Dear FST302

Last night when we were all working to build up that giant planet I took a moment to look around at everything going on around me. I looked over to whoever it was that was beside me and said "wow, this is college."
And what an amazing moment that was. The best part?
I can do this for the rest of my life!


I never thought that creating things, making films, performing, and meeting so many wonderful people would be my "homework." While everyone else is cramming for biology or chemistry tests, I was gathering pipes and visiting thrift stores for props. There is nothing more satisfying that seeing all of your efforts manifest, some intentionally, others unintentionally, but all equally important.
FST 302 was my favorite class of my college career! I tried so many new things. Stop motion, directing, constructing a giant "ball," and just working with so many new people. It was great that we constantly worked together with different groups AND as an entire class unit. I felt that we all really made a strong connection.
I learned that things will rarely work out exactly the way you want when it comes to film making, but the beauty of it is in recognizing those happy accidents. Thanks Shannon, you helped us all take a new perspective on making films and it has been a major turning point in my young life.


CAN'T WAIT TO WORK WITH ALL OF YOU AGAIN IN THE FUTURE.
keep in touch
Love,
Megan

Film fest blog

I used to think that film festivals sounded big and scary, but I have built a lot of confidence in this class. All creativity is equal. No matter what "level" the filmmakers skills are on,  there is a film fest out there for them to enter! Learning about all the film fests from my classmates helped me leave the class with loads of valuable information for when I decide to start entering! A life of traveling around to different film festivals sounds amazing to me. I plan on tweaking the music video and sending it to a festival or two, the super 8 footage looks so great and I think our content would stand out. I plan on working on the timing to get the movements to match the music as flawlessly as possible!

Follow up on Cucalorus

Wow! I'm already ready for next year! I wanted to go to everything. I figured out too late that the department was giving out more passes that no one picked up...I'll get on it next year. Anyways- my cucalorus experience began with Rare Exports, the story of the evil Santa Clause. It definitely got me into the Christmas spirit. The main character, a little boy was so perfect for the role. I was expecting some sort of horror film but it turned out to be a really cute and fantastical story.... I think some people were disappointed that there was no gore but I was thrilled. The movie was suspenseful, and the ending was much to my relief. The look of it was really interesting. On friday night, I went to Enter the Void, the movie everyone was hyped about. Although it made me want to go home and shower, there were some really great techniques used! There were awesome graphic matches that made the movie flow seamlessly, and the car accident scene was incredibly shocking and realistic. I had never seen anything like it. My complaint is that the movie could have ended about 30 mins sooner, because the last bit of it was just the camera floating around. Another thing that fascinated me was how the city was shown to look like miniature figures. Just when I was sure that the cars were miniatures, the camera zoomed down and into the taxi. There was a particular part that I wish I could have gone my whole life without seeing...I think everyone who went knows what part that was....
On Saturday I attended the Kodak seminar at Screengems. It was fun seeing the studio and learning more about shooting with actual film. They gave us lots of brochures. I love film because it is the classic route to go when making movies since HD is always moving on and changing to the "next best thing." After this seminar I also went to the underwater camera seminar. I thought it would be more hands on but it was interesting to listen to the guys talk about their underwater adventures. They showed us some equipment, I was really interested in the Go Pro that they showed. It is so small that it can be attached to anything, and they told me that it looks even better above water. Sounds like a lot of possibilities!
Later that evening on Saturday, I saw Skeletons and Brilliantlove. Skeletons was really great understated British humor, which I love. The comedic duo themselves were there to answer questions afterwards! They described their movie as Inception, "on the dull," (a low budget). haha.
I heard people saying a lot of different things about Brilliantlove, but I really liked it a lot. There was something really appealing about the concept. Everyone said it was too long, and normally I'm the first to agree, but I stayed alert the entire time. It had a lot of sex, and I think that's why most people went to it, but there were some really funny parts as well (aka I didn't go to watch the obscenities). If I had to label it I'd say "think a soft core porn version of Napoleon Dynamite if the people were better looking." The guy and girl in the film were really cute together and an absurd and homeless sort of way.

CUCALORUS!!!!!!

It's been difficult narrowing it down and figuring out when I can go, but here's what I'm going to:

Thursday: Rare Exports @ 10pm Thailian Black
Friday: Kodak stop by shoot film @ 11am-1pm Screengems
           Enter The Void @  10:15pm Thailian
Saturday: Skeletons @ 7:45pm Thailian Main
               Brilliantlove @10:30pm Thailian Main

Installation Piece

Once again, beyond excited for this one. I've learned a lot about Installations in my avant garde history class and the thought of a mixed media performance sounds spectacular to me. I like the concept we're going with and can't wait to help put it all together by gathering props for the construction workers as well as materials to build a giant "planet" type screen to project images onto. I also suggested that if we use a few construction workers on stage that they wear those flashlights on their heads to add to the visual interest and see the lights in addition to the projections scattering throughout the dark room. I have no doubt that we can make it work because Royce has a story to tell that will capture the audience's attention. I'm very interested to read the script he writes.

keep all your receipts

Wow that song will be in my head for a very long time! What a fun day! It took a long time to gather all the props and load them into my car. It is more difficult to find old electronic devices than I thought! I spent a lot of time searching through every thrift/bargain store in town. We shot in room 2002 of the CIS building and put together a little office setup. Everything looks fairly normal at the beginning of the shoot until the very end when everything unwinds and goes crazy! We really made a mess in there.... but cleaned it all up of course. Our band members Tim & Dustin, Michelle, Haley, Royce, my roommate Jessica, our friend Abby, were all amazing! I was really happy with how smoothly it went and I think everyone else had a good time. It was hard me not to waste time giving everyone a lot of hugs because I was really excited. I typed up all of my ideas so everyone could see what was going on in my head. Everyone seemed to like them and everyone on set contributed to help build the "vision" I had. My favorite part was when I gave all of our "stage crew" members each a set of different directions. I asked them to do their assigned "tasks" at the same time so we could watch it all unfold simultaneously on film. Being in the middle of all this as it was occurring was really impressive to me, I'm just crossing my fingers that it has the same feel on screen. We filmed in a tight space that gives it a claustrophobic and chaotic feel as this group of people are all walking and dancing around the office. We ran out of time to do some other things we thought would be cool, but it wasn't a big deal because what we had should be sufficient and Michelle and I went to their live show around 1am that night to shoot some more footage. The boys were there (still looking spiffy in their office attire!) lighting was dim, but we are hoping that won't be a problem. Thanks group members for all of the work you put in! I think it will pay off.

Art House Cinema reading

I'm one of those people who can't help but whisper about a movie during a slow part or after the showing. Hearing how other people react to a film is important to me as a filmmaker, because I want to know what people like and what they don't like. I love the idea of sitting in a quaint little room or bar, watching an obscure movie no one has ever heard of, and asking questions about it after the credits roll. Who isn't tired of paying $10-15 for a ticket+$10 for popcorn+$4 more for a drink?! When watching a movie I'd like to feel included instead of feeling robbed. From this reading and everything I have learned in Kreul's Avant Garde history class, I wish I lived in the 60's. In my hometown of Asheville at the Cinebar there is always a showcase of short local films before the showing which is exciting, and of course Cucalorus is a place that student filmmakers can go and learn from other filmmakers as well. Last week I attended Kreul's screening at the Opera room and that was a neat experience too! I recommend that everyone go. I find it very important for people to build communities and be able to enjoy these things together. There are still micro cinemas around according to the reading and I'm hoping that they will catch on. It's a difficult situation though because if a micro cinema was advertised like crazy it would probably grow into a large popular "mainstream" cinema and then no one would think it was cool anymore. I guess the trick would be to gather people you know who appreciate good foreign, classic, or independent cinema (in its true context) and find a small venue to invite a group of people.