Took time today to head over to Christina's house to film her episode of #jazz!
She made me coffee and was really great to work with. She's an incredible musician with such a big heart. Her story is filled with love and passion through music and I cannot wait to share it with you! Seeing all the shots I planned for this video coming to life is very exciting and being able to share it with one of my closest friends is such a treat. Love you, Tina!
0 Comments
"I really appreciate art and music for being these things that when I'm frustrated or scared or sad, I can just tune out." Arda has been a great friend to me for the past few years. Her dedication and love for her craft really inspires me so I was very excited to share her story.
Taking the time to make this video helped me learn a lot about myself as a filmmaker and I feel it is a great start for this project as it progresses. Here is the first episode of #Jazz! I have learned so much in the past few days!
I am a part of a group in my school called PEER and every year we put on a "Hero in the Hallway" assembly. This year we are making a video, and I won't give away the details, but it involves having a singular color stand out in the midst of black and white. This is called "the Pleasantville Effect." My fellow creative, Kendall, and I are tasked with editing this video. We both had never tried something like this, so it felt a little daunting, but in class today we sat down and figured it out! We both have Final Cut Pro so we were able to explore it together and find out how to achieve the effect we wanted. The feeling of finally getting it was really exciting! We both were extatic and it was nice to share that learning moment with her. I'm stoked about this video (which will debut at the assembly in April) and I am reminded how much I love learning and how passionate I am about making movies. The shot above will not be in the video, we just used it to figure out how to achieve "the Pleasantville Effect." Although we have to tweak it and figure out how to make everything look seamless, I'm excited that I am constantly learning new filmmaking techniques not only within this project but in other areas like PEER. INCREDIBLE DAY OF ADVENTURE AND FILMING!
First, I headed back to Arda's house to get the interview footage for her episode. She talked about how she developed a love for art and music- so inspiring! Her story is full of passion and dedication. Then, we both picked up our friend Mira to tag along while we went to the Mosaic District. Here, we grabbed lunch and coffee and sought out a few art murals to take some b-roll shots with. After that, we went to the top of our parking garage and admired the sunset while I took some more videos of Arda with that gorgeous sunset. It was very very cold though, so we weren't up there long. What I learned: Filming in sub-zero weather is tough. My hands went numb quickly (granted: I should have worn gloves) and it was hard for me to stabilize the camera. For future videos, I plan to use a camera rig or tripod so my hands don't shake the camera. Also, I need to make a shot list for when I go out and film someone/something to make sure everything is intentional and I get the videos I want. Today I had some points where I was not really sure what kind of picture I wanted or how I wanted to film it. ALSO: check out this sweet picture Arda drew of me on a coffee cup sleeve as we drove home! She is SO talented. Shout out to Arda for being awesome. Arda was kind enough to invite me into her home yesterday to take some clips of her paintings yesterday! We took about half an hour to get some candid shots of her explaining her artwork. Her art is so cool and I am very excited to share her story with you all. More to come!
The first real episode of Jazz is underway! We are shooting a bit today but the bulk of it will be sunday. I am excited to attempt all the ideas I have for this film that include rooftops, art, and music. That is just a vague description, so stay tuned! I think it this first project is going to be pretty cool.
YESTERDAY WAS THE FIRST DAY OF 2017!
I am feeling so inspired as this new year begins. Yesterday, I met up with a few friends that are attending a college I'm looking at and their thoughts/insight made me feel a longing to finally jump into this next chapter of my life. This year is going to be filled with a lot of new experiences and I am definitely ready. Also, the first episode of Jazz is already underway! I have spoken to who I am working with and she is very excited to be a part of it. We will be filming this week and the episode will air January 15th! It is going to be pretty rad, in my opinion. My project is finally underway! I am incredibly excited to begin my film series and start sharing more about my Capstone journey on this blog. I have created a short intro video that you can watch to get a sneak peak of what I will be doing for the next couple of months. What is Jazz? Jazz is the title of my film series for this project. I will be creating a documentary-style movie every two weeks featuring the stories of people that have impacted my life as I reflect upon my life up to my final year of high school. Why "Jazz"? As music has been a great part of my life since the beginning, I naturally wanted to include it in my project some how. Jazz specifically has been my favorite genre of music for a long time. But wait there's more: Jazz is so many things wrapped into one; so many emotions and styles from one genre of music. As explained in La La Land, jazz is conflict and compromise and different everytime. That's what makes it so exciting. That's what makes it like life. Jazz is changing all the time and so are we and that is the theme I am trying to portray by creating this docu-series. Jazz is the past, present, and the future and so are we. Human experiences are the culmination of their past, their current feelings/events, and their goals for the future. I feel that this title is fitting as it is very personal to me and also open for interpretation. Welcome to #Jazz everyone! I honestly had not heard about this movie until yesterday but decided to see it with my family on a whim, and boy, am I glad I did.
La La Land is a musical about an aspiring actress and a jazz pianist who both are trying to find their place in Los Angeles, California. The obvious storyline here is that they fall in love and have a couple jazzy musical numbers, but (without giving spoilers) I was pleasently surprised with it's unpredictable ending. Moving away from the plot, the movie in itself is gorgeous. Walking in, I was not expecting how impressed I would be with the film as a whole. The music was incredible on all fronts: beautifully writted and executed (who knew Emma Stone and Ryan Gosling can sing??). The musical aspect of the film was also very surprising: the numbers were well woven throughout the plot, it never felt like the characters were just randomly singing and dancing, and each song added a lot to the film. I really enjoyed it. The story was interestingly set in present time (revealed by the types of cars, iphones, and ipads shown throughout) but held a strong 1920s vibe in many different aspects (clothing, lighting, housing). This mesh of the present and the 20s is what makes the film so genious: the 20s is nicknamed The Jazz Age because that is when it actually became popular in America. La La Land did not only use this contrast of time periods to make the cinematography more interesting, but also to bring out certain themes in the movie (I'll let you watch it and figure them out). Finally, the lighting in this movie was used in a very unique way: contrasting neon, pastel, and dark colors in different scenes to highlight what was going on- be it one person singing or a crowd dancing in a club. While lighting is usually used to set a scene's ambiance in movies, La La Land used it very obviously, but in the least tacky way possible. The film was not a cliche, silly musical at all. In my opinion it was beautifully depicted, well made, and highly entertaining. Go watch it! I am still here! Believe it or not I am working on my project though I have not posted in a while. Today I went on a starbucks date with my sister to have some quiet time to write and edit my intro video! YES! This video will be released on January 1st and my project will finally get rolling with the new year.
In other news, I bought Final Cut Pro X this weekend and am excited to fully explore it while editing the coming videos. Stay tuned! |