For the past two weeks, I have been working on a few different projects. I am working with Ashley, Grace, and Sarah on the Halloween film, and the past week we have been planning for it and doing rough drafts of filming. I have mostly been working on my hike Vlog. Last week I went on a hike up to the fire tower at Okemo with two of my friends and I decided I wanted to film the hike to practice using the camera and editing so that when I want to work on more important projects I will have more experience. The whole car ride there, Esther filmed, and I filmed the whole hike. It was really hard to get the camera to focus on faces, and things in nature, and to get the sunset in focus. Eventually I think I figured it out. I tried to remember to film things for a lot longer then I needed to. For instance, the shot of the grass or the shot of my dog, I kept filming for longer then I wanted so that it would be easier to edit. There were a few shots that I really liked but they weren't long enough, so I defiantly learned my lesson about that. I am still in the process of editing and I have to add music still. This has been a really fun project to work on and I know the next time I do something like this I will know a few more things so it will be better.
A Star Is Born Critique
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The other day, I watched A Star is Born, and it was one my favorite movies I’ve ever seen. Everything from the music, to the story, to the way it was filmed was amazing. One of my favorite scenes was after she punched someone and he took her to the grocery store to get frozen peas to put on her hand, they sat out in the parking lot talking. At this point they had only just met and he was crazy about her and trying so hard to get her to open up and like him too. In this scene, she really opens up and sings one of her own songs with such confidence. The song is just so amazing and the way she performs it in this scene just makes the viewer feel something. Since this movie just came out, I couldn’t really find a good clip of this scene online but I found a trailer with most of the scene in the beginning.
The scene takes place in a grocery store parking lot at night. The lighting is supposed to resemble street lights, and it does, but it lights up their faces perfectly and creates a romantic mood. There is also light coming from the store and passing cars in some of the shots. In the movie, this was a fairly long scene of the two of them in the parking lot, but it was never boring. The longest shot is about 12 seconds and the rest are about five.
It starts off with a shot of the grocery store all light up with the two of them sitting in the parking lot and the rule of thirds is used.
The other two shots used in the next part go back and forth from looking at the back of Jacks head and the side of Allie’s face, to the back of Allies head and the side of Jack’s face. In both of these the sub Jett of the face, and we never get to see all of it, the rule of thirds is used, and the back of the other person’s head is used to dirty the frame. In the shots of her head, we see blurry red lights and cars driving by in the background, and in both we can hear the wind and city noises to remind us that they are outside in a parking lot.
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When she stands up, we see another shot of them from far away with the store in the background as she stands up. Then they use the same technique of switching on and off from Allie to Jack with the other person’s back of their head dirtying the frame. In the shots of Allie, they are filmed from Jack’s perspective, so we are looking up at and angle at her. I think they used this angle of her and an angle looking down at him to make the viewers feel like she’s gaining confidence and feeling empowered and strong.
