MP3 Presentations Reflection

 In looking at all my peers work the factor that stands out across every video was the technical skill demonstrated, something that often escapes me in my "I want to get it done NOW!" style of filmmaking. This factor is best demonstrated in the films of Sean Ross. To start, Sean was involved in making the Thon Factor videos. From personal experience I know matching the audio and video in these projects was extremely annoying, furthermore we were given a bunch of random clips and two days to pump out 2-3 videos with what we were given. Despite these limitations, Sean was able to make some exceptionally clean and clear videos. However, these videos were not the impressive thing to me, rather it was Sean's original sci-fi drama, The Space Where Home Exists. Again from experience, getting something well composed on a phone is near impossible, especially when you acting in the shot, despite this Sean was able to make one of the best composed films I have seen from filmmakers at our level of experience. The entire film has a cool John Carpenter-80s feel, combined with the ascetic cleanliness of Marvel Movies Sean's sound design is exceptionally well done. Effects are well integrated; there is a shot where he is looking out into space where Sean matched the lighting to the effect. Overall, this film is a technical achievement, particularly in the production phase.  

Next, I was taken with Zach Willard this marking period. Zach made a film that was basically designed for the specific audience of Aaron Grinberg. He combined a Charlie Kaufman interior self-analysis with a weird hyper-ironic critique of the thing he was making. As I said, designed for me. It goes without saying, but the effect of acting against himself was well done and the cinematography was Fincher-clean. However, this is not the technical achievement of the film, rather I want to discuss his script from a formal perspective. He calls out Adaptation a few times, which is good as this entire film mirrors adaptation. Zach is writing a script about writing a script about writing a script that is trying to not rip off adaptation, all the while using both the conceit and structure of adaptation. One of the smartest written pieces I have seen from a high schooler. I quite liked how he created a stop-point for the meta-layers in the ending, often these things tend to spiral out when in less restrained hands such as my own.    

Finally, I was taken with the deceptive simplicity of Erika Monn's vlogs. Erika produced two film's this marking period. The first was a Christmas video that was a little slow and boring. But, the problems of this first video were corrected in her delightful funny Lucy Takes a Bath. Erika managed to take a simple everyday chore and make it a humorous, interesting, and cute video through exceptional editing. Using a coverage shot, Erika created a fast and effective video from extremely simple source material. The combination of effects and sound design allows simple small events to be extremely meaningful. Furthermore, by cutting halfway through natural noises, such as the "no" at (0:47), a speedy-excitement is generated.