The Life of a Film Student

ProjectTwenty1 - End of Filming! (And Movie Reviews!)

2009-09-06T19:00:00.000-07:00

If we made a movie poster, this would have to be part of it. You'll understand more when you see the short. There should hopefully be a trailer soon too.

We finished filming. When we showed up on set the last day Ian had tape wrapped around the lens of the camera. He had dropped it and knocked the lens off the camera. It still worked...amazingly.

Editing was a bit of a nightmare. Chris and I arrived around 6:30 in the evening the final night of editing. The project was barely half way edited. Chris was composing music for the project. We were there until 5:30 the next morning and only recorded one song for a flashback. Chris had work at 8AM and I was his ride home. The others were there until 10:30AM.

The project almost didn't get out in the mail. The post office closes no later than 12 on the weekends...they went around 3, not remembering when I told them this, and had to rush to a UPS/FED EX place and have it post marked before 6PM. Thankfully ProjectTwenty1 accepted our entry.

http://www.projecttwenty1.com/Default.aspx?tabid=215
Our video will be the last to screen on the 4th of October. Screenings are going on during the 3rd and 4th and after we screen they'll announce winners and prizes. I plan to attend both screenings.

Inglorious Basterds was great. I think it's my favorite of Tarantino's films. Some people say that it's too dialogue based, but you need character development and build up. It wouldn't be getting the reviews that it is getting if they simply killed throughout the entire film. Someone commented on movies.com that they hated the film because they had to read subtitles. I wanted to dive through my computer monitor and reality slap that person in the face. Seriously? I checked, the person is American. This being said, not all Americans think this way. Anyway, seriously? Look at every other country in the word. They read subtitles without complaint. And not just for American films do they have to do that, so get over it, or learn the languages that are spoken in the film so that you don't have to read the subtitles. UHH! It bothers me so much when people give something a low rating because they have to read subtitles.

Paper Heart was amazing. It gives you a warm glow feeling when you're done watching the movie. It's funny too, and great to go see with your friends, or significant other. I loved that everyone in the film plays as themselves too.

Gamer...was horrible. We saw that the same night that we saw Paper Heart. I leaned over and whispered, "Is it bad that I wish we could go see Paper Heart again." five minutes into the movie. The only part I found amusing and worth the cost of a movie ticket was the part where they break out into song and dance...yes, that happens. I was falling asleep by the end of the movie. It was just that bad. I never fall asleep during movies. Even if I'm running on no sleep. Trust me. If you want to see this movie, you should wait and rent it...if you must see it. Really though, I wouldn't even bother renting it.

Project Twenty1 - Day 2 of Filming.

2009-08-16T10:51:00.000-07:00

Before I write anything about ProjectTwenty1...have you seen IngloriousPlummers , the spoof based on Inglorious Basterds? It's wonderful. Some friends and people that I know from my film classes are the ones who created this, so please comment and tell them what you think.

------------------

My second post! This is a continuation of ProjectTwenty1. If you don't know what that is, please read the first post and also check out the links that I've posted.

Day 2 was fun. There wasn't a monsoon like there was when we filmed before, so it was a lot warmer in that basement. We've been running into some problems though. Our set might be cursed! 1. Ian's screen died on his camera, so we lost viewing capabilities of our shots. Chris and I drove to his house during a food run and grabbed a monitor and headphones for the boom-mic. We made Ian's day. :) 2. Jake, one of our actors fell and hurt himself the night after we first filmed. His foot is bandaged and he needs to use crutches to get around. 3. Another problem...no one knew that we had been filming in full screen the first day, so we had to re-shoot everything! It went a lot smoother than before though, which was nice.

Here are some photos and cell phone video.

This was just a shot of Keith being filmed at the time. Jake (the one sitting) wasn't in the shot.
I believe Jake messed up his line and Keith burst out laughing as the result. They were just practicing at the time, which is why flash was used with the camera. Dan and Meghan are in the background. Meghan has the boom-mic.I love this picture! Ian looks like he's staring up at a giant spider. Chris looks like he's about to beat him over the head with the boom-mic and hockey-stick.

This was taken with my cell phone. I wanted it more for the audio than anything else. Between takes, Jake grabbed a guitar and started improving a song about Keith, our Detective. We recorded a different version of it that we'll be using for ending credits.

Oh! For film students in need of a camera dolly! We used Erik's wheel chair. It's very smooth and far better than using a computer chair. If you have access to one, you should use it, especially if you can't afford your own dolly, or don't know how to make one.

The Life of a Film Student.

2009-08-13T21:56:00.000-07:00

FIRST POST!!

The name is Rachel Marie Smith, and I'm a film student. It's a highly competitive job field that requires a lot of work, determination, and a healthy imagination. Oh. And money, which no college student has...well, most don't at least, and I'm certainly not one of the lucky few who do have it.

I'm writing this in this blog to create a daily log of my journey through college into the workforce. I hope to one day direct and write my own films...but, then again so does every film student. So I'll just say that I hope you will follow me and support me through the ups and downs. :)

I will also be writing reviews for movies as I see them. I've learned to stop trusting the views of film critics over the years. Recently, for example, there were poor reviews for Away We Go. That film, hands down has to be the best movie that I've seen yet, this year. It leaves you with smile on your face. I was literally sighing every few minutes for the next few hours after I saw it. Really, it was just that good. (Heads up, it comes out on DVD in September.)

CURRENT PROJECT:
Film Competition - Project Twenty1
We have to create a short film ranging from 1 second - 10 minutes in length. We have 21 days to create an idea, story board it, film it, edit it, and then present it. The catch is, that they give you a secret element just before the competition starts...so that you can't begin filming before to the contests start date.
This years element is: KEY. You'd be surprised by how many definitions there are for that word. It was also, terribly hard to come up with ideas for, until I went home myself to brainstorm.
My Idea: I thought I would go with some dry humor. Something that has a Wes Anderson feel to it. (If you don't know who that is...well, don't stop reading my blog, but please for the sake of my sanity, watch his films, because he's an amazing director and screenwriter.) I never came up with a character name, but that's okay, because we didn't use my idea in the end anyway. Lead character is a 22 year old, jaded male with the hopes, dreams, and admiration of becoming an actor. His father however, has the last laugh and dies...his final wish, for his son to take over the Locksmith shop in their small town. I then had a flashback to the lead male when he was little boy, watching a James Stewart film. He screams after his father proceeds to call what he's watching, "crap" and turns it off. The scene then cuts to his father's funeral and his mother is crying. He's eying the casket with contempt. A girl who likes him, who he has no interest in is attending the funeral in hopes that he'll notice her. She begins to talk to him, fake crying. He turns to face her and tells her off. She punches him in the face. The scene cuts to 6 months later and he's resorted to stealing the local towns person's keys in order to generate business...

That's what I had written down in a journal before we met up at a diner one night around 11:00PM to plot out our final idea.

OUR IDEA:

We decided it would be easier to do a Neo-Film Noir. (Watch Brick for an idea of what I'm talking about by neo-noir.) This will be similar to our Film 1 final. (I'm working with classmates from my Film 1 class.)

This is what our Film 1 final turned out like. It's silent, so no worries about sound. I played both the office worker, and the murder victim. Yes, I know...there was some over acting when I fell down. I was actually falling though, so I had to keep falling...or I would have ruined our shot altogether.

FILMING DAY 1 - August 14th 2009:

Everything went well...except for the fact that Ian realised he had been filming in full screen the entire day. :(

It was pouring buckets out! The weather went very well with the mood we were looking for. Though, I must not recommend running around in the rain during a film shoot. I had to in order to grab an umbrella for our camera, but as a result was dripping wet the rest of the day. I really can't wait to post some footage for everyone to look at...even if it will be full screen, or cropped to be wide-screen again. Here is a picture that I took with my cell phone. We have very little lighting that gives the film a great creepy feel to it.