Sunday, October 23, 2016

Film 3: Director's Reflection

NAME: Josh Allen

DATE: October 23, 2016

FILM: Shot-for-Shot

DP: Jeff Hein


TMA 285 DIRECTOR’S REFLECTION

Reflect on how your film turned out. Have the courage to evaluate your work not only with a self-congratulatory eye, but also with a critical eye. Step back; pretend the film wasn't made by you. Be exacting. Be demanding. Don't let yourself off the hook. Be completely honest about your performance.
- Turn in a hard copy of this statement the next class session after your film screens
- Upload the statement to Learning Suite the day after your film screens
- Post this to your blog with your film the day after your film screens

Overall response (2-3 paragraphs):
In 2-3 paragraphs, write an overall response to your film: Were you successful at achieving what you set out to achieve? What are you proud of? What would you do differently if you could remake this piece? What did you learn?  
            I was not completely successful with this film.  I wanted to make a really great shot-for-shot of this Teen Wolf scene, and not all of it came out the way I wanted it to.  However, I am proud of all the interior shots.  I feel like those all matched up pretty nicely to the original.  I am also really proud of my casting of Scott; my actor looked so much like him!
            If I could do this differently, I actually would probably do a different scene.  This scene was too complicated since a lot of it was shot at night.  It was also really hard due to having to hang someone upside down.  Therefore, I think that a different scene would have been easier and better.  I learned that it is incredibly hard to re-create a scene like this.  I also learned that you have to be really careful when composing shots.  It is easy to get bad footage.  Composition is really important in making things work.


Briefly answer the following:
What, specifically, did you want to communicate? Were you successful? Why? Why not?  I wanted to show how fun and refreshing Scott and Stiles’s friendship is.  Friendship is really important to me, and I really admire theirs.  I think that I was pretty successful.  Members of our class smiled and laughed while watching it, and their relationship is joyful.

How, specifically, did you try to say this? What visual elements, techniques, etc. did you use?  I used muted colors so that the brightest thing on the screen would be the personalities and relationship of the characters. 

What did you learn about storytelling:  It is really interesting telling a story that has already been told.  I learned that nothing can really be reproduced or recreated.  I think that’s amazing: we can only get one of a specific performance.

Working with actors and getting performance: Some actors try to hard.  Others are perfect for certain parts and really fit nicely.

Blocking — camera and actors: It is really hard to get a nice dolly shot without a dolly!

Visuals — composition, framing, visual elements: Sometimes it is impossible to get certain things out of frame (like the playground).  Composition and positioning of characters really does speak volumes.

Design & Art Direction: Basically, here I learned to never use two different locations that look nothing alike!  I mean, I knew that previously, but I will not make scenes in the future that cannot be successful due to what is seen around the actors.

The Production Process — collaboration with crew, the logistics of making this piece: Jeff was really willing to be helpful while making this, and that was appreciated.  Communication to the DP is really important to get the shots that I want.
                  
What was it like to watch your film with an audience? Did they understand it? Miss the point? Why did they respond the way they did?  

It was honestly not extremely fun to watch this with an audience.  Some of it was exciting, but it was mostly a trainwreck.  I think people enjoyed it more than I did.  For the most part, I think that the class understood the point of the scene and were able to get familiar with these characters, which is what this scene was trying to accomplish.

Other observations:



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