Reflextion

I not sure what to write here. Not because I didn't learn anything, but because I think that the most important things will come out later in our careers. Or maybe next week, but sometime in the future. A month is a short time to pick up as much Dr.R was laying down but I think what I did Manage to get will be very useful.

I learned a lot about lighting techniques and what goes into the planning of a lighting design. A good deal was said about cameras and lenses and filters. A few editing techniques were discussed. Overall preparedness was stressed.

I think that this class was most fun class I've taken in quite a while and should be mandatory for majors.
Equally I felt that this was one of the hardest classes I have taken. And oh so compact. This class hurt. But enjoyed every minute of it.

Reel & Artist statement

Artist Statement, huh? I think that art should have reason Well I guess my reason is to entertain people. Wether it's comedy or documentary, or acton. I want tell stories about the relentlessness of the human sprit. I want People to have a connection to that they are seeing on screen. That is the most important part.

What is a story? What is a Good Story? What is a story with no one to listen? No matter how good the narrative, if the execution is off, it greatly effects the ability to capture a relationship with the audience. But just as possible, if the visuals are perfect and the editing is as good as it can get, it won't matter if the story is useless.

In the end it is the intertwining of vision, narrative and technique that matter when trying to tell a good story. That is what I am trying to do.

Scene Assignment

Portrait of a Place

This didn't turn out as I i had hoped, mostly due to my choice of subject.

Lighting

This picture is very interesting. I like the use to of the soft light to illuminate the front of the car and the unnatural green glow coming from inside the car. I feel this give a nice contrast to separate the very nice sky background.

This picture has a very nice contrast of light between the ground and the sky. The shafts of light that are captured give an ominous feel to the picture as a whole. The picture has on overall cool color palate but has some warmer elements in the clouds in the distance.

I really love the lighting in the picture because of the unnatural feel it gives to it. This picture has a very strong key light and has a natural backlight that gives a very nice separation of the subject from the background.

This picture is very cool because of the overexposed background that gives it an almost mystic feel. The left and right side of the frame have a large amount of contrast with each other, and the color palate is very warm.

This photo has a very cool palate with the mist rising form the field. I like the contrast between the dark foreground and the bright sun and background.

I really like the earth tones used in this photo. The shadow vs. light dynamic is very breathtaking as well. The red gives a nice contrast to the green foliage. 

Movement

Boondock Saints - Hotel scene



This is a great scene form the cult classic The Boondock Saints that has several slow-mo dolly shots.

These are two frames from a dolly shot towards the beginning of The Departed

This is a clip from inception, its has several great dolly shots most of which follow the talent as they walk through the location






Dolly an jib shots are good when used to track something in the scene or reveal  something in a slow dramatic way. When they are over used however they lose their dramatic value and become repetitive. 

Opening to O’Brother Where Art Thou?

O’Brother Where Art Thou?

Director: Joel Coen

Cinematographer: Roger Deakins

O’Brother where art thou? Starts off with an extreme wide shot of an open field. The distant tree line and sky that takes up over two-thirds of the frame represents the isolation and longing for freedom felt by the characters. The completely desaturated color gives a since of age to the film.

 The shot very slowly pans to the chain gang breaking rocks on the side of the road. The officers on the horses are close in the frame and the gun is highly visible to show their imposing and unwavering dominance. The shot is framed along the diagonal of the road and the line of the chain gang, which leads to the vanishing point. This shot gives the illusion that the chain gang goes on forever into the dusty distance. In this shot the color slowly changes from completely desaturated to a sepia tone.

 This shot a slow dolly shot framed low on the faceless prisoners and looking upwards towards the guard. This shows the dominance of the guard and the utter worthlessness felt by the prisoners.

 This is another slow dolly shot that is framed upward towards the prisoners. This is the first shot to clearly show any faces. This could indicate there true humanity is much more important that that of the law officers. This is to make the connection with the audience with the traditional “bad guys.” This shot is framed high to show the sky in half of the frame, this is to show the prisoners longing for freedom. This shot ends on a very young looking prisoner show the indifference of the law toward juvenile offenders in this age.

 This shot starts with a close up of the back of one of the prisoners, then pans to the diagonal of the chain gang. This shot show the rhythm of the chain gang together and the unity the prisoners have with one another.

This shot is a downward facing dolly shot going down the line in-between the prisoners. The chains are framed on both lines of the left and right thirds. This shot clearly represents the depression felt by the prisoners by showing the physical chains that bind them. This also shows how the prisoners are bound to one another.

 This shot is farmed low on the near talent and has a wide depth of field. In the left of the frame is the almost smiling face of a prisoner, and in the right of the frame is the stern face of a guard. This shot shows the conflicting attitudes of the two sides of opposing characters that is reveled throughout movie.

 This is an extremely low shot of the prisoners’ feet and the rocks they are breaking. This shot has a very shallow depth of field, and in the distance is a guard. This shot has a lot of dust and debris in the air each time the rocks are hit. This shot seems to solidify the rigid structure these men are living under and their hopelessness.

 This is a two shot of prisoners. This shot give a good since of the humanity of the prisoners.

This shot is almost a reverse shot of the opening shot. Although in this shot the camera is more of a tracking dolly shot in which the guard on horseback rides through, the guard’s gun is highly visible in the shot once again. The vanishing point illusion is once again used. This shot reiterates the dominance and seriousness of the guards. 

Goals

My eventual goal in general is to eventually own a production company. I have worked on commercials that have aired nationally and regionally. Also I have been apart of the production of a national television show about a celebrity-fishing tournament. I would like to do this type of commercial and television production because it would give me the most flexibility, hopefully this would give me the stability and backing to possibly produce a full independent feature length production. As far is the near future goes though, I hope to get a job working for a large production company to gain as much experience as possible about both the aspects of production and running a business in the industry. I think the most influential courses I have taken while in the TCF program are 461 (Advanced Television Production) and 351 (Commercial Production). In 461 we produce two documentaries about the artists in Alabama for the TV series Art Scene Alabama. This was the closest class to an actual production I have enrolled in. In 351 we produced two commercials for local businesses. This class was very informative and we were pushed to come up the concept, production schedule and overcome obstacles that occurred with the actual production on our own.

I hope that in this class I will learn more about the actual reasoning behind each individual shot including, but not limited to the framing, composition and intentions of the Director and DP. Also I hope this class will make my productions better all around. 

(sorry this is late, I think i must have hit save and thought it had published)

Pictures that inspire me often combine elements in ways that they wouldn't naturally appear. such as in this picture where the perspective makes all the difference.
 

Things that look too goo to be true also inspire me. This image represents that because it make the natural look "unnatural."

 This picture I took several years ago. I really like the color contrast between the sky and foreground. The shadows in the clouds also give a great since of scale and depth.

This is actually a picture of me. I tired to give a real sense of depth by using the perspective of the pier.

This is another picture I took of my dog. I was trying to get the perfect balance of reflection from the water vs. lens flare.










This Picture is nice because it is showing the range of depth of field. I made sure to black out the background and tried to get as much contrast between the red felt and black shadows on it.

ten things huh,

1.  I love budweiser
2.  I love rum (puerto rican and captain)
3. I have adhd and dyslexia
4. I love to make pretty things (paintings, etc)
5. I have a hard time reading (horizontal dyslexia)
6. Tyler is my brother from another mother
7. the movie blues brothers is the best "musical" ever!

8. i watched extremity close and incredibly loud last night and almost cried
9. l like some "shoot 'em up" movies too
10. i want to learn, when I'm on set i take in as mush as i can. but it is sometimes hard with so much going on. i want to learn how to make breath-taking visuals without losing sight of the story... btw i have three cats and two dogs and they tell me what to do!