Final Post

I suppose I'm expected to conclude this with some sort of sentiment. As of today the film is finally as complete as it will ever be. That means saying goodbye to this horribly stressful and tremendously rewarding experience. It's been quite the learning experience, I'm not sure if I'll miss the looming due dates, but I think I will miss the constant force pushing me to continue learning in the way I did. Learning aside though, the project served as a nice farewell to all the friends I will no longer see after we've all moved to our respective colleges. I suppose that's all I have to say to conclude this.

Finalizing the Project

Filming is nearing it's end finally, we film the last three scenes these evening and we filmed both Saturday and Sunday of last weekend completing around ten scenes. I am continuing to edit and also write up all my necessary documents for my presentation. Oddly enough the project is finally beginning to make full sense to me as I write my narrative for the project. I don't wish to take a lot away from the narrative, but writing down all thats occurred has helped to understand how much I've really taken away from this project. Also I should mention that last night I, along with all the other WISE students attended the sample presentation done by April Carrol. Although noone really reads this blog so the praise won't go far, I have to commend her on volunteering to present in front of the full crowd, and also I must say that the presentation was nothing short of excellent. It has given me a lot to consider for my own project. I want to write a more substantial post but I am simply to swamped with the rest of the work currently, but I'll make sure to write one tomorrow.

Preparing for the Presentation

My Wise presentation is nearly a week away, this means that my personal narrative, research commentary and bibliography is due very shortly, next wednesday to be exact. On top of that I also have to have the final cut of my film. I've planned a long day of filming tomorrow to get done with all of what I can, leaving me about three days to edit a large portion of the film. I also found out just minutes ago that one of my main actors can not attend most of filming tomorrow despite having planned for this filming two weeks prior. All this is really is an excuse for the absence of post as of late and for the next few days, hopefully I will be able to finish everything that I need to.

Working with Fonts

    Personally I never anticipated that the subject of fonts would be a place of research in my project. I assumed I would just quickly pick a typeface for the necessary titles and be done with it. Oddly enough this was not the case. During the past few days I've been editing non stop in response to the looming deadlines. As a part of the editing I had to decide on typefaces for the typed words used in my film. I started by choosing the typeface for my opening credits. I tested several combinations of typeface and color and found that none of them felt fitting. Generally this would be a minor issue yet in a project where I am almost always without total control due to the collaborative aspect, I feel the need to be very precise with what I do control.
     This issue started with me having no knowledge as to how one goes about picking a font that feels fitting. I was merely trying each and deciding whether or not I liked it in the given context. This was an inefficient method, luckily I happen to know someone who does understand why typefaces do or don't work. My father, Bryan Bates, runs a web design and branding company called AWP. Now he himself does not work as a designer but he often plays a role in the process and interacts often with AWP's designer James McDonough. As a result he had plenty of information to pass onto me.
      He first divided typefaces into the two broad groups of Serif and Sans Serif, the difference being that Serif fonts have small strokes that extend beyond the ends of characters whereas Sans Serif do not. For this reason it's generally considered that Sans Serif fonts should be used when the text is large as the letters are more difficult to read. He also said that it's important to either use only one font or at least choose from the same family of font.
       My father then directed me to an article by Dan Mayer that you can find here. In this article Mayer separates fonts into five groups Geometric Sans, Humanist Sans, Old Style, Transitional and Modern, and Slab Serif. Geometric is both clear and modern yet can be boring as it lacks a lot of character. I decided this wasn't ideal. Humanist fonts are meant to derive from human handwriting. They're more detailed than geometric. The pros are that they are both human and clear, but they also can seem wishy washy and fake. In describing a font the use of fake and wishy washy confuses me yet these fonts also did not seem fitting. I continued to read on but found myself only looking at the font samples provided and not the descriptions that seemed to just be a place in which one can act pretentious. It's also entirely possible that I just don't understand design well enough to benefit from what he's saying.
          Nevertheless I ended up moving on to a different piece that was mentioned by James to my father. What I looked at can be found here. All it is a flow chart designed to help you pick a typeface. This seemed much more straightforward to me so I used it. Although I did not find that any of the fonts shown were the one I was looking for, it did give me a much better idea of how to select the desired typeface. Overall I found this piece more helpful.
         You may be wondering why you've had to just read through the research of fonts on a blog about film making. I will tell you why, when I wrote the script for this film I wrote it with the idea of a very distinct mood and feel being applied to the film. Unfortunately I have found that I am not equipped as a director to coordinate scenes in a way that creates this mood. As a result I've made the decision to give the film what distinction I can through my editing. This means that I am putting a lot of thought into my cuts, angles, pace and in this case font. I only wish to produce the best version of what I have full control over, even if that means spending an absurd amount of time on fonts.

Filming Today

Today I gathered the majority of the main actors to complete a decent section of the remaining scenes. We we're able to do complete several scenes, one of which was the most complicated one in the script so that was a relief. Today everyone was very cooperative and worked well together which was a relief. With the work we completed today leaves me with a smaller amount of scenes yet it still is a rather substantial amount. I've spoke with everyone to make sure we will have a full day of filiming next week which is necessary as it's my last day to film. It's going to require a lot of work to be done and the editing in the days that will follow will be quite a lot so I'll see how that goes. I'm still working on writing up a research piece, I've just been preoccupied with editing. Anyways here are a few photos from today.

We had a dog on set at one point

mixed some fake blood

Smeared some fake blood

Filming Plans and Presentation Date

     My presentation date has been set for June 10th at 4pm in G111. This means that my materials for the presentation are due the week prior wednesday the 3rd. This gives me two more weeks of filming, and two weeks to complete my narrative and reflection for my project. This puts me in a very tight time frame unfortunately but I'll make it work somehow.
     A small update on filming, I've been trying to edit film all week but have been unable to touch it because for some reason I no longer have access to the footage and this issue has yet to be resolved. I hope to figure it out tomorrow so I can work on it through the weekend. Filming this weekend is a bit complicated, everyone has separate tentative plans that may or may not be able to be moved. I'm shooting to film on Monday so hopefully that will work out and I can get a good chunk of filming done. I hope to have a new research post up by Friday night and have something up this weekend about how I want to orient my presentation.

Collaboration

Today I came upon an article written by a woman named Gwyn Teatro, she worked in a leadership position for a rather large company for 35 years of her life. She took what she learned there and wrote several pieces about how to effectively collaborate with others. She often noted the importance in reinforcing others so that they feel they have something to offer in the project. This results in a better mesh of ideas because people are more comfortable putting their ideas out there. This sort of environment would certainly be beneficial to my film. I think each of my friends involved have their own unique senses of humor and work well with my own. Also this aspect would really add to the collaborative aspect of my project which is what brings me most out of my comfort zone. There are little changes here and there done by others in the project but I’d like to have more, or at least have the process of open discussion. Seeing as I have a very limited amount of time left I thought maybe I’d take advantage of all the free time I have during the school day. I could bring a script into school and talk with the people involved about what they like and what they want to add. I think this will make the filming even easier if everyone feels like they've invested something in the project.

   Another thing Gwyn talked about that I found helpful was the importance in actively seeking self knowledge and learning. Although I spend a lot of time looking at the techniques of famous directors and have no issue with changing my work if I think there’s a better way of doing it. The issue I have is with learning from my friends. Now it’s not as if I refuse any different jokes it’s more of an issue in a noticeable change in a scene. What’s even more difficulty is actively seeking out the advice of some friends regarding the film. This is likely rooted in some light level narcissism. It’s something I think everyone has when working in the field they’re most passionate about. I have no issue recognizing that my friends are more skilled than I in plenty of things but sometimes I get in my way by having difficulty recognizing that with writing. So this particular suggestion has pushed me to remind myself when listening to an idea that I won’t always have the best idea and that everyone will have at least a few good ideas to offer. I have a mindset that I take into critique that allows me to do that but for some reason it’s more difficult when speaking with close friends. So all in all, from Teatro’s article I’ve opted to have a more open dialogue with actors and to strive to be open about each idea regardless of who gives it.