Logline: A generous man has came across a conflict between his generosity and morals. His brother has been stealing from his family and is stricken quizzically on how to react. Mortgage is around the corner and he must make a decision.
Jeff has just concluded a meeting with his club on how much they have raised for their tsunami foundation. As he packs up he kindly assists the others with questions they have, in a very polite manner. As he leaves he receives a call from his dad, who asks " I left 10 for you and Jole for dinner on the table" and Jeff says "okay thank you, i'll talk to you later, okay bye".
Jeff gets home and searches on the table under books for the money (a dirty tint in background to enhance poverty), but he can't find it. His father walks in the door (pan) and places his hat on another table. While he asks about dinner, he takes out a bunch of napkins from his work out of a plastic bag and sets them on an old microwave. The father asks him "what did you get for dinner".
Jeff says "well i didn't get dinner . . "
"Well why not?"
"Well, Jo --" Jole walks by staring at Jeff with a scared leer. "I'll just eat leftovers"
Jeff is working on his laptop trying to finish his homework. His brother walks in very warily. He closes the door very gently he rushes to the bed and tries to convince Jeff not to tell their dad where the money has been going. Jeff informs Jole that he is putting this family in danger and that money is tight. His brother leaves on that note, stating at last "Thank you", and Jeff uncomfortably nods his head.
A week later, the door bell rings, and Jeff answers the door. A man is dressed in a suit asking for his father, so Jeff retrieves him. Jeff eavesdrops on the conversation and discovers that unless he pays his debts, they will be asked to leave and find a new home. Jeff looks at his brother, who is hesitant to make eye contact with him. His father walks back into the house after he shuts the door and questions where all his money has gone. Not a word is spoken.
The audience enters the mind of Jeff, as he becomes a narrator. He contemplates on what the right thing to do is. He struggles to make a decision, but looks to (A symbol) to help guide him.
two days have past and the father comes home and slams the door shut yelling. Father rages and asks questions of where his money has gone. Jeff asks "where is your work uniform". His father rambles through stacks of books and papers, throwing everything out of his way rambling to get the money. Jeff trembles in fear, and under pressure, he cracks and reveals that his brother has been taking it. His father turns his anger onto Jole, and all Jole can do is submit and return the movie.
Days past, and father solemnly gets up from a chair after paying the bills. Camera dolly into the room in which Jeff is crying as he holds a newspaper. Jole was caught in a shooting as a result of not paying for what he had borrowed.
* ending may need serious revision, but this is a basic framework for what i am trying to get through to the audience.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Character in Time
This portrait is one of the famous jazz musician (trumpet player) Miles Davis. His beautiful music had innovated both the culture and general play of jazz music, and inspired the music that we listen today. In my story, this character represents the emotional distress that he is dealing with at the moment. As a child, he lived in a time of poverty and struggle to get through the day. His emotional engagement to better the world through his gift of music has harped on his mind on a consistent basis. His troubled past conflicts with his present, so he tries to break through, but he is constantly reminded of it through his experiences through music. He does his best to achieve happiness by pleasing others with his innocent, inspiring music. Flashbacks play a key factor in his because it conveys his personal past that reveals why he is so disturbed in the present. Time can be manipulated in multiple ways to amplify the meaning behind the peace: perhaps time can be sped up as he observes to reflect on his personal views on life. Contrarily, time can be slowed down to suggest importance on a particular moment that is crucial to the plot and how it can deeply effect the character.
Broadcast Critique (summer)
The segment that my partner and I chose to do the segment on was "Capuchino Summer 2011"; a piece about what students of cap did during their summer vacation. We came up with this idea because simply it was the only obvious one to us that wasn't taken, and we chose it because it was relevant and potentially interesting. It was very easy finding people to interview because everyone took part in summer one way or the other other, but we chose students from our own class because it was convenient and moved the process along quicker, for we knew that we would have to send it out on tape the first weak to preserve its content. Our questions were very focused on summer, and we formed questions in order to extract out the most interesting parts of their summer in order to make the piece more lively and fun for the audience, such "What did you wish you did this summer", and one funny response was "I wish i got kidnapped and put into a van and drove away".
The production during the interview was a little rough due to many factors. When we did the interviews, their was construction on all three levels of the campus, so during the interviews, their is faint sound of construction work going on that is a bit distracting. Another aspect that we could'nt very well control was the lighting; the clouds were out so it was somewhat dull. We definitely didn't like the outcome of this part because it didn't resemble the joyous ideas of summer: the sun is out with palm trees and vibrant scenery. As the man behind the camera, i made a decision to sacrifice following the rule of thirds and putting the interviewee off to the side in order to capture dual graphic vectors that covered the z-axis. On one side of the camera were lunch tables lined up, and on the other was a row of plants. I decided to do this because it called for a very interesting setting and shot, and also because it made the scenery very green which is generally appealing.
The script was a strong component of this segment. The opener was full of colorful words such as "bustling" and "adventure". Along with that, the voice itself was very fluent and jolly, producing a welcoming and exciting voice to grab the audiences attention. We also used voice overs to cover for the different questions that we asked our interviewees. These as well were well produced and welcoming. The grand "finale" was a good wrap up that really demonstrated the distinction and uniqueness of this summer in comparison to all of the previous summers as stated by the words "this summer will definitely go down in the memory books".
The main difficulty in producing this segment was finding b-roll do resemble what is being said, but we coped with this difficulty by retrieving clips and images from the internet (primarily google images and youtube). We placed these clips in the front and end of each individual interview to avoid jump cuts between different people answering the same questions. On the other hand, we didnt use any audio transitions, we thought it was unnecessary to do so because we just need audio for the corresponding interviews. We placed a subtle background music that was upbeat and summer-like vibe to it to match the segment itself, and in the end we raised its level to provide for a fuller effect and a finished feeling. For the images, we placed them directly after an interviewee mentioned something that deals with that particualar image.
Overall, i was proud of this piece because it was satisfactory and accomplished our basic goals. Though i wish we could have gotten our own b-roll footage and got out to beaches or so to maximize our experience, i was satisfied with the b-roll we ended up with and the content of the interviews was very good. If i had more time, i would like to go out and gather my own b-roll to bring the quality of the project up, and make the its correspondence with the interviews a little more close. The most important lesson that i learned from this project is to choose a topic that will enable you to get some good and doable b-roll, instead of taking from the internet.
The production during the interview was a little rough due to many factors. When we did the interviews, their was construction on all three levels of the campus, so during the interviews, their is faint sound of construction work going on that is a bit distracting. Another aspect that we could'nt very well control was the lighting; the clouds were out so it was somewhat dull. We definitely didn't like the outcome of this part because it didn't resemble the joyous ideas of summer: the sun is out with palm trees and vibrant scenery. As the man behind the camera, i made a decision to sacrifice following the rule of thirds and putting the interviewee off to the side in order to capture dual graphic vectors that covered the z-axis. On one side of the camera were lunch tables lined up, and on the other was a row of plants. I decided to do this because it called for a very interesting setting and shot, and also because it made the scenery very green which is generally appealing.
The script was a strong component of this segment. The opener was full of colorful words such as "bustling" and "adventure". Along with that, the voice itself was very fluent and jolly, producing a welcoming and exciting voice to grab the audiences attention. We also used voice overs to cover for the different questions that we asked our interviewees. These as well were well produced and welcoming. The grand "finale" was a good wrap up that really demonstrated the distinction and uniqueness of this summer in comparison to all of the previous summers as stated by the words "this summer will definitely go down in the memory books".
The main difficulty in producing this segment was finding b-roll do resemble what is being said, but we coped with this difficulty by retrieving clips and images from the internet (primarily google images and youtube). We placed these clips in the front and end of each individual interview to avoid jump cuts between different people answering the same questions. On the other hand, we didnt use any audio transitions, we thought it was unnecessary to do so because we just need audio for the corresponding interviews. We placed a subtle background music that was upbeat and summer-like vibe to it to match the segment itself, and in the end we raised its level to provide for a fuller effect and a finished feeling. For the images, we placed them directly after an interviewee mentioned something that deals with that particualar image.
Overall, i was proud of this piece because it was satisfactory and accomplished our basic goals. Though i wish we could have gotten our own b-roll footage and got out to beaches or so to maximize our experience, i was satisfied with the b-roll we ended up with and the content of the interviews was very good. If i had more time, i would like to go out and gather my own b-roll to bring the quality of the project up, and make the its correspondence with the interviews a little more close. The most important lesson that i learned from this project is to choose a topic that will enable you to get some good and doable b-roll, instead of taking from the internet.
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