Welllllllllllllllllll, I don't have a whole lot to tell that's new. This week was just another lecture class. A film/honors student came to class and showed us his film. He's been working on it for three semesters and finished two days ago. Maybe I'm just a rough and tough film critic, but I really wasn't very impressed. It was slow and so poorly lit that I couldn't tell what was going on. Maybe that was what he was going for? I admired the autobiographical efforts, but in my opinion....it just didn't quite cut it.
His results make me nervous... If he's been working on that for a year and a half, what the heck will I end up with after half of a semester? Call me a pessimist, but I think I'll just start hoping for a little better than the worst.
Last weekend I went home for the first time this semester. I talked with my brother, an elite member of Har-Ber High School's film program, about our projects. He started asking me all these questions about "plot point one" and character development and blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. I just had to respond to him with a blank stare. He laughed condescendingly and proceeded to tell me how one of his films that he recently finished for the governor has been aired locally and entered in some sort of statewide competition. I can't lie, I'm impressed. Now if I could only get him to make my movie....
I also mentioned to him that my specific role was sound editing. At this, he turned up his nose and said, "Dang. That sucks. Sound is, no joke, the hardest part." My immediate response was, "Dang. That sucks. I shouldn't have been the nice guy and taken last pick." Oh, well.
We got in groups again and talked over our plans for our films. Here are my honest feelings in black and white about what we've got planned (sorry group, nothing against you). I don't like them. I think we've made everything much too complicated. I pictured a movie with very few cuts and very little sound-if any at all. I pictured a very dramatic, but boring movie with a bang at the end. I want simple, but powerful. That's not the way things are looking now. And it's killing me.
Conclusion: Movies are for watching, not making.
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I love your last comment and I must totally agree. I'd so much rather watch a movie than make one. There are so many different elements that go into just a couple minutes of film. Any little mistake can cost you a lot of viewers and their opinions. I'm sure you'll come up with something great! It's all for fun, right? :)
ReplyDeleteDoes the process of making a movie change the way you watch them? (That's part of the point of the class ... I hope it's worth it!)
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