Week 3, and possibly a bit of 4.

First of all, Koldenhof was amazing. Not only for the zip line and the soccer game, but also cinematically. Or "audially." Is that a word? I will look it up. No, but now it is. We captured lots of good moos, dogs barking, and even some line dancing to country music! Magical. For the audio project, we wanted to get distinct sounds from the country and juxtapose them with the unique sounds of the city. The trajectory will go something like this: country, cacophony of country, city, cacophony of city, subtle mixing of the two. My role so far has mostly been the organizer/converter of the files on the computer and camera. It is very tedious and time-consuming, but for some reason I really enjoy it. It is repetitive and predictable. There is no artistry involved. But that is not why I enjoy it, rather, it is rewarding when you oversee the transformation from an overwhelming plethora of files that don't make sense to a clean, organized group of folders with labels. Very user-friendly.
This week was my week with the camera, and I feel that I captured alot of good audio footage, but not so much video. It is really difficult to film alone, especially when you yourself are one of the main subjects. Thankfully, a couple of my group members were gracious enough to help me a bit through the process. Speaking of being one of the "subjects" of the film... We, most of the group, had a very long and very productive discussion regarding our individual desires as to what the final outcome will look like. We came up with a more manageable way to structure the film and to differentiate between the different moods. Instead of using camera angles and the like to exude mood, which has the potential to be confusing or downright inaccessible, we thought that highlighting the "turning points," when one mood turns into the next, would be less complicated. How would we do this? We actually came up with specific scenes (that we have yet to shoot...) that could easily be interpreted as turning points. In this respect, post-production could really be a blessing as well--I'm thinking changing the color of the film. We also decided to change the order of the moods around as well: excitement>disorientation>melancholy>excitement>blase. Each member of our group is now personally responsible for one of these moods, or more specifically, making sure that the footage is there to bring to the editing table. Because the film will loosely follow me, a subject, (I am using the term loosely because this is NOT a plot-driven film) I will need help for some of my shots, as will the others need help with theirs. We thought that incorporating a subject into the film would place the abstract concepts on firmer ground, leaving our heads less room to wander up into the clouds. Gotta go work on audio! That rhymes!