Last Blog of the Semester

It has been a fun ride and journey with the Scan Kneelers crew. This past week I, myself went back through the production binder online and updated information, such as the Withoutabox page and equipment requests. I went ahead and uploaded the Press Kit information straight to the google drive for easy access. Ally and Mike worked on our final edit together. We are meeting up this Thursday, Reading Day, to go over last minute additions. Our plan is to submit the final edit of this semester to the locker by Friday, so we can showcase it at Jengos and the Student Screening next week. Ally will take the project with her next semester into 497, and will keep in contact with Mike and myself for additional help. It's been a fun semester and I enjoyed the senior seminar class. Until next time, stay classy America!

Coming Down to the Wire

This was our last week before our last day of class. For this week, my group and I met up at my house and discussed for awhile the direction of the project. Where we wanted it to go? What we were missing? What we could accomplish before Ally could take it to 497? After a long, hard talk, we decided to film at Mike's house outside. We got his dog taking the teacups from the project as well as smashing and burning of teacups. There was no real motive behind why we wanted to do this besides we thought it would look interesting with the other footage we have already gotten. I think Ally will perfect the project in 497 and Mike and I will be there to help if she needs to ever capture more footage. We discussed more ideas today that could potentially carry over for all of us into the next semester. We all work well as a team anyways that I don't think it would be a problem. This semester has taught us a lot, individually as the roles that we took on, but also as a team. It is important to pick a great team that wants to accomplish what they came to work for and also that get the work done. Both of my teammates are phenomenal and I couldn't ask to work with a better team. We have each grown a lot that I have seen after working together over the past year and a half. I think that next semester Ally will focus a lot on the edit and sound as a whole for the project. Some footage may be tweaked, but that will be determined later.

Gobble Gobble

This past week the group and I met and discussed our next moves forward on our project. Ally captured some more footage, while Mike and I reviewed our Marketing and Distribution Plan. During the week of Thanksgiving, we plan on meeting back up and capturing our last shots outside of Ally's lake house again. Our main focus this week is sound. After talking with the class, we got some great feedback on what we could use for examples of sound. Since we are doing an experimental, we decided as a group to test a couple of the ideas that were thrown around. Then when we edit, we can decide which we thought sounded the best to go along with the footage. We like the idea of playing with wine glasses filled with water and playing different octave sounds. Also recording someone's voice reading the backs of teabags in a sexual tone. It's coming down to the very end of the semester and although Ally is taking this project to 497, we want to make sure it is decent and up to par with what we expected to have at the end of this semester. 

Fill up my cup ΩΩ

This past week was pretty crazy with everything going on for all of my classes. I got the chance to attend Cucalorus though, and I attended 5 blocks. I saw 3 features and 2 shorts blocks. My favorite block by far was the Orloff Shorts about love and romance. Every short I saw during that block, in my opinion, had potential. The cinematography was great in some, where in others the concept/plot was great. Overall, Cucalorus was a an interesting and educational event that allowed for opportunities to network with filmmakers and scholars of all different ages and locations. Since this week has been so hectic, it has been hard to meet up with each other, at least all three of us. Mike and I met up this week to work on our Marketing and Distribution Plan. Together we did a ton of research and hard work looking up different film festivals that we could submit to. As well as creating a website, developing a business card and business plan that includes a budget and schedule for when to submit our films. It was definetly a lot of work and educational for sure. There is a lot more than just making a film, when it comes to the distribution end. Especially if you want people to see your work afterwards.


I emailed this as well, but here is my Cucalorus response:
It's been a crazy week, but I'm glad I got to fit in five blocks of Cucalorus into my schedule. I attended 2 short blocks and a couple features. One of my favorite features I saw was Children of Salt, a 495 project done by UNCW students. I thought there was potential in the film; I liked the story plot and where it was going. It also helped me consider and realize if we wanted to really pin down our project and promote it, then it is okay to take as much time as needed to perfect it and submit it to film festivals. I took down mental notes of pros and cons throughout the screening and sticked around for the Q & A afterwards to here the filmmakers advice and experience. My favorite shorts block was the Orfollo Shorts (Love and Romance). Every short I saw during this block was of interest and really good. I can even see myself working on projects similar to these in the future. The editing and the cinematography were great on some of them. I absolutely loved the All is Fair.. short about the man and the prostitute. It was clever, cute and quirky. Also I liked the Insomniacs short because it was a different perspective on a concept that not many people consider. While we are all fast asleep at night, there are people who can't sleep and enjoy getting rest. Not to say I've pretty much turned into an insomniac this week from my workload schedule, but I thought what the director had to say during the Q&A was phenomenal. He made that film because it was something personal to him; it's something he suffers from. I like that aspect when it comes to filmmaking because I, myself want to make films that are relatable to me. They are challenging, but I think if done correctly like he did can portray a great message and something meaningful to inspire others. A shorts block that I was not really into this year was the Dance shorts. I don't really remember the actual name, but a lot of those shorts were confusing to me. They were more experimental which is what our project is geared towards for 495. There was one in particular that was interesting called Cracks. A man is going about his morning routine as he cracks all his muscles in a rhythmic pattern. The cinematography was beautiful and the concept was good. Overall, as a first timer at Cucalorus I thought it was fun. There were pros and cons about the festival in general dealing with logistics, but to focus mainly on the films and the stuff were working on in 495, it helped to see what we should be aiming for and focusing on while still in production. It's important to find a great cast and crew that is hardworking and also good at what they do. I've been blessed with the crew that I have for 495 and this year I have definitely networked with people that I know I can work with in the future as well from past experience.

Painting Teacupz

This week, Mike and I were on set and decided to experiment with more paint. We set up a cool set to represent if the cups were underwater and spazzed it out in paint. Mike and I took turns switching roles and he let me work the camera. We did a lot of canted angles and pans. We wanted to just try something completely different than what we had been going for. Ally was out of town this past week for a festival, but this week we plan on meeting up and working on sound. Also, we will discuss our marketing plan in depth to present to next week. We are all excited to go to Cucalorus as well and by the time our next dailies are due we should have rope snake and everything incorporated.

Experimenting Teacups

This week we didn't meet or film. It was a week to go over and through footage that we have gotten, as well as regroup on where we are heading. This week we hope to maybe squeeze in a shoot down at Ally's house again to capture the day time shoot. Ally has been talking about ideas for sound effects and sound mix. After our class last week, I think we got some really good feedback and ideas to consider for our next shoot. We've talked about having rope snake swimming in and out of the water. And incorporating some more colors and effects. The majority of the class liked the footage of the still teacups in the water and the low-keyed lighting on some of our shots. So we are planning capturing more footage of that.

Week 9? I think

The weeks are just flying by! This last week, the crew and I drove out to our location on Friday to shoot some footage. During the shoot, we recorded sound including ambient and what was going on on set, behind the scenes. Next week, we hope to incorporate sound into our dailies and figure out the sound mix we want for our experimental film. Although we had planned to use the light kit and some of the other equipment we checked out, we decided to improvise and experiment. The outlets at the dock, unfortunately, were not working at the time. So, we used our Iphone flashlight as a cool way to light the teacups throughout the night shoot. Some of the footage makes the teacups to appear as if they are floating in space. We also played with the environment and got some footage with moss and the floating dock. The look of this daily will appear different from last week's. It's darker and more mysterious. By our next shoot, we hope to have a good idea of what we want for our image lock and get some more footage to play around with in post. There will be a lot of images that will be superimposed, and next week we will get rope snake involved.

 Because Halloween is coming up and Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum are riding teacups:)

Iz Fall, and Here's A Blog

This past week was Fall Break, so we filmed the week before. We met today, as a group, and went over this upcoming shoot for this week. Mike is working diligently (editing) on our Dailies 1 to present to the class tomm. We are excited to show the footage that we got during our two test shoots. As a team, we decided to switch our light kit and get Arri lights instead of Kino lights. This Friday, we are going to film the night shoot down at Ally's house. There will be more equipment and props involved and we plan to get the choreography that we want down for the shoot. So by next week, when we show Dailies 2 the class will see how the stop motion is constructed. This week coming up, we are also going to be looking into sound and what we want to incorporate into Scan Kneelers. Hopefully, by Dailies 2 we will have both sound and footage on a good start forward to where we want the final production to be.

Tea Parties

It's Week 6 of blogs...woah! This past week the crew and I met for two test shoots. The first shoot was held on a bridge off of Saulner Road when you're heading towards Wrightsville Beach. We used the bridge as a dock-like figure and got various shots of the teacups rotating and paving ways across the ledges. I enjoyed this shoot a lot because it was the first time we have all worked together, as a group, while on set. It was a ton of fun and I am proud of several of the shots we captured on film. The next shoot we had was on the Production Day and we shot outside in Ally's backyard. Compared to the first test shoot, this one was at night, so it was cool to mess around with lighting. During the day shoot, we used all natural lighting and focused mainly on the teacups and choreography. Also, how we could use the environment around us as mise-en-scene or resources within each shot. The nighttime shoot we started experimenting. We used paint and water to see what different effects we could get while also having the teacups move in stop-motion. The crew even decided to mix up the objects in the scene as well, so there wasn't just teacups. We had the teacups moving in and out of tall vases and other various cups. I think this test shoot was a lot of fun as well and we filmed for about four hours making sure to try new things. Since we didn't have a bridge or dock, we used aluminum foil as the base on top of Ally's hot tub cover and it gave the image a water-like effect. After these two test shoots, I am excited in the direction my group and I are heading. We are getting more and more excited about the final project each week and while we work, we each have a lot of ideas to contribute. A lot of the work is trial and error, but it is definitely creative. We're excited to show the class next Monday the footage we received in our first dailies! So stay tuned for that!

Have I Gone Mad? 

I'm afraid so. You're entirely bonkers. But I'll tell you a secret. All the best people are. 

-Alice and The Mad Hatter from Alice in Wonderland-

Test Shoot Bang Blam Boom

This week, we didn't have a weekly meeting, but we are having our first test shoot tomm. Pretty exciting! I picked up the equipment on Wednesday including a kino light kit and we are filming on a bridge in this fancy neighborhood near mi casa. This first shoot should help us get an idea of the type of lighting, choreography and arrangement of teacups we want to use. We plan to capture footage during this shoot as well to show to the class the next time we meet. It'll be a fun night of creativity and filming so stay tuned!

Pre-vis and Storyboards

This past week, the team and I decided to change our weekly meetings from Wednesdays to Sundays because of scheduling and convenience. I went back in the calendar and changed these updates and also updated our budget to where it was more concise and clear. At our meeting, Sunday, we as a group went through the different shots that we had discussed before, as well as discussing new ideas we wanted for pre-visuals. Mike wrote up a shot list and Ally worked on storyboards, while also explaining her full concept of the vision she sees. I worked on putting the Powerpoint together as well as getting the secured location we will be shooting at. Together we collaborated about storyboard ideas and how we wanted to present our images to the class. Next weekend we will have our first test shoot, where we will test out the choreography, lighting and designs of how to setup the teacups. It should be interesting since it is a test, so it leaves room for creativity and exploring different avenues to take until we come with a concrete idea of how to manipulate stop-motion. So in our meeting we talked about any equipment we may need for next week and went ahead and planned on getting that before our first test shoot.

You say teacups, I say teacupz

This past week we met up and put together our presentation for the Week 3 Assignment. I went ahead and created a Google Drive folder for our group and divided it into major subsections such as Lighting, Sound, Production, and Cinematography. In our meeting this week, we put together the presentation and discussed the potential budget and shooting schedule. Ally worked on who our target audience would be and the style and form of the film. The more we work, the more we become more concrete with our idea, even though we've realized there is a lot of wiggle room for creativity. Mike researched equipment we would use and their rates to incorporate with the budget. He also discussed new ideas for shots and considering a night time shoot with the teacups. The shooting schedule is now put together and all the due dates are on there as well. It is even color coordinated to determine what's pre-production, production and post production. For the upcoming week, we will meet during our weekly meetings and start to put together story boards and visuals.

 

Teacups and Teacups and Woooh!

This week we met up on Sunday, Sept. 14th, and discussed the concept and outline for our experimental project. On my part, we discussed locations and props we would need for the film, such as teacups, paint, plexi glass, and corn starch. We talked a lot about potential camera shots and angles we would want and the concept of how we are going to create the vision of our film. This week I went ahead and printed out several different forms we would need for production such as talent release forms, location permits and participation agreement forms. Soon we are going to secure locations and pick a weekend to go ahead and shoot our stop-motion.

Week 1 Festivities Boom Blap !

Wednesday, Sept. 3rd: My group and I met up at Port City Java for about an hour to discuss our treatment plan. Ally discussed her vision for the project and we came to find out it was leaning more towards a narrative. So together, as a group, we brainstormed ways to keep the project experimental. She mentioned a cool idea she has always wanted to do: Stop Motion Film of Teacups dancing/moving on water. Mike has done stop motion before and showed us his work. He will help us achieve stop motion when we are filming; I, also researched outside of our meeting about stop motion. As a group, we are pretty excited about our idea and look forward to getting started!

I also went ahead and made a separate calendar of dates to be aware of and a Facebook page to keep everyone in our group aware of when we are meeting and what to look forward to each week. I am beginning to structure together our production binder with multiple parts to start considering such as shooting schedule, budget, and equipment needed.

The Treatment is located on our Director: Ally's blog!