Cultural Event 5

The Hobbit in 3D:

As a part of the cultural event portion of my senior capstone, I attended The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. I saw the movie in 3D, and was interested to see how the book was adapted to the big screen. I was particularly interested to see what the film crew did with such a long story, and how they would adapt the film to fit a three-movie format.

Overall, the movie did not disappoint. While I am a fan of the book, they did a good job of staying true to the overall theme of the story. Several scenes were altered in order to help with the exposition of the story, and a few action scenes were added that did not appear in the book; however, for a three hour movie I can see why they wanted to add a little more action.

Another thing that struck me about the movie was how the capabilities of 3D were used subtly. Oftentimes, when a movie is made in 3D the filmmaker attempts to "shock" the audience by using 3D effects; which is often jarring, and distracts from the point of the film. In The Hobbit 3D was used carefully, as a way to add depth to perspective shots; not in order to have everything in the environment pop out of the screen.

How this relates to my final project:

In seeing a film that has an already established story brought to the screen, I was reminded that I had undergone a similar process in creating my film. I had though of the story behind my final project for a long time, and it was only recently that I thought of how to adapt it to a film. I think that seeing another story that I had been thinking of for a while (The Hobbit) brought to the screen was helpful when reviewing how I translated my film to movie format.

In seeing a story I was very familiar with on the big screen, I felt that perhaps there was a similarity in what I hoped to do with my final project. Ideas are very important to me as a filmmaker, and seeing ideas come to life on the big screen and on my little screen at our capstone presentation was an important moment for me.

Cultural Event 4

Capstone Session:

For one my my cultural event requirements, I attended the capstone poster session for the Communication Department at Shepherd University. While I was presenting at the event, I also had the opportunity to see what my fellow classmates did for their final projects.

All of the presentations were amazing! There were several radio plays, a marketing plan for a local restaurant, a blog about Appalachian heritage, a display about voice acting, a website for the Shepherdstown Police Department, a comedic film, and a presentation about diseases that effect babies...  a wide range of topics that showcase how diverse the field of Communication is. It was very rewarding to see the projects that my fellow students worked on this semester; they all did a great job and represented our field admirably.

How this fits into my final project:

Seeing what other people in my class accomplished was interesting, and helped me review my final project. In viewing the quality of work that our department produced, I think that our field will continue to have a good reputation; and that because of the level of work that I saw at the presentation, Shepherd will stand out on a resume.

That our department looks good, and that my class produced professional-qulaity work was important to me because much of our capstone class was about using the skills that we've developed throughout our education to produce work that will help us to find employment. Being identified with Shepherd and the Communication Department will be a plus on my resume; and this semester has been an incredible experience!

Cultural Event 3

Dan and Lauren Smith:

As a a part of my cultural event attendance this semester, I went to an event hosted by Ignite a group at Shepherd University. The event featured Dan and Lauren Smith, musicians who moved to Redding PA in order to try and bring healing through music and ministry.

The event began by Dan and Lauren introducing themselves and their mission, and was punctuated by live performances of song they've written. While they played music that from several of their albums, that night they wanted to focus on the Revive Project - music they hope will bring healing to people who have experiencing the troubles of life.

One of the reasons that Dan and Lauren started the Revive Project was that they were confronted by how sad life in Redding is. Redding has many troubles including human trafficking, theft, and a high murder rate. Dan and Lauren talked about how Redding has a higher crime rate than the national average; and about how they hope that their music would help bring healing to the city.

How it tied in to my final project:

This tied in to my final project in that it was inspiring idea of how to use art to bring healing. An important theme in my final project was in showing how my main character heals after an accident that claims his sight. In gaining physical healing through a device that gives sight back to him, he finds a greater sense of healing in realizing that the world is a more beautiful place than he could have imagined.

It was nice to see someone else working to bring healing through art, especially when it is combined with the idea that personal healing can help bring about a greater healing in society.

Here is a link to one of the songs that we heard that night.

Cultural Event 2

The image was used came from IMDB.com

Recently, as a part of my final project's requirement to attend cultural events, I saw the movie Argo.

Argo is a film based on the real life story of how the CIA used the guise of filming a science fiction film to get several U.S. Embassy staff out of Tehran during the Iranian hostage crisis. The movie was very interesting, and had a documentary-film style that told the personal story of the Agent responsible for the plan to extradite the embassy staff, while noting what was going on around this plan in Iran and in the U.S.

In order to get the staff out of Tehran safely, the CIA agent comes up with a plan to fake the making of a movie; saying that they are scouting for locations in Tehran. The movie they are pretending to make is a rip-off of StarWars, and they convince the Iranian authorities that they are going to use the desert landscape as a backdrop to their movie.

Their plan succeeds in the end, though there are several tense moments; including a scene where the Iranian Revolutionary Guard figures out that the "crew" are actually from the embassy while they are about to board a plan to get out of the country.

How it relates to my final project:

Overall, the movie was very interesting. I found the characters compelling, not the least because they have real-life counterparts. The story tied into my project because it was about putting together a movie,   complete with posters, press kits, etc.

This look into the film industry was interesting because it made me think about how I had to promote my final project through our capstone presentation presentation; and made me think about how a film gets delivered to a wider audience.

Cultural event 1

"72 hours to make a movie? You've got to be kidding me!" -That's the general reaction filmmakers have to the idea of the 72 Film Fest. Nestled in Frederick, MD, this little gem has been posing a challenge for budding filmmakers in the region for the last six years. Every year there is a different challenge posed to the filmmakers, and this year was no exception. Filmmakers were given scripts that were also produced in 72 hours! Over the summer the folks from the 72 hosted their first ever 72 Hour Script Festival. In this way, filmmakers had to work with an already-prepared script (instead of producing one from scratch); and had to adapt and work with their writers as an additional challenge.

My role in this year's film fest was a writer and as the leader of a team. Since last year, I've been leading a team comprised mostly of people from Shepherd University. We are known as Turbo Duck Productions, and though we haven't won anything yet, it has been an adventure every time.

2011:

In 2011, our team produced a film called "Fall from Grace" about a man who has to work through issues that come to a head after the worst day of his life. In 2011, I was the team leader and writer, and had to learn how to do everything in 72 hours. For the team, this film was a challenge to do since we had to come up with a script and shoot the entire movie on the weekend before midterms.

2012:

This year, we made a film called "Principles" by adapting a script by Pat Riley about a man who pretends to hate halloween... but secretly loves it more than anyone else. This film was a lot of fun to make, and we had a good time putting everything together.

My final project:

What this film fest contributed to my final project was getting me back into the filmmaking groove. It may sound weird, but somehow having to put together an entire movie in 72 hours is a great way to calm the nerves when I was thinking about how I wanted to film my final project. Playing with cameras, lighting, sound, and editing was kind of like a creative shock that got me into gear for my project.

Overall, I's loved participating in the 72 Film Fest. I hope to be able to participate in the fest in the future, or in festivals similar to in in other cities. If you are ever looking for a challenge, or a creative boost... then look no further than a 72 hour film fest.

Webcomics

What's in a name?

Are webcomics really comics? This was a question raised in class the other week, and as students of the genre we were sent to do some investigation and report on our findings.

Tow works that I investigated were Scott McCloud's "The Right Number", and The Comic Irregular's "Darths and Droids".

The Right Number:

McCloud's work is a webcomic that experiments with the format of comics and follows a format where each grows past the next to reveal the next frame. In this way, the reader gets the illusion of depth and traveling "into" the story. While this mechanic helps achieve the immersive effect of comics, it is different from its print cousin in that there is no juxtaposition of frames and images.

I feel that this; at least in terms of genre; places The Right Number out of the world of traditional comics. I liked that McCloud kept the pacing in the hands of the reader (clicking moved the story forward instead of a timed animation); however, while going from one frame to the next was reader controlled the flow of the comic was not. As a reader, I had no choice in regards to what order I saw the frames.

When reading comics, I will often be keenly aware of what is coming up next even though I prefer to read a comic sequentially. This awareness of the future highlights the action that is taking place in a frame and helps me to understand the timing involved in an action taking place in the world of the comic. I did not get this sense of timing from The Right Number... thus I would place it outside the world of comics.


Darths and Droids:

The Comic Irregulars work is an "RPG screen-cap comic" which means that it that follows the traditional format of comics while displaying the comic in an online format. A point of departure from traditional comics to note about Darths and Droids is that it contains images taken from the Star Wars trilogy under artistic/fan license.

In terms of genre, I would place Darths and Droids in the realm of traditional comics. Although it uses 'found' images - so to speak - it still communicates in the same way that traditional comics does; with framing, gutters, juxtaposition and all. As for the use of screen-cap images, I think that this is not too great a departure from what is essentially comics.

Even though Darths and Droids is presented in a digital format, the layout and overall structure of the work means that I consider it a comic in true form; if presented digitally.

Final project presentation

This is an image of the movie poster that I made for the project. I retain all rights.

One last "Hurrah":

The Communication Department at Shepherd had its senior capstone presentations. As a part of that, I presented my final project, Sound Shadows and a World Revealed. 

For the presentation, I took what information I got from the faculty review of my project and used it to polish my film and the presentation board. Having a pre-review reminded me of the importance of setting aside time before the due date of a project to review what you've done and allow oneself time to correct anything that doesn't line up. 

Overall, the presentation went very well. I was able to alter the digital effects that I used to create the look of sound shadow sight in order to more closely reflect my vision of what I wanted the world of sound shadows to look like. The idea of pixelation and objects being barely visible was something that was very important to me in creating the effect; as often what you don't see is more important than what you do see in art. 

From the faculty, other students, and members of the community I was able to get good feedback about the film and had interesting conversations about the theory behind the film. While I was happy to talk about the technical aspects of the film, I was even more thrilled to have the chance to tell people about the theories behind the film; I've been thinking about this concept for a number of years and it was amazing to see a long-standing  idea come to life through the process of making this film. 

I'm excited to have had the opportunity to show my film to so many people and to see what my fellow students had been working on.