Our Final Work Day

At last, it is our final day of class. The editing is well on its way to being done.  Our film is finally wrapping up and I’m interested to see the final product. Our group is using our own editing software that our editor installed in her computer. This will be helpful because we won’t have to fight over using the computers in the ethnography lab.  Hopefully, we can get our film done in a timely manner.

Today in class we didn’t have to do much and the majority of the class did not stay the whole time because their groups didn’t have much to do, as well. I found out today that we will have to do a few voice over’s because in two of the scenes the sound is poor. Our editor said that the mine and the other actor’s voices were hardly intelligible.  But these scenes are rather short, so it shouldn’t take too long. Also, we decided last minute to let Elizabeth edit the film and Eric and me will do the sound together because I did much of the acting.

As far as the sound for the film is concerned, we are going to try to find free songs online so that we don’t have to worry about copyright infringement. If we do use more popular songs, our group plans on using instrumental versions of them so there are no lyrics. I don’t know if we will have any sound effects because our group hasn’t discussed this yet. I guess we’ll see how it goes when the sound editing starts. There may be no need for sound effects at all. It we do use them I believe there are numerous places online to get free sound effects. This is what we will likely use for our film.

All in all, I am happy with how our film is progressing. I must admit I was worried about finishing it last week, but now I am confident we will finish with ease. I am a little worried about showing the film next Thursday. I don’t know how I feel about the entire class seeing me on the “big screen.” Maybe I’ll just take a five-minute bathroom break during my film so I don’t have to be there when the class watches it. However, even though I’m worried about the showing I’m excited to see how it will turn out.

work day number three

This past Thursday was mostly spent digitizing film. Our group had used the majority of the film on the tape so it took a good chunk of the class to digitize it. We were lucky in being one of the first groups to digitize because I know of other groups who were not able to do this, which puts them way behind schedule. Now that our film is digitized we can finally begin the editing process.

Our grouped talked a little about our plan regarding editing. I think we are going to start editing on Monday if at all possible. I especially want this plan to work out so that I can start the sound editing as soon as possible. I have to wait for our film editors to finish their part so I can begin my editing.

Other than digitizing and discussing editing there wasn’t much we could do last Thursday. So, there isn’t much to blog about. So…I’m just going talk about some of my plans for sound editing. I’ve been thinking about what types of background music and sound effects to use in the film. I may have to add some sounds that the film didn’t pick up as well as tone some sound down. For example, when we were filming outside the microphone picked up birds more the words themselves. This may be a problem. As far as music is concerned, I’m not sure what to use that will not be copyrighted. I will probably try to get some music that my friends have recorded or try to stick with classical music. But I’m worried that I won’t have the selection that I would prefer to have, and this may make my job a bit more difficult.

I like it when a movie has music for a specific scene and the music obviously doesn’t match the scene. You may think I’m kidding but I’m not. For example, I believe this was used in Mr. and Mrs. Smith. There is a scene with a gunfight but the music is the main component of the scene and it doesn’t match the normal music that would be played in a scene like this. I think it makes the film more interesting. I would really like to try something like this but I’m not sure it would fit well into our film.  

Overall, I’m excited about my job in my group. It is what I’ve wanted to do since the beginning of the semester. 

The second work day

This past Thursday we met with our film groups once again. Our group finished getting our footage last Thursday and only needed to digitize the film in order to start the editing process. A couple of people in my group learned how to do it but we have to wait till next week to actually try it out for ourselves. This is because some groups still need the cameras and the camera is needed to digitize the film.

So, our groups couldn’t actually do anything productive last class period. We can’t edit until we have footage available. Instead of working on our film I actually acted as an extra in group 6’s film. It was interesting to see how another group handled things. For example, the way the divided up the work was different than how our group did it. What was really funny about working as an extra in this film was the scene we were doing. I was in a group of people looking over the body of a guy who had just been run over. It must have looked real because numerous cars stopped or slowed down thinking that a car had actually hit someone. The faces were priceless.

So seeing all of this filming has made me excited to see the final products. It also had me wondering what the editing process will bring. Our group has really been working hard. I never realized how much work went into making a movie. The filming itself was a feat and I have a feeling that the editing process will be equally as difficult. I am the sound editor for our group. I’ve never done anything like this so I’m worried how it will end up sounding. I really don’t know how to use the editing programs, but I guess there’s a first time for everything. I’m excited to try something new and I can’t wait to get started.

filming

This past week was our groups turn to film.  We received the camera on Thursday with the intentions of filming during the weekend. However, we never found a time where everyone who needed to be there could make it. So, we ended up filming a little bit each day during the week. We found that it was not necessary to have the editors there when we were filming. All we needed was the director, the cameraman, and maybe the sound editor to hold the boom (though I am the sound editor for our group and acted in the scenes instead of holding the boom). 

The hardest part of the whole filming process was finding a time when everyone could meet. This is especially true when dealing with actors who were not in our group. In fact, we had to meet at eight in the morning to film on Thursday to finish up the film. It was also hard trying to intentional place certain props (i.e. clown, guitar, skull, etc.) and certain lines in our film. The lines were especially difficult because they didn’t seem as natural when the actors spoke them. I’m not exactly sure why this was. It may have been because the people who spoke the lines were in our group. Therefore, we knew that theses exact lines had to be in the film and concentrated too much on saying them verbatim. This probably made the lines seem less natural than if an actor outside of the group were to have said them.

Overall our filming went smoothly. We were basically finished by class on Thursday, and we didn’t have to film for an overwhelming amount of time at once at any point during the week.  We did have to do one quick close-up shot during the first few minutes of class on Thursday. Thankfully the next group let us get this shot before handing the camera over to them. After filming this shot we talked for a little about how to get the footage off of the external hard drive. We also talked a little bit about when to do the editing to the footage. This needs to be started as soon as possible.  We couldn’t do much more than this on Thursday because we didn’t have the footage off of the hard drive at that time. Hopefully, this Thursday we can really get into the editing.

Adaptation

“Adaptation.” A strange movie filled with clichés; yet, by doing this it remains a film all it’s own.  The movie’s main character is screenwriter Charlie Kaufman who is writing the screenplay for the big screen adaption of the book “The Orchid Thief” by Susan Orlean. He struggles with writers block and his twin brother’s success as a screenwriter. His brother, Donald, writes the generic screenplay and makes money off of it while Charlie just wants to make something new and real. He was to be innovative.  His brother represents everything he is not. The good and the bad. He is more open and sociable but is the one to give into the pressures of the “industry” and makes profit because of this. Eventually Charlie gives into the industry as well by producing a screenplay has all the things a “good” screenplay should be: action, love, drugs, etc. The film itself is Charlie’s writing process being played out before ours eyes. We are watching it as it is created. It goes from being a slow paced movie to one full of action in a moment. This is because his writing process was at a standstill until he decided to use the clichés in his screenplay, which is the easy way out but the less artistic.

I enjoyed the film though it was a little strange. It was definitely different and not like the films I normally enjoy. I liked that the end portrayed the plot of the generic film as somewhat dumb. I also thought it funny that some of my favorite movies include many of these film clichés. This may be because these are the types of screenplays that are made into films. These are the films that make it into theaters, and the films that make it to theaters are the ones I go to see.

So this raises the question whether the screenplay that sells or the one that is real and innovative is the better screenplay? I guess it depends on who you ask. Those who are looking to make money off of their work may agree with the first type of screenplay while the writer, the artist may want to make something different and true. Even though I do enjoy a predictable, generic film every once in a while, I still think that the generic screenplay is produce by a generic screenplay writer; however, a true writer makes the new and creative screenplay. 

A Self-Made Film

In our last class we watched a film made by Corey Womack. It was called “The Last Summer” and was a completely UCA produced film. The story revolved around a small town boy who is deciding what he is going to do with his life. He doesn’t know whether to stay in town with his girlfriend or try to go to college and get out of town.

I was very impressed with the fact that Corey created this film. From the little experience that I’ve obtained from this class, I know how big a task making a movie can become. As far as the storyline, I felt it was a generic teen film storyline; however, it was also very real. According to Corey, this story came directly from his own life. I believe that this is something that many people go through after high school, and that last summer is always bittersweet. This maybe why so many teen movies use this storyline; it is relatable.

Also, I felt that the acting could have been better, though I can’t say that I could have done better myself (I guess we’ll see since I’m starring in my group’s short film).  It felt scripted. I know that movies have scripts, but I like them to sound like they don’t. It makes them more real. Corey mentioned that he actually let the actors adlib, which was interesting considering I thought it was scripted.  Overall, the movie was good though not my favorite. I am still impressed that he produced this himself. It is something that I would never pursue on my own.

After watching his film, we looked at so spoof trailers.  For example, we watched the a trailer for the happy version of “The Shining.” This is one of my favorite thriller/horror movies, so it was interesting to see it portrayed as a wholesome family movie.  This just goes to show you that with the right music, the right film clips, and the right narrator for a trailer you can make the film into anything you would like. This same thing that was done for “The Shining” was done for the “Mary Poppins.” The new version was called “Scary Mary” and it seriously looked like a scare your pants off horror movie.  Once again, this is due to the type of clips, music, and narration they used.

In my own experience, a “comedy” movie may not be that funny at all when you go to see it in theaters. It is not unusual for there to be numerous funny clips shown in the trailer, which raises your expectations for the movie as a whole, but when you go see it in theaters you realized that those were literally the only funny parts and the film can hardly be considered a comedy. So, what does this say about movie trailers? It says that the can make the film into something it’s not. 

"The Player"

This past Thursday we watched “The Player.” Robert Altman directs this film in 1992. Once again, like most of the films we watch in this class, I had never seen this film. I had actually never even heard of it before. The film revolved around Griffin, who works in the film business. In this film, an angry writer is sending him threatening post cards because Griffin did not get back to him about a film script. Griffin thinks that he knows who the writer is and decides to confront him. He ends up killing the writer but makes it look like a mugging. Griffin ends up becoming involved with the dead writer’s girlfriend. In the end, the writer he killed was not the right guy, but he still gets away with the murder.

This Film is in the genre of film noir.  Though it is not shot in the typical black and white that these types of movies are known for, there are still many shadowy scenes. In addition, this film is constantly giving the viewer a creepy filling, which is also something that film noir films are known for.  Throughout the movie I never knew how I felt about the characters. For one, the “hero” was actually an anti-hero because he was the one who committed murder, but I still couldn’t make myself want for him to get caught. But I also didn’t like that he got away with the murder. The main woman of the film, June, also gave me an uneasy feeling. She feels no sorrow for her boyfriend’s death just as she did not morn for her parents’ death. She simply states, “They are gone.”  Also, she definitely knows that Griffin killed her boyfriend but chooses to ignore it and pretend that she is clueless. All in all, they are a quite creepy couple.

In the end of the film the couple live “happily ever after,” but I would not qualify this as a happy ending by any means. The bad guys wins. He gets away with a crime while doing well for himself in his line of business. Griffin becomes very conniving as the story progresses. Griffin sets up a co-worker, who was vying for his job, for failure so that he could swoop in and save the day. We are always so used to seeing movies where good triumphs over evil that it is strange to see the opposite happens.