1.What is the story of this scene
in two or three sentences? In other words, what happens in the scene?
The scene opens on a man awaking from a
laborious sleep in the middle of nowhere. Another man who wants his beans
chases him. A woman with a gun convinces the first man to hand over the beans
by shooting the second man—but it turns out the woman and second man were
working together.
2.What is purpose of this
scene in the larger story? (Or, if there is not a larger story, invent the
purpose of this scene.)
This scene would be the establishing scene in a quirky
post-apocalyptic tale. The first man would only be the vessel to introduce the
“conman-esque” relationship the second man and the woman with the gun have. It
communicates to the audience very quickly that the two characters, though vile
in stealing beans, would rather feign violence than use it.
3.What is the emotion I
want to communicate?
For this piece, I want to balance the contrasting feelings of
playfulness/whimsy, with misery and gloom.
4.Why is this scene
personal to me? What previous personal experiences does it remind me of? Why do
I need to make this scene?
This scene is significant to me because as a teenager I would
make chase scenes over ridiculous items. We even remade a chase over the last
cracker in a bowl some friends are sharing. It was fun, and ridiculous. I feel
like I need to make this scene to create a sort of culmination of all the old
ones—to make people laugh, but also slightly sad.
5.What, specifically,
must the audience understand narratively and feel at the end of this scene? How
do you intend to make sure this will happen?
At the end of this scene, I want the audience to be humored,
but also frustrated for the first man who is conned out of his beans. The
audience needs to understand that this narrative world contains many flawed
characters, but not evil characters. To ensure this, I need to try and make the
violence less “shock and awe”, and more quirky.
6.What two visual
elements (line, shape, space, tone, color, rhythm, movement) will you use to
help communicate the emotion of the scene?
This is a fun one. I want to render out the finished film in a
high contrast black and white—to work directly against the idea that people are
grey. Also, to help further the whimsy, I intend to utilize flat space directly
juxtaposed with deep space to consistently change the focus of my audience with
additional contrast.
7.What are some potential
obstacles to creating a successful scene? How can you be prepared to overcome
these?
The biggest concern right
now is weather. The entirety of this scene takes place outdoors, and we will be
filming outside. I’m worried for actor warmth, camera safety, and general mud
in my location. Narratively, I’m concerned that the first man will appear too
“good” and the other two characters “evil”. To overcome this, I’m going to
direct my actors to have strange and unsettling quirks—especially the first
man.
The argument I was trying to present in Pedagogy is two-fold. The first is that much of the educational
system does not succeed in warranting student attention. And the second is that
I feel as a child I missed out on learning valuable information by choosing not
to pay attention. It’s the fault of both sides. To accomplish this, I tried to
tell the story through the female student’s perspective, through some POV shots
as well as what she hears in the world around her. For the teacher, the focus
is put on the mouth, to emphasize the drawling lecture. With the student, I
attempted to use her eyes as much as possible, allowing her sightline to
communicate her focus, and lack thereof. I made the decision to shoot without
camera movement and then add some movement in post. This allowed me to create a
false sense of deep space during the imaginative portion—emphasizing the
student’s desire to be out of the monotony. When she has a lucid moment,
however, I do not incorporate any movement in the frame. She is again, stuck in
flat space. I also had the teacher and sleeping student wear black while the female
student wore a brighter color.
While
editing, I began to realize that the film was a lot more unsettling than I had
originally planned. It feels uncomfortable with the combination of music,
gibberish talk, framing, and flat camera manipulation. I believe I am
successful in communicating my two arguments, the flawed educational system and
my own flawed effort. However, I set out with filming this with boredom being
the key feeling I wanted to communicate. While editing I noticed that a lot
more angst showed over boredom. Perhaps wanting to call out current pedagogy in
grade school resulted in a more spiteful film? In the future, I need to have
pacing in mind while preparing. That became the major challenge in editing, as
many shots just felt too long, and it was challenging to trim them down.
Another thing to pay attention to is continuity. During the point of view shot
from the ground, the whiteboard had actual English instead of scribbles. I
didn’t notice this until I was well into editing. If I were to remake this
piece, I would try to show more thought process for the female student before
she shrinks. I could accomplish this by adding a shot of the space at the
bottom of the door (an escape route), and having another shrunken shot of ‘almost’
making it out.
I liked the difference in the lines with the zigzagging glass and the curving desks.
This light appears outside my apartment complex, and I liked the contrast with the light above the "creature", and the black on the right. And what's that little blue thing?
This example has a lot of extreme tonal contrast, and I like the black of the box with the white of the dials.
I took this picture in black and white expecting to find an example in affinity, but was surprised that in black and white, there is a high level of contrast.
As with the photo above, these are the blinds in my apartment. They are all extremely similar in color, but in black and white a larger contrast is brought. I learned a lot about the contrast black and white add when color is taken out.
For this piece, two characters will be used: A teacher, and
a student. The student is fighting falling asleep while the teacher lectures.
The student tries to escape the room by shrinking to a small size, but the
teacher steps on the student. The student awakens from this fantasy to hear
valuable information being taught.
The purpose
of this scene is to communicate two things: The flawed school system heavy on
lecturing and keeping children still, and how I feel now knowing how much I
missed as a child imagining escape and not paying attention. Both parties are
to blame.
I want to
communicate boredom, first. I want the audience to feel pity for the students
listening to the lecture, and then sadness when they realize the student is
missing out on good information and valuable knowledge.
As a kid, I
hated sitting in school for seven hours at a time. Recess was a nice respite,
but in class I would never be in class. Everything the teachers taught would
seem unimportant to me at the time, and wished to be outside. As such, I feel
that much of my childhood I missed knowledge that would benefit my life because
of my short attention span and the way the schools tried to teach me. I want to
make this scene to show my understanding of this. I want to potentially
communicate to others (kids and teachers) that valuable knowledge should be
listened to, but also taught in more engaging ways.
The
audience should feel that there is not hope for the student to learn anything
of note if it is continued to be taught through drawling lectures. To
accomplish this, I will make the teacher’s lecture gibberish for the start.
When the student awakens from the fantasy of escape, the teacher will be
speaking in English—until the student becomes bored again and falls asleep.
Since I am
going to shrink the student and make the teacher “large”, I will be playing a
lot with space. Deep space will help with the shrunken scenes. I then want to
utilize as much affinity in the color scheme as possible in the classroom.
Assisting the drawl of the lecture with the drawl of the color.
One big
obstacle will be the technical side of green screening a shrunken student. But
narratively, I worry over the teacher’s gibberish seeming clichéd and goofy. I
am concerned for the message of the film to be too heavy handed. To overcome these,
I’m going to make it with two endings. I’ll record the teacher speaking
normally, and then gibberish as wild sound. And I’ll have two different lessons
the student could hear at the end. Of course, this requires more work, but it
is my insurance policy.
These self-brewed drinks were at a party. Two of them were labeled "Silent Night". And they look like poison. I lined them up in a row to play with numbers, and snapped the picture before they were consumed to make tension.
It's cold, and a man leaves the warmth of the home below to climb a mountain. Escape? Or challenge?
This map was on the wall at Britany's house, and we were all talking about places that were meaningful to us in the world. No one mentioned Provo. And I think this picture captures how much they would be somewhere else.
This is in the TMA office. I've always thought the FERPA signs look like propaganda, but the placement under the Fulton portrait makes it look like propaganda even more.
I wanted to go for mystery here, so I left the subject silhouetted. And give the character with power, so I picked a low angle.
The following are ten things I find important, interesting, cool, and meaningful. They are not in any particular order.
1. Lone Star Taqueria (Restaurant)
Utah is incredibly rich with franchise food joints, but lacks in delicious originals. Lone Star Taqueria is a diamond of delicious uniqueness in the franchise laden rough that is my home state. My family has been eating at this Mexican food place for about ten years. The fish tacos are stellar, yes, but I prefer the half size carne asada burrito and a side of chips and guacamole. Nearly a perfect meal. :)
2. Captain From Castile (1945) - Samuel Shellabarger (Book)
There are countless incredibly cool books. It may seem hipster to have chosen this one first over the others. But, I was so enraptured by the adventure it contains the first time I read it that it must make this list. This historical fiction follows Pedro de Vargas, the son of a noble during the Spanish Inquisition and the Conquistadors. Mixed into the glorious adventure tale is a story of love and a young man learning moral strength.
3. Willow (1998) - Ron Howard (Movie)
Arguably a very silly movie, Willow stands as one of my favorites. Produced by George Lucas in an endeavor to make a high fantasy as popular as his previous Star Wars, it barely made its money back at the box office. The reason I love this movie so much is not for narrative perfection or cinematic glory, but for how easy it was for my friend group growing up to quote it. We loved watching it together. It was fun.
4. The Cay (1969) - Theodore Taylor
I was a rowdy boy. Class for seven hours a day did not bode well for my hyperness. To help pass time, I would often imagine myself in grand adventures. I wanted to live in the wilderness like in the book "The Far Side of The Mountain". As a kid, I loved "The Cay", as it was an escape from the mundane. Later, I recognized the racial lessons that it taught me as a kid.
5. More (1999) - Mark Osborne
I've always loved claymation. It was the first type of media I tried to create myself on my dad's camcorder. So for this list of top ten, it was a hard fight between More and Wallace and Gromit for the top claymation. I grew up on the cheese and crackers of Wallace and Gromit, but more has resonated with me in a more significant way. I like it because the protagonist becomes what he hates most in his quest to make the world a better place. It is a poignant warning.
6. Zao - Asian Cafe (Restaurant)
Food, again. This one is interesting and unique. Think Chipotle style menu and ordering for fresh asian food (not the fried MSG-laden stuff). It is delicious. There is not much more for me to say about it. I order the chicken tacos with everything on them, and an additional splash of the house green curry sauce. It's only in Salt Lake Valley, but comes to Lehi in a few months.
7. Children of Men (2006) - Alfonso Caurón (Movie)
(Spoiler Alert)
This movie is beautiful. And not in the sense that pulling out a still would be beautiful. I like it for the story, and the message (and of course, how incredibly they pulled off how long each shot is). In a disgusting, morose, gritty world, the presence and innocence of a baby's life calls for reverent awe. Life is precious.
8. The Gravel Road - James Newton Howard (Song)
This is the song overlaid during the climax of M. Night Shyamalan's film, The Village (2004). While I do consider the film incredibly underrated, this song itself easily makes my top ten cool things. Just listen to it. The beautiful pairing of piano and strings make for quite the poignant piece. It's an inspirational song for me.
9. Thistle & Weed - Mumford and Sons (Song)
Back in my senior year of High School, I was incredibly reluctant to jump on the Mumford and Sons train with their song "Little Lion Man". Again, I was too hipster. After a while, I skipped listening to the hit singles and went straight into their album to see if they were all they were cracked up to be. And now they are my favorite band. I even like "Little Lion Man". This song really inspires me. It ends with the lyrics, "lay yourself with good seeds, don't cover yourself with thistle and weed". Wherever we plant ourselves, the things we surround ourselves with, will influence our growth and development.
10. London Grammar (Band)
There is a reason the last three in this list are of music. Almost two years ago, I had the privilege of attending a Coldplay concert at UCLA with my mom. Their opening band was London Grammar. I was enraptured by Hannah Reid's commanding voice. I love nearly every song, and their entire album has infiltrated my "Top 25 Most Played" playlist. I have a crush on Reid, though I know nothing about her but her voice and appearance. Her voice is... dense and cathartic. This is the kind of music I listen to when I seek inspiration for meaningful stories to tell.
