This semester has been the most difficult semester for me, basically because I did not imagine what the weight of this film would carry in my life. Thursday Ben and I met in the edit lab and we tried to do our best to clean up little mistakes, there were still some things that irked me, but I had to let them go...for right now...if I didn't then I would have not finished everything for my other classes. I've been playing the balancing act all semester long, but the end almost got to hard to juggle. I am thankful to the class for giving their feedback and for all the input on all of the wonderful films and I hope to see you all at the screening...I know Cole is super excited...and I just pray that I don't disappoint him or his family or my family or the audience.
God Bless
Monday, December 12, 2011
Friday, December 2, 2011
Music & Film
As the weeks have passed and I have sat in front of the computer in the editing lab, the nit-picky is coming out of me and I unconsciously make notes in my mind that have been waking my up in the early hours of the morning. My tears are still shed, even though this project has come a very long way, I wonder "Am I good enough?" "Is this even worthy to share with viewers?" "Will people understand?" "Is it any good at all?" And I don't know, the only thing I can do is take a leap of faith and believe in myself and all who has helped me with this project and pray to God to give wisdom to make right decisions.
So this past week I have been on my journey to find the right music to fit this film. Last December, when I pitched this project to Andre, I had all intentions of writing the music myself (something else I like to add to my repertoire as a filmmaker) but time ran out and I had one minute of a song written; because scoring and song writing is another tedious task in itself. I began searching for royalty free websites and Brian gave me a great site, but not all the songs matched...I needed more.
Then my mind went to bands, I heard this great band at Cucalorus called Rio Bravo, so I started listening to their music more online and they still sounded great, but there was something missing. I started thinking about other bands that I have come across in the downtown Wilmington scene and still no one. I was running out of time and started begging on facebook to my friends who are also musicians, but no one could make something in time. And then...
About two and a half years ago my best friend from high school gave me this CD of her friend's band called House of Fools, so I remembered them and started listening to the album again and I was like...THIS IS IT!!!! So I called her, she contacted them and they said no problem. It was a God send, two years earlier before I even knew of Cole and even thought of making a documentary, I had already had my music. God is so good.
Now I am finished with adding the music to the tracks and Deanna is going to mix the sound today. I also did some rearranging to the story and took some things out...TRT 15:24 w/end credits.
See you next week
So this past week I have been on my journey to find the right music to fit this film. Last December, when I pitched this project to Andre, I had all intentions of writing the music myself (something else I like to add to my repertoire as a filmmaker) but time ran out and I had one minute of a song written; because scoring and song writing is another tedious task in itself. I began searching for royalty free websites and Brian gave me a great site, but not all the songs matched...I needed more.
Then my mind went to bands, I heard this great band at Cucalorus called Rio Bravo, so I started listening to their music more online and they still sounded great, but there was something missing. I started thinking about other bands that I have come across in the downtown Wilmington scene and still no one. I was running out of time and started begging on facebook to my friends who are also musicians, but no one could make something in time. And then...
About two and a half years ago my best friend from high school gave me this CD of her friend's band called House of Fools, so I remembered them and started listening to the album again and I was like...THIS IS IT!!!! So I called her, she contacted them and they said no problem. It was a God send, two years earlier before I even knew of Cole and even thought of making a documentary, I had already had my music. God is so good.
Now I am finished with adding the music to the tracks and Deanna is going to mix the sound today. I also did some rearranging to the story and took some things out...TRT 15:24 w/end credits.
See you next week
Friday, November 18, 2011
Tha Biz-nizz
FESTIVAL
San Diego Black Film Festival (San Diego, CA) – A Festival which specializes in that films that, “must be directed, produced, or principally acted by an artist of African descent in the USA or in any country, or by a person born in any country in Africa, or whose subject matter relates to African American culture or any cultures of Africa (including Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) regardless of race.” Well known and renown, acceptance here would mean great things even though it is costly. A bit of a pipe dream perhaps, but still achievable with our little portrait documentary!
Urban Suburban Film Festival (Philadelphia, PA) – Another great opportunity for the African American filmmaker. Relatively inexpensive and well known. Has showcased short portrait documentaries of odd running lengths (15, 29, 37 minutes) and features a max run time of 75 minutes.
Website www.colestinefilm.com
PRAXIS (Goldsboro, NC) – PRAXIS is an independent festival which “appreciates the hard work that goes into creating something from almost nothing.” This is a free festival (in both submission and attendance) and seems like a place that just truly appreciates good filmmaking. We also know that they like UNCW student work as evidenced from Shannon's email as well as photos from the website displaying past students at the event.
Cucalorus (Wilmington, NC) – Cucalorus is a festival here in Wilmington, NC. Although it's local, don't think it's a small festival. Cucalorus is actually a highly respected festival with submissions from all over the world. This last year they had a handful of portrait documentaries play, which leads me to believe that they like and will program them. I did however see a lack of documentary shorts, which is not necessarily a bad thing, and does not mean they wouldn't program Colestine. A huge positive is that this festival is local and easily attended.
VISIONS (Wilmington, NC) – VISIONS is a film festival located right here on the UNCW campus. It is relatively inexpensive ($10 to submit a film early) and if you're film is selected for screening, you're already in town to see it! There is a Documentary category and just like with Cucalorus don't feel that this festival is low-key just because it's local, it gets work from all over the country!
NextFrame (Philadelphia, PA) – NextFrame is an international touring student film festival. That means if your film gets accepted it will play in several different locations, a definite plus! They seem to program a fair amount of narrative, documentary, experimental, and animation works which makes the chances of getting in in any format good.
Hearts and Minds (Wilmington, Delaware) – Hearts and Minds specializes in documentaries about “people, events and movements of great historical and social importance.” Our portrait documentary has a good chance of being programed as portrait documentaries are one of the main categories accepted!
San Diego Black Film Festival (San Diego, CA) – A Festival which specializes in that films that, “must be directed, produced, or principally acted by an artist of African descent in the USA or in any country, or by a person born in any country in Africa, or whose subject matter relates to African American culture or any cultures of Africa (including Egypt, Libya, Algeria, Morocco, etc.) regardless of race.” Well known and renown, acceptance here would mean great things even though it is costly. A bit of a pipe dream perhaps, but still achievable with our little portrait documentary!
Urban Suburban Film Festival (Philadelphia, PA) – Another great opportunity for the African American filmmaker. Relatively inexpensive and well known. Has showcased short portrait documentaries of odd running lengths (15, 29, 37 minutes) and features a max run time of 75 minutes.
Saturday, November 5, 2011
Etching Out the Story
Editing is hard. No scrap that, editing a documentary is hard. I know the story, I knew it before I began filming, but I never would have predicted how hard it has been this semester to find a way to tell this story. But in the words of Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, "Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it." And that is what I have done. I took my stone to where it could be somewhat recognizable to what I was trying to relay to the viewer, but I was unable to enunciate clearly, because of lanes and avenues I would travel down was not pertinent to my sculpture, I had to get back on track.
So I stepped away, forgot about the film and acted like I didn't have one to make. I was no longer a filmmaker. And after a week of not thinking about it, I came back and I found myself on the right track.
The things that are left to do for this film is the title and end sequence, Brian gave me a website for some really awesome fonts and I am hoping to find one that is grungy & elegant at the same time. I gave my files to Deanna and she is working on the sound and then there is music, which I am willing to write myself, but I will not get to any of my other classes or finish any homework, because I really get in the zone when I write music, I will not sleep or eat, and I can't afford to do that now, but if I have to I will, I will just have to be more responsible. My goal is to have everything finished by the end of November, so I can relax a little more going into December.
So I stepped away, forgot about the film and acted like I didn't have one to make. I was no longer a filmmaker. And after a week of not thinking about it, I came back and I found myself on the right track.
The things that are left to do for this film is the title and end sequence, Brian gave me a website for some really awesome fonts and I am hoping to find one that is grungy & elegant at the same time. I gave my files to Deanna and she is working on the sound and then there is music, which I am willing to write myself, but I will not get to any of my other classes or finish any homework, because I really get in the zone when I write music, I will not sleep or eat, and I can't afford to do that now, but if I have to I will, I will just have to be more responsible. My goal is to have everything finished by the end of November, so I can relax a little more going into December.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 13, 2011
Rough Cut
So I realized I didn't write anything about the rough cut. It pretty much went well after I wrote a paper edit. I thank the class for the feedback they gave me about what to do story wise. Length will come into to play when whatever is pertinent to the story is fine tuned. But generally my main focus was flow and redundancy and choppiness and was the story coming across and was it interesting enough to make people care and feel engaged. Okay so I think that is it for now.
Oh yeah already made an appointment with Nate for color and we have begun clean up and I gave Ben the job of creating name cards.
Oh yeah already made an appointment with Nate for color and we have begun clean up and I gave Ben the job of creating name cards.
Tuesday, October 4, 2011
This Weekend
 |
| Justin posing |
 |
| Justin, a BCC Student of Cole's |
 |
| Holden Beach, NC |
 |
| The wind was blowing, my hair is horrid |
 |
| Posing with the JVC on Holden Beach, NC |
 |
| Holden Beach, NC |
 |
| Holden Beach, NC |
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)