For this week, I was doing nothing but production for the CV 9 documentary. I did two main things, that being the filming of longer spoken segments at CV 9 and an interview with Dr. Blanchard. In the spoken segments, I filmed clips that are interjected throughout my interviews and voiceovers in order to have more interesting segments that keep the viewers' attention. Along with that, I had an interview filmed with Dr. Blanchard on this Friday. I have about 24 minutes of real solid footage/audio with him, which includes two camera angles along with more informal "behind the scenes" footage that I had two friends -Ryan Stambaugh and Henry Leardi- get as well. I wish to include these shots for two reasons. The first reason is that I want to have these interviews be less cinematic/expositional but more seeming like a semi-informal conversation with him. The reason for that is because I chose to make this documentary be a Participatory Documentary, where I the filmmaker (for this documentary) am essentially the main character. With that, having more behind the scenes footage to include the filmmaker within the shots could be a good addition to the interviews. Along with that, with having 24 minutes worth of interviews with only two shots will get stale very quickly. Having extra shots allows for more things to spice up the content as well for viewer attention.
This week, I spent my time going to CV 9 to record footage for my B-Roll that is shown during the documentary. During my recording of this week, I only did non audio clips. This upcoming week, I will be doing more shots at CV 9 but they will include me speaking in them. As you can see below, I spent my time sifting through, double checking, and labeling all my footage so that I know what is what. Faulty or poorly done footage was put in as Bad __ (number). I elected to name my footage as descriptions of what's in the footage, rather than the exact shot in my timeline as I want it. This was because some of my footage were new shots that I had not planned to include previously, and some other shots I could not get in my documentary that I had planned for previously.
For all of my projects this year, I have wanted to focus on the idea of looking inwards, specifically with the thoughts and feelings that are universally felt by nearly everyone -yet not always spoken. Those kinds of topics are a big part of why I want to be a filmmaker, because I like being able to understand and I like letting others know they are understood. I like making stories that connect with people, that tell them that what they know is known by others, showing that their kinds of thought or experiences are understood by at least someone out there. Whether it's seen as the characters or the writers/actors/directors that are being the ones who understand does not matter; what matters is that a connection of being known is formed. With making stories, I end up making them into films because I enjoy making them the most, they are the most commonly viewed, and overall I view them as the best ways to illustrate a story. I believe that In my last film, I hit upon themes of loneliness and loss. While my last one had elements of isolation, it dealt more with that idea of how one deals with the loss of someone important. This film is now puts the spotlight fully on ideas of loneliness. I wanted to further explore how perhaps a filmmaker could tackle issues of loneliness and isolation, and so that's what I set out to do with this film I made.
Planning
Storyboard
This is the storyboard I made that shows what I want out of every shot.
Script
As said previously, my script is almost entirely just the phone call that Lucas speaks. The monologue and the actions are taking place simultaneously so it is kind of weird to write out what is happening at exactly every time that he says something, so it was easier for me to wrap my head around to have the script be just the phone call and the storyboard show what is in the shots. Exact timings will be decided in post, once the audio and visuals are recorded and with that I'll have a better idea of how things flow (specifically with pacing).
Producing
I recorded all the footage that I knew I'd want, then after collecting it I recorded the audio separately, without looking at the footage. My process for this film was to base the visuals around the audio, meaning how long clips would be up, and sometimes the placement of what clips when were changed to fit the narration and sound design I had.
This was my finished short film, titled "While I'm Away"
Evaluating
What I liked about it:
At 4:25 I like how the water sound plays over multiple clips it adds to that idea that the day kind of overlaps with itself.
The shift from the slow nothing part to Dylan starting at the empty bowl feels really powerful to me for the theming of the short film at 3:33
The change in the audio from being a low-pass to normal audio when he puts the headphones in is good because the audio starting off well didn't really fit because we don't see him turning on the voicemail first, so having it low pass into normal audio is a good fade into it.
I think overall the composition is super strong with this film. I think this is the best composition I've ever had for a work I've done.
The story was pretty good too I thought. The build up of the situation and the ending with audio voice mail finally interacts with the visuals were well done I thought.
The shot from 0:13 with the phone going to the window is super good.
What I could work on:
In this shot with the phone the camera is accidentally out of focus
At 0:28 when "CJ" looks at the door, it doesn't really look like he's seeking it out as much as it just looks like he is simply looking up. It can also even be said that he's looking at the camera which isn't my intention.
In my shot at 2:53 (shown to the right) I think perhaps I should have filled up the space with something more. At the same time I like have that empty nothing instead, but I can't decide if I would have liked more in it or not honestly.
The starting point of the audio feels a little unnatural to me, but I think that's just me.
I also think there could have been more interesting movements or angles that I could have taken advantage. I didn't want to do too much crazy things because I don't want to ruin the slow paced, gentle shots I have but I still feel like there was more I could have done with it.
As a side note, I possibly could have done more interesting shots and angles if I had made it so the pace and instability of the film got more and more chaotic as the voicemail gets more downwards spiraling. I think that could have been an interesting route to go down in hindsight, though that idea could also take away from that idea of this being a voicemail that CJ listens to constantly and just listens to as something to be quiet and calm. This idea would make sense to the viewers, though, because this is their first time hearing the call.
Similarly, while some shots may be good composition wise, the actual subject itself can sometimes get boring. Sure the focus is mostly the audio of the film but the supporting visuals could have been better I think. Too often do I just have "CJ" sitting around staring at nothing, when I should have had more scenes like the piano ones or the cereal ones to keep the visuals interesting and keep the viewers' attention.
Integrating
I think what I learned from my experience in making this short film was that of the production phase. Everything was done here in a day, and I would say it was done fairly efficiently because I knew what I wanted to see and I knew that I was picking locations that would look great composition wise. Another thing I would want to mention with the production phase is that I learned that there are cases where you can be a little less planned with your recordings. I had a good idea for what I wanted with the film, but I actually ended up changing a lot of things with it. I ended up being able to change things up cause it was an audio focused film where I could have more loosely done visuals. And it worked, so it's good to keep this kind of thing in mind. As well with that I learned a little bit more about audio. Specifically, I learned not about audio quality as much as I did about pacing and spacing of audio. The film employs mainly a voice over, and so with that I learned a lot about how to make an auditory-focused film have a captivating and well done audio that keeps the audience interested and makes the film a good film. When I had first recorded my audio, I did not take nearly as many pauses as I should have. My experience going into this was just get the audio done and figure it out in post. The problem with that was that in the editing process I had a lot more work to do than I should have had to do because the source material was poorly paced. I now know that when recording audio, I need to consider more the flow of what the film will look like and figure out how tone and pacing of what I'm saying should go.
("How I MISS you") Nick walking with the camera. Camera stops on "ONLY" and quick change focus to Evin.
OTS from Evin looking at Nick
Nick saying each of his parts at the swing rotating counterclockwise
Evin at the bench rotating as well doing the "doo doo doo doo" parts
Evin med-long shot sitting on the bench. Nick gets on. Rocco gets on it too. They fist bump each other.
"IN the water" the car of Cole and Logan pull up. "RUNNING over" it cuts to them half way to running up to the guys who meet them halfway.
Some are playing volleyball, some are playing in the gaga ball pit.
Have a long shot and two close ups
(MAKEme happy) Them all at the bench or lounging around next to it
Evin looking at college email from the side (medium)
Close up of phone college acceptance email
Cole sees it and is like "hey nice dude" and they hug. Cole quickly goes to a discontent face.
Evin playing behind a curtain as a silhouette.
The guys playing at THON Factor
The guys playing at the cul-de-sac from before
5 seconds Evin Nick and Cole playing at Evin's TV from Logan's perspective on the left doorway, the camera weaves in from that room to the left and as it does Logan looks towards Evin's kitchen to see Rocco looking at a letter.
2.5 seconds Close up OTS of Rocco looking at actual college acceptance letter.
2.5 seconds Close up of letter
2 seconds Pan to see Logan walking up to him. Rocco shows it to him.
2 seconds Cut to the letter being down and Logan is putting his hand on Rocco's shoulder like "nice man you did it." Rocco then leaves.
(make me HAPPY) 8-9 seconds 90 Degree angle shift to medium shot of Logan watching Rocco leaves as he then looks back to the letter and looks at it blankly. After a second he goes for a big drink of his glass of water.
(I'll be THERE) 3 seconds Water on the table in Evin's kitchen as a sense of scale. Very slow zoom out.
Rocco as a silhouette playing with his two sticks.
Shots of the guys playing at the pep rally
Back to them playing at the cul-de-sac
Nick in "his" bedroom packing up his stuff for college with everyone else.
Intersperse with him, then Cole and Logan, then all 5 as the silhouette doing the "huaaaa"s
This week, I put all of my class time into the pre-production of my upcoming music video that I'm doing for my next independent film project. I am doing it with my friends who have a band called The Visitors, and we are doing the video with a cover of Weezer's song "Burndt Jamb." With this video, I wanted to hit upon themes of making high school memories and the bonds that come from those years and juxtapose that with the uncertainty of what comes when those friends leave for college following graduation. So, with this video, there were two things I focused on doing this week. One of them was doing something with silhouettes, and the other was my planning for alternate video ideas earlier in the week.
Evin Olson, one of the guitar/bass players of the band, said that he thought it would be cool if we did something with shadows. I liked this idea, because shadows can be used to simplify the "true person" of someone or the dark underside of their personality. In my case, I will be using silhouettes to add cool aesthetics as well as show the more "raw" personalities of the players as only their foundational figures can be seen behind the silhouettes. It would be as if they are also trapped within the areas that their silhouettes are stuck in. So, with this want to do silhouettes, I needed to figure out how and where to accomplish this. With the how, after thinking about how the lighting would work, I'm pretty sure I have it figured out. I believe that if I have the curtain in front of the camera, the person behind the curtain, and then put a bright light behind the person, then I will get the desired silhouette effect I want. I can do this in the photography studio in the school and that should work out well. If it doesn't, then I looked up how to do silhouette shots without curtains as well and the video that follows explains it well. Turn the lights off, have a white board/wall behind you, distance your subject away from the wall (like a couple feet), and then have the lights not point at your subject but aim them at the wall (and try to have them match!).
Alternate Video Ideas
I've actually created rough pre-productions for three different kinds of music videos for this one I'm making now. The first one was before the band had decided on a song. I was thinking they'd probably do something stereotypically rock so I made something for that, but then I was told they'd probably do the song "Is This It" by The Strokes so I made something for that, but then the band finished with deciding on "Burndt Jamb." With this third and final pre-production, I am happy with what I am doing, and I even took inspiration from my first two ideas to do this one.
First Idea:
First shot is of the garage that they will hold their concert in later on, it is closed
Dimly lit of them beginning to play in the studio
Light shines on a close up of a guitar
Light shines across a microphone
Light shines across a drum set
Light shines across two guitars/basses
The boys all have an individual shot at their houses or wherever they are, sort of uninterested
They each look at the time and leave the places
Shot of cars pulling up to the house that isn't the garage concert house (probably Evin's)
Shot of everyone walking in (might want to do cuts for each person walking in)
Everyone hangs out for a second, dapping each other up or talking
Big shot that then cuts to close ups of the following:
Two guys playing video games and a third watching
Two guys going over the song
Back to big shot and everyone's phones are going off with an alarm
Close up of one of the phones showing the alarm maybe a reminder saying "It's time" or something to that effect
The guys rush out the door
5 or so cuts of the car pulling up, the trunk opening with the guys behind it, them trying to push stuff into it, them pushing more, them pushing just the last little bit in, and then the trunk closing. The boys are all either in the car watching the trunk or outside behind the car trying to get the stuff in.
The car drives off
POV shot in the car looking out the windows
POV shot in the car as the guys are grooving or talking or having fun. A couple of them look at the camera and so something funny or hype
(Maybe) shots of them stopping at like a Wendy's and ordering food and then a POV of them eating in the car
They arrive at the house they are doing the garage concert at in a rush (Cole's house?).
POV of them running in the house from the front door with equipment/instruments, at least one of the guys is looking at the camera and calling it forward.
Three-five shots of people showing up to the closed garage for a concert. Including people walking in and putting up chairs and pulling up in cars
Show more shots of them playing in the studio
The guys looking at each other, ready in the garage. Their phones buzz and they all take them out to check the time.
The garage opens up and the crowd gets excited to see them.
Shots of them playing at the garage.
Shots of the crowd.
Last shot is a long one of them putting their instruments down and the garage slowly closing as they walk past the camera.
Second Idea:
Starting part is photos of the guys separately from when they were younger.
The shot starts with the lyrics where the camera is up close to the stack of photos and moves out to reveal the room, where the boys are together in that room hanging around with each other.
- Close up of the same shot
Then to them playing the song
Then move camera from a different angle of watching them talk to the calendar
Before car seen have a calendar going through the months
After first "I'm just way too tired" transition to the car
About everything is with this calm old film kind of filter.
Them sitting at the school, alone in desks. Looking at photos of themselves. One of them is watching the THON Factor performance and it zooms into it.
- Another shot of one of them in the photography studio, taking a picture of simply a stool with a white background. The shot goes from looking at the stool/background to moving backwards to an OTS of the camera/person taking the picture. Worm's eye from the corner shot after that of them looking down at the camera.
Videos of the guys playing back at THON Factor with old filter over it
The guys playing around sunset on the cul-de-sac near Cole's. No filter here.
The guys chilling in the car (POV)
The guys leaning on a bench or railing looking into the distance (rhythm).
Get them playing at the park
- Shot of them sitting on the swings looking away from the camera
Bits about the senior guys looking at college acceptance letters. The juniors of the group look at them looking at the letters. Have one of them drinking water
- After this shot put one in of that same room, but it's empty with a close up of the water.
Bits in the studio? Like a photoshoot or something?
Ends with the guys looking at each other, and then walking through camera to a long shot of them walking down a road with a little distance in between them. The filter comes off.
For this week, I prepared for my filming that takes place starting on Monday the 14th of March (pi day). For that, I had to continue following up with the people I am interviewing as well as be cleared to go to the 9th Grade Academy to be allowed to film there. I waited for responses and then asked what I needed to accordingly. Similarly, I double checked with my friends to make sure they are good to come film with me as well. We have planned who is coming and know what we are bringing to record. The last thing I did was to label what I need to say when in my story board. Admittedly, when I first did my storyboard I did not write down what I was supposed to be saying in the shots I am talking in. I have now done that.
Items to Record with this Week
Monday 3/14:
Camera
Tripod
Tripod Wheels
1 SD Card
Story Board Additions
As previously mentioned, I did some quick edits to my storyboard so that now every part where I speak in them is noted with what I need to say and what page of the script it's on. This will be helpful in terms of time efficiency for getting through shots on time.
Finishing Emails
The last thing I did was finish emailing and confirming dates with my interviewees. I messaged Mr. Martin and Dr. Blanchard to confirm we are good with the dates, and luckily, they were!
This week was the week of Man Pageant. Because of that, I ended up spending a majority of my class time preparing for the show rather than focusing on my documentary. However, similar to last week, I had planned for this to be the case back in January. So, all I had to do this week was schedule my filming and get assistants to help me film during these days. Below are the emails I sent to Dr. Blanchard and Mr. Martin about interviewing and permission to film on specific days, the dates I wish to film, and my friends who will be helping me film.
Emails:
Dates:
Monday 3/14: Recording with audio
Monday 3/21: Recording without audio
Friday 3/25 (backup Monday 3/21): Interview with Dr. Blanchard
Friday 4/1 (backup Monday 3/28): Interview with Mr. Martin
Assistants:
Cole Sherman: Not available 3/14, is a maybe for 3/21 and 3/28 if we do backups.
Monday: Brainstorming in general what to focus on this week
Tuesday: Setting up PAC equipment
Wednesday: Writing Idea 1
Thursday: Writing Idea 2
Friday: Writing Idea 2
Idea 1: Stress/fear of failure
Focused on some deadline, but once it's over the speaker has a moment of clarity: "The moment it launched was beautiful. It wasn't perfect -far from it, but what I made was finished and I'm proud of where my effort has gotten me. Perfection was never my goal, I knew that at some point. Focusing for so long on not messing this up made me forget that self-made work is meant to be passion and love for making something that's fun and exciting, not stressing over how others will pick it apart. The issue is that I put my own self-worth into my creation. If my work wasn't amazing, I wasn't amazing. Sure it tells me how good I am at creating this kind of work, but it should stop right around there. I let sickness spread from just an hour of my day to both my time awake and asleep. I just wanted to do something that I was passionate in. So I wonder to myself 'Just what was I so scared of? Could I not have done this just as well without the chronic tightening of my heart, lungs, and mind?'"
Starts as something that the main character really wants to put themself out there for because they simply love making music.
Character goes into it with excitement and ideas but won't be sad if he fails since he tried (subconsciously this is actually true, he wants to succeed very badly)
Goes from a wanting to work on it to a need to work on it
By the halfway point or so he says he hates the competition - he hates this music.
Making some kind of song that is focused on peaceful clarity that plays only at the end.
Tight spaces/cluttered shots
Close ups
Zoom in/having the borders close in
Tension builds over the course of it
Posture at seat gets worse and worse
Hands shake more and more, character is less steady
Less and less sleep because stress makes one restless which leads to lack of sleep which leads to stress
Idea 2: A dialogue that's between two people.
Something comical
Funny premise: Character comes in and slams fist on table of other guy sipping coffee: "Dylan! Where are my pants!?!" - "Well what do you mean where are your pants" (as this is said it shows long shot of behind the other character Cole in just his underwear). "Don't play dumb with me! You know where they are." - (While sipping coffee) "I literally have no idea where they are"
"Did you check ___" "Yeah" "Did you check ___" "Yeah" "Did you check your dresser?" "No not yet" (Immediately close up of Cole getting slapped by Dylan). "Wait, yes I did" (Another immediate close up of Cole getting slapped by Dylan).
"Well do you not have any other pants" - "Aha you're trying to change the subject!" (Cole says while pointing a finger at Dylan) - Similar close up of Cole about to be slapped but he blocks it with his hand while maintaining eye contact and saying "stop it" while blocking it nonchalantly.
Interspersed shots of Cole just in his underwear because it looks funny.
Ends with a moment of silence after a funny interaction. And then Dylan goes in a very formal and candid voice "Yeah okay I stole your pants. I'm wearing them under these pants." Cole goes, "I hate living with you" in a similar tone without missing a beat.
