number of different things. I have to work at Blockbuster, and I also have to work at a horse show for the Equestrian Team. I'm also working and showing on Sunday, so pretty much my entire weekend is going to be full of craziness, but I'm still going to go to a couple of the screenings. I plan on seeing the Whirligig Beetle Shorts on Friday which looks very interesting. I wanted to go see some shorts since the majority of what I've done are shorts. I want to see what kinds of films can get into a festival like this. I also got tickets for The Happy Poet, but I'm not sure if I actually can use them because it said Corp instead of Pass. So I'm thinking it might be for corporations to see. I am not sure right now. The last one I plan on seeing is The New Year on Sunday night. I thought that one looked really interesting and it was at a time when I should be back from the horse show. There were a few that I wish I could go see, but they were at bad times ):. So that's my plan for this weekend. I think my weekend will be pretty much insane. I have a lot to do, but I've never been to Cucalorus and I think it's time that I go.

Idea For Instillation Project

So I didn't really have any ideas for this project (I was pretty blank in my head from all my other work). So I am pretty much okay with doing whatever Royce decides to come up with. I think the idea he has come up with so far is a really great idea. I like that he came up with a story and he plans on using found footage along with interactions of people. I hope that finding the found footage won't be too hard for us. I also like that we will be projecting on a circular surface rather than a plain flat one. I'm not sure how we will construct the ball to project on. I'm sure we will make it happen if that's what Royce wants. I'm also hoping he will be able to get the actress he wants cause otherwise I might have to act, which I'm not too fond up, but I'll do it. I think this project will require a lot of work, which I hope we will have enough time to get everything together. I really hope everything will turn out well and our project will look great! I'm really excited to work with Royce on this project.

Music Video Shoot

So I'm sure my group was very frustrated with me as director considering that the day before the shoot I still had no idea what we were doing. It's not that I didn't try, it's that no one could get back to me on ANYTHING. I sent e-mails to about 15 different bands, and even to some labels in an attempt to get a signature. Unfortunately I didn't get to do the idea I really wanted to do because they never did get back to me. So I decided to go with a different song and fortunately Kristin knows one of the band members so we definitely have a signature. THANK GOODNESS! I was stressing out about that for the last 2 weeks. So the idea we ended up going with was taking different shots of shoes walking in different places. I think the idea will turn out really nice. Overall the shooting went really really well. I think the group worked really well together and we all contributed ideas and helped with the vision. I made Laura do some very interesting shots, which also required her walking backwards down bleachers. We had to have Gabby spot her so she wouldn't fall. We don't want any injuries on set. Kristin brought every pair of shoes she owned and was our actress for most of the different shots of the shoes. I also did some with my shoes and I also brought another friend of mine for his shoes. We got a lot of different shots that are really interesting and I can't wait to see how our film comes out.

Art House Reading

I think it's sad that going out to see an older movie has become almost non-existant now. I think it's important to still show some of these great movies the way they were meant to be seen. I know that I have probably missed out on a lot of great older films just because I don't really hear about them all that much.

I think it's neat that there is a place for people who make films that might not be accepted into the mainstream still have a place to go and show their films. I think these film makers need a place that they can show films that are different. They are creating pieces of art and obviously they would want to show that. I think these film makers definitely need these kind of places so that they can show the art they have worked so hard for.

Also I think it can build a community of people who have seen the films. Since the places are smaller it gives them more of a chance to bond and talk about the movie they just saw. The film maker will also get opinions who might be more accepting of art form than some people in the mainstream.

The Most Beautiful Music Video Ever

I wanted to post this last week, but I ran out of time. Okay so when I first heard this song I was absolutely in love with it. I listened to it for days on repeat. It's such a powerful and beautiful song. So when I saw the video for it I was absolutely blown away. I honestly don't think I have seen a more beautiful video.

One thing I think in particular that I really enjoy is that Christina Perri actually uses the dance from "So You Think You Can Dance," that actually caused her song to be heard. I think that is really classy. I just love the emotion that you can see in the dance and in her singing. The video literally gives me chills.

Directing The Music Video

So I am the director of the music video. What have I gotten myself into? My first step that I have done is figured out what everyone's schedules is. With everyone having such crazy schedules it's been really difficult to find a time when all of us can meet. Also I've been pretty much going crazy this week. My computer broke so I've been attempting to do everything on school computer, which doesn't really work very well. I've already written this blog entry once before... I've also been trying to figure out what songs I can use for my video. That is probably the most difficult challenge right now. I have a song in mind that I would really love to use, but the problem is I don't personally know the singer. I also don't know if she'd be willing to sign a paper to give me official permission. I really hope that she will be nice enough to do that for me. If not I sent my group out to find artists that would let us use their songs and be able to sign permission for the song. I will be kinda bummed if I'm not able to use her song, but I'm sure my group will be able to come up with something. I'm trying to figure out how to not sound like a weirdo and sound more professional when I talk to the artists. I'm hoping everything will go well and I'm sure our group will do the best we can with what we have!

Ideas For Self Portrait

At first I had no idea what to do for my self portrait, then I read some stuff about Stan Brakhage for my History of Avant-Garde class. His idea that everyone sees the world differently and he wanted to portray his view of the world really spoke to me. So I thought about it a lot and I figured that since I am blind in one eye I see the world a whole lot differently than most people. Normal every day things may be different to me. So I want to focus my film on the way I see the world. I also want to mention some things about my eyes and how I feel about it. Since I'm not that comfortable with my eye I think it will be an interesting thing to get me out of my comfort zone and put everything out there in the open. I'm trying to push myself to become more open with this part of me. I think this film could be really successful if i can pull it off right.

Plans For Light And Sound Project

Ben and I ended up getting "She Continued Yelling From The Kitchen," as our soundscape. We liked this one because it was almost like a song. I liked how the sounds repeated and had a beat to it. We quickly realized however that our images would have nothing to do with women yelling from kitchens. Most of the photographs that people took were taken outside and were more natural. There were a couple that fit with the kitchen. So we decided to fit the images to the sounds. We tried to associate certain images with certain sounds so that it kinda matched the song a little more. We also tried to make some of the images have different effects placed on them, which turned out to be quite difficult to figure out actually. So many of the images were repeated when certain sounds came up, but we also tried to vary the images and change them in different ways. We have a lot of fast moving images, some that stand still, some that shake, and some that ripple. I think the film really flows well together yet it also has some things that clash with each other. This variety makes the film very interesting I think.

Painting With Sound

So as I've said before in this blog I was really excited to sit down and make a soundscape out of the sounds we recorded for class. My partner and I made sure to make a list of all the sounds that we were considering using. When we first started creating "Our Garden In A Shady Spot," I was only wanting to use nature sounds. I soon realized that there weren't all that many nature sounds that the groups recorded. So we began to play around with other sounds making them slower or faster. As we began to play around I realized that some of the sounds really sounded different when they were played at different speeds. The sounds of metal banging sounded completely different slowed down. A lot of these sounds I ended up really liking a whole lot. This made me really excited and I wanted to experiment even more with sounds. So we experimented with putting different sounds on top of each other and we discovered that different sounds would sound really good with each other and others didn't sound that great. As we continued making our soundscape we began to come up with a silly story to go along with it. Our story being that the person's "Ohm," disturbed the entire garden and created chaos. Since we didn't want this to be too narrative we tried not to make the story too blantant. I think it was more of something silly to keep us from going insane with 3 projects due on the same day. (:

Light Observations: Driving In The Dark

So this weekend I had a family situation I had to go to this weekend, which meant that I had to drive 2 hours in the dark Thursday night. While driving these boring 2 hours I noticed that there were a lot of different interesting things going on with the lights. I thought it was kind of funny seeing that every car had their own little bubble of light coming out from them. As cars came towards me their light bounced off my windshield and created a streak across the windshield. When someone came up behind me with their brights on I could see their lights reflecting in both my side and rearview mirrors-which I must say is very obnoxious. Also their bright lights would light up the inside of my car. I thought it was interesting seeing the different strange shadows the lights would make. The light from my headlights would bounce off the markers in the road, and the signs that I passed. I also noticed that whenever someone with their brights came up over a hill the light would illuminate the entire road before I could see the car. It's almost like a warning that says "Hello I have my brights on!"

Experiencing Sound

From the second we started this assignment I was really excited. I had so many ideas for different sounds to make. I wanted my group to have sounds that no other group had-which I think all the groups accomplished very different sounds. I had a lot of fun trying to think of all the different sounds. We tried many different things together to make different strange sounds. Our group started off really strong with getting sounds of my horse. I knew that the barn would be a great place to find different sounds. I was really disappointed that we couldn't get more sounds there-the neighbors have many animals that would have made for really good sounds, but he didn't let us go back there to record. As we kept trying to find sounds it got harder and harder to find things that were unnatural, and sounded really different. Also I think the ambient sound was really difficult to find because we wanted to find ambient sounds that were unique, but it seemed like all the ambient sounds would sound similar-or at least they did to me. Luckily we thought of doing some places that were different than what other people did so I think it turned out well.

When listening to all the sounds in class I was amazed at how different everyone's sound turned out. As I was listening I was trying to figure out which sounds I liked, and how they all fit together. I also must say that I am in love with the name my partner and I chose for our soundscape: Our Garden In A Shady Spot. I am super excited about creating our soundscape for this. I think it will be interesting to put all the sounds together to make a soundscape. I'm really looking forward to seeing how everyone's soundscapes turn out.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Walter Murch makes a good point that often sound is put second to visuals many times in life. However, I don't think it always necessarily takes a backseat to visuals in film. I think sound in film is a huge part of a film. Without sound many things wouldn't be possible to understand. I think maybe with newer generations who have never had the experience of a silent film will indeed take sound for granted, but for me I definitely can see the huge importance in sound. I also find sound to be a huge part of my life. Being half blind has led me to enhance my hearing and I really appreciate all sounds in film. I am taking a class on musicals, and I have learned a lot about sound in film. I have learned to appreciate the addition of sound with music, dialogue and sound effects. I think sound adds a whole new element to film and without it film wouldn't be the same as it is today.

Sound Observations: Blockbuster

Working at blockbuster there are very many different sounds that can be heard throughout the store. Firstly is the DVD that plays trailers all day long. I pretty much know all the trailers by heart from the number of times that I hear them. I also can hear the humming of the drink machine. I can also hear the door chime as each person enters. After the person enters I hear the chorus of "Hellos" that greet each customer as they walk in. I also hear the clunk of movies being dropped into the bin. Then I hear the rhythmic sound of my co-worker checking and locking the movies. The movies make a popping sound as they are opened and closed. The locks make a click as they go into place in the movie. I hear the scraping of the movies against the tables, and the clunk of the movies being placed in alphabetical order in the cart.

Sound Observation: Horse Barn

I figured that since I do lease a horse at the moment that I would take advantage of all the sounds the barn had to offer. As I first pull up into the driveway to the barn I hear the cracking of my tires on the gravel. The car creaks a little as I pull it to a stop in front of the barn. As I get out I can hear the neighbors dogs howling-sounds like they are in constant pain I must add. I Open the gate which groans from old age. The two horses make their way to greet me. I can hear their hooves softly padding on the grass. Brandi-the other horse- makes soft murmuring sounds as I near her. I can hear the sound of the radio coming through the door of the tack room-I hate when they leave the radio on. i open the door to the tack room which makes a loud thumping noise. I turn the radio off so I can hear better. If I listen very closely I can hear the bugs buzzing around outside. I hear the sound of Brandi nosing at the wire mesh that separates her from peeking into the tack room.

Film Art Introduction Avant-Garde

The Film As An Original Art Form:
I think it is very difficult to claim film as just one particular art form. FIlm is a mesh of many different art forms. Literary, musical, and visual. All these art forms combine to create what we know as film. By itself film is just a moving picture on the screen. The closest that film gets to be an original art form is perhaps in the Avant-Garde films. Usually there are no literary structures in these films. The documentary does get close to being pure film, but it still has elements of story involved so the literary form is still a part even in a documentary. It's hard to claim film as just one art form.

Introduction To Avant-Garde Film:
I agree that most people do not see Avante Garde as a "Film," most people do think of films as being narrative. Even I when first confronted with an Avant-Garde film was very much confused with what I was watching. Some of what I saw even disturbed me a little bit. I especially remember watching Stan Brakhage "Window Water Baby Moving," and barely being able to watch through the entire short film. I also remember seeing other films that I remember questioning why they were important. I'm hoping to learn more behind some of these films so that I will be able to understand them more.

Artist Bio

When I was younger I never saw myself having anything to do with art and film. I was always so sure that I was going to be a veterinarian. As I continued to grow up I realized that messing with the insides of animals is not exactly what I wanted to be doing. In high school I discovered video editing. I began by making small slideshows to music. I absolutely loved making the pictures turn perfectly in sync to the music. Then I got a small camera and began to video tape everything. Then I put those videos to music. At that point I knew that I wanted to do more with film. I came to UNCW and I joined Flickr. I was able to work on a set with the club, and I absolutely fell in love even more than I already was. I loved every second of making a film. Not only do I love film, but I also just love photography. I love being behind a camera and capturing memories. I love learning about all kinds of film and I really want to learn even more. I want to broaden my ideas by doing experimental film and I want to test my abilities to make different kinds of film.