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Narrative Sequence Self-Reflection

            When it came to making a narrative short film, I was coming up with ideas for a noir type of film as that is one of my favorite genres alongside science fiction. I came up with concepts for both ideas but liked my idea for a noir film more. Although as time went on, my film turned more from a noir into a drama that was trying to explore the depression of a father who would not be able to see his kids ever again. Hence, the logline ended up changing quite a few times to fit a coherent narrative. The Logline finally ended up being A divorced father who commits suicide from the depression of never being able to see his children ever again. To reflect this, I chose to name my film “Lost Hope”               The look of the film is very important to me, as an aspiring cinematographer, my focus is mainly being able to tell an effective story through only using my camera. The look that I was going for would be de-saturated with a cool color temperature to reflect the sadness of the character. I went for a low-key lighting style with medium contrast. Originally when I was trying to fit into the noir genre, I wanted to use high contrast lighting with harsh shadows but when the genre of my film changed, I decided to use diffused light through practical lighting. When it came to the location of the film, I decided to film it within the confines of my apartment, as that would be the easiest to get access to and would hence be able to film at later times. Due to the apartment being small, I could not have the main character move around much in the film, hence he spends most of it sitting down on a sofa.               The protagonist of my film, Jordan, is a depressed father who has been restricted from seeing his children due to a bad divorce that he went through with his now ex-wife. I wanted to write about this character, as I am keen on exploring dilemmas caused by my familial problems, and the concept of family is something I would like to explore further in my future works too. With this film, I wanted to explore the theme of depression, and how that can lead to the mental deterioration of a person, which is a problem that can sometimes be ignored. In the film, Jordan is at first against the idea of suicide as he has hope that he would be able to see his children and the idea of that should repel him from ever thinking about suicide. However, the problem with reality is that life rarely if ever goes as planned, and that is what I wanted to show in my film, hence the name: “Lost Hope”.               When it came to the casting of this film, I was looking for a man who looked like he could be in his mid-20’s, and I immediately thought of casting one of my roommates, as he fit that description and his physique as well as his facial features and his ability to hold a serious expressions were the deciding factor in casting him. When it came to the shoot, I was able to get the stoic presence that I was looking for out of him and I believe that in the end it helped elevate the film to where I wanted it to be. These qualities were especially important as I am not using dialogue and need to tell my story through the character's facial expressions. These were also important aspects as the conflict faced by the character in the film is all internal.               I put all of these elements together to make a rough cut of the film, which did not include any audio and had a different beginning to the final product. I think the rough cut was exactly what I needed to get feedback on how to improve for my final cut and I had always planned on putting some form of the soundtrack as it would enhance the mood and tone of the film. The soundtrack I used in the final cut did just that and I believe it was the perfect soundtrack to fit what was happening. I think the mix of droning and violin combined with piano added to the somber tone of the film that I was going for. For the final cut, I also added a few insert shots and changed the beginning to make the narrative flow better and help the audience understand what is happening.               I am happy with how my final cut turned out, although needed a few more tweaks, I think it turned out exactly as I had hoped and the audience reacted to the film as intended with the message being dictated across the screen.

[prod200-reflections]

Documentary Self-Critique

I have been making my own films since freshman year of high school, although most of them were narrative based. The documentary genre is not an area that I have explored as much as I would like to. At first, I was worried about making a documentary without much dialogue as I imagined a lot of information for documentaries to come out of interviews. However, as I aspire to be a cinematographer, I quickly took up the challenge of trying to tell a real story only using my cinematographic abilities. I did not have many ideas to begin with, as that is something that I struggle with, but the idea of making a documentary about my friend’s experience making his own documentary.

As soon as I had planned out what my documentary was going to be, I immediately filled in and submitted my on-campus permits and the Covid-19 CRACK form. As this was the first time I would be working with other people on a set after the start of Covid, it was important to maintain safety, and have masks on, especially when filming indoors. It took some time to get my permits confirmed as I had the exact same permit information as my friend, since we were filming together, but in the end, the permits were confirmed and signed off on allowing me to proceed with production.

I was lucky to have my talent be a close friend of mine, so that we were able to plan around each other, and find times where both of us would be free so that we could both shoot our individual documentaries simultaneously. Although as we were shooting our own films together, this created a problem for me.

As my friend had his own talent that he was directing himself, I had to work around his blocking to get the shots that I wanted. Preferably I would have a shot-list of exactly the kind of shots that I want as well as to get down the blocking. However, in this case, I needed to improvise since I needed to move around him. Going into the shoot, I knew the general movements and coverage that I wanted to get, those being close-ups and medium shots. It was also when I was on set that I realized that my documentary should be shot in slow-motion at 50 frames per second.

When I put the footage into premiere pro, I was immediately satisfied with my decision to shoot in slow-motion. I believe that it gave the film a more controlled motion, and made my friend look in control of the craft he was working very hard on. I believe it also worked with my editing style, as I went for a more advertisement, fast-paced editing style, as I believed that it would make the film more eye-catching for the audience, and not bore them.

My next step was the color grading process. For this, I used lumetri color which is built into premiere pro. It is similar to lightroom, which I have had a lot of experience with, so I was able to work with it well, and get the look I wanted. Out my camera, the picture is normally flat as I shoot in a neutral color profile, in order to color grade. When I was color grading, I was looking to add back contrast and bring up the saturation. For some of the shots, I also had to de-saturate the oranges as it was overwhelming, as well as bring up or down the exposure, as I might not have exposed it correctly in the camera, which is something that I need to pay attention to next time.

In the end, I believe that I had made a successful rough cut, with the editing style that I wanted to bring to the film, and I believed that my shots were great too. I just needed to add more content toward the end of the film which I was not able to get since my friend started the editing process at the same time as me, as well as completing the color grading. In the final cut, I color graded all the shots, and I replaced some of the shots with more close-ups of my friend himself as that was something that was missing from the rough cut. Along with that, I also changed the music of the film to be less rock and roll and have a more electric and smooth flow to it, in order to depict that he worked every well and smoothly.