Critique: Camera Demo

During the filming of the camera and tripod demos, we as a team learned how difficult it is to to capture movement while up close. If the person behind the camera is not focused on capturing the movement, it becomes unorganized and what we want to capture doesn't get captured. For example, while filming the buttons on the camera and their corresponding actions, the camera remained still, the "actor's" hands were going in and out of the shot. Another part that we didn't focus on enough was the sound quality. We learned the importance of the positioning of the mic and the attention needed for your footage. Sound is crucial because if you have an amazing shot with sound or dialogue and the sound is missing, then the shot is virtually useless. What we learned were the functions of the camera and how to set up for a shot. I think that the project was very helpful in that it allowed a hands on experience.

While filming, my partners saw this project as a more creative project than what it actually was. Sometimes, we visualized a shot that was too difficult and therefore, we often veered off track. Our time management was not the best, but we ended up focusing on the last day of filming and we got all the content finished. With the lines, because the "script" was just a rough cut and we had to figure out how we needed to present our content. Some of the lines were harder than the others but some actors didn't know how to improvise so we took multiple takes on just one line. Overall, the beginning was pretty rough because of the excitement with finally being able to handle a camera. Despite this,  towards the end we junked all the unnecessary conceptualizations and ideas and make the whole filming process faster and efficient.


Going in to our first real film, I would tell my team to prepare and know their jobs before hand. I think the pre-production aspect of filming is as important or more important than the filming itself because it allows the team to know exactly what is going to happen. I don't want to go into a shoot and have my crew ill prepared. Even though I don't really have experience with filming a short film, I think I have an idea, based on videos I've seen and behind the scenes footage, about how an efficient shoot would look like. Also I'd tell my team to check all the equipment before every shot so that everything is in order -- sound, focus, framing, actor's lines, etc.

Character in Time

 

Being the new kid on the block is not the most comfortable feeling one would like to experience. This young man has just moved away from his lifelong friends and he now has to adapt to this new environment in which he must finish his high school career in. This is his chance to start off with a clean slate - no past, no memories, no burdens, fears, or judgment. He walks home from a day of solitude and wonders how long it will take for him to shed his image as an outsider. In his mind, his loneliness manifests itself into a slowed sense of time. By and by, he tries to befriend new people, but his bold attempts are gone unnoticed. The ten minutes it takes to walk home seems like hours as if the seconds on the clock has stopped ticking. He recalls his life back in his old home. His mother is baking a cake for his little sister's seventh birthday as he and his soccer team talk about the excitement of yesterday's game in the backyard. He is happy and content and life seems to be flying by. It seems like only a week ago he entered elementary school into Ms. Green's classroom with unfamiliar faces. He focuses back to the present. He has arrived home.