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.