There's really not much to say about the movie this week. After we finished filming last week we haven't really made any progress. Our plan was to et Eric to digitize our tape for us in class last thursday so we could hand it off to our editor and begin the last stage of the process. However, I had to run back across campus after class had started to pick up the camera from a group member who couldn't make the meeting, and that ended up putting us last in line for the digitization process. We ran out of time and didn't get done.
I've spent a good deal of time since then trying to work out how to get the footage digitized before next thursday (the next time Eric is available to digitize), but so far I haven't had any success. The camera does not like my computer, apparently. I couldn't even get them to reconize each other. The external hard drive must be in cahoots with the camera, because even though it said it was capturing it didn't capture the tape. I only found this out after spending twelve hours transfering the 90 gigabytes of files on the hard drive first to my home computer, which has the necessary firewire port but won't recognize the file type, and then from there to my laptop, which doesn't have firewire but can open the files. All in all, it was a less than productive experience.
Oh well. So it goes. Overall I'm very pleased with what we've accomplished, and I'm sure we'll get everything finished on schedule even with this setback. We'll just keep buggering on.
Tuesday, April 27, 2010
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
The burden is lifted
We finished shooting last Tuesday. Unless, Zeus forbid, we wind up missing a shot, we have finished production and entered the post-production phase of the project. I enjoyed the filming process, working with the actors and seeing a story I helped create turned into somethin tangible, but I can't say I'm particularly sorry to be done with it. It has not been a particularly relaxing activity. Between worrying about scheduling, natural lighting, weather, and all the rest, there was hardly any time to be concerned about what was actually going to be seen on screen. It didn't help that every single one of my other classes had a major assignment due the week we got the camera. Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying I didn't enjoy it. It just wasn't the walk in the park I thouht it might be.
Something that really surprised me (and I may have mentioned this before), is how long it actually takes to film a scene. My thinking was fifteen second shot = fifteen seconds filming. nuh-uh. Even ignoring the possibility of mistakes, you've ot to get multiple angles, and multiple takes of each angle in case there's something you missed when you were shooting. Dialogue adds another element, since you need to record each line said in multiple fashions to ensure you get it the way you want.
Overall I think I much prefer the pre-production process. The writing was more enjoyable to me than the shooting. When you write, you can have whatever you want to happen happen without having to worry about how to do it. When you're shooting, you actually have to work out the logistics. It's like the car crash I wrote into our script. It sounds cool on paper, but it was really difficult to shoot, and we ended up having to shoot around it without actually showing it. As great as it is to be able to write something and then realize it on screen, I think it probably feels even better to write something and then sit back and watch someone else realize it on the screen.
Something that really surprised me (and I may have mentioned this before), is how long it actually takes to film a scene. My thinking was fifteen second shot = fifteen seconds filming. nuh-uh. Even ignoring the possibility of mistakes, you've ot to get multiple angles, and multiple takes of each angle in case there's something you missed when you were shooting. Dialogue adds another element, since you need to record each line said in multiple fashions to ensure you get it the way you want.
Overall I think I much prefer the pre-production process. The writing was more enjoyable to me than the shooting. When you write, you can have whatever you want to happen happen without having to worry about how to do it. When you're shooting, you actually have to work out the logistics. It's like the car crash I wrote into our script. It sounds cool on paper, but it was really difficult to shoot, and we ended up having to shoot around it without actually showing it. As great as it is to be able to write something and then realize it on screen, I think it probably feels even better to write something and then sit back and watch someone else realize it on the screen.
Friday, April 9, 2010
It Has Begun
We got the camera last night and spent a few hours shooting. We got three scenes done, which comes out to about 1/6 of the film, if my math's correct. Right now, I think the biggest problem we're going to have is scheduling. I think we may have spent as much time trying to figure out when everyone was available as we did filming.
Interesting story: We've only been filming for one day, and we've already had our first police run-in. It actually happened during the first scene we filmed. It was a death scene, of sorts, and we had our lead actor sprawled out in the grass, with the lead actress and most of our crew leaning over him. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to film that scene across the street from the police department without telling them. We were about halfway through the scene when two cops came running up to see what had happened. Apparently the dispatcher had seen us through the window and thought there had been an accident. They told us they were just about to call out an ambulance. (Actually, it would have been kind of cool if they had. It would have added some verisilimitude to the scene. But then we would have had to pay for it, which wouldn't be so cool.)
We actually shot my favorite scene last night. Y'know, it's one thing to write it and see it in your mind, but it's something else to actually see what you've written realized like this. It's a very powerful feeling, and I can feel my already over-inflated ego swelling even more. Between this, my "film as literature" class, and script frenzy, I'm thinking I'm going to start digging deeper into the whole process, and I might even consider doing a creative thesis.
Interesting story: We've only been filming for one day, and we've already had our first police run-in. It actually happened during the first scene we filmed. It was a death scene, of sorts, and we had our lead actor sprawled out in the grass, with the lead actress and most of our crew leaning over him. In hindsight, it probably wasn't a good idea to film that scene across the street from the police department without telling them. We were about halfway through the scene when two cops came running up to see what had happened. Apparently the dispatcher had seen us through the window and thought there had been an accident. They told us they were just about to call out an ambulance. (Actually, it would have been kind of cool if they had. It would have added some verisilimitude to the scene. But then we would have had to pay for it, which wouldn't be so cool.)
We actually shot my favorite scene last night. Y'know, it's one thing to write it and see it in your mind, but it's something else to actually see what you've written realized like this. It's a very powerful feeling, and I can feel my already over-inflated ego swelling even more. Between this, my "film as literature" class, and script frenzy, I'm thinking I'm going to start digging deeper into the whole process, and I might even consider doing a creative thesis.
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Adaptation
So, last week I thought I had another commitment that would keep me from attending movie night, so I went ahead and rented Adaptation and watched it earlier in the week. As it turned out, I was able to make to class, so I ended up watching the film twice.
I'm glad I did.
This movie has so many different layers to it. I probably caught about fifty things on the second viewing that flew completely over my head the first time. For instance, the first time I watched it, the scene early on with Charlie at the restaurant with the producer had completely slipped my mind by halfway through the movie. The second time, knowing what happened later on, I realized that everything Charlie says he doesn't want to do in that conversation ends up happening later on in the second half of the film. Maybe I shouldn't say second half. It would probably be more appropriate to call it the post-workshop portion of the movie, since Charlie begins to write it differently after the writing workshop.
Yes, I just said the character was writing the movie. Adaptation blurs the line between reality and fiction as much as any movie I've seen. As I understand it, every one of the major characters, save for Donald, is actually a real person, but they are real people being played by actors and doing completely fictitious things. (I wonder how Susan Orleans felt about being portrayed as a drug addict and attempted murderer.) Nearly everything we see happen onscreen, we also see Charlie write, including the scenes of Charlie writing. In the post workshop portion, we don't actually see it being written, but we have seen the seeds planted for it in the writing workshop. Furthermore, Donald, an entirely fiction character, actually gets a writing credit in the opening titles. I had actually assumed he was a real person until Donna told us he wasn't.
The film seems to revel in pointing out that in movies reality is not always reality. Something that was brought up in class that I think nicely illustrates this point is the masturbation fantasy scenes. In the first one, with the waitress, there is no indication given at all that we are cutting from reality to fantasy. The restaurant scene just continues with no transition as we move from Charlie's real world interactions to his fantasy, and then it continues on as normal until Charlie wakes up. It's like the film is saying to us "Hey look, we can put anything we want up here and you won't know whether it's real or not." For the most part, we're always brought back to reality at some point, but at some point in the film, around the point Charlie asks Donald for help, I would say, we switch from 'reality' to 'fiction', and the story never snaps back.
But I've been writing like I think the film before that point actually portrays reality (and by reality I mean the reality of the world in the film, not our reality). I wouldn't actually say that's entirely true. The scenes with Charlie (prior to the point mentioned above) may actually be 'true' within the world of the film, but I would argue that the scenes with Susan are not. Every time we see Susan in the pre-workshop portion of the film, it's always bookended by scenes of Charlie either reading her book or talking about her or something she wrote. I think the indication we are supposed to get is that these scenes are Charlie's ideas of what Susan must be like, rather than what actually happened. But doesn't that contradict what I wrote in the last paragraph? Not really. We may not be given a clear, no-doubt-about-it sign that this isn't real, but I think the bookending of the scenes is meant to be an indication to us. Everything we need to know is there. We just have to see it.
I'm glad I did.
This movie has so many different layers to it. I probably caught about fifty things on the second viewing that flew completely over my head the first time. For instance, the first time I watched it, the scene early on with Charlie at the restaurant with the producer had completely slipped my mind by halfway through the movie. The second time, knowing what happened later on, I realized that everything Charlie says he doesn't want to do in that conversation ends up happening later on in the second half of the film. Maybe I shouldn't say second half. It would probably be more appropriate to call it the post-workshop portion of the movie, since Charlie begins to write it differently after the writing workshop.
Yes, I just said the character was writing the movie. Adaptation blurs the line between reality and fiction as much as any movie I've seen. As I understand it, every one of the major characters, save for Donald, is actually a real person, but they are real people being played by actors and doing completely fictitious things. (I wonder how Susan Orleans felt about being portrayed as a drug addict and attempted murderer.) Nearly everything we see happen onscreen, we also see Charlie write, including the scenes of Charlie writing. In the post workshop portion, we don't actually see it being written, but we have seen the seeds planted for it in the writing workshop. Furthermore, Donald, an entirely fiction character, actually gets a writing credit in the opening titles. I had actually assumed he was a real person until Donna told us he wasn't.
The film seems to revel in pointing out that in movies reality is not always reality. Something that was brought up in class that I think nicely illustrates this point is the masturbation fantasy scenes. In the first one, with the waitress, there is no indication given at all that we are cutting from reality to fantasy. The restaurant scene just continues with no transition as we move from Charlie's real world interactions to his fantasy, and then it continues on as normal until Charlie wakes up. It's like the film is saying to us "Hey look, we can put anything we want up here and you won't know whether it's real or not." For the most part, we're always brought back to reality at some point, but at some point in the film, around the point Charlie asks Donald for help, I would say, we switch from 'reality' to 'fiction', and the story never snaps back.
But I've been writing like I think the film before that point actually portrays reality (and by reality I mean the reality of the world in the film, not our reality). I wouldn't actually say that's entirely true. The scenes with Charlie (prior to the point mentioned above) may actually be 'true' within the world of the film, but I would argue that the scenes with Susan are not. Every time we see Susan in the pre-workshop portion of the film, it's always bookended by scenes of Charlie either reading her book or talking about her or something she wrote. I think the indication we are supposed to get is that these scenes are Charlie's ideas of what Susan must be like, rather than what actually happened. But doesn't that contradict what I wrote in the last paragraph? Not really. We may not be given a clear, no-doubt-about-it sign that this isn't real, but I think the bookending of the scenes is meant to be an indication to us. Everything we need to know is there. We just have to see it.
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