Some of us have been spending some pretty crazy hours at the mansion lately. Last night, I arrived around back in around 10:30 pm and headed upstairs to the East Parlor, where my office is located. As I approached, I heard power tools and smelled sawdust; for a couple of terrifying moments, I thought that one of my students had finally snapped, and s/he was taking out pent-up frustrations on the lovely hardwood floors or the VBC furniture. All I could think was, "Donna (our office manager) is going to kill me!"
Rounding the corner, I found that the ever-resourceful Blake was in the process of building a teleprompter. Yes, folks. Building. A teleprompter. A few days ago the TCOM kids worked up this incredibly brilliant scheme to make it look like folks were speaking directly into the camera while they read the text of Title IX; they inverted the text (backwards) on a laptop screen, which they then set up beneath the camera, and they used a mirror over the laptop (and under the camera) to reflect the words back to the subject being filmed. Apparently, that wasn't enough for Blake, who returned from Menards armed with enough materials to actually construct a base and frame to hold the laptop and the mirror.
Forty minutes later, Blake was calmly vacuuming up sawdust and the new apparatus was ready for shooting the next day. My point is simply this: that one of the best things about this semester for me is watching the students identify what they need, think through the problem, and then find ways to CREATE solutions. It's not unlike watching Dan and Adam match musical themes to bits of film, or watching the narrative team piece together a story out of a million jigsaw pieces of footage we have shot, or watching the students brainstorm ways to visualize an abstract concept that we want to convey in the film. I was just surprised that this time the problem-solving was so, well, tangible.
Given our struggles with finding an HD projector for the gala screening, I am half-convinced that I will come in tomorrow night and find Blake building one of those, too. . .
Wednesday, November 28, 2007
Voices in my Head?
It’ll come as no surprise to those of you who have been following our journey that we hold some crazy hours at the VBC mansion. Being part of a voiceover team, it makes sense for our meeting to be late at night so that we can see the chunks our editors have diligently worked on (and often are still tweaking into the wee hours).
So what do you think of when you hear we are working on voiceover? Do you think of the deep manly voice on trailers? Do you think of some stuffy voice droning on and on?
We had many discussions on whether we wanted it or not. Working on the voiceover, I realized how hard it is to write for a visual medium. It definitely reminds me of caption writing like you see for pictures in newspapers or magazines. It’s funny, because as an English major I’ll start rambling on about something I think is eloquent, and Aaron will give me a blank stare or Kecia will give me a "humor her" head nod and I realize I need to slow down and simplify.
Whoever the narrator is, we promise he/she/they won’t be hokey or preachy. I have changed from thinking of voiceover as intrusive and distasteful to more of a guide; someone summing up a two-hour game, or stating a fact, or setting a scene. The narration will also not be a book on tape, but instead concise, since a picture is already worth a hundred words. Our goal is that it will be smooth and seamless in the movie; you might not even notice it!
So what do you think of when you hear we are working on voiceover? Do you think of the deep manly voice on trailers? Do you think of some stuffy voice droning on and on?
We had many discussions on whether we wanted it or not. Working on the voiceover, I realized how hard it is to write for a visual medium. It definitely reminds me of caption writing like you see for pictures in newspapers or magazines. It’s funny, because as an English major I’ll start rambling on about something I think is eloquent, and Aaron will give me a blank stare or Kecia will give me a "humor her" head nod and I realize I need to slow down and simplify.
Whoever the narrator is, we promise he/she/they won’t be hokey or preachy. I have changed from thinking of voiceover as intrusive and distasteful to more of a guide; someone summing up a two-hour game, or stating a fact, or setting a scene. The narration will also not be a book on tape, but instead concise, since a picture is already worth a hundred words. Our goal is that it will be smooth and seamless in the movie; you might not even notice it!
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
A Trip to the Archives
It wasn't much of a surprise that I was assigned (and somewhat volunteered) to research for our project. From the first few weeks I took it upon myself to research Burris as a school and know its history. This led me to the archives in Bracken Library. While to many people this process would seem dry and boring, but as an English Literature major, I am used to spending a lot of time in Bracken doing research.
On my first visit I learned that Burris was almost closed in 1982. After sharing this information with the rest of the group, it seemed like something everyone thought we should explore. Interviewers started asking members of the Burris community about this incident, and I started looking more into this to see what I could find.
Almost an entire semester has gone by, and researching is still being done. When asked by the shooters and editors if I could find newspaper articles about the 1982 closing, I went back to the archives. This trip was more focused, and I found many clippings about Burris during this time. I wrote all of these down in my handy dandy legal pad, along with exactly which file I found them in, and gave this sheet to the editors to shoot later in the week.
While this may not be the most glamorous part of documentary film making, it is something that has to be done. Without going to the archives the first time, we wouldn't have known so early on about the school being threatened in 1982, and wouldn't have known to ask our interviewees about this topic. I am happy I was able to use one of my strengths to help the project.
Keep on keeping on,
Rachel
On my first visit I learned that Burris was almost closed in 1982. After sharing this information with the rest of the group, it seemed like something everyone thought we should explore. Interviewers started asking members of the Burris community about this incident, and I started looking more into this to see what I could find.
Almost an entire semester has gone by, and researching is still being done. When asked by the shooters and editors if I could find newspaper articles about the 1982 closing, I went back to the archives. This trip was more focused, and I found many clippings about Burris during this time. I wrote all of these down in my handy dandy legal pad, along with exactly which file I found them in, and gave this sheet to the editors to shoot later in the week.
While this may not be the most glamorous part of documentary film making, it is something that has to be done. Without going to the archives the first time, we wouldn't have known so early on about the school being threatened in 1982, and wouldn't have known to ask our interviewees about this topic. I am happy I was able to use one of my strengths to help the project.
Keep on keeping on,
Rachel
Monday, November 26, 2007
Ups and Downs...and Ups again
As the semester comes closer to its end, I find myself looking back and evaluating my experience at the Virginia Ball Center. Coming into this semester, I was very excited to have an out-of-the-classroom learning experience. I was a bit nervous about the different type of workload...one semester-long project that cannot be finished by simply cramming at the library the last week of classes. I was also anticipating the diversity of the group of people I would be working with.
My parents kept telling me that this would be a very challenging experience, but completely worth the time and effort. I actually slightly disagreed with them because I knew we had at least 15 people in our group...how challenging could it be if all the work was split up between us!?
The semester started off as good as I could have imagined. Our group got along from the start and soon developed inside jokes and positive group dynamics. I thoroughly enjoyed our class discussions that usually involved gender issues, which is one of my all-time favorite topics. I would leave our daily meetings feeling intellectually fulfilled.
As our semester progressed and we broke off into committees, the stress level of the project increased. It became my number one priority to work with the narrative committee. Many days I found myself feeling completely bogged down and full of stress from trying to develop skills and creative ideas to help produce a narrative for the film. At times, I would feel as if we were making tremendous progress...only to run into another one of the various speed bumps along the journey. Discouraging...
Finally, Finally! A skeleton narrative was produced which was followed by a storyboard. At this point, I could feel our project starting to really come together...there was an end product in sight and we would successfully accomplish our goal.
We have had to place together interview clips/voiceover, visuals, and narration to fit into our storyboard. This required the time-consuming process of going through each and every reel of footage (85 discs to be exact) and recording timecodes for each clip. When I saw the rough cut of the documentary last week, I felt very proud of our work... and thankful that I had been motivated enough to sit at my computer for 13 hours straight the previous day/night in order to give the editors more clips.
I saw clips throughout the documentary that I had personally chosen and it made me feel great inside. It really showed me that all of our hard work throughout the semester has been worth it. If I felt that incredible sense of accomplishment from seeing the rough cut, I cannot wait to feel the sense of pride when we show our final product on Dec. 6!
To sum up this semester in one sentence...
This semester has been the most stressful and challenging educational experience of my life thus far, but the development of skills and sense of accomplishment have been completely worth the time and effort.
Looks like my parents were right...again!
My parents kept telling me that this would be a very challenging experience, but completely worth the time and effort. I actually slightly disagreed with them because I knew we had at least 15 people in our group...how challenging could it be if all the work was split up between us!?
The semester started off as good as I could have imagined. Our group got along from the start and soon developed inside jokes and positive group dynamics. I thoroughly enjoyed our class discussions that usually involved gender issues, which is one of my all-time favorite topics. I would leave our daily meetings feeling intellectually fulfilled.
As our semester progressed and we broke off into committees, the stress level of the project increased. It became my number one priority to work with the narrative committee. Many days I found myself feeling completely bogged down and full of stress from trying to develop skills and creative ideas to help produce a narrative for the film. At times, I would feel as if we were making tremendous progress...only to run into another one of the various speed bumps along the journey. Discouraging...
Finally, Finally! A skeleton narrative was produced which was followed by a storyboard. At this point, I could feel our project starting to really come together...there was an end product in sight and we would successfully accomplish our goal.
We have had to place together interview clips/voiceover, visuals, and narration to fit into our storyboard. This required the time-consuming process of going through each and every reel of footage (85 discs to be exact) and recording timecodes for each clip. When I saw the rough cut of the documentary last week, I felt very proud of our work... and thankful that I had been motivated enough to sit at my computer for 13 hours straight the previous day/night in order to give the editors more clips.
I saw clips throughout the documentary that I had personally chosen and it made me feel great inside. It really showed me that all of our hard work throughout the semester has been worth it. If I felt that incredible sense of accomplishment from seeing the rough cut, I cannot wait to feel the sense of pride when we show our final product on Dec. 6!
To sum up this semester in one sentence...
This semester has been the most stressful and challenging educational experience of my life thus far, but the development of skills and sense of accomplishment have been completely worth the time and effort.
Looks like my parents were right...again!
Sunday, November 25, 2007
BTS
Today Kristen and I worked for about six hours on the Behind-the-Scenes documentary. Six hours sounds like a really long time; we got one segment finished. We decided to edit together the clip about the '82 reunion, because we thought this would be a rather easy clip to put together, we have a lot of footage, and Audrey gave us some great sound bites for it.
Putting together the clip wasn't necessarily difficult, but it was rather time consuming. After we started working on the clip we realized that a lot of the B-roll footage we had wasn't that great or wasn't what we needed. That was probably what took up a majority of our time. Finally, we decided just to watch the whole reel over again to see if we had missed anything good. We did. There was some good footage on the reel that wasn't captured. No biggie, we got it and used it. It made our little segment flow a lot better.
We also got the chance to learn a few new things about Final Cut Pro. One of the major things we learned that will help us in transitions, was the cross fade. It is exciting to learn about a program that you didn't think you would be able to comprehend! I love having that feeling of accomplishment when the day is done. After several hours of working you get to sit back and watch a three minute clip that you have completely dissected and put back together again, and you get to have a moment of pride.
I get so excited when we finish just a small clip, I can't wait until we actually finish the whole Behind the Scenes! To be able to look at something you once before knew nothing about and then to conquer it and produce a great (hopefully) final product is an amazing feeling.
Putting together the clip wasn't necessarily difficult, but it was rather time consuming. After we started working on the clip we realized that a lot of the B-roll footage we had wasn't that great or wasn't what we needed. That was probably what took up a majority of our time. Finally, we decided just to watch the whole reel over again to see if we had missed anything good. We did. There was some good footage on the reel that wasn't captured. No biggie, we got it and used it. It made our little segment flow a lot better.
We also got the chance to learn a few new things about Final Cut Pro. One of the major things we learned that will help us in transitions, was the cross fade. It is exciting to learn about a program that you didn't think you would be able to comprehend! I love having that feeling of accomplishment when the day is done. After several hours of working you get to sit back and watch a three minute clip that you have completely dissected and put back together again, and you get to have a moment of pride.
I get so excited when we finish just a small clip, I can't wait until we actually finish the whole Behind the Scenes! To be able to look at something you once before knew nothing about and then to conquer it and produce a great (hopefully) final product is an amazing feeling.
Wednesday, November 21, 2007
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. . .
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. . .
Friday, November 16, 2007
All Alone
I have a secret to share with you. No, it’s nothing bad, I just wanted to let you know that I just spent an entire week by myself in a huge mansion. Now, before you get to far ahead of me, let me just tell you that it was actually the Virginia Ball Center and I was alone because I decided to stay behind while the group went to Tennessee to film. Usually, I would’ve jumped at the chance to take a free trip to a place as great as Tennessee, but I felt that it was more important to stay behind and try and get some work done.
While I was alone, I made sure to set a clear goal for myself and try my best to accomplish it. For myself, as a T-Com major, I thought it was most appropriate for myself to get as much footage captured as possible. What capturing, you ask? Glad you asked; capturing is the process by which one puts any and all footage shot into a digital form on the computer. It seems simple enough and it actually is, but it's the time that it takes where one can run into problems. To cut up about five minutes of footage, it takes about 20 minutes to scroll through the entire tape, find the section you need, then capture it to the hard drive. It's a huge task when you realize that we have over 70 to go over.
Having my work set out for me, I tried my hardest to get as much footage captured as I could. It took many hours and lots of coffee, but I got really close to my goal and I have to say that I'm proud with how far I actually got. Before they left, the other T-Commers were doubtful I could finish all the footage and sadly they were right, but at least I got quite a bit done and made sure there was progress on the home front while everyone is gone. Did I enjoy myself? Certainly, but I don't know if I'd do it again; the mansion is scary at night!
While I was alone, I made sure to set a clear goal for myself and try my best to accomplish it. For myself, as a T-Com major, I thought it was most appropriate for myself to get as much footage captured as possible. What capturing, you ask? Glad you asked; capturing is the process by which one puts any and all footage shot into a digital form on the computer. It seems simple enough and it actually is, but it's the time that it takes where one can run into problems. To cut up about five minutes of footage, it takes about 20 minutes to scroll through the entire tape, find the section you need, then capture it to the hard drive. It's a huge task when you realize that we have over 70 to go over.
Having my work set out for me, I tried my hardest to get as much footage captured as I could. It took many hours and lots of coffee, but I got really close to my goal and I have to say that I'm proud with how far I actually got. Before they left, the other T-Commers were doubtful I could finish all the footage and sadly they were right, but at least I got quite a bit done and made sure there was progress on the home front while everyone is gone. Did I enjoy myself? Certainly, but I don't know if I'd do it again; the mansion is scary at night!
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