possumfan2021

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Radical Week 15 (Final Update?)

I just submitted my final exports! I’m a little nervous my captions aren’t formatted correctly and any and all feedback would be helpful! I attached a google drive link to my MyCourses submission where all my files are. :) 

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 14 Update

I have created what I’m hoping will be the final cut of my film. I also did a rough mix of all the sound and music and wrote some more music as well! I don’t have the actual file attached to this post but I’m going to be bringing my drive to class to show the film that way. I exported it as a 422 HQ successfully as well!

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 13 Update (Final Critique)

Attached is a link to my third edited cut of my film! This includes all After Effects work, credits, as well as some rough stuff of what my sound and music might sound like! https://youtu.be/ki2nEjJ5iSU

I also started working on technical stuff for my installation! Below are some pictures I took at the Cage of the set up I was working with

[possumfan2021]

Radical workshop week 12 update

I have created another rough cut! I will link it below. This cut was made based on feedback from the class, and I also managed to get after effects to export properly this time, so yay!

https://youtu.be/LSQpNqxaB0s

I also started getting stuff together for my installation this past weekend. I have the media player and I plan on messing around with it sometime this week. Excited to work on more for this film!

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 11 Update (Rough Cut)

I spent a lot of time this past weekend working on my rough cut. Its definitely too long right now and a lot still needs to be done, but I have a good first start. Just from watching it over a couple of times now, some sections of it feel like they drag on and my edits need to be tighter. I also think I need more found footage. I would really like some suggestions from the class on what I could do better though! I think the one section I’m happy with at the moment though is the end where the interviews begin layering over one another. 

https://youtu.be/dMhcv3HkEMc

I also started experimenting in after effects this past weekend by watching some youtube videos that Christine provided for me and messing around with some of the animation presets in the program itself. Unfortunately for today, I had some issues getting the footage to export correctly with all the effects I added on. I will ask about this in class today and hopefully have some more cool transitions to show by next week. 

[possumfan2021]

Radical Cinema Workshop Week 10 Update

No major updates this week! I started hunting down some found footage clips I might want to use and I’ve started synching sound on the interviews I shot last weekend. I’m hoping to start getting a rough cut together soon so I can begin working on the music and sound design as well. 

[possumfan2021]

Week 9: Mid Production Check In

My film has come a long way since my initial proposal! Just as a refresher up until this point, I’m going to recap my progress on my film so far that I have posted on this blog or discussed in class:

My film idea revolves around my personal experiences having ADHD. It can feel chaotic at times, and my thoughts can feel like they are racing like channels changing on a TV. In the final cut of my film, I hope to emulate this experience both visually and through sound mixing.

My approach to this concept involved me filming several interviews asking people the following general questions

1. Introduce yourself (name, year, major, one fun fact about yourself)

2. tell me a funny story of something that happened in high school/when you were younger.

3. Tell me about a dream you had.

4. using as little context as possible, explain to me the plot of one of your favorite pieces of media (video game, tv show, etc)

5. What does the word ‘chaos’ mean to you? You can be as descriptive or non descriptive as you want to be.

I also asked a few customized questions to interviewees I happened to know very well personally, which made some of the answers I got interesting and fun!

I am then going to sporadically edit these interview answers together with found footage out of order and out of context, as if to create the sensation of ‘channel surfing’ to represent my racing thoughts due to ADHD. The end of the film will involve several of these interview clips to be played all at once in order to emulate the ‘sensory overload’ that can be caused by ADHD.

My film will have the aesthetic of analog/VHS. I chose this aesthetic specifically because I am personally fascinated by analog video mediums and really wanted to experiment with it. Initially, I was going to accomplish this look by shooting my film digitally and converting to analog, but I ended up doing the opposite - instead, I shot on an analog JVC Mini DV camcorder and converted these captured tapes to a digital file via a capture card and the OBS streaming software. 

I wanted my film to have some pretty intense lighting as per my moodboards, with very neon colors that I thought might look interesting in the more analog format I shot my film in.

That’s most of everything that has happened so far! Now for my update...

I shot my film this past weekend and it went insanely well! Despite having limited crew, everything went smoothly and we actually managed to wrap everything up early. Interviewing people was fun and I got some amazing answers to the questions I asked. I think these answers will work fantastic edited together. Below is a link of some of the interviews I filmed this past weekend. I picked one answer from each interview to show to the class as well as a couple of fun extra clips I shot that day.

https://youtu.be/mr5-3s6JzMo

I am looking forward to moving into the post production process for my film and I am going to experiment in Premiere for the editing process and I am going to look around for found footage as soon as possible. 

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 8 Update

No major update this week! I just worked on finding some crew (I lost some people, but I still should have enough to make sure my set runs smoothly) and I scheduled out all my interviews. I am filming this coming Saturday, I am nervous but excited! 

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 7 Update

This week, I shot some test footage for my film! I wasn’t 100% sure what I should shoot in order to make sure the camera worked, so I decided just to wander around my apartment filming some silly TikTok-style skits. Below is a link to my camera test!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n5v6t9fZZmw&t=276s I also played around with some in camera glitching effects by digitally capturing the already recorded film and rewinding and pausing the tape. The link for that footage is also listed below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5IL-bnEd-PY&t=25s

I accomplished all of this by recording onto a Mini DV tape using the JVC camcorder I am borrowing. Afterwards, I hooked up the camcorder to my laptop using a capture card that plugged in via USB to my computer. I then played the footage back and captured it digitally via OBS. I’d say the test was a success! In terms of my shoot itself, I am currently having some issues finding crew, as a lot of people who said they could help have since realized they had other plans that weekend. I hope to get this resolved quickly.

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 6 Update

This past week I ordered the tapes I will need for the JVC camcorder I was lent for this assignment (I’m now realizing I said this in class but I never posted about it, I am borrowing a camcorder from my friend Olivia in order to achieve the aesthetic of my film and streamline the post production process from my original idea). They arrived extremely quick, so that was a plus! Here is a photo of one of the tapes below: 

I am officially doing a camera test this coming weekend (October 2nd), I plan on shooting some b-roll type footage with the camera and then hook it up to my laptop to see if the footage turned out the way I would need for my film. The most I had time to do this week was turn the camera on and make sure it works, but it was pretty cool!

As of right now I have 9 people confirmed to be interviewed the day of my shoot and several people interested in being crew for my shoot. I also came up with a couple of interview questions! I’m going to list them below:

1. Introduce yourself (name, year, major, one fun fact about yourself)

2. tell me a funny story of something that happened in high school/when you were younger.

3. Tell me about a dream you had.

4. using as little context as possible, explain to me the plot of one of your favorite pieces of media (video game, tv show, etc)

5. What does the word ‘chaos’ mean to you? You can be as descriptive or non descriptive as you want to be.

Lastly (and this is more of a fun update, haha) something really coincidental happened this weekend and I thought I’d share it here! Me and fellow classmates Emily and Bridget along with my roommates all went to a concert this past weekend for a band called IDKHOW But They Found Me. Emily, during the concert, made a fantastic point: the lighting they were using during the show is very similar to what I actually want to do for my film! Here’s some pictures for reference, I just thought that was really funny!

Alright, end of update. Things are going really well so far! <3

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 5

Good news! I reserved studio A for October 16th to film my project! I also had a really productive production meeting with my producer Nolan yesterday and he is assisting me with finding crew for the day of my shoot. I am also planning on contacting Mary to send out a mass email to find people to interview that day. I hope to have that done within the next two days so I can solidify who I will be interviewing and possibly set up a schedule that day.

One thing I super need to work on is to figure out what the backdrop of the interviews will entail (I’m thinking some funky looking fabric and string lights? I may sketch up some ideas). I also need to write down some potential interview questions to ask my interview subjects. I hope to have some of this figured out by the end of the week. I also will be testing out the camera I am borrowing next week, I was told what type of tapes to buy and I am going to attempt to order them and have them here quick by using amazon.  Things are finally moving along! I am excited to get going on this film. 

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Radical Workshop Week 4 Update

I’ve brainstormed a little bit more on my film in the past week, and I also have gotten a lot of advice from friends and other people around SOFA on how I should go about planning this film. I am pretty bad at scheduling and staying organized (which is kind of in theme with my film? Odd enough?) but my friend within SOFA, Nolan, has offered to help me out with some of that stuff and act as my Producer. I am still trying to determine what crew I will need on set, as of right now I think I will need one or two people on a sound team, some people to help with grip/gaff needs, someone to take BTS photography of the shoot, and a DP. I plan on trying to find crew and solidify a plan by the end of this week if I have time, as I am also on a senior capstone set this weekend.

Ideally, I want to shoot the weekend of October first, however I am worried I will not have time to plan for a shoot so soon given my busy schedule. I am going to try to figure things out though to hopefully shoot then, as I feel that shooting will only really take one day at most. I also plan to try and get the word out throughout CAD and SOFA to find people interested in being interviewed for my film sometime this week. I was thinking I could possibly have Mary mass email CAD, as I have seen her do this for other students. 

So, I’d say I’ve had an eventful week! I’ll continue working on all of this and mapping out my film sometime this week when I can find time. 

[possumfan2021]

Radical Workshop Week 2

Below is my proposal for my radical workshop film!

Knight Connors

Phone: (201)294-8639           Email: cjc6232@rit.edu

Working Title: “Mental Channel Surfing”

Software, Material, and Technical Needs:

I’ve been doing a lot of research over the past week into digital to VHS conversion and I found a lot of really helpful video tutorials on how to accomplish this. I’ll link them below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iic3xg_7M4s

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cGeiTmVdP6I&t=238s

Some of the items that I would need in order to create my film and possible installation are several CRT monitors or TVs, a VCR, some blank VHS tapes, RCA cables, an HDMI cable, and an HDMI2AV adapter. If I decide against my idea of making this film entirely analog, I probably would only really need the CRT TV’s and I could edit all the VHS-like effects into Premiere Pro during the editing process. 

Medium(s):

The medium I plan to use is digital film converted to analog via VHS tapes. If I decide to not convert to analog as I am planning to do, I probably will edit the digital footage to appear to have the intended ‘vintage’ look. Outside of screenings I want to show my film on several CRT monitors arranged together, possibly stacked on top of one another.

Installation: 

The final film can either be viewed at the end of semester SOFA screenings or via an installation I plan to create. The installation will include several CRT monitors playing out of sync random segments of my final edited film to create the sort of ‘chaos’ feeling I want to achieve with my film. I have included some sketches of what I think this could possibly look like in my thumbnails.

Aesthetic: 

I really want this film to have a VHS horror/vaporwave aesthetic. I also want each scene to change very abruptly, as if they are channels being flipped through on a TV. Finally, I want to add some glitches and artifacting through slightly crinkling the VHS tapes I want to record on (I actually looked up a tutorial on how to do this, not too scary or difficult!). 

Theme(s): 

Since my film is going to be revolving around the idea of what it feels like to have ADHD, that definitely is going to be an ongoing theme in my project. Some other themes I think I want to convey that I feel relate to my interpretation of having this disorder is chaos, anxiety, nervousness, and the feeling of being overwhelmed. 

Proposal:

The film I want to make for this workshop revolves around how I personally feel when I experience symptoms of ADHD. While this disorder is typically associated with losing focus and hyperactivity, most of the time it can be a lot more than that. ADHD symptoms can include periods of ‘zoning out,’ executive dysfunction (the feeling of ‘I WANT to do the thing but I can’t physically get up and do the thing. I don’t know why.’), as well as hyperfixations on specific subjects or concepts such as favorite TV shows or favorite animals. At times it can feel like your brain is racing at a million miles an hour and there’s no way to control or stop it. This can lead to feelings of anxiety, fear, and disorientation. I want to convey these feelings through the visuals and the sound design in my film. The two ideas I have right now for the content of my film itself are I either want to have different actors read out random articles from Wikipedia, or I want to ask real people who have ADHD to talk for several minutes about a subject that interests them and let them continue to talk even if they stray off topic. I then want to convert this footage to VHS and purposefully add in my own artifacting and glitches to the footage itself. For a screenings environment, I would edit the footage in a way that allows each little ‘interview’s’ audio to slowly layer over one another, eventually to create a sort of chorus of sound. I want to then edit the sound in a way that allows certain parts of stories or topics being talked about to peek through, but they are quickly covered by another thought from another speaker so you never hear the end of what someone is speaking about. Visually these clips would be played side by side, filling the screen in their own little condensed squares. In an installation setting, I want to set up several CRT monitors and play back each of these interviews out of sync and at random to create the sort of ‘chaos’ of sound that I feel represents the thought process of a lot of people who experience ADHD or ADHD-like symptoms. I also might add my own music to the film, as I am currently taking a composing for film class.

In order to accomplish the look I want to achieve with my film, obviously I would have to do some research on digital to VHS film conversion. I could just add the indented VHS effect with digital editing, however I am really interested in experimenting with this medium and I really want to try and do this authentically. I have already started doing some research on what items I would need to buy to accomplish this, and it does not seem like it would be too expensive as I already own a lot of the items needed (like HDMI cords and a VCR). I think in terms of shooting this film, I probably could accomplish it and get all the footage I need in one weekend and I probably could use Studio A to do so. Most of my time with this film will probably be spent editing it to fit the desired themes and aesthetic I want. 

Moodboard: 

I have included a link to my moodboard on Pinterest, but here are some screenshots of some images I have compiled on that webpage. I really like the colors used in my moodboards and I would really like to incorporate them into my film in some way.

https://www.pinterest.com/angryflutenoises/radical-cinema-workshop/

Thumbnails:

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Radical Workshop Week 1

I knew going into this class that I had a specific aesthetic/look in mind for my film, but I wasn’t sure exactly what I wanted it to be about or represent. I’ve never used Pinterest before but it definitely helped me come up with some ideas! I found that it was really helpful for brainstorming and inspiration. I ended up making two different pinboards/moodboards for this assignment because my ideas started shifting around a lot and I wanted to keep things separated. The larger moodboard is my main idea, the second board is a secondary one I came up with. 

Here’s the link to my first moodboard

and here’s a link to my second 

Finally, here’s some of my current ideas for my film:

I am someone who struggles with my identity, both in a gender sense and an emotional sense. I was thinking of maybe making a film on this topic using the imagery in my first moodboard? I would probably also add some cool sound design to the film as well. 

Using both the imagery in my first and second moodboards, I would also maybe like to make a film about the struggle of recovering from trauma and feeling like you have no closure (kind of why I chose a lot of static/glitchy imagery?).

I have some pretty severe adhd, and it can feel like there’s a lot going on in my head all at once. It also can feel like you are disconnected from yourself and it is very easy to question the decisions you make and the feelings you have. I’d like to visually represent this with my film as sometimes it’s something that is very difficult for me to easily describe with words. 

I’m not sure yet if I would like to use found footage or film my own footage for this film (I’m leaning towards the second) but I really like the colors and sort of neon lighting included in my moodboards. I think it might be interesting to recreate that in a studio setting and possibly as an installation for people to physically see. I need to think a little more about what format I want this to be in but I do have a start!