GOTTA REEL THEM IN

An Overview

From the very beginning of this project I knew I wanted it to have a very lighthearted feeling to it, seeing as how this would be my last film reel I produce as an Olathe Northwest student. To create this very positive, fun, airy concept I began with a very upbeat, summery song and then picked out my shots that were the brightest and my interesting, which just happened to include a bunch of outdoor ones that helped the concept a lot. The overall story is looking back at memories and appreciating them, becoming nostalgic while at the same time looking forward to the future and everything that comes; I really wanted this reel to reflect how I am feeling about my last semester of senior year. I used this reel to represent my cinematography and labeled it as a cinematography reel because that is most of the work I do as well as producing a lot of quality work through that production role. I was thinking about putting director because I have been stepping into that role more recently but I felt like I didn't have enough work to accurately show that role to the best of my ability.

Broadcasting My Skills

I showcased good cinematography by showing steady shots that were composed very well and were fun to look at and watch. This also goes hand in hand with good lighting because you can not have good cinematography without good lighting. I chose well lit shots that had variation in lighting styles to show difference and versatility. My audio was nothing special because it just consisted of the music but I made sure it was interesting by lining certain actions with in the shots with the audio making it seem like the two belong together when in reality this project was the first time they met. I was also able to show my editing skills this way too, showing my eye and ear for how things can line up and tell a mini story with in a single shot or two. This also allowed for the reel to flow very nice and not feel to long. I made a lot of changes while editing, moving a lot of things around making sure the story I wanted to tell was being told and no moments were lost.

One Last Time 

This is the most proud I have been of a film reel so far, not only in the video itself but the footage within the reel. I am very proud of how I was able to put together the reel and have it make visual sense and be entertaining and nice to look at. I am also really proud of basically every single shot in it, there is not one that I despise watching because it's so bad, which has never happened in a film reel before for me. If I had to do something different I would have gone back and color graded more so the whole thing was more cohesive and better looking. Overall, I am very proud of this and I still need to add our music video shots, I still want to color grade, as well as take one more look at the order and organization of it to see if it would be better if some shot was moved and edited.

These Days -Wallows Music Video Review

This music video by Wallows follows the band as they try and serenade a girl who does not have the same feelings for them as they do for her. This results in them getting hit with rocks causing them to fall to the ground and play the rest of the song with broken bones. The direction of the video focuses more on visual aspects of the characters within to make the video interesting and tell the story rather than lighting or camera movements. This can be seen in the beginning of the video as the boys reach the girls window and begin signing to her, her feelings are then shown through her facile expressions and how she reaches for the sling shot. The shock of the video comes from close ups of their injuries and the humor from a paramedic coming in with a guitar on a stretcher. Overall the story is about a group of boys chasing after a girl and soon learning that she is not interested and how they aspect this fact. I would like to apply the beautiful but simple shot composition and how they can still effectively tell a story with simple push ins and really nothing else; the colors would also be nice to incorporate as well. One element that I already know that was in this video is how using multiple shots can make a video very interesting to watch and very effective for story telling. The creator of the video did a really good job at picking a story that could easily be told through visual aspects only. I wish there was more going on in the girls storyline, we focus on the boys a lot, mainly because they're the band, but I just wish they had the girl do more interesting activities. I love this video and the whole band and their song and the aesthetic of it all and I strive to produce something this good.

We Made Bread

The Foundation 

For our short film this year my group decided to do Cas's script entitled Good Old Boston. The concept of this script centered around a girl of Jewish faith who moves to Kansas from Boston and becomes home sick because there is no one else who shares her faith at her school besides one other person. This story shows the journey she goes on in finding and creating her own community. We were all really excited to bring this story to life due to it showing a community that is underrepresented in film and television. Once we had a finished script we decided our roles with Cas being director and editor, me as DP, Avra as an assistant cinematographer, and Asya and Alexis as art direction. Honestly, pre-production was a mess because there was no organization. We didn't really know what scenes we would be filming on the first shooting day making me guess at what scenes to storyboard first causing us to only have half of them done. Then I was unable to be on set the first shooting day and soon found out that my storyboards weren't used in their entirety making me scared to see what was shot. Casting was also hard due to no one we knew being available making us use our fellow classmates which actually turned out really well.

The Rest

Everything else went good, there weren't any bumps in the road besides having to change a scene from outside to inside because of lose of daylight but other than that it went really smooth. Post also went well, Cas went to town and did a good job editing the footage together. There wasn't really anything to special during this project, it was pretty straight forward.

My Place

Not being at the first filming day kind of messed up the rest of the film for me. On the first day of filming they used the kit lens and also used the kit lens on the second day before I got there meaning I had to use that lens or else the quality difference would've been noticeable. I honestly got mad and annoyed at this especially when we had checked out a 50, I just didn't understand why we used the kit lens, it made our film look cheap and that's one thing that bothers me the most. I also felt like I couldn't do my job effectively when my storyboards weren't being listened to and that I felt undermined. I learned that I need to make it clear what needs to happen when I'm not there and what I expect to happen because I straight up could not make it to the first filming day and to communicate to my fellow group members the difference in lens's. The only scene I'm proud of is the one where she is in her room on her computer in the dark but even that one could be way better.

Learning

I didn't really learn anything technical because I didn't use any new software or equipment but I did learn how much I love the 50 lens and how difficult the kit lens is to work with and the quality difference between the two. However, in professional learning I once again learned how much I need to work on my communication skills because they are always the root of my frustrations when it comes to projects. I just feel like sometimes I end up getting undermined and pushed down by bigger personalities when they don't mean to and it's hard for me to crawl out from under that and stand up for myself. For my next project I will draw from the experiences of me being talked over and my ideas not being listened to and tossed aside to inspire me to be more outspoken and have a conversation about what we want to happen with my group.

In The Future

I would redo this entire project in the future starting with script, adding scenes and lines to make it flow more smoothly and make the story even stronger and impactful to the storyboards, making them really good and making sure everybody understood what each shot was going to look like and then to using the best lens and making sure we have the best lighting possible. I would also schedule more days to film in order to make sure we weren't rushing and then in editing doing more color correction to make the shots look clean and even. Doing all these things would bring the film to its full potential and make the story even stronger. The only thing I would keep the same is the actors, they did good and I liked their interaction on camera.