TRF 469/669: Advanced Filmmaking – F'14

This week I’ve been preparing for my weekend with my documentary subject. It has been a long and stressful process as my subject’s availability has shrunk and my story still not defined. I’ve been meeting with professors, reading her memoir, and searching for metaphors that can drive my story. I am anxious yet hopeful that this weekend will provide me with enough to drive my film.

In other news, I was able to find a fellow student to score my film and I’m looking forward to our collaboration.

An article I just read from the Huffington Post announced that HBO will be launching a standalone streaming service for people who have broadband but don’t want to pay for cable. Currently the company already offers HBO GO which allows you to watch HBO programming on multiple devices, but of course you need a pay-TV subscription to use it (or at least a friend’s password).

I think this was a long time coming for HBO. More and more frequently, college students and young adults have been cutting the cord, turning to Netflix or Hulu instead for their fill of entertainment. HBO would logically be the next company to join the party. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see more networks following suit in the next few years, or even some grander change in the model in which we receive cable programming.

This past weekend, I shot my short.  Since I rented the camera for the weekend and my DP was only available for a couple hours each day, I was in a rush to get the shots I had envisioned.  I then had to shoot some scenes and transition shots myself.  For the most part, I’m pleased with the shots.  I’m thinking I might have to go back and shoot some things, but with a Canon 5D.

Directing was a new experience for me.  TG is absolutely right when she says a filmmaker must be calm on set.  I was so stressed out that I had become hasty in my directing and I’m sure my actors felt that way as well.  I’m certain my directing was flawed – it’s difficult to communicate to others what my vision is.  My main character was a bit difficult to direct since she is not a trained actor.  It definitely challenged me as a director to bring out the character “Anna.”  I realized she had been “over-acting” and I started capturing moments when she wasn’t actively acting by not telling her we were recording.  I also realized it’s not a good idea to cast your good friend.  She began to question a lot of my creative decisions in front of my crew and actors, which cut down on a lot of time.  I definitely did not appreciate that since I was so short on time already.  I had a clear vision of what I wanted in each scene.  Essentially, a professional demeanor on set would’ve been appreciated instead of a casual one.  The other actor didn’t require much directing as he was an acting major.  I was also getting a bit frustrated, since my sound person needed training and guidance on how to use a Tascam and didn’t mark each file as I had requested.  But, what can I do now?

Here are some stills from the shoot.  I shot in C Log, so the images are a bit flat until I go to post for color correction.

I also decided to tentatively title my short “Face the East.”

Jocelyn

As I started thinking about how I wanted to edit the Food Co-op film, and the story I wanted to tell, I started to think about my goals as a filmmaker, and how I can make a film that will effectively suit the needs of my subject. Simply, I had to consider whether of not I want to create a film that was an objective description of the Co-op and Upstate New York farms, or if I want to make the film more meaningful, and approach the editing from the standpoint of a subjective activist, advocating for one particular cause of another.

Obviously, I have very little experience editing a film from the standpoint of an activist. However, I decided to investigate this notion of the use of documentary film for social change.

There is a concept called the “Participant Index”, coined by the production company, Participant Media. The Participant Index is a means by which to measure the emotional responses of an audience, and determine whether or not the film led the viewers to take an action of some sort. Some documentary films, such as “Fed Up” or “Blackfish” prompt widespread, immediate action, where as Lucy Walker’s recent film, “The Lions Den,”may be heart-wrenching, but does not prompt widespread social activism. Overall, I want to spend more time investigating this concept, and what it takes to make a film that inspires action.

Here is a link to an article detailing some of these concepts: http://www.indiewire.com/article/the-downside-of-measuring-the-social-impact-of-documentary-films-20140801

This weekend Ironside will be competing in Nationals, and potentially winning the Championship! I went and filmed their Regional tournament in Boston a few weekends ago and was impressed with how well they have been playing since Worlds in Italy in August. They won the Regional Title in a crushing win over GOAT (a team from Ontario and Toronto). Filming them at Regionals was awesome and will be great B-Roll for the documentary.

I have been going through footage and logging specific clips I will use later on, but there is just so much to sift through. I put together a brief teaser, which I will show in class, which could also serve as an intro (with some voiceover added in, probably).

I’m becoming a little overwhelmed with how I want the story to come together, just because there is so much footage to go through. Compressing more than a week of footage into ten minutes will be tricky. The story is in there, I know. But right now I feel a bit like a stone-smith looking at a boulder.

I will be using Premier for the entire post production process, and am learning some useful skills in my 2D animation class that could be applicable for this documentary as well. This is mostly After Effects stuff like simple animations to demonstrate concepts viewers may be unfamiliar with (like how the field is set up, how the players cut on the field, different terms, etc.).

As of October 6th I have finished all the filming for my short film Take Care Your Own.  Rushing into shooting helped me learn about the stresses of being a Director and having creative control.

I had to deal with a bunch of set backs, for example, budgets not covering actor fees, crew members bailing last minute, a cat in heat meowing it’s ass off on location, and rented equipment malfunctions (just to name a few). But I felt like I handled each nightmare with grace (except for the cat problem, which I solved by chasing it down the street before every take like a madman). Waking up on the first day of shooting I can honestly say I was the most stressed out I have ever been while working on a Newhouse project. A little voice in the back of my head kept saying “Don’t screw this up. This is your last chance.” but that stress just got my creative juices flowing.  Every small victory took a little bit of the stress away and by the end of the first day I felt like I was on fire (in a good way).

The one thing I wanted to make sure I didn’t do was waste the actors time. I had two actors, Kevin Sweeney and Marcy Savastano, driving all the way from the Greater Rochester Area with only a limited time set out to help me. Even with all the hiccups we wrapped both actors ahead of schedule. This gave me time to sit down with them and get feedback on how the experience went compared to other shoots they’ve been involved with which was astronomically helpful and a great self esteem boost. They told me about shoots from hell that were unorganized and had no artistic direction and actually thanked me for having everything so well planned out (sounds like I made this up I know, but it’s true!)

The feeling I got after the first day was wrapped and I had the whole crew and 1/3 of the cast at Beer Belly Deli (don’t worry the drinks were on me not Newhouse) is the reason I love filmmaking. That euphoria and felling of self accomplishment was like crack and I can’t wait to get another go. I can’t imagine how intense this feeling must be after a feature film is wrapped.

After the 6th and with the motivation that I could potentially show Nick Cassavetes my work in two days, I locked myself in my room and edited for a solid 7.5 hours straight with only a few bathroom and leftover Beer Belly Deli breaks. At 7am on October 8th I decided I should probably get a few hours sleep before class at 12:45pm.

At class I found out Nick Cassavetes got food poisoning (if I ever find out which restaurant he went to I’ll burn the place down [ jk ]) which was a little upsetting but what can you do? Luckily my classmates had awesome notes on my first rough cut and I got a lot of good feedback from Professor Tula Goenka.

Right now my biggest task is to find a firewire cable so I can back-up my footage onto my hard drive. I’ve kinda avoided using FCP just in case the application decides to crash my computer. So I may not have a re-edit this week but definitely by next week!

Thats everything I can think of right now!

When the Syracuse Real Food Co-op agreed to be the subject of my documentary film, I was thrilled. I have always been passionate about sustainability, and eating local, and was very excited to investigate the topic.

However, as I began filming, I quickly realized that I had yet to find the key focus of the film. There are so many broad, sweeping, topics that can be portrayed in a business like the co-op. I quickly had to determine what angle I wanted to take, and what essence I wanted to portray.

At this point in my filming, I have hours worth of b-roll and interviews. I have tons of information at my disposal, and many little slices of life from these many different farmers, doctors, businessmen and organic farming activists. However, I have yet to find one narrative to function as the foundation of my film.

Even through documentary films are based on the lives of the subjects, they still have the same narrative structures as fiction films. They all have a beginning, middle, and end, and encompass compelling characters, rising tension, and conflict that reaches some sort of resolution. In the coming weeks, I need to explore the footage I have captured, and begin to construct this narrative that will carry the film.

Here is an article entitled “The Drama of Real Life,” which details the process of finding a the story in a documentary film.

So this week, I’ve been trying to get in touch with Fowler high school and SAY YES. They both did not reply to my e-mails or voicemails so I might just drop in some random day to ask. In the meantime, I have been outlining my documentary and my dilemma is how personal does this piece have to be. I scheduled a meeting with Professor Breyer who is the head of the DFH program. Hopefully, after speaking with him, I can get a grip of the whole piece. I am also scheduling to do my first shoot this weekend. Hopefully, everything can go smoothly.

Everyone should go see Gone Girl. It was amazing.

The thriller, directed by David Fincher, is based off the book written by Gillian Flynn. Flynn also wrote the screenplay–one of many reasons why the film just seemed to work so well.

I really can’t think of an aspect of the film I didn’t like. The plot was riveting: Even at almost 2 and a half hours long, I was constantly engrossed and consistently surprised by the events taking place on screen. And for a film with so many twists and turns, the story was neatly wrapped up leaving very little room for plot holes. The acting was also exceptional, and every actor fit their role perfectly: Ben Affleck, Rosamund Pike, NPH, even Tyler Perry. The soundtrack was subtle yet effective. It made me feel uneasy at the right times without coming off as overbearing.

In many ways the film reminded me of Prisoners, except Gone Girl‘s plot never dragged. It is truly an interesting film that I look forward to seeing again.

Last Friday, I finally got the chance to meet the student I wanted to film. He was very enthusiastic about the project I was doing and was eager to meet me. I went over to his place on Spring street, and he invited me in with a smile. I told him about the project I was going to do and he was kind enough to help me out. I made sure to let him know that if he was uncomfortable with anything, he should let me know ASAP. At this point, he was willing to do all the things I told him we were doing. Besides Sagar (the subject), I am in the midst of calling schools and programs helping students and/or refugee centers around Syracuse. Once I get in touch with them, I would be set to film by early next week.