Months, long nights, crashed computers, sad sloths, and some energy drinks later, "What's Behind the Trees" has come to life. A documentary showing the ignorance and selfishness of man, the beauty of the world around us, and the strength that we can have together has risen in full effect. Running roughly 21 minutes, I am, for once, thoroughly pleased with a product of my own. Of course this was a test of patience, creativity, and technical skills, I've learned some incredible new things about the field and myself, and even continued to polish some elements that I already possess in my "bag of tricks". So what have I learned? Try and keep up with the list. First, and most importantly, I learned the true power that self indulgence in a topic can have on the overall product. I learned that to produce a good product, you must believe in what you are creating and also understand why you chose it. A project that you truly love doing will always be better than one you chose becauase you were told to. So, BE PASSIONATE. It's simple. Love what you do, and the rest will come easy. Next, from a technical standpoint, I learned many things such as timeliness and organization. As I traveled to Costa Rica and other areas, it was beyond important that I was on task at all times, because my time was limited. I learned to prioritize shots I had on my list. What came to me though as I worked, was the fact that most of my footage was stronger when it was based on improvisation. Being in the right place at the right time is huge, but sometimes, you can predict when you should be there. It's a feeling that you get; a feeling when you absolutely know that what you are doing is right. I feel as though most of my documentary was based on feeling, and cues in the environment. I learned to understand the environment that I was in. It was important for me to practice patience. On a side note about patience, I spent 2 hours filming leaf cutter ants. I learned that their trail could stretch over a mile. Picture a mile long highway of ants, passing by as they worked harder than 99% of the humans on this planet. After 2 hours of investigation one day, I was happy with only 23 seconds of footage; but those 23 seconds were worth it. I can continue to formulate a list of things that I haev learned, but I'll just save that for the next project.
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We are literally less that a week away from the showing of this documentary... So what's left?
I have a slid rough cut done and finished up, but you better believe that it is not done yet. Even when this showing is done, I will probably edit it 100 more times. What I see already though is that this documentary has a very strong emotional appeal and resonance amongst viewers. I only allowed two people to view it this far; myelf and my character, Brooke. We both ageed that this is a message that hits home with everyone and it truly touches you in one way or another whether it sparks you to join this movement or even feel bad as a human species. (That's a good thing). As of now, it needs a few adjustments. First, I will be spending the next few days really adjusting and tweaking the audio levels so that they are exact across the board with all of the other audio tracks. I really focused on allowing the audio to fade in and out of each scene so there are no rough cuts in the audio. Audio is sooooo important and thankfully I havea few extra days to really polish it. Another adjustement that I plan to make, time permitting, is my own voice overs. When I recorded this, I was very ill with a head cold. All of my voice overs sort of sound like kermit the frog... I plan to re-record them ASAP. Don't worry. The video itself looks strong. Of course I will go through and correct some color adjustments and color depths, but I plan to not touch that too much. With less than a week away, you should consider coming to check my, along with 4 of my classmates, senior documentaries out in Mueller Theatre at Westminster College at 2PM on Saturda the 3rd. Here's a screen grab to hopefully rope you in! What's the most important element when it comes to advertising and promoting for a film? That's right! you guessed it; the movie poster along with other graphical elements. A movie poster is used across all social media platforms to help advertise for a production coming up, and I was set on producing a powerful poster. Something that was simple, but it still portrayed the message I was trying to get across. I planned to use a warm color pallete with plenty of white space to really let the center image shine through. To me, a well-done poster really sets the mood and gives a hint as to what is going to happen in the production, but does not truly give it away. My concept was created with this very thinking in mind. As I stated above, I wanted to use plenty of white space so your eye was really drawn to the center attention of the poster. After some experimenting and testing ideas, I came up with a powerful image. The poster begins your eye's journey at the top with a solid, sans serif font for you to read, "What's Behind the Trres". Next you are directed to an image right in the center of the poster. The image is the outline of a tree, but inside the tree is a photo of smoke stacks simply dumping pollution into the air. The tree has a sort of inner shadow to it to really show what is "behind the trees". At the bottom, all of the credits are displayed that it took to create tsi project. Although it is not 100% done, I feel that this poster really relays what the documentary will be about. On a side note, the poster retained some awesome feedback. Many people who commented were fond of the use of white space and the metaphorical meaning behind the graphic. Besides that, many people commented on how the colors make them feel uneasy. Success!
I had another idea of a poster that, upon taking a peer vote, did not win but I decided to show you anyway! My second consultant, Aaron Lee just recently made the move from Costa Rica back to where he lives in Mexico City, continuing to work as a biologist but this did not effect our communication. As Aaron has a knowledge in media arts and productions he stood as more of a "fact checker" for me. Along the process, and with a documentary like this, it is sooooo important that all of the facts stated are correct, credible, and match up with the video. The thought process behind this is, the fin all of the facts I would like to include, write them up in a narraration style format, and send them to Aaron to be approved and agreed upon. As of now, nearly all of my facts are correct. I chose to keep this documentary more personal than factual though so it made his job easy. Aaron actually provided me with a fact sheet about random rainforest facts of species and the destruction. From a technical standpoint, Aaron is a huge fan of a certain sequence I am working on; the reality of Anakin. Aaron served as Anakin's "father" while working at Kids Saving the Rainforest so it really hits home with him. Aaron also agreed that the quality of the film to this point is very strong and professional looking. Stay tuned! We are down to 21 days. The pressure is setting in. There isn't much left to do, but yet there is so much to do. I decided to step back and take a break and share a quick snippet of the footage from my documentary. This snippet does not include the voice over or the music that will exist during this scene. It simply is a visual reference and a puzzle piece to help you connect my vision with yours. Enjoy! We are within a month away from showtime and things are coming together! With the footage in the timeline, the script almost fully developed, and the music and graphics in the works, I feel like I am in good shape. These project are something that we are very passionate about. They are also something that our school and our professors will be proud of, and stand behind us.
On December 3rd, all 5 of the student documentaries will be aired on Westminster's campus. The theatre will be packed, and include parents, students, professors, and spectators from all around. When it comes to my personal cheering section, my family and my actress's (Brooke) family will be present and ready to support. After some digging and searching, I also wanted to invite a professor that I look up to for personal support. Kandice Hartner is an adjunct Media Art professor that has come into the position that she has with a tall task. The Media Art program was destroyed, but she remained to help guide us to the end. She has been invited and will be at the viewing to support, watch, and later critique the project that I have been working on. Unfortunately, neither of my consultants will be able to make it. Aaron Lee lives in Mexico City, and that would be a bit of a drive. Doug Michaels will be on the West Coast shooting for the National Geographic channel during this time. If you are in the area, come see the work that myself and my fellow students have put into our selected video projects on December 3rd at Mueller Theatre! We are closing in on a month before the showing, and it seems to be running smoothly. By my personal critiques and feelings, I THINK that I am on track with where I would like to be. With some blogs under my belt, some ideas as to script development, and a slight "trailer", for-say, done it was time to reach out to my first consultant Doug Michaels.
As a reminder, Doug is a very succesful Media Producer and has recently been putting in work with some big time TV networks such as National Geographic and the Esquire network on the set of "Friday Night Tikes". Honestly, my communication with Doug wasn't as plentiful as I would have wished due to the un-alignement of our schedules but we had to do what we could! Upon running my ideas by Doug, he seemed all on board. As being a world traveler, he completely stood by the topic and the message that I was trying to portray. From a technical standpoint, Doug agreed that I have a stong talent when my hands are on a camera, so he left most of that up to my personal interpretation. There wasn't much that Doug disagreed with as this project progresses, but we will see how the final product fixes his fancy. Stay tuned! What's a sports car without tires? Sure it may be nice looking, but how can it move ahead? What is a cell phone without signal? Why not just get an iPod and a camera at this point? What's a bird without wings? A bird without wings is simply just a much slower and less agile chipmunk. What i'm getting at, is that, no matter how wonderful my documentary MAY turn out based on footage and aesthetic, without music and graphics, my documentary is just.... eh. Music in film, (and simply life), is a necessity. You could watch a black screen without music playing, and still imagine what could be happening based on the nature and the tone of the song. With that being said, I have reached out to a very talented singer, songwriter, musician, producer, designer, and simply any sort of creative activity you can picture. This individual has a strong developmental drive and a special ear for putting a tone to a vision. This individual goes by Dan Swank. Dan is a senior at Westminster College studying Broadcast Communications and pursuing his music career. Recently, he spent a weekend in Nashville recording a new track with a very renowned and established artist in modern day music (Rian Dawson- drummer of All Time Low). He is a very incentive, and knowledgable student who has never disappointed. Dan has produced soundtracks for a Horror film project that myself and a team worked on recently, along with the music for the trailer for "What's Behind the Trees." Next to the music, text and motion graphics are like the 22" gold rims or the 4G LTE or the wings of the bird for the documentary; the icing on the cake. These graphics will be used to establish the intro, the ending, help to introduce characters, and pull together all forms of art into one project. The graphics will be done by your's truly, as I am confident, and have a strong background in creative programs such as Photoshop and After Effects. These graphics have been sketched, and many digital variants have been worked on. Soon enough, this documentary will come to life. For now, let me worry about the technical side. Swank performing a tune at the Hard Rock Cafe in Pittsburgh, PA.
This week, I talk about the script; The most important part of this entire project. A two column script will allow me to write the dialogue, right next to the exact description of what is happening during that time. The script knows all, shows all, and without it, I am nothing. Listen to me ramble! With this documentary, one of the most important aspects are the elements that I can use to progress the story telling. It's more than important actually; it IS the story. So what sort of story telling elements am I talking about? I'm talking about interviews. I'm talking about characters telling the story for me. Interviews are so valuable, because they bring in a new perspective that I myself simply cannot show or express, even with a narrator. To this point, I have logged two interviews. In my story, I truly do not plan to show too many people talking. I want my main character and narrator to cover most of the ground with the footage on the screen and the voice overs that we choose to run. Both of my interviews were recorded while in Costa Rica. Jennifer Rice, the president of the organization, Kids Saving the Rainforest, spoke to me about everything from the history of KSTR, to why she moved to Costa Rica, to her knowledge of what goes on "behind the trees". My second interview was with a man name Aaron who is a biologist living in Costa Rica and, at the time, was working at KSTR in charge of the sloths and all of the botany. He spoke to me about wildlife and environmental issues of the area. Now let's talk about mistake, because SOMETHING has to go wrong. With my interview, I felt strongly on the positioning, the intensity, the quality, and the overall aesthetic of the interview; but what was the issue? Audio. My biggest concern and working issue was capturing and maintaining fluent audio with the interviews. I was trying to maintain a similar background during each interview, attempting to shoot at the same time of day. But, with each day came different factors effecting my audio. For example, the sky was most appealing to me around 4PM everyday, so I shot my first interview with Jennifer then. The next day, I was set to shoot with my narrator in the same position at the same time; but this time, massive downpour. The audio sounded great if I was shooting a waterfall documentary. The moral of the story is, I learned to have multiple backup plans because when working with natural elements, there is no predicting what is coming your way. You must be patient, but when working with a deadline, have a schedule listing plan A up through Z (if you can). Never just assume it will work out and always be aware of your environment when planning an intimate, and audio/visual rich shot. Two screenshots from logged footage, both from around 4-6PM.
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AuthorDoltyn Snedden Archives
December 2016
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