CAP Hollywood Short Film

The moment you have all been waiting for... the moment that you may have been reading through all of my boring blog posts for... behold.... the Oldest Story

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uVPVZB4lNUw

CAP Hollywood Reflection #3

This is a post for school, and thus, if you don't care, don't read. Also, it's the last one

1) Our film is pretty good at this point. I need to incorporate the remaining footage that we have, and smooth out all of the edits. also do some color grading if possible. But even though I have all of this stuff left to do, it is looking pretty good by itself right now.
Challenges: Some of the edits are bad and a bit jarring. Also, the audio is peaking. And finally we have our footage, but I only have a week to turn it from a rough cut to a final cut.
Successes: We finally have all of our footage.
Concerns: I am getting a little concerned about the time, but I am not in crunch time yet. If I spread the work out, it should be no problem.

2) What I did this week for my film:

• Edited at my house, worked on audio, credits
• Filmed our last scene with Zoe

3) Goals for the following week:

• Incorporate the last of our footage
• Edit the final cut
• Credits

"Time has past
this is the last
I'm getting a new camera
Canon 6D."

-Zephyr

CAP Hollywood Reflection #2

This is a post for school, and thus, if you don't care, don't read.

First off, sorry this is late, I was sick over the weekend.

1) Our film is pretty good in my opinion. I would have liked my own camera work to be better, and some of the edits I have in the rough cut are a bit jarring. But all in all it is looking pretty good. I am still confident that I will be able to get it done on time.
Challenges: Again, I thought that some of the edits I made were a bit jarring, also, the audio is basically all peaked.
Successes: Ive been testing out stabilization and some film burn effects, they all look pretty sweet.
Concerns: I have no concerns with getting the project done, but I do have a concern with it looking the best it possibly can. I am working my hardest to smooth out those jumpy edits I mentioned beforehand.

2) What I did this week for my film:

• Edited a lot
• I would like to say other things but that was really it. Our group pretty much has everything else done.

3) Goals for the following week:

• Polish the rough cut
• Film the last 15 second scene

"Reflexive
Reflection
Refractive
Lens?
Aspherical
No
Rectilinear."

-Zephyr

CAP Hollywood Weekly Reflection

This is a post for school, and thus, if you don't care, don't read.

1) At this point in filming CAP Hollywood our group has shot 98% of our footage (we only have one more 20 second scene to shoot), and we have sone some preliminary editing. I feel like our footage that we have gotten is absolutely awesome and I think that we will be able to produce an awesome film.
Challenges: Some discontinuities in clothing, but with proper framing, I could get around it.
Successes: Again, awesome footage.
Concerns: This is going to be a tight week with 2 unite tests and the AP test coming up. Its going to be stressful for sure.

2) What I did this week for filming:

• Got all of the camera equipment
• Filmed everything
• Directed a bit on set
• Used our house for a location
• Gave up one of my precious bananas to one of the actors

3) Goals for the following week:

• Start editing and assemble a rough cut
• Find a date to shoot the last scene, shoot it.
• Get all of my homework done and get back on top of my life.

"Yup.

That's it.

Whatcha gonna do.

Refrigerator."

-Zephyr

Refractography

Discovered a cool photography technique a while ago called "refractography". Basically, you are taking a picture of light scattered from a glass or other reflective object.

To do this, you get a beam of light, I used a flashlight covered with a piece of cardboard, then had a pinhole poked in it; point this beam of light at a refractive object (a scotch glass in my case), and then position the camera where the light is reflecting.

But here's the catch, you need to detach your lens from your camera. The light will be reflecting directly onto your sensor when you take a picture.

Also, you need to do this in complete darkness.


Anyways, here are my photos. And here is a page that might better describe the process of refractography.

http://petapixel.com/2013/04/08/how-to-create-and-photograph-incredible-refractographs/#more-105870

"We are bending light
we are sending light
thats right
I just rhymed light with light with light"

-Zephyr

Documentary Project Reflection

To be honest, this post is going to be pretty boring. If you are faint of heart, leave now and watch my documentary below.

     My documentary, called “Passing the Test” is a short documentary on the educational system in the United States, and what the President of the United States should do to improve it. I worked with Max Scribner and Sam Howells on the project. We submitted the documentary to the C-SPAN Student Cam documentary competition, and won an Honorable Mention. In the competition, there were over 1,800 entries, with 75 winners.

     I found the topic of education very interesting. We had a section of our documentary dedicated to the impact of standardized testing, which I found particularly interesting. I am currently continuing to research this topic and how it affects teacher evaluations in the state of Maryland for my feature story for Journalism. At the very beginning of the project, I enjoyed that we were able to pick our topics and form our own groups. I think that letting students pick their own topics is good because that way the student will be genuinely interested in the topic, will produce better work than if they didn't enjoy the topic, and are less likely to regret picking that topic.

     As I said above, learning about the entire topic of education in the United States was very interesting to me, especially about standardized testing. One specific thing I came to realize during the filmmaking process was that standardized tests really don't exist in the real world. The skills that are valuable are being able to produce a product, be able to answer other's questions and communicate effectively; not filling out bubbles on a scantron.

     Throughout the process of making the documentary, we had a few problems. One was that about halfway through the project, our group lost the drive to finish the project because the deadline seemed so close. That week was also the week of midterm exams, which compounded the stress put on our group. To get past this problem, I tried to lead our group by putting in extra time to pick up what others were putting off. Another problem that our group faced was that when we went to edit, we planned on using a brand new computer I had built the week before. The computer ended up having some problems with displaying graphics, but by staying up till 2 in the morning 3 days in a row to fix the problems, I got the computer running and caught up on editing, which put us back on track.

     There were many things in my project that I would like to change if I could do it again. I would probably do the project by myself next time, because there is really no need for more than one person, unlike other projects in which you need actors, cameramen, and directors. Additionally, I would have liked to shoot the video with a nicer camera. But we had a pretty sweet one to begin with. (Problems of being a camera addict).

     I think that our teacher, Mr. Mayo, did a fine job guiding us through the documentary. It was nice because he wasn't that involved, which let us create what we wanted. Also, as I said before, because we got to pick our own topics, we were all invested in our project, and really needed no outside motivation to do our projects.

In conclusion, I think our project went great, and I don't think that much should be changed about the assignment, except for that we should be given a little more time at the very beginning of the project to more thoroughly research a few topics before deciding on one final one.


"This post is too boring for a poem"

-Zephyr

Caaaaaammmmeeerrrraaassssssssss

WARNING: This post is somewhat technical about cameras, so you will have no idea what you are reading if you are not familiar with them.

I was over at a friends house yesterday, and I discovered a bunch of cool lenses and such. They all have FD lens mounts, an older kind of Canon lens mount from the 70's-80's. Anyway, they were some pretty cool lenses with aperture on the lens, instead of controlled by the camera.




Maybe if I am lucky I'll buy an adapter and be able to use the lenses on my camera. But maybe not.

My friend also had a Canon A-1 (Top), and a Canon T1i (Bottom), the original Rebel camera. Interestingly, it is the third DSLR to have video capability, and it also shoots 1080p video at 20 fps. Kind of an odd number to be shooting at. 



In other news, Canon has sent out invites for a press release on March 21st in the Czech Republic, where they will probably release the Canon 70D, which I may buy depending on the price and specs. Or, I might wait and get the Canon 7Dmk ii, which they may release in this upcoming show, but I doubt it. The 7Dmk ii will probably be released in the second half of this year. You can check out the Canon invitation, and all other rumors concerning the Canon 70D over at canonrumors.com, or just click here."I'm obsessed.For real.It's just that cameras,They're such a big deal."
-Zephyr 

FIESTA!

I BROKE 1,000 VIEWS ON ONE YOUTUBE VIDEO!

CHECK OUT MY YOUTUBE CHANNEL HERE!

OUR DOCUMENTARY THAT I SUBMITTED TO THE C-SPAN STUDENT CAM COMPETITION WON AN HONORABLE MENTION!

Several Things

Let's just get straight to it:

1:
C-SPAN will be announcing the winners to their Student Cam Documentary Competition this Wednesday, March 6th. If my group (Max, Sam, and I) win the grand prize, we win $5000; $1,666 each. You can see our documentary below.

1.5:

If we win the documentary, I'm going to spend it all on a new camera, either a Canon EOS 7Dmk ii, or a Canon EOS 70D. In english, that means one of two really nice Canon DSLRs. Also, I need a glidecam and maybe another lens, and a gopro hero 3. All of this will total around $3,500. Yeah, I'm making a big investment.

2:

Have you checked out the youtube channel devinsupertramp? If not, then go check it out right now. He has some pretty awesome videos, all with essentially the same vibe, but are nonetheless well edited, well shot, and are very good. I hope to take some of his camera techniques and use them in my videos.

Check out denvinsupertramp's channel here. Or if you are too lazy, check out the video below.


3:
I was accepted onto Silver Chips Online Photo Staff! (Our school newspaper).

"Cameras.
Cameras.
Cameras.
Cameras.
Cameras
Lenes.
Cameras.
Cameras."

-Zephyr

Education Documentary

A wild documentary appeared!
What will you do?
-Watch it
-Bag
-Pokemon
-Run



In case you didn't get the Pokemon reference:




"Students are flowers
When they are tended, they bloom
When left alone, a few may succeed
But most will wilt and die"

-Zephyr

60-Second Film Challenge

For this video challenge, students had to make a video in 5 days that was one minute long and incorporated a random object given to us by our teacher.

We received a crystal paperweight.

Our story also featured Nick, an exchange student from England. Check it out.


Shot on the cannon t2i and t3i, edited with FCPX

"Highlights so high
you would have thought they were an airplane,
bad cut at oh-thirty five
I don't care, 'cause I got a sweet solid state drive"

-Zephyr

Under the British Kids...

As you may or may have not noticed, the title of this post is a cross between a couple of things.

1. Exchange students from England are here.
2. "Under the Bridge" is a Red Hot Chili Peppers (RHCP) song. (I'll get back to this in a second).
3. "Under the weather" is an expression meaning that things are kind of bad. (I'll also get back to this).

In the past two days, I have learned a lot about England from the kid that I am hosting, Nick. I've spent some time with him and learned that he really likes the band RHCP, especially the song "Under the Bridge" so I thought that the title was fitting in that respect. But I fear that I will not be able to spend as much time with him for the rest of the week.

Unfortunately, I will be spending time doing homework.

My teachers (both CAP and non-CAP) haven't really adjusted our workload to accomodate for the English students. (Except for Mr. Freeman, props to you). This is not quite what I wanted to do with my exchange student. I think that our teachers should try to organize a hiatus in normal schoolwork so that we can do more activities in areas that specifically pertain to the exchange trip. Learning about different countries, sharing experiences, and getting to know each other. After all, they are only here for a week.

Not to say do no work at all, just saying that we should do more inclusive and fun things for the British kids, such as Mr. Mayo's project where we are taking a break from documentaries to make a short video.

Bottom line: Less/more fun and inclusive work, so that we can take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn about other countries and have fun with our guests.

Opinionatedly written by Connor Smith.

"What is life without a little bit of fun?"

-Zephyr

British Kid Vid

Here's my video of Silver Spring to the British Exchange Students.
It's over 1:30, but, after syncing it to the music, I didn't feel like cutting it down. Plus, it's a pretty good video.
Check it out:

Shot with Canon t3i and a Nikon point and shoot
Edited on Final Cut Pro X (with lots of stabilization)

P.S. I am done with my documentary, I'll upload it after the judging has been done (Early March), and tell you if I won anything.

"Edit all day
Edit all night
Say you wanna edit
Lets edit allright, now"

-Zephyr

Documentary Progress

Well. This is going to be a quick blogpost, because I need to study for the NSL exam.

I've spent the entire weekend configuring my new computer that I am going to edit our documentary on.

It is a beast.

I didn't like any of the mac computers on the market, so I built my own from "PC" parts, then hacked it so that it thinks it's an Apple computer. The program After Effects CS6 loads in 4 seconds.

Anyways.

I have an audio rough cut, and I'll be filling in video and making the final edits the rest of this week, as well as studying for finals.

I have a couple clips from my documentary that I thought were especially cool. Check them out.





Off to study for NSL!

"Upload download
left load right load.
So slow,
I don't care
I've got a hackintosh"

-Zephyr