Final thoughts..

I have learned so much about filmmaking in just one semester & I owe it all to taking the FST 201 course. This class allowed me to explore the different areas of film production, discover my strengths and weaknesses, and find that I am comfortable with and greatly enjoy producing. Prior to taking this course, I was well aware that everyone working in the film industry should be educated on all the departments, individual jobs, and what each person does, but I figured it wasn't detrimental if I didn't know exactly how the camera was operated/functioned or what the editing process was if I worked in a different department. I now know that it is EXTREMELY important (to the infinite power!) to know everyone's jobs, what they're job description is, and how every job is like a puzzle piece and each one is as important as the next to make a production run smoothly!As for myself, I learned that where I lack in coming up with creative content, I make up for in organization and attention to detail. I enjoyed being in the directorship position for the Bran & Park project and it was definitely a learning experience, but I found more success as a producer and it gave me the confidence to pursue it further. On a personal note, this class has allowed me to learn to roll with the punches! Each project definitely had its issues; in the past I would not have handled it without feeling anxious at some point (perfectionism at its finest), but I've become more adaptable from each situation and went panic attack free all semester..woohoo!

Thank you for a great semester Shannon! I thoroughly enjoyed the class & can't wait to take your Doc class in the Fall :) 

Fall 2013!

I need to take a moment and take in the fact that I have already been at UNCW a full academic year!! It is so crazy to think about; this time last year I decided I had it with putting my aspirations on hold & committed to moving 3,000 miles from home to Wilmington, North Carolina for film school. It's been an incredible journey so far, I can see the growth I've made in a year and can't wait for what the next year has in store! I have big plans academically for next semester, I plan on being bombarded with work..and I'm so ready for the challenge! Along with entering the film major, I'm committing to a minor in French so I will be tackling 2 French classes in the Fall. I'm enrolled in the Documentary producing class (FST 330) and FST 302- Documentary with Shannon :) Getting both classes that focus in documentary kind of worked out perfectly; I'm interested in narrative and documentary, but who knows.. I could end up favoring documentary. I'm also extremely excited I am getting the opportunity to do a DIS with Andre. I have found a passion for producing so getting to organize the Cape Fear Environmental Film Forum is just amazing. Words cannot describe how excited I am for the future. It's going to be crazy/hectic/exhausting, but it's definitely what I love and absolutely worth it!

Wild Card

I am beyond excited for this Wild Card Project.  (A little sleep deprived because of it, but all for the love of the art!) Jessica is directing, I am producing, Channing is the Director of Photography, Michelle is Grip, and Kelley is on sound. So far as producer, I have been the one to coordinate schedules, organize our meetings, and prepare the budget proposal. I have started working on securing our locations; we are good to go with our main location- using Channing's house for both interior and exterior shots. I plan on securing Airlie Gardens, the St. Mark's Episcopal Church, and the City of Wilmington permit by Thursday. My next step is to find our talent; I have started posting information about our casting call for Thursday, hoping people will audition on such short notice.
My goal for the assignment is to keep everything running smoothly and within our budget. I feel like I overestimated our budget so it will be nice not having to spend too much. I would like to keep production moving in a timely fashion so we have plenty of time to create what we envisioned in post. There are a lot of elements that will take more time and focus in editing; we want to put in all our effort to make the final edit amazing.

Let Me Tell You Something About Janis Ian...

What didn't I learn this unit? Sound/using the sound equipment is probably my area of least expertise. I've watched everyone else in all my previous groups deal with sound while I handled lighting, producing or directing, so this was my first time getting to operate the sound equipment. It was not as difficult as I thought it would be; all the functions and settings of the H4N were pretty self explanatory and easy to navigate. The only thing I kept forgetting was to stop recording, you hit "stop" instead of "record" again... so we had to edit out some interesting random conversations :) The most difficult part of recording was probably getting ambient noise outside without getting sporadic interruptions; I suppose the interruptions would become part of the ambient noise, but we were striving for a nice, clean sound. Oh yes, one last thing I will remember for the future.. although the sound booth gives US great sound, everyone else in the room can still very much hear it. My apologies to the students who were working in the editing lab; next time I'll wait til the room is empty to scream at the top of my lungs or cry like my boyfriend broke up with me!

Thank you to Kelley for teaching me how to operate the sound equipment! Also, thank you to Kayla for the refresher & walking me through how to compress the sound & open it in Final Cut Pro. Aaand thank you Jason for showing me some Final Cut shortcuts!

Master Shot Editing Update

Filming for the Master Shot Sequence project had its challenges and triumphs; we managed to film everything in a timely fashion and now we've moved on to post. Ryne and Jessica are lead/assistant lead editors and took the reigns for the rough cut. It's coming together how we envisioned the rework of our story, however we hit a major roadblock when realizing it is not in master shot style. Our challenge for the next week will be to get our final edit as close to a master shot sequence without losing the story.  With all the issues we had with organizing background actors and our Bran bailing last minute, we lost sight of the main purpose of the assignment. From here, we can only learn from the experience and do our best to rework the edit. On a positive note, I'm really excited about the edit we do have; it is a culmination of all of our efforts & is definitely something to be proud of. I've learned so much from this one assignment alone, which is all I can really hope for.

Previsualization

This project marks the first time I have created storyboards and a marked shooting script. At first I was sure I'd ruin our overall vision of the project with my terrible drawing skills, but it surprisingly didn't turn out that bad. I'm quite proud of myself for not taking the easy road and drawing stick figures! Although one of the more tedious tasks, I'm so thankful storyboarding is a part of the pre-production process. I have a much better understanding for what exactly we'll be filming and I'll be able to easily reference the storyboards, along with the marked shooting script, overheads, shot list, etc., for a (hopefully) straightforward and productive shoot. Creating the marked shooting script was not as difficult as storyboarding; we had a vision in mind and just needed to express it in writing. The concept for our film involves delusional perceptions; this means that the image we see in POV (while the characters are on drugs) will not be the same as what we see in a more omniscient shot. It was tricky figuring out how to go about going from POV to OTS shot/reverse shot (for example) without making it too disorienting for the audience. After pitching our ideas on Wednesday, Ryne and I met to polish up and distinguish camera movement for the storyboards, time the script, and make a shot list for our shooting schedule. 

Being in the directing position for the first time was a bit intimidating at first, especially with other group members who are so much more knowledgeable and have more experience. However, I can't thank them enough; they've been a huge help and very patient with me in this learning process- I've learned so much already!

Had to share this.. my first attempt at drawing a unicorn..yikes my drawing skills need some improving!

Master Shot Sequence

For this upcoming film project, I have been assigned the director position. My participation thus far in the pre-production process has been interpreting the script and molding it to our film concept. I am also creating the marked shooting script and storyboards for production. As a group, we have found our location and blocked the script to get ideas for cinematography and lighting. In the upcoming weeks of production and post production, I will oversee the cinematography and technical aspects, making sure it reflects our overall vision.

I enjoy being in authoritative positions, however the project should be a culmination of everyone's vision and efforts, not just my own. It is especially important for me to make sure everyone is happy with the final product.


Our adaptation of the Bran and Park script will be quite comical. Bran and Park step away from a small get together to take some magic mushrooms. As the conversation unfolds, both Bran and Park's hallucinations become more and more bizarre; Bran is convinced he is talking to a unicorn and Park sees some unusual characters in the distance behind Bran. I won't reveal too much more, but I will say we are going to have a lot of fun with canted angles and POV shots..

Doc Interview Reflection

The filming experience for the documentary interview project was incredible. The chemistry between our group members was awesome, we all worked so well together! The staff at Hardwire Tattoo were very welcoming and gave us the freedom to film just about whatever and wherever we wanted. Jason and Mike, the two artists we interviewed, had the best personalities and were so fun to work with. We interviewed them during regular business hours, which meant working with the excess noise in the shop. We were especially unsure of how the buzzing from tattoo guns would affect the interview, but in the end we loved our footage and the buzzing wasn't overbearing (in fact we liked having it in the background, as it is part of the tattooing experience & a characteristic of the shop and artist). All in all, everything went smoothly and we didn't encounter any major issues!

We originally planned on filming our vox pops in downtown Wilmington, but unfortunately the city did not approve our request in time. We were able to get approval from Flaming Amy's Burrito Bar for the same shooting day and it went as planned from there. At first we were waiting around for customers leaving the restaurant and either people were not interested/in a hurry or they did not have tattoos; our vox pop questions were specifically for people who have tattoos/have a positive attitude towards them so we had to typecast a bit. Once we filmed our first interview, the rest followed shortly after. Filming did not take long at all and we did not have to make any lighting adjustments adjustments.

I'm absolutely heart broken that we have to cut our incredible footage down to 2 minutes! We met some great people through this project and they provided us with amazing material. It will be difficult, but it makes me more excited for the final cut.

Expert Interview: Production Scheduling & Storyboards

Production Schedule for Expert Interview
Location: Hardwire Tattoo
Expert Interview(s): Jason Moore, Mike Merck

Friday, February 1, 2013
1:30 pm- arrive at Hardwire, begin equipment set up for first interview with Mike Merck [at stenciling station]
1:30pm-3:00 pm- film interview with Mike Merck (needs to finish before tattoo appointment at 3:30)
3:00 pm- Grace's tattoo appointment with Jason (B-Roll), set up equipment for Jason's Interview [in his work station]
4:00 pm- film interview with Jason Moore
After 2nd interview, film interior of shop for B-Roll, establishing shot of shop exterior
Wrap by 6:00pm

Story board for Mike's Interview

Wilmy Ink

Preparations for the documentary interview shoot are underway! After spitballing ideas on Saturday, we decided on a topic that we are all excited about. Grace, Kayla, Hillary, Naomi, and I were successful in securing our location for filming today and it definitely got our creative juices flowing. We went downtown and met with Jason, an artist at Hardwire Tattoo; he loved our ideas for filming and was more than willing to allow us to feature his shop and artists for the project. So we will for sure be shooting at Hardwire and either Jason or one of the other artists will be our expert interview. There are many different attitudes and opinions towards tattoos & body modification, but for our project, we want to highlight its positivity and focus on the emotional ties with tattoo artistry and the meaning behind tattoos.
Here is the list of questions we comprised to ask our interview subject:

·      How long have you been tattooing for?

·      How did you get started tattooing?

·      What is your favorite style of tattoo & why?

·      What does it mean to you to give a tattoo that is so significant to someone?

·      What is your favorite tattoo & explain the tattoo?

·      Why does it have meaning?

·      What’s your favorite tattooing story?

·      What would you say to someone who thinks negatively of tattoos? 

·      What was your first tattoo experience like? [getting a tattoo] 

·      What was your first experience as an artist like? 

For our vox pops, we will interview people with approving attitudes towards tattoos and

have tattoos themselves. We will film right outside the shop (on Front Street in downtown Wilmington) and utilize the shop customers and anyone on the street that agree to be featured. 

The questions we will ask our vox pop subjects are three of the questions we will also ask the artist:

·      What is your favorite tattoo & explain the tattoo

·      Why does it have meaning?

·      What would you say to someone who thinks negatively of tattoos

We are all looking forward to a fun and productive shoot..and who knows, someone in the group may walk away with some new ink :)

Impeccable timing, prankster!

I just had to share our group's surprise we discovered when arriving to our location.. Apparently someone thought it would be a fun idea to prank the apartment complex overnight and add soap to the fountain..OUR FOUNTAIN we were going to photograph for the documentary portraits! We had to make a last minute decision to change locations to a playground in the same apartment complex.. What a day!

Tomasina & the bubble fountain..

The Power of Lighting

Observing light and the effects it has on our surroundings is quite fascinating. Light has a lot of influence on a setting, an element of everyday life that I often overlook; this assignment on documenting the lighting of two different locations made me see the world in a different way. For the documentary portrait assignment, our group shot outside so I decided that I would inspect the lighting of two indoor locations for variation.

The first location I chose was classroom 205 in Morton Hall. There is a window in the back of the classroom, however at the time of my observation, the window was closed, shades were down, and the only light sources were coming from the lights above. There are 4 or 5 sets of 4 fluorescent light tubes down the center of the classroom ceiling. These lights are covered with diffusers, creating a dim and quite flat illumination. If a photograph were to be taken of this classroom, it would not bring out any depth or detail in the image. When you're in the classroom, the dim light and subtle shadows, combined with the off white walls make it seem very one dimensional. The lighting and appearance of this room reflect Morton Hall as a whole. This is one of the older buildings on campus, it's apparent as soon as you see the interior. When I walk in the door to go to class every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, I immediately sense one thing: the History and English departments mean business. The dense lighting, amongst other traits, makes you feel that when you take class in Morton, expect to get in, be educated, and get out; certainly not a homey, relaxed feel that you would get in say, Kenan Hall! The lighting definitely adds to the building's character, and gives it a rustic, aged look that is perfect for a History and English building.

The second location I observed was my home away from home- Port City Gymnastics. Training under gym lights has been something so second nature to me since the age of 5, but I've never stopped to notice its influence on the atmosphere of the gym. The gym is brightly lit with large industrial fluorescent light tubes, similar to the lights in Morton, yet much longer, brighter, and there are no diffuser panels over the lights. Since all the light is directly overhead, the shadows are cast directly under the equipment, mainly the balance beams, uneven bars, and stacks of mats. Most of the mats and padding in the gym are a matte blue, so there is not much light reflecting off the surfaces. The bases of the beams and bars are metal, resulting in a constant shine from the overhead lights. I feel a sense of both comfort and accomplishment when I'm under these lights, a feeling that I hope will never fade.

Documentary Portait- Location Scouting

Yesterday, January 17th, Caleb, Kateland, Tomasina and myself ventured out into Wilmington to find a location for the documentary portrait assignment. None of us are from Wilmington and haven't had the chance to explore much, but we were able to narrow our search to a few possibilities. We first ruled out the bridges into Wrightsville Beach. Although the setting was beautiful and quaint, there was not much room for movement along the walkway; space restrictions would have been inconvenient for capturing the different shot types.
The second location we looked at was Airlie Gardens. Upon arrival, we were all in agreement that the location was breathtaking and there were endless possibilities for our image. The only downside was that there is an entrance fee and not all members of the group wanted to have to pay.
Which brought us to Caleb's apartment complex, where in front of the main office sits a fountain, accompanied by a few benches and a small garden. We inspected the mini garden from all angles and found an area to shoot from that would balance the fountain perfectly between two bushes. We made a group decision to use (most likely Caleb's sister) to sit by the fountain in our images, as everyone is comfortable with understanding frame size in relation to humans, but not quite with inanimate objects. [We will make sure to have her sign a release form, as well as secure the location with the manager of the apartment complex]

We came up with a system for who will operate the camera, do the light meter, measure distance, and write up the field report for each shot. I personally will be taking a close up and the re-establishing long shot. My pictures give a general idea for location, but for the close up I will be taking the picture from a lower angle.

We are aiming to start shooting at around 8am in the morning- sunrise will be about 7:15. Light will be reflected from the water regardless, but it will be less significant in the morning vs. later in the day.

Take it from the top..

I'm a late bloomer in the world of film making; I always had a passion to get into acting and filming, but chose to focus on my gymnastics career through high school. After retiring, I no longer had to train 5 days a week, 4 hours a day, so I took that time to enroll in many acting classes and workshops. I found out about an independent movie filming close to home, jumped on set as an extra and ended up getting a featured role. Being on set of Dear Lemon Lima changed my life; every element of the filming process fascinated me and I felt at home walking on to set everyday- this is when I knew I wanted to devote my education to film studies. Shortly after graduating high school, I did an independent short film as well as a Microsoft commercial, and assisted with casting for a Washington State Lottery commercial. The acting side of the industry has been fun and challenging, but I'm ready to find my place on the other side of the camera.

In this course, I hope to study and comprehend the basic fundamentals of all aspects of film making. Since we will be exploring all areas of film making from pre-production to post-production, I'm hoping I will find a position that best suits me and one I truly enjoy. Upon entering the film program, I was sure I would want to focus on editing, but the production phase of film making seems more appealing. I anticipate finding a balance of something I'm good at & something I enjoy. Anything could happen in 10 years, but all I know is I would rather not end up back in Washington coaching gymnastics. I want to be pursuing a career in the film or television industry. Film is still a fairly young art form and always evolving; I would love to take part in discovering/adapting innovative film techniques in whatever position I focus on.


Something new and unique about me that I love sharing with the world is that I have recently sparked an interest in training parkour! (Because most people don't know) Parkour/freerunning/urban gymnastics is not a sport- no rules, no teams, no points, and it's not about who can be the best. It's the art of moving through your environment as swiftly and effectively as possible using only the human body- primarily mixing gymnastics/acrobatic elements and martial arts. Looking at life, parkour is a lot about overcoming obstacles and not about achieving perfection (great for a perfectionist like me!)

I unfortunately don't have a picture of me doing parkour, so here is one of my friend Lauren and I climbing trees around campus :)