Ranking 6x1 Assignments

At the top of my list is the freestyle assignment. I ranked it first because I felt that it was my most successful project in the class and think that it was a culmination of many of the techniques that I learned in 6x1. Thus far, I think this is the best film that I have made in the major.

Second is the multi-plane animation. I ranked it high because it was always on my bucket list to make a stop motion film, and I feel that it was a pretty successful first attempt. This technique is definitely something I will put in my tool bag for future films.

Third is the crowdsourcing assignment. The assignment was daunting and time consuming, but I felt that it was worth the effort after watching the rough cut in class. Seeing my twelve animated frames come to life on the screen for that half second was definitely a highlight of the semester.

Fourth is the Bolex long take. The shoot day itself was a lot of fun and I thought that the premise that my team and I had was solid considering the kind of camera that we were using. I was disappointed, however, in the final product because the camera lens was not wide enough to capture everything that I wanted to see in the frame. Also, the blood that was painstakingly applied to everyone's bodies was not as visible as I would have liked it.

Fifth is the direct film manipulation. This ranks low on my list simply because of the amount of time that was required to complete the assignment. Overall, I loved the final product and even used some of it in my freestyle assignment.

Rhythmic editing is last because it really isn't the type of film that I would make on my own. However, I did enjoy going to the beach and playing disc golf for Tess's film and also thought that the assignment was a good editing exercise.

For me, this is not a ranking of "Best to Worst." I enjoyed all of the assignments and felt that each one helped me grow as a filmmaker.

Saturday's Shoot

I really enjoyed the Bolex film assignment that we shot on Saturday. Along with the great weather, the thing I liked most was the fact that we only had one take to get it right. This challenge forced my team and I to plan our shot out more meticulously than if we'd had several takes to get it right and in my opinion, made the film more personal. I also enjoyed having the opportunity to watch and help out the other teams film their projects as well. Doing this allowed me to get to know some students in the class that I had not previously worked with or even talked to for that matter.

I am disappointed, though, that the shot did not come out as I would have wanted it. The fake blood was not visible on the negative of the film, which worries me that it won't show up when I invert the footage. Without being able to see the blood, the whole concept of the film is not clear. The scene goes from a dinner party gone wrong to what looks like the aftermath of a great night. The other thing I realized after screening the footage was that I should have used a wider lens to capture more of the scene.

Overall, I enjoyed the film assignment and look forward to seeing the finish product at the end of the semester.

My Rough Theater

My rough theater stems to when I was a child playing toys with my brother, Brad. Brad and I would always develop storylines and even write scripts that we would perform with our toys in front of a cheap camera. We would also record sound effects like explosions from action movies on TV with our tape recorder and queue our younger sister to play them during an action scene in our films. We would then watch the films that we made and even show our parents, who I'm sure only pretended to be amused by them.

I think the films that I have had to make in the film major also could constitute my rough theater. Every assignment that I have made was accomplished on virtually no budget, which required much more creativity than if I did have funding. The best instance that I can think of was when we filmed the Stop Motion project earlier this semester. On no budget, my team and I worked together and were able to create an interesting 1950's science fiction parody with just a pair of Star Wars toys and two containers of Play-Doh. It is an assignment that I will always remember because it brought me back to my youth playing toys with my brother.