Evaluations

Evaluation #6:
The collage/found footage assignment was fun to do, but to be honest I enjoy editing footage I shot myself rather than searching for old stuff. Not that searching for old stuff isn't fun, I just prefer it the other way. Found footage is sometimes blurry and pixelated, whereas your own footage is nice and clear. The idea I had going in was to raid my CD collection and put found video to music, and I think I accomplished that. I ended up liking it more in class that when I was putting it together, but I still wish I had more time to work on it (had access troubles again). I also think I accomplished making the project not heavy or important. I didn't want any war propaganda or anit-war propaganda (which is easy to do with old footage). I didn't want to comment on anything. I didn't want it to be ironic or metaphorical. I think I achieved my goal with that.
The other projects were fun to watch. I just want to say that even though I didn't want mine to be heavy or important doesn't mean I didn't like the students' projects who did. That is just not what I wanted to do with mine.

Evaluation #3:
The Hand-Processing class assignment turned out awesome. I was really pleased with everyone and how the project evolved into something cool. I liked the footage that was used, which were some of my favorites from watching all of the footage in class. I liked the theme they decided to go with and, overall, enjoyed the finished project.
My critiques are pretty minor, with one exception. I didn't particularly like the font that was used for the title cards. I also didn't like the sparation title cards, although I think that was part of the assignment. The major thing that I did not like was the use of the movie quotes. A couple of them were good when used subtle, but a majority of them almost ruined the project for me. Thankfully the final mix muted them a bit, but they were still too prominent for my liking. I felt they kind of 'dumbed down' the otherwise awesome project. The sound effects were awesome, why were there not more of them instead of the dumb quotes?

Sweet Gig

So, in addition to not doing anything over the break, I got a sweet new job, bringing the job total up to 3 (Projectionist at Lumina Theater and projectionist at Carolina Beach Cinema 4 and the new one). I received a phone call from guy a Joe Dunton Camera asking if I would be interested in working at Screen Gems being the projectionist at the studio screening room. I said yes. I went to the screening room to see what it was all about and spent about 8 hours training with this dude who knew his shit about projection (which was also beneficial for my other jobs). What I will be doing is running dailies for whatever production in Wilmington wants to have film dailies as opposed to digital dailies. As of now, both Bolden! and The Marc Pease Experience are going to be doing that. So I, along with 3 others, will be running dailies for them. It sounds like an awesome job where I will most likely work for Vilmos Zsigmond (!), Todd Louiso, Jason Schwartzman, and Ben Stiller. Already ran into Todd Louiso. It will be a great experience (as well as high pressure) and I am pretty stoked about it. Plus, it is $25 an hour.

Spring Break

So my spring break was rather lame. I worked. I sat around. I was bored. The highlights were 1) not having to do anything 2) getting to catch up on going to the theater and catching a couple matinees. I saw Zodiac, Reno 911 Miami, and 300. They were good, but I have to say that as awesome as 300 was, Zodiac stuck out as my favorite of the bunch. I liked it so much I brought my girlfriend and her friend to see it (and they enjoyed it as well). Other than that, nothing really exciting happened (save for one thing, which I will make a separate blog for). I think I may have even fallen even further behind on my studies on account of the not doing anything. Regardless, it was a well needed break.

Hand Processing and Animation

So, the hand processing project was interesting. I wasn't a big fan of complete darkness (not a fear, it was just weird) but the project itself was fun. Our group had some interesting objects, such as Elaine's broken glass, star glitter, cotton, and more. I was surprised at how well everything turned out. When our film strips were projected, I was pleasantly surprised. The footage was really cool (especially the star glitter) and I think that the editing portion will make for a really cool little experimental short film. I was disappointed with the animation portion, however. The contact print didn't seem to work to well for some of them and the resulting little film was rather disappointing. I wonder if it would look any better if we spliced the clear leader strips together and projected them. I am more than happy with the hand processing footage, however, so I honestly don't really care about that animation anymore.

MONDO BLOG

Elements Part I – WATER:

PRODUCTION:
For the first part of the elements assignment, I did my water filmstrip in class. I chose the blue paint because, obviously, I was doing water and water looks blue. I also chose some oil to ’bubble up’ the paint and give it a more fluid and watery look. I decided to not only choose color to differentiate the elements, but also brush stroke which I assumed would be more noticeable once projected than you would think. I used smooth, fluid brush strokes to simulate the flow of water, using the oil now and then to hopefully create a cool watery image. I then went back and highlighted some of the sections with a sharpie, hopefully making the bubbles stand out a bit more.
EXHIBITION:
When projected on screen, the water element looked pretty much as I would have expected. I liked the section(s) with the oil application because it created the exact effect I was looking for. The only problem I had was that it went by quick and some the portions I was excited to see projected went by so quick that I did not even notice them. Overall, I was satisfied with the result and the overall look of the segment.


Elements Part II – EARTH:

PRE-PRODUCTION:
I went to A.C. Moore to get supplies for the Earth portion of the assignment. I did not know what kind of paint to get, so I searched the aisles up and down trying to remember the kind we used in class. I gave up and asked an employee what kind of paint would be best to paint on 16mm film. She did not know either, but recommended this brand of glass and wood paint:





I purchased the paint based off the employee’s recommendation, even though she did not know any better than I did the best paint to use on film.
PRODUCTION:
I prepared a spot in my kitchen to paint. I opened the mysterious paint, got out my film, spread napkins and paper towels all over the table, and I was ready to go. Immediately I realized that the paint was too transparent with one coat. I decided to use 2-3 coats; one on top of the other after the paint has dried. The next problem I encountered was that the paint took a long time to dry, probably and hour and a half. So the final product was only pretty much a coat and a half (one coat in some sections, two in the other). It dried with a glassy look, which made sense seeing as it was glass paint, which actually made me eager to view projected.
EXHIBITION:
I got to say, I was disappointed with the way this turned out. The colors were too dull in most spots and the paint was maybe a bit too glassy. The sections that had thick coats were the highlights and actually looked really cool, though a majority of the strip didn’t seem to have enough paint. Plus, the paint covered the perforations in some areas, making awful noises when running through the projector. All in all, a bit disappointed, even more so when viewing the sections that actually looked cool.


Elements Wrap-Up:

All in all, I was pleased with the overall result. After viewing each, I kind of wished that I had done the opposite: class paint for earth and glass paint for water, given their respective looks. Maybe I could have done a combo: class paint and glass paint for both. In regardless, I am done with the assignment and I will leave it at that.

Earth Part 1

So I lied about the post that was supposed to happen yesterday, but I'm back now with the first part of my earth post. As of right now I am gearing up to get some supplies to create the last portion of my elements assignment. I rounded up some cash and am about to 1. Go to the mall and exchange a candle for my girlfriend because she is too busy to do it herself 2. Go to home depot or lowes or something and buy hinges to repair a couple projectors at work 3. Go to AC Moore and buy paint and stuff for my project. I'm assuming (hoping) all of this won't take too long so I have time to paint my film, which I am also assuming (hoping) will not take too long either. That's all for now. Saty tuned for part II.

I'm Behind...

So this is only my second entry when I probably should have had about five by now. I still have not finished my elements project (water is done, but earth is another story). Tomorrow is looking like the day where I have the time to buy supplies and finish the earth section. The problem is both my 495 class and my job are owning my life right now and time out of class is rare. Don't worry though, this is not the only class where I have fallen a bit behind of schedule. Stay tuned, another entry in the near future is a high possibility ( as in later tonight).

First Entry - January 23, 2007

This is my first entry of the semester. I kinda waited until the last minute to set this up (to be honest, I forgot until I checked my email yesterday), but now it is up and running. I have not done much in terms of class related happenings as of yet, but I have some ideas. I work at two movie theaters as a 35mm projectionist. At one of these theaters, I am in charge of the other projectionsists and in charge of maintaining the booth itself. I mention this because I have a lot of old trailers and ads that I am going to start scratching and maybe turn into an experimental short (really short) film. Some of these blog entries will be progress updates. So there you have it. First blog entry is done.