Film 1: Evoking Childhood: "Near and Far"
Kent Thalman Evoking Childhood Assignment:
Director's Reflection:
NAME: ____Kent Thalman________
DATE: _____ _09/20/16___ ____
FILM: _____Evoking Childhood___
DP: ____Howie Burbidge___
TMA 285 DIRECTOR’S REFLECTION
Overall response (2-3 paragraphs):
In 2-3 paragraphs, write an overall response to your film: Were you successful? What are you proud of? What would you do differently if you could remake this piece? What did you learn?
First off, I believe that I was only nominally successful with this piece. I feel that it evokes childhood as an idea, but fails to elicit a specific emotion overall. There is little-to-no point to the film, other than being a series of reminiscent images. But those images turned out well, and the editing of the piece seemed to feel very cohesive.
I think that I'm proud of the performance of the two boys. I feel that the part where they're just hitting each other with weeds is my favorite. It has a nice feel to it. If I could do it over again, I would utilize the shot list much more, and be more careful and exact in my conceptual approach to image making. So that leads to what I learned, which was to prepare much much more.
Briefly answer the following:
What, specifically, did you want to communicate? Were you successful? Why? Why not?
I wanted to communicate the two feelings of feeling close to and accepted by an older brother, vs. being left behind or alone thereby. This came across pretty strongly in the final piece because everyone in the class seemed to express this. However, it was more of an idea than a feeling. There was a majority of students that felt the overall film laking in feeling afterwards. I think that this was caused by my failure to deliberately charge the images with emotion, and to organize the piece overall in such a way so as to feel complete or cohesive. As it stands, it is mostly a photo album of a hike to nowhere.
How, specifically, did you try to say this? What visual elements, techniques, etc. did you use?
I wanted the color of their uniforms to create separation, as well as the distance between them. Shots where the younger brother tries to catch up, or when it tracks parallel to them showing their distance created a clear sense of their relationship. How close people walk together is a strong indicator of the strength of their relationship based on my mission experience.
What did you learn about Storytelling:
Working with actors and getting performance: Giving kids something to do actually can help make them incredibly easy to direct. When you put young people in nature and run around, they seem to totally forget that they are on camera! That's not always possible in any given scene, but if a kid needs to loosen up, maybe just go outside for a few minutes.
Blocking — camera and actors: Documentary-style shooting can work in a lot of cool ways, but it has its limitations. I can cover space pretty well, and even conceptualize shots on the fly, but emotionally charging a shot requires time and effort to execute. Howie did this so well on his film, but I rushed mine, and it shows.
Visuals — composition, framing, visual elements: Same thing here. In addition to blocking, controlling what is in the frame is huge. Get rid of CARS! And reshoot something if need be. Pay attention to what draws the eye in a frame. If in post there is a color that should be desaturated, do it. That's not too hard.
Design & Art Direction: The scout uniforms worked pretty well I think, but Jaden apparently came across as a girl. I am not sure how to remedy this, as I really liked his unique look and long hair. I perhaps could have had him doing more boyish stuff right at the beginning, or have him speak more line to make that clear. But I have to consider that upfront.
The Production Process — collaboration with crew, the logistics of making this: Charging an image with emotion takes preparation, and time in production. I need to take more time finding and scouting locations, deciding on cast ahead of time, conceptualizing and even storyboarding shots, etc. Then while on set, I need to follow that plan, and learn to perform what I've promised! That means taking the time to control the frame.
What was it like to watch your film with an audience? Did they understand it? Miss the point? Why did they respond the way they did?
Honestly, I was so nervous about the film in general that I couldn't really feel the room react. If I had been more prepared, I could have listened to the emotions in the room more carefully. But I wasn't confident in the film, and I could only feel my own worry. Even in post, I could have chosen music more carefully, fixed color issues, and even scrubbed the audio more (you even hear me say “cut” in the beginning). And they seemed to get the idea of the film, but many comments were about how they didn't feel there was much of a point to it, and that the exposure was all over the place (which isn't true: I think it was my post color job). So I think they were responding to a job half-done on every level.
Other observations: I don't think that this film was a total failure. At the very least, it taught me what kind of effort will be required of me going forward. I am not so talented that I don't need to try. If I am going to make something that actually elicits an emotional response that sticks with people, then I am simply going to have to work harder.
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