Blog 14 - Third Interview Preparation

"We believe that ordinary people can do extraordinary things; and that doing good is contagious." - Jubilee Project

1.  Who do you plan to interview?  What is this person's area of expertise?

A: I plan on interviewing Jason Lee from a LA based production company called the Jubilee Project. The group has made several short films and public service announcements that bring positive messages and raise awareness for certain issues currently affecting people. Mr. Lee is one of the faces of the production company and has helped produce, direct, and write many of their works.

Here is a link to view their work:

The Jubilee Project

2.  Verify that you have called your interviewee to schedule an interview.  What is the date and time of the interview?

A: I have made contact with Jason through email and have actually scheduled one on Thursday, January 14th, 2016, at 5 PM.

3.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you find research resources that would help to answer the EQ.

A: As a knowledgeable filmmaker that’s worked on many projects that elicits a range of different emotions, did you have any resources that really helped you learn the craft? (Books, documentaries, articles, etc.)

4.  Phrase an open-ended question that will help you think about other useful activities you might do to help you answer the EQ (IC2, possible experts to talk to, etc).

A: (Introduce essential question) Is there anything you can think of that I could possibly do to help discover more about this direction of effective emotional delivery and filmmaking techniques? (other people I could interview in the future, projects I could complete, etc.)

5.  Phrase two open-ended questions that help you to understand your interviewee's perspective on an aspect of your EQ.

A:

• Why do you think we feel emotions when watching a film?

• Being a filmmaker, what would you say is the most important aspect when trying to deliver emotion: the cinematography, editing/music, or the story/screenplay?

Addition Questions:

• How do you deliver a message at the same time it is harmonized with a creative concept?

• By giving a lesson to an audience and tethering it with an emotional attachment, how do you feel it will affect them after viewing it?

• My essential question is: How can a filmmaker maximize the affective domain of the audience’s viewing experience? Before I give my three potential answers, how can you answer this question with your knowledge as a emotionally impactful filmmaker?

• Did you go to film school? If so, how did it help you become the storyteller you are today?

• Suspending the disbelief of the audience is one of the key aspects of the viewing experience when watching any form of film. What filmmaking techniques are most important when building this believability?

• How do you establish a message and hook in audience in the first couple seconds of a film?

Blog 13 - 10 Hr. Mentorship Check-In

"Cinema is a matter of what's in the frame and what's out." - Martin Scorsese

1.   Where are you doing your mentorship?

A: I am currently doing my mentorship with a freelance filmmaker that has done a great amount of projects including short films, music videos, and commercials.

Here is a link to his official website:

http://www.marcestrada.com/

2.   Who is your contact?  What makes this person an expert?

A: I am doing my mentorship with Marc Estrada who is a recent UC Berkeley graduate who earned a degree in Film Studies. Like I stated previously, he is a freelance worker for his own production company.

Marc Estrada

marc@marcestrada.com

3.   How many  hours have you done during the school year? (Summer Mentorship Hours and Mentorship Hours should be reflected separately in your Senior Project Hours log located on the right hand side of your blog).

A: I have completed about 10-11 hours of my senior project. For a couple months it may seem like only a little, but that is due to his general location. My mentor lives in the Bay area up in Northern California so we’ve been meeting when he’s taken trips down to Southern California. However, we will be doing a lot more hours in the future, as he will be down in the Southern California more often due to his work in Los Angeles and potentially even be moving down here in the upcoming months. He even said he’s willing to critique my future projects in any ways to help boost the production quality.

4.   Succinctly summarize what you did, how well you and your mentor worked together, and how you plan to complete the remaining hours.

A: Over the course of my hours, I was able to learn a plethora of hands-on knowledge regarding screenwriting, camera techniques, and steps of the pre-production process. My mentor has been extremely helpful even though his schedule is typically very tight and busy. He has taught me so much so far and has even given me my own little projects to assess my understanding of the knowledge. (Plus, he’s like the coolest guy ever.) I feel that we have a pretty good relationship and believe that we will be able to get a very good amount of work done and learn a lot from him in the future hours. I plan on completing the remaining of my hours on set of projects with Marc. He has told me about a couple of his upcoming projects such as commercials and short films he has that he is willing to let me shadow. Marc said himself, “In film, experience is one of the most efficient ways to learn.”

Blog 12 - Holiday Project Update

"There's got to be something you want to tell and that's the engine which spurs all of the work you have to do in order to create the story, but you have to love some sort of nugget of what you're telling to be a filmmaker." - Bradley Cooper

1.  It is important to consistently work on your senior project, whether it is break or we are in school.  What did you do over the break with your senior project?

A: Over the Holiday Break, I was hard at work with my senior project. I was able to catch-up on past research checks as well as conduct some mentorship hours with my mentor Marc Estrada. We discussed some production concepts and he showed me the beginning stages of the Pre-production process of a film project. He even gave me a task to create a “fake casting call” for one of my old works in order to analyze character parts and actor qualities.

2.  What was the most important thing you learned from what you did, and why?  What was the source of what you learned?

A: I think the most important thing I learned was the major differences in how you can tell between the look of an amateur filmmaker and a professional was two concepts: proper use of aperture and proper use of spacing. I discovered this in a discussion I had with my mentor. We analyzed a couple of clips from Martin Scorsese's film, Wolf of Wall Street, regarding the subtle uses of lighting techniques and aperture use. We then looked at some grainy test shots usually shot closer to darker circumstances and told me the reason the two shots look so different. When you can effectively use aperture and determine how much light the camera receives through the camera, you can make the shot look in a higher level of aesthetics.

3.  Your third interview will be a 10 question interview related to possible answers for your EQ. Who do you plan to talk to and why?

A: I plan on talking to an independent film production crew based in the Los Angeles area. I have already sent out some interview requests via email to these groups so hopefully they respond. I do understand that it may be a bit of a stretch but if that falls out, then I can interview one of our close family friends that graduated from the USC School of Cinematic Arts and works for Sony Pictures. I plan on talking to these people if possible because of how their experience in storytelling abilities could potentially provide insight into the effective ways to psychologically communicate through cinema.