Filming Frenzy

Okay so i haven't put up a post in awhile but thats because i've actually been filming like crazy! I went to rent a camera from the audio visual department but it turns out that if you don't want to return the camera by 8:30 am you get charged 50 cents an hour! I know that doesn't seem like a lot but i wanted to rent it for over 48 hours so yeah i moved on to plan B! Borrow my friends camera. So far it seems to be working. I filmed all day on monday and i got some great footage on fri, sat and sun night too!. I've also come up with a lot of ideas.

For the beginning i think i will start off with black and all you her is the sound of an alarm. Then it will fade in to a digital clock and all you see is the time. Then my characters eyes will open and her day will begin. There will be a short scene of her on the way to school and then a montage of her doing all her work in various places such as the classroom, her locker, the library, on the train etc. In the background there is going to be techno music. The music is going to get louder and louder as the day progresses. By the time the music is blasting loud my character will be in a club and the montage of her partying will begin. If i can edit it the way i want too I think this video portrait has the potential to be really good.

I'm excited because at first i procrastinated alot and I was really shy about filming things in public. However once i got into it i have really been enjoying looking at life through a lens.
Anyways I'll try and do a better job of keeping you posted!

-Jess

Ideas for the Video Portrait Project

For the video portrait project I decided to create a character. I want the character to be a girl who lives this sort of double life. During the day she is a quiet,studious girl who gets good marks in school but at night she is a party animal.

I'm thinking about using moving shots during the day and the still frames to depict her party life. I might incorporate a few stills during the day part or a few moving shots during the night part, I will see how it goes.

For the day part I will have sound bites of school, pencils on paper, clocks ticking, cafeterias etc. For the night part I will have soundbites of clubs and bars, I will have good techno type music playing there will be sounds of people drinking alcohol and smoking. I want to try and create a few images along the lines of "Requiem for a Dream" which is one of my favorite movies and I think it's one of the best edited movies there is.

I will represent this character so I will film myself at school, I will film myself doing homework, working etc.

Then I will film myself downtown when I go out with my friends, I will film bartenders pouring drinks, I will film people smoking.

Overall I want this portrait project to be dramatic I want to use a lot of closeups focusing on different things for example a closeup of someones lips as they smoke a cigarette or a closeup of someones face as they dance at a club or a closeup of someones hand circling an answer on a test.

I also want to use some black and white and of course narration. I think it might be cool to narrate my characters thoughts. I also think it would be cool to have closeups of clocks because time is a factor in my project. I think closeups of the time will help the viewer to grasp the concept of the "double life."