I am so looking forward to doing make-up on my best friends Zombie summer project. All I have to do is learn to do things like this:



and this:



And this:



and then I will be sweet!

Dissapointed

I would like to state that I am thoroughly disappointed with my work and work ethic these past two years. I know that I need to do better and yet I have no idea how to better myself. I am struggling with being tired and my body giving up on me at times and I feel as if my love for film making is slowly dwindling down, crushed by the dirt that piles up on the flame. I know that it is almost impossible to do achieve good grades while also working an almost full time job, but only almost. If all I did was worked and studied then I could achieve it all but how in the hell could I be happy? I need at least some form of interaction with humans other than my class mates and my customers at work and yet when socialising becomes a factor my grades drop ten fold. Lately I have felt depressed and angry almost all of the time, I hide it with a polite smile, and act cheery and bubbly but on the inside I'm burning with tears that threaten to overflow at the smallest hiccups. I just dont know how to fix myself. Can anybody out there help?

The Flicks - SIT Film and Animation Showcase

I really enjoyed attending the Flicks, the works shown stunned me with their polish and style. It really encompassed all of the different ideas that the students can come up with and particularly this year the Animations were very well incorporated making them more a part of it than in previous years.
It has shown me that next year we will have to work incredibly hard to surpass our predecessors and this is what we aim to do.
A few of my classmates have been discussing our role in organising the flicks next year and we know that we want to go all out!! We have noticed that not only is the Flicks about the films and animations that are shown but also that all of the audience members are excited by the opportunity to dress up and have a nice night out. Therefore, myself and my classmates have discussed that we need to make the surroundings worthy of how everybody looks. It will take a lot of planning and work but next years Flicks are going to look amazing!!!

While researching Baz Luhrmann as an auteur I found a quote that the man himself gave to The Guardian;

we were in drama school and we had a whole lot of people telling us that there was only one way to tell a story, by the nature of being in an institution you are academically oppressed and want to find your own voice.

It made me think about how I have been feeling recently as I come to the end of my second year of film making study.

We are a group of creative minds, the kind of minds that crave freedom and time and yet we exist within an institution that controls almost every ounce of our creativity. By being forced to fit into schedules and restrictions our work is affected often in a negative way. I find that due to everything being required at one time, we as students, are never able to complete our work to the standard we want to. Time management is obviously a factor but so is the scheduling of the assignments.

If only, as creative people, we could be allowed some slack and given the chance to let our creativity run free in order to make the things we want to make the way we want to make them.

Technology Today

So who's heard about this iWatch?

On the Apple site they say:

"Our goal has always been to make powerful technology more accessible. More relevant. And ultimately more personal. Apple Watch represents a new chapter in the relationship people have with technology. It’s the most personal product we've ever made, because it’s the first one designed to be worn."

I do think they are amazing. However they also got me thinking about our dependency on the technology we use. With each passing year we are getting more and more reliant on the technology produced by the bigger companies such as Apple, Samsung, and all the others. We have begun to think that we can't live without our technology. Which is probably true. If there were a major disaster I wouldn't know how to light a fire for cooking or warmth, at least not without matches and fire-starters. I wouldn't know how to hunt animals or to forage for berries and roots. I would have no idea how to build a shelter, or tie successful knots. Without my phone how would I get in touch with my friends and loved ones?

The Life of a Film Student

Getting back on set recently for our Music Videos and the Second Year's end of year films has been making me think a lot about how we operate as students compared to how we would be operating after we graduate, out in the real world.


Obviously, our crews are smaller, our films shorter, and our gear less extensive than the professional shoots and yet we keep being told that we should be operating in the same way. Don't get me wrong I think it is important to learn the industry way of doing things so that when we get to that stage we know how to act around the industry professionals, but I think it is incredibly difficult to operate that way because we are different and our film set is different.

For one most people don't run their calls on set as they should. We have been taught but it never seems to run that way once we are on set. This is bad. For example if the 1st AD isn't told that the director is going to shoot, they won't call for quiet on set. I think this call is as much to tell people to be quiet as to warn people out of earshot of the director such as art department who are usually hiding away somewhere that they are shooting. When they don't know they could walk into shot, wasting time, wasting footage. I think this is one thing where we need to stick to industry standards. They still apply to our shoots and we need to remember that they are there for a reason.

I've been wondering why this is all so difficult for us, not just the things we haven't learnt but also the things we have. We are disorganised, forgetful, lazy, tired, confused. I came to the conclusion that part of our problem is obviously that we are young and careless and we don't take all our work as seriously as we should, but the other part is that we actually have too much on,

And I'm not complaining that our work load is too much. I'm trying to say that if I were in the 'real-world' where the professionals work, and I were directing a film that I had written, I would have a producer, a DOP, a 1st AD, an Art Director etcetera, and in the 'real-world' these people would be working for me, concentrating on my project. Yes they may have other day jobs and the like but they wouldn't have their own projects to sort out too.

If I had worked on all the films that I was offered a place on then all at the same time I would be:

1st AD on 2 different short films
Art Dept on  2 more different short films
Producer on 1 more short film
Acting and Art Department on another

And that's not even counting my own for which I am Director, Art Director, Producer, and Editer.

It gives us far too much to think about especially considering how much time and effort goes into just 1 short film. That right there is 5 short films, and some other students will have been on more! In my opinion it creates a poorer quality throughout all of the films. I'm not trying to say they are all terrible but ask any film student and they would most likely say "I wish I'd spent a little more time on it." or "If I weren't so tired" or "It's not as good as I'd hoped it would be."

I get that this is all a learning experience but if we are constantly letting ourselves and each other down, is it really teaching us much, or is it rather just slowly suffocating our spirits?

Working Helps Me Work

 Being in the hospitality industry while I study film making is, I think, a real blessing. I am a waitress and therefore every single night I go to work and meet such a series of new people. Most of these people blur by into nothingness but every few days I meet people who really make an impression on me. The group of girls that remind me of Sex in the City, the couple who come in awkwardly and have nothing to talk about, obviously on a first date, but the most memorable for me was the old couple who came in every few days. The Blanks. The Blanks always drank Pinot Gris. They sat silently while they ate their soups and the Man always finished his 20 minutes before his wife did. She would fall asleep at the table and he would bang his fist on it to wake her up. They always had the roast whether it was pork, chicken, lamb, or beef. After a while they started branching out, ordering desserts to finish. The man got the Entrée Special from the blackboard. Then all of a sudden,they stopped coming in. It made me realise that these people that came in almost every day for lunch or dinner, I could list off every detail about them at the restaurant but I had no idea who they were. I began to invent a life outside the restaurant for The Blanks. I realised it was much like writing characters for a script. Since then I've begun to pay attention to the customers, the quirks, the way they relate to each other. I'm not stuck in some office with the same people to study for characters every day. I'm special and I get a whole new set every single day. Scriptwriting here I come.

What We Watch/How We Act

I am re-watching episodes of AMC's The Walking Dead and flipping through facebook finding reports of Ebola victims rising from the dead. It's making me wonder.

I've always thought that some of  the things we have seen on the Big Screen are sure to be in our future lives.

Take Tron. The way the roads light up the way for drivers and pedestrians. It's very futuristic looking and yet it seems that we are already beginning to achieve this in the present day. Many people have seen the articles about solar roadways. Roadways that create energy, that light up to stop people from hitting obstacles. Roadways that are easily fixable and better for our environment.

So obviously this link between film and reality has some good sides to it. If it creates a better future for ourselves and our world. But what about all the negatives that go along with it?

There are reports that when the Twin Towers collapsed in 2001 that people stood and watched, awestruck, saying the it was "Like a Movie." Because of this comlex many died, crushed by the rubble, suffocated by the ash.

Now here I am, reading up on the Ebola Virus, seeing videos of the dead coming back to life and yet I am saying to myself, "No way it can't be real" and "That sort of thing only happens in movies." And then I put myself in the position of the characters on my TV Screen and think, maybe that's what they were scripted to think and by the time they had proof it was real, it was too late.

I just hope that I myself, and the people of the world don't continue with this complex of thinking that something wouldn't really happen because it 'belongs' in a movie. I hope that we learn from our films, not let them blind us.

Scenechronized

Recently in my Pre-Production class at the Southern Institute of Technology I was made aware of an online program called Scenechronize which offers free usage to film makers anywhere.

It is a Pre-Production tool used to create script breakdowns and also call sheets for television episodes, feature films, and short/indie films. I experimented with it this week and absolutely loved it.

This is a screenshot of the short film project I was working on for an assignment.

All you have to do is import your script and it breaks each scene up for you. Then it gives you departments to fill in such as costume, art, camera, gear, casting etc. This script was very simple for me as the entire thing is only one scene but the program makes it easy to fill in all the elements needed for each scene within a script. I will certainly be using this in my future projects both here at SIT and also in my later career.

TVC Work

In a few weeks my film making class will be designing and filming some adverts as an assignment. In preparation for this we were set a task to examine two ad's and evaluate them.

I chose two New Zealand advertisements due to the fact that the non-profit organisation that we will be making advert's for is also New Zealand based.

The first TVC that I looked at was the Mitre 10 Ad - New Zealand vs. Aussie Kids released in 2008

Product 

Mitre 10 “DIY, It’s in our DNA”

Target Market – 

NZ Males 20-60

Problem – 

Contract builders reducing their sales to the average man (my own deduction)

Concept:

 Two boys at the playground talking about DIY reinforces the slogan. Then they use our age old competition with Australia by having the Aussie kid against DIY. Using the idea of manliness which is important to NZ Males.

Technical Elements:

Cinematography – Kids shot at their level as if the audience is one of them rather than an adult. Good.

Production Design – The day is bright and clear which is the kind of weather men would put a retaining wall up in. Kids holding tools.

Performances – AWESOME!! NZ language used is similar to the target audiences.

Editing – Clean and easy editing that puts the audience into the world of the kids.

Post-Production – Ending slogan with product placement is good.

Thoughts:

Using the kids as actors relates to the 'DNA' idea of their slogan as they haven't had a chance to learn to be this way just through the New Zealand culture. The technical elements including the Mitre 10 song that is used in most adverts are used effectively to put the audience into the world of the kids and promote the product/brand.

Over-all Opinion:

Success!!!

The next ad I chose was the National Cervical Screening Programme TV ad - Lunchroom.

Service – 

Smear Testing

Target Market – 

Poly and Maori Females aged 35-60

Problem – 

Not enough Poly and Maori females are coming in to get tested before its too late

Concept – 

Woman around a lunch room discussing how to tell friends to get tested in a laughing manner.

Technical Elements:

Cinematography – Pushes in to the conversation as if the ‘audience’ is just joining the conversation. Movements in the camera make it all seem realistic rather than static.

Production Design – The lunch room looks average and relatable to most women in office jobs or anything like that. 

Performances – Not well acted (in the sense of real life) but the women do seem friendly with each other. Man in background at 11 seconds is hilarious and truthful. 

Editing –  It cuts between each woman's opinion well as if the camera is another person in the group.

Post-Production – Applies the question at the beginning which is very good. V/O at the end sends the message home.

Thoughts:

Getting tested for cancer can be quite scary and off putting. This advert makes the concept a lot more inviting for the average woman.

Over-all Opinion:

Success!!!

The Role of Contemporary Films in Chomsky's Manufacturing Consent - War Genre

INTRODUCTION

“We are dealing with real human beings who are suffering… because of policies that we are involved in… we as citizens of democratic societies are responsible for. (Achbar, 1992)

‘Manufacturing Consent’ is a concept that respected linguist, Noam Chomsky conceived along with Edward S. Herman in the late 1980’s. Together they wrote the book titled Manufacturing Consent: The Political Economy of the Mass Media though Chomsky is better known for the work. Most of his research on the theory is based upon the media within, and concerning the United States of America, as that is his own country and also one of the most prominent sources of mass media in the world. In the documentary based upon this theory; Manufacturing Consent: Noam Chomsky and the Media he discusses the use of propaganda as a form of indoctrination. He says that Indoctrination is the essence of democracy, which is the form of government implemented in the US. In a totalitarian state the people have a bludgeon over their heads as a form of control so it doesn’t matter what people think. When the state loses the bludgeon and the voice of the people can be heard, as is the case with Democracy, it may make people “so arrogant as to not submit to a civil rule and therefore you have to control what people think. The standard way to do this is with Propaganda.” (Achbar, 1992) This epitomizes the concept of Manufacturing Consent completely.

This essay will examine how Film as a medium and also, a form of media, contributes to the idea of Manufactured consent in the US using films within the genre of War and Combat; both fictional, and ‘based upon true stories’. Considering the fact that Chomsky began developing the idea in the 1980’s and onwards, this essay will concentrate on war films released in the last few years. This also seems viable due to how accessible films have become in the last 20 years since the internet became available to the ‘every day man’.

War films can generally be categorized into two main groups; Pro-War Films, and Anti-War films. It is the differences between these two groups that this essay will examine and discuss in relation to the idea of Manufacturing Consent.

PRO-WAR FILMS

I'm a hard bodied, hairy chested, rootin' tootin' shootin', parachutin' demolition double cap crimpin' frogman. There ain't nothin' I can't do. No sky too high, no sea too rough, no muff too tough. (Berg, 2013)

Throughout the history of film it is possible to notice “subtle shifts in public perception” (Marsh, 2014) caused by the propaganda and manipulation presented to the masses within films themselves. The way in which the public’s perception is shifted is usually influenced in some way by the events occurring in the world at the time. “Although the basic story format is always kept intact (this is the definition of genre), its usage and purpose alters.” (Basinger, 1998) For War films, obviously their most influential events, are Wars. It is no secret that since America first became colonized it has been involved in many war’s, big and small, long and short. However, the most prominently depicted combats in Modern film have been the Second World War (1939-1945), The Indochina War or Vietnam War (1953-1975), and the Iraq War as well as the War in Afghanistan (2001-Present).

Chomsky states that; “Propaganda is to democracy, what violence is to a dictatorship.” (Achbar, 1992) A fitting statement when concerning films about war and combat. America’s wars are often fought in an attempt to end a dictatorship in other countries, or at least that is what is publicised in their mass media.

We cherish freedom—yes. We cherish self-determination for all people—yes. We abhor the political murder of any state by another, and the bodily murder of any people by gangsters of whatever ideology. And for 27 years—since the days of lend-lease—we have sought to strengthen free people against domination by aggressive foreign powers. (Johnson, 1967)

However, since they themselves belong to a democratic society they must use propaganda to motivate their own people to believe in their motives for the war. This is where films such as and Lone Survivor (2013) come into play.

Lone Survivor is the more recent release that this essay will discuss. The film is based on a true story and depicts Marcus Luttrell and his team as they are set on a mission to capture or kill a Taliban Leader but as the title suggests, the mission takes an incredibly bad turn and Luttrell loses all of the men in his team. (Berg, 2013) This is where the propaganda gets a bit more shaded but with some in-depth analysis, the pro-war messages can be seen. One must merely look past what is presented to them to the deeper message in how this effects them. Lone Survivor “tells us to focus elsewhere: on the heroism of these men, on the bravery of their actions.” (Marsh, 2014) This form of Manufacturing Consent is using distraction to manipulate the masses to be more supportive of the war. The fact is that there is significant evidence that “The US government trained, armed, funded and supported Osama bin Laden… in Afghanistan during the cold war. With a huge investment of $300,000,000US, the CIA effectively created and nurtured Bin Laden's al-Qaeda terrorist network using American tax-payers money.” (Debate, 2014) However, there are absolutely no war films which even begin to touch on this issue. Rather, they concentrate on the action within the film and make the characters likable enough that the audience wishes for them to achieve their goal, to kill the ‘enemy’, and to win the war. Audiences watch movies generally to be entertained and to distract them from their own struggles throughout daily life which is exactly why “It’s no accident that Lone Survivor ignores the question of whether the SEAL team’s mission was justified or worthwhile, just as it ignores, even more broadly, the merit of the war in Afghanistan to begin with.” (Marsh, 2014) Audiences just don’t want to see it, or rather, are trained not to want to see it. Chomsky believes that “What the media are doing is ensuring that we do not act on our responsibilities and that the interests of power are served, not the needs of the suffering people.” (Achbar, 1992) Therefore, when presented with a film like Lone Survivor, audiences applaud the characters within for fighting, rather than questioning the motives of their mission set by their superiors. War films have to be effective in this due to the fact that they are portraying a sense of reality to the people. Many of the audience may not have been involved in a war and so they must trust or ‘have faith’ in what they are shown via the media, or in this case, the ‘Big Screen.’

To distract the audience, Lone Survivor concentrates on its character’s and the action involved in their mission. Marsh says that the action, particularly in the second half of the film is so intense, portrayed in slow motion, it is almost “pornographic in its excess.” (Marsh, 2014) Modern audiences have been exposed to so much violence within films now, particularly those depicting wars or set in the action genre, that instead of being horrified by the events, the audience finds it exciting in a way. “We live in an era of desensitizing movie violence.” (Basinger, 1998) Combine this with the way that the characters are presented to us in the film and the audience is given an overwhelmingly supportive feeling for the mission to be accomplished.

[The] opening testimonial is followed by a low-key scene in which an outfit of SEALs laze around their makeshift living quarters, firing off fond emails to loved ones and fretting over forthcoming social engagements…compare this exaggeratedly casual introduction with the way the film brings in its Taliban villains. Their unruly gang storms into a quiet village while firing off machine guns and, while screaming unintelligibly, drags a man into the streets and lops his head off with a machete. (Marsh, 2014)

The two sides of the conflict are given a personality right from the outset of the film. While the American’s are relatable and human, the Taliban are a non-entity. A group that the audience cannot and, after that depiction, would not relate to. The audience is given a right and a wrong with no real explanation behind their new perspective. Marsh puts this into a summary:

We need to believe, even subconsciously, that while the Americans are three-dimensional characters to whom we can relate, the seemingly endless droves of attackers who besiege them are not—they’re merely The Enemy, a faceless mass, a manifestation of evil. (Marsh, 2014)

So, given the fact that the audience is now in a sense ‘voting’ for the American Navy Seals, what effect does this have on them? Marsh pronounces that “when a film like Lone Survivor transforms its Navy SEALs into infallible supermen tragically bested, it suggests that these men are role models only in death—that it was war that made them noble and heroic.” (Marsh, 2014) A very supportive idea of war. Men are influenced from all around to become ‘manly’ and strong. This film shows them that a way to achieve this as well as heroism is through going to war, fighting for their country, and killing the enemy, much as they have been training to do in video games.

ANTI-WAR FILMS

Can't you see that you've already won? You've proved that we are exactly the kind of people we say we aren't. (Woodward, 2010) (Peter Berg, 2013)

Due to the points discussed in the Pro-War topic above, it is clear that there are not many examples of films that take on Anti-War perspectives, let alone give analysis’ of the subject. However one film stands out due to its characters who seem to represent three particular groups involved with the idea of Manufacturing Consent, that film is Unthinkable (2010) directed by Gregor Jordan. Due to the lack of information written about the film and the subject, to analyse the message in this film this essay will look at the dialogue within and how it fits to what Noam Chomsky believes about Manufacturing Consent.

The film is about a terrorist attack by an American Citizen with Muslim beliefs, Younger, who is then tortured by the FBI in order to retrieve information regarding the bombs he has planted in three cities across the US. (Woodward, 2010) The three main characters represent the three groups of people effected by Manufactured Consent about war. Younger obviously portrays the ‘Other’. Marsh alludes to this group as “The Enemy, a faceless mass, a manifestation of evil.” Agent Brody, the character from whose perspective the story is told would be the masses. In Chomsy’s terms she would be the “American people who would be horrified if they realised the blood that’s dripping from their hands because of the way they are allowing themselves to be deluded and manipulated by the system.” This is exactly what occurs for Brody throughout the film, her eyes are slowly opened to what is going on around her. Then, on the other side of the scale we have Henry Humphries, more commonly known as ‘H’. He is a more difficult character to place because his actions are more in line with that of a villain, and yet through his dialogue it is clear that he is the one with the most understanding of ‘how the system works.’

Brody, played by Carrie-Ann Moss, is the central figure throughout the film being pushed and pulled by those around her, mainly ‘H’, Younger, and General Paulson. In the beginning of the film, when she first finds out about the torture of Younger, Brody takes a very clear stand against what is happening. She states that it is “unconstitutional” (Woodward, 2010) which is much like the saying ‘Un-American’. However, throughout the film she allows the influences of those around her to manipulate her into believing that torture is not only the only viable option, but that it is ok. She reaches her breaking point holding a knife to Younger’s chest, screaming at him “How could you do this? How could you?... It was a shopping mall! Fifty-three people are dead!… Where are those bombs? Where are those fucking bombs?” (Woodward, 2010) 

This is what would happen to the American people if confronted with this fact, they would break down. Which is why upon researching reactions to the film one of the most common opinions was that viewers found themselves wishing that the torture had continued in order for the FBI to find the fourth bomb that they were never told about. The audience was taken on a journey along with Agent Brody and they felt the things that she felt, and it scared them. ‘H’ sum’s up her character and the idea of the ignorant masses in a small piece of dialogue near the end of the film. He says to her:

“I have a condition. You. You go out there and drag those kids back in here kicking, screaming and begging. You take them in there and strap them down, 'cause you're the only person here with any decency.”

She ask’s him, “Why me?”

And he replies “Because if you can do it, then anybody can.” (Woodward, 2010) He is saying that not knowing about the things going on doesn’t make her a bad person, but not doing something about it is much like being part of it herself. A hardened torturer, he speaks his mind openly and has a knack for seeing through the lies and manipulations. There a few statements that he makes throughout the film that truly put Manufacturing Consent into perspective, and also brutally announce its use. When Younger proposes that the American troops be taken out of Muslim countries as part of his demands, ‘H’ urges the General to “Just take the deal! His requests are reasonable, achievable, and I believe the American people would go along with them.” Here is where Unthinkable opens the door to the manipulation and exclusion of Manufacturing Consent. The General replies; “Which is why you can be damn sure they won't ever get to hear them.” (Woodward, 2010) ‘H’ forces the ‘elite’ character to openly admit to withholding information from the American Public in order to sway their opinions about what should be happening in relation to the war in Afghanistan. This is what makes the film Anti-War. Its admittance to the fact that the government may be purposefully suppressing facts from the media so that they can’t effect public opinion. In Chomsky’s words “[Democracy is] a game for elites, it’s not for the ignorant masses who have to be marginalized, diverted, and controlled, of course for their own good.” (Achbar, 1992)

Unthinkable is impeccably written to relay to the audience that they are allowing their Consent to be Manufactured by the people in control of their country.

CONCLUSION

 To summarise, Manufacturing Consent is the idea that the American ‘elites’ use the media to marginalise, divert, and manipulate the masses under their control for their own agenda’s. Film being one of the largest and most popular forms of media in modern society, can play a huge role in this.

Through examining the film Lone Survivor, it is clear to see that the messages within are clouded by action and entertainment. The film uses the way it is structured as well as its characters in order to distract the audience from the bigger holes in the ‘true story’ that, if they saw them, would give them a reason to ‘think’ about why everything is going in the Afghanistan, which would mean that they are no longer ‘under control’. The film sends out a message that the war may not be great, but the war can make ordinary people great.

By comparing this with the film Unthinkable the difference between Pro and Anti-War films became very clear. While Lone Survivor subverted the bigger thoughts under action and violence, Unthinkable used violent characters to bring them out into the open, even speaking them aloud. Unthinkable gave the viewer a perspective similar to their own to follow and learn with and then gave that viewers perspective; Agent Brody, an influential voice.

While obviously films are a form of entertainment and not just media, and are meant to be enjoyed, it is clear from this essay that especially in the case of War films, the audience needs to begin to pay attention to what they are being told and what they are subconsciously beginning to listen to, otherwise, they risk allowing the ‘elites’ to Manufacture their Consent without even realising it.

In class we learnt about the pre-roll for all television programs and we made an example for use in the future. It includes bar's and tone as well as black screen, title information, and a countdown. Glad to have learnt this for my future projects so that I can be prepared to put them through for television previews.

We have been asked to examine the difference between roles in film productions. My two roles were the Production Manager and the Producer.

This is the presentation I created using www.Prezi.Com

To view full article for my resources please view www.media-match.com

1950's Film Noir Make-Up

 Recently our class was given a task to create a scene that fit a genre in groups and one of the groups (that I wasn't in) was given the genre Film Noir. The task was concentrated on the cinematography of the scene but the group wanted to make it look as close to the genre as possible in order to use the footage for other things as well. Due to this, I signed up to do the hair and make-up for the Femme Fatale character, Miss Darlington. I took references form the internet shown to the left and went from there.

From my references it was clear that the make-up is based on a naturally beautiful look with Luscious red lips and dainty blush on the cheeks. I also noticed that in most of the pictures I found the eyebrows were dark and shaped. Since I couldn't actually shape the actresses eyebrows I just made sure they were dark and filled a thinner line with some darker colour.

I based the hair on the top picture though the actresses hair was a bit thinner than that woman's seems to be. I curled it with a straightener and then using a comb I brushed out the curls to give a more natural look. If a piece of hair was being particularly difficult I teased it a little before curling it again. I tried to keep most of her hair parted to one side of her shoulders leaving only a little bit trailing down her back and a slightly larger section than that shaped over the opposite shoulder.
I pinned her fringe parts up into the rest of her hair to keep her face clear and from there my only task was to apply touch up's to her lipstick and to clear sweat from the face of the male actor.

I enjoyed taking on this task and I am proud of the work I have done. I received good feedback from the director and hope to do more of this in the future.

My 2014 Rialto 48 Hour Challenge Experience

The Rialto 48 Hour Challenge of 2014 was a completely different experience than that of the previous year for my team, Umbrella Fortress Productions. We had vast differences between our team, our preparation, and also our execution.

This year I played the role of the producer and as that my task was to organize releases and contracts, keep the crew on task, and to prepare locations to film at. Our crew was a small unit of merely four second year students in the Digital Media class at the Southern Institute of Technology. The decision to keep our crew small was a pre-planned and calculated one. The previous year our crew consisted of about 8 or 9 students in the first year of our course and we felt that because of the amount of crew that we had, we made our task far more convoluted and difficult than it needed to be. The director, Lana Black, and I discussed the points at which our team fell flat the previous year and the large crew came up and so we eliminated that risk this year by keeping our crew nice and small and concise.

Another point that came up in the discussions about 2013 was not having a clear idea of the story that our team was telling. We came to the conclusion that this had been due to a lack of pre-planning and a very complex tale filled with the thoughts of our entire team. We decided to take a risk and make 2014 work completely different. For the months leading up to Rialto 48 Challenge weekend Lana and I thought out and wrote down ideas for most of the basic genre’s we thought might be thrown our way; Comedy, Musical, Crime, Horror, Adventure, Fantasy and more. We wanted to be prepared for almost anything that we could be given. We also made the executive decision that our writing team would consist of the smallest amount of people as possible. This was so that when it came to writing it, there weren’t too many cooks in the kitchen I suppose you could say.

By the time the weekend of potential doom came around we felt far more prepared than the previous year. Upon receiving our text with our genre we breathed a sigh of relief. We had been given Mystery/Puzzle. We flipped back to our notes and the idea we came up with for the Crime genre a few weeks prior fitted perfectly into Mystery. “Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?” So we got to work. We finished plotting the story to fit our genre with just myself, Lana, and our ‘soundy’ Kim, who expressed a keen interest in being involved in the story process, present. By about 9pm on the Friday night we had our story planned and plotted, and our actors hired and organized, we ventured down to the Mac Lab at SIT Downtown to get onto Final Draft and begin writing our story out. I took charge of the script-writing while Lana (who had bravely taken on the roles of director and cinematographer) got to work on rough story boards along side me. By 11 that night we were finished, packed-up, and on our way home to get a good night sleep before we began filming at 8am the next morning. I felt absolutely no stress at this time because we had specifically planned the story for only one day with no night shooting involved whatsoever, and only one location, which meant absolutely no travel time. I was pleased to say the least. Most of my job was done with the fact that we already had our location; our own home, and scheduling would be easy as we were shooting in the same amount of time as the story unfolded. Actors were organized to be picked up in the morning and I had prepared some catering in our previous grocery shop. It was on our drive home on that Friday night that I thought back to that time in 2013 and realized that while I was on my home now, back then I would have still been sitting in our team’s headquarters planning the plot without even the smallest grasp on the intended story. I breathed a sigh of relief.

Shooting commenced at 8am on the Saturday morning and as the first shot was being taken I hashed out a quick schedule, making sure to overschedule for every shot in order to know the latest time that we could possibly be finished that night. Even then we were scheduled to wrap at 8pm that night. There were times throughout the day where we ran just slightly behind schedule because we were attempting tricky shots on a shopping trolley following our main character from point A to point B and the trolleys wheels didn’t take to our carpet very well. It was hilariously fun to try and work these out. We had tested it out slightly the night before when we got home, Lana pushed the trolley and looked at the screen of her iPhone that I was holding and informed me of how she wanted the shot and we thought it would work with our Canon camera the next day. Once again, Lana controlled the trolley while I sat inside it and controlled the camera for her and in the end the time we spent on it definitely paid off. We had two pretty professional looking track shots in our small amateur film. Our next shots following ran very smoothly and jumped us ahead of schedule in no time. We ended up having breaks galore throughout the entire day when we had to wait until actors were free to be picked up and things like that. We had a pretty relaxed day all up. A lot of this was due to how well our crew worked together. I loved that as soon as a shot was done Matt, our gaffer, would quickly jump in and get the next shot ready with the help of Kim when he needed her. Lana worked with the actor and set up the shot quickly, and as soon as she was ready so was Kim, holding the boom, ready to go. I thought our team was just absolutely brilliant!  By 7pm I was serving dinner of pasta to actors and crew and we only had one small scene to shoot afterwards. Once that was all done with we cleaned our house and headed into the SIT Downtown Campus to begin a rough edit.

This is where we ran into our first problem. Lana took control of the edit and I waited until it was ready to grade, making coffees for her in the meantime to keep her awake and stress free. Around 10pm Lana had gotten half way through the rough cut when her computer decided to freeze on her. We waited and waited for it to unfreeze but when it seemed obvious that it wouldn’t, we restarted the computer again and Lana had to start her rough cut over. However this wasn’t too stressful. The year before we were still shooting at that time and so we felt still cheery and that we could in fact get it done.

We left for some sleep and returned in the morning to begin cleaning the cuts and making the grade. I worked on our team intro and our credits while Lana chopped at our edit with skill and precision. By 1pm I was onto the grade. I decided to go for a very de-saturated grade similar to that of Saw during all the detective scenes. I thought this fit the Mystery genre well. The grade took a while to render but by 5.45pm we had completely exported our film ready to send.

Upon sending the film in the post to Dunedin to be entered and judged we were ecstatic. It was a far less stressful ordeal than the previous year had been.

I am incredibly proud of our 2014 48 Hour film; Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar. I think that we did an amazing job to keep stress-free and create an awesome film in 48 Hours.