LAST BLOG EVAAA

This is the last week of 495 and it has been an awesome ride. It has been so fun to watch everyone work through production. I feel like I have learned just as much from the other groups as I have from working within my own. To see the (almost) finished product is an amazing feeling. Kateland did such a good job editing; her hard work really has paid off. We are still working on the sound design, working out all the little kinks. We had two small problems with sound that I sent to Alex Markowski to see if he could fix. We were picking up some unwanted sounds on the lav mic. He wrote me back within a number of hours saying that he would be happy to help. He sent me back the fixed audio; although he was unable to completely erase the sounds he still made it sound a lot better. I’m so excited to see everyone’s finished projects next Monday, especially the installations at Black Sheep. The student screening also falls on my birthday so it will be so fun to go to that and cheer on all my colleagues and their hard work. As always, I feel sad that my classes are ending. I learned so much this semester and got to know some really great people. 

Week 15

This week Kateland went to the girls school and filmed them in class. Taylor and I had class on the day she went. Ryne Seals and Naomi helped her out and I can’t wait to see the footage! I’ve heard so much about this “Mr. Lovejoy” so it will be nice to finally put a face to the name. Kateland and I are meeting tomorrow at 6 to work on finalizing the sound design and working out all of the little kinks. Hopefully I will be able to fix the problems we have, but we might have to look to someone who knows a lot more than me about sound. We are getting so close to being done. Seeing all of the posters lined up next to each other the other day in class really made me realize how far everyone has come. We have some very talented people in our class and its nice to see that their hard work has paid off. Only three more days of classes left and then its finals time. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone’s finished products.

Getting close to finishing up

So this week we are presenting out marketing materials and I couldn’t be more pleased with how they came out. Taylor did such a great job getting us signed up for withoutabox.com and creating our website. Natalie gave us an awesome design for our poster and I just love how everything has turned out. Making this film and doing all of this other stuff has made me realize that getting your work out there is really possible if you are willing to put in the hard work. I’m looking forward to seeing everyone else’s marketing plans. I’m also really excited about going to the installations downtown and seeing my colleagues’ visions being brought to life.  Two more weeks and then it’s FINALS TIME. I can feel the tension rising on campus and see the frustration growing in the library. Ooooooh it’s that time of year! I have a few friends in the film studies program that are graduating in May and I’m so proud of them! I will miss all of them too, especially the girls in my group Kateland Lee and Taylor Woodell. What we need to do now is Natalie talking about the other two girls art and finish editing Quincy’s new interview. 

Week 13

On Thursday we went and filmed the girls at Jellybeans skating rink. Natalie was the one who suggested this idea and I think it was a great one. When we first got there they had all the lights on and I was worried because I had pictured it with the disco lights that are usually on in there. We got there right when it opened so after about 10 minutes they turned them off. I was really happy with the way the shots came out. We are going to use this footage as B-roll for when they are all referencing each other’s art. They seem like they are all actually really good friends.  They are so different and all bring diverse attributes to the table. I’m fully convinced that these girls could have a reality show and it would do well because of their outgoing personalities and fun attitudes. It’s exciting to see how everything is coming together for us here in the last couple of weeks. I like the new name and the overall idea we ended up sticking with. The girls have been so much help to us and I really appreciate their willingness to be on camera and participate in our project.

Visions

I had so much fun at Visions! I am extremely proud of my friends who worked so hard on the festival around the clock to make it so special! My favorite part had to be the Keynote Address, where Kiva Reardon spoke about her experience after college and her astonishing accomplishments as a graduate. I like her advice on working professionally with people that are you’re friends. I agree with her when she said that talking on the phone is extremely important when it comes to decisions because email and text can get confusing. I was really inspired by all that Kiva had accomplished at such a young age. She seemed like such a normal, approachable person. The first conference block was very interesting also. So awesome to see fellow UNCW scholars up on stage doing their thing! The police procedural presentation was especially fascinating. I need to see the movie that Caleb was talking about in his split-screen presentation. Vincent Longo’s presentation on “Around the World” and “The Lady from Shanghai” was so amazing to see. Audra told me that he was being flown around the world to present his research, which is so awesome! I am so proud of my fellow 495-ers that premiered their films at Visions! I saw A Reel Farewell at the end of the year screening and really enjoyed it so I’m glad at Nathalie got to show it to an even larger audience. 

Week 12

This week we are going to shoot at the girl’s school. We tried to do this a few weeks ago, but were unable to. Getting to know the girls over the last few weeks has been really interesting. Before we started shooting we didn’t really know how it was all going to come together but we kept saying that once we starting shooting things would just start happening, and that’s definitely the way this has worked out. Since they have all known each other for so long, when they reference or describe each other in the interviews it is extremely revealing of their identities, on both sides of the conversation. I am pleased with how kindly we have been treated by the people we have been around while shooting. They are always very welcoming and polite, and never rude to us even though we may be causing a distraction. The website was launched the other day which is awesome. Taylor did such a good job on customizing it and making it look professional. Now I can tell people to go check us out! I don’t have a facebook so this was a really big deal for me.  

Week 11

This week we are filming with Sara to get a better recording and to ask her some new questions. I really liked what she had to say in her last interview. She, like the other two girls, seems mature for her age. She also seems comfortable in front of the camera and also willing be open with Kateland. I wasn’t there to meet her for the first interview and ever since I watched the footage from that day I’ve been looking forward to meeting her. Kateland tells me she’s a film buff, which is always a plus. I’m excited to see what design Natalie has come up with for our poster. Tomorrow is our meeting and I’m going to suggest that we try and draw out the arc of the story to see if we can get a better idea of what’s happening here. I think it would help us a lot if we could have a visual representation of how the story is going to unfold. Then we can see what we have and see what we still need. Visions is this week and I know the girls are very busy with that so I don’t think we’ll be shooting anything other than Sara on Tuesday. 

Week 10 wut wut

I just got done editing Quincy’s interview for us to show in class this week. I’m pretty stoked with the way it came out. She has such a cool and laid back personality. She seems so much older than just 18. In her interview she talked about her personal artistic style and the other types of art she likes to do. She does performance art and writes in her journal, but it’s not just normal writing she adds pictures to it and draws all over the paper. Hard to describe, but she’s really got some great stuff going on here.  In the final cut we will probably only use the wide shot because when she is talking she wiggles around in her chair and goes out of frame a couple times, which is unfortunate because it is a pretty shot. This week I know the girls are very busy with Visions but we are going to get our marketing plan in line and I would also like to go get some exterior shots of the school and possibly the girl’s houses. I know that Kateland was against doing this in the beginning, but today when I was editing I couldn’t help but think that it would be nice to have visuals of the things she was talking about during the interview. The more this comes together the more excited I get about the final project.