Introduction
The Narrative unit at freestyle had a wide variety of things to do and learn. In English, we wrote a short fictional story about anything we wanted. Some of those skills transferred over to Film, where we pitched, wrote, storyboarded, and filmed a different story that we wanted to.
I really valued the creative liberties and opportunities I got with these different projects throughout the 3 classes. It let me express some true emotions and ideas, in a lot of different ways, especially film. I really took away a lot of meaningful skills and lessons doing our narrative film, and was overall a good experience.
Story
For English, before we started writing our short stories, we first went through reading a lot of other short stories, such as ‘Stockings’, by Tim O’Brien. Going through the process of reading and learning about short stories helped us get a better grasp of how we were going to write our own pieces, which made it a lot easier. We then did some brainstorming and a plot map to map out what was going to happen in our story and who our characters were.
Inspiration for this project mostly came from some other short stories I have read, that mostly follow passionate artists trying to achieve their dreams. For this, I wanted to make a more cynical twist to it, so I made it about a photographer obsessed with getting his ‘perfect shot’, even at the cost of his relationships.
Short story
It’s sitting right there, in such a perfect manner that I just can’t describe. If only I just had the camera; if I hadn’t been such an idiot I would have had the shot I needed. But against all that I want, the moment has passed and I have to let it go.
Getting home from the forest, I tell mom about my missed opportunity. “Look Apollo, as much as I love to see you chase your passion, I simply can’t bear to see this obsession get you down so much”. The words take me aback briefly; seeing mom worry about me like this always hurts me a little, but the point she is making just doesn’t click with me. I love her yet I know she is wrong. So very wrong about the lack of importance of this shot.
The next morning, there’s a message sent to me about an enamoring opportunity for a photo; one I just can’t pass up. Gathering up everything needed, I double check to make sure everything is brought so this isn’t messed up like last time. For some reason, the thought that I might forget something passes my mind, which further drives me to fully check that all is in place for when I head out to my calling.
Arriving at the luscious hills I was directed to, my excitement skyrockets, feeling giddy just like a kid discovering something new. Simply gorgeous. The vibrant grass, yellow-orange leaves swaying on the trees, plentiful animals, and stunning sunset. I can’t lose this opportunity, and it needs to be quick as the sun is going to go away sooner than I’d like. Chirp chirp! And it is! Perched upon a large oak tree, is a small brown sparrow. Such a beautiful sight, I mutter. The sun shines on it at an angle where the feathers reflect only a fraction of the light, making it look like the bird is glowing.
As I set down my gear, getting ready to capture this once in a lifetime shot, something seems off. There isn’t as much equipment as I remembered packing. Did I forget something? Not important right now. Going through the pile of stuff I have laid on the ground, I switch through a few different lenses before finding the perfect one for this setting. While switching through the camera settings, out of the corner of my eye, I notice the sun starting to get lower and lower. Not much time left, but this needs to be perfect. Could I live with myself if this fails? After the last mess up, this definitely would devastate me. No matter, as almost everything is ready to go. All I need to set up is the reflectors…which I don’t see in the pile. Is it at the bottom? Looking through the whole thing, it hits me. I left them in the car! With not much time before the sun fully sets, I race over to the car, but while opening the door, a buzzing comes from my pocket. Who the hell is calling me at this moment?! It’s a number I don’t recognize, which tempts me to ignore it and finish my shot, but it could be important and probably won’t take too long. Picking up, an unfamiliar voice is on the other side. “Apollo, we regret to inform you that your mother has been in an accident and is currently in the hospital unconscious”. No no no no no. Not here. Not now. Not her. The reflectors hit the ground as I recoil with emotion. The sun is about to set, and my final opportunity is right now. Not now, then never. I could have what I’ve been seeking for so long. My fulfillment at last. But I can’t do that to my mom. My best supporter in life. How could I abandon her when she needs me most? Begrudgingly, I sag over to the pile of equipment and quickly pack it up into the car. The opportunity is lost. Gone forever. Perfection just out of reach, even after being so close to it. But deep down, a part of me tells me that I might not need perfection. After all, why go for perfection when I can settle for my mother’s simplicity
Illustrations
In Digital Media we learned how to use Adobe Illustrator to make any kind of art we wanted to. After learning how to use it, we then were assigned to make something with it, and out of all the options, the light box looked the coolest to me. I’ve always liked Dragon Ball so I thought I could make Goku and put him on a box, as it would look cool (and it did).
Music
Also in Digital Media, we learned how to use Adobe Audition and were tasks to make a parody of an existing song. I thought of doing a couple niche songs as ideas but decided it would be better to just run with a parody of a popular song, so I chose ‘Blank Space’, by Taylor swift. After choosing the song, I had to come up with some funny idea, and I thought it would be funny to tell the story of a guy microwaving a hot pocket.
After the lyrics were written, I grabbed a karaoke version of Blank Space and put it into an audition file. Then, with the help of Mr. Flo, I went into the recording studio and recorded the lyrics to the song and put them together in the audition file to make one whole song.
Nice to see you, where you been?
I could dream of incredible things
Chewy, tasty, warm n thin
Saw you there and i thought
Oh my god, look at that plate
You look like, my next taste
Grab the package, open up, yeah
Put the pocket on the plate
Gonna open up the microwave
Put the heat up on high
Oh i know im gonna crave this
And now, i cant wait
Im dying to see, how this one tastes
Grab mah fork and the sauce
This is gonna be the damn best snack yeah
So its gonna be delicious
Or its gonna be really lame
Itll tell me when its ready
Or its gonna get burnt in flame
Got a long list of yummy snacks
Theyll tell you there crazy
But i know its the best
And give you the rest
Film
Griffith Scene
In Film we learned how to set up a scene, and the first thing that you have to do is what’s called the Griffith’s Pattern, where you would have an ‘establishing shot’ of the locations, followed by a wide shot to setup the geometry of the area, before finally showing some characters.
Suspense Scene
We learned how to build tension through different kinds of shots in film, and were asked to make our own suspense scene. This one was actually pretty fun as we got to go out and find a place to film so we had more liberties in the assignment.
Chase Scene
This one was my favorite of the bunch of assignments we had to do, as I got to go out and do it with a few of my friends. We basically were just told to make a chase scene using all of the techniques and rules that we were taught in film, although it didn’t come out too great.
Narrative Project
The culmination of everything we learned 1st semester was this giant project where, after storyboarding and writing out a full story, we went out and filmed a story, although with no dialogue. This is probably the hardest project I’ve had to do for school, even working in a group of 3, simply because of the immense amount of problems that came up while filming. Stuff like actors not being available all the time to missing some shots or having bad quality ones, almost everything that could have gone wrong did. Despite all that, I think I grew the most from this project and managed to persevere with my partners to make a half decent film.