Also I want to apologize for the often terrible audio quality. I filmed half of it without a mic and had to dub it in post.
*Tape Terror actually isn't new. I finished it May 2016.
Tape Terror is finally here! After what seems like an eternity, it is at last completed! Check it out and laugh hysterically at my comedic filmmaking genius! Or tear it shreds and tell me what a terrible director I am in the YouTube comments! Whatever floats your boat! Also I want to apologize for the often terrible audio quality. I filmed half of it without a mic and had to dub it in post. *Tape Terror actually isn't new. I finished it May 2016.
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After all the recent Tape Terror updates, I thought it'd be nice to share a completely unrelated video that I directed off of a script my friends David and Martha wrote. The video is an advertisement for Ladue's "Safe to Share" program, a group of teachers who have declared their classrooms to be environments in which students can confidentially share anything troubling them. This ad is intended to inform viewers of how "Safe to Share" works in an entertaining way.
From brainstorming ideas to making the final edit, it's taken me roughly two and a half months, but I've finally finished my short film "Tape Terror."
Since my last update there were many steps I had to take to get my film completed. I spent at least ten hours every single weekend for a month filming with my cast. I also spent a few hours a week filming additional footage on my own that didn't require the cast to be present. Editing turned out to be quite a complicated process as I had to download my work each day at school so I could work on it at home, only for me to download the further edited file at home so I could take it to school and repeat the process. I ended up staying up very late on many nights to finish a final edit and even then my final product ended up being four minutes over the allotted time limit (19 mins as opposed to the maximum limit of 15) After such a long and complicated process, I'm very happy to have completed work on Tape Terror. It's a project that I'm very passionate about and poured a lot of work into. I don't like every aspect of the final product, but I am proud of the work the cast and I poured into it. There are a lot of important lessons to be learned from this experience regarding time management and setting realistic expectations for myself. A lot of the troubles I experienced during the filmmaking process could've been prevented if I'd just taken the time to be practical in my planning. I plan on actively taking these measures in the future so I won't make the same mistakes again. I'm excited to share the final short with you soon. I'm currently out of town but I expect to upload the video onto Schooltube and have it shared by sometime next week once I return home. After months of delays, new scripts, and general organizational disarray, I'm extremely happy to share the trailer to my new short film Tape Terror. Editing and tweaking the script during the week and filming on weekends, I believe this is the best experience I've yet had in my short career of filmmaking. The cast is exceptional and has dedicated many many hours each week to make this a possibility; I couldn't be happier with their commitment to the film and have had a great time creating, working, and laughing with them. We've managed to stay on schedule with tomorrow being our last day of production for reshoots. I can't wait to share the finished product next month! So after five months of work turned out to be for naught, I have finally jump started a production that I am not only excited to be a part of, but also 90% sure I'll have done in time!
My new film is more or less a high school buddy comedy about two long time pals who find their friendship tested by the tightening strains of high school drama. Without revealing the secondary conflict that is the real "selling point" of the film, I will say that it definitely has a bit of a "horror" element to it. "Horror" is in quotes because it isn't in the slight bit terrifying, and more of a riff on a certain horror convention. With two days of filming behind me, I'm looking at another three weeks of filming on the weekends and editing on the weekends. It's my hope to have all principal photography finished on the 6th of March and to film reshoots on the 11th. I look forward to sharing a teaser soon! After months of talk, delays and anticipation (by my close friends and family), The Man-Spider is finally here! Check it out in all its bloodcurdling terror below. Although I've reached the end of this project, I unfortunately have just begun work on an entirely new short film for Ladue's film fest (which will take place on April 1st, 2016). The short film I was originally working on for the film fest, Queen Seeds has ultimately fallen apart as a result of miscommunications that resulted in the loss of much filming time last semester, as well as scheduling conflicts that make it impossible for the two lead actresses to film during the same period of time for the next month. With about half of the film left to shoot and a deadline less than two months away, I've decided to move forward and start on an entirely new project.
My current project will be primarily filmed in one location after school and on weekends. I don't want to say too much about it at the moment, but I can say that the story heavily incorporates my love for watching, making and generally appreciating movies. We'll, that's all for now, but further updates are surely yet to come! Well that went by pretty fast. This being the last day of the fall semester of my senior year, it's kind of startling to realize I only have one eighth of my high school career left. And although I've actively created media and/or taken Broadcast Tech classes consistently over the past three years, I feel like I've come closer to discovering my own creative "voice" in just the past five months than the entirety of the past few years of high school.
Although I've made many short films, The Man-Spider was the first one I felt was visually exciting and had a distinct style. Filmed from August to October, The Man-Spider is nearly completed as I've made multiple cuts of various lengths in order to figure out how it flows best. In terms of camera techniques, I was heavily influenced by Sam Raimi and Edgar Wright's fast paced zooms and extreme angles. Although it doesn't have much in the realm of characters or genuine emotion, I feel like I accomplished my goal of making a fast-paced, somewhat funny monster short. By far the most ambitious project I've worked on is my short film for Ladue's Film Festival in April. Although I knew I'd be on a tight schedule, the time I was actually able to film was much more sporadic than I'd originally thought. Working with the theater students in Acting 2 brought up a lot of complications as their schedule would sometime shift suddenly. Although this was frustrating at times, I have to acknowledge that there were times I could've been better organized. Occasionally I forgot storyboards in the theater and had to run back to get them right before filming. In order to cut the film's length, there were a few times I made script revisions only a day or two before filming, not leaving a lot of time for the actors to learn their lines. Despite the complications that arose, I feel like we got a lot accomplished in the time we had. Although there is still about a half of the film left to shoot, I'm so, so fortunate to be working with actresses and actors who genuinely care about making the movie and have agreed to continue filming after school the beginning of second semester. It's been a fun "beginning of the end" and I look forward to sharing my projects soon. After two months of filming I've finally completed principal photography on my innovation project, The Man-Spider. After taking Mr. Krueger's Film Analysis class over the course of the past three months I feel like I've learned a lot more about cinematography and camera capabilities than I would've thought possible. Although there are plenty of energetic filmmaking styles I've admired, I didn't realize how essential focusing on the main action is until I tried staging action scenes of my own.
For example lets say I want to film someone falling down. Whereas before I might've filmed an actor from a steady wide angle to capture all the action in one shot, I now view every subtle movement as pieces of a puzzle. I ask myself "how can I put everything together to get the viewer's focus? How can I grab their attention?" I first get a close up on the actor's feet. Previously viewers might've seen his foot hit something causing him to trip, but now the closer focus reveals that he stepped on his own shoe laces! I want the camera to capture the "oomph" the actor feels when he hits the ground. I would then shift to a close up of his eyes widening in terror before cutting to a medium low angle to capture the moment of impact. I've had a lot of fun playing with camera angles and shot sequences on this project and can't wait to share it with everyone. I've actually finished a first edit and am now just tinkering with sound effects and the length of a few shots. So it should definitely be coming at you soon! I'm also happy to announce that just as I'm wrapping up work on The Man-Spider, I'm set to begin filming my next short film tomorrow! (That'll be November 10th, a Tuesday) There's not much I can say about it for now, but I'm looking forward to sharing more in the near future. Since last month's post I've made lots of progress with my innovation project. I've completed 90 percent of production for my five minute redux of The Man Spider, with only ten shots left to film and some dubbing to record.
Whereas the original Man-Spider was filmed over three class periods due to the required time constraints, filming for this project has taken much longer, allowing me to experiment with some stylistic shots and unique cinematography that I haven't had the chance to practice filming before. Some notable sources of inspiration would be Sam Raimi's work on the Evil Dead trilogy, John Seale's cinematography for Mad Max: Fury Road, and, surprisingly considering I'm not the biggest fan of his work, Michael Bay. A huge thanks is in order for my friends who've been very generous with their time, despite college application deadlines looming just around the corner. The film has three cast members and a production team of two, excluding myself. However, this has lead to some scheduling worries as it can be difficult to get everyone together for a solid three hour block of filming. I've had a ton of fun working on this project and can't wait to get into the editing room and bring together a visual journey, that no matter how short or silly, will hopefully be memorable and exciting to viewers. In addition to my innovation project, pre-production for another, longer, short film has kicked into full gear with filming expected to start within the next two weeks. I can't say much about the project other than I've already casted the film and that I'm hoping the story and tone should feel something like a mishmash of Die Hard, The Evil Dead 2, and Mean Girls. Can't wait to post some further updates! After a great summer full of camps, sketching, and college essay writing, school is back in session. (Well it actually has been for the past month)
Everyone in my Broadcast Tech class was assigned to create an Innovation project where we'd choose a topic, find a "counselor" who is knowledgable about the topic, and develop a project related to the topic over the course of a period of time of our choice. As someone who loves film, I thought it'd be really cool to focus on the art of setting the mood and creating emotion through the use of camera angles. Recently in my Film Analysis class we we're asked to use nineteen shots to create a short film. Through collaborating with my classmates, we made an entirely goofy horror comedy The Man-Spider, using just two class periods and an iPad. Although the short is only 2 minutes long I loved the concept so much that I realized I wanted to create a longer version with a higher production value. For the next two weeks I'll be filming off of a script that I finished last week. The current script is five pages long and should result in a final product about five minutes long. I'll post again soon when I've gotten some filming done. |
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