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!!