February Recap

This month was pretty chill for the most part. I actually was ale to get my grades up to a stable place at the moment which is somewhat of a significant improvement from last month. This month was Super Bowl month so the ROP students worked on Doritos commercials, but not with another lesson on lighting, this time advanced lighting. They learned about lighting two subject at one and the use of gels to make things have different feels. In the end the students were able to produce some very impressive commercials. Next week a guest speaker is going to come in to talk to them about a product of his that he might like a commercial for, and if the students can make a good enough commercial, which I have no doubt they will, then it will be used for the official advertising of their product. More on that later. This month I actually started on the video blog that I am going to be doing weekly. I have shot it but have not quite finished editing the first video.I'll get that uploaded within the next week though. so stay tuned.

Angel during pre-production, testing out different  lighting set ups to use for his actual shoot.

Those Doritos are looking good!

Blog 16: Advisory Meeting #2

How can a cinematographer best use image to spark am emotional connection with he film's audience? A Cinematographer can use a well thought out camera angels and movements at specific times to bring up a certain feel that is needed in the scene. A cinematographer would use a panning shot, which is when the camera moves horizontally, to follow a subject moving across an area, in order to help the audience follow along with that subject, bringing them closer into the story. An example of this can be seen in Stephen Spielberg's, Saving Private Ryan, where Tom Hank's character is marching across a recent battlefield while shoving along with him a Nazi they just captured to the other side so that the prisoner may dig his own grave. The shot choice really emphasized the "dead man walking" kind of feel. Another shot a cinematographer could use is a dutch angle in which the camera is tilted where everything seems to look cooked or offset, depending on the angle. This is suppose to give off an uneasy feeling for the audience about the subject. Some of the well used dutch angles where used in the 1960's Batman TV series, especially whenever the camera was on the villains themselves. Using this shot in this situation gave off a feeling that there is something seriously wrong with these people. Yet another shot that a cinematographer might pull from his utility belt is a low angle shot on the subject, this usually gives the subject somewhat a dominant presence and telling the audience that this character is one power. A perfect example of this can be found  in the film Pulp Fiction in the hamburger scene where Samuel Jackson is integrating the guy to find the magic briefcase. through out this whole scene the camera looks up to Samuel, letting the audience know that he is in charge and he means business. A cinematographer can use a vast variety of camera angles and movements in order to bring up a certain type of emotion in a scene, but he has to pick the right one for each individual shot.

Independent Component 2 Approval

1. I plan to continue my mentorship with Mr. Miller as his TA. During this time I'm actually going to do mostly behind the scenes shooting and editing, capturing how the students use their skills of what they've learned in the now more advanced lessons and apply them into video projects. I'm also going to continue with my mentorship with the independent production company as a producer's assistant to work on the business end of the industry. I'm also going to be making some shorts of my own so that I may put my knowledge of the technique I've been researching on to practice.
2. I'll be showing what I've been doing by posting the videos make and some of the behind the scene footage and by starting a new video blog that I will be starting and posting videos every week. If not that then pictures are always cool.
3. I'm hoping that by putting what I've researched to practice I may develop some sort of new innovation to how a cinematographer may establish an emotional connection with the audience. Being an assistant in the production company should help me better understand the process of a full scale professional film production is like.
4. I have a log on the right column under "Sausage Links" titled "Independent Component 2 Log" so that you may track my progress.

Independent Component 1

I, Francisco Gonzalez, affirm that I completed my independent component which  represents 30 hours of work. The source that really helped me with this component was my mentor, Mr. Phil Miller. You can see a log of my hours here------------------------------------------------------------------------------------->
Basically put, what I did was continue on with my regular mentorship and learn to have a better understanding on the filming process itself, at the same time looking after some students and making copies for my mentor.
One of the things that my mentor says to me is that a good way to get better at making films is to actually get out there and make films. Luckily, there were groups of students that came out to be short staffed so he was able to put me in to work on them. The first group I was put in was a based on a true story film which I was the sound mixer and boom operator on the team. Basically I'm making sure that there is clear sound to e recorded and I record it  using a shotgun mic wired to a ZOOM. The second group was a group of me and another student to collaborate on a music video based on a song that Mr. Miller picked out. I was really able to stretch my creative muscles a bit and was able to put together a quick 2 minute video.
I don't have any footage of the based on a true story video but I did post up the music video:

This component helped me understand the foundation of my topic by making me experience, first hand. the process of how a film should be made, starting with development like when I was brain storming for a concept on the music video to post-production where I  pieced together the rough parts of my film to a final cut of the film where I then screened it for the class. 

Surprisingly though, not only did I set learn of my foundation but I actually was able to successfully demonstrate my third answer to my EQ which is "action," or more specifically the action your characters portray while acting when by the way you direct them (roughly saying). You can see his in the main guy in the music video by the way his he demonstrated his mood through his acting. I'd like to take partial credit for the directing and having good communication with him, but I think I was also just lucky to be working with a natural dramatic person.