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My Personal Brand Video for Business of Film MFA Program.

Mastery Journal for BOF

My original outcome and objective for Business of Film was, “I will learn how to better market myself as a filmmaker within the industry. This course will give me a better understanding of the business side of filmmaking as a whole.” When trying to describe a course before you physically take it (as I did with all of the courses in the MFA program) one really can’t comprehend how broad the film industry actually is until you attend the course in question. I again felt that after taking this course that my original outcome was vague and I didn’t really come close at all to understanding how much we really learned and covered throughout the month. Business of Film really does so much more than just give you a basic understanding of the business side of filmmaking. It goes deep into marketing, networking, social media, social skills, pitching, market research, understanding the film industry job market as a whole and so much more. I really feel this course helps any graduate to prepare and to understand what they should expect as they enter the job market.

As I prepare to graduate and go back to work I often reflect on the things I find so wrong with the film industry today. One of those things are, (and I learned the reason why in this course) is that the industry is not concerned necessarily with telling great stories and having a film be successful because of that. They truly only care about their bottom lines. I’ve known in my heart for some time that this is the case with Hollywood but I do believe that it’s not too late for them to change. I believe you can make a ton of money and still give the customer a good product and a wonderful story if you’re passionate about what you’re making. I can name many films from a few decades ago that can prove this point. I think Spielberg said it best in this quote.

-Inventive - “People have forgotten how to tell a story. Stories don’t have a middle or an end any more. They usually have a beginning that never stops beginning.”

~Steven Spielberg

Being inventive is the one issue that I believe plagues Hollywood the most today. In a time of remakes, reboots, and retellings we’ve lost the one thing that made Hollywood great in the first place. The ability to be inventive; to create something new and not regurgitate the same old content that we’ve been force fed before. We as a consumer can stop it if we only could come together and stop feeding the beast. We need to give our money to good things, new things that will help turn the tide of the business in Hollywood. This is only a tiny part of what I learned this month in Business of Film but this was a major point that I wanted to touch on and discuss as I leave the program and continue my path of discovery and invention.

Mastery Journal for FPIV Film Assembly

Mastery Journal for FPIII Post-Production

The original outcome and objective that I wrote for this course was; I will expand on my editing skills; I will finalize my thesis project and I will learn more skills as to marketing and promoting a project. Well I have to say that I was about half right. This class focused on workflow as it pertains to editing and the assembly process of putting together the initial cut of our thesis project. The one thing I didn’t know when I wrote my outcomes and objectives was that we were going to be using AVID to assemble our thesis project. I have never really had the urge to pursue editing as a career option. I am a somewhat OCD and a bit meticulous by nature and editing has always had a tendency to make me a little bit crazy. I have always thought that I have a good understanding about how an edit should be put together and I’ve also thought that if I had the mind to do it I would probably be pretty good at editing. My biggest problem with my relationship with editing is my frustration with all the different technology you have to be up to speed with to be able to do the job well. There’s different compression rates, codex’s, file sizes, storage capacities, etc. etc. etc. The great thing about this course is that you are forced to learn quite a bit about these things.

I came into FP3 with some basic editing knowledge on programs like Final Cut and Premiere, but very little knowledge about AVID. I learned that some of these other editing software systems are used from time to time in the film industry, but like it or not AVID is typically the primary editing software used in the industry. I think for someone to be a viable commodity within this ever changing industry you need to be versed on as many systems as possible. It’s important to always be learning and growing within your chosen field. I feel leaving this course, I am leaving with far more tools than I came in with which will help me be a far better filmmaker in every aspect.

Mastery Journal for FPII Production

The original outcome and objective I wrote for this course was, I will learn leadership skills by working within teams. I will also go into production on my thesis film during this course. Well there’s no doubt that we shot our thesis during this course but there was a whole lot more to learn then just how to work with teams. Going into Film Production II from preproduction was a blur. Our group struggled to find a location off campus during preproduction and we ended up booking a set on the soundstage that we ended up having to alter to make work for our needs. Our class has had quite a bit of dysfunction within in it from the start of the program. This set build was the first time that we had no choice but to come together as a team and find ways of working together fluidly. There were still a few hiccups with a couple of our personal but throughout the first week of Production we began to iron out those issues. There’s no doubt in my mind that Production forces the class to come together as a team because if they don’t at this point, the film probably doesn’t stand a chance of making it into Post Production.

Some of my take away’s from Production were; you should meet as a team as much as possible to prepare for all possible contingencies before production begins. We had so many curve balls thrown at us in preparation for our production. We had a hurricane which forced our production schedule back a couple of days. This issue caused scheduling conflicts with our actors and some of them couldn’t be there on scheduled days. This in turn required us to adjust our shooting schedule around, we had to try and still make everything work. I learned that being flexible in every aspect of Production is key in being successful. Usually whatever you can think will go wrong, will go wrong, so have as many fall backs as possible. During Production there were moments of tension on set usually caused by technical issues. You have to stay calm, and work through these issues. It’s never good to have the actors see or feel the stress that may be occurring on set. I also believe that with me being the DP and having a leadership role, I found it extremely important to praise my crew and to let them know each and every night that all their hard work hadn’t gone unnoticed. I can’t stress enough how important this is and how much my crew seemed to appreciate the recognition. Filmmaking is a high speed stressful occupation and a little pat on the back for a job well done is really important.

Things will go wrong, but it’s finding ways to dig your way out of these circumstances and keep moving forward is what really makes a person a true filmmaker in my eyes. In some cases, you may have technical issues and you have to work through those, but in other cases there can be personal issues that occur. Sometimes between the crew and sometimes caused by those in outside leadership roles. You have to keep your head about you and keep your focus on each day’s goals. Let the personal stuff fall to the wayside, because in the final annalists it is just a job, it’s a great job but it’s not worth letting the stress break you. Step away, take a moment, and then get back into the pocket. There’s nothing better than seeing all your hard work come together in an edit, and showing it to an audience. Good or bad it’s an accomplishment and something every filmmaker strives for. I come away from Production feeling proud of my class and of the work we accomplished. It was a hell of an experience and it’s a little bitter sweet now that it’s over.

Mastery Journal for FPI Pre-Production

The learning outcome and objective I originally wrote for this course was, I will prepare for the preproduction process and I will learn to break down a script. This course was so much more than just learning how to break down a script. To start with the class flew by because there was so much to do. I am the Director of Photography for the thesis project and my responsibilities were extensive. Our class had trouble locking down a location before preproduction started, so we were behind the eight ball almost right from the start of this course. After the first week we were able to lock down our location and really delve into the paperwork that is crucial to the preproduction process.

Some of the responsibilities that fall to the DP in preproduction are, script breakdown, shot list, camera plots, lighting and electrical plots, storyboards, blocking and possible previsualization of the scenes, and those are just the things I’m responsible for. There is so much more to know and learn as the responsibilities preproduction fall to each position.

Some of the difficulty’s I ran into when going through the preproduction process was finding ways to collaborate with the other key individuals who are responsible for helping me with the duties that I listed above. Although all of the things listed are my responsibly to complete by the end of preproduction, I would be unable to complete them without input from a number of other individuals. I need input from the director on almost every aspect of what I had to do. I need input from the producer concerning the budget and shooting schedule, I need input from the Art Director concerning dressing the set and location layout. I have to work closely with my Gaffer and Key Grip to discuss and lock down the lighting plots and electrical layout for the location so that everything is done in the most efficient way possible. Lastly I have to put all this information together in an informative way for the production book, so that anyone who looks at it has a clear understanding of what I am trying to achieve.

It’s easy to say that I learned a lot in this course. It was a bit of a wheels off experience as the content is clear and the instruction given is concise and to the point. Preproduction is really about the crew coming together as a team for the first time and learning how to work together as efficiently as possible.

Mastery Journal for ECL

The learning outcome and objective I originally wrote for this course was, I will learn above the line responsibilities as they relate to legal parameters in the production process. I will delve deeper into the production process where paperwork and intellectual properties relate to the law. I don’t believe I really had a clue as to what this course was all about. We really didn’t do any “production” this month and I really didn’t learn to much about above the line responsibilities. What I did learn was broad strokes of the law that can affect me in many different aspects and situations throughout the industry. Not only in above the line positions but in every aspect of productions of any type. This course blew me away. I came into the course extremely intimidated by my lack of knowledge concerning the subject. I am leaving this course feeling like I learned more than I could have ever imagined. The course covers a wide array of subjects. Like why and how you should get an attorney and an accountant, copyright law, defamation, right of publicity, trademarks, intellectual property, licenses, and involuntary transfers, antitrust, employer liability, entities, first amendment rights, negation, and so on. I honestly can’t believe what I learned in this course in such a short amount of time and all the tools that I feel like I’m walking away with.

The instructor’s knowledge in this subject is astounding. I mean not forgetting the fact that she’s a working lawyer in her chosen field, she’s also one hell of an instructor. I came into this course fearful that the information was going to be dry and boring, but she made every day new and engaging. Her teaching style is fun and upbeat which helped to make the information easy to understand. I never thought I’d be able to learn so much about a given subject as I did in this particular course. As you can tell I thoroughly enjoyed it.

I will say that as usual the workload is fairly intense with some of the papers that have to be written. On the bright side though the instructor is always accessible and willing to critique your work before you submit it so you can try to achieve the highest grade possible. This is not a requirement but you would be crazy not to take her up on the offer. This is a great course and comes along right before we go into thesis, when it is most needed and most welcome.

FEAR

My Emotion Assignment for VST in the MFA Program at Full Sail University

Mastery Journal for VST

The learning outcome and objective I originally wrote for this course was, to learn how to breakdown scripts and examine more deeply the importance of composition and blocking within the visual image. I believe this course exceeded my original learning outcome and objective, just not in the way I originally conceived. The assignments given in this course were thought provoking and challenging. We were given the entire month to finish all assignments which was a structure change from previous months. It made me have to time manage in a much more efficient way than I had prior to this class. Typically, assignments are due each week; in this class having all the assignments due at the end of the course could present a challenge to some students. First if you didn’t plan out your month properly, one might find themselves out of time to finish all the assignments that are due. By rolling out the assignments in this manor is a great way to teach time management, scheduling, and self-management to the students. Second, it forced me to work with my classmates and plan our shoots accordingly so we might be available to help one another. As we know it takes a crew to make a movie.

The instructors are very knowledgeable in their given subjects. They are able to convey the information in a way that’s easy to understand and they are quick to invoke conversations concerning films and film production as a whole. We didn’t necessarily “break down scripts” as I had first suggested but in some ways we did. In the schematic of a scene presentation assignment we had to break down a scene by putting it in properly formatted script form and break that down into a lined shot list. We definitely learned how to examine more deeply the importance of composition and blocking and how to handle our work being critiqued in a positive way. We also learned how to critique others work without doing it in a negative or insulting way.

The only negative issue that comes to mind when I think about the class as a whole was the feeling of having limited time to focus on the class assignments. Some of the class requirements like working on thesis productions can make finding the time to focus on making the best projects for the class quite difficult. I completely understand the need to have the students gain experience by working on set and the only way to do that is to help out on outside projects but I do feel the class projects and assignments suffer because of it. I realize there’s no real way around this issue but I can’t help to mention it, as it’s one of the main things that I felt made the class difficult.

In the final analysis, this was a great course with its own set of new and unique challenges. I had been looking forward to this class for some time and I believe my classmates found it as interesting and challenging as I did.

The Fortune Teller

This is the narrative short film that I wrote, Directed and DP’d for the EFM course in the MFA program at Full Sail University. Enjoy!

Mastery Journal for EFM

The learning outcome or objective that I originally wrote for this course was, to learn techniques in low budget or independent filmmaking to expand my knowledge as it pertains to on the fly shooting. I will have to say that my original assessment of what this class was going to be was a bit off. Instead of only focusing on “low budget” filmmaking, this class was very broad in all of the aspects of production that it covered. Not only did we learn how to work with-in a low budget scenario we also covered large budget filmmaking as well. This outcome was much more useful to me than only covering low budget or independent filmmaking circumstances, because the art of filmmaking as a whole is broad and one can find themselves in any number of professional situations and we have to know how to handle every production as they come.

I feel what really worked for this class was the experimental nature of it. It was wheels off filmmaking and I loved that. The instructor really gave the freedom to the student to be as creative as he or she wanted to be. We were pushed to try new things and to not be afraid to fail if something didn’t work. That really was a breath of fresh air as it relates to storytelling. There are so many guidelines and rules that one runs into in the educational environment and to be able to do “anything” when it came to a film project was really exciting. I also feel the instructor’s openness to new ideas and his willingness to not immediately say “no” when it came to the student’s visualization of their project was truly refreshing. So often the students hear the word “No” that it’s pretty noticeable when you hear an enthusiastic “YES”!

In the final analysis the one glaring issue that really stands out to me in this course is the combination of the thesis pitches stacked on top of the regular course requirements. I felt that more students might pitch for thesis if they were not required to do a production in this course. Those that don’t pitch should obviously have to shoot a production and those that are pitching should have to assist on those productions. The problem is that as it is there is so little time for anything else when you have to do a production for the class. Quite a few of my classmates who had planned to pitch didn’t and resigned themselves to not pitching because of the workload in the course. That was honestly the only disappointment I had with this course. I really would have liked to have seen more students step up and pitch more films so we might of had additional options moving into thesis.

The Last Place

Music video I D.P.’d for EFM

Enjoy!

My Cinematography Reel

My Mastery Vlog Assignment for SPA.

“MAD” a short film shot for FCP in the MFA Program.

I was the Editor.

Mastery Journal Assignment FCP

Throw Me to the Dogs (2015) directed by Aaron Dunleavy & Joseph Ollman is a modern day drama set in England. The central message of the film is; how much bullying can one person take before they hit their breaking point? The premise of the film was about a troubled teenage boy who was being stripped of his dignity on a daily basis by a group of neighborhood bully’s. While his son retreats from these thugs Dylan’s father abandons him to coach the bully’s in a soccer tournament to win money to pay for the living room window that the gang broke. The film presents Dylan (the son) having to adapt to the constant mistreatment and the steps he has to take to end the harassment.

The film was shoot in a poor neighborhood in England. The sky in many scenes was overcast and dark, which made the tone of the film gloomy and heavy. A strong feeling of depression was shown through the visuals. This decision worked well because the main characters social status was miserable and poor. A good logline for this film would be; living in a depressed and meager neighborhood in England, a young boy named Dylan is bullied and abused by a gang soccer welding teens. Will he be able to take their relentless abuse or will he strike back with force?

The filmmakers used natural lighting, handheld camera, no score, and practical sound FX to bring the world of the characters to life. The film relied on visuals and basic dialogue to drive the story forward. The character arc was very simple. We first meet Dylan, a character that gets abused by his peers but doesn’t fight back physically. By the end of the film he is ready and willing to do what he has too to stop the abuse, even if that means inflecting pain on those that abuse him.

The low-income area in England that was chosen for the film really gives the viewer a since of hopelessness that is Dylan’s situation. The use of natural lighting and handheld camera movements give the viewer a first person perspective into this world. The filmmakers also chose to use non-professional actors in this film. This decision put real boys who actually grew up and live in this tough environment on the screen and it paid off in their performances.

Natural everyday diegetic sounds that would naturally inhabit this world were used to give the viewer a since of equilibrium; a feel of the space and of the world as a whole. By not incorporating a score, the filmmakers relied heavily on those particular strategies and techniques to build tension within the scenes that brought a level of reality to the picture.

Through the use of POV shots of the lonely boy you begin to connect and feel for this character. You want to stand up for him, defend him, and protect him against the cruelty of the street thugs. There was one particular scene where the plot had no choice but to take a turn. It forced the main character Dylan into making a choice. The scene was where the main bully corners Dylan behind his father back and threatens him not to show up to the tournament the following day. This scene was what the whole film was building up too, the point in which Dylan will choose to either make a stand or stay home and hide from his tormentors. There wasn’t anything necessarily foreshadowing the decision that Dylan was going to end up making because I believe the filmmakers didn’t want to give away their ending.

One criticism I had of the film was the dynamic between the father and Dylan. Throughout the film Dylan’s father was either blind or uncaring about the abuse his son was receiving at the hands of his newly formed soccer team. I felt that at the end of the film the filmmakers could have went a step further and had Dylan confront his father about this issue. The filmmakers did leave me wanting more which is a good thing, but I felt slightly dissatisfied with what I was left with.

The choices our group made in producing MAD, our zero-low resource film that support the premise of the story was the use of no score; we let the visuals tell the story. We used handheld camera to build tension, as our short film was a physiological thriller. We used mostly practical lighting with some external professional filmmaking lights to augment our images. The film was edited so the pace would increase as the story moved forward. All of these filming and storytelling techniques helped to support the premise of our story.

The main practical challenges we were able to overcome by employing these creative solutions was problem solving. As a group being able to shoot on such a small scale gave us a better ability to adapt to any situation where a problem may arise. We had fallbacks and at least one alternate plan in case something didn’t work the way we wanted. Being unrestricted in the aspect of little to no budget and by producing something ourselves allowed us a lot of elbowroom and flexibility. It makes for a very creative and honest experience as it relates to telling the visual story.

The film can be viewed at:

https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2016/03/16/throw-me-to-the-dogs/

Another Music Video I was the Cinematographer on.

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