Pre-visualization (Blog #7)

So on Monday, my group and I got together to decide on an idea for our master shot sequence. After that, we knocked out all of the previsualization. Since I'm doing sound for the project, there's not much I could do to pre-visualize for it. So I offered my help to the Director and the Director of Photography. Megan, our DP, drew up the storyboards. Jacob, the director, was making the shotlist. Luqi, the producer, made the budget. And I, the sound guy, offered my help to them since most of my job takes place during filming and in post production. I've gone through the process of making shotlists, storyboards, and overheads many times in recent months. So Jacob asked if I could make the overheads from the storyboards, which I did. So now that we have all of the previsualization done, we just have to find a suitable location, shoot, then edit.

I think the previsualization materials (shotlist, storyboards, overheads, and budget) are very helpful in the pre-production stage of filmmaking. Even for something short, like our project, it will help out in a huge way. Now we will film our project with a plan, and we're not just improvising shots on set. Everyone will be on the same page. I've been in quite a few productions (like I mentioned earlier), and having a very detailed plan before shooting is definitely the way to go. I don't even think just a shotlist is enough, at least overheads or storyboard sketches should accompany the shotlist. I've had many past experiences where he camera crew spent too much time trying to figure out where to set up  each shot. But that's just my personal opinion.

The Master Shot Sequence: Ideas (Blog #6)

The second, technically third, project in our Intro to Film Production class is shooting a narrative master shot sequence. For this, we were assigned new groups and new positions. I am the sound guy for this particular project. A little less ideal for me, as my favorite positions are DP and Director, but since I was DP on the last project, I won't be able to do that. But maybe get director for the next project. But I'm very good with sound. I've got plenty of experience with it.

So our professor posted a script, online, that we have to use for the master shot sequence. There aren't any stage directions, it's just dialogue. So the groups must come up with an interesting concept and come up with the visual style of the sequence. As we saw in class, there are many ways this script has been done. I suggested a few ideas to my group. Including:

• Two surgeons having a conversation while operating on someone (hard to do with no budget)
• The scene from Batman Begins where Bruce holds a stapler up to Gordon's head (not exactly creative, but would have been interesting)
• And Sherlock Holmes talking to his brother, Mycroft (wouldn't fit their characters). 

Ultimately, our group came to the decision of doing a speed-dating sequence. We had some good ideas about making the sequence visually interesting. We're mostly basing the sequence off of a dinner scene from the movie American Beauty. But we are adding our own shots so that we are not copying the famous scene. 

Documentary Reflections (Blog #5)

Overall, I think the interview shoot was a great success. My group and I interviewed Lori Erwin, who runs the haunted tours down at the Cotton Exchange. Lori had a lot to say about the Cotton Exchange and had even more to say about the history of the Cotton Exchange and all of it's ghost stories. She knows her history about Wilmington very well, especially for someone who wasn't originally from North Carolina.

As the Director of Photography/Camera Operator, I liked having Lori as an interview subject. She didn't move around a whole lot, she stayed in the same area of the frame most of the time. Which makes my job, as a camera operator, much easier. I don't have to keep following her with the camera, I was able to let the camera sit on the tripod and not worry a whole lot.

The Vox Pop interviews also went very well. We interviewed a total of four people. Two of them were shop owners at the Cotton Exchange, and the other two are citizens of Wilmington that frequently visit the Exchange. They were able to tell us about the Cotton Exchange and what they liked about it. They gave us some good shop recommendations and had some really good things to say about the place.

I shot all the vox pops handheld with a shoulder rig that I own. So I was able to have a very steady shot while our director, Sam, interviewed them.

Like I said earlier, the shooting was a great success. Now it's all a matter of going through the footage and editing it so we can hand it in on Thursday.

Documentary Production Schedule (Blog #4)

Luckily we were able to lock down an interview with someone at the Cotton Exchange. Especially since the Black Cat Shoppe was unresponsive to our group about setting one up.  So the production schedule for my group's documentary project all takes place within this week:

Wednesday:
3:30 PM : Pick up gear from Equipment Room
4:00 PM : Go downtown, to the Cotton Exchange, and film Vox pop interviews and some more B-roll footage. Talk to about 4 to 5 people about the Cotton Exchange (It's history, the shops, the ghost tours, etc.) Finish shooting around 5:30 to 6:00 PM.

Thursday:
Start editing vox pops and b-roll footage either in or after 201 class.

Saturday:
11:00 AM: Prep gear for A-roll interview
12:00 PM: Go downtown to the Cotton Exchange to film interview with the owner of the Cotton Exchange store. The interview, along with set up and take down, shouldn't take more than an hour to do. So plan to finish by 1:00 PM, 2 PM at the latest.

Sunday:
Start editing the A-roll interview in with the Vox pops and the b-roll footage. Finish a first cut, then compress the video down to 2 minutes (If I have to). Hopefully get most of it done. Plan to finish it by Monday night.

Thursday (2/27):
Due date for the documentary.

The Black Cat Plan (Blog #3)

Currently, our group (Victoria, Melanie, Sam, and I) has decided to interview an employee from the Black Cat Shoppe in downtown Wilmington. As of right now, we plan to shoot our A-roll interview in the shop, but we still need to work that out with the employee and the shop owner. I would like to shoot in the shop and not just in some office in the back of the shop. I think it would be nice to see some of the interior of the shop in the background of our main interview.

The shop is known for hosting the ghost tours around the downtown area. So that and some details about the history of the shop might be what the short documentary will be about. We might ask questions like:

1. How long has the shop been open?
2. When did the Black Cat Shoppe start doing the tours, and did you expect them to become an attraction for the Wilmington area?
3. How many different tour guides are there? 
4. Are there several different routes that the tour guides take tourists on? Or is there only one route?
5. The tour guides talk a lot about the history behind each location they take the tourists to. How did they learn about all of the history?
6. Who is the fortune teller? And how do they go about predicting people's future's?
7. What should we know about the Wizard on Saturday? And what is the wizard?
8. Is there a personal favorite tour guide of yours? If so, why?
9. Do you lead any of the tours around Wilmington?
10. What are the long term goals for the Black Cat Shoppe?

Our vox-pop interviews will take place in/around the shop. We took our pictures for the Documentary portrait assignment outside on the Waterfront, and that area tends to have the most people walking around, so we will try to get a few people to talk to us. Some possible questions we might ask them:

1. What can you tell us about the tours around the downtown area? Specifically, the Black Cat Shoppe tours.
2. What are two locations that the tour guides take you to?
3. What do you know about the Black Cat Shoppe?