Classic 3-Point Lighting - A Visual

Key - Where to set it up










Fill - Where to set it up










Backlight - Where to set it up

Lights, Lights, Lights, Yeah...

As I sit here at my desk this morning at Ye Olde Botox Shoppe (not the actual name of my office by the way…but sometimes I wish it were), I realize that with all the excitement of Tin’s lighting workshop, I completely forgot to blog on behalf of our group! First, I’d like to start by saying thank you to Tin. Your workshop was both fun and highly informative. Although we were all a little silly at times (I think we all had a case of the pre-Thanksgiving holiday jitters), I think we all really did learn a lot. Although our group doesn’t plan on doing any indoor set interviews, it is always good to have a little bit of knowledge in your back pocket in case the occasion should arise.

Also, I highly suggest Tin does researches getting a patent on his technology or a copy write on his idea for the contraption he showed us. You can do this at www.legalzoom.com, which provides self-help legal services. I learned about this site by listening to Joe Escalante's Barely Legal Radio (http://barelylegalradio.com/pages/index.php), which is a program at 9:00 a.m. every Friday morning on Indie 103.1. It is a fantastic source for information about the legal issues of the world of entertainment (film, music, books, etc.).

As far as filming goes, our group had its first day of filming in Santa Ana this past Saturday, November 22nd. This day served as our location scouting/ guerrilla filming day. Unfortunately, due to the schedule of the Grain Project, they were not having a community garden session that day. But, that didn’t stop us from driving around Santa Ana, filming Santa Ana signs, empty lots, Jerome Park (the large city park in which the garden is located), filming the garden (from the outside—the gates were locked), and eating some mango. Although Saturday served its purpose, we are very excited and anxious to get started filming INSIDE the garden and talking to people. Our first day for that is Saturday, December 6th. Although I love this rainy weather, I am keeping my fingers crossed for clear skies and good natural lighting on that particular day.

Visions of Post-Production

I am very anxious to start editing. I feel like the more time we are spending in the production stage, the less time we will have for editing. It is hard, in general terms, for me to enjoy the process of being within a project, rather I enjoy completing projects at least 10 times as much. I guess I need to start seeing the smaller projects within this large project, so I can experience some smaller joys in the process.

I have a vision of many late nights in the lab. The colder the weather gets, the more I am filled with dread. I will probably bring blankets to try and cozy up with the computers.

While we are thinking a little about post-production, check out this royalty-free music that Moby offers for non-proft and student filmmakers. It's quite good. 

Jessica Steaffens

Take your vitamins.

I'm sick. And it couldn't come at a worse time. So, don't be like me. Take your vitamins and get lots of sleep!!! But all that aside...its movie time! Shooting cut-away/B-roll footage this weekend was an adventure that I definitely should have thought more about before I did it. I didn't realize how personal the topic was until I had ask random people on the beach if I could steal images of their purposefully-altered body and use them in a documentary that doesn't really have a strict focus, but only knows that it will, in some way, deal with cosmetic surgery and/or elective physical enhancement. I realized that I had to be very careful in how I worded my 30-second pitches to these individuals so I didn't come off as some creepy dude with a camera. It helped that the release form had "CSULB Department of Anthropology" written on the top, but I didn't always get that far. Many people who were willing to be filmed, became un-willing when a release form was mentioned. At that point, maybe they assumed that it was going to be published and broadcasted to the masses and didn't want people in Skokie, Illinois judging them. Not that the great people of Skokie, Illinois would do such a thing. I just thought it interesting.

Tin and I will be shooting our first formal interviews this week and weekend. Hopefully these will give us an idea of where our film topic will lead us. There are so many possibilities of where this film can go, its time we let the film, and our informants, take the proverbial reigns and guide us. I'm hoping that Tin and I can handle all of the technical aspects of our shoots with our two-person crew. I think that we can, it's just going to take planning and some extra time.

A good documentary to watch to observe how simple lighting and a simple background can create drama and tension in an interview...The Fog of War. Its a good flick. Great use of Dutch Angles.

Take your vitamins! Don't get sick!!! Turkey day is no fun with a fever!

scheduling conflicts....

Lauren, Mike, and I are very excited to be working with the non-profit organization, The Grain Project. We really believe in the work they are doing and can't wait to start filming, interviewing, ect. BUT due to scheduling conflicts with The Grain Project we are unable to officially film at our "site" until December 6th (I am not complaining and I do not want it to sound like I am bashing this organization because we feel so lucky to work with them and we have all the respect and understanding for their obligations).

However, our 3 minute teaser is due on Dec 2nd, which means that we will not have any footage of our actual site. Sooooo, as the editor of this film I am becoming very uneasy about the prospect of editing the teaser (and creating  a finished product that my group and I are proud to show) in a matter of, what, a day? Not to mention I will also have about 100 pages of other papers due at the same time. Hmmmm...we are definitely going to have to figure this out.

Are any other groups having any troubles? Frustrations?  why don't we all blog about it......it's good for the soul.

ENVIRONMENTAL CHARTER HIGH SCHOOL PHOTO GALLERY

Nature and Constructed Space: Filming, Fallbrook, Fires, and Finales

Where does all the time go? This question seems to be at the top of my list. Time flies, and flies, and flies like a beautiful little bird that will never stay in one place for too long.

Fallbrook: Since time is such an issue for each of us in our group, we have chosen to be very creative about how and when we can film. Two weekends ago, I was in Fallbrook scouting and planning at my wedding location and brought the camera along to get some shots of “nature” and human development. It was great practice for me as I tried to capture landscapes, trees, houses, clouds, abandoned rod-iron wheels with greenery growing through it, tractors, wind rustling through the trees, etc.

Fires: This past weekend, Rachel took the camera to film while she was hiking in Chino Hills, only to find Chino ablaze like the rest of Southern California. When you do a film about “nature” and human development, it seems you can find a story idea in anything. Though Rachel was not able to capture the destruction of the flames taking their toll on our human, constructed spaces it got me thinking of yet another way to tell our film's story.

Finales: I watched the final celebratory episode of the iconic TRL (Total Request Live) last night on MTV. I am already someone who loves history, memories and talking about ‘the way things were’, so to say I went into ultra-nostalgic mode last night is a big deal.

As I watched pop music videos on TRL reveal its tiny history for the past 10 years (1998-2008), I was blown away by the transformation of style, popularity of artists, shifts, and movements of not only the music industry, but myself and the broader culture we live in.

Taking such thoughts of one, measly decade of change a step further (since I had 3 hours to think about it during the TRL finale), I thought about something our Shell Collector said during our interview with him on Wednesday evening last.

Context: the Shell Collector was discussing his presidency of the Pacific Conchological Club. Discussed at one of their recent meetings, there was an article that talked about the different reasons why shell collecting clubs have diminished in membership and why young people aren’t interested in collecting shells. Some reasons included:

• restrictions on collecting live mollusks
  kids are less interested in outdoor activities and more interested in video games
• kids don't want to hang out with adults and grandparents
• shell clubs are boring
• climate change has led to dearth of shells in many places
• life is too busy to have a hobby like shell collecting

You'll notice some reasons given have social roots while others deal with environmental changes. My connection between the finale of TRL and the slowly-fading shell collecting hobby was simply about "all things" having a life cycle.Eras come to an end, empires fall, babies are born, people get married, people get divorced, fires consume, plants grow, TRL ends, and Wii replaces the hobby of shell collecting for youngsters and families.

Career Day At ECHS by SZB

Monday November 17th was a busy day for Team Green Members, not only did we deliver a successful proposal getting many teachers and staff members on board with our film, we also got a chance to make first contact with the students, by coincidence it happened to be ECHS's Career Day. After having a introductory chat with Sal, not myself but the Director of the Consulting firm who was responsible for organizing the whole ching-ding or chen-dig, which ever one you prefer.

Anyways there were many organization on campus to appease the environmental appetites of these young conservation go-getters such as Body Glove, Heal the Bay, The Department of U.S. Forestry, Smokey the Bear included, and most prominently (I hope that's the right word) Planet Green's resident "Eco-MacGyver"Darren Moore, co-host of Altar-Eco, which aired last night. Last nights episode, Green Teens, showcased ECHS Green Ambassadors Program.

The episode mainly focused on Jordon, a young female ECHS student who is part of a group of 15 ECHS students on their way to Costa Rica for a week to learn about environmental sustainability. The idea is to bring the knowledge back and apply it here in the U.S.

Back to career day, overall the students appeared to be really interested and were not shy about inquiring about specific careers and organizations. Although I did not get the chance to talk in-depth with any of the students about their experiences at ECHS I was able to get a few photos and names of a few willing and able bodies who agreed to participate in our film. Some day I will learn how to upload the photos so you can check them out for yourselves.

Questions

It’s late at night and I’m toast. What is all this about, this topic of beautification? Where is it leading us? At this hour - I don’t know - I’m so tired I don’t even care. Ryan and I spent the whole evening preparing for our first formal interview. We’ll drive to Bakersfield to do it. What is it going to be about? What are we going to learn? Are our questions going to define answers? Are we defining the film by our hidden presence in it?
But the questions spill over the brim, endlessly, mercilessly.
Why are we fascinated by the topic of beautification?
Is it true that not conforming to norms of beautification is social suicide?
Is it true that we communicate by our looks?
Can we find answers to these question?
Who are we - we the filmmakers? How are we related to the topic?
No pictures yet, no film, just questions.
We can’t hide ourselves behind the camera. We can turn it around and the subjects of our interviews will be us, giving a dissection of a dialect of the same language everybody speaks: beautification. The observer and the observed is one and the same.

Urban Community Gardening

As humanity progresses and "modernizes", it seems we start to lose that connection with nature that is within each and every one of us, its like denying our primal instincts. This could be due to lack of time, funds, space or other social or economic issues. At Tanaka Farms we were hoping to find people trying to reconnect with nature and understand better where food comes from and the process of it all, being so near their homes in Irvine and other Orange County cities. Yet, that doesn't seem to be what we found at all.

Luckily though, through some connections in class *wink* aka ;) (I can't believe I just did that), we got in contact with a group called The Grain Project.


What the Grain Project is is a non profit organization based out of Santa Ana which in the past hosted and organized a farmer's market. This took a lot of coercion of the city of Santa Ana and its mayor. After they were allowed to conduct their farmer's market the resources and funds didn't cover the cost, so they had to temporarily discontinue it.

This setback led to a new door opening which is a plot of land near Jerome Park (near an elementary school, a senior center, and several apt. complexes) that is a quarter acre in size which is all dirt. From this dirt Dr. Nick Spain and his key volunteer Laura have turned the plot into a community garden. Unlike other urban communal gardens though, this one is not rented or sectioned off to individual plots. The community is able to come tend any crop in the garden and is welcome to eat any of the "fruits of their labor" (see what I did there?).

This has lead to educating the youth of Santa Ana on plants and the growing of those plants. Also it has allowed for the older generations who might have small scale subsistence farmed wherever they lived before immigrating to Santa Ana rejuvenate their past knowledge. A bridge is forming connecting older generations to new ones and the connection to nature is being reborn and stories are being passed down while children can get their hands dirty and farm just like grandma and grandpa did.

We have yet to visit the site, but have seen pictures of the construction and first harvest (they've had the lot since March). It looks very promising, people from all age ranges come to contribute. The Jerome Park Garden is only open on Saturdays, due to lack of volunteers, but hopes to have enough resources to open more often in the future.

We plan to explore the growth of the garden and the community of its participants. Interviews would include The Grain Project administrators, kids, parents, teachers, possibly city council members, and other non-profit organizations. It is definitely a nice story which would develop into good narratives as we do our fieldwork documenting THEIR field work.

Nature and Constructed Space: Blue Planet and my love for Christmas

While I enjoy buying dresses and snazzy shoes as much as the next person, I am mostly a consumer at Barnes and Noble. I recently purchased the documentary series by the BBC called the Blue Planet: Seas of Life to accompany my copy of Planet Earth. Needless to say, both documentaries are filled with breathtaking video.








Tonight, it seemed appropriate to watch Blue Planet since I have also started filming for our own documentary about "nature". As I watched what could have potentially been boring, repetitive shots of ocean waves (except that each shot was utterly captivating and would most likely be boring to someone who thinks only white walls are pretty to look at),



a fear crept into my mind. I thought about how even the most beautiful of locations can look flat, unmoving, and dead if the shot isn't framed/set up well. As a infant cinematographer, I am bound to make such mistakes...repeatedly. I do believe the the assured way to get better, familiar, and lucky, is to be filming as much as possible. If not filming, then at least remembering to ask, "Hmm...I wonder what this would look like if I were able to frame 'it' like this?" So that's my plan.


On a more philosophical note, I also watched A Charlie Brown Christmas tonight (that's why it's so late - and my roommate is telling me a fantastic story about Dinosaurs being alive in the Congo - and if you want to visit the dinosaurs, you need space suits because its too toxic).





As Charlie searches for the true meaning of Christmas, we are searching for the meaning of "nature". Charlie is unsatisfied with the seemingly self-centered and commercialized nature of Christmas. In fact, one could argue that Charlie is deep down, an idealist - one who hopes the world is different than it seems. Anyway, Charlie is lucky enough to have a prophet in his life named Linus who explains the true meaning of Christmas to Charlie. Somewhere in this film process, I hope we find a Linus who will simply explain the underlying meaning of humanity's complex relationship with "nature".

The "Culture of Beautification"

Things are cruizin' right along! We've welcomed Nicole as a new member to our film family!! She's already proved as a great asset to the development of the film! We're really narrowing down what it is this film is going to be about! Its exciting now that ideas are coming together!

It looks like we'll be conducting our first formal interview next Friday in Bakersfield. We first thought this consultant would be a source regarding the experiences of botox, but this has changed. As it turns out, she has participated in breast enlargement, rhinoplasty, and mentoplasty (chin augmentation)! We're excited about interviewing her, as she'll provide great insight into the motivational factors behind cosmetic procedures, as well as being able to express how her thoughts changed as she progress through what we're calling the Three Levels of Cosmetic Enhancement. Non-invasive (laser hair-removal, dermabrasion, etc), Semi-invasive (botox, tattooing, etc), and Invasive (liposuction, breast augmentation, etc). The consultant has requested to see some of our questions before hand so that she can think on the questions and provide us with a better interview. I personally think this is a good idea, but that perhaps some questions should be left out as there may be certain questions in which we want to be answered spontaneously. And, of course there will be questions that will be spontaneously asked during the interview.

The camera.

As a photographer, I like this camera a LOT!!! I got the chance to explore it over the weekend, I must say that its a gem! Some of my favorite features are the on-board sound mix, and the focus ring. The sharpness of this camera's lens is amazing! This is a good thing, but it can also cause you problems. Its imperative to make sure you're in focus when shooting. If you're out of focus in the slightest bit, it WILL show.

"The Eyes Have it All"

In portrait photography, it is standard to focus on the eyes,as they are what express the most emotion, as well as sit in a good position to provide a good plane of focus so the rest of the face is sharp. The expression, "The eyes have it all" could not be more true. When one eye is closer to the camera then the other, be sure to focus on the eye CLOSEST to you. Here is a link to some basic portrait photography technical guidelines that may help.

http://www.picturecorrect.com/photographytips/207/better_portrait_photography.htm

You don't necessarily need to shoot so close that you can see the detail in their eyelashes, but zoom-in on the eye to focus, then zoom out to your preferred framing. I think these basic principles of photography can help. They certainly can't hurt. Just remember, that everything you do in regards to framing, focus, lighting, etc., guides the viewers eyes and influences how they'll interpret the image. I'm sure Steven talked about this, I just wanted to reiterate how important it is. If you have any questions feel free to ask!


Happy shooting!!!
Ryan

Environmental Charter High School

Since our last post, we have been focusing on putting together some wordy contracts between the school and ourselves to ensure creative control of the project. We are also trying to figure out our approach to creating a symbiotic relationship with the teachers, faculty and staff of ECHS! Here are some photos to give you all a better idea of what ECHS looks like....