Final Reflection

I think taking Intro to Production has helped me in some respects in figuring out what I want to do in the film industry. I have suspected for a while now that I would like to be a producer, so being a producer on our class assignments helped me to confirm that that is what I want to do and that is where my strengths lie. I also learned more about communicating and how to work as a team to get a job done. I always knew a lot of work went into making a film, but after experiencing it first hand I now realize the amount of coordination and technique that goes into shooting. 

Overall I enjoyed the work that I did in Intro to Production. It helped me to solidify what I want to do later in life and helped me to further gain respect for the industry. The projects could be very difficult and frustrating at times, but I was able to overcome the challenges to make a good product. 

Wild Card Crew Position

On the wild card assignment, I am the producer for this project. Our group has decided to do a hybrid of a narrative and an experimental film. What I hope to accomplish as the producer is to make sure everything runs smoothly and everything is happening on schedule. My group has the story idea complete and I have been trying to work with my group to find times to meet up and talk about our project and complete the pre visuals. I am also talking to them to make sure we get locations and actors locked in for when it comes time to shoot. 

I am trying to keep everything as organized as possible and make sure that everyone is on the same page. On the narrative project, we had a very hard time communicating and staying on schedule so I am trying to make sure that does not happen for this project. 

Sound Editing Experience

The editing experience for the Painting with Sound project went very smoothly. My group met up to collaborate on which sounds we would use and how we would interpret and organize them to meet the sentence theme that we picked in class. Our sentence was "Without even trying, the horror has made its way to the top of the corporate ladder." We tried to find ominous and creepy sounds and mix them in with people talking and other various voice based sounds as well as typing, sirens, and other sounds that went along with our corporate theme. 

When we started editing, Sam and Jacob, our DP and sound person, took the reigns on the actual editing process, and Brandon, the producer, and I, the director, watched and gave input on the arrangement. It all went really well and I think we ended up with a really good soundscape and final product. 

Sound Recording

I really enjoyed the sound recording process. My group made a list of a bunch of different sounds that we could possibly get and then tried to get as many of those as possible. We met up at Kenan and went into the editing lab to use the whisper room to get a lot of our recordings. We then made our way to CAB where we got a lot of different outdoors sounds and then instrument sounds and musical sounds. 

I liked hearing all the different sounds over the mic since they were so crisp and clear. The sounds that were recorded in the whisper room were especially interesting to listen to because there was no ambient noise behind it so the sounds were so clean. I also liked doing this project because it made me notice sounds a lot more. Since I was constantly looking for sounds for us to use, I became more aware of all the different sounds around me and what they could be used for. 

Master Shot Editing Experience

The editing experience for our master shot sequence has been incredibly difficult. At first Melanie and I were able to figure out how to get all the video files to work and we got the sound and videos lined up perfectly then she started the cutting process. After that we ran into loads of problems. We opened our file so she could continue working, but the sound on the timeline was not working. It took some time, but I was able to get that to work. She was then planning on going to the editing lab to work, but there were classes in the lab and she could not be in there. Today we met to work and the sound was back to not working. We could not figure out what was wrong with it this time because the sound in the source file was working, but the sound in the timeline was not. We got someone from TAC to help us and he was able to get the sound working again, but for some reason the audio was not lined up with the video anymore. We are also still missing some audio that we need to record. We can get it all done by next week if we can just get all the audio to work when we need it to work.

Previsualization Process

The making of the previsualization materials was actually very difficult. My group had a hard time getting in contact with each other and coordinating a time to meet up. I was only able to coordinate a time to plan with two out of the other three people in my group, and then one of those people could not make it because she got sick. The last group member and I were able to meet and talk about the project. We basically got everything planned out.

Planning everything was not very difficult. Our group decided on a topic last week in class so basically all we had to do was expand from there. In our meeting we went through and finished the script then planned basic storyboards. Making the marked script, storyboards, shot list, and everything else was not very difficult it was just time consuming. I am glad we have them though because it will be a lot easier to shoot with everything already planned out. 

Vox Pop and Expert Interview Reflection

Our vox pops and expert interview went very well. We did our vox pops on Friday February 14 in downtown Wilmington. It took us a little while to get set up and find a place where the wind was not too strong and there were not too many cars passing. Once we got all the sound and camera issues worked out, we started asking for interviews. Since it was a very nice day outside and it was Valentine’s Day, there were plenty of people out to interview. There were only one or two people that declined when we asked them to be interviewed. Everyone that we talked to was very cooperative and answered all questions.

For the expert interview, we interviewed the owner of the restaurant where we had been shooting. Her name was Brenda and she was extremely cooperative and wonderful to talk to. Before we started the interview, she told us about the restaurant and showed us pictures of the boardwalk through the years. When we actually did the interview, I think she gave us plenty of shots to work with.