11/16- Switch-a-Roo

This week I actually worked primarily with Hunter on his project "Fleeing Paradise". Because he did not have a partner, I was assigned to assist him with his festival project. In completing this assignment, I formed a website for his film, along with discussing which festivals he plans to submit to. The website included a home page, an about page, a bio page, and a festival schedule page that Hunter can utilize upon his entry into some festivals. Working alongside Hunter was a great experience as it served as a nice change of pace and allowed me to collaborate on another project.

11/9- Consultation

Today we met with Shannon concerning our project. We bounced around some ideas concerning festival plans and the possibility of collaborating with Working Films. Matt plans to contact Molly Murphy from Working Films and once she replies, Anthony and I plan to attend the initial meeting for support. Matt also completed his website this week and I plan to go over it and do some proof reading.

11/2- Cleaning up the cut

Based on the fine cut we screened in class, we have work to do on credits, sound, color correction, and some video quality issues. Some of our videos were taken from Youtube with permission from the galveston people. However, this week we had hoped to get in contact with the woman who acts as the source for these youtube videos. Unfortunately we received no response. This past week I also began investigating some credit sequence ideas. Originally I proposed an idea for the credits to scroll out of the water during the credit sequence shot. However, after playing around in After Effects, I was unable to manipulate credits to come out of a certain point within the frame, as opposed to the usual tradition of the credits coming out from outside the bottom of the frame. We decided we were stuck with tradition.

10/26- Lookin Fine

We will be presenting the fine cut today in class. This week, upon completion of all the transcribing, Anthony and I continued to give feedback to Matt as he prepared the Fine cut that is due during this upcoming class. Matt made a point to add in newspaper articles and to tighten up the framework of the story; both of which he did successfully based on our early screening of the cut. Next week we plan to jump into the other issues of sound and credits.

10/19- MORE Transcribing

This week was another week of transcribing! My next interviewee assignment was Ryan, the underwater cinematographer. Where he was not as easy to transcribe as the extremely eloquent Anne, at least Ryan's interview wasn't as long; though it was close. This was a big assignment and took a lot of my time for the week.

10/12- Adjustments

This week has been all about adjustments to the rough cut we turned in last week. We received a lot of great feedback from the class concerning us possibly including ken burns effected newspaper articles, and our choice to use a certain sound bridge between the applauding students and the dead dolphin; this served as a fantastic learning example, showing us explicitly the power of editing. However, a lot of our comments were concerned with the need for condensing the story. Though the good news was that we did, in fact, have a story. All in all the class seemed to respond well to the cut that Matt prepared.

10/5- Bring on the Rough Cut

In preparation for today's rough cut presentation to the class, I aided Matt in some preliminary feedback concerning some of the transitions and the overall story arc that was being presented. As he is conducting the primary load of the rough cut edit, Anthony and I continue to act as another set of eyes. After the rough cut we are looking forward to gaining some direction on where to go next (i.e. what people like and what people did not like). All in all, the rough cut is promising. We made a point to knock out obvious kinks, leaving only issues involving story arc.

9/28- Edit Update

This week was dedicated towards transcribing. While Matt began the initial editing for the rough cut, Anthony and I spent time divvying up the interviews to knock out the transcribing. I began with Anne, who primarily took up my time this week, resulting in a 13 page transcription. There is a reason she is a lecturer.

4 Minute Clip - 9/14/11

This week i continued to explore the use of google maps for use as a transitional medium. I recorded a few practice demos that i later screened to matt to gain his opinons on the idea. I also went through some of the interviews as wholes and began my assignment of transcripting the interview footage. Though it will be an extensive process, i expect that it will serve as an extremely beneficial aid as we begin editing our rough cut.

The Basics- Week 1- 9/7/11

This past week has been my introduction into our project BEACHED that lies ahead for this semester. After reviewing some materials from the production binder, I was finally able to gain a full grasp on where this story is aiming to go. From my understanding it will be an informative piece unifying the causes, the actual occurrences, and the resulting rehabilitation that are linked to stranded cetaceans (dolphins and whales). This short documentary is to be no holds barred in its presentation of these mammals, those of which are usually found dead on shore. However, there will be some beautiful imagery to lighten the mood, along with some heavily informative interviews involving extremely credible sources. This week I was also given the chance to screen (or skim) the footage. Considering there is a plethora worth of footage to sort through, I was only able to gain a grasp of the material, my main focus being on interviews, the Galveston, TX footage, and a bit of the beautiful b-roll, the underwater shots being my absolute favorite. I have been designated the role of animator for my group so during the next week I will continue to brainstorm on ideas and also brush up on some of my after effects skills. I've already thought of an idea about "map" transitions that I will further investigate during next class and throughout next week. There is much work ahead, however, I believe a project of this caliber is one that is sure to payoff!

See you in class,

r.e.j.