Kyle's Super Swag Film Blog

The use of voice over in film allows the filmmaker to enhance their production. Whether light voice over used during a simple scene or long voice over used over the course of the entire film, voice over works to expand and further the story. The way that voice over is presented varies from film to film because of each individual project's focus and tone. Voice Over Techniques The process of recording voice over for a production is a very difficult process. This difficulty is found in the uncertainty of discovering how to present for the production. While this changes for each film, there are a few techniques and tips for a narrator to keep in mind in order to give a good performance. Three of these tips are pacing, emphasis, and inflection. Pacing helps to create genuinity within the voice over. Speaking at too fast or too slow of a speed can alienate the audience, making them feel as if the words spoken aren't spoken with any feeling. Finding a fitting pace for voice ove...

Following the completion of pre-production, I advanced to the production stage of my project. The following is what I accomplished: Filming As planned, I began filming for my project on October 12. During this one filming date, I was able to accomplish all of the filming required for my film. The process of filming that day had gone very smoothly. All of my actors arrived on time with all required materials, listened to what I asked them to do, and stayed enthusiastic the entire time. The weather cooperated with us for the most part during our outdoor shooting time. At one point, it did begin to rain, but after breaking for lunch and coming back, we were able to continue. For the most part, I followed what I had outlined on my storyboard, making additions and adjustments along the way. This also stayed true with the script. For most of the logistics of filming (How I was going to actually do somethings), I figured most of that out on the spot. Shown below are two videos, with one sh...

After now reaching the end of the first marking period of the 2019-2020 school year, I am able to reflect back upon the work that I have completed so far. Intention Definition & Exploration Of Ideas Having no prior experience in any particular area of film, I set out to choose a topic to focus on that would allow me to help narrow down my focus. The area I chose to focus on was documentary and mockumentary styled film making. I made this choice with the intention to be able to explore both formal and less formal ideas while also not relying on having to create an entire original idea by myself. The topic of my film (The Game) was chosen because of my familiarity and pre-existing personal opinions about it. Planning Planning an entire production entirely by myself was a change of pace in comparison to how I worked in previous years. I began the planning process by typing out all of my thoughts in order to help establish what I am trying to do. Once I developed an idea for th...

After working over the past few weeks to complete the pre-production stage of my project, the following is what I have accomplished. Releases The following are the releases that I have collected for this project. Three of these releases are talent releases for the the three actors who will appear in the documentary. These actors are all people who I personally know and are reliable enough to depend on for this project. The other release is a location release. The selected location for this film was my house. With my script being relatively simple and not requiring a large amount of locations, my property should be flexible enough to make the film come to life. Below is a link to pictures of my releases as it is difficult to insert pictures into Blogger without encountering formatting errors. Releases Link Storyboard The storyboard that I have drawn for the documentary gives a basic view of what I would like the final product to look like. There were a few sections on the storybo...

Prior to beginning work on my documentary, I feel that one of the aspects that I should learn more about, in order to help with the process, would be the filming of an interview. The interview portion of a documentary should be engaging so that it gets the audience to listen to what the interviewees are saying. However, the interview usually is not the main focus of the documentary and should not be presented as such. Lighting An Interview When lighting a setting for an interview, the most common setup uses three different lights known as three point lighting. Three point lighting makes use of a key light, fill light, and back light. The key light is intended to be the brightest source of light within the scene, pointing at a 45 degree angle on the subject. The fill light's purpose is to fill in the less lit portions of the scene. The fill light is meant to be not be as bright as the key light as to not over brighten the image. Lastly, the back light works to light the backgrou...

Documentary filmmaking allows the artist to inform their audience about a specified topic. This topic chosen by the filmmaker typically focus on educating the viewer on concepts social issues, important people, or world problems however, a documentary is not limited to these concepts. While similar to documentary filmmaking, mockumentary filmmaking focuses more on comedy than informing the audience. Traits of Documentary Documentaries commonly follow the format of addressing the topic with interviews, cutaways, live action, process footage, and archival resources. Interviews are generally what moves the documentary forward, with the spoken words of the interviewees depicting what is shown on screen. Cutaways are the images and clips shown to the audience that relate to the spoken dialogue. Examples of cutaways being images of related people, locations, and events. Live action describes footage of the interviewee and their reactions. This footage is meant to take a step away from th...

The first project that I plan to work on is a Documentary/Mockumentary styled film about the psychological game known as "The Game". The plan for this project is for me to create a simple and short piece about a topic that I can relate to. After completing this projects, I should have a better understanding of what I am capable of as well as what type of film I enjoy making. Why I Want To Do A Documentary The concept of a documentary peaks my interests because of it's ability to give commentary on a particular topic as well as it not requiring me to create my own idea from scratch. In my opinion, commentating on a pre-established idea gives a larger amount of creative potential than establishing my own idea. It makes sense to have more freedom talking about an established topic rather than creating your own and hoping others would be able to relate. One of the themes that I chose to focus on for this year was politics and the social order. While it is possible to foll...