Last Thursday’s shoot!

So last Thursday in class we all divided up into groups and shot a short film. Here are behind the scenes pics of what went down! It was a fun evening of shooting! Josh, Cervando and Alex really got into their characters!

 

Thoughts, just thoughts

Recently, I have felt like I have been losing my fucking mind. I do not think I am at my prime mental health. So to correct course I did something that I haven’t done in a really long time. I reflected on my situation and my current stance in life. Part of the journey involved me asking myself why I have been failing myself for so long. I haven’t really considered myself an artist up until now; and therein lies the problem. I have found myself – yet the transformation from student to artist is a bit jarring. What I found was that I have been phoning it in because I haven’t really considered myself the latter. On top of that it is kind of hard to be an artist 100% at this point in time. I need a job to pay my bills and currently that is interfering with the time needed to fully invest in my projects – this would make me 50% artist and 50% employee. At the same time, that same job that is interfering also provides the much needed income that I need to buy the minimal gear I need to fulfill my vision. School provides a great place to create; there are many other talented artists and minds to learn from and grow. As of now, I need to use the little bit of runway that I have left to continue to mature and create. I’ve cut out many distractions now, I got rid of my console even though I consider video games to be great forms of art through which stories are told. It sucks but if anything is detrimental to my career from now on I will be cutting it completely out. There will be more bumps on the road I’m sure but as long as I keep a positive outlook and start to slowly add percentage points to my craft I think I’ll be fine.

 

And yes I’m fine don’t worry. The self reflection sorted out a lot. I am in a way better place than I was before.

Lights, Camera, Action(s)

For Thursday’s class, we were randomly assigned actions and other words, and given three hours to make a short film about it.

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This was the pre-planning that my group did. This is not my handwriting, because it is legible. There was some improvisation done while we were filming, but this was our general idea. It doesn’t make much sense, but there’s only so much you can do.

 

The Process: Pre-Production

 

 

“When I was a kid, there was no collaboration; it’s you with a camera bossing your friends around. But as an adult, filmmaking is all about appreciating the talents of the people you surround yourself with and knowing you could never have made any of these films by yourself.”
— Steven Spielberg

We are currently in the pre-production process for two short films. While I believe it’s a necessity to make time for solitude, I know that a great picture is created by a group of people who had the same vision in mind. This week I am essentially pouring all of my ideas out on to paper, and I’ll be ready to joust with everyone next week. I can’t wait to spark the creation of these works . It’s going to be incredible.

 

Another day, another story.

Until next time,

L.

Introducing: the vomit take

If you’ve ever written anything, then you’re no doubt aware of a very real phenomenon- the longer you hold onto an idea, the more you hate it. Its the most compelling reason for me to name impulsiveness as the most important tool in a writers toolbox. If you have an idea, ACT ON IT. Ideas decay like fruit, so eat em while they’re fresh.

Judd apatow speaks on the vomit pass.

Weather whether or not

When you count on it being sunny, it will rain. When you count on it being cold it will be hot. When everything you do depends on weather conditions, always have a back up plan. The best back up plans are rarely used. Why? Well, the best back up plans are made by the people who make excellent initial plans to begin with.

If you find yourself always falling back to the back-up plan then you need to put someone else in charge of making the initial plans.

Nitelife: Finalizing the Mask

My producer and I finally got the finalized mask for our upcoming short, “Nitelife”. It’s an original design we had custom-made.

Daredevil season 3 episode 4, 10 minute fight scene in one shot article!

So I remember talking to a friend of mine, and fellow classmate in our Digital Cinematography class Guillermo about how he wanted to do his music video project in one shot. Keeping that in mind, I started season 3 of the Netflix show Daredevil over the weekend, but on Monday when watching episode 4, my cousins kept telling me there is going to be a fight scene that’s about 10 to 11 minutes long but all done in one shot! After watching the scene, all three of were not only in awe of this fight scene, but also just at the fact that this was all done in one shot! Fast forward to Tuesday evenings class and talk about scenes filmed in one shot, like the intense scene from True Detective, I just couldn’t help but keep thinking about the scene I had watched from Daredevil. I don’t have access to the fight scene but here is the link to the article that talks about it, very interesting read!

http://www.vulture.com/2018/10/daredevil-season-3-one-take-fight-scene.html

How Daredevil Filmed Its 10-Minute Prison Fight in a Single Take