True Life of a Senior

Aleena Kanner

Mr. Daszenski

1/19/2010

Our project for the film festival is the movie “True Life of a Senior”. It shows the behind the scenes of high school seniors living in 2010. In this documentary, you will meet four seniors living in different communities showing their similarities and differences of their senior year. It was interesting to see how seniors who grew up in different areas from each other all had many of the same goals to reach in their lives.

Our group consisted of Sofia Alcalay, Marisa Green, Aleena Kanner(me), and Elaina Epifan. We split up all the roles very well and it was able to get our film done more efficiently. I was the camerawoman. I shot the scenes of the film and did all of the camara use. I found it challenging to get the low angle shots, since we only had a hand held camera. I realized if I were able to have a tripod, the film would have been easier to shoot. I think I definitely did well considering the use of the handheld. I could honestly say our groups MVP was Elaina Epifan. She did all of the editing and was able to put the pieces of our project together which in the end turned our project into a great outcome. The inspiration for our film was the real television episodes of True Life. I feel as if the film turned out the way I hoped, it covered the basic plan of what we wanted to portray and was able to get our point across.

One of my favorite scenes in the film is the ending of Silvana’s segment. She talks about where she sees herself in the future and how she just wants to make sure she will be happy throughout her entire life. She talks about leaving Great Neck and her friends next year. This part of the film shows the bittersweet part of senior year. Silvana’s words represent how every senior feels at the end of their senior year.

Since our film was a documetary, it was hard to use so many cinamtic elements. We tried our hardest and were able to incorporate many of theses elements. We used many types of long shots especially during the interviewing segments. We used tracking shots as we followed our interviewee while they were speaking. Also, close ups helped when we filmed because it added depth to our film. We used high angle shots especially during Silvana’s basketball game. Lastly, we switched from interviewee to interviewee by using different transitions such as rolling, dissolving, and iris shots.

I feel that our film was a very successful creation. It came out better then I ever would have expected and I never imagined it to come out so realistic looking. If I were to do anything differently next time, it would be to spend even more time planning the film. I have never made a film before or even had much experience with a camera and I learned a lot while making this film. I learned that it takes a lot of planning and time before you are able to start filming. At the same time I was also learning about filming, I also was able to have fun while doing it which is what counts the most.

Final Refeltion: Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? (2010)
Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? (2010) is a movie of historic proportions. This movie has changed the way Hollywood and Bollywood think of movies. Actually…that’s what we call wishful thinking. Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? is a film parody of The Karate Kid (1984), directed by John G. Avildsen. The Karate Kid tells a story of a teenager who is bullied and inorder to stop himself from being pushed around he learns karate. After being taught by a wise sensei how to defend himself, he is able to defeat the bully. In our (Cliff, Eric, Andrew, and me) movie we use the same story line of The Karate Kid, but without a Disney ending. Instead, my group used comedy to show how The Karate Kid would turn out in real life with different characters. We slowly build up the audiences hope that the main character will win in the end and then quickly destroy their hope by ending the movie with the bully beating up the protagonist for a second time. This movie contains more than another parady. It tells a story of a cohessive group effort, storyline, and incorperation of the knoledge this group has gained from a fascinating and integing film course.
Each group member had a role in Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully?. The actors were Andrew In, Eric Chen, and me. Cliff Fishler was the director and editor. Cliff wrote a brief outline to the movie, but much of the movie was improvised to achieve real emotions from the actors. Every one in the group contributed to Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully?. The person who deserves to win the MVP award, if there is one, in my group is Cliff Fishler. Due to his prior experience and knoledge of movie making he was able successfully direct and edit our film. We all came up with different aspects of the plot and setting of the movie, but Cliff was able to take all our visions and combine them into one jam packed film. My group was coehessive. There were no disputes or discrepencies. We all understood what we had to accomplish and knew our role in the film. We each gave advice on how to improve the film to its full potential. Due to our work ethics we were able to produce a film that had a captivating story line and comedic touch.
The characters in the film are Round Eye (the bully), played by me, Yoshi (the victum), played by Eric Chen, and Master Shoebee (the wise sensei), played by Andrew In. SPOILER ALERT! The establishing shot of the film is of Yoshi (Eric Chen) swinging on the a swing set in Grace Avenue Park, Great Neck. Then there is a cut to a low angle shot of Round Eye (me) who, while walking through the park notices Yoshi, yells at Yoshi and procedes to chase him for his lunch money. After takeling and beating up Yoshi, Round Eye takes his lunch money and throws it in the air with happiness (in other words he made it “rain”). After Round Eye leaves, Yoshi is approched by the wise sensie, Master Shoebee (Andrew In), who wears socks with his sandels. Yoshi begs for Master Shoebee to teach him karate, so he can beat up Round Eye. After short deliberation Master Shoebee agrees to teach him. Then there is a cut to a montage of Yoshi training with Master Shoebee in various locations around Great Neck. Once Yoshi is done training, he decides to confront Round Eye. Yoshi, starts the fight off strong and makes it seem as though he will win, but in the end he is no match for Round Eye. The movie’s closing shot is with Yoshi on the ground passed out. The comedic aspect of the movie is channeled through Yoshi. One example, is when Yoshi is training with Master Shoebee he uses a frozen turkey, might have been Butterball, to lift and build stregnth.
This project has taught me many things about the art of film. The most important of these lessons is the determination and tedious work needed to create a successful film. When a person watches a movie, they sometimes don’t take into account that a scene could take hours or days to film. This is so because inorder for movies to be polished every aspect of scene must be perfect. In producing Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? I had to do some scenes ten or twenty times. Also, the day we decided to film could have been the coldesst day in my life. Everyone in my goup was freezing and anyoed at the amount of takes we had to do for each scene. This experience showed me how hard it is to be an actor or director. The process of making the film was made easier through what we learned in class. For example, we learned that often directors want make characters look mosterous through low angle shots. When Round Eye is introduced there is a low angle shot to portray a monsterous being. We also used our class knoledge to incorperate five cinematic aspects to our film.
One of the cinematic techniques in our film is the montage. A montage is a sequence of abrupt alternating scenes that are used to convey an associated idea and envoke an emotional response from the audience. The montage is used in Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? when Yoshi is training with Master Shoebee. It shows shot after shot of Yoshi running, pushing, and pulling. This montage builds up the audiences hope and convinces the audience that Yoshi can beat Round Eye. It also allows the audience to become attached to Yoshi. Another cinematic technique we incorperated was the stolen shot. A stolen shot is a scence shot without legally asking to film in a location that requires for one to ask for permision before shooting. In Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? the stolen scene is in the montage. When Yoshi is using the frozen turkey as a weight. That scence was filmed in the Walmart of Great Neck. We never asked permision to film in this location and when we tried to catch another shot we were asked to stop or leave the store. The effect of the stolen shot is that often a stolen shot is taken in famous place, such as the capitol or United Nations building. We knew Walmart was well known to our fellow students so we decided to throw in a treat for those who notice it in the movie as do many other directors do in their movies. A third cinematic technique we used was the cameo. A cameo is when a famous person shows up in a movie for a very few moments. It serves as a treat for the audience because if they notice the famous person in the movie they feel rewarded. Our cameo was a director’s cameo. When Yoshi decides to go fight Round Eye the camera shows Round Eye talking with another kid. You might not have known or caught this, but the kid Round Eye was talking to was the director, Cliff Fishler. Another cinematic aspect we have added is the low and high angle shots. A low angle shot is when the camera is at a lower level or ant level and pointed up at an object. A high angle shot is when the camera is above or has a birds eye view and is pointed down towards an object. As I stated earlier in the paper the low angle shot is used to make things appear big and ominous. Round Eye is introduced this way. The movie also ends with a high angle shot. High angle shots are used in Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? to make the viewers feel sympathetic towards a character. The closing shot is a high angle shot that shows Round Eye standing over Yoshi. The viewers end up feeling sad for Yoshi. The last cinematic technique used is the long take. A long take is a shot that is continuous for an extended period of time. The long take in the film is one of the shorter ones I have seen, but never the less it conveys the same message to the adudiance. This technique is seen right before Round Eye and Yoshi battle. The camera starts from Round Eye’s view and travels around Yoshi and back facing Round Eye. It gives the effect to the viewer that they are living vicariously through Round Eye and then Yoshi. Yoshi is showing the moves he has learned in his lessons with Master Shoebee as the long take progresses. This part of the long take shows the audience how much he has progressed through out the film. It also makes the audience feel he has a chance to win this fight, just like in The Karate Kid.
Making Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully? was one of the most intreguing experiences of my life. I liked seeing what goes into making movies, but I do not see my self persuing a career in movie making. It was challenging, but fun at the same time.

Fortune Cookie Blinded Love

I think that this was an interesting final project for class. This was my first experience actually going about a film. I didn’t think it would be so exhausting. The re-takes were the worst part of making the film because it gets tiring of taking the same shot over and over again.

At the beginning of our first meeting I didn’t know what to expect. The first meeting in class we had was so unproductive because everyone had different ideas. Our group didn’t know which story to pick, so we narrowed it down to two movies. We had to pick either a scary movie or love story. We all didn’t know which to pick because Jin kept on bringing up suggestions that we should do a scary movie, but then we decided not to because it was more difficult than we thought it would be. For example Jin wanted one of us to walk down the stairs upside down like in the movie “Grudge”. We decided to go with Sabrina’s idea. Her story is about a guy in school who has amazing grades but he can’t get a girl. Eventually he sums up the courage to ask her out but he gets a little surprise. We really didn’t have any planning for this. We basically asked if everyone could stay after to film. Even though it was a spontaneous to ask people to stay after school and film. We had planned most of the scenes out on paper. We planned out that, two of the scenes were going to be in the cafeteria but then we went up stairs to film it was closed. I believe that was the most disappointing part about our film. One of the scenes we had to take about 15 takes on that one scene because we either laughed too much or we forgot the lines. One of the scenes we randomly added to the film to make it more interesting. After we were done filming for the day, I felt really tired. I thought that we did a good job for an indie film.

Everyone in our production group had a job to do. I had the role of help direct the film, help with the screenplay, write a script for one of the scenes, and was the cinematographer for a few scenes as well. At first I didn’t know what to do at all but then I just started helping Sabrina with whatever she needed help with. I think it’s obvious that our MVP is Sabrina. I think without Sabrina’s editing skills we wouldn’t have made it, most of the people in our production group doesn’t know how to use any editing program, I felt that she really saved our grades.

I felt that our film was very successful in that we accomplished our first movie as a production group. I think our acting was good, but the only part I think was pretty bad was when she didn’t know who Jin was; she kept on repeating a part that only needed to be said once. I think my favorite part of the film was when Leslie played “Mary had a Little Lamb” on the piano and the conversation he had between Jin. That was my favorite part because I wrote the script for the scene and I loved how Jin just added little parts to make it funnier, like Jin picking his nose. I think next time I make a film I’m going to plan everything our and make arrangements so things don’t happen like when we couldn’t use the cafeteria.

I learned multiple things from making this movie. I realized that making a film or even a short clip takes a lot of time, effort and makes you tired. We incorporated many cinematic aspects in our film. We used multiple medium shots during the film. For example when she shot the part of Jin and Leslie talking to each other. We used a medium shot to show revealing human figure. Another Cinematic aspect is when we had a cameo shot in the film as well. We used the cameo part when the extra and the director were talking about how they did on the test. We also used close ups of people. We used a close up when the Extra didn’t know who Jin was in the movie. It showed her facial expressions and detail. We used a subjective shots; we use a subjective shot when Leslie pointed out the guy that tried to ask the extra out. The whole point of a subjective shot is to show what that person is looking at. We use a narrator during the film as well. We used the narrator to introduce the character. A Narrator is to point in a direction what the audience should be looking for. Another one is a voice over; we use a voice over at the beginning and the end of the film. The voice over is used to convey a character’s thoughts. Overall I think this film was a good film, even though it was my first ever. Everyone in this film did a good job even if they participated in the smallest parts.

"V" The True Life of a Vampire

Our group worked very well on the mocumentary "V" : The True Life of a Vampire because we were a good team together. Each of us did not have specific roles - we all contributed a little bit to everything. Grace does lean more towards the cinematographer and editor role, Sonoko leans more towards the cinematographer role, I lean more toward the story-maker/director role, and Linda leans more toward the comical aspects and idea-giving role. Overall, we were all great at providing different, new ideas and suggestions which is very important when working on a grand production like this.

During the pre-production, we decided on what kind of film we will make. Then we made a storyboard to think of a nice establishing shot. We jotted down some ideas that we can use to film during the production. New and better ideas were suggested when we were actually filming and producing which led us to have excess amounts of clips. During the post-production, we met at my house to edit the clips, put them together, and add music. Grace was the one using the mouse doing her thing and we were all by her side helping and suggesting. It was very fun deciding on which songs to use for different scenes.

At first, we were inspired by the rubik's cube documentary. Since Twilight and ideas about handsome vampires were such a big part of todays teens' culture, we decided to make a mocumentary on this idea. The plot was to show that vampires in movies are ridiculously fantasized and that in reality they are very much like us. The irony is that they are not like us at all. We used some of Fritz Lang's ideas to show this irony. For example, the "crotch shot" during the scene where I am watching television to warn the viewers not to get too close to the characters and to not believe everything in this mocumentary. Also, in the scene where i am taking out the bottle of red juice, there is pure silence to build up tension as if the red juice was blood but I tell the viewers that vampires are not obsessed with blood, it's just red juice!

I think our film builds up good reasons to prove that vampires are like human beings but at the same time are not. That is why viewers may be confused and think it's pointless after watching it but we like to call this avant-garde. The first few scenes are to show how vampires hunt, are not tree climbers which was a fact in Twilight, and also how they do a not-so-normal butt dance when slipping in the snow while hunting even though the point of showing the butt dance was to prove that vampires make mistakes too. Then the hair sniffing scene was necessary to show that vampires have a keen sense of smell which is not a normal human aspect but the texting scene evens it out because a normal teenager texts all day every day. Finally, the home scenes were necessary to show that vampires are not obsessed with blood, but still do drink blood: Linda humming to herself while licking her nose blood (Yuck!). The "sun tanning" scene was used to wrap up the film and show that it is true that vampires are pale but they don't have a problem with it. They are happy with themselves and have been trying to fit in with the other human beings for thousands of years.

We tried to use many different types of angles and shots. The long shots and low angle shots were memorable for me in the hunting scenes because it depicts the distance of a vampire to a human being. Later on, more close ups are added but the crotch shot still keeps that distance. We also have a semi-match cut when Linda makes a thinking gesture with her finger, and slowly dissolves into me removing my finger from my nose to preach the viewers. Also, Grace's idea to use the camera under the glass table to film Linda doing her work was something different.

My favorite scene from the film was when Linda hums while licking her nose bleed which is not human like but still continuing her work which his human like. I don't have a deep reason for why i like this scene - i like it because it's funny! The whole film was filled with awkward moments which I find very funny. I hope the viewers enjoy awkward comedy too because it's not hard to understand; just watch and laugh!

Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully?

As I left the airplane in St. Paul Minnesota, the frigid temperatures gave me a rude reminder of how cold it was when we went to film our final project. After several unsuccessful attempts of bringing our group together we finally managed it on January 10th. However this was not the beginning of our struggles.
After Mr. Daszenski assigned this project I immediately knew I wanted to work with Eric Chen. We have worked well together in the past and he happens to be a talented actor. I know the difficulties of shooting a film with just two people therefore Andrew In and Isaac Baskin also joined our crew. Our first major difficulty was coming up with a script idea. The difficult part for me is telling a good story in about five minutes. After a week or of confusion a kid at my fencing practice gave me an idea about a kid who gets beat up and goes on a vendetta to train with a kung- fu master to mark his revenge on his enemy. However, instead of being successful, the kid gets beat up again. I liked this idea even though the kung-fu idea is a little over used. I wrote the screenplay the night I got home from practice.
After writing the screenplay I showed it to the other group members. As a group we only changed a few ideas around and set our date to film.
While I felt our communication via text messaging was effective it obviously wasn’t. The day before we were supposed to film two of the group members said they had swim meets. We had to postpone it to the 10th which would only give me 4 days to edit.

When I woke up on Sunday January 10th I checked the temperature. Twenty-one degrees Fahrenheit with an eight-degree wind chill. I left the house around noon with my camera, tripod, props, costumes, and additional warm clothing. We planed to meet in town by Geno’s Pizzeria. Andrew was the first one to show up, it turned out he walked as well. As we waited for Eric and Isaac, Andrew and I purchased some awfully stale gummy worms. About twenty minutes later Eric shows up. He came from a swim meet and haircut. After getting impatient, I called Isaac on his home phone number. I spoke to his mother and told her he had a project to do today. He was sleeping but he said he would meet us at Grace Avenue Park, the site of our first shooting location.
After I finished the script, I thought long and hard about our locations. However, after several snow storms and production delays I limited my locations to a few places in Great Neck New York.
The first scene required Yoshi (Eric Chen) to be sitting on a park bench. However, I felt that the swing set would be more suitable. This would be the opening shot of the film. I wanted to show that he was alone, and with no allies. While editing this shot I threw in a sparrow tweet. I’m trying to compare Yoshi to a defenseless little Sparrow. That was the intention, I’m not sure if it worked.
As we began our shooting, Eric discovered it was awfully to cold to wear just a T-shirt. Fortunately, I brought an Under Armor long sleeve shirt. Eric was sincerely appreciative. However, our hands were still freezing. I could not operate the camera with my big Snowboarding mittens. Also, it would look awkward if any of the actors wore gloves so we stuck our hands in our pockets at every opportunity.
Isaac finally arrived and we were all very happy. Except when I realized I left the tripod plate at home in my other camera bag. I spontaneously ran home from the park. The distance was not to bad, maybe ¾ of a mile but I did not want to waste time. I felt like the Lola in Run Lola Run trying to deliver the money to Manni, except I was not delivering money, just a little piece of plastic.
Most of the park filming went very well. We did not stay entierly to the script because we were coming up with new and better ideas. Eric is a great improviser. For example, in the shot where Yoshi is walking with Master Shoebee (Andrew), the Master explains what Yoshi what he will learn and Eric improvises the body motions. They were great and add a lot to the shot.
My inspiration for the training scene was from the South Park Episode Make Love not Warcraft. Their scene utilizes Paul Stanley’s song Live to Win. I used Live to Win as well. I felt the music choice was very appropriate, yet slightly ironic after you view the whole film.
The training scene was completely unscripted. While I did have a vision in my head I wrote nothing down. I knew that the parameters of what we could do would be completely dependant of our location. But before we shot anything, our group took a trip to Dunkin Doughnuts for some much needed warmth. I ordered a medium coffee with milk and sugar. It was delicious.
I believe a lot of the training shots went well. Eric and Andrew did a great job. We had to do many takes, especially on the jungle gym at Wingate Park. I want to give some kudos to Eric for running so much and doing so many pushups, over and over again. I tried to use a lot of cuts and different angles in this scene. There was one shot where Eric goes down a slide and kicks ice into my face. While this was completely unplanned, I think it looks good on camera.
One of the most spontaneous things we did in our production was shoot inside Waldbaums super market. I think this was Isaac’s or Andrew’s idea. The plan was to lift some heavy turkeys and punch (aka tenderize) some meat. We only got to the turkey lifting scene before we were kicked out by the store manager. I knew it was not a good idea, but I’m glad we did not get arrested or have our tape taken away. I think it was because Andrew looked ridiculous in his outfit. Does this count as a stolen scene?
The final shot of the training scene is Yoshi pushing a car. Pushing a car is not and easy task, and I believe this shot effectively shows Yoshi’s progress. Thank you too Issac for supplying our motor vehicle needs. There were no laws broken.
The last scene is when Yoshi attempts to get revenge on the Bully ( Isaac Baskin). This is where I have my director’s cameo. I’m standing by the Bully and run away when I see the well trained Yoshi approaching. It was getting dark by now and I wanted to finish this scene as soon as possible. I also found the location to be quite good. I wanted something industrial looking and a little sketchy. However this sketchy looking parking lot was not my first choice. I really wanted the east end of the platform at the Great Neck train station. However, I concluded that this may be unsafe and I did not want to get millions of awkward looks. Also, it would be bad if someone called the police thinking that Eric was really getting beat up. Therefore, I felt a secluded spot was our best bet.
I like MC Hammer’s You Cant Touch This for any fight scene. It always fits in well and is a little humorous. After finishing the film, someone pointed out that Yoshi’s initial punches are actually in sync with the music. That was completely unintentional. I felt that Eric should not get beat up immediately, but I knew the length of the scene had to be limited due to the time constraints. Yoshi gets a few good punches off on the Bully. But after the Bully hits his head on the metal door it all goes downhill for Yoshi. After several punches Yoshi is on the floor, knocked out. That is the end of the film. I added some sad music from The Last Samurai, which will hopefully incite emotion in the audience. After I saw the final copy of this scene I almost cried!
As a Director, I had final cut privileges. I used Final Cut Pro 6 to edit my movie. This platform gave me the opportunity to edit the audio and articulate the film to my liking. I could have used iMovie but I don’t know how to use that consumer garb. Editing is one of the most time consuming processes. First you need to import it, select what shot you want and arrange them, cut them, rearrang them, and cut them again, and again, add sound effects, and then you not even done. As an editor your job is to tell the story as the Director envisions it. Since I was both, I knew exactly how my story was supposed to turn out. I spent 2-3 hours a day for 4 days working on this project. I would not spend so much so much time on it if I did not enjoy it. To do a good job you need to enjoy what your doing and I did. I always look for opportunities to practice my editing skills.
While editing I elected to have my credits in the beginning of the film. Who watches the credits at the end of the movie anyway? I sure don’t! I think credits are a little more dramatic in the front. After Yoshi has his money stolen hope rises in the film, he meets Master Shoebee and trains hard. However, Yoshi’s failure will help avoid the cliché ending of the hero always winning.
We used many cinematic techniques in this film. The one most obvious and most frequently used is the Dissolve. I edited this short film on Final Cut Pro 6 and I believe there are at least 24 Dissolves of all different lengths and types. The shortest Dissolve lasts one second and the longest lasts two and a half. A dissolve is used instead of a jump cut to help smooth the transition between one shot and the next. I primarily used Cross Dissolves, which fade one shot into the next.
The next technique we used frequently are low angle shots. These shots are supposed to show a character of dominance or that they are powerful. Each character in the film at some point receives a low angle shot.
Another type of angled shot I used is a Canted or Dutch angled shot. This is when the camera is tilted to the side to show distortion. I used it as one of the last shots in my film when the Bully beats Yoshi. In most films of this genre the good guy wins but in Can You Teach Me How to Beat the Bully the bad guy prevails. The Canted angle show Yoshi’s defeat and the irony in the story.
To help tell our story we employed the use of Long shots, Close ups and Medium shots. Close ups helped us display some of the characters facial expressions. Long shots helped give a lot of information about the location while Medium shots were quite basic.
While some filmmakers advise never to use the zoom function on the camera. I did use it once as a cinematic technique. I zoomed in from a medium shot to a close up on Yoshi’s face to highlight his facial expression when the Bully approaches him.
I used many Pans to help keep the actors in frame while they were running or walking. One special one I used was during the final fight sequence between Yoshi and the Bully. I Dollied around Yoshi with the camera and went to the Bully’s 1st person view of Yoshi. I had the opportunity to use and actual StediCam, however, it would be very time consuming resetting the weights for this new camera and it is unlikely my audience would appreciate it.
Thanks to Final Cut I was able to slow a shot down by 70%. I used this technique in the shots where Yoshi is defeated and falls to the ground. The plan was to help influence and highlight the emotional effect for the viewer at that specific moment in the film. I think it was quite effective.
I believe there was quite a synergy in this group. Filming went very well, which contributed to a fantastic product. I enjoyed this final project and I hope my peers did as well. I hope our viewers enjoy our film.

The Making of V: The True Life of a Vampire

My role in the group was the actress and the supplier. We didn’t really have any assigned out roles in the beginning, things kind of just fell into place. We worked on but mostly improvised the script. Yoonjin and I were actresses that starred as vampires in the film. While Grace and Sonoko both worked as the cinematographers. There really was no MVP in our group. In my opinion I thought everyone was a key component in making the film. Our group decided what we wanted to do during the time given to us during class. We came up with various ideas such as re-creating shows like America’s next top model or Top Chef. We were even thinking about doing a documentary of a dancing hobo in NYC. Which I thought would have been interesting because the city has a lot of unusual structures and big buildings that would help to make the film more interesting. But through the process of elimination we finally chose what we wanted our film to be about. During production and post-production my group worked really well together because everyone knew about each other’s plans for the week, and we all tried to make meetings as convenient as possible for one another. Everyone got along with one another and all ideas were taken into consideration.

I guess you can say that the inspiration of our group’s film came from the media frenzy over vampires due to Twilight movie. Vampires are hot right now in the entertainment world. There are so many television shows featuring vampires, for example true blood and vampire diaries. But each show changes the vampire stereotype into something more confusing and more elaborate than the original. The title of our film basically sums up what our film is about. It is a mockumentary about the life of two vampires. I play the role of Harpor Hathos and Yoonjin plays the role of Winter Frankenstein. In the film we follow two vampires for one day to reveal the life of a true vampire. The vampires in this film are like normal people; they do their work, go to school, and chill out, but not everything they do is normal. They have their moments when the vampire stereotypes kick in. In-between scenes there are interviews with the vampires that help explain the situation in the preceding scenes. I think our film was pretty successful considering the amount of time we had to film and edit it. Most of us were very busy either getting ready for all-county, going to academy, and I was busy swimming. So we didn’t have a lot of production time, but when we did have time to film we got down to business and tried to complete as much as we could.

One of the strengths that the film had was the editing. When we were shooting scenes we would edit it by recording what we had envisioned. This made editing a lot easier because we didn’t have to cut scenes we would just put the clips right after one another. Another strength our film had were the environments used in the scenes. One of the scenes was in the woods down by the track and field. That turned out to be a great place to get a shot of the vampires hunting and running around like animals. It made the film more believable because there was no green screen or fake wallpaper in the background, it was an actual forest. Also the other environment we took advantage of was the school. We filmed in the main hall once the last period was over. The students walking towards the doors to leave made for an authentic feel of what the school day is like for normal people and vampires. A weakness of our film was the unsteadiness of the camera. We had to hold the camera most of the time because we didn’t have a tripod to get a steady shot. In the beginning of the film the camera was unsteady because there was no place to put the camera down. Another weakness is the discontinuity of the background sounds when Winter Frankenstein is at the fridge grabbing the red flavored drink. We decided that we would mute the sound clips of that part because the tv was on in the background and the sounds did not match up when we put it together. So if you listen carefully, you won’t hear anything.

My favorite scene is when I’m doing my homework and I start to nosebleed. This scene was really fun and hard to film because I had to try not to laugh while there was ketchup going down my face. We had to put enough ketchup so that it would drip on the table and since the table was glass we decided to shoot the scene from under the table. In the unedited takes of the scene you can see Yoonjin putting more ketchup on my face with a spoon. It was really hard not to laugh. The experience made the scene more enjoyable to me. I was pretty satisfied with everything except for the diegetic sounds in some scenes such as the one where Yoonjin grabs her red flavored drink and when she was watching tv. One of the reasons why we put music in the scenes was to make the discontinuity of the background sounds not so obvious.

. We incorporated a long take in the film, for example when we are in the woods hunting, the scene starts as a low angle and then moves into a long shot of Harpor Hathos and then it moves back to a middle shot of Winter Frankenstein then it returns to a long shot of both of us running away. This long take made the scene seem more real and the low angle on Winter make her seem more animal like. Another technique we used were jump cuts of Winter Frankenstein’s face when she’s watching tv in her living room. And in the same scene we copied the director Fritz Lang by filming a crotch shot of Winter. This can be interpreted as the same way Fritz Lang wanted it to be interpreted in “M.” Don’t be fooled because we may seem to be human but we really are vampires. Another technique we used is the insert when Winter Frankenstein is talking about how she slips in the snow and there is a quick scene that shows her falling in the snow and then after that it goes back to Winter talking in the interview. Another cinematic technique we used was the scene when my character was doing her homework. The camera was under the glass table, creating a low angle shot. We just thought it would be cool to use the glass table that way. The clips and films that we watched in class influenced our film’s creation a lot because we took cinematic techniques from them such as “M.” I learned that making a good film takes a lot of time and patience. Now that I have experienced a very little part of making a film, I can fully appreciate movies because the amount of effort in acting, filming, and editing is tremendous.

Crazy Cookers Inc. How-to make GBH

I was the actor, Chief Coaco, and I did all the labor in making the ginger bread house. I would say that Brandon is the MVP behind the camera. I did the acting and Brandon did most of the editing. I would say the Brandon and I worked very well together and I had a pleasure working with him. First we planned out the general outline, second we filmed the scenes that were all improvisation, and third we edited and put the finishing touches. Our group really didn’t have any inspiration, we wanted to cook something and it was around the holidays. So we decided to make a ginger bread house. It was not too hard but, not easy at the same time.

Our film is a how to make a ginger bread house. I go through step-by-step of how to make one. I start with the ingredients and end with the final outcome. In the end, I though our film was successful because we completed our task by making a video that would inform people how to make a ginger bread house. One strength we had was the film as a whole looks proper and it really does look like the right steps in how to make a ginger bread house. One weakness our film had would be the lacking of more than one camera. That would of given us the upper hand with close ups and fast changes in steps. My favorite scene by far was the making to Frosty the marshmallow man. I had a ton of fun making him and he really gives our film some character. We actually didn’t even plan it. I just started shooting out ideas as we were filming and he was one of them. I wish we could have had more time for the total film time, because we had to rush the making of Frosty the marshmallow man because to the time limit. I said it once, I will say it again, by far my favorite part of the film. I would of hoped Brandon face could have been in the film because it made my part much more difficult being alone out there in the kitchen.

Types of cinematic techniques we used were high angle shot, close-ups, medium shots, back music, and eye level shots. Each one was used for a specific reason. We finished the film off with a high angle shot. It gave the views a disconnecting feeling, like we were leaving. Close-ups were used to show a lot of detail in the shot. We wanted our viewers to see up close for themselves what the ginger bread house was intended to look like. Like all how-to cooking shows, we used a medium shot most of the time. This created a shot that allowed the viewer to observe our surroundings as we were cooking. Last we used eye-level shots to help the viewers connect emotionally and let them feel like the are on the other side of the kitchen watching me cook the ginger bread house.

I learned a ton about making films. It really isn’t that easy to make a film. Now I really appreciate all these fantastic films that are out in the movie theatres, especially AVATAR J. It takes a lot of time and dedication to make a successful film. I now give much more credit to the actors and actresses out there, because before this, I thought it was a bit easier.