Carl:

First of all, Carl had my dad’s approval. He said it was his favourite of the night. I’m not sure which was my favourite but Carl played out really well and was one of the top films of the night. I’d seen this film in post and it hadn’t changed much, which was fine because it was already good when I first saw it. The repeated reaction shots of the guy with the goofy, awkward face were borderline brilliant, and the acting on both sides were great. The story and writing were top notch, and scenes were well lit. My one gripe with the film is that there were some shots early on that were cutting off soooo much head of the protagonist. His eyes were hitting the edge of the screen, and half of the shot was on the dinner table. That’s my only real issue with the film, so that means it’s a pretty fantastic film.

Pranking Frank:

I found this film hiarlous, mainly due to the second pranker on the phone from his work. He was fantastic. The dialogue was solid in this one too, which is super essential for me. Both actors played it really well, and the shots were simple but effective. Great film.

Cursed:

I worked on this film and it was really interesting to see it be filmed and to then see the final product. I love that the audience loved it. I felt that in production this film could have gone either way. Depending on how it went in post would determine how the audience reacts to it, and they all seemed pleased. The music that played over the rapping went well, and the ant killer is possibly the best prop in cinema history. I made a lil cameo in this as the poorly voiced american producer on the phone, not my finest hour, but it got some laffs, and that’s what it’s for. It was shot well, and the two actors were superb. Two issues I had with the film were pretty minor. They didn’t include the shot of the back of the business card that gave reason as to how he got cursed. If they got rid of this because they wanted the curse just to be from making a deal with a voodoo doctor while really drunk, then it makes sense, so I guess it works anyway. The other issue was when Warren tries to write on the paper and gives it to his girlfriend, I deliberately focused on the paper to see if you could see what he wrote on there, and the shot went by so fast that I missed it, and I was seeking it out. If the joke was scrapped, then that’s fine, but if it was still intended, she needed to hold the paper for a bit longer or show us a close-up of what he thinks he wrote, and then what he actually wrote. This all sounds like I hate the film but I love it and I think it came out lovely.

Budgerigar:

Couldn’t get away with not doing a review for this one so here it is. This film is easily the best shot film. The lighting is killer, so is the majority of the shot selections. Acting is top notch, especially Michael 1 and the Dad. Costume design was great, sound design = epic, dialogue and deliverance; it had so many great things in it that outshined all the other films. There was a repeated shot early on where Michael looks in a mirror. When I first saw this shot, I didn’t get where the mirror was or where he was meant to be looking. Other than that, well done guys.

I also gotta mention Strange Noises for having the best jerking off scene in cinema. Brilliant work. A FUCKING C!

Ok so in week 1 I wrote this:

“From Film/TV 1, I want to build a better relationship with people in the film development and production process. I want to develop stronger communication with people and I want to make mistakes that I can learn from. Experience is what I want from this subject. While I’ve made films in the past, I’ve always been at the epicentre of the creation process, with 100% control over the project. Now I will not hold that power, nor will anybody else in this class.

I hope to be able to write, direct or be DOP for the short film, but if I can’t get those positions, I’ll have to satisfy the other areas.

Throughout the course, I hope to find similar creative minds to mine, which will not only help throughout the film process, but will carry on in the future as a potential collaborator.

I also just want to make a film. That’s what I love and I finally get a chance to do it with slight professionalism.”

So now I have to reflect on that.

So this semester, I’ve definitely built up a better relationship with my friends, and branched out and made more friends. I’m happy to acknowledge that mistakes were made along the way with our film, and I have definitely learned from all of them.

I got to be DOP for the film, which was fun. I personally should have put more time into pre-production working on defining the storyboards better and communicating more with the director, but the whole point of not doing things as well as you’d like is to experience that and learn from it.

I’ve found a couple of creative minds I’d for sure want to work with in the future. All us film kids are already sticking together so I’m happy that we’ll probably be making films together.

And yes we made a film, which was a really great collaborative process. We’re lukcy to have our film so warmly received at the screening. I keep reading reviews and people are really happy with it, so I couldn’t be more proud for our team.

That’s it for me this year, I’m off to the states for the rest of the year. Laters.