1. Our film is progressing much better than we might have thought. We just filmed the last scene and we are going to reshot our first scene. We have a lot of time during HSA's to edit, so we are hopeful that we can finish. The filming on Saturday took a while but we got all of our footage and we even got a security guard to act as a cop.
2. Today I have edited a little of our film, and then on saturday I acted and helped direct. Tomorrow I am going to act again. I also helped Harper (although she did most of it) with the movie poster. Mostly we were preparing for Saturday.
3. Since this is the last week, we have to re-film our first scene, and edit the rest of everything. I am hopeful that we can get it done. I think editing will be pretty quick since we already know what goes where. It's not like the documentary where editing is the bulk of the project.
Sunday, May 19, 2013
Saturday, May 4, 2013
CAP Hollywood Weekly Reflection #1
Our film for CAP Hollywood is coming along pretty well for the beginning stages, but we may need to speed it up a bit to make our deadline. We have shot the first scene and begun to edit it. We have tried to shoot the second, but we ran out of time in the period. My main concern is that we will not finish shooting in time to have a serious amount of time to edit. Our main challenge has been deciding location, shot angles, and dialogue sequences for each scene.
This week we shot scene one and began on scene two. We also editied the begginning of Scene one to a basic rough cut of the first 15 seconds. We included a slug at the beginning, and a space for a title right after that.
Our goal for this week is to get all the rest of our footage, import it into our project, and lay out a very basic rough cut. This will be a tight squeeze, but I think between this weekend and Monday for filming, and Wednesday and Friday for editing, we could get it done.
This week we shot scene one and began on scene two. We also editied the begginning of Scene one to a basic rough cut of the first 15 seconds. We included a slug at the beginning, and a space for a title right after that.
Our goal for this week is to get all the rest of our footage, import it into our project, and lay out a very basic rough cut. This will be a tight squeeze, but I think between this weekend and Monday for filming, and Wednesday and Friday for editing, we could get it done.
Sunday, March 10, 2013
Documentary Reflection
Before
starting this documentary, I knew very little about the DC statehood movement,
how to schedule and conduct interviews, or how to structure and build a
documentary. Clearly, these are all
crucial to making a documentary about DC statehood. Considering this, it would seem that it would’ve
been a long, painful learning process, and that the final product would’ve
suffered accordingly. However, looking
back, nothing about it was painful, and it didn’t really even feel like school
work. Instead, I was able to learn all
of these things while having fun, collaborating, and being creative.
DC statehood is a grassroots
movement, concentrated in the local political activists in DC. It has a small base of support because many
of the politically active in DC are focused on more national issues. There is severe Republican opposition to
statehood because DC is so liberal.
Also, the idea of 51 states scares some people. However, those who believe in the cause are
very devoted. We talked to two
activists, one of which had been involved in the cause for two years, and the
other for about ten. I felt a connection
to this movement because these people believe so strongly in their cause, and
despite many critics claiming it is impractical, they still have faith that it
is a reality.
The first step, and probably one of
the hardest, in making our documentary was where to start. We agreed on the issue pretty quickly. I didn’t know much about it but I figured it
would be interesting to learn and it would be fun to shoot because of our
proximity to DC. But after that, we had
no idea what to do. What I learned was
in that situation, the best thing to do is to contact everyone you can think
of, and hope some of it falls through.
After that, the rest was pretty fun.
We went to DC one morning, and did all of our shooting, conducting two
interesting interviews and collecting valuable B-roll. I think if I could do this part again, I
would think a little more about what kinds of B-roll would be very useful, and try
to focus on that. After that came the
other very difficult part in the process.
We had over an hour of footage, but we could only use about six minutes
of it. We had to watch everything,
marking time codes of important parts. Next
came the most enjoyable part for me, which is building the rough cut and then
slowly smoothing it out, polishing it, and giving it its real character. Our biggest challenge of the whole
documentary came during this stage, however.
That was our lack of time. We did
our best to overcome this challenge by putting in extra time, after school, on
weekends, and on days we didn’t have exams.
We managed to get a pretty good version of the video in to C-SPAN in
time.
I think, overall, the environment
and the resources in the classroom were very conducive to creating a good
documentary. The only thing I think we
should’ve done differently is to start earlier, and really build our classes
deadline around the C-SPAN deadline, that way it is more likely that more
groups will try and submit their projects.
I think the dystopian trailer project could be compressed a little to
make a little more room for the documentaries.
In conclusion, I think this project
is very valuable because it allows students to fuse their political activism
and interests with film. For me, this
project really got me interested and involved in editing and film-making. I feel connected to this project because of
all of the time I have put in, and because it is the first project for which I have
done the majority of the editing. Also,
it is nice to have a project where all of the shots aren’t planned out, where
we have to improvise and work with what we have. Most importantly, it is good to have a
project that gets us into society, learning things outside the classroom.
Sunday, March 3, 2013
MSHL
In Maryland, high school ice hockey is not an official school sport. This makes some sense, because it is expensive and not that many people play. Some people have tried to argue and make petitions that it should be a school sponsored sport. I think that is impractical. However, I think the school system should be involved somewhat in running the league.
Maryland high school hockey is currently run by the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League (MSHL.) It is a very flawed organization, for the following reasons:
1. The commissioner, and the majority of the board members have an affiliation with one of the teams. For example, the commisioner of the league blair is in was the Richard Montgomery Coach.
2. The way that play-off eligibility is determined makes no sense. They have created a complicated formula that compares teams from different leagues that play completely different teams, and they are supposed to race against eachother to get into the play-offs. However, the leagues are not at all comparable, so it is stupid to have them compete for the same play-off spots. The standings look like this: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_iaVIlkq2dva2t3RDJ4Rms1Y0k/edit?pli=1
3. They are terrible at scheduling games. The time almost always changes from the original, and the games can be as late as 9:50 p.m. Also, this year, we had a weeknight game in Hagerstown at 8:00 p.m., which got us home at midnight.
4. Finally, we had a player suspended this year. MSHL said the length of the suspension was pending a hearing, which would be given within 30 days. This occured on December 21st, 2012. They still haven't scheduled a hearing.
Maryland high school hockey is currently run by the Maryland Scholastic Hockey League (MSHL.) It is a very flawed organization, for the following reasons:
1. The commissioner, and the majority of the board members have an affiliation with one of the teams. For example, the commisioner of the league blair is in was the Richard Montgomery Coach.
2. The way that play-off eligibility is determined makes no sense. They have created a complicated formula that compares teams from different leagues that play completely different teams, and they are supposed to race against eachother to get into the play-offs. However, the leagues are not at all comparable, so it is stupid to have them compete for the same play-off spots. The standings look like this: https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_iaVIlkq2dva2t3RDJ4Rms1Y0k/edit?pli=1
3. They are terrible at scheduling games. The time almost always changes from the original, and the games can be as late as 9:50 p.m. Also, this year, we had a weeknight game in Hagerstown at 8:00 p.m., which got us home at midnight.
4. Finally, we had a player suspended this year. MSHL said the length of the suspension was pending a hearing, which would be given within 30 days. This occured on December 21st, 2012. They still haven't scheduled a hearing.
Sunday, January 27, 2013
Silver Spring Video
This is Seb's and my video about what it is like to live in Silver Spring. It was edited on Wevideo, which is why some of the audio levels/transitions are akward and un-even. Welcome British kids!
Sunday, January 6, 2013
The NHL is Back
Today the NHL announced that play will resume on January 18th.
It's good that the NHL didn't lock out the whole season because then they would be the only professional sport to have ever locked out an entire season, and they would've done it 3 times. That's a hat trick's worth, the hockey player's SI unit for amount of things.
However, the NHL didn't really dodge a bullet on this one because they still locked out half the season, and they still have some serious issues to deal with in the actual league. They need to figure out how to control the violent adn dangerous hits that are endagering the league's stars. In the last lockout they opened up the game and allowed skilled players to showcase their talents better, but I'm pretty sure no rule changes were made this year.
If the NHL is going to keep the interest of the nation that is has had for the last couple years, it needs to better protect it's stars. Whatever way they choose to do it, the dangerous hits have to go. But let's leave this issue for another time and for now just be happy. After all, the NHL is back.
It's good that the NHL didn't lock out the whole season because then they would be the only professional sport to have ever locked out an entire season, and they would've done it 3 times. That's a hat trick's worth, the hockey player's SI unit for amount of things.
However, the NHL didn't really dodge a bullet on this one because they still locked out half the season, and they still have some serious issues to deal with in the actual league. They need to figure out how to control the violent adn dangerous hits that are endagering the league's stars. In the last lockout they opened up the game and allowed skilled players to showcase their talents better, but I'm pretty sure no rule changes were made this year.
If the NHL is going to keep the interest of the nation that is has had for the last couple years, it needs to better protect it's stars. Whatever way they choose to do it, the dangerous hits have to go. But let's leave this issue for another time and for now just be happy. After all, the NHL is back.
Sunday, December 16, 2012
Documentary Review: Wikirebels
Wikirebels is about a group of hackers, lead by Julian Assange, who started a website called Wikileaks. Wikileaks is a site devoted to finding censored information and sharing it with the general public. They believe in total freedom of the press and the unrestricted flow of information.
The documentary begins by giving some background on Assange. He grew up in Australia and became interested in hacking at a young age. He was found guilty of minor hacking crimes around the age of 13, but he only had to pay minor fees. He came to the U.S. and started Wikileaks. The first 20 minutes of the documentary are about the site and their mission. However, in 2010, Wikileaks made a serious name for itself when it released thousands of classified documents and video clips from the U.S. militrary during the Iraq War. Included in these is a clip from a U.S. militray helicopter in which the captain fires on innocent civilians, and then fires on people that try to help them. The classified material was released by Bradley Manning, a young officer in the war, who was disturbed by what he read and saw and believed the public needed to know. He now faces charges of up to 52 years in prison. Wikileaks is continuing to work on releasing classified information, despite some complications with rape charges brought against Assange in Sweden. In the end, the documentary shows what Wikileaks is working on now, which is also classified, but this time, they are going to edit it to protect national security secrets.
The film does a lot of interviews, which advance the plot. It follows key members of Wikileaks around, getting background on them and their role in the site. In a way, the documentary is similar to a profile documentary, but it focuses on mutiple people. I like how the organize it, by giving background, then showing wikileaks' big discovery, and then showing what they are doing now.
The dramatic aspects of the film were not too noticeable, although they did a good job when they cut back and forth between the helicopter footage and the interviews with the wikileaks personell.
The film portrays the dirty basements and beat up apartments that wikileaks is based out of very well, by shooting the interviews in cluttered, messy areas. The film also uses rack focus shots very well throughout.
Although the first 20 minutes of the film are kind of slow, and some of the footage is low quality, I would still recommend this film for two main reasons. The first is that it is an interesting portayal of an organization with a very interesting philosophy. The second reason is that many people, even after wikileaks released the footage and information, still haven't seen or read it, and this film provides a nice summary.
Here is a clip from the first couple minutes of the film:
The documentary begins by giving some background on Assange. He grew up in Australia and became interested in hacking at a young age. He was found guilty of minor hacking crimes around the age of 13, but he only had to pay minor fees. He came to the U.S. and started Wikileaks. The first 20 minutes of the documentary are about the site and their mission. However, in 2010, Wikileaks made a serious name for itself when it released thousands of classified documents and video clips from the U.S. militrary during the Iraq War. Included in these is a clip from a U.S. militray helicopter in which the captain fires on innocent civilians, and then fires on people that try to help them. The classified material was released by Bradley Manning, a young officer in the war, who was disturbed by what he read and saw and believed the public needed to know. He now faces charges of up to 52 years in prison. Wikileaks is continuing to work on releasing classified information, despite some complications with rape charges brought against Assange in Sweden. In the end, the documentary shows what Wikileaks is working on now, which is also classified, but this time, they are going to edit it to protect national security secrets.
The film does a lot of interviews, which advance the plot. It follows key members of Wikileaks around, getting background on them and their role in the site. In a way, the documentary is similar to a profile documentary, but it focuses on mutiple people. I like how the organize it, by giving background, then showing wikileaks' big discovery, and then showing what they are doing now.
The dramatic aspects of the film were not too noticeable, although they did a good job when they cut back and forth between the helicopter footage and the interviews with the wikileaks personell.
The film portrays the dirty basements and beat up apartments that wikileaks is based out of very well, by shooting the interviews in cluttered, messy areas. The film also uses rack focus shots very well throughout.
Although the first 20 minutes of the film are kind of slow, and some of the footage is low quality, I would still recommend this film for two main reasons. The first is that it is an interesting portayal of an organization with a very interesting philosophy. The second reason is that many people, even after wikileaks released the footage and information, still haven't seen or read it, and this film provides a nice summary.
Here is a clip from the first couple minutes of the film:
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