Kyle's Super Swag Film Blog

Finally, after weeks of delays and busy schedules, I have completed the Post-Production stage of my film for the third marking period. Here are my thoughts on how things went. Starting Over While I did get some filming done during the appropriate stage of the production cycle back during the third marking period, by the time I got back around to finishing the film, I didn't like the footage that I had. Luckily, this footage was just the introduction and would easily be replaced due to the new direction that I planned on taking the film during my time working on it. The original story that I had set out for the film was set aside as it involved multiple actors which I knew I wouldn't be able to swing in such a short amount of time. Luckily, I was able to keep the concept on the film intact and managed to produce a shortened, adjusted version of the idea that I had. Final Thoughts Overall, I like what I was able to throw together. I think that the concept is portrayed well which ...

With our Mini-THON event finally being completed, I'm now able to take the time and reflect on all of the video and production work that I've been able to do. The past year has lead me to do so many different things while serving as the Mini-THON Tech chair and I've definitely learned a lot over that time. I've already talked a few times about Mini-THON, but here's one final reflection about the last things that we did this year. Man Pageant Working on the Man Pageant revealed to me what the technical side of live productions is truly like. By being a part of the musicals, I've know what it's like to be the one onstage. But now, I understand exactly what must go on in order for the show to go on. Working to set-up and plan for exactly what the show entailed was a feeling and work-flow that I always wanted to experience but only was able to now. The one real struggle that I experienced was working on the pre-recorded portions of the show. There was multiple n...

Over the past couple weeks, I've been working to put together the Mini-THON Documentary for 2021. The following describes the status of the documentary as well as updates regarding some things that I have previously written about during the Pre-Production and Production stages of documentary. Transition Success In my previous Production blog post, I talked about my idea as to how to transition from the different parts of the documentary. Now that I've been able film the shots for these transitions and incorporate them into my editing timeline, I can say that my idea is largely a success. It was difficult to properly set-up the corkboard in a way that gave me my desired framing, but I'm happy with what I was able to make. Within the edit, the transition clips are given a digital tracking zoom along the string in order to show the transition from each labeled section. I chose to use a digital tracking zoom rather than doing it physically due to limited help to film the transi...

Over the past weeks I've been working to edit a large portion of the video content for Mini-THON's upcoming Man Pageant event. Primarily, I've been working on producing the introduction video that plays at the start of the event as well as editing some of the boy's acts which they filmed on their own. The following are some things I've taken away from the work I've so far completed. Just Editing Since some of the boys took charge in recording their acts together without me, I was put in a position different from what I've normally been in. Typically, for most projects that I've worked to edit, I've had the opportunity to be on location for the production process. This gave me a perspective as to how what I see now will become the final product. However, as I said this situation has been different for me and I was only able to look at this footage from the perspective of just the editor. While at first I tried my best to piece together these acts on m...

Over the past week I've been making progress on the Mini-THON Documentary during the "production" stage of this work cycle. With the day of our Mini-THON coming closer and closer, the amount of time to complete the documentary lessens and lessens. The following is a quick progress report on how the documentary's production has gone. Chair Interviews One of the only sequences that will be produced during this three week production cycle will be the chair interview section of the documentary. The chair interviews serve as a way to introduce the documentary viewers to the chair persons who have made Mini-THON possible for that year. Due to both having to quarantine as well as having to primarily focus on Man Pageant production, I haven't been able to film these interviews but I plan on doing so this Monday. In years past these interviews have been filmed at different locations throughout the school but look visually simple. After gaining some experience with filming ...

Typically, I only really watch movies in a social setting or if there's one particular film that I really want to see. Over the past few days I've tried to change this habit by watching a film each night in the evening. The first of these films is one that I always wanted to watch but never had until now. Scott Pilgrim VS. The World  was originally released in 2010 and is based upon the 2005 graphic novel of the same name. The film follows Scott Pilgrim who has to fight the seven evil exes of his new girlfriend Ramona Flowers in order to be able to date her. The film is great and instantly became one of my favorites. However, the purpose of this blogpost isn't to gush about how good the film is. The purpose of this blogpost is to talk about a few takeaways that I got from the film. Editing Since the film is based upon a graphic novel that is heavily inspired by video games, it took a large amount of creativity to bring those influences to life on the big screen. One of the ...

It's finally time for me to once again complete my final Pre-Production cycle for this year. This final film will look quite different in regards to production stages due to it's required deadline. The reason for this deadline is due to this final film being the Mini-THON Documentary for 2021. As the Tech chair, it's my duty to complete a documentary to summarize the entirety of our Mini-THON year which will be shown on the day of our Mini-THON event. The following is the preparation that I have been able to complete during pre-production The Documentary As previously stated, the documentary is meant to serve as a final summary of the Mini-THON year leading up to our event. Typically, the documentary has a large amount of footage from all of the different events held during the year. However, due to the chaos that this year has been, I have less footage from events to pull from to tell the story of this year. However, I know that with the amount of footage that I have, I sh...

Now that the class has finished presenting the work that they accomplished during the third marking period, I have taken the time to reflect on what my classmate's have produced. By analyzing their work I am able to see their growth, understand their struggles, and even learn somethings that I can incorporate into my own production work ethic. The following is my reflection on a few of my fellow classmates. Zach's Work Throughout the production cycle, I always ask Zach how his filming is going. Sometimes he says things are good and other times not as good. Despite this, every film of Zach's that I've seen has been amazing and this one is no different. " An Omnidirectional and Incomprehensible Meta-process " shows how even without actors or a crew to help him, Zach can make something that is truly though provoking and engaging. Zach's camera work shines here, with well framed dialogue shots and visually interesting shots such as the one with the reflection ...

Over the past few weeks I have been extremely busy with a multitude of different projects. However, this hasn't stopped me from working on production for my next film. Despite my limited time to work, the following is a reflection of the work I completed during the Production stage: Changes From Pre-Production Even though I had a general idea of what the film would look like, I still ended up making a few changes during the production stage. The first of these changes is the removal of the whole "time travel" idea from the film's concept. I originally incorporated the idea that time would rewind each time the the briefcase was opened. However, I thought that explaining this idea and actually showing it on-screen would be difficult. Now, each time the case is opened it simply causes something random to happen, which should be easier for the audience to understand. The second main change that I made has to do with the film's ending. The ending that I had completed a...

Over the past week I worked with members of Mini-THON to film a skit that will be shown at the elementary schools. The focus of the skit was to teach the story of the Four Diamonds in a way that was both entertaining and easy for kids to understand. As the Technology Chair, my duty for this project was to serve as both the cinematographer and editor while other chairpersons acted and directed. The following is some of my thoughts about working on this project. Shooting Due to myself acting within my previous film, I haven't had the opportunity in a while to solely serve as a project's cinematographer. However, due to one of the Mini-THON Overalls taking charge as the director for this skit, my only duty was to be the one behind the camera. The amount of time we had to produce this skit was very limited, so when I arrived at the school on Friday to film, the only amount of preparation work that we had was a script. Despite this, I worked with the director to come up with ways to...

I've previously spoken a little bit about DaVinci Resolve and how I would like to learn how to best make use of the program and it's features. Now with the release of Resolve version 17 being released, I thought that now would be a good time to finally dive into learning the program. As of now, I haven't had the opportunity to use Resolve to edit a film or video, so the following is just my thoughts after viewing some tutorials regarding how to use the program. Similarities To Premiere Like Premiere Pro, DaVinci Resolve is a professional video editing software that contains all the needed tools to produce and edit video. Both programs feature a editing timeline at the bottom of the screen which allows the editor to cut, trim, and manipulate clips and effects in order to create a composition. The timeline in Resolve allows you to trim clips by dragging and by using the razor tool, exactly like Premiere. Both programs also feature a centralized program monitor used to view yo...

Once again, I've begun working on the pre-production stage of another film. Currently, I've felt that I have had a lack of ideas that I wanted to really pursue for films. It also felt like if I did have an idea, I wouldn't be able to stretch it out into a full film. However, over the past couple weeks I've managed to come-up with a decent idea that I think will make a decent little short film. The following is a collection of the pre-production work for this next film. Concept The concept that I have for this film involves a briefcase that when opened, releases a random event and resets time back to a set time. The briefcase is given to the protagonist with instructions to not open it. As we can expect, curiosity gets the best of the protagonist as he opens the case. The film then progresses as the case is constantly opened, it's contained chaos being let out, and time returning to back to just right after the case was received. After coming up with this concept I f...

Typically within my weekly blogposts, I chose to focus on investigating a general topic that is either involved within what I am currently working on or is something that I am interested. But currently, I've been running out of new things to investigate each week. When I mentioned this to a few of my classmates, they said that they have been just describing what all they've been working on for the week. Since this week has been one of my busiest in a while, it should be a good opportunity to give a sort of progress report. Marking Period 3 Film Today also marks the end of the pre-production stage of my next film. I go more in-depth about the pre-production stage within my pre-production blogpost found here. A brief description of the film is that it is about a man and his curiosity to open a briefcase that was given to him. Each time the man opens the briefcase, something different happens before time ultimately rewinds back to the moment he was given the briefcase. The film is...

Ever since the rise of digital cinema cameras over the past couple years, the debate of Film versus Digital has soared. All across the internet, you will see people argue over which is the superior format to use in order to produce a film. While there is not real answer as to which is the overall best format, both film and digital have their own strengths and weaknesses. Digital Digital has become the most popular format for the everyman. Phones and digital cameras can quickly take pictures and record them to digital memory for instant review. Recording with digital doesn't take any money out of your pocket other than the cost of the camera and recording media. If your shot doesn't look exactly like you wanted it, you can easily just delete the failed take and try again and again until things end up the right way. Since your digital photos and videos are essentially computer code, it is extremely easy to edit and manipulate them while having infinite flexibility to do so. Digit...

Over the past few days I have been working on a variety of different videos for THON factor this upcoming Friday. Working on these different types of videos has taught me some new things that I might not have learned through only working on personal films. Here is a few interesting things that I've learned over the past week. Editing To Music With most of my previous films, music has really just been something that I added in towards the end of post production. While editing the promo video for THON factor, I selected the music prior to working on the visuals. This put me in a different situation as I would now have to make the visuals fit with the music. The only previous experience I had of this was with editing last year's Mini-THON recap video on the night of. The music track was prepared prior to editing and Tech Chair Georgea Hall had mentioned the importance of cutting on musical beats to add emphasis. After editing the promo video, I think I did a fair job at taking thi...

Over the past couple weeks I have worked to complete the post production stage of the project. During this time I ended up redoing a large amount of work that I had completed during the production stage of the project. Now that I finally have a film that is completed, here are my thoughts and experiences about the post production process. Re-Doing The Film As I previously stated within my production post, I wasn't too happy with my progress on this film originally. The work that I had done didn't feel like it was coherent or had any quality to it. The footage that I had was really just random clips of nature and objects that I had intended to edit together with narration over it in order to make something that felt "emotional". After I completed my production blog post, I immediately began thinking of what I would need to do in order to save this film. While I know that this film is in no way perfect, I still feel that I made something presentable out of the ashes of ...

As someone who has been interested in learning more about color grading, I decided to look more into LUTs. Throughout my time as a film student, I’ve commonly heard the term used whenever I would watch YouTube videos about filmmaking. Despite hearing the term, I wasn’t entirely sure what exactly a LUT was. What Are LUTs? LUTs, also known as Look-Up Tables, are files used within color grading that are designed to quickly manipulate colors within footage. LUTs were originally meant as a way to synchronize visuals between different cameras. Due to different brands of cameras recording colors differently from one another, footage of the same scene from different cameras might look inconsistent. The solution to this would be to use a selected LUT on your footage to hopefully get more similar colors between the two cameras. While LUTs can still be used this way today, one use that has become more popular over the past years has been the use of LUTs as a quick way to color grade. By color gra...

With the conclusion of the class presenting their work during second marking period presentations, I have taken the opportunity to take a closer look at some of my classmates' work so that I can better understand what they learned and accomplished. With this information, I am also able to learn some of the things that they learned as well as just appreciate the hard work of my peers. Zach's Work I've had the pleasure of talking to Zach throughout his process of producing his film so it was cool to see how it had ended up. Within his blogpost, Zach mentions how his ultimate goal for his film was to entertain his audience which I feel is the best goal for a high school film student to have and I definitely think that he delivered. Zach's intricate planning of his production is a perfect example of how your planning directly impacts your production; the better you plan then the better it ends up. After watching Zach's film, I can say that it demonstrates his confidence...