User:Simonkarls

=Analytical Writing=

Overview
I’ve toyed with what to write about and have really racked my brain on what would be of an acceptable scope and vision. I am a video production student sitting near the end of my bachelor degree so since the program is starting to wind down that means its starting speeding up for the next couple quarters. I am filming my senior project this quarter and have decided that to save my mental health I want to kill two birds with one stone and do a series of journals really breaking down my filmmaking process during my quarter of filming. I want to do a journal piece after each week and in these journals I want to sit down and explain what my team did, how things worked, how I felt about it, what I thought about what we did, how we did what we did and any other thoughts, feelings, and concerns about production.

Rationale
I want to be able to look back on my production notes and be able to learn from them. I also want things to put on the DVD when it’s done and feel that this is a great opportunity to really get something that will add an extra layer to the behind the scenes it will also make an interesting part when we start filming the documentary.

Publication


Schedule



 * 1) week 2
 * 2) week 3
 * 3) week 4
 * 4) etc.

Anticipated Problems
My biggest issue is the fact that I’ll be filming it and juggling 5 classes while doing all this journal writing. On top of all this I will be working about 25-35 hours a week. To compensate for all of this I plan on setting aside at least one day a week to write the journals. I may not be able to write every week so my plan would be to write double the following week.

Week 6 Project Review
As I started filming this movie I started to really reflect on my passion for what I am doing. I’ve been a type of performer my whole life and have always loved story telling. It wasn’t until 2004 that I would latch on to this chosen profession. The summer of 2004 was a life changing few months, I would enter into a six week summer program with a group that helps high school students get in to college called Upward Bound, in the program one must go through a few classes, one of which was a film class where I was to make a documentary or biography. I ended up doing a biography and was the first one done with the project. I had never done any of the process before. It had just come natural. That summer also played heavy on me because I was moving from Montana to Washington, but the most influential part of the whole summer were the two movies I saw that really resonated with me; they were Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and M. Night Shymalan’s The Village. Fahrenheit 9/11 was influential because it was the first movie that showed me how a movie can create an emotional response. It was The Village that would bring me to the powerful moment when I would realize that this is what I wanted to do. I remember sitting in the theatre watching M. Night’s gorgeous cinematography, I remember watching as the camera slow panned over a group of dead trees reaching toward the sky faded into the soft blue cloudless sky. It was that moment when I remember saying “this is what I need to do with my life.” I’ve always been a conflicted person. My sheer inability to comprehend anything that is illogical is often over shadowed by my certainty with all things. Since I was in 4th grade I knew what I wanted to do with my life. At one point I wanted to get a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences. Shortly after that I want to be a child psychologist. By my freshman year in high school I wanted to be a chef. One by one I dropped all these and picked up the other until I landed upon my new chosen profession. Making films is something that I really love. Between work and nonsensical general education classes, the only real joy I get at this point is making movies.

On other notes we started filming on Friday and Saturday. I am happy with all the footage and the direction in which we’re taking the picture. Friday we shot at the workshop in Sand Point, which is where scene 2 and 5 take place. 2 is where the main character, River, walks in to find a body and scene 5 is where River has come back to take pictures of the dead body he found in scene 2 but this time he is ambushed by a masked man. On Saturday we shot in the Ballard Train yard where we shot scene 12, which is where River is clearing his mind in the train yard, and gets a call from Charlie, his secretary saying she’s been kidnapped. I am very happy with all the footage and can’t wait until what has been christened “The Weekend From Hell” because it is almost 72 hours of none stop filming.

Before Or During Week 6

 * research: mise-en-cadre (1,000 words)
 * journals: retrospective analysis/regrets/"wish I'd known" etc. 40%journals 60%analysis
 * 2,000 words

Project
My research paper was going to be about the idea of Mese-en-cadre, since that idea basically breaks down to a definition and no history or story behind it. So my paper is going to be about the history of film noir. Noir is of course French for Black. Noir is seen as a genre now, but isn’t really one in the traditional sense. It’s a style more than anything and also unlike other styles, it was not created by some guy in an office who wanted to be a revolutionary it was created out of sheer necessity. The early filmmakers of the 40’s and 50’s were poor and had terrible costumes, worse sets, weak make up (if any) and bad art design. So what were they to do? It was then they took a page from the filmmakers of the 10’s and 20’s, These people were the creators of German Expressionism. German Expressionism came from the painters and photographers of Germany. In the early years of film there were two countries of origins with two different styles and beliefs in film. One was the Russians who believed in faster cuts, odd off kilter shots, and almost a backwards film language. The Germans won out against the Russians as the predominate film style. Just about every movie we watch nowadays is from the stylings of the German filmmaking. German filmmaking is how we see film now. It’s slower cuts and a very set way of unraveling stories. They use a method where if there is a character moving toward a door you must see them get to then enter the door before changing to another place this was made very famous by Alfred Hitchcock. The Germans also use slower cuts and show more of the scene through “coverage”, the different shots. They use the traditional establishing shot, wide shot, medium shot, close up, while the Russians didn’t see the point in using the wide shots or establishing. An establishing shot is the farthest shot a filmmaker can use, it is a shot to show the general area of where the action is taking place so the viewers can orient themselves in the scene. A wide shot is a far shot showing the characters in the space, it’s closer than the establishing shot. The medium shot is a shot of the character or subject from the waist up. The last shot in the sequence is the close up which is typically the shoulders up. Going back to the main question. What were they suppose to do? With their bad costumes, make up, sets, etc. Drench it all in shadows. They didn’t have a lot of money for lights and other equipment so they used the stuff they had to make an eerie mood. The basic light set up for media is called a “three point” lighting set up. This is made up of a “key” light which is the main source of light on the subject, a “fill” light which fills in the subject and helps model the subjects features, the final is a “back” light which pulls the subject from the background. The key and fill light are placed at a diagonal on the right and left of the subject but still in front of them. In media light ratios are key. A light ratio is how hot the key light is to the fill light. They light TV very flat for speed and easy. A flat light ratio is 2:1 which means that if the key light is 50 foot candles (a foot candle is how much light is seen from a candle 1 foot away, so 50 foot candles is how much light is seen from 50 candles 1 foot away) then the key light must be 25 foot candles. Movies have a more dramatic ratio of any where from 3:1 to 5:1. Film Noir has a stronger ratio still of 7:1 to 10:1. This 10:1 ratio gives a brighter side to where the other side has just enough light to keep the subject from complete darkness. Besides being just a sheer necessity film noir came from the peril and gloom of the Second World War. The darkness of the world mood showed a need for the same feeling to be shown in media. Noir is characterized by dark lighting, plots about detectives and femme fatales. It’s often set in the mean, dark city and quite often it rains. The characters are often tortured souls and most of the time are broken emotionally. The people are dark and brooding and often are intelligent. Some of the greatest noir pictures include “The Maltese Falcon”, “Double Indemnity”, and “M”. After the hay day of noir past a new era in noir started it would be known as “Neo noir” or “Post noir”. The likes of which would mostly be a throw back to noir as a genre. “Neo Noir” would keep all the same characteristics as Noir, but incorporate some new ideas and twists into the genre. Some of the new things Neo Noir has brought to the table past Noir is more of a sci fi or surrealistic plot, such as “Alien” or “Sin City”, color has also been added, adding a different look and feel to the movie that wasn’t there in the black and white days of film noir. Noir is one of the strongest and longest running genres. In my opinion it is the only genre that has been consistently great over all the years. With it’s stunning visuals and dark powerful plots, brooding characters and amazing technical background Noir is the quintessential genre for great cinema. Noir is a terrific example of how necessity can create greatness. It’s 20 year run has inspired directors for generations and is continuing to change the way we see film.

Journals

Tuesday February 9th, 2010 As I started filming this movie I started to really reflect on my passion for what I am doing. I’ve been a type of performer my whole life and have always loved story telling. It wasn’t until 2004 that I would latch on to this chosen profession. The summer of 2004 was a life changing few months, I would enter into a six week summer program with a group that helps high school students get in to college called Upward Bound, in the program one must go through a few classes, one of which was a film class where I was to make a documentary or biography. I ended up doing a biography and was the first one done with the project. I had never done any of the process before. It had just come natural. That summer also played heavy on me because I was moving from Montana to Washington, but the most influential part of the whole summer were the two movies I saw that really resonated with me; they were Michael Moore’s Fahrenheit 9/11 and M. Night Shymalan’s The Village. Fahrenheit 9/11 was influential because it was the first movie that showed me how a movie can create an emotional response. It was The Village that would bring me to the powerful moment when I would realize that this is what I wanted to do. I remember sitting in the theatre watching M. Night’s gorgeous cinematography, I remember watching as the camera slow panned over a group of dead trees reaching toward the sky faded into the soft blue cloudless sky. It was that moment when I remember saying “this is what I need to do with my life.” I’ve always been a conflicted person. My sheer inability to comprehend anything that is illogical is often over shadowed by my certainty with all things. Since I was in 4th grade I knew what I wanted to do with my life. At one point I wanted to get a Ph.D. in Computer Sciences. Shortly after that I want to be a child psychologist. By my freshman year in high school I wanted to be a chef. One by one I dropped all these and picked up the other until I landed upon my new chosen profession. Making films is something that I really love. Between work and nonsensical general education classes, the only real joy I get at this point is making movies. On other notes we started filming on Friday and Saturday. I am happy with all the footage and the direction in which we’re taking the picture. Friday we shot at the workshop in Sand Point, which is where scene 2 and 5 take place. 2 is where the main character, River, walks in to find a body and scene 5 is where River has come back to take pictures of the dead body he found in scene 2 but this time he is ambushed by a masked man. On Saturday we shot in the Ballard Train yard where we shot scene 12, which is where River is clearing his mind in the train yard, and gets a call from Charlie, his secretary saying she’s been kidnapped. I am very happy with all the footage and can’t wait until what has been christened “The Weekend From Hell” because it is almost 72 hours of none stop filming.

Tuesday March 16, 2010

We are nearing the end of filming. On Wednesday we film some reshoots for most of the scenes because we realized to make things a bit easier in the editing room we have to have more close ups then we have currently. I hate having to do reshoots because they are a pain in the ass. They basically entail having to recreate the lighting for the scene the shot has to be cut into and then we have to match performances and movements. It’s not nearly as much fun as the actual filming. Luckily we have a great cast who can do anything we ask. Friday we are filming the final 2 scenes in Pioneer Square. They scenes are the bookends of my movie where the main character talks to his friend, Sam the Saxophonist, who is a kind of informant to him. After a short exchange Sam plays a song for him that is the key to the whole movie. The final scene is River talking to Sam again after the events of the movie have played out. I really love doing this stuff. The more we get into this movie the more I realize how much I hate producing stuff. The business end irritates me at least in pat because I hate begging people to let me do things. I hate having to ask random people if I can use a location to film or if I can borrow something to make a scene work. My co-director and I are looking to find a producer, editor and P.A.s for our future projects so we don’t have to worry about those things. We have most of a crew but it breaks down to we have a few positions that we need to fill to have a solid team. With that being said I love what we have. I can’t wait to get into editing to make this A MOVIE.

Tuesday March 23, 2010 We spoke with Mr. Glover today and showed him the rough cut. He told me and my co director that there are some fixes that need to be done to make this movie as solid as it should be. The characters motivation isn’t as strong as it should be and there is a missed opportunity because there is no scene where my villain and her puppet actually meet up alone. So we have to shoot one more day of pick up shots and another day of filming. I am not sure where or how that last day of filming will go down though. We might just shoot it in the studio so it’s not nearly as hard as finding a location but I wouldn’t be against go somewhere and shooting it on location like the rest of the movie. I am excited to get this thing done. I’ve juggled school, my movie, and work all of which need a lot of my attention. The best way to do this is to deal with one at a time as it comes up.