Being a Filmmaker

This class has taught me a lot about what it takes to be a filmmaker.  It is more than I thought, but I very much enjoy it.  I did not realize all the work that goes into making these films.  They are things I was taught to do, that I never even knew existed.  Editing is something that I am still trying to get better on.  It is all about learning the software.  Doing the wild card project was my favorite assignment in the class and I am very lucky to have been the director.  Musical films are what I want to make, so I am glad I had the opportunity to do this.  I learned the leadership skills and the patience it takes to be the director.

Wild Card Assignment Pre-visualization Matarial

Suddenly Seymour Budget

BUDGET
Suddenly Seymour – Wild Card Project A short, student production film Running time: 5min Based on a 10 day shooting schedule and a 1 week editing schedule.
	QTY	COST	Total
A. SCRIPT & STORY
Script & Story	1	$0.00
Storyboarding	1	$0.00
			$0.00
B. TALENT
Director (Brandon Butorovich)	1	$0.00
Actors	2	$0.00
Back-up Singers	3	$0.00
			$0.00
C. PRODUCTION PERSONNEL
Cinematographer (Victoria Foley)	1	$0.00
Sound Person (Luqi Zhao)	1	$0.00
Producer (Lydia Plantamura)	1	$0.00
			$0.00
D. EQUIPMENT
Camera Package (Sony NEX VG20)	1	$0.00
H4N	1	$0.00
Tripod	1	$0.00
Shot Gun Mic & Shock mount	1	$0.00
FST 201 Light Kit Gels E. LOCATION EXPENSES Location (Residential Home) F. COSTUME & PROPS Eye Glasses (Seymour) Flowers Plant Watering Pitcher Costumes	1 6 1 1 6 2 1 5	$0.00 $25.00 $0.00 $5.00 $6.00 $5.00 $0.00 $0.00 Final Total:	$25.00 $0.00 $16.00 $41.00

Wild Card Project

For our Wild Card Project I am the Director!  Directing is what I really want to do, so I am very excited for this project.  Musical Films are what I want to make.  I would like to film the musical number Suddenly Seymour, from Little Shop of Horrors.  Little Shop is written by Alan Menken, and Howard Ashman.  It is one of my favorite musicals.   I pitched the idea to my other group members and they all liked it and were excited to do it as well, which made me very happy.  As the director I plan to learn about the leadership it takes to direct a crew in a film project.  I plan to stay organized with a clear vision.  I am excited to be the director in the project because we have complete freedom in what we want to do.  Since we are doing a musical, we have freedom to be theatrical and creative with lighting, sounds, props, and costumes, to name a few.

Visions

Visions Film Festival was very fun.  I got up early and attended the Keynote Address.  The Keynote speaker was Kiva Reardon.  Reardon has a B.A. in Cultural Studies and a M.A. in Cinema Studies.  I enjoyed listening about how to she got to where she is.  It was very encouraging and inspiring to me. 

            Kiva Reardon is the creator of her own film journal.  She is the founder and editor of Cleo Journal, which is a quarterly digital journal of film and film culture informed by feminist perspectives. 

            Kiva Reardon and I may not have the same career goals, but it was nice to listen to sometime talk about how they got to where they are, the struggles they faced, and how they overcame things.  

I really enjoyed the the film Caught by Bruce X. Li.  He was from NYU and wasn't able to come to visions.  I wish he was because I would have loved to ask him questions.  I thought the idea for the film was truly original.  I remember in elementary school how serious it was if you brought Pokemon cards to school, even worse, how serious it was if you got caught!  I enjoyed the way they filmed it.  I also enjoyed the animated film Peck Pocketed by Kevin C. Herron.  Again they were not here to the Q&A.  I thought the animation was very well done.  Seeing these films makes me excited to continue in the my degree Films Studies Department.  I am so proud of my school hosting this conference and I am excited to be a filmmaker. 

Editing 3b

Our group had a lot of fun editing 3b.  There was so many different ways our group could have taken the project.  One word that really stuck out to me from our sentence was horror.  A lot of the sounds that were recorded had a creepy aspect to them, a door shutting, violins, fork scratching plate, the list goes on.  We wanted to really utilize that and tell a story.  We wanted to included the farting noise, because we all thought it was great, but we were worried  that it wasn't going to work well in our edit, and it would feel out of place.  After discussion we decided to keep it, and we left it out of our second edit.

Sound Recording

Sound recording was a lot of fun!  It was cool how such small and subtle sounds can sound so cool when recorded on there own.  One of my favorite sounds was the tearing of a piece of paper.  I don't know what about it sounded so neat, but it did.  A lot of our sounds we recorded in the editing lab, and in the whisper box.  Most of our Voice sounds were done in the whisper box.  As we were walking to the Cultural Arts Building, we kept finding sounds we thought were interesting!  Sounds of footsteps in the woods, birds,  AC ventilation systems, sticks beating against a metal crate.  We had more sounds then what we truly needed.  One of my favorite sounds was the sound of a violin playing,  the creepiness that came with it was fascinating!  And of course I loved the farting sounds!  I learned how significant the role of sound is in a film.

Editing mastershot

Editing the master shot proved to be a daunting task.  Some of our footage didn't come out exactly as we thought it would, and same with the sound.  Sound was our biggest issue.  Because we were shooting outside we had obstacles to face.  Cars were constantly driving by, dogs were barking, birds were chirping, people were having parties, and the neighbor was mowing his lawn.  In the editing lab we had to adjust and re-record sound, and edit it to where the background noise wasn't to extreme.  Editing the shots took a lot of time, but started to come together well.  We had challenges of some shots being blurry, and the lighting being bad, which we corrected with the color correction.  Ethan and Zach took great leadership in editing and I think the film has great shots and works really well.

Previsualizations

The previsualizations were not the easiest to do, but ended up being extremely helpful.  Doing the storyboard and getting our ideas on paper, really helped with the overall vision of  the film.  The budget was kind of weird to do, but still good to know, we followed the sample budget in the textbook, it was interesting to see how much a small film can cost.  Doing the mark shooting script was our biggest challenge at first, mostly because we were not extremely positive of how they are done.  After looking at examples online, and reading about them, we finally figured it out.  The storyboard, marked shooting script and overhead diagrams became incredibly useful in production.  They helped us stay on schedule and helped us easily set up for each shot, because we knew what shot we wanted for what dialogue, and exactly where the camera should be.  The overhead diagram at first was difficult to look at and understand, but after practice with it, it became easier.

Documentary Interview Plan

Our group decided to interview Ebony Valentino.
Questions we will ask: 
What's your name?How did you come up with the name Ebony Valentino?How did you become interested in being a female illusionist?Did any mentors help get you started?How would you describe your relationship with your Drag personna?How much time do you spend preparing for your role as Ebony Valentino in your personal life?How would you describe your sexuality?What do you think people think about female illusionists?Is there anything you want people to know about female illusionists that you feel is important?What're your favorite and least favorite aspects about performing in shows?

Light Observations

The downstairs of my house is full of windows with natural light constantly shining through.  The soft light shines off of glass picture frames and glows on the hard wood floor below.  The pale tan curtains become translucent with the sun shining through.  Shadows from the window frames, curtains, and furniture are shown on the wood floor.


Outside looked amazing with all the snow..or I should say ice.  The sunlight glistened off the ice in my front yard.  Everything seemed much more brighter than it ever has before, even with there being clouds in the sky, making it hard lighting.  No shadows were seen anywhere.  Everything just seemed bright.  I wish it snowed more often in Wilmington, I think it make everything looked beautiful.

Filmmakers Statement

What film related experiences have you had?
I haven't had many film related experiences and I am pretty clueless about the process of making a film.  When I was working at Disney World I worked in Disney's Hollywood Studios Theme Park and it introduced me to film as entertainment for an audience.  Even though I was a Disney Cast Member, my favorite theme park ever is Universal Studios in Orlando, Florida.  It introduced me to all these great movies that I watched and fell in love with, and that is when I realized I want to be apart of the film industry.  To be apart of something that seems so exciting.

What do you hope to learn in this course?
Since I am pretty new to film, I hope to learn and get a better understand of how making movies works.  What happens in pre-production, production, and post-production.

Where do you hope to be in 10 years as a filmmaker/artist?
In 10 years I hope to be living and working with a successful career in Film and/or Theatre.  As well as being a Film Major, I am also a Theatre Performance Major.  I have a strong passion for both.  I really want to be creating musical films and also animated musical films.

What is something unique that we don't know about you?
I am a Orientation Leader for UNCW.
I have a Black Belt in Hap Ki Do.
Green is my favorite color.