Documentary Review

            Varanasi, India: “Beyond” documents the journey of a few enthusiastic photographers over the period of two weeks while they attempt to capture the essence of the Sadhu monks to include in their latest photo series, “Holy Men.” Filmmaker Cale Glendening documents the photographers Joey, and Ryan as they immerse themselves in the culture while taking photos. The documentary first opens up with some dusk shots of a river with lit candles bobbing in the water. Then you are taken through the travel period of the photographers who had a 40-hour trip to get to Varanasi. The film then progresses to capture the essence of Sadhu Indean culture and how the photographers establish relationships with the people they took pictures of. They eat and sleep with these people and even join in a few festivals.

            The photos were taken with a Canon 5D Mark II and a Phase One P65+ DIGI Back. On average by the 4^th day there, they were getting one good photo a day. This was after hours of trial and error with lighting, positioning, backgrounds and setting up the shot overall. While wanting a great photo, they had to respect the needs of these monks while taking care of themselves in the new environment. Joey got sick during the trip after eating hand made food and the weather wasn’t always on their side.

            The documentary overall was very well done and with his professional camera and a lot of time Cale accurately portrayed the natural beauty of Varanasi. The music was appropriate and was generally calm which translated very well with the footage of meditating monks. The cool thing about this documentary was it was all done on the spot with very little staging. There was no makeup or acting, or specific costumes except for the photographer’s regular cloths and the vibrant garbs worn by the Sadhu.

            I believe Cale made this documentary to not only tell the stories of these photographers but to display to the outside world the cultural differences of these monks. It portrayed a different life style, a life style without the influences of money and power. I believe that this film can have a big impact on people watching it because it shows us that it is possible to live without all of the “necessities” we have today.

            I would definitely recommend this documentary to anyone who enjoys photography and film making because it is the epitome of both areas. One good technique that Cale uses is to periodically show some of the pictures that were taken in their finished state because the documentary is mainly focused on behind the scene’s action. I also think the way he incorporated title slides into the video was very artistic and added to the mystic aura of the Sadhu. This is not a very big scale production and will not make movie theaters or become that popular but I believe the film was very powerful and that it displayed key messages that are relevant to our lives today.

Varanasi, India: "Beyond" 43:07 (No Rating)

This is a video that I shot over the summer with my friend also named Max. I shot it using my GoPro HD hero 1 at 720p resolution with 60fps. At the time I was simply wanted to test out the camera underwater but after getting Final Cut Pro 10 I was curious to see how well it could put the footage into slow motion. Normally I would use Twixtor but I heard that the Final Cut Pro version was similar and worked very well. As you will notice most of the shots have the subject with a sky background because the frame blending works better with a blank background and doesn’t create as much warp. To create this effect in Final Cut Pro 10 you simply need to insert your clip into the project bar and under the effects tab click on slow motion and choose how slow you want it to be. Then go under the effects bar again and click on frame blending then optical flow and it will create the slow-motion effect seen in the video. I also used magic bullet looks, a color correction program, to highlight the main subjects and add a overall more professional look. This wasn’t very difficult but for those looking to get a decent slow motion effect without paying the $500 Twixtor effect, I suggest this method.

Capture The Fall

            This is my capture that fall project that I made for CAP News. Though films are always fun to create I found this one to be especially fun because of the freedom we had in both shooting and editing the shots. I was fortunate enough to visit some friends up in Pennsylvania last weekend and got some really great shots of the spectacular landscape. We go up to Pennsylvania every year to pick out our Christmas tree and this year my sister and me got to pick out the tree. There were also shots of some urban areas that included Down Town Silver Spring, My house, and DC. I wanted to include a variety of shots with multiple settings to better capture the fall mood. I edited this video in Final Cut Pro X and did all the color corrections with Magic Bullet Looks. This was a slightly tedious process and putting all the clips together to match the music was difficult. Also going in and color correcting each shot to make it seem more professional took a long time. I am probably most proud of the last shot which is a sliding shot of my porch rail with the words Capturing Fall edited onto the railing as if the camera was really passing over it. I actually edited this part in Motion 5 and used the Match Move effect to make it appear like the text was part of the railing. I thought it looked decent but next time I hope to use cinema 4d to make more realistic looking text. You will notice that I only have a few transitions between my clips and this is very much on purpose. When syncing the video and audio, it is hard to make it look good if the shots fade into each other. I wanted to keep shots changing with the beat and believe that this created a more professional look overall. I did use a few transitions, which are pretty hard to notice. I think the best one was of the elevator in Down Town Silver Spring which transition into the ice-skating rink without changing the downward motion. Overall this project has been really fun and I hope we get the same freedom for creativity in other projects to come.

The Ultimate Storm

As hurricane sandy and one of the largest low-pressure storms in U.S. history begin to collide the entire eastern seaboard braces for the imminent power outages and property damage. Hordes of anxious shoppers have crowded local supermarkets and utility stores to prepare for the storm. My family has brought anything of importance down from the attic in preparation for a tree potentially landing on the roof and we have put all items that could blow away from the yard. We have stocked up on canned soups and bought ice packages for the freezer for when the power goes out. Even President Obama changed his flight schedule so that he could fly out to Florida prior to the storm. This storm will bring a lot of rain with it with parts of Virginia, West Virginia, and North Carolina expecting up to two feet on snow. Exxon gasoline sales have gone up 20% and targets across the east coast have seen shortages of flashlights and other packaged goods. Almost all of the public schools on the east coast have canceled schools for Monday October 29th and many have also canceled school activities for the 30th. This is one of the biggest storms our generation has ever seen and it is heavily encouraged that everyone prepares for it. So close your windows and charge your phones because a storms-a-coming.

Fall: My Favorite Season

Fall has once again started to envelope our area, found everywhere in patches of reds, yellows, and oranges as the colors from the once emerald leaves leak out into the crisp air. Fall comes in big gusts of wind and white frosts on the fields. It shows up in the cool evening air and the millions of fallen leaves. Though it brings a chilling sample of the upcoming months fall never ceases to amaze in all its brilliance. People start to come together, and as hearths are lit and coco is brewed jokes are told and memories are shared. Fall is a time for laughter when kids become monsters, houses become haunted, and the sweet taste of a well-earned candy leaps down the throats of countless children. Fall is a time for thanks, when families come together for the greatest feast of the year, reminded of how fortunate they are. Fall is a time for excitements gained from building a huge leaf pile and indulging in its comfort as you repeatedly jump into the crackling fray. It is a time when families get together, joining in the Strenuous carving of pumpkins, giving you all the pumpkin seeds one needs for a evening snack and creating a jack-o-lantern with a glowing complexion. Fall is also the best time of year for photography with the fiery colors of the leaves creating a perfect background to almost any Christmas or thanksgiving family photo. The picture above is a picture I took of a branch from a tree on my street that has turned completely red displaying how stunning nature can be. This phenomenon manages to happen every year and always catches me by surprise, which is why Fall is my favorite season.

Our script has been progressing very well. Our whole group met on the weekend to work on it, getting out the kinks and shaping it into the final product. We have incorporated all of our 5 elements of a dystopia into our script. Everyone thinks they are living in a perfect utopia because none of the poor know that there is another class and the rich are perfectly happy with it. Freedom is restricted with the disability chips that are implanted into “all citizens” head’s. Communication is manipulated because the poor class cannot interact or communicate with the rich because of the chips. They are told that their society is all that there is and that anyone who strays beyond the boundaries disappears. The citizens are living in a dehumanized state because they are constantly working to make the world better for the rich even though they think it’s just for them. In our trailer we are incorporating both voiceovers and titles in order to get our message of a dystopia across. The titles describe the dystopia while the voiceovers show the perspective of our main character. We have 12 different scenes in our trailer but they all go by very quickly and is what we thought we needed to make sure our plot and message gets across to the audience.

In my 5x5 all my clips are from Dalview Pool. The first one is from the upper deck of the pool looking out on to the main pool. The second shot is of me attempting to blow air rings. The third shot is simply of me and my sister throwing around the ball. The fourth shot is of the Well or the deepest part of the pool. The fifth shot is of kids playing a game called Sharks and Minnows. I used a Go-Pro Hd hero video camera to shoot my 5x5 and I edited it on I-movie. Though in the future I hope to use final Cut I am still learning all the functions of Final Cut and hope to be able to use it on my next film project. This pool day wasn’t my original idea. I originally was going to do a Blair soccer game but unfortunately lost the clips that I had shot. I am pleased about the 5x5 though and I thought it was a fun and interesting project. Another idea I had for a movie project is based off of the same criteria used for The 48 Hour Film Project which is a nationally recognized film competition (see below). In this competition contestants are given 48 hours to shoot and edit a short film but in their short film they must have a line or phrase which is creatively incorporated some how into their project, an object which doesn’t need to be prominent in the film but must be used, and a charcter (this phrase, objec, and character is the same for every group of contestants). We would definitely need more time but this could potentially be a very fun and creative project.

See The 48 Hour Film Project for further information

Title: In Time

Director: Andrew Niccol

Rating: PG-13

Synopsis: This movie details the life of Will Salas (Justin Timberlake) who lives in a futuristic setting where time is currency. Will tries to narrow the social Economic statuses by teaming up with Sylvia Weis (Amanda Seyfried) in order to steal time from the rich and give it to the poor.

Webster New Collegiate Dictionary defines a dystopia as an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one. The trailer In Time effectively exemplifies said society with its beautiful cinematography, riveting music. The audience can first notice the movie’s dark motifs with the high contrasting and dingy hews of blue, grey, and dark orange which appear many times throughout the trailer. There are also bold titles that are also dark in nature, giving imperative details about the conflict and shaping the ornate plot. This trailer also is formatted so that the clips are longer in the beginning and get faster and shorter towards the end building tension and excitement. This cinematography is crucial to the development of the dystopian society but the ominous and exciting music is the major hint that this is about a dystopian society. The music starts out low and dark and gets faster and louder as the trailer progresses adding to the already tense atmosphere of the drama. My group will definitely be using action packed music with low and dark points as well as intense and uplifting points in order to get the audience interested. Lighting is key, and in order to create an affective setting and feeling to the trailer we will be using dark colors as well. Whether we use titles or not is based on how we want to get the message across but they definitely add to the In Time trailer and we now know how to effectively use them.

Leaning with blogs

I read the article, World Without Walls: Learning Well with Others, and found it very interesting to see the arguments presented in favor of encouraging interconnected learning, through blogs, made for school. The article first mentions a presentation done by eleven-year-old community volunteer and blogger named Laura Stockman who has done many big service projects and tells the audience she gets most of her inspiration from her readers. The article then goes on to talk about how useful her blog has been to her and how young people in general have been integrating blogs into their learning. The article also talks about why blogs should be used as an extension of the classroom and there incredible usefulness in the 21st century. The author mentions that, "the work we create and publish is assessed by the value it brings to the people who read it, reply to it, and remix it. Much of what our students learn from us is unlearned once they leave us." I thought this was a very effective and accurate argument and is important because it is true that if we elaborate on what we learned in class on our blogs then the material will continue to be fresh in our minds. It is also important as well as useful to get feedback from other people on your thoughts and ideas. One thing I found slightly surprising was the enormity for the potential for these blogs. Not only could classmates see a blog, but also people around the world who have similar passions. I believe that the blogs are a good idea because it gives us a chance to see the opinions and thoughts of our peers as well as continue learning outside of class without the often-felt boredom of a class. There are many topics that I am interested in but I would like to specifically learn more about law and how law firms work.

interconnected learning

For our quarterly movie reports I think that there definitely needs to be some structure but I think it should be very flexible as well to increase creativity and make it more enjoyable in general. Our previous movie reports were considered more of a task then a fun project that I think it has a lot of potential to become. We should also definitely be able to pick movies we like and choose because the ones that the school chooses are often “classics” and are not as fun or as easy to understand as some of the more modern movies. I think there should be a section in our reviews devoted to the movie regarding its technical details such as the movie lighting, music, filming techniques, and plot. Then we should have a section that explains its message to the world and how it might affect our lives today. 

First Blog Post Assignment

Hey Readers! I'm Max Scribner and as is most likely apparent from this post, I not only attend Montgomery Blair High School, I am in my 10th grade year of CAP. I personally, greatly enjoy working with good cameras and creating art both through movies and video, as well as pictures. The picture you see above was taken by one of my favorite time-laps artists named Michael Shainblum who does both photography and video. The most fascinating part of video making for me is the editing part because this is where I can put together all these various clips into a piece of art. I think one of my favorite film projects ever was the Star Wars Ad PSA in 8^th grade year for my TV-Studios class. I was the cameraman and the main editor for the project that ended up being a great success. It was not only a really big project, but me and my group members got a chance to be very creative and have a lot of fun with it. I also enjoy photography a lot and love being able to take a picture, attempting to make it look as professional as possible while catching the perfect moment.