Sunday, December 9, 2007

Project 6 Evaluation

I anguished over this project for quite some time. This was due in the midst of 3 exams, a paper, and a 100 page report, so lets just say the creative juices were nearly spent when it came to this project. The blocks I chose either could spell "COW", "POW", or "PBJ". Since I approached this very literally, the blocks were going to be the title to the film and ultimately decide what the film was going to be about. I started the first day trying to come up with any possible story about a cow or anything having to do with a cow, such as eating a hamburger. These ideas quickly met the trash can. Then I decided to take another angle and go with the peanut butter and jelly possibility. I downloaded every peanut butter and jelly song on the internet and found the perfect one. The film was practically done for me, all I had to do was follow the instructions, since the song is basically a rough "how to" tutorial on how to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwitch. Then at approximately 1:00 a.m. on Wednesday morning filming began. I didn't have any grapes so I got in touch with their agent and had them flown in Wednesday afternoon to conclude filming. After the grapes made their smashing appearance (pun intended) I just had to match the images up with the song and voila! a highly disgusting PBJ was made for everyones viewing pleasure. The DVD was burnt and I hopped in the car to come to the party. Is it possible for you to post all of the video race films on the blog? That would be awesome.

Project 5 Evaluation

I really enjoyed this project probably more than any other project that we did. Mainly because it was so editing intensive and I really enjoy editing. Kristen was a good actor and a real sport for doing all that she did for the camera. I really enjoyed the editing process and the decision making boiling down o which 5 frames would get the point across best and show the most movement. It was a very tedious process, but once it was done I came away with something that I was proud of. I wanted to put some high tempo music on the soundtrack to match the rapid pace of the edit. I really think that the song worked well with what was shown on video. One of the most difficult things to edit was actually the song. The song takes a while to build and I wanted all of the stages to fit within the minute and a half video. To do this I had to cut out several seconds of each repetitive beats and match it up seamlessly. I also told Kristen that I had to leave the "Ugh, gross!" quote on the soundtrack when she spits out the toothpaste. It is barely noticable, but the soundtrack dips momentarily when she says it. I didn't know if I was cheating by not using the same cycle twice but I wanted to make more of a linear narrative piece than a more abstract piece. I wanted to focus on the doors since she enters and exits from her bedroom to the bathroom several times throughout the film. The symetry worked out great since her bedroom door is on the same wall as the bathroom door.