Feminist Action ~ Take 1
This is a short reflection based on what I learned, and wish I knew, about making a short film.
Cinematography
In our short film, I attempted to do a "rack focus" shot in the beginning with Yuri looking at her phone and then the camera panning up to look at the classroom. At least, that is what I had in mind. It was one of the first shots that I saw in my mind as we created the story.
I attempted to do a pan shot during Pat's introduction scene. I could have improved on in by starting on the left side, having a character walk out of the camera's frame, then panning towards the right to introduce Pat's character.
Overall, I'm content with the cinematography having no knowledge of it beforehand. However I really wanted to do a one-shot as they are my favorite part of cinematography, but it was too hard to plan out.
Editing
Ah, editing...where do I begin with this darling term. "They say a film is made three times. The first is by the screenwriter. The second by the director and crew. And the third is by the editor in post-production." (Moving Picture, Chapter 6). I very much agree with this statement.
-We attempted some continuity editing with going from Pat being a human to a panda, or just general scenes in the short film. One that I wish could of been smoother was our weapon transformation scene to our attacking the panda scene, it was a little choppy. I definitely wished I read about the "cutting-on-action" technique beforehand cuz that would of really helped make the edits smoother.
Our short film definitely had a lot of jump cuts in editing mostly because i didn't know how to set up or pick up transitions that made it smoother. I think the best jump cuts were our weapon transformations, it worked well for comedic effect.
I personally felt like I lost the story while editing. I had my idea of the script but editing showed me that we should of shot this scene at that angle or vice versa. It also made me realize how much power goes into editing. You could have a good script but the editing butches the story, this can go for cinematography as well with how the camera frames characters.
Sound
I loved editing sound effects into our short film. I love sound design in general, and being able to add music and sound effects made the editing process more enjoyable for me. It let the film become alive! My love of sound definitely originated with my love of voice acting and watching people make the sound of objects, super realistically too!
I love the example the book gave about A Quiet Place and its sound effects. I love how that movie uses no dialogue and all sound, to the point that you need to be quiet during the film. I remember hearing stories of people whose theater experience was ruined because people talked during A Quiet Place.
It also brings up the use of silence. I love movies when there is a loud busy scene, and then just silence. It wakes you up because you're not used to silence, it's uncomfortable.
I was shocked that the chapter did not touch on Soundtracks, or maybe it did and I missed it. Soundtracks and sound designs are such vital parts of the cinema!
Acting
I am not cut out for acting, I felt so embarrassed trying to act, even if it was amongst friends.
But I love watching acting, I love seeing people become creatures or characters, using improvements that touch on the imagination. My favorite type of actors are voice actors, as shared above in the sound section, Matt Mercer does amazing and realistic sound effects! The collaboration between the actor and the sound effect!
I also enjoyed learning how editing can be used to frame a character's scene is interesting too. I will keep this in mind for next time because we had a few frames of unused footage and using editing can be a way to dramatize that actor's performance more.
Overall, I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to make a short film! It has been on my bucket list for a long time and it was such a fun learning process. I have a greater appreciation for any type of film that gets made.
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