Thursday, October 15, 2009

saturday shoot!

We had our Saturday shoot this past Saturday. it involved using the bolex camera to get a single long take. The long take lasted for 56 seconds and we had one chance in which to film it. it was a really neat and unique experience and I really enjoyed learning about a new camera. This was especially unique because we got to shoot on film, something not very common in todays world and something that as a film student is even more rare just because filming on film today typically means more expensive (especially for the narrative film projects that I am more accustomed to working on) and well, we’re just students. The bolex camera is a type of camera in which I have never worked with anything like it before. You don’t have to worry about battery or anything and don’t have to spend all kinds of time in the menu, changing all the settings and everything. It has very little set-up time (like you have to check a few settings, making sure you’re at the right f-stop and making sure the frames are right and a few little things like that and then load the film in the camera) and then you just crank it and you’re good to go for the 56 seconds that the crank lasts for. After we shot we got to take our film into the black box and actually develop it. this was really cool too because we got to see it appear on the film and then go in the other room and watch it right then. We didn’t have to send it off and have to wait to get back the footage, we got to do it ourselves. I feel like I learned so much with this project and it was really interesting too.

For our actual project, we utilized the arches outside the library and had the actors walk through them, switching actors behind each brick column. The final project looked really good and I think that the fact that it plays faster than what we filmed it only adds to the look of it and makes it even more interesting and entertaining because the people are changing so quickly. It plays faster because we shot it at 12 frames per second instead of the typical 24 frames per second, in which case we would have only gotten 28 seconds of roll time. However the film is projected at 24 frames per second, which is the reason that the film projects at double the normal speed. The exposure adds to it too. The image is almost blown out, its has such a contrast and parts of it are so bright. It looks like an old time movie or something!

but I do think that its really cool that we still get to learn about all these types of filmmaking, even the older ones that aren’t commonly used anymore just because there is so much available today. We have already learned about so much in this class and Im really interested to see what else we end up doing in this class.

Thursday, October 8, 2009

48 hour race!

As we’re getting closer to the 48 hour film race, im getting a little more excited about it. I think that’s its gonna end up being pretty cool and a challenge like ive never had before. To make a film in 48 hours seems like a huge challenge when it takes years to make some. I mean, obviously that’s a very different kind of film, but still. Most people would be like, what, how is that even possible…and that was my first reaction. I mean so much goes into making a film, any film, that it makes me a little nervous to only have 48 hours for everything, even the planning of it. I know its going to have to be one of those more last minute, totally random things. I think its gonna take a lot of creativity and a definite willingness to change things last minute. Usually I have to plan out things but with something like this you can’t, you don’t have the time, you just have to go for it and hope for the best.

I’m really excited to find out what mystery prop will be though, like its one of those things where it can just be anything and it’s the kind of thing that will drive you crazy even attempting to guess what it will be. And the “tips” that you gave us in class, about bringing some orange food in did not help at all…well, it just helped to confuse me more…anyway, im gonna try to stop wondering what its going to be and just wait and see.

The film that we watched in class today that was done all with pictures was really interesting. I really likes the final look of it so im thinking that that’s the technique that im going to use for mine, or at least for the majority of mine. It was really interesting hearing about the other possibilities though and I definitely am thinking that im going to want to try some other techniques too though.

This is such an interesting way to make a movie. I think its going to be really interesting to see all of the things and ideas that people in the class come up with when given the exact same prop, 24 hours, and the restriction of not being able to use movie cameras. Ive never been involved in something like this so I think its gonna be really interesting to see how it turns out.

Friday, October 2, 2009

scratch film junkies take 2

So this was the second scratch film junkies film that ive seen. This time we watched st. louise. I do have to say that I liked the first one we watched a couple weeks ago better than this one. Im not sure why, but I did.

When this one first starts, the music starts first which was cool. I did like how I could recognize some of the effects this time though…like when it was scratching, etc. I now know how they did that. Before I was just like, oh that looks pretty cool but I had no idea how they did it. now I do know, well at least I now know a lot more of it. the first thing I recognized in the film of the techniques that we’ve learned was the scratching, which started out close to the beginning of the film. There was then words on the screen but they were backwards. Things like backwards words make me wonder though, did they make them backwards on purpose or was it an accident that they decided worked well for the look they were going for. Or did the put them backwards just so people like me would be sitting here wondering the reason behind it…

Anyway, the film went on to show black objects on top of all kinds of color, which was part of the film that I liked more. I also liked the arrow turning in a circle part. I also noticed some holes in the film which I think always has that distinct look. Then there was the part with the yellow and orange that reminded me of fire. I don’t know if that’s because those are some of the colors that I used for fire in my elements project or if that’s just because lots of people have learned to associate those colors with fire. There was also old film stock in this film that had been colored on and scratched on, manipulated to make a completely different film that what it was originally made for. I also remember some painting in the film…maybe with oil? I don’t know, I couldn’t tell exactly what was used but that would probably be my guess. There were also lots of straight lines throughout the film which was interesting. I also liked the part where there were lots of white streaks through the images. Also, at the end instead of music playing, there was someone talking. Im not sure why this stuck in my mind but it did…maybe its just not what I was expecting…

It was really cool to be able to see my project as an actual film today. We spent all this time manipulating film stock, painting, doing magazine transfers, scratching, coloring, painting, etc. and we finally got to see the finished project. I mean I had a little bit of an idea of what it would look like I guess but you spend all this time going frame by frame and you really don’t know until you are sitting there watching it be projected. It just goes by so fast but that’s what gives it such a unique look though. I really enjoyed watching it and watching how everybody else’s came together and seeing all the different techniques people used and how some of the effects were the same but they turned out so differently on everybody’s because everybody interprets things differently.