Good to be back on the blog.  This is a good way of externalizing all my thoughts about this.

My movie is going to follow a kid, Brian, in the hood as he struggles with the desire to get his mom out of their shitty situation.  He’s dealing drugs, but doesn’t want to.

I’m mainly concerned with giving the audience the feeling of living in this world, and all the anxiety and struggle that comes with it.  I want them to come away with a deeper understanding of the world and potentially a more empathetic attitude towards people who are forced into particular types of lifestyles.

Mauricio Jauregui, who was my Director of Photography, is doing the coloring for my film. 

During filming, we had an Odyssey 7Q monitor which allowed Mauricio to film with Look-Up-Tables. 

Even though I’ve already gotten used to the raw footage, we’re going to color it in a way that makes it more clear when a flashback occurs. 

Also, the present is supposed to be pastel and washed out, the past is supposed to be  vibrant, and the tunnel is supposed to be both vibrant and dark. 

For my rough cut, the main feedback to improve upon was the pacing of the film and confusion over the story itself. The pacing was quick and there was not enough time to sit with the characters. At the end, it felt like a music video. Another comment was that it was uncertain if I was going for a narrative or an experimental film and that figuring that out would help me to tighten up the film. 

Comments for positives were the composition of the shots and the music selection for the scene in the tunnel. 

I definitely heard all of the comments, and I tried to implement them in my next cut. I took out some shorts in the beginning that the class decided were unnecessary, and I switched around the original opening shot to be a flashback instead. 

I also tried to clarify the story by adding multiple shots of the carousel and breaking up my placement of the flashbacks to convey Jeannie’s inner state of mind. I did take out some of the shots that weren’t needed, but I chose to leave others in. I liked the later cut better with them still in.