In the Endgame

We're in the endgame now, this is the end of 4 years of high school and the beginning of. new start for the rest of my life. Now I can go out into the world and expierence what it has to offer on my own. But of course sometimes it requires a little reflection and looking back.

5 Guarantees

In eComm we were introduced to something known as the 5 guarantees. They included Technical Skills, Communication, Collaboration, Leadership, and Project Management. They were created to try and set us up for the real world and when we actually get a job and are assigned projects and tasks. There was something to take away from each guarantee. 

Technical Skills

technical skills taught me how to use a camera, how to use editing software, and how to use my world famous lighting. It's important to know your way around technology because of the ever evolving world e live in where everything is starting to rely on technology. However having to wrap your head around software issues pr remembering what every button does on a camera is difficult for me because like every other teenager, I have an awful memory. 

Communication

Communication is another great skill since a lot of the time in the film industry you have to work with others to create projects and complete your films. It's hard to manage everything ion your own so working with a team is essential and will help you in almost everything you do. You can't really be taught how to communicate with peopler, you just have to do it and learn the rights and wrongs along the way. There's a learning curve to it and it can be very difficult when others don't want to work with you, which is something you have to learn how to deal with. 

Collaboration

Collaboration and communication are very similar as both have to do with working with others. It's easy to get angry at those around you when things aren't going your way but you have to learn how to deal with it, settle your differences, and move on. There's a skill when it comes to working with others because you don't necessarily have to communicate with people. You just have to know how to work with people effectively and what everyones goals and needs are. 

Leadership

Leadership often requires one person to stand up and take charge over other people without becoming a dictator. Leadership is one of the harder skills to learn because there's a balance between being controlling over everyone and just letting everyone do what they want. There's a sweet spot in there that you have to learn in order to have everyone work as effectively as possible and ensure that everyone is doing their jobs correctly. You also have to manage everything that comes your way since you become the center of attention as a leader. 

Project Management

This is one that everyone struggles with. It's straight forward in the fact that you just have to know how to effectively manage your time and complete every task you set out to do. However when multiple other project start to come your way, it becomes difficult to take care of every singe one and complete it on time. You have to learn where to place how important something g is over the other. 

Strong Man, Weak Arm

One of my greatest strengths is lighting. everyone compliments me on it and I just try to do the best that I can with any given lighting. I also tend to work well with others and how to settle arguments effectively and make everyone happy in the end. However one things I struggle with is management. When everything starts flying at me it becomes very difficult to take care of everything without me wanting to breakdown and give up. However I somehow manage to push through and complete every task that's given to me on time and effectively. 

Video Work

This is one of my favorite film reels I ever made because it truly included some of my favorite work I did, however I lost 50% of the clips because of a stolen SD card. I had uploaded them to the computer but had to wipe it at the end of the school year so I kept them on the card. I then handed it over to and editor and never saw it again. It captures some of my best work as a cinematographer. I don't often do work behind the camera just because it still scares me however the second half of the video incorporates my lighting techniques and some of the best I've done for a feature film I made.


High Priestess Punch was a short film I worked on for a 25hr film festival. I was invited by a former teacher how supplied us with film equipment for our feature film and we ended u bonding during filming. He trusted me enough to handle the lighting and come with him during filming. We spent an entire night writing a script and creating a short film and it turned out to look pretty nice. The reason it's on of my favorites is because of how much fun it was. We had a great tie running around to different locations and staying up late to create it. It won 2nd place in 2 different competitions which is also another bonus for me.


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This has to be one of the most fun projects I worked on. Creating this masterpiece of a short film was so fun and we all enjoyed it so much. It was basically a bunch of friends getting together one night to create a short film. I was a last minute addition to the crew as they were struggling to light a few scenes so they invited me to come help them. It was fun to make and there isn't a lot I would change other than trying to use an actual lighting kit instead of a light stand.

In Class

I used my time as best as I could, balancing y time with friends with working on my projects. I tried to do some outside work but most of the time it ended up falling through. There were a few projects here and there but none of them really involved me getting behind a camera. For in class projects I usually worked as the gaffer (the light guy). Everyone trusted me to create well done lighting the looked really good on camera. Sometimes it worked sometimes it didn't but my main focus this year was to light the actors properly and focus on making them look well lit.  I need to createmore films which is why I have a few planned out for this summer and into fall. I have a big year ahead of me and I'm ready to expand my horizons into something else. 

Last Oorah

I've made a lot of good memories this year and the last 4 years with everyone I've worked with. It's fun to look back and see how I've evolved as a person and all the different things I've done. There's nothing I would change because then I wouldn't have learned what I learned and wouldn't experience what I expierenced. I wouldn't be who I am today if I changed anything. I think I just need to create what I want to create and do what I want do when it comes to filming and I'll turn out alright. 

Looking Back

Commercial

Our project was to make a commercial to show off any type of product we wanted to. My group s=chose to promote our football team this year since we were all in football. We created a short video that showcased our new jerseys. It took us about a day to get all of the shots and have our editor put all the pieces together. However it took us a long time to actually get the shots due to the fact that none of our actors wanted to come in and film. When we finally got them to agree, they weren't cooperating on set and we had to wrangle them in a few times.  Some feedback was that we lost the black colored jersey in the dark lighting and the white jersey wasn't lit very well at first. Someone also noticed that some of the products didn't match (Addidas shoes with Nike socks). We didn't change anything since there was nothing we could really do to improve it with our feedback other than reshoot the whole thing and that wasn't really an option. I think we made something pretty decent that would get someone hyped up for our football program. 

Music Video

For this music video I chose to do a video for the song Brother by Kodaline. It was a close project to me as the video reflected my feelings towards my brother who passed away and how I found new brothers in my life as time went on. The video took us 2 days, one for filming and one for editing. Some challenges was that the other actor besides me was getting very grumpy as we went along in the video (I'm noticing a trend with actors here). We also had a very small crew so it was a little harder to try and get multiple different things at once and I also had a hard time trying to get my vision across to my camerawoman. I learned how important it is to communicate with others and the importance of giving your friends food to do what you want. Some feedback was that it was a little shaky at parts and that was because we didn't get tripod. People also didn't understand what the story was at first so I had to explain to them. I like the video overall other than the fact that we had to cut out the verse that I wanted in simply because we didn't get enough shots when I thought we had enough. 

Short Film

This project was to make just a short film that was under 10 minutes. Everyone made a script and then we had to pick the one that we thought was the best out of all of them. It took us about 2 days to complete the film, again one for filming another for editing. The biggest challenge we faced was working in such a small room without my trusty 3 point lighting kit (someone stole a light from a 3 point lighting kit). We also didn't get enough shots when we thought we had enough and there was miscommunication from us to our editor. The feedback was that some shots were boring, you couldn't see some things, the actress wasn't clear with her lines, and that you could see the lights in some shots. We didn't change anything considering those were all things we could only change with reshoots and changing the delivery with lines. I didn't really like this one either since I was with most people about how boring it was.

Effective Timing

For most of the time in class, my group is watching videos and seeing what elements we can put into our film. Since my job almost always relies on being on set (i'm usually the gaffer or director) I didn't do much in class other than that. If I had extra time I would spend it reading about film or watching short films.

Muscles

I'm strongest in learning. I'm willing to learn and I'm also a very quick learner. If I don't catch on right away I'll ask questions and stand back and watch. I'm also good with working with others. Another things is that I'm very creative and look for creative solutions. 

Improvement

I could us some work on my confidence behind a camera. I often have to think about how I want to set up my shot and that tends to lead me to overthink how I want the shot to look like. I also have a hard time getting the shot to actually look the way I want it to. 

Guests are Welcome

We had 3 guests speakers come into class but I was only able to meet with 2 of them. One of them being my film Dad, Gordon Lamb. He taught us about how to effectively write a script and some effective styles of writing. Another guest was Drew Conners, who focused on how to write a character instead of dialouge. He liked to focus on making a character interesting, even if we don't necessarily like them. 

Future Feature Film

With our upcoming feature film, I will be reprising my role as the Gaffer, King of Lights.  I can bring lots of knowledge of how to make characters and shots look more interesting from at technical standpoint. I will effectively use this to help us create a much more appealing film. 

Skip Here for Summary

I loved working on films this semester just as a whole. Every time i'm out filming is the time of my life. I also enjoyed writing scripts and making ideas. Some things I would change is that I would work with more people, more often. I didn't make half of things I wanted to simply because I didn't reach out to people. I want to make many more films next year and expand my reach to go farther beyond school. 

Short Film Project

Within my group we had 3 scripts to pick from. We decided to use this script as it was he most simple and could be done in a few days.  Th script was about a young woman who reflects on her life and the loss of her mother. It would involve flashbacks as she monologues her life.

My group created storyboards and we created shot from our already full script. After we created storyboards we picked a day to shoot and got our actors together and prepared them for their role. Once we actually started shooting one of my group members had an idea for a shot so I let them take the camera. She was originally the director and I was the cinematographer. Eventually we just switched roles as we found each other switching better for this project. I was not involved in the editing process but our editor did make her dialogue faster to help fix the pacing of the film.

I learned that I should always take in new ideas and also how to work with minimal lighting to create a scene. Of course there are still a few shots where you can actually see the lights but the was a fault on both the cinematographer and myself.

I would prepare better and have more actors readily available . We ended up not having enough time to film and also didn't have enough actors to get all of our shots. However I think being open to allowing others to take over my job and try to see things from their point of view will help me moreas my career progresses.

Overall I learned more how collaboration is very important and will change the outcome of a film.

Commercial Project

Product

We wanted to advertise our new jerseys to gain support fir our new season. We didn't ned a huge script so the concept would be easy to create without any dialogue. All that my group wanted to do is make a hype video for our school. 

Production

My group started off by trying to find a way that we could make people hyped about our football program. We had about 2 pages for storyboarding that had our player getting ready for a game and then showing off the jerseys at the same time. We assigned ourselves the roles and started to work on dates and times for our actors. We managed to get some time where we could get them into the locker room and get all of our filming done. IT took about an hour to film everything and get everyone in place to get people ready. Then after filming we handed it off to our editor and he picked the music with our sound supervisor. I was a gaffer so most of the lighting was designed by me to give off a look that would hyp people up. There wasn't anything new to be learned from this project so I just appiled some past skills in order to create the lighting.

Changes

Since we got pressed for time and had actors that weren't willing to cooperate all the time, we had to cut most of the story board and make it much smaller and less quality than it could've been. I would've found more cooperating actors and create something that would've been willing to put more time into it. However I wouldn't have changed the tempo of the music or the video because I believe those parts were delivered very well. 

Meeting The Objectives

We didn't meet the part of building a story very well but all other aspects I thought were very well done, such as limited information and call to action. Just having a story would've enhanced these aspects so much more and created something stronger overall. As for the principles of filmaking, i Believe we hit those very well because of our shots that created interest to viewers and our editors great skill. Of course the lighting was also amazing. 

Kansas City Savior Reflection

For our classes feature film I was the gaffer, or the chief light technician, whatever sounds cooler. This means for almost every scene I was the only who lit each character and created moody lighting.  Some of the things that came along with creating such amazing lighting was being able to light every scene without creating hard shadows. Some scenes such as the apartment scenes were very difficult to light since it was so tight and I wasn't very good at the lighting at the time. Eventually as the movie went on I got much better at the lighting which can be seen in the villain scenes and some of the warehouse scenes. Most of the feedback that was given to me was very positive and had very few negative feedback. Overall I think I helped create a better movie with my lighting by making what would be boring scenes to be more dramatic. My impact on the film was very positive and would create a stronger film. 

The time that I spent in class was trying to help keep the film together and help as much as I could to make it even better. I would check with other students as we progressed to make sure my vision with lighting would be able to compliment theirs. Outside of class I would try and find different lighting techniques and just analyse what creates strong lighting.

My strength as an e-comm student is being able to spot details or movement that creates a better scene. I have an eye for creating a nice picture and I maximize that by just taking a video or picture of what I see and seeing if it matched the vision in my mind.

Some skills that I lack is being able to convey my message to others. My ideas are very outlandish and can be difficult for me to explain how I want to it to play out. The way i improved upon that is by simply explaining what was going through my head when I wrote the idea.

During our premiere I like the limo ride and being able to talk to students from both classes. The thing I loved most was the amount of people that went to the premiere and being able to hear immediate reactions from something that we created. I think I would change the location of the premiere as Cinetopia wasn't my favorite theater to go to. I would also improve the seating arrangements. One thing I would take away from being able to create a film was working with others productively and getting things done when we needed to. For next year I'd like to teach the students what I learned so that they could learn from my mistakes and what they will need to do in order to succeed. 

Semester Review

Videos Made Over the Semester 

PSA

The PSA was about suicide and was made to show that you are never alone and should always seek help from friends or those you can trust. The story behind it was done very well and had good cinematography. It didn't take a long time to create the short film and was made very quickly. I learned how to work people who are not very open and don't like to work with others very well. Some of the feedback that was given was for the edits. The story was good, the cinematography was good, and the acting was played very well. We went back and changed the flow of the short film so that it made it better to follow and made it much more interesting and hard-hitting. This video was pretty good but if it was under my direction I would've done it much differently, relying on more visual storytelling to show a story of someone struggling with suicide. 

Short Film

The film we crated was taken down due to copyright but the video was a basic short that featured a stalker and someone who has to fight him off. It was shorter than what you'd consider a short film and was very simplistic. This was very different from my short film that I wanted to create which featured more drawn out characters and set pieces but was not able to be created due to problems with actors not being able to show up. We had very short time to work around it and did the best we could to make a new short film that would work. 

Time in Class

I used most of my time in class trying to learn more about filmography and different techniques that can improve my film making. When we were not doing anything with our projects I was watching videos that would help me create a better story in films. I didn't have much to do with the post-production with most of my projects and usually stuck to pre- production and production, so many times I watched videos to help me further my production values and worked with the post-production team. When I wasn't in class I would work on client work or continue to research ways to improve my films. I would also write out my film ideas and try to create a more comprehensive story. 

Areas of Strength

I would consider some of my strengths to be through my story telling ability and telling a very advanced story that is played out well and has emotion and feeling to it. My visual story telling is also very good. I use these to create an interesting story that can keep people entertained.

Areas of Improvement

I could use some improvement in my editing skills. IN the break from school, I did not work on any projects over the summer. I lost most of my editing skills and forgot how to use editing software. 

Learning From Guest Speakers

We had 2 different guest speakers in class that had a lot of knowledge to share with us. The first speaker provided experience of working with a larger production team and working on professional projects. The other speaker provided more experience on working on projects yourself and building yourself up on your own. 

MX4D

We took a field trip to a 4D cinema one day, which was a very interesting experience. MX4D technology has sensory enhancements (Movement, smell, air, water, lights, fog, etc.) that go along with what film is being shown. We saw Justice League and the 4D technology hindered the film more than help the film. The smells were very bad and there were strobe lights that were not needed. There were some movements that were not needed and there were many missed opportunities missed with any Aquaman scenes. 

Final Thoughts 

For next semester I plan on creating many more films and working as a gaffer in our class feature film. I've already learned a lot about cinematography this year and I am ready to apply it to next years films. 

MX4D Expierence

There are only five 4D movies theaters in the country. One of them just happens to be in the midwest, twenty minutes down the road. 4D is a sensory movie experience that enhances the movie by using movement, smells, air, and other sights and sounds. The movie that was playing in the theater was Justice League.

I had seen Justice League before seeing it in 4D so my expectations for the movie were high for watching it in 4D. However it did not live up to the expectations I had hoped for. There was random movement that didn't go with the scene. Many water scenes had a missed opportunity of having water splash and the smells and air could be very distracting. The strobe lights for bullets were overused for some scenes but with any of the Flash scenes they were used effectively. The smells though, they were bad. The smells and strobe lights were probably the worst part of it all. My favorite parts were probably the Flash scenes.

Overall the 4D didn't do anything for me and probably made the movie worse. The smells made my head hurt and the air noises were very distracting. I would much rather watch a 2D movie over a 3D or 4D movie. 2D movies have so far delivered a much better expierence for me because it's just movie on a big screen that you can sit back and enjoy without any crazy special effects around you.