Representing Others Journal 11_26_07

1) pre-production_____________________________________________________
reflection: I think the thing that inspired me the most to film this subject/subjects was that the subject matter was something that I was interested in because it is something that is very far from what I can do. It was something that I don’t know how to do or even where to begin. I didn’t really know anything about how to make music or even how to start and I have very little experience when it comes to music and having a music background. I think the thing that I have the most hesitation about is being able to put together all the pieces of the film since I don’t have a music background it will be harder for me to piece together the different music shots. I want to combine the interview with the musicians song in the background, showing the composition of the music with how the musician developed the piece helps to integrate the form and the content all into one piece. I know really little if nothing about the art of making music, but I do know the musicians and I know that they make music, but I know nothing about how they create each song and how they put together all the different parts that make up of song.

research: I don’t really have to do any research for the subject matter. All information will come from the interviews and what the musicians have to say about how they make music. Everything that I want to learn will come from the questions that I will be asking each subject.

preparation: I plan on filming the people at the same location so that I can get the best lighting on both and so that it makes it easier for me because I won’t have to set-up in two places. I think the potential obstacles that I may encounter are that the sound of the guitar may be loud and it may set of the loudness of the singing. Also I think that the lighting may be the hardest part of the shoot. I think I have very little experience with lighting and it may not be the best. I think my idea will be able to be met, but it may be difficult to put the videos together, splicing them and fitting them together with the program I have to edit.

2) production process__________________________________________________
shot list: For most of my shots I wanted it to be on the fly, but I wanted to have one head on shot for the interviews with a guitar somewhere in there. I also wanted to be creative with what angle I wanted to shoot the musician playing the guitar. I don’t really have any idea of what shots I want. I just want to take a bunch of shots so that I have a variety of shots to choose from.
script: I didn’t have any script for this video. I decided to just put together the videos as I saw fit based on all the footage I had.
storyboard: See below
interview questions:
How do you make your music?
What are the ways in which you determine what you write about?
Do you usually have a theme when creating your music?
Do you ever create more than one song at a time?
How do you put together your music?
Do you create random lyrics and put them together or do you create one whole song at a time?
How do you put chords/notes to your music?
When you write do you want people to get a certain message out of your music?
Do you write for someone/something, or do you write for yourself?
location - setting - props - lighting etc: I will be doing the shooting in their respective rooms so that it is the most natural place that makes them the most comfortable for the interviews. I also want to do it where they are most natural for their inspiration of making music. I also want to do it in the afternoon where they are most alive and where they can be the most passionate about their music. I think people are able to answer more naturally when they are in a place that is most comfortable to them, it allows for more natural feeling from the musician.
in the field: I think that the thing that was the most difficult was how hard it was to find the right lighting. The first shoot was really bad lighting with the sun being blocked by the clouds and the sun showing made the camera change it’s white balance and really made the shot darker and lighter at random times throughout the shot. I think that the sound was really good, but the shotgun microphone was really sensitive to movement and it also caught sounds like the closing of doors from the other people in the dorm rooms. I wish there was a place where I could have gone to have no outside noises besides the background room hum. I also would have liked to have more cameras so that I could have one focused on the musician as a whole and the other focusing on different parts of the guitar playing so that it would have been easier to synchronize the music with the shots. I also think that the interview part was the hardest part of whole filming because I couldn’t judge what the interviewee was going to say or how long they were going to talk. I had to come up with questions that would help to get them to say more, not leading them, but making them more explanative so that I portray a bigger picture of who they are and a complete picture of who they are. I also think that I could have left more space in-between the interview questions and the interview answers so that I would have more freedom with the splicing and the movement of the shots and I also would have been able to remove my voice and questions to have a more continuous interview.
reflect: I like this stage the most because it allows for my creative juices to really flow. When I have a camera in my hands I am able to see new shots and really get a good picture for an overall good film. I really like going with the flow and filming whatever comes into the frame of the video camera. Although it doesn’t make for the most productive production at times I feel that this is my best method of filming and creating a good video in my eyes.

3)post production/editing process__________________________________________
log: Look at storyboard. I also have a lot of audio of each musician playing their songs more than once for the best quality sound.
review: I have a bunch of shots of the musicians playing their guitars and also a bunch of different shots with different angles. I also have a variety of songs so that I can use any song depending on the length of it.
script and arrange: Look at storyboard.
re-shoots: I looked over my shots and realized that I needed more random angle guitar shots, and a shot with better lighting, but I wasn’t going to film the interview again because I didn’t want to manipulate the interviewee after they saw their respective interviews. I wanted better light, but instead I decided to take the best shots and cut out the bad ones and put in the filler guitar angle shots. I wasn’t able to synchronize all the music with the guitar cutaways because I didn’t have the right shots at all of the right times. I really wanted to synchronize it, but it was too difficult with the program that I had. It was too difficult to synchronize all the sounds. Instead of re-filming the interview I decided to re-shoot the guitar angle shots, the only problem with that is that there was different lighting for both shots. I think that this wasn’t as big of a problem, but it made the video a little more choppy than I wanted it to. I really wanted to have a smooth piece, but it was really hard with the times to shoot and making more time to re-shoot. If there was more time with the project I would have re-shot the interview, but without showing them the interview that was first shot so that there would be no bias when I asked them the questions for the second time.
reflect: I really didn’t like editing this project. It was really difficult to organize the shots and to synchronize the sound to make it match up so I decided to not match it up and put the guitar cut scenes wherever I felt would be the best place. I really wasn’t manipulating the material as much as I could and I think I portrayed the musicians as they were with no mutations to their real character. I think that the two stages are completely different in how I handle them because I really don’t like manipulating the film, but I always try to portray the truth in everything I do.

Do after Critque

4) distribution_______________________________________________________
reflect: I think I liked the responses and I agree with what most of them said. I felt that the criticism was appropriate and I feel that what most of them said I would have done myself if I had had more time to re-shoot and re-edit the material. I also think that the project could have been better if the program I was working with had more options and allowed for more flexibility. I think my strengths are my camera taking abilities and my weakness is not being able to work ahead of time, but I think I will try to work ahead of time, but with the limited time I won’t be able to work ahead of time. I think that I learned the most about re-shoots and how smooth the transitions need to be.
critical thinking: I think the things that came across my mind were the different ways that we can represent others and that we don’t necessarily need to show the people and to show what the subject is about. I also really thought about the different ways people use their cameras and how we choose to make media.
as an audience member: I think there were a lot of different films that I enjoyed, but I didn’t really take anything back with me from the videos. I feel that we all have different taste and that we are very separate in the ways we choose to portray things. I don’t really know how to choose what to put in my film, but the classmate’s films are very inspiring, but they only help me to include a hint of what they did with their films. I think the audience is important depending on the film and for this video it was really important, but I don’t think that the audience is too important for my films because I am really critical of my own work.
distribute: I wouldn’t consider sharing my video on a larger scale because one of my subjects doesn’t want her music to be widespread.