MP 3 Review

Intention Definition & Exploration of Ideas

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.