Film Journey Alert @filmmasterintraining-blog - Tumblr Blog

Mastery Journal: Business of Film

This past year has been a really interesting experience. Every month I learn something new or I learn a different way to do something I already knew. This month was no different. Back in the Mastery class, I thought that this class would help me create a trailer, help me learn to negotiate and that it would help me develop a plan to advance my career. This month did all of these things except help me with a trailer. We actually did that a couple months ago.

This class really does feel like the final step of my college experience. This class makes me feel prepared for the next step on my journey. As we go about our discussions in class I am realizing that I actually do no more than I think. All of the discussions we have in class really feel like they are going to help me in the future. One of my favorite classes this month as been the one about Hollywood accounting and I love that every week we talk about what’s new/ what’s big in the box office the past weekend.

Something else that Peter stresses in this class is networking or in general just talking to people. You have to build relationships with people that’s how you get by in this business. You have to find common ground somewhere. This piece of information is crucial and a little bitter sweet because this is the last class I have with people, that will probably be the best connections I have. It’s interesting to think that in two weeks’ time I won’t see some of these people for a while. I really did make a lot of friends here in this program but on top of that I made a great network.

I heard something interesting other day on the news that really resonated with me and made me think about the last 12 months. The director and writer of Moonlight and also the director of the new movie If Beale Street Could Talk, Barry Jenkins, works on all these projects with some of his best friends/ classmates from time he was at film school. He actually calls them up and ask them if they want to make a movie with him. Some of them have even been on board for projects before they have scripts. They are the people that told him to get his butt in gear when he was having writers block before the movie Moonlight came out. I love this because I feel like with the friends I made in these last couple months leading into graduation anyone of us could call each other for help on a set or for a connection to a job . I think that is one of the most important things I learned from this class and that is that the connections you make really can help you in this industry.

A Good Friend is a connection to life - a tie to the past a road to the future, the key to sanity in a totally insane world. – Loid Wyse

Film Assembly Video

Mastery Journal Video.

Mastery Journal: Post Production

When I was in Mastery we had an assignment that asked us to look up all the classes in the Film Production MFA program and write what it is and what I think this class will teach me. I think from the name it was pretty self explanatory what this class would be about. Editing. I hate editing. It was never interesting and I figured this class would be the worst one yet. IT wasn't though. I still don’t want to edit but I do have a new respect for it. This class taught you the ins and out of editing and how one needs to really figure out their own editing space and program.

In the class we went over a new editing software. Avid. Avid was horrible at first and only became tolerable by the end. However, that is not the same for the class. The class was interesting in moments and sometimes it went over my head. But overall it was not that bad. I learned a lot about workflow. I actually enjoyed learning about the proper way to export and the process of editing in general.

Back when I was getting my Bachelors, I had to teach my self how to use Final Cut and Adobe Premier. It was very hard and even though I know how to use the programs I have hated editing every sense. Now with that being said I still like Adobe Premier better than Avid but the process of learning Avid was so much better than my other experiences.

For the final project we had the option to edit one of our own works or the thesis project on Avid. I choose my own work and I can honestly say I don’t hate it all that much. I think it turned out ok. Yes there are still things that need to be fixed at least special effect wise but my knowledge of Avid has really grown.

Mastery Journal: Production.

Coming into this program I'm not really sure what I thought the production month would be like and honestly after the last couple of months I thought it would be utter chaos. But it wasn't. In fact it was very calm and very organized.

Everyone really did their job and it was actually tons of fun in the end. I think overall this was a very good learning experience. I really feel that not only did I get to experience what it is like to be on a film set that is actually somewhat my own but also in a position that I would not mine being on a real set. It was more of a first hand experience this time around because my class was in charge. On other sets I have been more of the grunts and was kind of bossed around and yelled at. On this set, if I can say so my self , we were a lot nicer to our PA. We all , for the most part, were willing got help when needed. I think it really showed how far we have come as a class. We were all able to put away the crap and band together to make a film. Which is pretty cool

Not only was this a good production overall in the sense of teamwork but the information I learned during the month about DIT, camera, and just what it takes to make the words on the page a reality was amazing. Some of my favorite things was learning the codex and the Sony F5. This class is great because you have the ability to go to labs to really learn how to use the Sony F5 even if you were not on the camera team.

Also Dino as a teacher is probably one of the greatest teacher here at Full Sail because he is so knowledgeable. I feel like I really learned something in both the Pre-production and Production. I was given real world expectation and received real world examples.

Mastery Journal: Pre Prodcution

Entertainment and Law: Mastery Journal

In Mastery we had to write down on a keynote what we hoped this class would teach us. I said I want it to teach me the distribution side of film industry, I wanted to learn more about agents and managements, and I wanted to learn the inside outs of negotiation. However, since month 3 when I worked on Killer Clown Car 2 and I heard how much paper work Entertainment Law had I have dreaded this class. It was probably not warrantied but still I was a little freaked. Over all Entertainment Law was pretty much what I thought it was just not as scary. I am really not an auditory learner, in fact, I’m known for falling asleep in class when there just slides and people talking. Yet I didn’t fall asleep in this one. For the most part it was an interesting class. I do feel like I actually was able to learn things. The copyright week was very informative, and I think it will help in the near future.

This class really is well taught and what we learn in class can really help. For instance, she explained the music and sync license and how we technically need both to use music from artist today or how we technically cannot use West star in films if we want to send a film into Film Festivals because we don’t have a chain of title for it. Something else I thought was fun and helped a lot was the Mock Appeal. I really learned a lot from just that class alone. I feel that, that was the moment that everything started to make sense in class. The course was very well put together. The examples they used in class and how everything related to film and television made it a lot more fun for me.

Honestly the thing that made this class much better was the teachers and their knowledge on the subject. They really knew what they were talking about and they know how to get us to engage in the conversation with them. I actually surprised my self with everything that I retained from this class and can fully say that this class will be one of the most helpful in the future.

Mastery Journal Assignment -VST

Ever since the beginning of the program I have always heard about how month six is the make or break month. They all talk about how the sixth month is the hardest and that you when you get to that month you will finally see what it’s like to be busy in the industry. In month two (FCP) Luke put up a picture that said, “Sleep is for the weak” and up until this moment I never really believed that to be the case.

This month was a kick in the pants. But also, it was probably the most creative I have been outside of writing a script in months. From the beginning this class had some really intense projects but they were fun to do. It was also fun helping people on their projects.

Back in Mastery we were told to make a keynote for each class and talk about what we hoped we learned in class. For this class I thought I would learn the inside and outs of invoking true emotions through color and lighting. I also thought I would be taught different was to visually tell the same story such as color, lighting props and design. I was pretty close in my assessment of the class based on the pamphlet.

I did learn a lot from the labs we had. I learned the proper way to light and how it is important to over light because it makes it easier to accommodate any changes that might occur on set. Also, after being on a thesis set where they were changing lights left and right and we Grips kept having to pull stuff out of truck or take things down from the walls and then they would complain about how long we are taking. The over lighting would have really helped. The constant back and forth was very tedious and not necessary. Another lab I just enjoyed because it’s something I am very interested in is the camera lab. It was cool to rally get my hands on a camera of that caliber and being able to take it apart and put it back together.

I would say that one of the most eye opening and most helpful thing I learned was the work it takes to be a grip. Before this class I would have never thought I would be a good grip or that I would even be able to understand the work it requires to be one. With this class I was put in a place I had to learn quickly. Granted this thesis was crazy but it was a very good experience when it comes to showing how busy a grip is on set and how you literally can’t do anything on set without them outside of directing and camera.

This class is and will probably the hardest class I take in this course. If I excuse the 4 days I will be working on my classes thesis. But it got my creative thoughts going and makes me want to use every opportunity I have to make something amazing.

Mastery Journal

Experimental Film

My expectation of this class was that I thought I would be doing a lot of filming with my phone and doing some abstract videos. I also thought that this class was going to be able to help me truly understand visual storytelling, which it did. This class taught me some interesting stuff not only about filmmaking in general but also about what I want to do when I am done with school

This class was actually very interesting especially when we got into the lightening portion of the class. I have never really ever been taught the inside outs of it and how to power it. I learned a lot from that. It is funny because as much I hated math in my bachelors, but the math part of lightening was actually kind of fun. Another thing that I thought was cool was when we had the telephone conversation with Dustin Harrison Atlas. He actually had a lot of good information and it was cool to hear what happens after a film festival. What we should expect and what we should look for.

In this class we got the chance to make our own video. We pretty much had the green light for everything and anything we wanted to do. Because of this I was able to really get my first taste for filming something I wrote. Which was a very interesting process, but it did teach me a lot.

The last thing that I was cool was when we’re filming the Retribution film in class. We did so we could put to use the lightening we learned and also get our first taste of what it would be like to be on Thesis. At first it was a little chaotic because everyone wanted to do every other job besides there but eventually as a class we got the hang of it and things started to run better.

Directing Talent was a very interesting class because not only did I experience what it was like to direct actors but also what it felt like to be directed as an actor. In Mastery I said that I wanted this class to teach how to talk to actors and to help me see if I really want to become a director one day.

After this class I know I want to direct more and maybe even act one day. This class was very eye opening to me and really help settle my mind on what I want to do after school.

It was also cool because I acted in a lot of different stories and some of them were very straightforward and some of them were riddled with subtleties that took more acting on my part.

I also felt that this class will help me more as a director because I wasn't directing actors I was directing people that had to act. That meant I had to be more creative in the scenarios I used to get certain performances and more cautious about the people I chose for my cast.

This class also help me get out of my comfort zone and helped me realize what my comfort zone is. It also helped me look at people and see what their comfort zone is and see what they're comfortable with and how I can get the performance I want without breaking their comfort zone if it's not needed.

Overall I would say that this class really did help me and teach me some things I need to know for the future. For one I know I need to work on getting more subtle actions out of my actors. And not just to keep them busy but they keep the story flowing.

#FPMFA

Victoria Castillo Nicholas Diaz Coralynn Gary Taylor Merced

FPMFA - Script Production

GARYC_VBLOG

Mastery Journal: FCP

The Sundance short film I choose to write about is The Robbery. This story is about a woman who is down and out on her luck and decides the best and quickest way to get money is to rob a convenience store.

This short film is considered a dark comedy due to the sarcastic overtone of the actors and the outlandishness of the situation. However even though it is considered a comedy the movie itself is laced with some sad back story which is why it is called a dark comedy not just a comedy. For instance, the reason she is trying to get money is because she is trying to get her dog back from the pound. Another reason it is consider dark is because towards the end of the film we realize she has not talked to her family in a while. She is so sad about this she calls a friend while she is getting shot at by a crossbow and wants them to check on her mom in the hospital. But as the movie progresses she gets a phone call from her dad saying her has mom died.

Now because of how realistic this movie is the production design was not over the top, it was very simple but detailed. From the beginning, you can tell how well the production design was. Even if we had not seen the main character smoke weed in the beginning we would have known she was a drug addict in some kind of capacity. The way they dressed her was very telling. They manage to give the audience her whole back story based on what she was wearing and how she acted. Another part of production design was the lay out of the convenient store. Because the film was a one shot they had to place everything in a way that the camera would be able to navigate easily and not worry about knocking something over or getting in the way of the shot as they follow that main actress.

This whole entire film was a one shot. So, it followed the main character everywhere yet you wouldn’t realize it because of the camera movement and the characters movement. The camera was handheld so there was a lot of shaking and blurriness in the film but it works with the story. As she moved through the store there was never a moment that the camera lost her. The camera really only did medium and close ups of her. There were very little wide shot scenes in the film. The depth of field for the film varied on what she was doing. If she was on the phone it was very shallow, others wise it was as long depth of field, or mix of the two.

When it came to lightening it was very natural but warm. The only dark spot of the movie was when she was in the Uber car but after that the natural light form the sun lit the scene. When it came to music there was none. What they used were the sounds of the crossbow, her voice, the manger and other things in the store. Instead of relying on the music they relied on the natural sound of her running around, things crashing, and just the overall buzz of the room. The dialogue in the film was very crisp and clear. The main actress for most of the film was talking to herself or on the phone however we could not here the person on the other side of the phone. They were very good at giving her lines that help further the story instead of confuse the audience more.

One of the cool things about watching this movie was watching the way they moved the camera around the store and the main actress. Now in my film we will not be doing a nine-minute take but we might try to incorporate some, one takes to help further the story. Another thing we will incorporate is the natural lightening of the film. Because we are low budget film we will not have any lightening equipment so we will have to use the sun wisely as well as shoot somewhere that allows natural light. This short film opened my eye to the possibility of a lot the challenges we might face but can still overcome if we use creative film making. One way we can overcome some of the challenges is to use props that are house hold items. We don’t have to be over the top with our props they just have to be placed strategically. When we are shooting don’t just move the camera move the actor as well. Have the actor work the scene and camera instead of just one or the other. The last creative film making solution would be to show the story not tell. We must use the props, actor and camera movement to tell the story

These photos only show a few people that have supported me in my journey and will continue to support me threw everything. My friends are constantly cheering me on and up. They will tell me the truth when it comes to my art not just what I want to hear. They test me and are often my inspiration on a lot of the character I write. I honestly do not know who I would be with out then.

filmmasterintraining-blog

Master Time Line Part I.

Mastery Time Line Part II.

I took these picture and others in Richmond, Virginia on a street that was filled with graffiti just like this.This really inspired me in the moment and now. The first time I saw this everything negative was gone. All I could do was admire what had been done. I want to create work that everyone can see. Because I want to inspire the same feelings and moments I got when I saw these.

My linkedin.

My logo.

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Film Journey Alert