TRF 469/669: Advanced Filmmaking S'18

first of all, this movie is not just about games. Even if you don’t understand the stalks, it will not affect the movie and you should not be deceived by those propaganda. After all, it tells the story of a young hero who saves the world. Even I can say that its story is not new. Like most games, it is a story like this, but you have seen it. You will say, wow, how could it be so cool? This is also our players, who have been trying to tell you for so many years. It did it for us. Tell everyone. “The game world is really cool.”

The protagonist changed his body at the last second, and we saw a lot, but we still feel bloody. Its real strength lies in the fact that the story of an ‘old school’ is very solid with industry. Some people say that the plot is simple. Believe me, if you want to make a story with so many elements and even build a worldview, then the main story The simpler the better.’ As for whether the film is worth watching, let’s just say, if you like to watch the robot descend from the sky, you will applaud. In fact, when I watched, the applause of the movie theater, I almost got up from my chair.

Of course, if you don’t like robots, it doesn’t matter. You always like those dreamy visual effects. You always like Avatar. Not to mention changing people, men and women all like it. So, in retrospect, is this movie about games? Not all is, if you think so, you will find it has a lot of film, then it talks about film culture? Nor is it that the related films appearing in this movie, whether it is King Kong, Jurassic, Terminator, or Shining, or returning to the future, only represent a certain category in the movie, or in some places. Have a commonality.

       Recently saw a documentary – “blackfish” It is the story of a killer whale named Titcomb. On the one hand, it is a star animal in the Ocean Park, and there are numerous fans. On the other hand, it was shut down for twenty-five years, during which three people were killed. The last one is its trainer. Some people say that it is a carnivorous animal and it is natural. Some people say that it has been shut down for too long. Through this documentary, I learned the sadness and misery behind the Ocean Park Carnival. The beginning of the story is a tragedy.

      Twenty-five years ago (counted from 2010), a group of people was driving a group of killer whales. The sound of the locator’s ticking, the noise of the plane and the speedboat engine, the buzz of the bomb, the cheering screams of the people, and a group of killer whale were forced into the bay. The adult male killer whales knew what was going on. They volunteered to act as bait, leading the whalers to a dead end, while the female killer whales, with their young killer whale, dive to another bay. All this can’t escape the observers on the plane. A strong, young killer whale was arrested and picked by the buyer. On the other side, the adult killer whale outside the fence had been reluctant to leave for a long time, even if the young killer whale had been taken away.

       Tiricum was arrested at this time, it was only 2 years old, but because of the huge body, was selected by Orlando Ocean Park. It is smart and has strong learning ability. It soon became the star of Ocean Park and brought great benefits to Ocean Park. Animal-loving children, curious adults, tourists all over the country, and men and women who are attracted to come to become trainers are in constant pursuit. This is a carnival, a carnival that shows the friendship between humans and animals.

I recently saw the documentary Welcome to Leith, and it blew my mind on so many levels. The basic premise is that in 2012 a man moved to a small North Dakota town with a population of 16, in hopes of starting a white supremacists community.  To start with, as a New Yorker, the idea of a town of 16 is mind boggling to me. The idea of a white supremacists community being built from the ground up is also absolutely repugnant. The documentary almost plays out as a horror movie, with the most horrific part being that it is a true story. As disgusting as the idea is, it is encouraging to see the way the community, and members of the surrounding communities rallied against this white supremacist and attempted to force him out. It is equally disheartening however, to see that people moved to the town because they liked the idea. This is especially true given the current political climate and recent events such as those in Charlottesville.

The documentary is both shocking and thought provoking. The primary emotion it made me feel was anger. The very premise is sickening and to see it spreading more and more only makes me angrier. The primary defense for allowing the man to stay is a freedom of speech argument. I’m a huge supporter of freedom of speech but man oh man does this push past my limits. It is interesting to consider how dangerous the precedent of forcing someone out of a town because of their beliefs is, but at the same time, fuck Nazis.

One of the most interesting things to me however, was that the documentary was shot on a budget of 60,000, which was raised via a gofundme campaign. The fact that it was shot for such a low budget really reinforces to me that we can make thought provoking and meaningful documentaries, even as students on low budgets.

One thing that I think is incredibly important and helpful for us to do while we make our documentary, is to watch as many good documentaries as possible. Part of being a good filmmaker in general, means watching a lot of good films. However, it at times seems a little challenging to find good examples of short documentaries. Feature length ones are much more commonly known and easy to find, documentaries such as Black Fish or Bowling for Columbine. I’m not sure if there is a short form documentary with a similar level of notoriety.

One place where I have found several good examples, is on the YouTube channel for Vice. They have short documentaries ranging from 8 minutes long, to full length features, and cover topics ranging from the opioid epidemic, to esports.  In fact, one of their documentary shorts entitled “Competing in America’s Biggest Fighting Game Tournament: Evo 2017” is a good representation of what I initially had in mind when I pitched my original idea. It is a little on the longer side, clocking in at 20 minutes, but it covers 2 particular players as they advance in a particular tournament.

I think it is a good short form piece, and provides a good template for producing a short documentary that follows only 1 or 2 specific subjects, and that has a very specific and narrow focus. However, the access that they had was very different from the access I had in attempting my documentary, and in a way served to drive home to me that mine was likely not going to turn out the way I had originally envisioned.