Final Reflection

In this class along with several other media production classes is that you never have enough time or money to make things work to your benefit. Nothing will ever be exactly perfect and most things will not go as planned. This is a very frustrating process, but there's really no way around it. I'm glad that I was able to take this class during the summer especially knowing that it was an intense class. However, I wish that I could have spent more time on many things. I hate some things were rushed, but it's a great feeling knowing that I have accomplished a very difficult class during a short amount of time.  I have learned lots of things that needs much improvement if I continue in this field. From this class I was kind of disappointed to know I was not as far along as others, but I hope that I can learn from this experience now.
One of my many improvements that I really want to become great at is lighting, and framing. I really struggle with visualizing shots, and that to me is key to making a good story great. Also I would like to learn more about lighting so I can know exactly where to put light and what kind of light you need for a certain scene.
I definitely would like to have a much better knowledge of every aspect of the camera, because it seems to work out alot better if your director is also a great cinematograper. This helps both the director and the cinematographer to have good communication to know exactly what the shot is.
I still love movies and whether or not I will ever be great at it, I still have learned so much about movies. I love being able to know how or why they do certain things in movies. Not just, 'O that must have been an accident." And having knowledge about these aspects of film makes me feel smart that I know exactly what kind of shot that is and how they did it. That has to be my favorite experience about taking these classes. I learned so much in this class and this was a good class for me to see where I need improvement.

Artist Statement

The reel below is a small reflection of my past work since I have been in school. I haven't done a whole lot and have had little experience in this industry. I can only hope to broaden my minds horizons and expand to bigger and better things. It takes practice and talent to become great at things and in time I know it will happen. I may never be a Steven Speilberg, but I can keep pressing forward and strive to be similar. I see all my past work as amateur work. I want to make my movies, clips, etc wow people. I'm still uncertain if this is the exact direction for me, but I want to finish and see where this path leads. I  have yet to experience the screenwriting side of this industry, but I have a hunch that is where my work will originate from. I have always loved writing and have always written everything down as I image it in my mind. I believe that my writing would help me increase my imagination with the production side of this career.
As I stated in my visual style I do want to learn more about framing shots in a way to make the small things pop. I want to take amazing shots that stand out to others. And I believe once achieving these goals I will be able to look more professional. And until these goals are achieved I will view my work as amateur and will be fearful of furthering my career.
I want people to watch my work and be moved. And most things I have written have moved people, at least i've been told. I just need to put my written words to the screen to get that point across. I want to be the inspiration to the world.

So when watching my reel below please keep in mind I am a young aspiring filmmaker who hopes to become a great artist. I won't stop practicing till I get it right!








 

Scene Assignment

This scene was inspired by the park bench scene from the movie "Forrest Gump." Please excuse the sound. This was produced with a two person crew; the director and the cinematographer.

Why I Chose JVC

For my scene assignment I chose the small JVC mostly so I could help instruct my DP if needed. Thankfully both my DP and I were very familiar with the small JVC. Another factor that Dr. Raimist pointed out in our meeting was shooting on a smaller camera because of our location. Our Location would become small with all of the equipment and a bigger camera would not be ideal. 

Also I had not considered the process of importing footage from other cameras was a harder process before getting to edit your footage. So again I was very glad to have chosen the small JVC because the workflow is much easier to begin the postproduction process.

I chose to shoot in the standard format of 1080p with 24fps because for my scene it would be unnecessary to shoot in slow more or at a faster speed.  A great thing that I love about the JVC is that it takes SD cards, which cuts out the hassle of having to log and transfer your footage. It’s as easy as loading a flash drive and I am all about simple.

One thing I did not learn was how to crush the depth of field with the JVC, which is something I would have loved to learn. However when filming my scene assignment my DP and I took on all the jobs of a crew so worrying about how to crush the depth of field was unnecessary at the time.

Upon doing all the jobs of a crew, and trying to direct I forgot to instruct my DP to check the Gain to eliminate the digital noise throughout the footage. So below is an image from the scene that you may notice not as sharp as most pictures in movies.

If new to TCF and you are uncertain or fearful of trying to operate one of the bigger and better cameras I would most definitely recommend this JVC. It gets the job done and leaves you with less stress. Especially IF you take this class during the summer, you will not have much time to learn a new camera. So definitely this camera if you don’t have much time to get familiar with the others or don’t have someone more knowledgeable of the camera that can help you use it.

Lastly, you really need to just get a feel for all the camera and decide which one fits you and your visual style.

Below are some images from my experience with the JVC.

Midterm Reflection

I'm very excited to have accomplished so much in so little time; however, I wish I had more time to perfect my assignments. I think this class has been a great learning experience for me; it has really opened my eyes. This experience has broadened my horizons. Now when I watch movies, t.v. etc. I think of how they filmed it. What kind of shots did they use? Dolly, Glide, Fig Rig and so much more. One of my favorite things I have learned is the different stands/tripods and gear you can you use when mounting the camera.

Our screening of our portraits was a quite scary feeling, I really really did not want to participate, but learned it wasn’t so bad. I did however enjoy watching others work a lot better than mine. It gave me ideas for future projects.

And the feedback from each portrait was really great because you learned how and why they did certain things throughout their piece. One thing I wish I knew more about is final cut pro. I find it difficult for me to cut things together smoothly because I am still new to the software. I plan on taking intro to post to learn more about it so that this part will be less challenging.

My other struggle would be visualizing shots. I don’t think about how to do a certain shot till I have seen it in another piece. With this scene assignment I am really going to try to expand my imagination so my shots will look very well composed.

Again all of these factors have been GREAT learning experiences for me. I will forever think about all aspects when filming or watching t.v.

So far I have really enjoyed this class and I know once I finish it I will feel even more accomplished than before. 

Portrait of a Place

Lighting styles

The movie “Tangled” is an animated film with an amazing color palette. Most of the colors they used throughout this cute fairytale were sunlight. The degrees ranged from 5000-6500K. This covered the sun directly at noon, then regular daylight and sun through clouds.  They chose beautiful scenery and extraordinary lighting for this movie! They made sure that the sun always caught her long beautiful blond hair. In the scene where they are outside sitting beneath the tree her hair is the main focal point because the sunlight outlined fragments her hair. In this particular scene most everything is green besides her purple dress, which makes her hair stand out against everything else.

The next image was a night scene, but again they made sure to illuminate her long blond hair like the sun.

This image was meant to be an interior shot of her home where she has captured the guy who thought her house was just a hide out spot. The lighting for this was meant to be sunlight coming in through her windows that caught her long blond locks.

This one is one of the few shots that doesn’t illuminate her hair, but focuses on the guy. The shot is meant for an exterior look with the sunlight coming through the trees to catch his face and the beautiful grass.

Another forest shot with the sunlight beaming through the holes of the trees that catches the blanket of grass below them and to catch her hair again. 

These last two images are exterior night shots with Chinese lanterns filling the sky around them.

This movie has beautiful colors and the artist did an amazing job coloring most of the images as if it were actual sunlight. This is also a great movie for ALL girls to watch!!