Session 5 Year 2024 Production Project

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robots” by Tarkowski is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Director

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By May 10, as part of TEAM 4 as Director, I will have evidence of Directing Interesting Dialogue Scenes following How to Direct a Dialogue Scene – YouTube for Session 5.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Training Source(s)

Project Timeline

Pre-production Milestones

  • Finish Script by 4/10
  • Finish Storyboard by 4/12
  • Trial Shot by 4/12

Production Milestones

  • Start Filming by 4/15
  • Principal Photography 5/1
  • Start Reshoots 5/2

Post-production

  • Rough Cut 5/6
  • Music Done by 5/7
  • Final Cut 5/9

Proposed Budget

Budget

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

Trello Board

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Skills Commentary

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Reactions to the Final Version

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

Grammar and Spelling

Editor

Someone or Thing Fighting Someone of Thing for Someone or Thing Pitch

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LOGLINE

  • A person fantasizes about leaving the shackles of their boring job for the freedom of nature.

PROTAGONIST 

  • They hate the monotony of their job and the fakeness their coworkers and bosses
  • They like nature, and view it as an escape from their job
  • Has worked at their job for a while, and it seems to be getting worse and worse for them

PROTANGIONST CORE WOUND / MOTIVATION 

  • They are motivated to escape the seemingly endless cycle of their job after hearing about a change in the workplace that would cause him to work more, have less interesting work, etc.

GENRE

Drama

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

Not specifically this video, but I would want to emulate aspects of this youtubers style
I would use a 4:3 for sections of the film (job parts) in order to convey a cramped and smaller feel similar to the character’s feeling about their life.
I think using darker and cooler colors for the parts of the film where the protagonist feels trapped inside their job.
Towards the end of the film I would like to move into some warmer tones to highlight the more open and free version of the protagonist.

PLOT DESCRIPTION (FILM)

  • After hearing about possibly getting a promotion that result in having to work more hours and would cement their future at the company, our protagonist fantasies about what their life could be. They think about how about how they have been trapped in by the artificial man made world and how they what to escape it to find peace and freedom.

TREATMENT (FILM)

  • Our protagonist lives in a extremely corporate world, full of briefcases and suits and ties. They work at a corporate office of where everyone thinks that they should be on top and only care about getting there. Their boss is very inconsiderate of the company’s employees, not caring at all about personal lives and working conditions, but rather about product and productivity, turning the office into almost a factory operated by robotic employees. The corporate world is extreme bleak, dominated by greys and cool colors, a tighter 4:3 aspect ratio, and a constant clacking of keys and ringing phones. On the other hand the world our protagonist imagines is much more interesting, with plenty of bright and warm natural light, a more open 16:9 aspect ratio, and more calm and natural sounds. The natural world is also very unpopulated, with no one else to distract our protagonist from their peaceful retreat into nature.

Session 4 Year 2023-2024 Production Project

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'Crime Scene Do Not Cross' tape
‘Crime Scene Do Not Cross’ tape” by Tex Texin is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Director

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By March 1, as part of TEAM 4 as Director, I will have evidence of creating an engaging montage by following How to Create a Great Cinematic Montage – YouTube for Session 4.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Primary Source

Secondary Source

Training Source(s)

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

Storyboard Slideshow

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

Art Thieves

This is our film about overconfident thieves who attempt to steal a painting.

Skills Commentary

Skills Slideshow

This is my team’s slideshow, which showcases our evidence for how we achieved our SMART goals.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

During this session, we encountered a variety of different issues which we had to creatively solve. One of these was when we started filming our rough cut, but the room we were going to use was already occupied. To combat this we adapted by changing the location and creating a new way of lighting the scene.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

Being the director I communicated with my team in a variety of ways. An example of this is when we planned out the filming we did after/outside of class. I needed to communicate with my team to find a time that worked for both me and my team and gave us the time we needed to be able to film what we wanted.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

In this session we used a new camera that hadn’t used before, upgrading from a Canon T3i to a Canon T6i. While these cameras are very similar, but have some slight differences that Carlson and I needed to adapt to. The camera also allowed us to shoot in C-Log, which opened up new opportunities for color grading, but provided new challenges when setting up and exposing a shot.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

During this session, I learned the importance of planning out tasks and communicating with my team. this is important to the world of work because working without a plan or communication can create a confusing work environment and a bad final product.

Reactions to the Final Version

James Clark said that it “was the best montage I’ve ever seen” and Sawyer Conklin said “The montage was really dope.” and “I wish it was longer.”

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I had a good time on this production and am proud of the final product. I think this film was different from the ones I’ve made in the past and allowed me to try some new stylistic choices in the film. The heavy use of montage allowed me to be more creative with blocking because the narration supplied information that usually came from blocking. The extra time that I had this session allowed me to take ideas that I had shoot test footage and see if it would work out how I wanted.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Jack

Session 3 Year 2023-24 Production Project

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SWIPE,MOVIE CREW” by wheelzwheeler is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Director

Intention (SMART Goal) for the Session

By Jan. 12, as the Director for TEAM 4, I will learn how to combine blocking and camera movement for action, by following How to Shoot a Fight Scene Session 3.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Sam Raimi

Army of Darkness

Sam Raimi is personally one of my favorite directors. He most know for the Evil Dead trilogy (Evil Dead 2 is my favorite movie of all time), the Tobey Maguire Spider-Man trilogy, and most recently Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. One of aspects of Raimi’s work is how he uses the camera in a scene, integrating it with action in a way that not many other directors do. An other trademark of a Raimi film, is blend of comedy with other genres, most famously with the second and third Evil Dead films, both of those film being a combination of horror, comedy, and action. Raimi also has great pacing in his films, giving the audience time to process things and then quickly moving on the next scene. With this film being primarily an action/comedy film, I want us Raimi’s work as an inspiration for my film.

Training Source(s)

1:58 Moving the camera with characters can make a shot more dynamic and put the audience in the characters’ shoes.

2:11 Showing things only when a character sees it allows the fight to be from a characters a perspective.

3:18 Understand the rules of composition, like the rule of thirds, 180 rule, etc., but don’t be afraid to break them for a good reason.

Project Timeline

Pre-production Milestones

  • Create Storyboard 12/12
  • Finish Script 12/13

Production Milestones

  • Film End Scene 12/14
  • Film Jack’s Dialouge 12/18
  • Film Audrey’s Dialouge 12/19
  • Film Beginning of Fight 1/3
  • Film End of Fight 1/4
  • Re-Shoots 1/5

Post-production

  • Begin Editing 1/8
  • Finish Final Edit 1/11

Proposed Budget

Evidence of Team Planning and Decisions

This is our team’s Trello board
This is the beginning of the storyboard
This is the middle of the storyboard
This is the end of the storyboard

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The (FILM, SOUND, or GAME Creation)

The Film

This is my team’s film, Food Fight.

Skills Commentary

Slideshow

This is my team’s slideshow containing the skills evidence of how we achieved of our different SMART Goals.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

A way I had to be a critical thinker and a problem solver was by finding solutions to a number of problems I faced this session. The first major problem I encountered this session was the absence of my cinematographer Carlson, who was going to be gone for almost the entire production. To combat this I planned out which days Carlson was gone and built our filming schedule around it. An other problem I faced about halfway through filming, was the furniture rearrangement in our location. Luckily I was able to reframe some shots and modify blocking, which made it unnoticeable to the audience. But this created a new problem the shots with all three cast/crew members acting in it needed to be reshot. We originally filmed this before Carlson left, but because of this new framing (and the microphone being visible in the original shot) we needed to reshoot. We were able to film this part by only having all three of use in frame when my character was speaking, so I was able to hold a boom microphone during those shots and for the shots with all three of us we used a wireless microphone to record my speaking parts. While me and my team faced a variety of challenges, we able to adapt to them very well.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

My team and I were communicating and collaborating on different aspects of the project. One of the tools we used to do this was our google drive. During pre-production we made a google folder for the project and made very organized which helped out tremendously later during production and post-production. A one on one collaboration I did with our editor, Jack, was after each day of filming I would go home and create a rough edit of the film. While these edits weren’t perfect, they allowed me as an director to express to Jack how I wanted the film to be edited.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

This session I heavily expanded my knowledge of using my camera. While I usually bring in my Canon T3i for the team to use, I am not the one directly behind, and when I use it at home it is more for photography than for shooting videos. This session, because of Carlson’s absence, I used the camera far more and got to learn more about it. I also installed Technicolor Cinestyle on the camera, which is a flatter picture profile, which lead to me learning more about exposure when taking videos.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

This session taught me a lot about flexibility. I had to serve as both director and cinematographer in this session which was an added challenge. This session can definitely relate to the world of work, with having to fill in for people and do new tasks while balancing your own work.

Reactions to the Final Version

James Clark liked the entire film. He specifically highlighted the cinematography, writing, and editing as being well done. Some of the parts of the film he specifically enjoyed was the opening dialogue, which he thought was realistic and flowed well, and the ending, which he thought was funny because of the length keeps the joke going. He liked our film overall and said that it showed that we had “filmmaking ability”.

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

I am very proud of this film, this my 6th film in this class and is by far my favorite. I was able to take this film in a stylistic direction I had been wanting to try out. For my past films the blocking and cinematography had felt a bit stale to me, with not enough movement in the frame, and shots feeling to slow. With this film I was very much able to change that. I started the film very slow and with little movement, but as the film progressed I shortened the length of shots added movement to them. I also wanted to add more camera movement, but because of my inexperience as a cinematographer I was unable to, so instead I had the shots follow the movement. A example of this could be the shot were Jack is knocked to the ground, the shot before is an over the shoulder shot, but when Jack hits the ground the camera follows him and the next shot is much lower. An other example of this when my character gets kicked and the thrown to ground, I get kicked in a wide shot and fall to the right of the frame, the next shot is moved to the right. Then when I get thrown to the left, the camera follows with next shot being moved to the left. I took this approach to put the audience in the characters shoes during the fight. I could have filmed it all and wide shot, but then the fight becomes distant and unimportant, when I put you in the shoes of the characters, the fight becomes more personal.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Jack

Someone or Thing Fighting Someone of Thing for Someone or Thing Pitch

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LOGLINE

  • Two people violently debate if pineapple belongs on pizza.

PROTAGONIST

  • Does not like pineapple on pizza.
  • Alexander is his name
  • A sophisticated gentleman, but will stand for his beliefs

PROTANGIONST CORE WOUND / MOTIVATION 

  • Dislikes pineapple on pizza

GENRE

  • Dramedy
  • Curb your Enthusiasm and Family Guy

PLOT DESCRIPTION

  • Alexander hears about a friend eating pizza and is disgusted and into a heated argument over the topic with his friend. The argument gets more and more heated and quickly turns physical. A third friend steps in and says how we’re all the same because we all eat pizza the same, with a fork. Alexander and his opponent both turn to attack the fork user.
    • The protagonist learns that some arguments are not important for the greater good

TREATMENT

  • Average high school environment
  • Normal wardrobe
  • Nothing out of the ordinary

INFLUENCES and EXAMPLES

  • For directing some influences will be Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright
  • Snl and other sketch comedy

11/6-11/9 Weekly Work Log

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Session Number:2
Week Number:3
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 185 minutes
What is/was your overall goal for this week? Finish

Work Tasks 

Date Task Description Time Spent Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why? 
11-6Practiced Lighting 50 Yes, I would have rather been filming, but our actor was absent so we made the best out of the situation.
11-7 Finished Filming50 Yes, we were able to finish ahead of schedule.
11-8 Recorded Foley 40Yes, we were able to record all the sound effects we needed  
11-9 Worked on soundtrack 45 
No School   Veterans Day Observed

10/30-11/3 Weekly Work Log

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Session Number:2
Week Number:2
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: 4 3/4
What is/was your overall goal for this week? Continue filming

Work Tasks 

Date Task Description Time Spent Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why? 
10-30Vancouver Tour1 hour Asked questions about the program
10-31 Green screen 1 hourCreatively adapted blocking to fix lighting issues
11-1 Finish Montage  45 minFound visually interesting locations  to complete the montage sequence
11-2 Filmed Ending 1 hour Adapted the camera angles and wardrobe to make shot look better
11-3 Stairs  1 hour  Allowed use to make a completed rough cut

DATE GOES HERE Weekly Work Log

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Session Number:2
Week Number:1
Total Estimated Hours Contributed this Week: # goes here
What is/was your overall goal for this week? Goal goes here

Work Tasks 

Date Task Description Time Spent Was / Were your choices and work Best Practices? Why? 
10-23Camera Tests1 hr 
10-24 Camera Tests 1 hr 
10-25 Planned/Pitched35 hr  
10-26 Filmed Rough Test Footage 1 hr 
10-27 Sound Tests/Scoutung 1 hr 

Personal Comments (Optional) 

Remember reflecting on your own choices and work can help you improve both. Are there any other comments you would like to include for your own reflection? If so, please enter them here: 

Production Project

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New Camera
New Camera” by Skrewtape is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0.

SUMMARY

Role

Director

Intention (SMART Goal)

By Oct. 12, as part of team # as Director, I will have evidence of using blocking to show power by following Film Blocking (It’s easier than you think) for Session 1.

PRE-PRODUCTION – INQUIRY

Leader(s) in the Field / Exemplary Work(s)

Quentin Tarantino

Tarantino’s films are very dialogue-heavy, but he uses blocking to make simple conversations visually interesting. In my film, I want to keep it simple with little to no action, but I still want the film to be visually interesting. I want my film to keep visual interest without a lot of action on the screen.

Training Source(s)

  1. Triangle Method: Can be used to quickly cover a dialogue scene
  2. Winner and Loser: Each scene has a winner and loser, winner should be higher than loser
  3. Shapes: Shapes can be used to control the audience’s focus
  4. Movement: Keep actors moving so the scene dosn’t get stale
  5. Walk and Talk: Having your actors walk around while talking is an easy way to add movement to a scene
  6. Moving Master: Is a commonly used way to start a dialogue scene that can establish the setting and look interesting
  7. Behind the Action: Filming behind the characters looks visually interesting and creates dynamic lighting
  8. Straight On Framing: More classical, simplistic style of framing and is good for simple coverage
  9. 180-Degree Rule: Imagine a line in-between two people talking and don’t cross it, if crossed it will look like they aren’t talking to each other
  10. Stacking Actors: Give actors space in the shot, don’t have them covering each other up

PRODUCTION – ACTION

The Film

The Pencil

Skills Commentary

The Slideshow

In the film, I used blocking in multiple ways. I moved the actor down towards the end to show a loss of control and power, once when they fall down the stairs and end up below the camera during the lowest emotional point in the film. I also move the actor down in the next shot when they sit down defeated in the chair, showing their lowered emotional state. Another blocking tool I used was leading lines in the library scene framing the actor between two bookcases leading the audience’s eyes to look at the actor inside. The bookcases also block the actor in, representing how the character is stuck emotionally.

POST-PRODUCTION – REFLECTION

21st Century Skills

Ways of Thinking (Creativity, Innovation, Critical Thinking, Problem Solving)

My team and I had to solve the problem of being unable to film the ending due to conflicting schedules. We combated this by rewriting the ending to take place in a location that we could film in during school hours, but still fit in with the rest of the film.

Ways of Working (Communication & Collaboration)

My team would hold daily stand-up meetings to communicate what we were going to do that day and plan farther ahead. We also would frequently discuss script, shot, and blocking details and collaborate on our different visions for the film.

Tools for Working (Info & Media Literacy)

After each day of filming, I would make rough cuts using DaVinci Resolve. This both allowed my team and me to visualize the film and allowed me to practice my skills in the program.

Ways of Living in the World (Life & Career)

Working with my team in this session gave me working world experience by having to collaborate creatively, schedule a project, and create a final product with many moving parts.

Reactions to the Final Version

A reaction from Eric on the advisory board was “The stair fall added production value to the film.” Another reaction was from Miles who said, “Keep the lighting consistent during the school scenes.”

Self-Evaluation of Final Version

While I wouldn’t say the film was amazing, it is definitely my favorite that I have made. The production was by far the smoothest production I have worked on, and the final product closest matched my vision.

Grammar and Spelling

Grammarly

Editor

Jack R

A Day in My Life

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Summary

For this project I examined an average day in my life and used the data to make a documentarian video. I made the video in 1960s/1970s aesthetic using film grain, vinyl record sound effects, and music modeled after that time period.

Font

I chose a font called Massive Retaliation, because it fit the aesthetic I indented the video to be in.

Color Palette

I wanted the color palette to feel like the ocean which brought me to my color palette of bright blues and sea greens.

Pie Chart

I forgot the percentage for “In Bed”, but was able to fix it while editing

Script

I did things out of order and started doing basic editing before writing a script. I ended up coming up with background audio that I liked and fit well, but was too busy to be used as background audio. So after trying a few recordings of my voice, and not being happy with the results, I decided to abandon the idea using a script and narration for a on screen way of presenting my information.

Audio Editing

I used DaVinci Resolve’s audio editor for my audio in this project. I haven’t done any real audio editing before, and using DaVinci Resolve’s editor allowed me to jump in without learning a new program.

Storyboard

I wasn’t planning on doing anything very flashy for my editing. I wasn’t planning on using any images because I thought they might subtract from stylized feeling of everything else. So my storyboard was very simple and not very detailed because I didn’t need it to be.

Video Editing

I used DaVinci Resolve for editing the clips together, but for the clips themselves they were mostly made in After Effects. I switched between these to programs because they each supplied me with different things I needed to get my project looking the way I wanted. I used After Effects for the film grain effect, DaVinci’s film grain is fine, but After Effects is much easier to use, offers more control, and has better glow to give the images a filmic feel. On the other hand DaVinci allowed me to edit all the clips together and merge clips together quickly and fluidly.

The Documentary

Video

What I Learned and Problems I Solved

I learned a lot more about DaVinci, last session felt like a crash course in using the software, this session felt like I actually got to use the program. I understand the UI and workflow better. I learned about different effects and how to edit them using the vastly different node based system. I encountered issues with editing it at home instead of at school. For one, any mistake I made at school couldn’t be fixed using conventional methods, an example of that is that I forgot the percentage on one of my clips. Instead of re-rendering the clip with percentage on it, I instead had to place part of an other clip with percentage on it and mask the two clips together. An other problem was that I couldn’t find a noise clip that was long enough for the video, so I edited some noise off of the vinyl record clip and used that as my background noise throughout the video.