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.