TRF 469/669: Advanced Filmmaking – F'14

Josh, the head coach of Boston Ironside, asked me to put together a quick clip of the huddle after the game, something in WUCC known as a “Spirit Circle.” This is a chance for both teams to hash it out and come together to talk about the game, and congratulate the other team on a hard-fought battle. After being eliminated from the tournament in the pre-quarters in this game against the Buzz Bullets, I was incredibly impressed by how poised, calm, and collected those who spoke in the circle were. This was such a hard loss on universe point (tied game, next point wins situation), and the fact that Ironside was able to come together and congratulate Japan’s team on a good game was the epitome of why we play this sport–for the hard fought battles on the field, and the camaraderie off the field, no matter what country you may be coming from. This type of sportsmanship transcends cultural backgrounds, and can translate into any language. The full video of the circle can be found here, but the audio is slightly soft, so turn your speakers up!

This week I had a very tense work to do, before making my film, I repeatedly modified the script.

I’m working on the way of script development。 First thing I need to find is the main thread of the story, which is Stan as his view to see the world and his life.

Stan ‘s background story

First of all , Stan is an incompetent person. He always was blamed when he was a little boy , he might be in school as a target of bullying ; he had been ignored his demand . His grandmother ‘s death was a big blow for him , his heart began to fragile and sensitive when he tried to get things up , so he grew up to become a writer. He always looks so sad at the same time there are some intellectuals character within his mind. He doesn’t have a large friends circle. Compared his friend Zak, Zak is smart, sociable , and attracts a lot of women.

—–Casting For Stan

After understand his background story, we can begin to set my character on casting . Among  many students who  attend the audition , I saw a one who has very unique performance capabilities while performing his monologue has a strong appeal. He is a white man , about 20-year-old , thin , his gloomy that some representatives of his childhood and his tense of this section on behave  his present situation like what the environment he lives in .

I had my first day of filming on Monday with the GoPro, and although I think it came out decently, there are definitely some struggles.  First off it is a fixed lens, so you cannot zoom, focus, adjust the white balance or anything you would expect to be able to do with a normal camera.  Secondly it has a very wide viewing angle, so things you may not want in the scene can end up in there especially because when you have it inside the case you cannot get close enough to an object to completely obscure the screen unless it is extremely wide.  I am now going to have an interesting time editing the film because some of the tricks I planned to use to transition from one shot to the next won’t work.  Also because we didn’t buy the touchscreen back for it, you have to control the camera with your phone.  This is really awkward because you usually end up looking in one direction to see your phone while the camera is pointed in another direction.  There is also about a 1 to 1.5 second delay between what the camera is filming and when it appears on your phone’s screen.  This makes it very tricky to know exactly what you’re filming since the camera doesn’t have a viewfinder of it’s own.

I think at one point, we all faced moments where we couldn’t film due to the subject’s “personal” reasons. Having full access on the subject we are doing on, is a very difficult issue we all encounter. Lately, I’ve been trying to get in contact with the refugee pastor on Lodi St.. I received the number of the pastor and tried calling him several times… He never picked up. Losing hope, I e-mailed him one last time, only to find out that he gave me a wrong number. So I got in touch with him today and we set a date to meet on Thursday morning at his office. He was very enthusiastic about the project. I tried to explain my project further, but his English wasn’t clear, so I assume he didn’t understand the whole thing. Besides all this, I generally have an outline of the project. Once I get introduced to a student (hopefully by the weekends), I am good to go.

In the meantime, I want to share a website where all of you can see documentaries.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/

Lately, writing this script has been like trying to grow an apple tree but having it grow into an apple forest with a few orange trees and lemon trees growing with it. Definitely not a good thing when trying to write for a short film and not a feature. This might be a stupid analogy, but it helps me realize the process of writing a script can get out of hand when you lose focus of what really needs to be told. In the case of my script, I believe less is more.

Therefore, I’ve cut out a seemingly important character in my script, which leaves only two characters. With a lot of thought, I’ve realized that there really was no point in having him. Odd that you can grow so easily attached to things you create which don’t have a lot of purpose.

Now, I’m in the process of finalizing my script and now that a character is gone, there’s more room to focus on my protagonist. I’ve been trying to visualize his mundane life in a simple way, and I happened to stumble across a short on YouTube that I drew some inspiration from. It’s a colorful and simple animation but with a dark commentary on an average Joe (or in this case, Jerry’s) everyday life. In case this may be helpful to you guys, here is the link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7R7HCAXFBQY

This week, we shot our first footage at the Syracuse Real Food Co-op. This first shooting day went far better than I had imagined, and it was fantastic to start getting to know the employees who make the food culture revolution a possibility in Upstate New York.

I arrived first thing on Saturday morning, in order to shoot somewhat uninterrupted B-roll in the store. It was a fairly quiet morning, so it was easy to capture the shots I wanted without too much interference. As the morning progressed, more customers came filing into the store. What I found most interesting was that most of them came up and asked me what I was doing. After fielding all of their questions, I decided that I should just interview them. All of these people willingly jumped in front of the camera, and were eager to share the factors that drive their commitment to sustainability, and why they go the extra step to buy food from local vendors.

All of employees at the store were extremely helpful in offering as much help as they could. One employee, Alex, gave me a thirty-minute tour around the store, explaining all of the products and fielding all of the questions. Although the majority of this footage will not be included in the documentary, I feel like this interview provided me with the information I needed to proactively move forward with the film.

Chalk board that displays the seasonal produce available at the Co-op

One of the employees, talks about the fresh donuts that were dropped off that morning by the chef of a community bakery.

This week in one of my classes I watched The Game (1997), directed by David Fincher. You may know him from his other films, Fight Club, Se7en, The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo, The Social Network, etc. etc.. Let’s just say I had high expectations going in.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film. Without giving too much away, the movie is basically about a very wealthy man named Nicholas Van Orton (Michael Douglas) who signs up for a new, personalized game. While my brief summary makes the film sound simplistic, the plot is full of twists and turns. I could hardly (if ever) predict what would happen next. In this way it reminded me of Se7en or The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo.

The many twists do, however, leave some noticeable holes in the plot. Additionally, they left many of my peers unhappy. Watching the film in class reminded me why going to a movie theater provides a whole different viewing experience. It was very interesting to watch the reactions of my classmates as the credits started rolling. Many were silently pondering the movie, others were jumping out of their seats, and some were even cursing it out. All in all, I had a great time. If you haven’t seen the movie, I highly recommend watching it with someone. Whether you love it or hate it, it makes for a great discussion topic.

Recently, I spoke with someone who does refugee work here in Syracuse.

He was very helpful and was willing to connect me with some people around Syracuse.

He made a few phone calls out to people involved in helping the refugee.

Hopefully by the end of this week, I will get information on a student I would be able to film with.

I decided to film a story about a boy/girl (high school student) who struggles in America and the life he lives here.

My film will focus on how people around him motivates and helps him to have a better life. I.e: School, church, community, etc… and will film every aspect of his life and how he plans on developing so on.

I attached a short film that won an Oscar in 2004, called WASP. Just thought it was interesting.

http://flavorwire.com/371666/10-oscar-winning-short-films-you-can-watch-right-now/10

This week, I was able to connect with the owner of the Syracuse Real Food Co-op, who excitedly welcomed the idea of a documentary film. During our conversation, he repeatedly noted that a documentary would be perfect PR for his business, a great way to promote sustainable farming, and a justification for this alternative lifestyle. I walked away from the meeting feeling like the film had tremendous potential, and very excited to begin working on the project as soon as possible.

However, there are two aspects of documentary film that I find very challenging: First, the authentic portrayal of the films subjects, and second, communicating the nature of the story in a very short period of time. Minutes after the meeting was over, an enormous sense of pressure set in. I now felt a responsibility to create a film that would promote the store as much as possible. At first, this notion was daunting. However, I decided that I was going to do my best to mobilize these nerves to create the best film possible.

For me, this is a primary source of motivation, and a main reason why I want to create the best film possible for the Food Co-op. Although this film is my capstone, and I want to add this film to my professional portfolio, I feel like it is far more important to turn the focus towards the store, and how their passion for sustainable farming is transforming the food culture of Upstate New York.

Below is an interesting NY Times article about authenticity in documentary filmmaking, “How Real Does it Feel?”: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/12/magazine/12Reality-t.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

And a link to the Syracuse Real Food Co-op website: http://www.syracuserealfood.coop/

On September 5th, 2014, I met with Fr. Linus DeSantis, the Catholic Chaplain of Syracuse University. While with him, I discussed the proper methods on how to perform a confession and the Rite of Penance. I asked him of what scriptures would best correlate with my script. Afterwards, I actively participated in my own confession (first in six years!) to not only remind myself on how confession is performed, but how a priest would talk to the confessor in an attempt to have him reveal his sins. Once the confession was complete, we exchanged contact information and he was eager to offer his help with the remainder of the project. His expertise in the Catholic faith should help close any loose ends or fix any inaccuracies within my script.

P.S. Here is the first picture of our location for shooting!!