Film Studies 201

Next semester, I’m taking FST 399 (Film Directing) and FST 318 (Screenwriting I) to explore some specific roles and interests of mine more in depth early on. Directing is a course I planned to take later on in my college career, but since directing is what I originally planned to do in the film industry, I decided that I wanted to take it earlier to make sure it was what I wanted. I chose to take Screenwriting as well to allow me to see another side of film I was interested in, in case directing waned, and because writing is a personal interest of mine, and I’d like to not only develop it further, but learn to write in script format. I also plan to volunteer for Visions, look into joining Flicker (if my schedule next semester will allow it!), and prepare and submit summer internship applications. Finally, I need to become engaged in research, possibly in both creative scholarship and the academic side of things.

My Life as a Zucchini The first event we went to at Cucalorus was a 10:45 am showing of My Life as a Zucchini , a French stop motion animation, which was shown in Thalian Main Theater. The theater itself was incredibly striking, with the red-velvet covered seats, antique furniture, and colorful embellishments around the stage itself, such as the cherub painting on its ceiling. It made it so that the screening was more than the film itself; it was an experience that as a result heightened the respect for the film by nature of its surroundings. If we’d walked into a barren garage filled with metal fold-up chairs, we still would have appreciated the film, but I don’t think to the complete effect would have been the same at all. What I liked most about My Life as a Zucchini is that it is another step forward for animation as a mode for serious content, since it’s a medium that, in my experience, isn’t taken seriously at all by the general population (an animated film equals a kid film...

For the experimental film, I was given the crew position of Sound. I was excited for it, though I didn’t have much experience in putting a soundtrack together, and just had fun collecting sounds, mixing them, and juxtaposing them (while staying within the theme). This editing process was different than video, which allows me to see in some sense what the product will be like as I’m editing. With sound, however, you can move things around, but you have to play it to get a sense for what it’s going to be. Furthermore, the experience of layering was far more prominent in sound than it would have been for me in video. Although in video you can do superimposition, with sound I was able to deal with layer upon layer (at the densest, I had 5 tracks playing at one time). Mixing natural sounds and mechanical ones was another interesting factor, since I combined collected and pre-recorded natural sounds with synthetic ones I created in Garageband.

Editing the Master Shot Scene was, of course, different from the documentary. We had many more cuts than in the documentary and had the extra-added concern of trying to match action and uphold continuity. Even though the documentary was in parts when it went to editing, the main structure of it – the interview – was intact. The footage for the Master Shot Scene was in scattered pieces, with even the master shot itself not resembling the final product's effect. Editing made the scene slowly come to life. From the rough footage, it turned into a cohesive series of events, the titles helped it to seem like a unit, and the music infused the identity into the project. While editing sometimes revealed problems we couldn’t recognize on set, it also was the time when our film really formed. We made changes to the storyboard throughout the project, modifying and moving things during editing beyond what we’d intended during principal photography.

Making previsualization materials was a new experience for me. Some things, like the lined script, I’d never really heard of much before, but having used them I can see why they can be valuable. Although creating the storyboards was a little challenging and somewhat stressful, I’m pretty glad with how they came out and had some fun making them. The previsualization materials were helpful in getting us to focus on the details of the film’s components before shooting. It was nice to have a draft of the film to guide us, and the trial and error was able to happen mostly on the page, rather than during shooting. The most difficult part was coordinating all the materials (the shotlist, storyboard, and lined script) so that they reflected the same information in different formats. At times they got a little confusing, but with practice it will all probably come much more easily.

For our master shot narrative, I was assigned the position of director. One of my initial ideas was to try shooting in the Boseman Gallery (or the Cultural Arts Gallery), but I had doubts about the legal issues and after discussing it with the rest of the crew, we agreed it wouldn’t be feasible. We then turned to my second suggestion, which was the Clocktower Lounge. I thought it would be a good place to film because it’s indoors, which lends to a higher degree of control, it’s very quiet depending on the time you go, and the setting provides visual interest and a cozy feel. I also had the idea of making it so that Bran and Park had never met, that Park is just a normal student, and Bran is a borderline-crazy stranger. Lastly, I thought we could use Park as the protagonist, bookending the film with shots of him to create a cohesive product.