The Blog of a Young Filmmaker

Next semester, I am taking all film, English, and creative writing classes since I am finished with my university studies requirements. As of right now, I am taking Intro to Screenwriting, Writing about Film, Women in Film, Intro to Spanish Cinema, and Fiction I. I am very excited to be taking classes that relate to my major and minor.  Because of the competitiveness of enrollment, I was not able to get as many production classes that I wanted. I want to take advanced production courses and courses relating to editing.  I am happy to be taking Intro to Screenwriting since it pertains to the career I want. I would like to be a professional screenwriter in the future. As for the other courses, I did not originally intend to take Intro to Spanish Cinema. However, because of scheduling, it was the only other film course I could take. I realized that I do not know anything about Spanish cinema, especially since it was not covered in FST-205. I think it will be an interestin...

Cucalorus is a film festival that is held in Wilmington, North Carolina. It is an amazing opportunity to meet with filmmakers and view independent films that you cannot see anywhere else. The cheapest package offered cost $60 and individual tickets cost between $10-$15. Due to the finacial restrictions on my strict, limited budget, however, I was unable to purchase any tickets, leaving me unable to go to Cucalorus. While I could have (and would have liked to) volunteered and earn my tickets, my schedule had (and still has) very little room for anything else outside of academic studying. Additionally, my family, who I have not seen since August, traveled all the way from Pennsylvania to surprise me for my birthday. Next year, I want to volunteer at Cucalorus and, if not, at least be able to purchase a few tickets to see some of the incredible films and shorts shown at the festival. I deeply regret not leaving enough room in my budget for tickets, but hopefully, in the future, I will...

In the midst of making these projects, I accidentally mixed up the order of blog posts. I completely forgot to reflect on working with sound! When it comes to working with sound, I have never been a fan. Recording audio--good audio--is a bit harder than it looks. It takes a lot of patience and finess to make sure you are capturing the best audio and that background noises are not overpowering the dialogue. Because we decided to shoot our master shot scene in the Clocktower Lounge, I had to deal with the issue of high ceilings. The high ceilings created a bit of an echo and a lot of background noise was recorded. In post, I had to adjust the audio levels in order for the dialogue to be loud enough. This experience has made me realize that I prefer the processes of previsualization and editing in post-prodcution, but I still had a fun time working with my master shot scene group and learning more about sound recording.

For this project, I worked with the DP/editor to edit the Master Shot Scene. Due to what I accomplished in high school, I have a lot of experience using Adobe Premiere Pro. When editing the Master Shot Scene, I helped the DP/editor use Premiere Pro and I showed her a large portion of the skills I have acquired over the years. I love to edit, and I enjoyed helping the DP/editor with the assignment. When we first started, we realized we had to reshoot a majority of the footage due to improper lighting and lack of shot composition. After we reshot the scene with better lighting, the DP/editor and I were able to edit the scene. Since I was in charge of sound for this project, I picked the music used in addition to working with the audio. This experience was the most fun for me, and I realized that I much prefer the stages of post-production over pre-production. Still, this was a fun project and I enjoyed working with my teammates very much on this assignment.

In order to make our Master Shot project successful, my team and I had to sit down and coordinate and organize the previsualization materials. The materials included a marked shooting script, an overhead diagram, shot list, budget, and storyboard. Together we went over the shot list and what we were going to do the day of filming. Additionally, we made sure that we requested a place on campus to film. Planning out everything before shooting is helpful in the same way making an outline before writing an essay is helpful. When it comes time to shoot, everyone will know what we are doing and what we have to accomplish in the given time. The hardest part of the previsualization process was making the shot list because we had to walk through what the shots will look like and where everything and everyone will be without cameras or actors, but other than that, the process ran smoothly.

For the Master Shot assignment, I have been given the task of dealing with sound. I do not have a lot of experience with operating sound equipment outside a boom mic and shotgun mic, so using the h4n will be interesting and I am excited to learn how to use it. However, when it comes time to edit, I know how to manipulate audio levels and add music into videos in such a way that it does not overpower the dialogue. During filming, I will make sure that all of the audio is kept within the proper levels and that none of the sound equipment is seen in the shot. During post, I do not know if we will decide to have non-diegetic music, but if we do, I will suggest something low and dramatic to make the scene more dramatic than it actually is.