The Tip of the Iceberg

The second week of film class was comparable to eating an orange without peeling off the rhine. The outside was a bit tough to choke down but the contents were unarguably enjoyable. Despite the massive amounts of information that traveled, undigested, through my ears, I did manage to realize the extraordinary amount of talent, knowledge, and effort that goes into the production of a movie. But to my surprise, I found the supernatural level of organization required in production to be even more amazing. Such coordination appears to be a vital key to production success, such as the thread that holds together a finely crafted quilt. From writer, to producer, to film and sound editors, the system of creating a movie requires almost harmonic orchestration. Under this recognition, I started to think back about our online skills evaluation survey. One of the abilities available for selection was organization, and at first I found this selection to be almost semi-humorous for I failed to see its connection to film production. But now, after the knowledge extracted from our last meeting, I realize the vitality of organization and I almost wish I could return and uncheck the box. This is only because I feel that the ability to synchronize a film project would rival, if not surpass, any applicable skills that I could offer.

Despite my amazement with organization, the volume of work necessary does deserve to receive some credit. In class we learned how the creation of The Lord of the Rings trilogy was an impossibly extensive process and I found that watching the work flow- i.e. script modification, storyboard creation, filming decisions, and editing decisions- was even physically exhausting for me to contemplate. In my wildest dreams I wouldn’t have speculated that film production could be so labor intensive. Enough hours were dedicated in the mere evolution of the storyboard that my patience expired long before its completion. Upon viewing such unexpected effort put forth, I realized that maybe film should be looked at as a mosaic. Each piece signifying a different individual’s efforts and that the final product, when looked at properly, is but a window into the world of film. A world that in my new introduction I have viewed the tip of the iceberg. However, through this introduction I have a new found respect for all movies which, in an odd sense, may even extend some appreciation to films that I find quite distasteful. So now I wait in anticipation to dive down and explore the rest of movie production.

Fresh Eyes in a Filmy World

As with most new beginnings, this semester of college started with promise and prosperity. My classes were meticulously arranged and I even went to the effort of buying a new pack of pens and pencils. Despite all of this buzz-killing preparation, I was unprepared for what my film class had to offer. When I think of the word film I immediately imagine blockbusters: big color, messy drama, comical happenings, and maybe even an explosion or two. I have never been a film guru by any standards, for my knowledge concerning film is quite unimpressive. This was never more apparent than the first day of film class.
When the initial chatter of the class finally subsided, we received an interview sheet that focused on our likes of entertainment. Seeing that I have little film knowledge, my selections were limited and the process was fairly easy. Soon after we were forced to read our selections aloud and I quickly realized that everyone seemed to have an infinite knowledge of TV shows and movies. I blame my parents for lack of HBO, but either way it was apparent that I needed to pay more attention to TV guide. However, little did I know that this open share-fair was but a mere ice breaker leading to the history of film.

We learned that film began from fairly obvious origins: theatre and the progression of still shots. Slowly, the history of film was presented before me as an evolving body of work. I was soon lit with a spark of motivation as I realized that everything I had just be exposed to was personally reproducible. It seemed as if I had just discovered the addicting quality of film production. What other medias of study can you reproduce its entire progression? From Edward Muybridge’s utilization of the zoetrope to the delightful “stop motion” clips of George Melias, all of what we had learned seemed irresistibly accessible. So when the time came for the class to make a few random shots, you better believe that I fooled around with a little “stop motion” filming. In no fewer than ten minutes Sam “Extrodinaire” Tamo had mastered a massive set of stairs on his skateboard. At least thats the story my camera phone told... Minus a few glitches. Either way I was excited to play around with the camera and reproduce a little fraction of film history! For now, I wait and look forward to the next project.