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.

Rhythmic Editing

Which is about as rhythmic as having a siezure. We should seriously put some Epilepsy warnings up before we screen these. I was planning on just doing about half of it but once I got through the first minute I was on a roll and I figured I might as well knock it out. I used more of a narrative format and did not use the same cycle twice throughout. I had enough footage to go straight from point A to point B without repeating any of it. I hope I didn't break any rules by doing that. I had a lot of fun doing it since I love to edit stuff, I just don't usually have stuff to edit. Kristen was a great sport throughout this project and gave a nice performance. That gave me plenty of footage to work with. I wanted to lay down an audio track to helf spice up the video a little since it would have been quite boring on its own. I think it just adds another dimension to it. Since the length of the video was considerable shorter than the song I chose I had to do extensive sound editing to cut it down to the parts that I wanted, while still flowing and seeming like nothing changed. The song has repititious beats that build and progress throughout, so I just chopped off some of the length of each beat addition. I guess it is easier to see and hear than to explain. I am not sure what Kristen will be having me do, but after what she did for me, I am at her mercy. Fun times.

Low and Behold

I went to see the screening Saturday afternoon. I had high hopes for this one and it didn't dissapoint. It was about an insurance claims adjuster who went to New Orleans following Katrina to work for his uncle. He ends up befriending a man who we find out has lost everything including his wife and two daughters in the storm. It had documentary footage seamlessly intermingled with the fictional plotline. Most of the supporting cast were actually residents of New Orleans and had no background in acting. The lead actor/writer/producer actually worked as an insurance claims adjuster in south Florida, which is where he came up with the idea for the film and also the budget. It moved along at a nice pace and was well written. It was very humorous amidst the obviously somber backdrop of a hurricane ravaged city. As the film progressed I found myself sympathizing with the characters, which is a really hard feat to accomplish. Aparently the film got some good press at Sundance as well and they hope to sign a distribution deal soon. The quality is definitely there and I hope it takes off for them. It turned out to be a real tear-jerker.

Vision screening

I went to see the Vision screening at Jengo's Playhouse last Wednesday. We got there about 5 minutes late and missed Kristen's film, which of course was shown first. I was impressed by many of the films that were shown. Of course I recognized the film manipulation that Oliver and his group did. I thought that the Mario film was absolutely hilarious. I would have liked to know how they made that one. Mantis was good as well and I was surprised that they had a pretty good cast for the film. Overall the films that were screened were high quality and its good to see the work that other students in other classes are doing since we aren't exposed to it very often. It would have been nice to see some more student work. Now I wish that I had submitted something.

Editing the One Shot

Kristen and I have put together a semi-completed soundscape for the oneshot. We were able to find a ton of sound effects to add in. The video turned out ok. It looked much better sped up but it will have to do. The soundtrack works fairly well with the video. I guess we won't have an opportunity to screen it and get some feedback like we did with the rayograms. That would have been helpful but Cucalorus is much more important. It will be quite embarassing enough to see it once so there won't be any need for you to play it twice next week.

Editing the Rayograms

Kristen and I put the final touches on the editing for the project 3 last night. We added a couple more sound effects and tried to follow some of the suggestions made in class. I think it sounds good and we adusted some of the video as well to try and match it up better. We slowed down some of the segments to make it sync up better with the audio that we used. Also we added some key frames in places where we had only adjusted the levels so that the sound would rise and fall more smoothly. Once we did that we could hear the dialogue better than before. We left most everything else the same since many of our classmates seemed to enjoy it fairly well. We lincorporated the baby laughing to make it seem more creepy than before, but our ambiance track seemed to take care of that aspect for us already. It may have been fun to extend it and make it a few minutes long but by that point it might become a little redundant.