The Dream Team, Post #10

In high school, I was in a TV and film class with my best friend. I'm not going to lie, but he kind of sucked at filmmaking. When it was time to get into groups and create a 5-8-minute short film, I took control, and I honestly enjoyed every minute of it. I planned and scheduled for filming dates, scripted, and created a shot list and storyboard.

Although I did a majority of the work I'll admit I am a bit of a control freak when it comes to film, so it kind of worked out for me. I had so many of my friends appear in this little film and directing a hand full of people for the first time was an awesome feeling and a good taste of what the "biz" would be like.

Our film was similar to the movie Anchorman, although I have never seen it, my friends kept referring to the concept of the movie of two news anchors competing for the main position... I refused to watch the movie when filming our short because I didn't want to make our already similar film even more relatable.

Our cast was awesome and fun to work with. Editing went very smoothly, even with our green screening, and although this film is far from perfect, I know that if I were to do it again with the same people I would do an amazing job. Working with friends on a restricted timeline is very intense but fun and exciting. If life could go my way I would always have this cast on all my sets helping me out. Friends really come in handy when you're looking for help.

Even though they weren't filming experts or as excited about film as myself, I had to keep them interested, reward them, especially the ones who aren't as interested, and I made the production process as easy as possible. friends make the filming world go round and it’s a great startup crew for beginners like myself.

If I could go back in time and re-shoot this film again and enjoy the process of making this video, I truly would. My friends are the best!

Thanks, Post #9

Thanksgiving is right around the corner and there is nothing more to be thankful for than a great deal on a DSLR camera (just kidding family is nice to see here and there too I guess). I love photography and taking random photos of my family each year on thanksgiving. It's a new tradition I'm starting, so we can capture ourselves throughout the year as we grow into a bigger family each year. And although this is a blog on film, don’t get me wrong, but photography and camera knowledge is very helpful in the field. 

I currently film and take photos on my two cameras; a DSLR Canon T3i, and T5i. Although, you can get great deals on the darkest of Fridays or cyber Monday, personally I think the best place to get one is on eBay. Both of my cameras were refurbished and work as if brand new and I've never had a single issue with either one of them. After you get one camera in a starter kit, which usually comes with different lenses, cleaner wipes, a tripod, and other junk, it can get a lot cheaper if you just want to purchase the body of a new DSLR camera in the future.

The holidays, which are sneaking up behind me bring the best opportunities for me to capture awesome photos of my family together. And if you consistently do that every year it’s fun idea to create a holiday slide show or home movie for your family. But beware, I've been doing this for five years and got yelled at by my family because I didn't have time to make one a couple years back. Once you get into the slide show biz, you don't get out of the slide show biz.

But in the end, no matter if they're mad about me, the video, or life, I love them. I am truly thankful for them and their help and encouragement in my passion for photography and film. Without them I would not be where I am now nor as good as a person. Although, there may be great deals on the day we should be thankful, make sure that you take the time to enjoy the ones who are family to you. Don’t just capture the moments with your camera or your phone, the best memories aren’t stored in a 64GB SD card, but you’re in your heart.

Focus, Post #8

My class was a part of a focus group created by Heart of The Lakes (heartofthelakes.org). They took people's stories and passions and wrapped the importance of nature as their focus. As I was a part of this focus group I was excited to learn how one functions, and happy about how a beneficial this experience has been for myself. For one it helps me see things as a viewer better. Two, I can get an idea of what to do if I need to make a focus group for myself. And three, this was inspirational to see people in Michigan making money in the film industry, and learning about some of their struggles they had when making some of the videos. This was truly a great experience!

In the focus group, we were given the instructions to look out for the following things as we watched each short video; emotion, soundtrack, visual, highpoint, change, and other. So, as we watched, for example, we would have to comment on how we felt about the video (happy, sad, mad), how the soundtrack was (or maybe how it felt wrong or was too loud, or even distracting), we had to comment on if anything was visually pleasing or unpleasing, parts that we enjoyed, write down things we would like to change and how, and another comments…

For the most part, the videos shown in class were well done and only needed a little tweaking. Most were very beautiful and made you want to enjoy nature (which was their main goal). On the other hand, one was focused on veterans more than nature and helping them which was a little distracting from their point. In another video, there was an annoying bass or beat that kept me distracted from the video. So, the little things mattered and we had to give our own feedback as a viewer to help them see things in a new light.

This helps the focus group people greatly. By telling them what the viewer thinks or needs to be changed or just tweaked. But not only did this help them but it helped me learn how to better dissect films and learn what goes behind not only making a short film but what a focus group does. I’m sure if I continue to go down this path of becoming a filmmaker that I will need to conduct several focus groups myself, so this was very interesting to do and reflect on.

Last I found this very interesting how people in Michigan, not just California, Toronto, or New York… have jobs in film, but it’s local and you can still make money near home. It’s inspirational seeing these everyday people talking about their jobs of filmmaking and the struggles they had in production to postproduction. Also from marketing to branding and creating a relationship by interacting with their viewers (even from their focus groups). Which I did get hooked and I want to see them succeed.

Overall focus groups are great and I would highly recommend people to join one. There is always some way you can benefit from them and in the end, you’re helping someone out. Others may need to do one for themselves. You may need to do one for work or in a group project, and who knows maybe it can help you grow as an individual as you try something new. I know I did. 

Brand Yourself, Post #7

What's weird and unique about who you are? Why do your friends like you? Although those are very simple questions that don't typically get taken seriously, especially when your girlfriend asks you, "Why do you love me?" In the middle of the night. You might reply by just saying because you’re a wonderful person. In which she would probably reply with asking why or how she is a wonderful person...

When you really think about what makes you awesome and why people want to hang around you. After you find the answer, then you have the key that you need to brand yourself, especially on YOUTube. For example, if you are pretty and have a good sense of style or you have really awesome makeup then brand on that. Create a logo with a creative collage that represents your channel and your personality.

Say you have a guy with a mustache. He has his own show on the Food NTWK and has a very fun, warm, and energetic personality. Well, in this case, his logo would probably involve a mustache (or food in a shape of a mustache), with a well-lit background and colorful foods, to show off his happy, energetic, personality. So, when you are looking at the logo, you instantly know that it's about food, it’s a bright positive show, and there is something significant about a mustache. Are you getting it yet?

Along with a logo and yourself, you must be consistent in the style of your video productions. If you have a lot of comedic videos it will be shocking for your viewers to see you produce a sad, dark, depressing, and dramatic video on your same channel (especially with no warning). If you think about it, most actors in Hollywood stick to a certain category/ genre. Most the time a Comedic actor or actress will never be seen in a drama. Their fans assume that all the movies that they will be in will be funny as they built these expectations.

Last, although there is much that goes into branding, it’s important to keep your editing and production style consistent. Or at least change slightly over time, or inform your viewers of possible change. Like how TV sets constantly upgrade/ update sets and equipment about every couple years in order to stay fresh. But this also involves the little things too. Such as lighting, writing, text, and so on… If you have a specific question about branding or producing your own content, then please leave a comment below!

Three Point Lighting, Post #6

The three points to lighting, is three-point lighting. That consists of your Key Light, Fill Light, and your Back Light…

Key light: Is the main light source that hits your subject.

Fill Light: Is the secondary light source in which is used to minimize tough shadows on your subject. Usually, this light is placed on the opposite side of the key light.

Backlight: Also commonly known as the “hair light”, can be used to give your subject a more three-dimensional look and “pop out” from the background. This light is typically placed behind your subject, at a slight angle and out of frame (sometimes boom stands in studios are necessary to get a more appropriate lighting setup).

Fourth Light (optional): I know I only said three, but if you do have more lights you can use them to light up the background of the subject as well.

(to the right is a diagram of a three-point lighting set up)

Lighting can be very fun. Once you get to know the basics and practice them you can break rules and create rough shadows to perceive a different mood, look, or tone. Some noir films even use just backlights in order to give off chilling vibes as you see only the subject’s silhouettes in the picture.

I myself had to create my own interview (along with questions, which related to film) and setup my own three-point lighting with my group in a hallway at school. As we went along and put up these old lights we noticed hot pads in each kit’s case. Apparently, the lights would get so hot that you would have to give them about a half hour for them to cool down. If you touch the bulbs before you turn them on, then watch them warm up you can see the oil from your hands turn to a light misty smoke and drift away. So be careful with whatever equipment you are given for certain projects.

Anyways as we interviewed our own set of questions we had to remember to reset the camera stand, lights, and re-angle our subjects in order to get people to look the best we could given the location that we were restricted to. Honestly, a hallway isn’t the ideal set choice and you don’t have complete control over all the lights (like the ones that have to be constantly on in the halls). In the end my team and I did the best we could and here is a link to my little interview (by the way the sound only plays in the left speaker of certain electronics for some reason)… https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMX7CII0hQg

One of Many Projects, Post #5

I am currently going to school to pursue the art of digital film. Although I create videos for fun as a little side hobby, I’d enjoy doing this for a profession one day. As I am on my way to hopefully follow my dreams I have to take a class called, Media Production I. I do enjoy this class greatly, even though everything that we have covered so far, I’ve already known.

Currently, we had to join a couple of members in our class to form a small group in order to help each other out as we film. Each film must have four sequences, with each sequence consisting of four shots, which must all be “simple shots” like; medium, close-up, and establishing shots, just to name a few.

As we assembled into our groups we had to storyboard, create a shot list which lists all shots we need in the correct order, and then we got to do the fun part and film. Most of our storylines started off in the parking and somehow ended up into the build by the Coffee 'n More Shop, so we could film faster. While filming, however, my group may have been a little over prepared. Being the over-achiever I am, I went ahead and brought walkie talkies for the parking lot scenes that we need to drive for, as well as a reflective neon vest. So a person could stand in a particular parking spot for our character to park the vehicle into. I didn’t want to risk someone getting hurt as a random car may floor it into a parking spot that was relatively close to the buildings… and also I liked how cool and professionally dorky we looked…

After about three hours, or one and a half class periods we finally finished our little short films. To be honest none of the projects had a true storyline in them because of the thirty second to a one-minute time frame, but they still turned out fairly well. I loved looking cool shooting on these big Panasonic cameras and seeing people walk way out of the camera’s view because they don’t want to be in the footage even when we were not even filming.

All in all, I think that I will continue to enjoy this class. I’m very excited to know what our next filming project will be. It’s fun to work with other students who share a passion for filmmaking! Here is a link to my current project. Just to let you know, I also had to film and act in it. I was kind of like Tyler Perry, as I performed in my own work.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ma-4w0gGLk4  (Keep in mind we didn't have to focus on audio yet. This project was simply created to get the class familiar with the cameras, storyboarding, shot listings, and overall production process. So it's far from perfect.)

If you’d like to know more about me and my process to becoming a filmmaker than please feel free to follow my blog posts!

Shots Fired, Post #4

Working in a film group whether it’s for school, personal enjoyment, or work, it can be rather difficult to get everyone focused on one thing, the film. From preproduction to postproduction, your team and yourself may run across some, if not many issues from clashing ideas, thoughts, and other personal issues…

The Goal:

Especially in a large group or production, it’s important to keep everyone on track and focused on the main objectives. By listing specific due dates and detailed descriptions of what you want or expect, then the goals should be easily achievable. Especially as a director you need to remember what your target is as well as giving a specific vision to your crew about what you want and tell them what the viewer should feel, think, see, etc. (Should you feel happy, or sad, is this a comedy or horror film, is the message consistent in the movie?).

Some Ideas Are Better Than Others:

When should you give into a bad idea or thought? Well typically you should have individual roles set up among your crew for different jobs (for lighting, audio, writing, and directing, and so on). With jobs put in place, you should have less conflicting thoughts as you are assigned a specific job and have basically full control unless a manager or director says otherwise. If it’s for a grade or job talk to the teacher or producer/ director (depending on where you are in the chain of power). If you think the idea will harm or offend others or your grade/ studio, then it probably shouldn’t be followed through. But if you’re caught in an issue where you have to tell someone no or that it’s not the best idea, then the next category, constructive criticisms, will help you…

Constructive Criticism:

If you’re dealing with a constructive criticisms issue always start off with good feedback or compliments. Afterwards, you can shred them apart, just kidding… But please try to phrase your word choices carefully, as you don’t want to make them feel like they are getting attacked. Try suggesting a change and backing it up with a specific reason. For example: “I know you think (insert a bad idea here), but if you’re going for more of a ______ look, it might be best to (place your suggestion here), because (your reasoning)... Let them know that you listened to them, tell them what you felt like they were trying to do, give your suggestion, and tell why yours might “improve” their work.

Attitude:

Attitude, attitude, and attitude! If your whole team despises you, then you may have to step back and ask why? Are you too hard on them? Do you expect too much? Are you enacting on a role that isn’t yours to worry about?

Sometimes if you’re a negative Nancy about life or even the project you're working on, your other coworkers will tend to block you out of fun events and big decisions… “Check yourself, before you wreck yourself,” -anonyms.

Also, if you’re a jokester, please make sure that your crew isn’t just laughing to be nice, and if they’re not laughing at all then you may have a problem there too. Joking and playing around can just as easily make people like you as well as the flip side of that.

End:

…All in all, it’s just a project. Try to have fun and enjoy the moment. Take as much as you can from the experience, or think of this as a video game, each mission that you “accomplish,” you can give yourself a little gold star and pretend that you just gained a whole bunch of “XP points.” Remember you’re not married to your team…

***If you need any other advice please drop some words down in the comment section below!***

All by Myself (place sad emoji here), Post #3

Filming alone has many perks, however, I personally believe it has more negative factors. As I have been addicted to attempting to create my own “short films.” I know the struggles of trying to create projects all by myself. A majority of today’s independent creators are all on YouTube. Although, I don’t think that is a bad thing, I think there might be an issue that might arise from the creators of that medium. If they don’t start collaborating I think they will most likely not succeed at all.

Now before I get into my own theory of YouTube I think it will work best for your interest if I tell my experiences first. The struggle is real when you’re by yourself. You are the director, writer, talent. You have to storyboard, script, organize everything on your own, set up the mics, lighting, and props… The list goes on. As I attempted to make my own videos, I do feel limited in my resources, especially with being on such a tight budget. From my friends to family members, they were the ones who had to be my talent. When they couldn’t be in the video, I had to step in. With being alone and on YouTube you’re limited from growing your abilities, trying new things, and getting feedback. Although, you can be your own boss, be more independent, and maybe you can potentially learn better being self-taught, but when you hit a roadblock it could be difficult to go around.

Collaborating can give you endless abilities. As I explore college and film more in depth, it gives me the opportunity to get to know others with similar interests. Soon I’ll be able to create better quality films, have more developed storylines, and fewer flaws. Sure you have to direct everyone onto one theme and you may have to persuade others why your opinion matters more, but working together and creating people skills is a great thing to have. Which I think if most YouTubers, which are potentially the future filmmakers if done right, collaborating right away and learning how to express themselves, as well as, learning how to receive and use constructive criticism, then they can do great things.

               

If you’ve ever seen the show “The Chair,” it takes a YouTube filmmaker/ star and your average film student who went to college and puts them through a test of who could create a more successful full-length movie, on a short budget. Within the season-long show of this documentary, it was hard for the YouTuber to let go some of his old responsibilities, as someone else wrote the script or someone else took control of wardrobe, lighting, storyboarding, and what not. He was so use to doing it all on his own, that he had to put a lot of trust in his new crew, which really put him to the test.

Although, I’m far from becoming a great filmmaker I do believe that I’m on the right path. From learning the basics on my own and YouTube, to going to school and learning how to collaborate and learning more elaborate techniques, I think one day I could make a decent living as a filmmaker. 

Your World is as Big as You Make it, Post #2.

I’m not going to lie. I feel pretty cool when I carry this thing. It’s a whole lot bigger than your phone, it does a lot better than your phone, and it’s just awesome to play with… A DSLR camera is the best camera to have, from just starting out to becoming a pro photographer or short filmmaker. I personally learned how great these cameras were when I joined my high school’s yearbook class.

Never in my life did I notice how much work really went behind operating one of these cameras. In class, I learned different photo compositions, techniques, how to use Photoshop, field of focus, and other technical camera stuff… Although this was only my yearbook class, taking photos in a school is really hard. If you don’t learn different ways to make a photo interesting, then all of your photos within a 164+ page book would look pretty boring and similar. Especially if all of the photos were of a student with the school’s brick walls in the background or of the identical looking classrooms. Trust me, once you saw one boring classroom photo, you’ve seen them all…

With photography and film, you need to keep your observer pleased. People will pay attention to your story if you have a great picture that builds interest or has character, the same goes for any moving visual projected onto a screen. No matter what you're using a camera for, photo compositions should be taught to you. Even if you just enjoy taking snapchats. Don’t keep taking selfies that your friends will skip over, make them interesting so they will want to keep looking at your story or Instagram feed… Some good composition I enjoy are; 

The rule of thirds: Most cameras have a grid-like screen that will pop up. By learning how to position the subject properly within the four main interceptions of the grid lines, the picture will become very pleasing to the eye.

Repetition: wherever you are, usually there will be some sort of pattern or reoccurring object placed accordingly. Especially with man-made objects like buildings, street lights, the placement of construction cones, beer nozzles at a bar, or the way tiles are laid on the ground (example to your right of repetition).

Those are the two main compositions that I enjoy using, the most but other important ones you should know include; worm's eye view, bird's eye view, action shots, leading lines, symmetry, and patterns, depths, framing, and cropping just to name a few… If it helps you can even join a photo club, most schools, and colleges (like Delta) have them… And hey, maybe you could get paid for your work as I did when taking photos for G’s pizzeria (Fun Fact: All photos but one maybe two from their current menu and online ordering menus were takin by myself)!

However, the main reason a filmmaker would like to have some photo composition knowledge, allows the creator to better tell their story with better and more interesting camera angles. As well as, to expand the world they live in. As most independent filmmakers are limited in which locations they can and cannot film at or in. Sometimes the best photographers can take a picture at the same place you could take one and it would look absolutely different.

You don’t want to have an hour and a half long movie of the same single shot or of the same location. With limited locations and resources, you have to create a big world on a little budget. Don’t show your audience that same classroom, or that same brick wall. Yearbook or film will get boring right away. Try going to your local park and making it look like a never ending forest, make that pond turn into a lake, make that corner store into a little delightful coffee shop. With an open mind, you can have endless possibilities of different scenes and locations. Let your mind go wild!

(Here are two random pictures of shots I took on a spontaneous photography walk around the city of Saginaw. One picture could be a scene of a possible bar fight in a dark alley. The other photo was taken at the Saginaw Children’s Zoo. Most people would probably never recognize this location as it was taken from a faraway distance behind the building, but this could be an awesome establishing shot for an old warehouse on a lake or swamp). 

Film and I, Post #1.

A click, followed by a beep, and an overwhelming flash. That was one of one hundred and twenty-five photos for one video I made back in 2009, during my summer break for seventh grade. As my cousin and I were taking photos, off my old silver flip cell phone, we were fascinated in how realistic the Legos looked when we took our time to reset the plastic figure, take a photo, and repeat the process a couple hundred times.

 

This self-discovery of stop motion led me to an endless desire to make words on paper turn into something "real.” All your wildest dreams and inner thoughts are given a chance to be expressed through this visual creation. This expressive outlet along with YouTube gave me the knowledge, inspiration, and competitive drive to empower myself, to produce better and better videos.

Within the past couple of years, I’ve created stop motions, vlogs, short films, challenge videos, and fake infomercials. The channels I’ve created have all been branded, tagged, edited, scripted, and so on. Although the channels are all fairly small, they give me enough to work with in order to receive feedback and practice.

In the end, I hope that all this practice will pay off as I’m sure it will. In high school, I fell in love with learning everything from Pre to Post- production, film genres, and the evolution of motion pictures. So I know that the topic will keep my attention. Currently, I’m going to school for digital film at my local community college.  As I continue to go further in my studies I plan to transfer to MSU and or to combine my degree with advertising.

Although this isn’t a traditional route for many people in my family to go down, they are all very supportive and interested in what I'm doing. Around Christmas time I show my annual holiday video that I have created for that specific day. We all gather around the TV, pull up the video, and let the laughter fill the room. My expertise is comedy when it comes to film, so in this case laughter is a good thing. In all honesty, that little gathering once a year is one of the main inspirations that fuels my drive to continue doing what I do.

Film to me is more than just a hobby, but a passion. Film isn’t just about getting subscribers, likes, or views, it’s what gives me an outlet to be creative and myself. I love collaborating with others especially with my friends who have helped me, to the best of their abilities, with little to no experience with the subject. I truly believe too, that along with film comes great power. Power to tell a story, power to influence others, and power to make people think. Personally, if you’re going to make a film yourself I think there should be some sort of message or reason behind it for the viewers.

I will be expressing my own personal opinions, experience, thoughts, ideas, advice, and so on about film here. Feel more than welcome to follow me on my journey, as I attempt to make film more than just a hobby, but my life.

...If you have an interest in film, collaborations, or if you, yourself would like to share your own thoughts on the subject, then this is the Blog for you. Contact me for any suggestions, comments, or collaboration opportunities at filmfriendsinthetricities@gmail.com.