Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Production Notes

It all started with a simple command, "pair up and pick a partner" and my date was sealed. Over the course of the first half of the semester I was paired up with Anna Glekmans, where we was to interview each other as per the assignment and create a short film, interview style on something that made her unique and me vice versa. The first step was too do an audio recording of Anna, which was suppose to last 20 minutes but only lasted 10. After uploading the recordings it became clear that the audio levels where too low and I had to bump up the audio. The first bump in a long road of hills, after the fine-tuning of the audio levels was completed the next step for the project began, shooting original footage. When it came time to shoot footage, my partner wasn’t there on time, which gave us less time to shoot. I wanted to do the audio over again so I had her hold the camera and answer questions. The next hiccup in this was that my partner wasn’t in class to participate for this part. So I shoot some footage of students in hunter roaming the hallways as transitional scene fillers. After I shot the original footage, the editing process began. Since I had no actually footage or pictures shown, I took as many images as I could from Anna’s FaceBook page and some from Google, as well as some videos from YouTube. The common theme through out the entire interview with Anna was the subject of food. So in addition to the still images of Anna I used some images of food and videos of people cooking. The editing process was a long one, cutting out my voce in certain parts and adding a musical score in the background. After that I matched the images and videos with what Anna was saying about food, added black scenes full of questions in txt in-between each part of dialog that has a specific food themed response. At the end of this there was a grade a piece of movie magic that I doubt the world will ever be ready for, now only if there was a font for sarcasm. 

Wednesday, October 19, 2011

Media Sound scene assignment sry its late

BLOG POST #2: Sound-Image and Image-image Relationships


The specific piece of media I choose is the final scene of the first Godfather movie. More appropriately named the Baptism scene. In this five minute video it starts off in a church with the remaining Corleone family. The holy hymns are loud with a crying newborn baby in the background. Giving off the idea and feeling of all things pure, then the pastor starts reciting all prayers necessary in order to baptism Michael Corleone’s nephew. Which the music in the background playing throughout and the cold look on Michaels face directly contrast each other. Then a series of shots showing other members of the Corleone family, one handling a gun, the other walking to his car with a package and shots of Michael again in the church continuing the baptism. Then a shot to the five heads of the other crime families, all the while the preacher continues his prayer. The more the preacher goes on, the more the family members of the Corleone family advance to their predetermined spots. While the preacher is reciting the prayer to the baptism no words are in English, then the climax is reaching higher as the preacher asks Michael if believes in God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost, continues on his prayer as all the members of the Corleone family are advancing then the baby starts to cry at the same moment that the heads of the other families are shown. The climax is reaching higher, then the baby stops crying the music is at its loudest and the preachers asks Michael is he renounces satan, the five heads now meet their fate as the members of the Corleone family meet then and assassinate each and every one of them. Michael say’s he does renounces him and all his works. And finally asks if Michael will be baptized. This scene is wonderful in the fact that it shows the exact opposite of what Michael is doing, he is being evil killing men and becoming the only crime family left all the while in church. The juxtaposition of images and shots between each scene is powerful and showing opposites of Michael’s “pure” moment, all the while the music is along helping each shot, each action in a powerful fashion.

story board with wonderful illustrations by Radames Garcia

Saturday, October 15, 2011

What I hear, is much more than what I see.

My day starts with loud beeps, almost like a siren going off only inches away from my head. Slowly but surely the sound starts to fade away as if it was never there in the first place. As my eyes begin to close and I get comfortable the sirens return within seconds, yet what felt like seconds, in reality was 10 minutes. As my day starts so do the many noises that follow. From the brushing and scraping sound I hear when I brush my teeth to the faint machine gun fire of my shower head. As I continue on my path to begin my day I arrive at the train station, just in time to hear the monotone sound of the station’s computer telling the riders to keep their valuables in close proximity and to be aware of unlawful activity. Then a low almost guttural sound begins to emanate accompanied with familiar rumbling. The train approaches and as it makes its stop the screeching noise sounds like a rusty nail against a dusty chalkboard, cliché but appropriate. As I enter the train it is almost like entering a music studio, every five or so people on the train has their iPods plugged in and turned the volume up way past 10. In addition to being treated to many various music types I hear the monotone M.T.A. computer voice letting everyone know what stop the train is at what the next and final stop is and, of course to stand clear of the closing doors with its trademark “bing bong.”