Final.

Hey folks!

Had some nasty problems with my “superb” computer so I really haven’t had a chance to update my part of this blog, until now. Last post on deadline day, as always I need to do everything in a hurry, as I just leave it till the last moment, typical student, what more can I add…

Alright lets start this, so I can run to the post office and hand in the letter with the assignment, as at the moment I’m enjoying my holidays at home and I’m 1900km away from Aberystwyth…

Special.

As you might have already read, this week was special! Indeed it was, as on Monday we attended our last screening this year, and not just a casual screening, but screening in “Arts Center Cinema”! Yes, we saw our and lots of other student films on the big screen. I think that this was one of those rare occasions when I was really waiting for Monday, not just because I would soon go back home, but this was a perfect conclusion of these last two months where we had done lots of practical work from which we will only gain in the future, and now we finally had a chance to show our arguably the best film to a wider audience.

The others.

At first I would like to comment on other group films as during the screening I experienced various emotions, ideas , so I managed to establish opinion how well everyone is doing and progressing and from that conclude an overall course efficiency.

I tried to watch the other group movies as a filmmaker, so it means not just in “I like this.”, “I don’t like this” way, but “How did they do that?” , “How well did it work?”, “How could they make it better?” etc.. I don’t want to be very specific on this one, but I can say that I liked some of the films, the ones that were, more or less, balanced in both categories “Picture” and “Story”. The most common problem was that groups could find the balance, between these to aspects(picture and story), some managed to work out a very well made picture, that looked very effective, but in terms of storytelling, character motivation etc. mostly these films started to “choke” and in the end usually there was one question in my head – “What just happened here?”. Other problem was completely different, story in terms of character build up, motivation and everything was worked out very well, but it was shot in the way that it was really hard to emotionally “get in touch” with the characters. But overall, I have to admit, all groups did very well, and we are still learning here anyway, I think that at the next year it will be even better!

A Night To Remember – Our film.

Got some harsh words for this one, of course I was surprised about that, audience enjoyed our film so did we, so in subconsciousness we were waiting from our tutors something like “Very well done lads!” and smiles, but soon the reality stroke us, I don’t want to repeat same things that Ali and other group mates already mentioned…. but, yes, we were cultivating hatred of women in our film and in all honesty I think that a very important detail here is that director for this film was Nicci (woman), so in case if she doesn’t hate her own gender, then I find quite amusing…  But at the end of the day, we still received a very positive feedback from fellow students and positive feedback is positive feedback, it’s always good to hear it. Ah, yes, we still got the runners ups for “Best Editing” in MPP awards, credit to Ali and Iwan(Ivan if you like) once more, they did a great job!

The end.

This course, for this year is officially over now(it was over on Monday already), I enjoyed this time very much and I’m really looking forward to the next year and hopefully it will be as exciting as this one. Thank you for reading our blog and especially if you were reading my posts, and see you soon!

Ilvo Kristapsons

Report on Week 6. Help me!

Hello, again!

A short review on what we heard at the last session about our short film “Help Me!”.

Story: Well, story, more or less, was quite easy to understand for spectators, as I mentioned in my previous blog, story telling is the part of production that we manage to deal with very well, almost always. We usually tend to construct the storyline quite straightforward.

Though we still got some criticism that we should have made it more clear that the character really is a party monter and is spending all his money on drinks all week long…

Acting: Luke did very well, as always, and if I remember it correctly then once again we heard the familiar  phrase from our tutors:

“I  believed that!”

We are very lucky that we have him at our service, as it is very easy to work with him.

Cinematography: This was my role last week, and I was happy not to receive any criticism. Though tutors mentioned that some of the shots were too short, so they couldn’t really catch up with the characters emotions, but we objected, that we had some technical problems (battery went flap) so they let these sins go.

Overall: In the end we once again proved that we are a progressing group. Other groups praised my favorite sequence(Montage, where Luke is in his room, fast foward of his actions and the added music which fitted together very well). As we have already finished this weeks film, I can say that we have learned from our mistakes!

As I said this is going to be a very short report, so excuse me for a bit sloppy writing and lack of amount of words, but it’s  time to go to sleep!

Cheers!

Ilvo Kristapsons

Don’t do drugs! Or making of week 7 film.

Hey, folks!

Finally the last week is here and our group has managed to put together another short film, this time about the consequences of drug consuming! No worries, this won’t be an awfuly didactic film with usual punch lines, we tried to get the message through with bags of dark humour. Iwan managed to turn up with a good script and also with some fragments of storyboard, so it made our job easier. Nicci was the director this week, as she already mentioned she was a bit worried about her responsibilities, but group encouraged her, especially Ali and in the end we managed to produce arguably our best piece!

Scott, our groups DJ, made some nice tracks, that pilled up a suspense, like in real horror movies!

Once again Ali did a great job with the editing and also an input in film making overall, he is our groups energy generator and without him it would be immensely hard to imagine our group! If I wouldn’t be so tired then I would probably pay a tribute to each member of our group, but maybe next time, don’t resent.

Lets see what will tutors say about this film tomorrow, I’m quite pleased with the outcome of this film as the progress progress, in my opinion, is quite obvious and that is the most important thing, that we dont stall our development.

Ok, that’s all for now. Another report after tomorrows session!

Cheers!

Ilvo Kristapsons

Fresh report on week 6 “Help Me!”. Cinematographers point of view.

Hello, folks once again!

Tripod Man.

The day of the viewing is inevitably approaching so I, as a cinematographer of this weeks film, feel obliged to share my thoughts about how it went, what I did, how I felt etc..

First of all, I can say that I was quite concerned about how am I going to cope with the cinematographers role, as without a doubt its one of the most important, if not the most important, roles in group, especially if you forget to push the record button or put the tape in, you might get killed.

At the start we had some problems with tripod it desperately didn’t want to get stated so it didn’t make my mission any easier…

Though, during the shooting I received quite clear instructions from our director – Ali , so thanks to that that it eased my work and I could pick up some confidence. 

Time limit was a pressuring issue this time and the final scenes were shot in awful hurry and on top of the cake, battery went flap…. But despite some obstacles we managed to get the equipment back, more or less, in time. Though I still felt quite uneasy, because I thought I didn’t do good enough work with the camera.

About the final outcome. Indeed I might join Nicci and Iwan and say that this might also be my favorite film that our group has made. Once again editing did extremely well, music and video montage where Luke is in his room doing some stuff and feeling lonely, concerned was probably my favorite scene. I was quite surprised that it turned out to be that long, almost 5 minutes, I guess that’s why we lacked the time in the end.

I can’t deny that I’m quite satisfied with the outcome, so good job group and lets hear what tutors and other groups are going to say about our latest film!

Ilvo Kristapsons

Late report on week 5 “Gamble!” viewing session.

Hello folks!

As we were looking forward to this viewing and wanted to receive some positive response from our tutors I thought that I should also make a short comment on how it went in week 5 “Gamble!” viewing.

The first surprise probably was that our job was analysed by another student group which was quite unexpected, though afterwards we were the ones who had a chance to analyse and also criticize a little bit next groups work, so that was the pleasant part of it.

As usual our story was easy to understand for the spectators, so regarding this point we didn’t experience too much criticism. Though once again our biggest stumbling block was capturing character’s emotions in close ups, this is something that follows us every week, so hopefully we will improve on this in deciding weeks.

Tutors enjoyed the opening scene where camera follows random people until it connects with the main character(check it out to understand what I’m talking about), also overall camera work was accepted quite well, with the exception of lacking close ups. Also acting received some praise as well, so well done for that Luke!

Sound was basically OK, though at some moments it was still a bit jumpy, that was a negative side of my work….

In conclusion, we did quite good, but once more we lacked those damn close ups, which are immensely important in our films, especially because we are one of the few groups that make “serious films without a laugh”, so we need those emotions….

Ilvo Kristapsons

Excitement.

Hello fellow bloggers!

I’m secret number 6 of group haber, Ilvo Kristapsons.

I’m so excited about the chance to finally share my thoughts about group haber  productions that I don’t even have an idea where to start and what to say.

These have been immensely interesting few weeks and I think we are going at the right direction. I’m also quite excited about the latest piece of art called “Gamble” where I had to handle sound systems,  in my opinion great editing, thanks to that it turned out to be a bit different, than I thought it would, it might be the best we have made so far. I’m looking forward to a positive response from our tutors!

That’s all for now folks!

Happy blogging!

Ilvo Kristapsons