Exercises

Here are two of the films that were created within the Practical Workshop class. These pieces represent experimentation with two of the lectures that focused on Montage/Slow Take and Editing.

The first film that my group created was experimenting with long take. We found a fun location (the basement of Gilmorehill Hall) that had a dvd collection. The actions are repetitive and the story is slow, but through the experiment we used different camera angles, and using the camera as a spectator, or in this case as a witness to a theft.

The second piece was interesting not because the work produced was particularly impressive, but because in the physical process of editing and cutting out a 3rd party involved in the plot, I was able to see two things: 1.) Sometimes less is more. A succinct story with clean edits can be just as effective as highly stylized angles and editing choices. Sometimes simple is better.

2.) How much of an impact proper editing or editing choices have on the telling of the story. Obviously I knew this, but over time it is something that I've just gotten in the habit of doing in my own style. It was nice to shake things up a bit and try different ways of editing that were outside of my regular routine. The take-away: I will actively experiment more with things that are typically not my style. I box myself in when continuing to use the same format for projects. Even if it doesn't work, or even if it looks awful I will actively try to experiment more... just to see what happens.