The Arts in New York City

Wow, I can’t believe it’s actually been an entire semester. It feels like it’s been forever with this class, but in a good way! Anyways…

The process of making this film was entirely different than what everyone else had to deal with. I mean come on, we worked with eggs. Oh, and limes. When Eric first mentioned this, I was totally on board…then it hit me. We have to take a lotttt of pictures and we have to make the timing work and we have to be very careful with the set and we have to use our voices perfectly because our faces aren’t making the actions. It was nerve wracking and I was almost against it. Then I realize how awesome it would be to work with eggs while everyone else used people, I mean come on A+ in originality!

I’d have to say my least favorite part of this process hard boiling the eggs. Every time we needed to try to work with the set and test something out, we’d have to wait a good 20 minutes for them to be ready, talk about dramatic! One thing I did learn about hardboiled eggs is that they are not impossible to break, in fact, when you break them it’s gross. Very Very gross.

The hardest part of this was the voice overs. Eric, Ashley, and I literally could not stop laughing at certain points. Let’s just say that Eric’s strong point is NOT voice overs. The timing needed to be perfect for all the interruptions and animation. A week before it was due though, we changed our minds and decided to use our mouths as animation rather than cartoons. Rerecording here we come! This time it didn’t take nearly as long, but it still wasn’t Eric’s forte. He does make a pretty school spider though, I’ll give him props.

My job in this production was production designer. This was literally ridiculously fun. I built the doors out of popsicle sticks, and the window too. I also painted the entire set (an egg carton) entirely black for dramatic effect. The idea of the egg carton being the set was perfect because the eggs obviously fit in perfectly. The limes did too therefore there was nothing else that would work better. The colors I chose were all really bold to get the point of the scariness and the seriousness of the entire play.

All in all, I absolutely loved working on this play. Especially with my group! It was a lot of fun to put it together and I actually enjoyed working with the eggs. The idea was not nearly as difficult I thought and if I could I’d do it again. Thanks for a great year, ITS BEEN REAL.

I would like to start off my last blog by saying how grateful I am that we get to make our own movie for our final, instead of writing papers or taking a silly multiple choice test. It’s so much more fun! I really learned a lot about film making from this project. I now realize that I’ve been taking movies for granted. So much effort and thought was put into this project, from the angles to the contrast of colors, to the costumes. I learned that it’s little aspects like these that allow us to get our perfect shot. Let’s just say, I have new respect for filmmakers now.

There were a lot of great moments with this project, and a lot of stressful moments. My favorite part was that I got to spend a lot of time with my group mates, Reinard, Tyler and Kathleen outside of school. They all have such vibrant personalities, and each day working with them was a blast. From spending so much time with them, I learned that they were all also very talented. Tyler has exceptional directing skills. He had many great ideas on how we were going to film the movie, focusing on details such as exactly where the character would stand and how the lines should be spoken. Reinard and Kathleen surprised me with their impeccable acting. There were many scenes where they were in awkward or silly situations, but they barely messed up or laughed. Talk about self control! Meanwhile, on the other side of the camera, I had to bite my lip endless times to keep from bursting out laughing.

What I didn’t like about the project was that it was so time consuming. I knew from the beginning that this was going to require a lot of work, but I really didn’t expect it to take so long. I had estimated about two or three group meetings to film, but we ended up meeting more than five times, many  hours in each meeting. I had to set aside a lot of time, and cancel on a few plans, but I still think it was all worth it. We worked really hard for this project, and I think it will really show on Monday!

The most difficult task in this project was to find time when we were all available and my apartment was empty. Sometimes, my brother would come home while we were filming, and we would have to stop and wait until it was quiet again. There were also many other distracting noises, such as non stop beeping fire trucks, hissing radiators and my family clanging dishes in the kitchen. It was also hard to stay focused. I mean, with so much food, music and…Dance Central, it’s hard to keep from breaking into spontaneous dance sessions. (I would show the video footage, but I don’t think Reinard would be too happy about that.) But good thing we have a hard working director who tried to keep us focused throughout!

The multimedia project really was the perfect way to end this seminar. Instead of a regular final, we were able to create our own piece of art, which was a lot more effective. Like I said in my previous blog, this seminar really opened my eyes to many things I wouldn’t normally have experienced. I feel much more well rounded. I can finally check “make a movie” off my mental list of “Things I’ve Never Done Before”! It was really really REALLY a great pleasure to spend a whole semester with my fellow classmates and Professor Healey. Have a wonderful break! Happy Holidays!!