Internship

First day of work: Mon, May 19th: 10AM-4PM
Input data into computer, met Angela and Bonnie.

Tues, May 20th: 10AM-12:30 PM
Just me and Bonnie, read script to Easy Money, took her to pick up her car.

Wed, May 21st: 10AM- 2:15 PM
Input contacts into database, put together iDVD audition for Tania Raymonde for The Sarah Connor Chronicles.

Th, May 22nd: 10AM-5:15 PM
Have duplicate keys made, Large Decaf Iced Soy Latte for Geralyn, Call to confirm numbers for pilot quotes at studios while updating the contacts list. Print out headshots and resume's for next day's auditions. Print out past 2 years pilots quotes. Met Gayle.

Fri, May 23rd: 10AM-1:15PM
Continue printing out pilot quotes for past two years, Mark and I then compiled them all alphabetically into a binder for convenience and ease of use.

Mon, May 26th: Memorial Day

Wed, May 28th: 10AM-6PM
Updated more contacts for database, that's pretty much it.
6PM-12PM
Got a call from Drew saying he and Mark were in line to get in to the Don't Mess With The Zohan premiere, and they told me they had one extra ticket, so I flew over to the apartment to change and bolted to the Chinese Theater to see the film. We all got free tickets to go to the movie, where Mark and I both ended up having to sit in the very front row. It looked pretty crazy from that angle. After the film, we all got to meet and shake hands w/ Adam Sandler and Kevin James while also seeing plenty of other "famous" actors...it was a pretty good time.

Fri, May 30th: 10AM-6PM
Updated all the info on the contact sheets for the Sarah Connor Chronicles and Prince of Motor City by calling all the agencies and getting their info if we didn't already have it.

Sat, May 31st: 12:30AM-1:30AM
Drew and myself were sitting in the apartment as we watched Ian play Zelda. Skip was outside on the phone while Ian was in his room on the computer. Drew and I saw out of the corner of our eyes a rather large black shadow scatter under our chairs. We investigated, while Ian stopped playing the game, and couldn't see anything. We kicked the printer, and all of a sudden something scampers out from behind it and leaps out in front of us, flying by so fast we can't make it out and disappears down the hall. It turns out to be hiding in my bathroom...it freaks everybody out when it appears, but I see that it's a mouse...it disappears on us for a while, and we have no clue where it could have gone after searching and emptying the whole bathroom. But I get down under the sink and can hear it behind the wall. Drew figures out there is a crack underneath the paneling, so I grab some febreeze to flush it out, and as soon as I shoot it in the crack the mouse comes flying out, hopping over my hand and running 3 dizzying circles around the trash can...I think it was hit by the spray and became disoriented...but it ran to our closet, to Mark and Skips room, back to our room, back to our closet, hid in Ian's clothes, behind my boxes, and so on until we finally chased it back into the main room behind the "entertainment center". Our ragtag crew of 5 guys holding pots and pans, shoes, and chairs to jump on in fear had finally cornered it. Due to the inability to capture the mouse beforehand, I decided to forego the pot I was using and had them flush the mouse out. I saw it sprint out and I caught it with my barehand, but it clawed it's way out before I realized what it was doing. It fell out and ran outside onto our porch, where we locked it off until I once again grabbed the pot and captured it. I secured it and took it to the court yard and released it....it didn't look like your typical mouse. It looked like one of those Australian Kangaroo mice...I wonder if some poor kid in the apartment complex is pining the loss of his pet mouse....oh well...it was a fun night.

Mon, June 2nd: 10-6:45
Filled out more agents contact lists, as well as the manager's contact lists. Started answering phones, and spent most of the day building a desk that was purchased.

Wed, June 4th: 10-6
Created and organized a binder for sides, helped reorganize the office slightly to make more room for Jamie who is supposed to start working soon, scanned and uploaded a bunch of deal memos and cast lists for the Sarah Connor Chronicles, put together some lights for the audition room, and filmed and took notes in the auditions for the Prince of Motor City with Gayle.

Fri, June 6th: 12-4
Got some stuff together for auditions, headed over to MRC and filmed the auditions for the lead Morgan for the show Easy Money. A few recognizable actors auditioned, and I met the two lead writers and producers for the show.

Mon, June 9th: 10-2
Worked on the tripod to attempt to fix and level it, went with Bonnie to the new office space that will be the production office for Easy Money starting tomorrow, been answering phones and checking the filmed auditions on Castit.

Tues, June 10th: 10-4:30
Went back to the Los Angeles Center Studios for auditions, been getting to know the exec producers/writers, as well as the rest of the production staff and seeing how things work in pre-production. Main duty is filming the auditions and filling out the notes sheet for the CastIt upload.

Wed, June 11th: 10-5:45
Same thing as yesterday, except we got back from the studios in time for me to answer phones back at the office and film auditions for Sarah Connor at our office.

Thurs, June 12th: 10-6
Over at the studio til about 3 where we filmed and watched some submitted auditions. Got back to the office when Bonnie realized she left one of the dvd auditions at the studio, which she needed to upload for the network execs asap, so I went back to the studio (which is closer to my apt), grabbed the dvd, went back to my apt and ripped the audition and uploaded it onto CastIt...

Mon, June 16th: 10-4:30
Met up with Bonnie over at ZP, then headed to the production office for more auditions. Spent most of the day doing that, ran a bit later than expected as we watched auditions that were sent in from NY as well. Was able to meet a few people from shows I really like, such as Mary Ellis from It's Always Sunny, which they are apparently shooting around the area for the 4th season. Got back around 4:30 and left shortly after for the Get Smart premiere.

Tues, June 17th: 10:30-2
Met at the production office, handled more auditions, saw more people I recognized, etc. Finished on time today, went straight back to the apt so I could go to the deal or no deal auditions.

Wed, June 18th: 10-7:30
Met at ZP, headed over to LACS, did more auditions during the morning session, and I was able to meet an actress who appeared on LOST, Marsha Thomasson, who was very very cool. During the afternoon session we began some informal tests, between the final two picks for the lead, Morgan, as well as the Brandy character.

Thurs, June 19th: 10:30-1
Met at LACS, found out the the deals had been offered for two of the parts, one of them closed with the other certain to close in the next day. Both the actors were ecstatic at the information, so now I can easily say that I was there since the beginning of auditions to the choosing of the actors in a television show and that I have met them, BAM. After testing some more girls for the part of Brandy, I packed up and left. No more trips to the studio for a while as Bonnie is going to Israel for a wedding and Andy and Diane (the exec producers) are headed to Albuquerque for a few days for the show to get info and whatnot on production, as that will be where the show is shot.

June 20th-July 6th:
I know I've fallen behind on this update for the past two weeks, but due to a mixture of being incredibly busy and having trouble accessing the site, here's a basic rundown...worked nearly everyday for the past two weeks other than July 4th, working at the office which was building up a crazy workload and filming auditions for "White Collar" and "Prince of Motor City" and answering nonstop phone calls and the like. Last week, I spent nearly every day at the LACS since Bonnie and the execs got back from out of town as we finished auditioning and casting the last few roles for "Easy Money."

July 7th: 10am-6pm
Answering phones and filming auditions for "White Collar", all sorts of paperwork and the like. Accidentally scraped the exec producers car...that was fun. That's about it. Jeff Hephner and Marsha Thomason came in for the read to film her to present to the execs, talked to Jeff and wished him luck on his work in Albaquerque. Good guy, gonna make a good lead. That's about it for today.

July 9th: 10-6
Same old song and dance, answering phones, printing and faxing all different things, and answer more phones. Also started working on the mangers list.

July 11th: 2-6
Working on this managers list. A lot of names to cover, taking up a lot of time. Phones and managers list.

July 14th: 10-1
Felt kind of sick today so I left early, just worked on the managers list all morning, but I couldn't really focus on it, everything kept going out of focus, so I left. That's about it.

July 16th: 10-5
More managers lists, printing and organizing headshots and resumes for the White Collar sessions. Left a little early to go check out our new apartment, besides, this managers list is going nowhere. Still have a lot of names to cover.

July 18th: 10-2
Still working on this managers list, hopefully we can have it done before next week ends. Been answering a lot of phone calls, and it's nice to actually know what you're talking about with the ability to answer questions. Not much else is going on, though I realize now I should not go to a midnight showing of a 2 1/2 hour film (even if it is The Dark Knight!!!!!!!) if you have to be at work in the morning. Oh well, live and learn.

So graduation is upon us...we've already lost access to the editing lab and I will probably never see that room again for the rest of my days. I'll briefly recount the events of the student screenings this past Tuesday...let me just say, after viewing it on the big screen, and more importantly, hearing it, I have decided that I am against sending the film out to any festivals as it exists right now. There is still plenty of more work to be done, and I don't want our names tainted by the lack of care and effort this "final product" gives off when it is really just an incomplete work that we can definitely do more with. I have realized that Devin should not have worked on this project unless we were both present, working from one hard drive together. It may have taken more time this way, but everything that we separated in this version would have fit together much better had we kept everything together. I now know this for the future, and I am glad things happened this way. It was still a positive experience, and I may not have learned this valuable lesson otherwise. Hopefully I will get a chance to work on this some more one day...and hopefully this is not the last time I will have access or the ability to edit...

After the fact...

Even though we are finished with the film, I figured I would update with our DVD production attempts...after many hours of failing yesterday between conversion and compression rate issues along with aspect ratio presentations, we called it a day and decided we'd try again today. Professor Kreul came in to give us a crash course in DVD Studio Pro, and we are immensely thankful for it. We have all the features we wanted from our iDVD project on this version, and DVD Studio Pro is pretty awesome to use when you (kind of) know what you're doing. We've tested the final result and are happy with the outcome, and we are currently making many copies for cast and crew. And they are region 0 copies which we can submit to the Feel Good Film Festival which I heard back from, and they're website was mistaken...student films of any length are being excepted. Hopefully, other than the screening tomorrow, we are done with this film......hopefully...

And So It Ends...

Due to a mixture of late nights, rushed work, the onset of projects, papers and exams, and the sheer inability to log into my blogspot account, I have not updated in nearly a month. This does not mean I haven't been keeping track of my work, so in turn here is information and journals that I have either previously written or some after thoughts on the topic since the last of my updates. But one last thing before the journals; I know I have expressed feelings throughout this process of all sorts to my partner Devin, but in the end he did an excellent job and completed much more than was necessarily asked of him, and despite our differences in opinions we made it through this and hopefully completed what some may deem an ok film. Now onto the journals:

Today: Met Devin at the lab around 11:15 this morning. After all the work I did on the sound last night, I ended up running both hard drives together and pulling files from both of them, so I ended up keeping his harddrive over the night. I was able to eliminate much of the background noise and he approved of the changes I made. We printed two copies of the tape, one for class and one for the student screenings. We also spent a very long time converting the files so that we may store them as a self-contained movie that will transfer in the proper aspect ratio onto a DVD. We're finally done with this film...at least we hope so.

April 29th: I get to the lab around 10:30 am after Devin's honors defense. Not having seen the whole film together, I thought he did a pretty good job. Back at the lab I waited until about 2:30 for Devin to show up so I could work on the whole film's sound, but he never showed up. So after messing around with AfterEffects and Photoshop to see if I could somewhat improve our film anymore (I couldn't), I decided I would go take a break for a bit. I got back around 8:30 and Devin was there, so we were finally able to start working on David. He had been working on graphic animation, so he finished that and left me his hard drive so I could use my ProTools expertise (minimal) and fix all the sound problems. Val, our "sound person" was there to lend a second opinion on what she did and didn't like in the changes I made, etc. Of course when I made a change she liked it...I'm just that good. To fix the problems, I had to export my section of the party to ProTools, but we were only able to import the audio files as one long, stereo track. In turn, I had to separate every cut in audio and video, and I ended up using an equalizer and band pass filters to try and neutralize the humming of the pumpkin in the background. It worked pretty well, but for some reason it didn't affect Sara's scenes...oh well. The biggest problem is that Baylen's audio levels have dropped now due to the masking of the background noise, but it sounds better overall so Val and I decided to stick with it. Once I re-imported the audio and video, I realized that Devin and I had cut out more sections of my party scene on his hard drive, so I had to go back and try to find all the audio and match it to Baylen, which would have been easier had Final Cut been cooperative and not told us nearly every time we were going to change something that we couldn't do it for fear of losing all our render files. But after a while, we were happy with the result, and having modified the party sounds and bus sounds in Final Cut there seemed little left to do than to watch on its own. I decided to export a copy just to see if it would work. It did, but in the wrong aspect ratio. So I re-open the file and what should happen? All our media is offline, and nothing is working....I'm freaking out trying to figure out what happened, and it turns out Val was leaning on the power chord and had pulled it out from the hard drive. We fix it, it's good, we watch it, we watch it again with more people, we're satisfied, it's 2:30am, we leave.

April 23rd: So after watching everybody's projects today, I was pretty impressed to see how far everybody has come since the last viewings. Everybody's films seem more structured on the whole, and some are nearly complete. The documentaries have all greatly improved, and I was impressed with the changes Richard had made to Last Call to make it work better...though not perfect, it's not his fault either. That film has a few issues that seem hard to fix in editing. Anyways, this was the first time I've seen our film played in it's entirety with all the music and sound effects added...and I was horribly troubled by what I saw and heard. I can't believe this is the film that played at Reel Teal. Even though I heard people enjoyed it, I was horrified by the lack of sound and some of the cuts. And while I doubt much more editing will take place, I must change much of the sound. Most of the comments given back by the class were comments that I had already made myself during the viewing. While I'll probably just live with how the music is right now, it could probably be tweaked a bit, if only for the percussion in the beginning of the film. The blow-up pumpkin sounds absolutely atrocious, I need to see if I can somehow get rid of it completely, though that may be hard since it's making a wide range noise, and my abilities with pro tools are shoddy at best. The party sounds...well, there needs to be more, it sounds way too empty for a party, and it needs more of a build-up at the end. I also need to add bus sounds to the end, while also toning down the ambience that's already there. Devin has done more than his share of work on this project with some of the editing and titles, now I've gotta assert my "specialty" in this partnership....damned sound...

April 17th: Now that we're pretty close to final picture cut, we just need to work some more on the sound. The music Devin has isn't bad, even if it's a little too Little Miss Sunshine-ish. He wanted my part of the film finalized so he could put it all together and play it at Reel Teal. I'm looking forward to seeing it on the big screen myself, it should be a good time. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to import the sound into ProTools since Final Cut only seems to support Soundtrack...but whatever, I'll figure something out. I have a few ideas to try anyways. I want Devin to either cut out some of the party entrance or use his effects know-how to get rid of the markers on the floor, it just looks awful. And I don't know how to use Photoshop or Aftereffects. I understand the concepts, I just have no clue how to use the software. Devin doesn't seem interested in changing it, hopefully I can change his mind though. Devin said he would add the party sounds of children and music for the film, since we're on separate decks having background sounds on mine would make it harder to mesh. I feel bad that I really can't do much more now until Devin is ready with his part, but I did as much as I was capable of. And while I feel like it may have been technically less than Devin, I think it was harder to work with, and I also had to keep checking back with him to make sure it was what he wanted....hahaha, I can tell he got tired of that.

April 8th: So close to final picture cut, we've got our total time down a bit but we're still looking to get it a bit shorter. I want to re-record some of our actors with ADR because they don't match spatially, and I'm not too happy with it. I wish Val would take on a more interested role to help me out with that, but she doesn't seem to have the time and Devin doesn't like the idea. Oh well, guess I'm gonna lose that battle...I would at least like to record some of the humming sounds from the ghostpumpkinthing so I can at least add a more steady room tone, but I don't know if Val has it or not anymore. Either way, we need to work on the sound some. I was using the audio from the actual party, but there's too many indescrepancies to use it in the final cut. And we need to find a song of some sort to play throughout the party, but I don't know if there will be one long enough and more importantly "Halloween"-y. Maybe Devin can scrounge something up like he did with our theme song...I just can't wait until we get a picture lock; working on sound is nothing compared to cutting down these images of mis-matched items...so sad, so sad.

Ok...

So I know I've said this before, but I'm finally done with color correction I think...I went back and re-worked some of the previous color correction so not as much of the grain pops out of the footage... I've been working on sound, mixing and matching both dialogue and some background sounds, party noises specifically. We're getting close to the finish...Devin's going through musical selections, and we've gotta trim about half a minute off the film. I'm tired of working on this project for specific reasons, but we are getting close...

And so it goes...

Pretty bogged down with work from other classes right now, but out of all the party section I have right now, I'm fairly confident that I have now finished color correcting the party...at least as much as is possible. We could re-shoot the couple part fairly easily, but that would take time that I don't currently have. I have a piece I would like to show Devin to make the party seem brighter through color correction, I don't know if he'll go for it though...I'm not completely sold on it myself truth be told, but it's just another option that he may or may not appreciate at least seeing. I've been going through the sound files again, and I really believe we should bring in two or three of the actors to loop some ADR. You can just tell, despite volume adjustment, that many of these tracks were recorded through different mics and different spaces. I'd like to at least make everything consistent. We'll see, if we can't get the actors in here, then I'll just have to work my technological magic.......god I hate technology...

So far...

So we're getting ever closer to the final cut...we aren't there quite yet, but we are ever improving on our film, closer and closer to that point of no more editing...after a few alternate timelines and rough ideas, Devin approved of my random footage for the fade-in...it now actually looks like there's a party going on!!! I like it a lot. The color-correction is going well, only a couple more shots that need work, shouldn't be too hard. And before too long, picture lock!!! Then the sound work can take place...Devin developed a new trailer for the film. I don't really like it...at all...I don't know how to describe it, I'm just not a fan..but whatever. It's better than nothing, and I don't have much time to make one of my own, so I suppose we'll just have to leave it be. The film is a lot shorter now too, with all the footage cut out, well...it's definitely under the 15-minute mark, easy. I'm beginning to see the light at the end of the tunnel...

Ok...

So this post is just going to be the culmination of three total posts that I've been trying to write for a while now but for one reason or another have been unable to. Whether I wasn't located near a comuter (spring break), or Google was epic-ly failing and the site was down, things just weren't working out. So first thing is first. I did happen to work on the film a small amount over spring break, though not as much as I had originally hoped for. I reworked the party scene a bit to add a couple smoother (at least, from what we had) cuts, and tried to match sound better to the shots that were being scene. I didn't tweak the pitch or volume, etc. yet because I was hoping to export all the audio files to pro tools to give myself more options.

Last night I ran by the editing lab because our sound and production designer asked me to stop by. I got there and Devin was in there working on the project, and he decided to rehaul a decent amount of the beginning of the film. I checked it out, and noticed he cut straight from David getting up, to him getting on the bus, and there were approximately two to three quick shots of David actually on the bus, and bam he's walking into the school. It's a huge change from what we had, making things go by a lot quicker and keeping things tighter. We both think it works, but we'll have to wait and see how it all comes together. Devin and I talked about what we had discussed in class, and I was finally able to convince him to cut more of the nun's lines from the film. It doesn't do a whole lot for the film, and in all honesty I find the scene's lighting and the shot layout horrendous, but this was due to problems on set that we're not gonna worry about here. So we reworked the scene, cutting out Rachels dialogue and getting straight to the point on things. I think it flows a little bit better, personally. Now we just need some nice color correction on that whole scene and we'll be good...but that's not including the visible markers in the scene.

And now for tonight, I was in the lab for a couple of hours. I didn't work on David as much as I would've liked to due to the fact that I have a sound assignment due on Thursday. But I did use this opportunity to learn more about pro tools for when it comes time to correct the sound issues in David. I need to play around with the equalizers and whatnot a bit more since the don't work quite the way I thought they might, but all in all I think our film is shaping up pretty well and most of the problems can be overcome. The biggest concerns is to get everything to match, keep it coherent, and keep it short enough for festivals. We'll have to see how it works out. Devin has done some nice Aftereffects work to change day to night in the last scene. And we now have a rough version of the final song to be used in the credits which sounds pretty nice. It's looking to be shaping up quite nicely.

One last thing. I don't know if someone went in and fixed the computers or if it's because I've been unhooking the Mbox at whatever station I'm at, but it feels so nice to not have a computer crashing on me every 5 seconds now...

...

I am about to straight up destroy a certain fucking editing lab...

Hahaha...errrggghhh...

So after a week of being pretty sick, I finally made it to the editing lab today, Devin joining me about an hour later. He came in at the perfect time to prevent me from destroying any of the computers that kept crashing on me while I was trying to do my project. 8 crashes and 5 computers later, I'm finally making saved progress on David. Devin and I first went through the parts he'd already edited and we analyzed them together and made some changes. I think it looks pretty good. Unfortunately, due to the fact that my part carries a more considerable amount of dialogue, it's taken me a bit longer to work on. A lot of continuity errors and whatnot, but Devin and I are doing our best to make it work.

Hmmm...

So I haven't had a chance to work on David any lately. Since I spent so much time on it earlier in the semester, I'm not gonna worry about it. I'll just be in the editing lab late the next couple nights. I feel bad that I haven't been able to work on it with Devin, but I've had a visitor in town for the weekend, and nothing was going to get in the way of us hanging out. But it will all work out. Devin is now aware of the many inconsistencies in the film, and has called me for help as he seems overwhelmed with all the problems present, so I think we're just going to have to work things out. I just hope I don't get too many complaints...

A little late...

So here's a post for last week, sorry but been busy with tennis. Devin and myself presented our rough cut last week. It was an interesting learning lesson, with some pretty good feedback from the rest of the class. Everything up until David entering the party was edited by myself, whereas Devin took care of all the pre-party scene at the school. I'm curious as to how I should approach Devin with certain edits I believe should be made to his part of the film, because I think it still needs a lot more work. I've put together part of the actual party scene while Devin's been taking care of the end. There are a lot of problems between dialogue and lighting during the party scene that are gonna make for a very rough cut, but we'll see how it turns out. Hopefully I'll be able to find more time to work on it. I'm excited to, it's just been a very busy semester.

Editing

We have finally begun editing our picture as of Wednesday of this week, and I am really enjoying it. Logging and capturing has been the most difficult part for me by far, in terms of both technological problems and the whole not-too-much-fun factor. But now the editing has begun, and I have to say both Devin and myself have done quite well. I've only worked on the film for about two full class periods now, and a few hours tonight...(it's 10:20, and I've been in here since 6:30, but I was logging and capturing for a good bit of that time). But Devin and I put together the separate pieces we had both been working on, and it looks quite good for a rough cut. It's over 7 minutes long, so it obviously needs a bit of trimming. We'll debut it in class on Wednesday. It's everything we shot right up until the party actually starts. That's it for now, I'm going to see if this will print or not.

Editing

So I've effectively logged and captured about one and a half tapes of footage for David, but the process was halted when the software wouldn't capture the tape do to an improper outpoint...so basically I sat around for an hour and a half doing nothing waiting for this thing to work when it wouldn't...typical technology...

Last Post?

So this will probably be my last post on here...last night was the installation presentations, as well as documentary and 6X1 presentations. I thought everything went really well, some really good videos and projects overall....I am going to have to try the matchheads in a tennis ball at some point...I have some plans for that whole experiement...anyways, it was a great class, enjoyed getting to know everyone, and I hope everybody has a great break. Later,

Chase

Crap...

So I just wrote this whole long post about everything when my computer craps out...so I'm just going to write the short and sweet version....

Semester's about over, and it's been a great joy getting to know and work with everyone in the class. I guess I'll see everybody at least one more time for the installation pieces. The music video projects I believe were a great success. They all looked really good, and congrats to everybody who worked on them. I'm hoping we get ours into the end-of-semester screening, but we'll see. For anybody who needs their Big Phoney fix, I'll try and post the video up here as soon as possible...but until then, we've got it up on Facebook. I'll get a link up here if I can, but I think doing that is what cause my computer to crash last time....so yeah...Later....

Last Day @ the Cuc...

Rocket Science, one of the groups of shorts...Ground Round or something like that?...and Mr. Schneider Goes to Washington...wanted to do more, but needed a break...was getting to antsy in those chairs!!! Anyways, a great time for my first trip to Cucalorus, looking forward to future trips...not looking forward to paying...

Today....

Control, Shut-Eye Hotel and Weirdsville....

A great documentary today, Somay Ku....talked to Rex Miller, the director/creator a bit. Also saw RedRoad...very von Trier-like...I'll elaborate later...and Toro Bravo I think was the name of the short beforehand, very nice and interesting experimental short...and I believe that's it for today...more updates later, but I will say this...for my first Cucalorus, I am loving it, and doing as much as I can...having to pay in later years is gonna suck...

Cucalorus...

So today was my first time having been to Cucalorus...I was excited to finally be able to go, after having previous engagements the last few years...so I started out by going to the Vision showcase which I thought turned out pretty well...though I will say Jengo's was a bit smaller than I originally thought it would be...not enough leg room...anyways, I left and, after attending other obligations, headed to the party at Riverfront for a couple hours. Talked to a bunch of people and hung out, then left for Jengo's again for the midnght showing of Princess....very interesting film. Perhaps I'll write more about it and the other films I see this weekend at the festival...but it should be a pretty good festival, with plenty of great films to see...

Reactions...

So I thought the majority of peoples self-portraits were pretty good, and delved a lot deeper than I would have thought for a class...but I've noticed this in our class, there seems to be a good growing sense of a community, and I'm really liking it, because there have been very few classes where I have really experienced that before...everybody is friends with one another it would seem...it's quite nice....and as a reaction to my own work finally being shown...it was definitely awkward at first...especially hearing people laugh at certain parts...it wasn't terribly comforting, but then again, I probably didn't express myself well enough for the meaning to get through...but I digress...so Travis and myself have thought up an ending to our music video that we dig, so we'll see how that goes...but I'm trying not to have too much work this weekend, b/c a special someone is coming into town...very much looking forward to that...hint, she was in the self-portrait...anyways, I hope everyone enjoyed not only my own, but everybody else's self-portraits, b/c I believe on the whole they were very well done....

Later,

Chase

So after a ridiculously long weekend, filled mostly with film and tennis-related activities, it's finally time to get a bit of rest....but specifically, we did a decent amount of music video shooting over this weekend and today...we shot a lot downtown...well, pretty much all downtown...got some crazy looking stuff...and even though some of us couldn't make the whole time, it was nice to see that all 5 of us could get together at the same time for some of it...Travis, Kevin, and James went downtown Saturday but were having troubles w/ the camera, so they left as I was about to go meet up w/ them...it happens....so Sunday, we all met at Angela's place and headed towards Front St. for a bit of shooting fun...after a couple hours James and myself had to leave, but Travis, Kevin, and Angela kept shooting for a while... and then this morning, Kevin, Travis and myself went back downtown for some more shots...we found the most awesome location I've ever seen...it looks like 5 completely different locations, some more ridiculous than others, but all totally awesome...I'd like to go shoot there again sometime...and after a long discussion w/ Travis this evening about lighting and film, I can officially say that my mind is completely burnt out right now...gotta go take care of some presidential responsibilities, and maybe some internship and resume-type stuff...another crazy week coming up, no time to rest...at least, not until winter break!!!

Check it out...

I found this video while working on the self-portrait project...It has everything I ever want to use in any of my future film-related endeavors...The black silhouette against a bright and vivid background, the use of wind through the movement of the clouds and the windmill, the stormy weather with the bolts of lightning, the darker tone with the music and the graves, etc....may not be everything that I would like to use, but everything going on in this I would most certainly use...so definitely check it out, it's on the right side of the page...or you could check out my link...Spitting Out the Demons...as may be witnessed in my self-portrait (though not as evident as I would have liked), I can definitely relate...

Hmmm...

So the self-portrait project went ok overall. The final outcome is not exactly what I would've liked to have seen...this is definitely a project I'd like to go back and redo/rework when I get the chance. I'd like to make it longer so I could include some motifs I hinted at but didn't really have the time to explore, and there are some pick-up shots I'd like to get as well as some footage from Raleigh. I struggled the first weekend I tried to shoot because the camera wasn't functioning properly and I was in Raleigh with it, so that was kind of a bummer. But in the end I still think it turned out ok. Special thanks to Amir for his help, allowing me to print on his tape. That about sums up this edition of my blog update...oh yeah, and our music video is coming along. We have a few shots done, but we're going to be shooting a majority of our footage this weekend now that we've gotten together and brainstormed some ideas. That's about it...

Better Late than Never...

So I know this is late, but I figured it'd still be better to put it up...been pretty busy...anyways, here's the thoughts on light...

The first bit of light that dawned on me (haha) had to do with a project I worked on last semester. I built a 3d poolhall and bar using Maya. Over the summer, I did a lighting project and used that 3d model to demonstrate the "moods" caused by the different types of lighting in the pool hall. So that got me thinking...I really do enjoy playing pool, and the atmosphere in these places is uniqe from most others. You have the fluorescent lights of the beer signs glowing all around, the flickering lights of the cheap gambling/casino and arcade games, the red LED sensor and score lights of the dartboard, and then of course the lights that hang over the top of the pool tables themselves...how would this scene be lit in a film? Shooting on location, I figure plenty of practicals can be used. But in reality, I'm sure all different types of lights, from your typical fresnels to your KINO's would be needed if it were on a set. Plenty of flags and all sorts of rigs would be needed for the flicker and all that stuff, probably some gels being waved in front of the lights....

The beach at night by the pier is another interesting area of lighting...the way the lights from the pier reflect off the water at night when there is a full moon is a very unique set-up to try and replicate. An HMI (I can't remember, is that the proper term?) light could be used for the moonlight where any kind of lights could be used for the background lights, depending if they're hanging off the pier or coming from the pier, colored or not, etc. At the very least some gels could be covering some fresnels to create the same effect, orrrrr, in certain instances, you could even use decorative lights to create an effect...you know, the kind you use around christmas or halloween or something like that...but a pretty cool effect can be made if the camera is on the water, not on the dock :-)

Light and Sound Project

My reflections on the light and sound project are some interesting ones. James and myself worked to use all the pictures to somehow convey the theme of the phrase "A House Divided cannot stand", while trying to relay the same thoughts and feelings that come to mind while hearing the audio that Travis' group made. Let me just say this...it probably didn't come out as well as we hoped. Not to say that we aren't pleased with what we made, for there are some interesting effects and parts, but for most of what's going on in the audio and the theme, we couldn't find much to tie the two together with the pictures that we had. Some of the things in the final product seem somewhat random, though a motif or two may be noticed if looking hard enough. But no matter the outcome, James and I spent a good amount of time on the project, sitting through many a re-rendering (which I still don't understand the purpose of for still photographs) to bring about the final product...hopefully everyone can get some enjoyment from it all.

Reflecting on Light...

1) It's an interesting pattern, it stands out from it's white background...it's not quite yellow, definitely not gold, but I can still see it against the white it shimmers on...square-like patterns...tesselations it would seem, and they don't change, despite the ripples in the water. It doesn't help to differentiate in depth perception, but it definitely looks bigger up close when under water. The only other colors are the light blue in the dark shadows of the poo. It's an interesting set-up; all the light directly from the sun illuminating everything on the pool deck, the only shadows in the area above the water being underneath the patio chairs..the shadows within the pool hiding the angle of the sun being the darkest area around, allowing for the blending of the blue and the white of the pools colors. Water is an interesting element for light to travel through, and the only thing I've seen that makes the patterns that it does....

2) I lay in my bed, and the room is fairly dark. It's night out, but even during the day there would be little daylight seeping in through the slits of my windows due to the blackout curtains installed. I enjoy the dark...there is a certain mystique to it. But as I sit there, staring at the wall, I can see different colors reflecting off the white wall... some brighter than others. I know the tv is still on, and it dimly illuminates the opposite wall, while still creating harsh shadows from my flung open closet doors and hard edged furniter surrounding it. There are a few other sources as well that supply less than the television...my alarm clock on the dim setting displays the time in low-lit yellow-green numbers... the power button on my Wii is a very tiny yellow...unless someone sends me a message, where a bright blue light brings out the whole room into a flickering glow...the blending colors of the lights distinguish enough of the room for me to read and catch sight of things around the room, but the room remains fairly dark, just how I like it...

B&W Pictures

These are some photos I particularly like....

Finding Sounds

So working in our group to locate sounds was an interesting task...we met up in the library and just decided to explore a bit to see what kinds of sounds we could get. I mean, thinking about it, the library has it's pros and cons. Cons: we're not going to hit too many sounds on their own because a library is a place of quiet...but at the same time, it gave us a good location to make a lot of the sounds so we could get a fairly clear recording, and there were plenty of options and materials to choose from...but after a while, our minds were stretched from coming up with sounds...it probably had to do with the lack of time we had to get everything done...we were in a hurry...but we decided to take a drive to the pool at Trask and get sounds on the way...we thought it sounded awesome before listening to it through the camera...listening to the swim team and the divers just kicking and their strokes cutting through the water was surprisingly pleasent to the ear...we had a good time getting in the sounds...you could probably tell the by the goofing off we did for some of the sounds...i.e. me "singing" in the shower...it was bad on purpose, I swear!!! Just trying to make it funny and all....and in terms of logging and capturing...well, it doesn't seem too difficult...we've yet to capture the actual sounds since the room or the group members hasven't been available...basically meaning I've been out of town and the only time I could go there were classes in there, but whatever...it'll be done this week no problem...so all in all, SOUND IS INTERESTING...that is all...

Assignment: Sounds

Hmmm...so many sounds I heard this weekend...some pretty interesting ones...some annoying ones...and some that literally made me think I was about to die...but who wants to hear about that?

Well I guess I'll get started...so you know how I like tennis, right? Do you ever watch tennis on TV? Some matches can be pretty boring, sure...but some get really entertaining and lively...you almost feel like you're there, because you are immersed in the match. Does that ever happen to you? No? Oh well...for people like me it does, and not just because I'm watching an excellent match, but because I can hear everything that's going on...the grunts of the players, the curses slipping through under their breath, the squeaks of their brand new shoes twisting on the hard courts, and the bounce of the ball off the ground and the strings....but how can we hear those things so well? Hmmm....I think I might have that answer....










See all those mics? So that's how they capture all that sound for tv...they even have a guy sitting in the middle aiming a shotgun mic back and forth during the points...it's kind of ridiculous...but at the same time, it helps. The sound of a tennis ball is a unique thing...I can't really think of too many other sounds as unique as it in sports. Basketball and soccer balls, when bounce, come off more as a thud. Their noises are bigger as well, and for some reason feel like they echo, if only because they are bigger...I really don't know. But the sound of a tennis ball changes...it's different when it bounces on the court versus the strings...and even between a hard court and a soft court...very unique sound, just like the opening of a can of tennis balls...but any tennis player would recognize it.....and on such a large stage as the courts at the U.S. Open, the sounds are really overwhelming when you stop to think about them...


So what other sounds did I experience this weekend? Well, since I'm on the topic of the U.S. Open...how about the crowds? Or just masses of people in general...the low rumblings to the all out cheers, the silence on the subways versus the crashing of noises on a walk through NYC? There were so many different variations I heard over the weekend of large groups of people, in all different circumstances. Yays and boos in an overcrowded stadium. Silence and yelling in the confines of the Long Island Railroad cars...the talking on cellphones versus the incessant advertising of shows and plays and comedy acts as I strolled through the streets of Manhattan...the human voice is really something interesting...though I have trouble hearing anyways, the distinction between words are lost to me as they all seem to mesh together, I know I couldn't of heard my friends speaking anyways due to all that was going on around us...we were all repeating ourselves to be heard over the loud roar of the cities' streets...the gasps from worried onlookers as firetrucks and ambulances raced down Broadway...well, now it's starting to make sense why we couldn't hear one another...but there's nothing quite like a large group of people doing, or for this matter cheering, in unison....









And how about something from some pretty pictures? The sound of water...fountains in this instance. They sounded like any other normal fountain I suppose...but not the kind that just trickle down a statue...and they don't sound like a water fountain that you drink out of...nor water from the tap of your sink...or an ocean wave...hey, I guess different types of water areas do have their own unique sounds, don't they? God knows what I would've given to have just normal tap water served up there...I'll tell you what the other kind of water sounds like...the kind they sell in a bottle...sounds a little like "cha-ching"....but anyways, back to the original thought process...these fountains were pretty big...obviously, from the pictures you can see that...and you could hear them from quite far away...or maybe that was just the other fountain right under us. Anyways, they would have the typical gushing sound of air being pushed up to propel these light bits of water, followed by a slow trickle at first of droplets of water that didn't quite make it all the way up and were caught in the wind to fall back town to the pond of water, splashing as they land, soon followed by the louder and larger amounts that come crashing down ever gracefully in their synchronized manner....oh well, enjoy the pictures...and just be glad I didn't write about the deathly sounds of trains and planes and mass transit in general...










See, I really was there!!!

And so it begins...

The end that is...the last piece that I need before I can finally begin to piece together all of my story...one of them at least...it's been an interesting path, these past 2 1/2 years, and this weekend should finally bring an end to the part of the story I need to draft into an actual written version...whatever happens later doesn't matter in terms of the screenplay, though dramatic changes might occur...but it's over anyways...this post is just a bit of a rambling, a marker if you will, holding the place of the update that will come Monday or Tuesday, depending on when I will have access to the internet again...but let's just say there should be some thoughts and dwellings of some pretty interesting sounds...from a place that's typically very loud, bustling with life and energy at all hours of the day...and is especially busy during this fortnight...any guesses?...

P.S. - Linkin Park's new video, Bleed it Out...pretty good, takes the old Coldplay video method of everything being backwards...give it a look...

1st Post

Name: Chase W.
School: UNC-W
Major: Film

My intentions as a film studies major is to learn everythiing I can while I'm attending UNC-W and figure out some way to express everything that is going on in my head. Whether it just be crazy little snippets of ideas, songs, dialogue or visual images, I want to learn and be able to express myself so that I'm comfortable with what comes out of my head and onto the screen.
More than anything I would like to stay in the narrative film category just because that is the direction in which I can most easily associate most of my ideas, but I am more than open to certain types of experimental, documentary and other types of films. I would like to have a hand in Directing, Screenwriting, Cinematography, Editing and Sound Design/Editing, especially with my own work, but would like to end up in the area of Editing film and sound as work, while executing most of my ideas on my own for hobby.
Why film? Well, there are few things that interest me. Tennis is one. Music is another. Film is the third. School most certainly does not, so I figured why not do something that interests me? I hope to one day be able to combine all these things that interest me, with a little something in the works already...mwahaha....
I've worked on very few film sets, but have experience through the classes I have taken, and have learned quickly many skills that I plan on incorporating into my future works, as I have learned from the few films I have made for myself. I have ideas...I want to make them into films...I need to get them out...and I will.

P.S. The picture I'm including defines me more than it would first appear...it's a picture of me, obviously, but there's much more to it than that...it incorporates the few things that make me happy and keep me wanting to do this....some of my inspirations, as it were...