Ready and...ACTION!

This last Thursday in class, my group met once again to discuss the plot details for our short film. We have been throwing around several storylines, but none of them seemed to stick until this Thursday. We figured out a strong plot that will be simpler to film and manipulate into a horror story. As we each contributed our ideas, everyone seemed to get more and more excited about it. We wrote out a screenplay and the different shots we need to get with each major scene.

And at the end of the class, we were able to get the camera and a blank tape, allowing us to shoot our film over the weekend. In fact, we are shooting it tonight, and I am excited to see how smoothly things go! For my group, this has not been the simplest project; but I have a feeling that with a more organized plot to follow and our newfound enthusiasm, everything will fall into place.

During class on Thursday, I went and picked up several props for our film. I hope that they will add reality and a touch of detail to our major scenes, making them more believable and frightening for the audience. Although there is not much time left, we will get this project done; and in the end, I believe it will turn into quite the short film.

The Home Stretch

Well this blog is for the class of Thursday, April 15th. I am late in posting because the blogging completely slipped my mind with all of the tests and preparation for finals week! In this class period we came together and continued to brainstorm on possibilities for our film.

We have had several obstacles on our way to creating our short film. Scheduling conflicts, loss of our main actress, and unavailable resources have caused us to change our plot and screenplay numerous times. We figured out this week that the camera will be available to us next Tuesday or Wednesday. Hopefully we will be able to figure out the final details of our film and get our shooting done as soon as possible!

I have noticed throughout this experience that the planning in creating a short film is just as important as the filming. If the planning and scheduling is done incorrectly, other things can easily fall apart. Organization is definitely key. I feel like my group is very aware of this fact and that our film will show it!

Light at the End of the Tunnel..

So this week we met with our group and discussed different aspects of our film and the things that still need to get done. Although it was a relatively short meeting, I believe that we made some progress and are moving in a promising direction!

We had some trouble with filming in our assigned session due to scheduling, but we have decided that we are going to use the camera when it was available for pick-up shots in order to get the last amount of footage we need. Although it has been stressful trying to figure out when we can use the camera again, I am confident that everything will work out fine and we will be able to get the rest of the filming done. I am thankful that we have different positions for everyone in our group. This design evens out the work that needs to be done and allows each member to focus on their specific tasks; and come time to meet on Thursdays, it is easier to bring together everyone's progress and ideas concerning different elements of the film.

We also made some changes to our screenplay. We decided that the screenplay we had was good in its ideas, but it was not realistic to the time limit requirement and resources that were available to us. These last minute changes might put more stress on the group, but I think that in the end, it will prove to be better for the outcome of our project.

We also discussed some other last minute tasks that need to be taken care of, including the signing off on the production papers. I will go to our filming location this week and try to get the approval. I think these points just about cover what we accomplished in this past group meeting. Even though my group still has a ways to go before we can breathe sighs of relief, I think that the direction we are moving in is positive. We can only move forward from here!

Adaptation

After watching Adaptation, I can honestly say it was one of the most interesting and deep films I have ever seen. I do not want to fool you by saying this, though. Although the movie was interesting, I did not enjoy watching it in the least bit. Throughout most of it, I was disturbed and confused as to what was going on. Was his twin real or fake? What does this seemingly random scene mean? Is this or that symbolic of something? Luckily, the discussion at the end put some of these things into perspective for me.

First of all, I was surprised at how lonely and pathetic the filmmakers were able to make Nicholas Cage look. I have not seen many of his movies, but I am used to seeing him play confident and heroic roles, such as in National Treasure and The Family Man. I thought his acting was well done. I can imagine that this type of role would be difficult to play, especially since the character of Charlie Kaufman is so complex.

One of the major themes within the movie is that of adaptation (note the title). There are two meanings of adaptation expressed in the film: evolution and changing one artistic work into another. In order to better understand these definitions, it helps to know what was going on in the plot. Charlie Kaufman, a screenplay writer, is trying to write the screenplay for an award winning book. While reading the book, he loves the simplicity and reality that it expresses, but he has a difficult time making an interesting movie out of it. He does not want to change or adapt it to the screen because it would mean removing part of its truth. Although the book is a touching and realistic story, it does not have any events or happenings that would be called "exciting" by filmmakers. In other words, making the book into a film that will engage the audience is nearly impossible. Kaufman's job is to adapt the book into a screenplay, which is where the problem begins.

In the end of the film, many fast-paced events that included car chases, guns, murder, sex, and drugs plagued the screen. This last hour of jam-packed excitement paralleled to what Kaufman did when he adapted the book into a "suitable" screenplay. It shows that reality and simplicity are not always what make the best movies. Most movies are created with some sort of conflict, action, or corruption in order to keep the audience's attention. Yet the book expresses that life is not always exciting and filled with drugs, sex, and violence. Sometimes people do not act on their impulses, such as Meryl Streep's character did. Sometimes regret and disappointment are more common than having no regret or disappointment. Sometimes life is boring and unexciting. But do any of these things, although they may be true, make Blockbuster hits?