Favorite Unit

 What unit did you enjoy the most?  Why?  What are three things that you learned from the unit?  What are two things that you'd like to know more about?  How could this unit be improved?  Please give detailed input.

Strangely, the history unit was one of my favorites. I also liked the sound unit. Some things I would like to learn more about and that I think you should teach, is story structure. I also really wish we got to learn lighting. I understand that it's not possible to learn everything, but I felt a bit let down. We also barely learned about story structure. We skimmed over it, but I wish we got more into dialogue and effective storytelling techniques. In my opinion, we could've moved a lot faster through the set safety lesson. The history unit was also super long, and while I found it interesting, I would've rather learned about other stuff. I feel like it's unfair for us to be expected to tell a great story if we've never been taught how to. 

Beginning Of The Year Goals

 Look back at your goals for the Fall and Spring Semester blog posts.  Were you able to achieve your goals?  Why or why not?  What could you have done differently?  Looking back at them, what could you have done to focus more on your goals in the course?

My goals from the beginning of the year were:

1. Learn how to set up a tripod and camera quickly and efficiently
Accomplished. 

2. Learn how to write effective dialog that makes sense and is placed well (actually relevant and necessary)
Not accomplished.

3. Write stories that are meaningful and more complex
Not accomplished.

This class teaches a lot of technical skills, which I really loved, but I wish we focused a bit more on the storytelling aspect. How can we tell a good story and make good films if we didn't learn about effective storytelling, and how to tell a good story? I do appreciate the technical skills though, as that's what people hire on. I just think some lessons on proper story would be great, though I know the advanced kids go into that in the fall. 

Film Festival Reflection

   Reflect on your experience of the film festival.  What was it like to see your or your classmates' work on the big screen before a live audience?  How did this make you feel?  How could you improve in the future?  What would you do differently?

It was so fun to watch the films with an audience. I'm actually really disappointed that the screen couldn't seem to cast colors correctly. I noticed everything was blown out, and that the exposure of the colors were all bad. It sucked, since the color grading for Iron Gun was done so nice, and there's a lot of scenes that had a lot of colored lighting, and that was really unfortunate. It was so fun to hear everyone's laughter during the funny parts of Iron Gun though, it made it all worth it. In the future, I'll try to have more of my films in different festivals, but I never really minded. My groups were always very unfortunate. 

Comic Book Heaven

 What kind of mood do the filmmakers convey in this short?  What are 3 techniques that you noticed that help convey the mood of the film?

The filmmakers use color guarding to give the shots a warmer tone, and help the mood feel more nostalgic and welcoming. I also noticed a lot of shots of the owner, and the owner interacting with the customers to help this as well. Shots of the storeowner working also added to the hardworking and warm feeling in this documentary. It's short and sweet, and feels welcoming. It may motivate people to visit the store more if they "get to know" the storeowner, and see that he's a sweet and hardworking person. 

Terrance Documentary

 What are 3 techniques that it uses that you learned about in the documentary?  How does the documentary use them effectively?  Are there any techniques it uses that weren't in the keynote?

The use of interviews in the documentary add a lot of personalization to the video. They use them effectively by adding a lot of b-roll and having the camera close to the participant's face. There's a lot of effective b-roll showing moments in the participants lives, and showing who they are as a person. The coloring of the interviews is also quite dull, the background plain. This helps the tone of the documentary, and shows these peoples upcoming adventure in a bitter-sweet light. 

The Bull Rider

 What are 3 techniques that it uses that you learned about in the film?  How does the documentary use them effectively?  Are there any techniques it uses that weren't in the keynote?

One technique that I noticed is the coloring. The coloring was more muted. Something else I noticed was the use of a lot of slow-motion clips. This gave the documentary a more serious feel, especially because another technique used was close ups. There were so many slow motion clips all throughout the documentary, and it opened my eyes to the fact that these can be pulled off well. I'll definitely try to use slow motion clips in my next documentary. It adds more of a serious tone to the film, and makes it more visually interesting to look at. 

Storytelling Techniques

 What are 3 techniques that the filmmakers use to tell a compelling story?  What kind of mood do they create?  How do they accomplish this?

An important technique to keep in mind is even though your cinematography may be simple, your driving question and your execution must be good. This is crucial to create an effective documentary. They accomplish a nostalgic look by grading the footage. The simple shots feel raw and genuine. While the shots aren't extreme, this documentary paid great detail to the entire experience of going to the drive-in.