#lmusftv

Overall, my vision for color borrows a lot from the greens and dark tones of the swamps we shot in. The primary, distinguishing quality of the color scheme overall has to do with the use of low contrast, where a dark shroud is thrown over everything, allowing a labyrinthine, haunted type of feeling for the swamps. 

So far my committee members’ responses to my film have been really helpful. Charles Swanson, cinematographer, has given a lot of great advice as to how I should go about editing the film and how to fine tune moments of decision, change, shifting tension. He has an interesting perspective on how the tension and tone of a film like this should flow, so it’s been great interpreting his notes. Beth Serlin has really helped with dialog inclusion or exclusion and how that affects the story. Her explanations for how she interpreted the script to transition to screen has really helped me in adhering to the intentions of the original story, deviating from visual frill. Leena Pendharkar has been really helpful in just giving me a more holistic view of the film, from the crafting of the story to it’s best shape, but also in how to market the film after it’s completion. These are experienced filmmakers with a lot of film work under their belts, so I trust their opinions strongly. I know they’re allowing me to make certain “mistakes” in the film, but they’ve given just enough great objective feedback to help me do the best I can with this film. 

I feel as though my first short went far smoother than expected. I wanted to keep the concept as something simple, but I also wanted to play around with the idea of doing some sort of horror short as that’s not something I’ve tried before. 

My initial shot list was set for 29 shots, however through quick thinking during the shoot, myself and the DP were able to cut it down to less than half of that to what I would consider better better quality shots. I would have liked to spend more time on lighting, but I will try and focus more so on elements of lighting and the set design in my later projects this semester.

On the whole, I’m happy with how this first cut turned out. Some of the shots are clearly awkward and too long, however once I can start traditionally editing, I can easily (and rightfully) cut about a minute from the run time. Instead of a traditional music track, I ended up going in and out of a longer drone track for this cut to keep it simple. For the final cut, the addition of more subtle cues should help increase the tension. I am excited to see how the rest of the semester plays out.

Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/139984429

The Magic Moment