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My Last Mastery Journal Entry! (Business of Film)

My original goals for this course were to gain a better understanding of the marketing of film in the current industry, improve my negotiation skills, and learn to sell a film or concept in the current entertainment industry.

After taking business of film, I believe I met the first goal of gaining a better understanding of the marketing of film in the current industry. I now understand the business side of the industry, which is something I had no idea about before.

I definitely met my goal of improving my negotiation skills. In the business of film course, we practiced negotiating contracts and pay. Negotiation is one of the most important skills I will need in the future. Although I have a passion for film and television, I can’t live off of passion. I need money to survive. I’m very grateful for learning this skill. Lastly, I also met my last goal. More than anything, I learned how to pitch/sell an idea, entering festivals and competitions, and selling an independent film. I feel prepared to go out into the industry after this course.

I remember the excitement I felt in Mastery. I couldn’t wait to get started. However, somewhere around month 8 the excitement started to wear off and exhaustion started to kick in. The support of the professors and staff at Full Sail are what helped me push through. The pandemic sort of ruined my on-campus experience, but I’m happy I still got to experience being on set for more than half of the program. I can’t believe how fast this year has gone by. In 2 weeks, I’ll be able to say that I earned a Master’s degree (MFA). I did it. This journey has not been easy at all, but I’m proud of myself for pushing through and finishing. LA here I come! (Well, once this pandemic starts to let up).

Go after your dreams!

We are what we believe we are

– C.S. Lewis

This quote resinates with me because I felt it was too late for me to pursue a career in film and television at the age of 25. However, I’m 2 weeks away from graduating the MFA film production program at Full Sail University. I did it! I dreamed a new dream and took a huge step to make that dream come true. I’ve learned to dream big. Go big or go home!

Video Link

As someone who had no experience with editing prior to attending Full Sail, this month has taught me a lot about the skill of editing. The editor has full control of how viewers see the story, which is something I had no idea about before. The way the cut scenes together controls how the story is told, which is pretty cool.

A lecture that really helped me with my editorial skillset was learning when to make cuts while editing. Until this month, I had no idea that specific reasons are needed when making cuts. The reasons are information, motivation, shot composition, camera angle, continuity, and sound. Before learning this, I didn’t know the types of decisions that went into editing. In the previous course, I had to shoot an edit a short film by myself during quarantine. I had never shot or edited anything on my own. When I showed the film in class, the teacher told me my very first cut was “unmotivated”. I didn’t understand what he meant. However, that lecture taught me that since I only switched the position of the camera while the character was laying down (and left the camera at a MS just at a different angle), that the cut was unmotivated.

Now when I watch films, I think about the cuts the editor made and I try to figure out why they made the decisions they did, which I never did before learning about the editing side of post-production. I also learned about the importance of having an organized workflow. It’s essential for the editing process.

My goal for this month was to be able to be able to edit something completely on my own. I accomplished my goal more than once. I cut an entire trailer by myself, and I also edited a commercial on my own (for an assignment). I’m proud to say I surpassed my goal for the month. I consider myself a better filmmaker after completing this course.

Mastery Journal

Before shooting my final project, I was nervous because we had a crew of only 4 people (myself, Aerial, LaMont, and Jamal). I was very unsure of how it would turn out with us doing all the work. However, once we started shooting, I realized we didn’t need a big crew because shooting a music video didn’t require as many people on the crew than a short film.

We shot at an apartment and on the sound stage. As far as setting up having the sets ready, I believe we did a great job. We set up the apartment with lights the day before we were shooting, so were able to get in, get the shots we needed, and get out early. Co-directing was a new experience for me. That’s one thing I wish I was more prepared to do on set. We didn’t discuss what our roles would be as co-directors. Because of this, we sometimes found ourselves trying to make decisions on set, even though we should’ve already had those answers before shooting. Other than not being fully prepared to be co-directors, I feel that we worked well together and got the music video done in an efficient manner.

The music video more than exceeded my expectations. I didn’t imagine it looking as great as it does. I had high hopes, but it turned out better than I’d hoped. I’m definitely proud of the music video and I’m proud of Aerial and I for getting this project done.

Working as the writer, producer, script supervisor, and 1^st AD on LaMont’s film “Hired” was a totally different experience than shooting the music video. It’s a huge difference to be a script supervisor rather than the Director. I wasn’t in charge of the vision of the film, I mainly took the script supervisor notes and kept us on schedule. I feel that film went really well as well. Although we started late on the first day, we still made up the time and finished early that day.

All in all, I feel that the 3 final projects I worked on were amazing projects that I learned a lot from. I’ll take this knowledge into future projects.

Story development for film was an excellent learning experience. My original goals for this course were to develop the skill of character building, improve my understanding of visual storytelling, and to learn tools of pre-visualization (packaging, storyboards, shot lists, and preparing for production).

First, I do feel that I achieved my first goal of developing the skill of character building. Our very first assignment, which was a world and character building exercise, more than helped me develop in that area. I had to dig deep and answer many questions about the character. This exercise taught me to humanize characters and make them more relatable. I also believe I met my other two goals: improving my understanding of visual storytelling, and learning tools of pre-visualization. I also learned about production scripts.

Watching films such as Plan 9 from Outer Space definitely taught me about what not to do during production of a film. The film was so bad that it’s now used as a learning tool for film students such as myself.

I also learned a lot from watching the television show Dogs of Berlin. This gritty crime drama helped me understand the complexities of television production. I learned that when it comes to an hour long drama, the more connections the characters have, the better and more interesting the show will be.

Overall, I do feel this class helped me prepare for my thesis project. Although I am not pitching a short film, I was still able to make a decision about what I want to do for my project, which is to write a television pilot. All the things I learned in this course will be helpful in my journey to becoming a filmmaker.

Directing Talent

My original goals for the Directing Talent course were: Learn about the different tasks of a director, learn how to communicate with actors, and become familiar with a film set. All in all, I do feel that I’ve met the goals I set for myself in this course. Because I had to direct 3 different scenes this month, I was able to learn to communicate with actors while also becoming familiar with how a film set is usually ran.

The main takeaways from the course material for me were how to make effective adjustments and the importance of using action verbs. Previously, I had no idea about the importance of using the correct language with actors. But, now I know how to effectively give adjustments to actors without taking them out of the role. I’ve learned how to speak to difficult actors, and meet actors where they are.

Originally, I didn’t feel as comfortable directing actors and giving them adjustments. However, by the time directing scene #3 came, I felt extremely comfortable and excited about directing. This course was a great first step towards learning about the many facets of directing.

vimeo link: https://vimeo.com/368839581

Premise of the Film

Wyrm (2017) is a short film directed by Christopher Winterbauer. It is a dark comedy about a young boy who has two days to get his first kiss or he’ll be held back. The logline of this film would be, “Wyrm, a young boy, is given two days to get his first kiss, or he risks being forced to wear a monitoring collar through high school”.  The theme of the film is transformation. Wyrm, the main character, must transition from adolescence to young adulthood. The genre is comedy. Specifically, Wyrm is a dark comedy. The tone of the film is both funny and playful. It gives the viewers a new perspective on a young person’s coming of age story.

Basic Dramatic Structure

The inciting incident in Wyrm takes place at the beginning of the film when Wyrm’s twin sister, who has just had her collar popped, tells him that she wants him to move out of their shared room. (In the film, a child’s collar pops off after a receiving their first kiss). She says, “I don’t want to be related to the only freak in the 9^th grade who can’t get his collar popped”. This causes Wyrm to visit the child development specialist who tells him he is the last person in his grade to get his collar popped. He also tells him that he may be held back if he doesn’t get his first kiss in 2 days. This is a major plot point because he immediately attempts to find a girl to kiss. Next, he offers a girl money to kiss him, but she hangs up on him. He sees his sister’s friend, and likes her. He then attempts to kiss his friend, who punches him in the eye. The midpoint comes when he asks his sister for help, and she agrees because he says he’ll move out of their room if she does. The climax is when his sister invites her friend over to watch a movie. She leaves the room and her friend kisses Wrym. She pops his collar. The resolution comes when he turns in his collar and moves into his brother’s room. The denouement is when Wyrm explains how he got the name Wyrm. Although Wyrm finally gets his collar popped, in the end, he doesn’t know any more about sex than he did before. His life doesn’t drastically change.

Production Design. The production design of the film is very nostalgic. The costumes are clothing styles from the 1980’s. The characters wore a lot of sweaters with bright colors. The girls would wear their hair in a side ponytail, which was a very popular hairstyle in the 80’s. The style of Wyrm’s house was a ranch-style home, a popular home design from that era. The production designer had a difficult task of taking a house in a city, and making it look like it’s in a different time and place in history.

Cinematography. Wyrm incorporated many medium shots, close up shots, and inserts. In his book On Directing Film, David Mamet says, “If you are telling a story, moving from one image to another, the images have to be more and more ‘interesting’.” (Mamet, 1991, p. 62). This is true of the film Wyrm. Each image projected the film forward. Whenever a character would mention a significant item, we would see an insert of that item. The camera would also dolly in and dolly out on multiple occasions. For instance, there was a scene where Wyrm is in his room talking on the phone. The camera starts on his face, then the camera moves backward, and a wider view of his room is displayed. There are quite a few shots like this in the film.  

Cinematography, Sound, and Editing. The short film Wyrm used a lot of natural and practical lighting, which is technique that will be used as I work on the short film project in FCP this month. Since the film we will work on is a zero-low resource film, we will use this technique as well. The producer of our film owns a lighting kit, so we will have additional lighting for our nighttime shoots. We will also incorporate close up shots and medium shots to express the character’s emotions in our film. Our film is very dramatic, so close up shots and medium shots will play a huge role in our film’s production. The short film Wyrm mainly used diegetic sounds (speaking roles), and nature sounds when the characters were interacting outside, which we will also do with the audio in our film. It will be a challenge for our film to capture nature sounds while filming because there will be a lot of background noises happening. However, we will add in nature sounds for the outdoor scenes during post production.

Conclusion. There are many jump cuts when it comes to the editing of the short film Wyrm. Many of the jump cuts happen at the beginning of the film when Wyrm is attempting to find someone to kiss. However, I noticed that the second half of the film uses more transitions once he has found someone to kiss him and he moves into his brother’s room. All in all, the film Wyrm was a truly enjoyable dark comedy that used various lighting techniques to portray the emotions of the characters. Although the short film Wyrm is a comedy, it incorporates a lot of elements we will use in our short film entitled, My Boy (2019).

References

Mamet, D. (1991). On Directing Film, 61-62. New York: Penguin Group.