Saturday Bolex Long Take

Saturday Bolex Long Take

     Today we had our Saturday shoot for our Bolex long take; the forecast was for 60 percent chance of rain, so I was a bit worried about our big day being cancelled. I even made sure and bring a raincoat and a few umbrellas, but luckily we didn’t even have to use the foul weather gear we’d all brought just in case Mother Nature was in the mood to make things a little more difficult.

     I have to admit it was a little scary going into this challenge without our faithful leader Andre, and in the back of my mind I was a little afraid something might go wrong. But once again everything and everyone cooperated with our efforts of expedient, and efficient filmmaking. Just as planned everyone in class came together as a team and worked as one like a well-oiled machine.

     While setting up for the shoot, processing and video transfer everything went extremely well and in no time we were all out in the field ready for several practice runs and blocking for the real deal. That process took up a majority of the allotted time for shooting and both groups I worked with ended up shooting there real take with about five or ten minutes left in the one hour and fifteen minutes designated for getting the shots done.

    Then, once we were done with the shooting, we went inside and hand processed the film. This part of the job turned out to be pretty sketchy, because a lot rides on this very important aspect of the process to actually making the hard work put in come together. If we didn’t properly expose the film we shot then all could be lost and all of the time we spent on it would have been entirely in vein.  As far as I could tell by the negative exposure everything turned out pretty well, but I guess we won’t really know how it turned out until we actually get the digital version back. I hope it looks good and if it needs fixing that it is manageable in post.

      I had a really good time today shooting and the four hours between 12:00 PM and 4:00 PM really flew by, It seemed like we were only there for a brief period of time, This means I must have had fun, like the old saying, “time flies when you’re having fun!“

48-Hour Video Race

48-Hour Video Race

     After reading over the assignment guidelines for the 48-hour video race, I ‘m very excited about this project. I’ve heard about these types of races in the past and have always wanted to enter one, but haven’t had the chance. I was trying to go over different things in my head to capture video or make my film. It’s a pretty difficult task for me to think of any techniques for capturing video without using something with the word camera or cam in or ones that you haven’t already discussed. I was leaning towards using my cell phone, it actually happens to have a very nice camera on it (720p I think).  I would possibly like to do something that gives the perspective of my dog Clarence. Sort of like a day in the life of Clarence, but somehow told through his eyes.

     I was also thinking of using Maya, After Effects, Flash or Toon Boom and maybe doing an experimental animation piece that taps into the viewer’s subconscious. I’m envisioning something with odd creatures in a parallel world and maybe using some effects plug-ins and an underlying soundscape to help set the mood or tone of the film. I feel like this could be pretty fun to play around with these effects and plug-ins and see what kind of cool, odd or interesting things that they may yield.  You could even incorporate a little bit of each of these different styles together to make something that is totally off the wall.

     I was also thinking about doing some sort of time-lapse footage with my cell phone camera, I need to figure out how I’d go about keeping the camera totally still to take the photos though, maybe I can make some sort of makeshift tripod or something. It would possibly be cool to incorporate something like this into the experimental piece as well.

     Another idea I had was using the XBOX 360 Kinnect, it has a camera on it that takes footage of you while playing Kinnect games or for web-chatting as well. I could do different poses in front of the camera and bring them into FCP or After Effects and see what I can come up with. I’m still not quite sure what I’m going to do yet, but there are plenty of options. That means the opportunities are pretty much endless, just as long as you keep an open mind and think outside of the box.

Thoughts and Experience on Assignment 1 (Camera-less Filmmaking)

Thoughts and Experience on Assignment 1 (Camera-less Filmmaking)

 The camera-less filmmaking assignment we had for our first assignment was really fun and I enjoyed it thoroughly.   Honestly though, it left me feeling a little uneasy working in such a small area on the filmstrip (frames) and not knowing what you're end result will look like until you view it in class. I was little worried how it would come out because we weren't able to view it while or after you were making the film unless you had a projector of course. When we viewed the film on the projector I was very pleased overall and thought it turned out to be pretty sweet. 

 The pacing was definitely different than what I had imagined, everything seemed really quick. I wish I had drawn out and scratched several more frames on some of the animations I had done, so that they would have lasted longer. But when it’s a quick flash of animation or image, there is a subliminal message feel to it. Making the viewer ask himself, did I just see that?

 It was fun experimenting with different camera less filmmaking techniques. The layering of multiple techniques really gives the film a unique, funky effect and really makes the possibilities endless depending on the imagination and creativity of the filmmaker. One example of this in our film was using the rayograms but where we’d twisted the rayograms w/contact printing on it, we filled the clear space in with magazine and newspaper transfers as well as coloring it in with some oils and paint We also did some with Sharpie colored markers which turned out to be a cool idea. 

 I shared my film with a friend of mine who is also a Film major. He hasn't been lucky enough to take 6 x 1 yet and he seemed pretty impressed by our film. So much so that he asked if he could use it in his documentary that he's working on this semester. Needless to say that positive feedback from him made me feel even better about the end result.

 I really enjoyed seeing some of the other group’s films too. From the ones I’ve seen I feel like everyone put in a lot of time, planning and effort into what they were doing. I was pleasantly surprised at how good all of them came out. I could definitely see myself doing more of this type of filmmaking in the future. I love the anticipation of seeing the end result; it’s like getting a surprise on Christmas morning.