Film Connection's Student Success Stories, Page 7

“It’s been a few weeks since I last did this. Joey was on VaCa this last week so I had some chilling time while also doing some fun homework things. But first what happened in my last lesson; got to see the video footage that I did a couple of weeks ago and started editing some of it with him, and went over the book lesson. After, I got to sit in with a Recording Masters graduate lesson, really interesting on the audio level, Antonio was his name I believe. But anyway, not seeing Joey again till Wednesday so hopefully I can get this side project that I’m doing done before I see him. Home movies into a 15 minute short, five day countdown has started.”

“Never in my life had seen a real shooting camera with so many different lenses. It was a job to assemble the equipment as well as disassemble them and carry them back and forth between the trunk of a vehicle and the set. The focus of the lens was able to be controlled with a remote, and the camera was connected to the monitor wirelessly. In the first half of the shoot, the duty of the slate management was my responsibility but then I was given the job to handle the remote control to move the focus of the camera between actors and objects.”

“My first week in the program and I’m already working on a big short-film/music video for one of the biggest hip-hop artist around. Thankfully everyone especially my mentor has been very helpful and answering any questions I have. It’s a lot of work and long hours but so far I haven’t minded it. The one downside I have to say about my first week is getting back in the routine of waking up early and sitting in traffic but other than those factors I’ve really been enjoying myself.”

“I’m really looking forward to getting started at the Film Connection and getting some hands on learning going! I’m really looking forward to visiting all the sets and seeing how the magic is done.”

“My mentor was filming a short series of commercials for credit report, and it was great to see how the actor and crew members worked together so efficiently and organized, and for me to see the process and workflow in the environment was enticing and exciting. My mentor and I talked with one of the people who worked at the studio and there’s a possibility of me earning an internship there. I’m quite excited if that is the case!”

“I started my first day as a student of Film Connection yesterday morning. I have been extremely anxious since March when I first found out about the opportunity. I am happy to say it did not disappoint. Everything went well, but I learned very quickly how much room there is to learn. Today was just the beginning and I couldn’t be more excited about the future.”

“At this point I am starting to get confident in my ability to edit. While the work I do on my own is still nowhere near a professional editors is, I am at least feeling competent in making changes to video clips pretty quickly and efficiently, in both FCP 7 and Premier Pro.”

“The Carolyn Country Cousins Pumpkin Patch/Raasch Farms was a shoot that I went solo on, it was the last minute and my name was mentioned. I jumped at the opportunity to do something on my own. The video was also edited by me. I’m living the dream baby”

“Today I worked a lot with Erik and setup a multitude of different shots as he incorporated different teachings about Iris, shutter, and filters, and so on and so on. Today was a fun and educational day!”

“Everything is going awesome. Get to take pictures tomorrow at the set.”

“After cutting a few minutes of footage without pausing, I went back to the beginning and used the extend function to move my edit points around. I was afraid if I didn’t get the camera switch close enough to the edit point I wanted, it would be difficult to get it where I wanted it. This was not the case, it was extremely easy to go back and polish up the sequence and I think multi-cam editing could actually be a really good exercise to train myself to edit more quickly and to recognize appropriate edit points faster. Whenever the gallery hosts an event, they tend to have at least one camera recording it. I think I am going to start setting up my own camera as well just so I can practice this style of editing on a regular basis.”

“I’ve had an incredible externship at the studio where I’ve done a bit of everything. It’s been intense but insanely cool. I’m getting really close on my script and am very pleased with how it’s turning out. My writing mentor has been extremely helpful in getting me to where I need to be, and I am confident in my abilities. I will try to post more updates as we go along here, and can’t wait to get to LA!”

“Still coming down from last Thursday’s video shoot! It was amazing to finally get my hands dirty and actually be in a production. It was scary and exciting and all kinds of feelings. Got to help set up with my mentor and scope out where I wouldn’t get in the way of the other cameras and the band. And when the time came to record… WOW! I was in the moment and loving every minute of it. I’m looking forward to doing more of that for the rest of forever and a day, if I’m so lucky”

“Tonight, I met with my actors and Dan. Dan got there early so we could look at the space for my scene and figure out some shots. When my actors arrived, we made introductions and started reading. I read for my lead actor since he told me at the last minute he couldn’t make it. We hammered out a schedule for rehearsing and shooting. Unfortunately, our timetable didn’t work for my lead. So, he’s out. And I’m in. Me. I am the lead. It has come to this. I literally have no other option. I need to get this done. We rehearse this Sunday and shoot next Sunday. Ideally, I’d have more time for editing and post, but I’m honestly just happy to get this thing moving!”

“My mentor and I went over and reviewed the previous Chapter of Intro to Genre and went over the aspects of Auteur, Francois Truffant, what makes a good director, and how Sam Raimi and Quentin Tarantino managed to receive the connections and funding to support their feature films. We then went onto learning the history of Film, how Eadweard Muybridge created “motion studies” of animals in 1872, how Thomas Edison invented the Kinetoscope, and the History of the American Film Industry. Overall it was yet another pleasant learning experience”

“My mentor helped get the set ready for the shoot. Helping again tomorrow. Awesome SAUCE. Learning loads of stuff.”

“My mentor and I starting discussing more about directors with their groundbreaking movies, such as Stanley Kubrick, Quentin Tarantino, Steven Speilberg, and Alfred Hitchcock, along with the recommendations to what films to watch when I have the time during the course of the program. Marcelo and I had a pleasant and talkative first day, and I have quite high hopes for learning more from him and Film Connection in the coming months.”

“My mentor and I held a mini preproduction meeting. We discussed what I wanted from my shots. We looked at some scenes from the greats (Spielberg, Scorsese, etc.) and not so greats (Bay) and thought about what would work for my scene. It’s mostly back and forth dialogue, but I want there to be some interesting camera movement. Not so much that it’s distracting, but just enough to make my scene dynamic.”

“It has been a terrific learning experience thus far! Into my second week and I learn just how important it is to sharpen an idea to a specific goal, forging the tip of a spear from a chunk of metal.”

“The pre-production team spent some time in the editing bay talking to a new intern about a project they are creating and I was able to listen in and learn a lot about what the pre-production team here does. I was not aware of how much of the creative concept they are responsible for before they even go out and shoot anything on many of the projects. One of the girls that works at MIHP also went into a detailed explanation of what makes good reality tv and the difference between a documentary and an documentary. We have a bunch of new interns since I was last here a week and a half ago, one of which is a post-production intern. Listening to my mentor go over some of the stuff with her is really helpful because she asks questions that I may not even think to ask.”

“I finally got a new project coming to town. Meeting with production crew Thursday and filming is supposed to start at the end of the month. I’ll get to see the process from start to finish! Awesome! I might even get paid a bit which adds to the awesome.”

“I’ve been choosing a scene from “GRAZ” to shoot and reaching out to actors. I’ve got two out three roles cast, but I’m still in the process of filling that last role. I had the perfect actor in mind, but he’s so busy right now, he couldn’t make it work. I’ve got a wide variety of actors to choose from, most of whom are willing to act for free. I also submitted “GRAZ” to the BlueCat Screenplay Contest!”

“Today was our cooking segment shoot. I met my mentor at his place, and we tested all the gear. Once we got to the set, we set up the lights. We seized another chance to use a massive ring-light. It filled Marie’s kitchen with this soft, beautiful light. I got some good camera time in today, too. I worked on panning and focus-pulls. I worked with XH-A1 and the DSLR. The DSLR footage looked gorgeous. It was crisp and bright with dark blacks. Spectacular. When it came to the shoot itself, everyone had a great time.”

“This past week has been hectic. I am in the process of transferring to a new job that will give me a chance to edit some video. I am really looking forward to getting to watch two editors working today and see how they differ in the work methods.”

“I got to see how the same footage could be manipulated to tell the same story involving two people in many different ways. I was able to see how each person’s sound effects and/or music choice enhanced the sequence and how the same story could be told, and told well, from many different perspectives. I also learned that sometimes, what is unseen can be as effective or more effective than what is actually shown on screen.”