It's too late... I'm using too many elipses...

0400 . . .

The gala is . . . technically, well, tomorrow. The butterflies are more than hardcore now, and even though I am home, I still cannot manage to let my brain rest.

I feel so much for our editors who have been working so hard in the cave, and I have complete trust in their abilities to turn out a film that is guaranteed to turn heads. They truly are the core of this project, and I don't know where we would be without their talent, commitment, and patience. We could not ask for more.

Today was an eye-opener. Everyone has been talking about immersive learning and what it is like to collaborate this entire semester, and I guess I just took it as a given. I thought, “Of course, we have to work together. We are together all the time." Today, I realized I have to be open to others. Yes, I have been teaming up with others for weeks, but I have always tried to do things the way I envision them, and haven’t really gotten past that until today.

The Behind-the-Scenes Documentary crew has mainly consisted of Kristen, Samantha Davis, and me for the better part of the semester. We were assigned to do a piece in the early weeks and just kind of were . . . in charge from then on. With other committees and commitments outside of the project, I have been spread pretty thin giving me limited knowledge/focus about the project with the two them. With the gala nearing and other projects wrapping up, I have been able to spend more time with them, but am extremely behind on the keyboarding/editing skills they have acquired. Long story short, I went in with different ideas and skill sets, and I quickly became frustrated. After talking with Laura and Kristen, I realized my frustrations (with myself and the BTS documentary) only made the situation more difficult.

The skills I am learning, no matter how minute they might seem compared to my peers, are those I might not have learned otherwise. So, again, I thank them for their patience in teaching me and putting up with my stubbornness . . . next time, a swift kick will do.

On the topic of collaboration and new skills, Blake and I worked together on the invitations and programs for the gala. My interest and abilities with photography and Adobe Photoshop were rekindled while working on these projects… which remind me that the gala is EVEN CLOSER! There were a few problems we didn’t catch through editing the programs, but as Jamie said, “If that’s the worst thing to happen, we’re in good shape.” (KNOCK ON WOOD!)

The photos for the gala are in, and spiffy at that! Adam Wilson was hiding his awesome photography capabilities all semester! Some of the best photos we have are from the state game with the Owls, and our audio gentlemen in the studios. I really hope everyone enjoys them.

As I type, Adam and Dan are pulling one of many over-nighters in Sursa for the second week in a row. They top my list of favorite people, and have probably the toughest job of all because they have to wait for the rest of us before they can finish their work. I have complete faith in them, and will never pass up bringing the cherry scented lotion for their cracked hands and chocolate coffee for rejuvenation.

Last kudos go to Sarah Marty and Michael Straub who lent us their time in finishing up this project. I can’t wait to see your work with our final presentation.

. . . bed.

Sorry can't talk now...

I'd like to blog, but I am so busy trying to score the documentary I don't really have time to talk about anything. Dan and I have been up past 7 AM everynight, working over 18 hours a day for the past week or so. It gets to be time consuming when you are composing, performing, recording, editing AND mixing all the music for a film project.

Hopefully I will see you all at the Gala, there I will be able to answer any questions you might have about the process. Later!

3...2...1...

There are only three days left until our showcase. To think, just three months ago, we began this project, and it all comes down to these last few days. There has been a shift in urgency in all of us, but, at this stage, there are only a few specific tasks to be complete, namely editing and scoring. Both the t-commies and music tech people are working to finish their respective pieces, while working together to ensure cohesion between the two projects.

One challenge to this goal is that Evan, Audrey, Blake, and Jon have been working here at the mansion, while Dan and Adam have been at the music building using the recording studios. This distance makes it difficult at times to collaborate effectively, as Dan and Adam need to see what they are scoring. As a result, there are lots of trips between the two buildings to transfer files and get a general sense of what each team is working on.

For those of us without a lot of the technical expertise needed to edit or score, we have been trying our best to fill in where possible. It has certainly been a source of frustration to know there is a tremendous amount of work to be done, but to not be able to directly contribute to completing that work. A few people have complained of feeling useless or like they aren’t doing anything. In all honesty though, at this point, there are a limited number of things that can be done and a limited amount of people that can effectively complete those tasks. The situation is a conundrum, because we want to make sure that the editors and musicians have everything they need to do their job, but we don't want to be in the way of that process either.

With seventeen of us, as we have found throughout the semester, it is far too easy to have too many cooks in the kitchen. We try to help out by finding scenes or quotes to fill in our story. Others provide a fresh eye and mind to the editors as they piece together sequences, while others have been around to offer support and boost morale.

Some of the general moods I sense around the mansion are panic, frustration, anxiety, and hope. In three days, all of those emotions will melt away with a huge sigh of relief as we sit back and watch our film with a deserved sense of pride.

Diamond in the Rough

Since our return from the University of Tennessee, we have been devoting our lives to logging, capturing clips for the storyboard, logging, editing and panicking. Did I mention logging? Our time has been spent locked in The Cave, dorm rooms and apartments at all hours -- throwing ourselves into our roles in the project.

The result, thanks to an incredible story board, was the beginning of a "rough cut" that took the story caught in 17 minds and placed it on one computer screen. We still have a lot of work to do, and I can't say how much I appreciate the editors and music boys being able to work with so little time and a crew comprised largely of non-T-com students.

Right now, our narrative script, which shows us the clips that will represent each frame of the story board, is filling out nicely and sequences are forming. Music is being mixed and placed into the film, and ambient noise is being modified.

Last night, the rough cut of the film so far was showed to members of Ball State's and the Center's faculty, and was followed by a discussion of the film's narrative. The outside opinions were helpful, giving us all a chance to step back and look at the film as, using a comparison of Fred Johnson's, a pliable sculpture. We were able to step back from the storyboard and look at new ways to shape the scenes and stories we are creating.

I think Thanksgiving break is going to be a real blessing for us. We'll be able to come back and look at the project with fresh ideas, after having days of isolation which I know at least half of us will use to stew over the project and think of new ways to use clips, new pieces of footage to include, new interviews that introduce ideas. . .

All-Nighters and Boxed Webs

This week the group and I decided that we needed to sit down and hammer out more of a narrative for the film. Since we are college kids, we decided to do this in the form of an all- nighter at the mansion. (Because really, who wouldn't want to sleep at the mansion??) Most of us congregated between 7 and 8 with food, and started talking about the plan for the rest of the evening.

Once we had more of an organized game plan, we watched a couple of the interviews together while we finished our late dinners, then began coming up with sub-groups and categories. These were branches of our big themes such as gender, community, and sports. We all decided we needed to be more specific and came up with many sub-topics to focus on. After this we ventured up into the creepy 3rd floor and started designing our "box web". We started with Burris history and branched off from there. We also made lists of follow up interviews we want, interviews we have yet to get, and other footage we need to make a good movie.

While some of the narrative team was in the attic, other members of the group were working on the behind-the-scenes documentary while our musicians were composing a song for the film. Both made very good progress. Kristen, Teri and Samantha had clips to show us throughout the night, and interviewed Aaron L. and myself so they could incorporate sound bytes into their film. I have yet to force myself to work on editing with the Final Cut Pro, so I have a lot of respect for those that have sat down and learned it. And as for the musicians, we could hear the drumming all the way in the attic. It amazes me how they can complete a song in one night.

After descending from the attic, the Aarons went on a pizza run to keep the rest of us fed and motivated. The narrative team watched and read through interviews, finding the parts that we found insightful as well as fitting into the narrative topics we had just layed out. This was more difficult then I thought it would be. Nearly every interview has so many good sound bytes within it. This makes it difficult to choose just a few from each person.Around midnight some people started trickling out because of work or meetings in the morning. Others stayed and kept working until about 2 a.m.

After that our productivity went a little down, but those of us that were left listened to Adam and Dan's newest song. Then we had a little drum circle/jam session which helped keep up our spirits. We slept (ghost free) for about four hours, claiming both couches and floor space.

The first of what I can only imagine will be many all-nighters was incredibly successful. We showed Kecia our web the next morning, and she seemed pleased with our work. She also listened to the new song which she enjoyed. I learned that many of us work a lot better at night and it's when many of us are free since our jobs fill our daytime hours. The narrative keeps coming further and further and I can't wait to see the final product.

Rachel

Music for Everyone

Working on the film score for this documentary is definitely going to be a bit of a challenge. Dan and I both have some experience putting music to video but never have we been given the opportunity to spend an entire semester producing audio and composing music for such a large project. I guess the greatest challenge will be having plenty of musical sketches and various themes which portray different emotions that can be formed into a fitting accompaniment to such a dynamic documentary. Since you can never fully expect to complete a piece of music for a film before the video is finished being edited it has become our mission to have as much material as possible.

Having a fairly clear idea of the direction of narrative will also be a key aspect in the compositional process. We do not necessarily want to compose a "Jock Jams" soundtrack but we do want to incorporate many percussive elements that will keep up with the pace of such a film. Since Dan is a percussionist and I play guitar, we both want to use an instrumentation that will be easy for us to execute during the recording process. That way we won't be frantically looking for a string quartet, for example, to play our composition.

Since this is the first VBC Seminar that has employed the use of music tech students I do feel a bit of pressure to live up to the expectations of excellence and hopefully to set a precedent that audio as well as video can be excellent on student films. I am anxious and excited to see how the rest of this semester will progress. We have very much to do and not really a whole lot of time to do it in. But I am confident in our team and I say we are fully ready to accept this challenge. And hopefully relating to my contribution to this film, there will indeed be "music for everyone!"

~Adam