New Adventure

This week in film class, we learned how to write a two column script for the first time. This new type of script was used to write out our "How To Video" treatment and make it more solid. Although I had heard about two column scripts before, I did not really have much experience with writing one until recently. At first, it was a bit challenging because I had never done this sort of task and so I kept wondering if I was doing it right or if I was completely off.

 

 Mostly, I worried about the length because I did not want it to be over the time limit. I kept adding dialogue and so I was concerned that the length of conversation would ultimately be too much but it was something that I needed to add because the conversation provided necessary explanations for the task at hand. But all my worries were mainly about the more technical elements involving the script rather than the actual writing part.

 

However, I enjoyed writing the dialogue because it was rather something easy to do considering that the conversation had to be natural and smooth as possible. Another aspect that was easy to complete were the needed steps that to be shown. Since we had already written our treatments with the steps, it was easy to then transfer them onto the script.

 

Another interesting part this week was learning how to shoot a live show using three cameras. There is so much work involved, yet it is quite exciting because it is something new and fun.

This new lesson has only made me realize how much I truly enjoy film class and so I cannot wait until next year when this lesson transforms into something normal and routine to be done every week. It feels that the last two years of film went by so quickly and now we have to be ready how to manage this new task.

 

I especially like the fact that this new project holds various components so that others can pick and choose what they want to do. Since each part, from talent to floor manager, is so different, it allows for each person to experience something new so it will never get boring or simple.

 

However, this also showed me the great importance of teamwork. Although there are several different elements to this new project, each part relies on another part to be completed. Due to this, each person must fully understand what he is responsible for and complete his job well.

 

This whole project relies heavily on teamwork but I believe in everyone so this project, and the whole of next year, will be amazing. 

Finn Readies for the Final Goodbye

It appears that I have officially developed a love-hate relationship with this project of ours.

 

I did not realize how difficult the whole process was actually going to be until we hit the 'record' button. From the start, we knew this was not going to be easy due to the amount of dialogue, the length of the movie, and the fact that our actors were also students and had previous engagements to attend to. However, I still held out hope that everything would turn out all right and it somehow did.

 

When Ms. Blake could not be our actress, we quickly sprung into action and found a solution by asking Mrs. Kreiselman if she would like to fill in the spot. Not only did Mrs. Kreiselman agree to be our much needed principal, but she also did a magnificent job, taking the role very seriously and memorizing her lines perfectly. This wonderful turn of events quietly brought me inspiration because it made me believe that a situation that seemed hopeless could actually be fixed and become quite extraordinary.

 

So as Mrs. Kreiselman as our principal, we managed to successfully shoot the remaining scenes in our movie. This time, everyone took their jobs seriously and so we were able to finished within an hour which I consider an accomplishment because the scene is an extremely important part in our movie. 

 

As we filmed the scene, I also noticed the fact that we all of us come up with new and bright ideas right on the spot. Although we already have a list of the shots and angles we need, as we film, we end up adding extra stuff. Whether it's a new angle we want to try, or an extra insert shot, we never disappoint ourselves regarding creativity. It is because of these little bits that I enjoy film so much. By working in a group, each member is able to learn all sorts of new tricks from others which only helps them. These impulses are the best because it's evidence that we all still love film in spite of the stress that comes along with it.

 

Sure, we all stayed for hours after school, filming and editing like crazy. Sure, my group all stayed at my house for hours :). Sure sometimes crumpled under the stress, but I believe it will all be worth it because I feel like our completed project will be wonderful. 

This Endless Tangled Web

I love our film.

I love the shots.

 I love the story.

 

I don't love how the shooting schedule constantly needs to be changed because unexpected and extremely unwanted events continue to occur.

 I didn't love how we needed to find other students outside our film class to be our actors.

 

I think the two major problems with this film are the actors and the dialogue. This is the first time we have had to do a film that had so much witty dialogue scene after scene and so we did not know what to expect exactly. We were all prepared but we simply did not think that the heavy amount of dialogue would be such an obstacle. Sound is very important but it is such a difficult element to control when the scenes are shot outside mixed with all the quick conversations being held. Due to this, I feel like the dialogue really slowed our group down considering a lot of the scenes needed to be shot again and again and again in order to correctly capture the dialogue.  

 

Another problem we encountered was the fact that we had a very difficult time finding reliable actors for our film. All the people we knew were also students and so they had their own classes and obligations to complete which sometimes set our film back. Although our actors did take the film seriously, there were times in which they had other compromises or other schoolwork to complete and so we would lose multiple chances to film. But this is not their fault, but it is simply the way the world works, in the life of the a typical high school student.

 

However, I would like it if the students from the actual class were allowed to be actors again because it would be so much easier for everyone. The problem of finding other outside reliable students constantly plagues our group in so many different ways, so I believe it would be so much easier if the actors were already familiar and easy to reach.  

 

Another major problem our group encountered was the hectic schedule of the principal, Ms. Blake. She was suppose to be our actor, yet she had some unexpected incidents and so we were unable to shoot the two important scenes that involved her. Due to this, our whole shooting schedule had to be rearranged but matters became worse when Ms. Blake was unable to film again in the same week. Once again, everything was pushed back a day or two back, which does not seem like a big deal, but truly is, considering the deadline is almost here.

 

In spite of all the problems our group has had to face, I am really proud of them. They are always there, every day after school, ready to film which takes true dedication because it means we had to sacrifice valuable time that could be spent doing other homework or being with family.

 

In the end, I have hope that everything will turn out all right.

 
After all, I love our film.

I love the shots.

 I love the story.

And the Web Spins....

Our group has continued to produce our movie although it is proving to be a bit more difficult than we originally thought. We were faced with a new challenge: we had to find actors outside of the class. We had never been told to find actors outside the classroom and so it was a bit hard trying to find people who would be willing to do it and truly commit to the project.

 

However, we were lucky enough to find some of our friends from the architecture strand that were willing to do it. Maricruz and Wolfgang, our actors, really liked our script and put all their effort in memorizing their lines and embracing the characters.

 

Yet, actually filming the movie was a bit harder because we did not realize how much work it was truly going to take. Although we had a much bigger group, we also had a much bigger movie with a lot of dialogue. We had not done a movie like that in a really long time and so we had to try to find our pace which was a challenging task.

 

In spite of this, we continued on and Jose, Jachelle, and I worked on the shot list. We also edited some of our script because we realized we needed to make some changes to make the story flow better.

 

To me, this proves that bigger groups are beneficial because more minds can then contribute to the project so that better ideas are formed. 

Spinning Our Web

Our journey with writing our script still continues. Although such a task is relatively easy due to the fact that our treatment is rather informative, we still had a bit of trouble. We tended to write out every action rather than simply let the story flow. Yet, now that we know the problem, I feel like we will both do better.

 

Another problem we encountered was establishing the problem/challenge in Act I. Although Jachelle and I know what the problem is--our main character, Finn Grey, is a pushover and befriends the school loner--we did not know how to exactly transfer that onto the script. I feel like such a problem is too general and so it may be applied to the whole story rather than pertaining to Act I only. Jachelle and I will work even harder to ensure that our Act I will be excellent because that is the stepping stone for the following acts.

 

This is also a new experience because I do not think we have never been told to break apart our script. Usually, we write the whole script through and revise it later. However, by doing this instead, the process allows for growth because we are able to catch our mistakes before and avoid them later on. Yes, this includes rewriting and revising almost everything, but that is a very good thing actually, even if it is time-consuming. Like Mr. Lemos always says: writing is rewriting.

 

I also like how our teacher, Mr. Lemos, is personally helping us. By dividing us into groups of two, Mr. Lemos can then discuss our projects and truly give us helpful advice. This is really good because it gives us an opportunity to excel but at the same time, we can always ask for help and guidance.

 

Throughout this whole process however, I hate how Jachelle always has good ideas. She is constantly creating new and wonderful scenarios that only make our story more alive. I also hate how amazing she is when it comes to combining our different ideas which allows us to embellish our story, improving it. We work quite well together and I truly hope we end up in the same group in order to produce this film because I believe it will be extremely fun. 

 

Partners in Crime

It appears that this project has led to many surprises. Unlike other projects, this film noir event has a lot of planning associated with it which is actually very good. The treatments are constantly analyzed and rewritten while the ideas are changed again and again. Even though this process is a bit tedious, I have to admit that I enjoy it because it decreased the amount of sloppy errors that will be present in the final product. All this careful planning is only making our films better because we will not attack the project blindly, but rather have a strong guide.

 

I also liked doing beat sheets because it was something new that was introduced to us. The fact that we are always learning more about pre-production is rewarding because usually its all about filming and editing with no clear emphasis on the planning. However, with beat sheets, everyone learned something new and used such skill to their advantage.

 

The beat sheets were also helpful because it was a simple method to organize our stories. To me, storyboards are a bit more confusing because sometimes the pictures are not accurate and so it causes more problems. However, with the beat sheet, everything is clear and concrete so that anyone can simply follow the story without much hassle. I also enjoyed making it because it establishes the story better; it covers all the holes present in the treatment by attacking the main ideas, centering the story better.

 

The next step now is the script, a task that I predict will both hard and easy. I believe it will be easy because the story is solid and so no confusion will be present during the writing process. However, it might be challenging because the language used in film noir is often tricky. I am afraid that the language might be overused so that our film turns out to be cliché and generic rather than different and exciting. At the same time, I do not want to make the dialogue too simple because that is an extremely important component in all film noir movies.

 

Our story also has a lot of dialogue and so I believe that it should be cut down to only contain the main points. The narration is also key so the dialogue does not need to be dramatically changed because the narration fills in everything else that is missing.

 

Overall, I truly enjoy working with Jachelle (hi!) in improving our story.

  



Sharing Pages

In writing my treatment,  I genuinely enjoyed working with someone else because it taught me valuable lessons. For example, I sometimes suffer from writer's block because I tend to overthink some stories which usually sidetracks me. In the end, I am not satisfied with my story because I felt that I could do so much better. However,  by working with Jachelle (hi!) I was able to come up with several different ideas that I was proud of because she would offer advice that kept the story flowing. Our various ideas helped me in leaving behind the usual and boring routine I sometimes take in writing a treatment because I was able to look at several possibilities that I had not previously thought about. This expanded my mind and led my creativity to shine stronger, especially when Jachelle and I managed to combine our ideas to make a story we truly enjoyed.

 

Another reason that I liked working with a partner was the fact that I was able to realize how I could share and combine my ideas with someone. I have never worked with anyone else when it came to writing because the chance had never presented itself which never allowed me to realize what I was missing out on. I knew that Jachelle is also a writer like me, but we had never collaborated in something like this, so I did not know what to expect. However, it was easy to create a story we were proud of because we had similar ideas that made the whole process easier. This also proved to me that it is very interesting and fun to work with someone else, especially in creating a story because such a task can go in various of directions which may result in pleasant outcomes.

 

When I first heard that we had to pitch our story to the class, I was a bit uncertain because I did not know how everyone else was going to view the story. Just because Jachelle and I deemed it worthy, that did not absolutely signify that everyone else would love it. However, this experience was very helpful because it allowed for various of perspectives to shine on the story so that improvements could be made. Through this, all stories can become even better which is something that is very valuable because such improvements may not have been noticed by the original writers. I believe this experience was also helpful in the way that it brought confidence to all the writers because they presented their story and had the chance to defend it. To me, this managed to amount further confidence in all the writers because they truly knew what they were doing and so when it is time to film it,  better product will be the result.  

 

Overall, I enjoyed working with Jachelle in writing a treatment because new ideas were created to make a story we definitely liked. Pitching the story was also very beneficial because it gave room for improvement which will only help--not just in rewriting, but in producing the film.