Tuesday, February 7, 2012

Finalized Shooting and Equipment Schedule

Shooting Schedule:
February 10 – Noon; B-Roll of workers, new additions (bus and office), graveyard and sets
February 17 – Midmorning; B-Roll of bus/ new additions
February 24 – Midmorning; Junkyard tour, B-Roll
March 9-18 – Midmorning; Film inside of Dales house, Junkyard pick-ups, B-roll
April 13 – Late afternoon; second junkyard tour and "less touchy" interview, the "Friday evening gathering" or the Holden Beach men
April 14 – Midmorning; formal/ sit-down/ "sticky" interview
April 20 – Time TBA; Final shoot/make-up/catch-up shoot.
**Note: the exact meeting time will be discussed on a weekly basis, however, we have a general time of day that we will be heading there each visit.

Equipment :
February 10,  -  T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat
February 17- T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat
February 24 - T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat
March 9-18 - T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat, Arri Fresnel Light Kits 
April 13 - AF100 (w matte box-for interviews), T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat, Arri Fresnel Light Kits
April 14 - AF100 (w matte box-for interviews), T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat, Arri Fresnel Light Kits
April 20 - T2i (w Follow Focus), Tripod (with baseplate), H4N, XLR Cable, Boom mic, Shotgun mic, Wireless Lav, Headphones, Lens Cleaner and Tissues, Highhat, Arri Fresnel Light Kits (depending on if we need more interview footage/house pick-ups)

Devotional Cinema Response

By Maryosha


Nathaniel Dorsky’s Devotional Cinema  is a very interesting book! I really loved his description of his first experience of seeing a film and how he felt after the theater.  The soda stains and popcorn pieces on the deco pattern carpet that your eye graze over as you leave the theater because your head is so full of emotion and shock after seeing a film in a pitch black theater that you cannot even hold it up, much less look others in the eyes.  That sense of quiet followed by the parking lot conversation of “so what did you think of the film” and a world that seems completely different after sitting in a theater are all feelings that we have all experienced, however, I personally have become so accustomed to them that I do not think about them in the way that Dorsky so beautifully describes. 

Another thing that Dorsky mentions that really stuck with me was a very simple face of matter that I had never even had the slightest of though about before.  In the section titled Intermittence he states, “On close examination, even our vision appears to be intermittent, which explains why, in film, pans ofter feel artificial or forced. This stems from the fact that one never pans in real life. In truth, when we turn our heads we don’t actually see a graceful continuum but a series of tiny jump cuts, little stills joined, perhaps, by infinitesimal dissolves” (pg. 30).  When reading this, and thinking about my own documentary that I am currently in the production stage, it makes me reconsider some of my own decisions. I do, however, think one or two nice pans that reveals space in a graceful way that calls attention to the technique and art within a shot is perfectly acceptable.  But if the pan is just a graceful or smooth “look” to the right or left of a character within a narrative then it is completely unrealistic and takes viewers out of the story.

Dorsky then continues the Intermittence section with montages which I have always found to be a little cheesy because I personally associate them with Hollywood dramas that have a scene of ‘making oneself better’ or ‘striving to accomplish the dream’ etc. But Dorsky brings up a really great point that when we look back on our lives, our day, or even that last task that was accomplished we remember it in a montage format. Look at the cliché “life flashing before your eyes” right before you die or have a close encounter, your entire life “flashes” before your eyes like a montage in a movie.

Overall, Devotional Cinema is a beautifully written poetic journey through film.  Nathaniel Dorsky has wonderful ideas and opinions on how to get the most out of films, making and viewing them. He concludes the book with a fabulous sentence, “the more film expresses itself in a manner intrinsic to its own true nature, the more it can reveal for us.” So I take away the overall mentality of stressing the importance of capturing the true essence of the story and sculpting my light in time.