This past semester I haven’t been
quite faithful to posting on this blog.
Part of the reason is simple human nature of slacking off after awhile
of working on something. I think the main reason has been this past Winter semester. What I thought would be a more relaxed
semester turned out to be quite a hectic one.
My Basic Media Productions class turned out to be the main time
guzzler. Film projects turned out to be
something that took me hours to prepare, shoot, and edit, which I had to do all
by myself. I learned a lot and learned
specifically that film is not an easy course or an easy hobby.
Lights, camera, action actually has
a lot behind it. Just ask the lighting
guy who spends over an hour to get the lighting bouncing off of the actor’s
face just right for a 30 second scene. Just ask any
of my fellow students how many problems they had trying to get their camera to
co-operate. Weeks of writing and
adapting scripts, getting feedback from our professor and from other students,
and then sketching the exact shots you need for the shoot and picking who will
be your actors overcome you. For my
final fiction film project of the semester, I spent anywhere from 15 to 20
hours preparing in order to make a three minute effort.
Now, spending this much time might
seem a bit crazy at first. My film
definitely isn’t perfect and wouldn’t for a second pass as a professional work
of art. Why then was so much of my soul
poured into this small little project?
One could say that the grade inspired me to finish this burden of a
project but no one really would be invested in something for that long if a
grade was the only prospect for it.
I believe there is a unique power
in film. Even when making something for
a class where only a few dozen at best might see your short movie, you can learn
essential lessons about film. I’ve come
to appreciate any person that has ever made a full length feature film because
knowing how much time it took me to make a three minute student film, I can’t
imagine how many hours they must have devoted to their own one and half hour film.
Back in the beginning of the
semester, we were assigned to write a three page script and had to rewrite it a
couple of times to get all of the kinks out of it. Then, despite thinking that we would turn our
scripts into a film, we had to take another student’s script and write it as
our own. I took on a script of a young
bachelor man in Provo who is basically a bum that is coasting through
school. After being told he isn’t good
enough for anyone and in need of changing, he goes to prove them wrong by going
after a girl only to find out she has a girlfriend. I liked the idea of the script but changed
the main protagonist from a slacker to a shy kid that wants to find a girl but
struggles to gain the confidence.
We were required to shoot our
revised scripts twice, once as a practice run without special lighting or sound
equipment and then another time for the real deal. The first time around I learned
how important planning can be and how great it is to have a lot of people
helping. I knew the angles I wanted for
the next time I shot and how I wanted my actors to act. On top of that, it prepared me for all the problems
that went on my second time shooting the final product. I had less extras then I needed, two of the
fours lights I was planning to use exploded during filming, and I had to battle
the fan in the room giving me loud background noise.
So all of that time in planning and
all the stress of filming came out to be this three minute film. So enough talking about behind the scenes and
me. How about you give it a watch. A big shout out to all those who volunteered their time and talent during their busy school life to bring it to life. I am indebted to all those who helped me out, whether they starred in my final project or my rehearsal cut, or else this never would have been possible. This is the exclusive internet release of my
student film, The Unicorn.
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