Audio Emmy guy

I don't remember this mans name. I went in late because I was getting some help with another project from Tyler Peterson. He was nice enough to look at the project I was doing for another class and help me out.

The audio guy asked the audience who played a musical instrument to raise their hands. He then said that those of us with our hands up had 25 years experience in audio than the ones who hadn't raised their hands. He said that we should be thankful that our mothers forced us to practice the piano.

I have only taken the basic audio class. I liked it and had fun. My knowledge of audio is limited and it seems very tedious.

It takes a trained ear to get it right. Someone asked about internships and he told us it is harder for people like us to get internships. They used to do apprenticeships and stuff, now there isn't things like that. He said to practice your skills all the time and at the beginning you are going to have to do somethings for free. Research prices of what others are getting paid for and negotiate from there. You shouldn't work for free very long.

He also said in his line of work, it is not a 9-5 type of job. You work on the item until it is done. You might miss kids soccer games and recitals, but if you balance it right you can still have a family life. He said he made it a point to put his family first. Instead of going out with co-workers after a job, he went home and spent time with his family.

He showed us a little film with some highlighted projects he has done and a project he wants to get picked up by a network. Really interesting stuff and you can tell he has worked hard to get where he is.

Darren Fletcher

I really enjoyed this speaker as well. I liked how he told us work ethic is a key thing to be known for and that our paths in this industry are all different. We shouldn't compare where we are at with where others are at. Here is the link to my notes Darren Fletcher storyboard.

Picabo Street

I was a little late to class, but I was excited to see our guest speaker today. We have been working hard as a class to get all the pre production information and seeing her in person was awesome! It was fun to see first hand her enthusiasm for life, the sport she played, and for us to help her with this documentary. Here is the link to my notes on this day Picabo guest speaker notes.

Brian Strasmann

Guest Speaker
Brian Strasman
Works here at DSU
He is also a screenwriter. I came away from his lecture with a better idea on how to write a screen play. He gave us some great advice and some steps to follow when doing this. This is the link to my notes on this lecture Brian Strasmann.

Larry Groupe

I really enjoyed this guest speaker. I love music and played the piano for 13 years and have been singing since I could talk. My family is very musical. I actually watched The Contender right before Mr. Groupe came to talk to our class. I remember loving the film score and loved how it brought out the emotion in the film. I am a collector of film soundtracks, nerd alert! My electronic notes from this guest speaker in is this link Larry Groupe.

Doug Wellman

Former USC Film Dean, Doug Wellman

Doug Wellman talked to us mostly about Producing and what that entails. He produced things mainly for television. He explained the difference between creative and physical producing. I felt like everything he said was really important and I left class more informed. I didn't bring my computer that day, so I will include my original notes.

Documentary Class

This semester I took a Documentary class. As a class we choose a subject to do a documentary on. The class decided to focus on a local man who makes violins for a living. He happens to be the father-in-law of our classmate.

At the beginning of the semester we choose different jobs with producing this film. I was chosen to be in charge of graphics. The fall semester I was also given this job and my professor liked what I had put together. I am basically the person in charge of making the credits for the end of the film. I also took some photos during the film shoots and came up with some neat shots. I don't have a neat camera yet, so I just used my iphone and an application called Camera+ to edit the photos.

I have only used Adobe After Effects once. Fall semester I had never used a Mac or After Effects and I had a crash course in using both. Four hours later along with many tears I was able to start the project. This semester I had purchased a MacBook Air and am taking a post-production course that uses Adobe Premiere. I still had to do research to come up with decent looking credits. My end goal was to come out with a professional looking credits. People besides my class are going to be seeing this and I don't want to ruin the film with some crappy looking credits.

I found a great tutorial on youtube and it helped a lot.http://bit.ly/1DQB9yN It is simple and easy to understand. One part I did have one problem that actually kept me up for two nights until 3 am. I couldn't figure out what I was doing and I asked one of my classmates for help. He figured out that we were forgetting a small but very important step, to parent a node with the camera. After that it went okay, just a few minor adjustments and I had them done in no time. The film isn't edited down to a final cut yet, but they have credits

I love finding out how to do things on my own. Joy, stress, anger are some of the emotions I feel when doing a project like this. It is also fun to see the whole of all our jobs. I hope people will enjoy the film and the credits will compliment the finished film.

Documentary Pre-production notes for all day shoot

The Devil & The Angel PP notes all day shoot

I put together a food order for the Silver Reef Cafe for the all day shoot as well.

Silver Reef Cafe order for crew

Picabo Notes

3/24

Looking over a Production book to know what we need to do to create one for the Picabo movie.
Look at the anime Redline for Velocity Girl animation ideas. We have handouts for production book, locations and casting ideas, a screen play and a scene plan.

Dee Street conference call

Casting and notes

pre-production notes

More PP notes

Picabo Video logging

Finished Casting for PP booklet

Pre-production on my Capstone project

Idea

1.My idea is to do a documentary film on the Paiute people. The Native American tribe of which I belong. My first idea is to do one on where our songs come from. My sister and her husband were invited last year to go where the songs came from. They could not go because my sister became pregnant. It would be neat, to me to find out this type of thing.

Treatment- A song being sung. Discussion of the origin/legend of the song. Why is this visit done every year? This is an invitation only event, who gets the invite and why? Who leads these trips? What is being done to keep this tradition alive?

Video of the trip down the river and hike to the location. We probably wont be able to film the exact location of the sacred place or what actually happens when we get there.

People practicing the songs and discussion of when and why these songs are sung. Is there anyone passing the information along to the younger generation of people in the tribe? If not what needs to be done to protect this tradition.

Discussion of how many people are actually enrolled in the tribe and the language being almost forgotten. Why is it important to keep traditions alive and languages alive?

Song sung again. I would like an image of an Elder traditional dancer silhouette and one of a youth traditional dancer. This could work with a grass dancer and a jingle dancer as well, maybe all three.


2.My other idea is to do a film that discusses the difference of class. A wealthy area of homes is set right next to a Native American Reservation. How did this come to be and how do people on both sides feel about living next to each other?

Treatment-Didn't get very far, because people were not willing to talk to me about this issue.

Sandra Schulberg

I loved the dose of reality Sandra Schulberg gave our class. At times it seemed she was trying to talk us out of our desired professions. It either made you more determined to succeed or rethink what you wanted to do. 

One of the things I took from her lecture was to do things yourself. "The best way to empower yourself is to do it yourself." She said if we did that at the end we will be proud of the hard work you put in. I admire her as a woman and her success in her field of work. I love that she founded IFP in the seventies and how it has grown into what it is today.

The topics that made an impact on me were, budgeting-to look into every avenue of funding, be in a positive relationship with your investor, set realistic goals, and listen but not necessarily act on advice given. 

Sam Perez

Sam Perez spoke to us about what he did to document his capstone project. I liked his idea of blogging and how he organized it. I also liked his attention to detail in researching his idea and his passion for film making. 

I lost my notes on what he talked about, but I remember him giving great advice. Be a nice person, it has gotten him onto a lot of sets by doing this. No one likes being around a mean person. Love what you do, it will show in your work. Work hard and do your best all the time. 

I love it when the guest speakers are passionate about what they do, because their excitement rubs off onto the audience.