Filming (Notes from “How to Shoot Video that Doesn’t Suck”)

In history our third-quarter project gave us absolute freedom to do whatever we wanted. My friends and I (who have already made a movie together) decided to pull together and create a second masterpiece. In preparation, I skimmed the book  How to Shoot Video that Doesn't Suck and made notes for myself and our other camera lady. 
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When the camera is placed in your hands, you are now the filmographer and the director. It is up to you to make sure that the scene you film is as good as it can possibly be. Here are some tips from my film book:

Think in shots

• Is what you’re filming interesting? How can you make the scene more interesting?
• What is the point of focus?
• How can you convey the emotion/dynamic/action/plot of the shot better?

Avoid super long panoramic views

• Mostly because we want to keep this video under 10 minutes (though it may have to be longer simply because we need to have 10 hours each, and since some of y’all aren’t writing/editing)
• One or two might be nice to set a scene or whatever, and it wouldn’t kill us to film them, but a 10 second view of the landscape isn’t that interesting.

Keep shots under 10 seconds

• unless it’s ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY, do not shoot the same shot for more than 10/15 seconds.
• It becomes boring and the action of the scene is broken. I know that for us most of our shots will probably be a little long (that’s ok) but we don’t want to slow it down.

Close ups & zooming

• Don’t stand 5 feet away from the person and then zoom in with the screen.
• it makes the footage more unstable
• it makes the footage loose quality
• neither of those will get us an A
• If we are doing a close face shot, actually stand close enough to make the shot without zooming. It may be a little uncomfortable and awkward, but we don't want to zoom too much. If we really need to, I can zoom later in editing.

Keep the light behind you

• Unless we have a reason to have the light behind the character, it’s usually best to keep everything in the shot well-lit

Turn off ALL digital effects

• Unless it’s something we can only do on the phone, then please let Amanda deal with it after in the editing process. It makes life simpler.

Stand still while filming

Remember the intent of the scene

• Is the character happy/sad/angry/at war/waiting for news of the war/listening to the radio... the actor needs to do their part to convey the scene, it’s the filmers part to make sure that nothings lost between face and film
• Know the story and the scene, it will make this part much easier

Plan a shot list

• We’ll plan a few specific shots in the writing meeting, but the rest of the shots will be decided on-site.
• So basically make sure you know what you’re filming

Make the star look great

• If they obviously have no clue what is going on, stop the video, stop them, and save us a the embarrassment of turning in a bad movie
• Make sure they actually look good. Sometimes cameras picu up weird lighting or whatever,  so make sure they’re not too washed out/shadowed.

COMMIT YOURSELF TO A STANDARD OF EXCELLENCE

Books of 2014 (Pt. 2)

Meada
Author: Euripides
Published: 431 BC
Genre: Tragedy
My Thoughts: Well, if Greek tragedy is your thing, go for it. I personally think that most plays should be seen, not read. 

Lord of the Flies
Author: William Golding
Published: September 17, 1954
Genre: Dystopia, Speculative Fiction, Allegory
My Thoughts: As a plane-full of boys find a way to survive on a deserted island, Golding explores the human condition, and the animalistic nature that people can revert to in a time of crisis. It was pretty interesting, and if you're into stories like Fahrenheit 451 or Animal Farm, you would probably enjoy this as well.

Cornelia and the Audacious Escapades of the Somerset Sisters
Author: Lesley M. M. Blume
Published: January 8, 2008
Genre: Adventure, Historical Fiction, Youth
My Thoughts: Ok, so this is a children's book (like, middle grades reading) but it has been my favorite book since I was 10 and it was the 4th time I've read it and omg memories. Eleven year old Cornelia becomes friends with her neighbor who spent her 20's traveling the world with her sisters. The various escapades they go on are hilarious and all the characters are surprisingly developed for a children's story.

Steampunk Fashion
Author: Spurgeon Vaughn Ratcliffe
Published: November 1, 2012
Genre: n/a
My Thoughts: I enjoyed this book, but I don't recommend it to anyone who's not familiar to Steampunk. It is mostly pictures of various steampunkers + a biography/write up on how they make their outfits. It's more of an inspirational showcase for those of us who make our own steampunk gear. 

Huckleberry Fin
Author: Mark Twain
Published: December 1884
Genre: Adventure, Satire, Humor
My Thoughts: Well, it was assigned for school, so as far as summer reading goes, it was pretty good. I enjoyed the majority of the book, and thought it was a fun follow up to Tom Sawyer. To be perfectly honest, the last two chapters were unnecessary. Twain obviously included them simply because he wanted to draw a connection to the previous novel, and it did nothing to further the plot- it left the book with a weak ending.

The Books of 2014 (Pt. 1)

So, alternating with my 10 Prompts, I will be posting the books I read in 2014~

[fun fact: usually there would be a picture of

all of those books right here

but i'm sick so theres not]

The Fault in our Stars
Author: John Green
Published: January 10, 2012
Genre: YA, Romance, Realistic Fiction
My Thoughts: Before I say anything about the actual story itself, I want it to be clear that John Green is a wonderful writer. Actually, the only reason I managed to finish the book was because of his diction. The story itself was not as compelling as many people made it out to be, and the plot seemed to really meander and lose focus in the middle (though I see his reasons for doing so). I don't really recommend it. That's all I have to say about this one.

Cry, the Beloved Country
Author: Alan Paton
Published: 1948
Genre: Historical Fiction, Social Criticism
My Thoughts: I really liked this book. It was a stirring story of a fathers search for his son in the racial tension/ institutionalized racism of South Africa. Unfortunately, it was extremely hard to follow. Why? Because Alan Paton thought he was above using decent punctuation, such as quotation marks, commas, paragraph brakes, not using paragraph breaks, periods, and grammar. As you can imagine, it was kind of a nightmare to read, due to it's formatting. I recommend it to anyone who has patience and wants to read a historical novel with major social commentary, but be sure to be wide awake while reading!

The Lost World
Author: Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
Published: 1912
Genre: Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction (fun fact: in the time it was written it was called a Scientific Romance- the old term for Science Fiction)
My Thoughts: I really loved this story. It is absolutely one of my favorites! The characters are pretty well defined, the narrater is likable, and the plot is quite fantastic. I actually prefer it over the Sherlock Holmes stories... I totally recommend this to anyone who likes dinosaurs/victorian era/adventure stuff :) And the ending was surprisingly satisfying. 

Macbeth
Author: William Shakespeare
Published: First performance- 1611
Genre: Tragedy
My Thoughts: A power hungry man kills all in the way of "his" throne... only to go insane and tragically loose everything. As far as Shakespeare tragedies go, this one just didn't really live up to my expectations. That may be because Hamlet is my favorite, but some parts of Macbeth just fell flat to me. If you enjoy Shakespeare and tragedy (a perfect mixture for insane characters), then yes, I do recommend this book/play (the play is always better)

Fangirl
Author: Rainbow Rowell
Published: September 10, 2013
Genre: Romance, YA
My Thoughts: The title says it all- a popular fanfic author finds her life turned upside down as she goes to college, finds a guy, and learns to not depend on her twin sister. The characterization is great, and all of the characters feel very real. It's a cute story, but I wouldn't really recommend it. Let's be real- I would rather read the sci-fi/fantasy story than the story about a girl who writes about the story any day ;)

Fall Break and Mystique Progress

Helloooooooooo.....


So I was on fall break last week, AND IT WAS FREAKING AWESOME!!!! Like, I don't know what made it so awesome, I didn't do much other than work on my costume or go to that anime convention, but it was really fun. You know, sometimes it's nice to just sit at home and not have to worry about doing much.

The pile of stuff I dumped out of my bag from the con. Signed poster in the middle, a cute little Totoro  sketch, my notebook, lanyard and wallet. After the con I picked up some new wig caps, blue face paint, and liquid latex.

I honestly can't remember much about Monday, but I didn't do much. I finished up sketching the Mystique picture, and watched Agents of Shield. I think I may have watched a movie with Mom... yeah, we watched "The Great Gatsby". I loved it! I feel like it really captured the spirit of the book. It was funny how all of the music had such modern sounds to it, instead of a 20's soundtrack, but it worked. It was beautifully done, and absolutely one of my favorite book-to-movie adaptions.

And then from Tuesday to Friday I worked on my costume!

Setting up!

So I did end up using Mom's shirt. A friend asked me the other day on how I got good materials for my costumes. Start with a base, then modify as needed. It helps a lot for a beginner cosplayer like myself, and it saves a lot of time.

Time to cut that shirt up!

So, as you can see, I took out the sides and most of the sleeve. I regretted not making a custom dress form over summer... this would have been so much easier!

 After cutting out the sides and making sure they were porportind right and all that jazz, it was time for *cue dramatic music* ... FABRIC GLUE

That stuff is amazing! Instead of having to hem the shirt by sewing by hand (my machine is in the garage under a pile of stuff -.-), I could just glue it! It still took a quite a bit of time, but there were no needles involved, which was nice.

Ok, so after hemming the shirt, it was time to move onto the sleeves. I had an old pair of dark wash jeans that I used. Surprisingly, making the sleeves wasn't that hard, but I did have to hand sew it (needles hurt, btw).

Yeah, thats GreedLing in the background. The FMA gang was keeping me company :p

Next: the side panels. I used the top part of the jeans that I used for the sleeves, so I had to deal with pockets and buttons and thick material and ugh it was reallly difficult. But! It worked! So who am I to complain. By this time I had almost completely run out of fabric glue, so I returned to sewing.

So, I'm almost done with the top! I just need to attach the arms and do the other side panel and it will be done! Oh, yeah, and the zipper... but that shouldn't be too hard (I hope).

So that's it for cosplay right now...

Other cool things that happened: I went to the County Libraries Fundraiser. The author speaking this year was Dom Testa. I bought his series, "The Galahad Books", which are pretty good.

On Thursday I got the "House of Hades" ...OMG IT WAS FANTASTIC I WILL RIDE OF INTO THE SUNSET ON THE ARGO II CRYING FOR A YEAR YAYY... and finished it Saturday morning before going to Karate.

Then on Sunday I got a new phone! This one has a nice screen... I can actually see it. Haha, I had slammed my old phone in a car door, so the screen was all shattered and unresponsive.

I also talked to my friend Jaymes about San Diego Comic Con, which we're planning on going to. I registers, and am praying that I get ahold of tickets!

God bless!