Surrealist movie

Surrealist film edited in adobe premier for surrealism and media class.

Because dreams are personal, it can be tough to portray them in a given film without distorting or ruining the images within the dreams. The best that the producer can hope for is to recreate to the best of their ability the dreams' situations and scenarios. “Local Diaries”  is a short film featuring a compilation of three dreams with different symbols complemented by a hand picked music track.

Small bits of three separate dreams of “Local Diaries” were chosen from my Surrealist Dream Diary and then were filmed and edited to create a story plot. Dropping a game winning touchdown was very vivid in my dream and is shown repeatedly throughout the short film. Struggling to play an Xbox game was certainly a central motif in another dream. And traveling to different football games with different people also came about in a few of my dreams. I tried to take bits and pieces from these specified dreams and create a story out of them, rather than try to exactly recreate just one of the dreams.

A major symbol of my film is the use of color and when it is used. Throughout the story, the main character is trying to succeed in life, but often he can’t. He goes to football games and sees great athletes excelling, but cannot be as good as them. He plays Xbox, but cannot even succeed at that. He does not have friends as he is portrayed always alone. The main character is not shown in color in this film until a turning point in his life and is shown with other people (his friends).

Two more symbols are the fish and the hampster. The fish represents the main character at the low point in his life. He has no friends, his football career is looking bleak, his fish dies and the fish somewhat recommends him dying, until there is a transition. The main character and all of his friends are shown in quick succession (in color) and then the pet hamster is shown. This represents that the main character has been reborn and put his past behind him. He has a new pet, he now has friends, and his football career finally takes off as he is shown walking in the players tunnel and a celebratory touchdown spike.

The setting of this film I feel definitely adds to the plot of this movie. The film was shot in Maryland, Massachusetts, California, and South Carolina, contributing to the somewhat sporadic nature of the film. I was fortunate enough to be allowed to film the shot from the players tunnel and at some of the big time games which created a strong parallel to the big leagues (where the character aspired to be) and where he actually was (playing alone in an open field).

I felt like the music added a strong surrealist touch with the woman’s voice on the track, and the song provided an uptempo beat which went along with the main character eventually reaching his goals.

Although they are sometimes difficult to portray in cinema, dreams are a very important and interesting part of human being. It would be impossible to show and exactly relate all of the dreams in the dream diary, but “Local Diaries” takes bits and pieces from a few of the dreams to create what I think is an interesting storyline.  

Exam Questions

1. Based on what you learned what are the three parts of the production process? Which one took you the longest to complete, and why? Why part of the production process was your favorite and why?

               The three parts of the production process are: pre-production, production, and post-production, and they are all very important pieces in the making of a successful video. In our case, for our cooking show, the post production was easily the longest and most tedious. Yes, the shooting of the video itself took a while but Ryan and myself put the video together on premier and it was pretty long and boring. Also, premier took a while to load, while rendering and exporting and it became frustrating after a while.
               Overall, my favorite part of the show was the production process itself. This was the first time that I had the chance to work in GreyComm and it was a really cool experience. Erica and I were the hosts of the show so we filmed the intro and the ending. Mike helped us get all the cameras set up in the studio. It took us a few takes because we messed up a couple of times and my phone went off once, but overall it went well and was definitely good practice for the future. I felt pretty comfortable in front of the camera and it was really fun. I loved the GreyComm experience and hope to get in there more often when I return from abroad senior year!

2. Describe the advantages of having a course co-taught by two professors with two different yet similar approaches.

The advantages of having a co-taught course are numerous, and is a technique used by many of the most prestigious institutions in the world like Cal Berkeley. First and foremost, we got different experiences and knowledge from both professors. While HJD taught us the technical side of things, Doc Chris taught us the creative side of the production process forming a symbiotic relationship essential in creating a good video or movie. HJD taught us many different lessons from lighting to audio to Adobe Premier Pro. He also introduced us to the Lynda.com tutorials which provided essential training knowledge which we could lean on our own without wasting valuable class time. Doctor Chris gave us useful knowledge not only how to be creative and effective but shared many personal stories and experiences providing us with knowledge. Doc Chris is always trying to help us broaden our horizons and make us think about different things, forcing us to think outside of the box. Jay's calm cool and collected approach combined with Doc Chris's energy and enthusiasm created a dynamic learning experience, something I had never experienced before.

3. Describe how you grew in this class in terms of what you overcame and your sense of personal satisfaction?

This class helped me mature as a video editor, and producer. I was taught to think outside of the box, and going into this, I thought video producing was very laid out and by the book. I also grew as an editor, as before this class I didn't even know what Adobe Premier was. The cooking show was great and helped me think of different scenarios for different things. This class made me get in front of the camera, and if it weren't for that, I would never have experienced the comfort in that.

4. What was the best part of this class for you and would you recommend this course to friend? How different was this class from your other communications courses and other Loyola classes? Do you feel like it prepared you more for the real world because of its strong emphasis on teamwork, flexibility and tight deadlines? Explain.

The best of this class for me was that it was co-taught. It was almost like double knowledge, but in different aspects. I feel like I learned the basics of editing and production in a way that was much more than an introductory level class. I would definitely recommend this class to a prospective communications student because in this class we learned more than any other intro video class in the nation - in a fun way. The tight deadlines taught us to manage our time wisely and efficiently which is essential in the real world, especially in this field. The teamwork aspect of this course was frustrating at times, but looking back I'm glad we did it because we will definitely need it going forward. I loved this class and both teachers.

Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!!

10/10 Class

            In class on Thursday, the Doc was on the mend and was not able to make it to class so we had H.J.D. for the second consecutive class which was good because he explained the voice over process to the class.
           On Wednesday night, Ryan got injured in our intramural basketball game with five minutes to play and they ended up calling the game and we lost. He ended up needing five stitches but didn't tell me he was going to miss Thursday's class and he had the script for the voiceover for out Public Service Announcement. So, I was not able to complete the voiceover without him. Instead, I worked on fine tuning the video and polishing up a little bit.
            I helped Erica and Jenna working on their video with any questions they had regarding premier or anything else in general. I feel myself becoming more and more comfortable using premier as I continue to play around with it and do different things. It is a very dynamic software program especially compared to iMovie and even more so Windows Movie Maker, which I have used editing videos in the past.
            I also find it interesting how the adobe software programs that are on the lab computers, all have a similar interface. I am taking Graphics 1 and we work with illustrator a lot as well as indesign, and it is interesting noticing all of the similarities between the applications, and I think this is another reason why I am becoming more comfortable with premier. I am looking forward to completing our Public Service Announcement and doing the voiceover.

10/8 Class Review

               Yesterday in class with H.J.D. we continued our work with the technical side of video production, working and editing with adobe premier. H.J.D. told us that instead of having to do all of the GreyComm hours (which a lot of people have yet to start) that we could watch tutorials on Lynda.com. If we complete all of the tutorials, this will count as ten hours towards the GreyComm hours. This will be good because we will learn more and more about premier while getting hours for class. I have already watched some of the tutorials and found them pretty informative. He assigned Tutorials 1-4 which in total is 2 hours but I have already completed 1-3 and so far, it has pretty much been a review of what we have learned so far and I am feeling pretty comfortable with it. 

               In class we worked with editing transitions for example, making an image or a video come into the screen on the left, and make it exit to the right. This is a pretty cool tool that Ryan and I might try to incorporate into our Drinking and driving Public Service Announcement. We used the images from the New York folder which we used a couple classes ago. H.J.D. told us not to worry about the voiceover for Thursday's class because we haven't learned how to do it yet. He said he will be in class tomorrow to explain how to do voice overs and help us out with them. He told us to make sure we have our scripts prepared so Ryan and I are going to meet up tonight and make up a little script to go along with our video. 

              Here is what we have so far: 

10/3 Class Review

           On Thursday, Doctor Chris told us that we needed to practice editing and preparing videos. He told us to team up, and assigned us to create a video using ten (or more) pictures from Google Images and compile them using Adobe Premiere to create a storyboard for a Public Service Announcement. Ryan and I teamed up and decided to do our public service announcement on anti drinking and driving.  We gathered images from google including pictures of a party, a text message provoking the person to leave, the person drinking while driving, a car crash, ambulances, and some "say no to drinking and driving" images. We put the images together in a way that a storyline could be understood. Class ended but Ryan and I stayed a little longer to try and finish it. We worked with some of the images and added an audio track. We made sure the images were approximately 3 seconds each because we had 10 and the PSA cannot be more than 30 seconds. A few of the images with text we made longer, giving the viewer a little more time to read it, so in turn, we had to shorten some of the other clips to accommodate. 
           We showed it to Doctor Chris and he told us to post it to YouTube. Then, he commented on the post telling us we need to add a voice over. So that will be our next step. I am looking forward to doing the voice over for the video, but Ryan and I need to meed up and write down a script of what I'm going to say and when. This was a fun little project and I feel myself becoming more and more acclimated to Adobe Premier. Ryan and I finished before every other group, showing that we know what we are doing, not that we were rushing or anything like that. I'm looking forward to tuning up the video a little bit more after we add the voiceover and trying to finalize a quality production. I'm looking forward to class on Tuesday with H.J.D to get more familiar with Premier.

Class Review Tues Oct. 1

Class Review 9/26

Video Blog From Tuesday 9/25

Thursday 9/19 Video Review

Here's my video reflection on Thursday's class!


 Here is a video from class of Doc Chris talking about shot compositions and how important INTIMACY is. :






And here is the shot I was assigned to take during the twins interview:

Photo Story

my photo story:

Tuesday's class reflection 9/17

Thursday 9/12

         After not being in class on Tuesday, I walked in on Thursday and Holy Grail by JT and Hov was on, so thats always good. Thursday was a very relaxed class which consisted on the Facebook group every thirty seconds, in turn blowing up my phone with notifications. As a class we watched Miley's 'We can't stop' music video which is an absolute fire jam so I was excited about that as well. VIDEO:
            Doc Chris seemed very excited about his upcoming weekend because he was going to dominate all the clubs in Washington D.C. (I believe it). Also, it was my first time seeing him wearing a suit which was much better that that Ray Rice jersey from class #1 (no offense).
            Because I was not in class on Thursday, I was worried I might be behind, but Doc Chris gave a good review on what everyone learned. He described the camera shots as a relationship with someone, saying that you don't go up to someone you're just meeting and get in their face and give them a big hug, but rather maintain your distance and give them a handshake. He said this also applies in Video with different shots. If you're introducing a character, you should start wide and then gradually move closer as the audience gets to know the person more. Doc Chris said your first shot should introduce the character and "establish a relationship." At the "mid term" the shot can be a little closer as you are getting to know the person more. Doc Chris gave the example of the TV show 'Friends' when you see the building first (establishing shot) and then you go inside. A medium shot is from the lower chest up. A standard close up is from the shoulders up and an extreme close up is from the chin up. "Its about intimacy...the more intimacy you create with the camera, you can't just go straight in for the kill....you gotta take your time." This was all good to learn because I wasn't in class on Tuesday but Doc Chris gave a simple yet informative introduction to some of the major types of shots. VIDEO:
 

First Day Reflection

                 Today I was introduced to Video 1 and got an idea of how the semester would go. Energy and Enthusiasm. Energy and Enthusiasm. Energy and Enthusiasm. Not enough teachers/coaches/groups/etc. have enough of this today. I'm excited to learn more and start working. Doc Chris said the fundamental principles of this class and video 1are: pre-production, production, and post-production. I am excited about the prospect of dual teachers. Doc Chris said the schools like University of California Berkeley use this teaching style, and Cal is my favorite school in the world...in particular their football team.
                  I am looking forward to learning in an interactive classroom, too many times these days, classrooms are bored by teachers standing in the front of the room for an hour and fifteen minutes simply lecturing and flipping through boring slides. I can already tell that that's not the way this class is going to work. We are going to have an interactive relationship with Doc Chris and J, as well as one another in group work and such.
                 As my YouTube channel shows, I have experimented with different types of videos before...iMovie, Windows Movie Maker, etc. I am interested in learning more tools for editing and creating videos, and expanding my skills. I like that the class goes into both aspects of video, both production and filming, and on the other hand scripting etc.
                When I was younger around the age of 12 or maybe 13, I took a class at one of the Local cable channels in my city. I remember filming and editing things and how time consuming it was. I shot 3 hours of footage for a minute long commercial. It was fun and interesting, but I have since forgotten a lot of the things I learned and I'm hoping this class will refresh my memory.
                The first class consisted of mostly introductions, which I also believe is a necessity in an interactive environment. This video gives a sense on how the first day went...:



And here is my 'Long Take' :