3/23
Film 4 is a Wrap
People
who don't like this film will likely title it Confronting Death, &
dislike it because of its title. I don't think someone who's never met Van will
have a problem with it, but it could raise issues with those who've recently lost
someone close. Either way, it's not the most pleasant of topics. No matter how
nice she dresses it up, mortality still sux. It could just be that I've been
looking at Van & people people talking about Van for a week now. I'm glad
it's done.
She
crammed about 16 mins of footage in this 8-minute film - with multiple video
& audio tracks playing at same time, layered together. About seven hours of
raw footage distilled into an 8-minute piece. It's packed. She finished about
1AM last night. She'll no doubt be tired puppy today.
She
did a voice-over yesterday (her own voice, narrating, thots in head), which gets
emotional. Personally, I didn't like the emotion-filled narration. Some parts
were hard to hear because of the emotion in her voice. She made me go away while
recording the voice over, so I had no chance for input until the final product
was (already) done.
I felt like she tries to get viewer to feel her pain, &
empathize - rather than simply communicating her pain. We'll see how well it
holds up in the 'shredding machine' (profs/class). She knows to emotionally
detach when they turn the projector on ("we are not our art").
Her
profs thought it might be a good idea for her to try some comedy
(probably cuz her films are serious). This piece is not funny - not even close.
There's a surprise ending, which may or may not be funny to some. Humor is
largely subjective anyway. By the time you get to the end, anything that even resembles
humor will pass for comic relief. =)
Strength
of this film = its multitude of images, footages & audio. There's no time to
get bored. Technically, there's so much there. Clever the way the viewer feels
like he/she sees & hears the images & sounds of her thoughts as she
walks the shoreline on a foggy day. Most of the time the viewer see more than
one clip at a time. It's a smorgasbord of images & people speaking about
Van.
This
film was the best so far before she began editing the audio. It was late last
night when she finished, and I was too tired to get much from it, but my overall
impression was that it rocks.
I'll
encode to MPEG-1 & RealVideo tomorrow or the day after for those who'd like
to download & check it out. Quality suffers with encoding (compression) for
the Net, but you'll get the general flavor of the film.
Her
new video-editing card is a champ. I wasn't sure everything would be okay until
the final project was actually dome (on tape). Initial releases of revolutionary
products are known to be fraught with compatibility issues. We have only one,
minor issue yet to be resolved.
Wendy
shook hands with Dustin Hoffman Monday (she loves Dustin). She was ecstatic.
Said, "He made a lot of great films. He touched me. Now I'm gonna make a
lot of great films." I told her, 'I don't think it works that way,
honey." =)
Her
acting prof is working on a project with Dustin at a theater off La Cienega.
Dustin had about 25 people there, which left room for some students to tag along
if they wanted (after class). Wendy said there were other famous actors &
actresses there, who she recognized, but couldn't remember their names.
One was
Reese Witherspoon, who just did Election (we have not seen) She talked to
Reese for a while, who just had a baby so is taking time off from acting for
now. Small talk, but she enjoyed.
The
Oscars are setting up at the Shrine auditorium. Wendy usually parks at the
Shrine, but now they have the whole parking structure taken up for the Oscars.
She says people have been camping out for a few days now - to get good seats.
The Shrine is right across street from USC campus.
Writing
seems to be her weakest area. She spends the least amount of time working on
writing scripts. For a while there, she was writing for a couple hours, first
thing every morning. But no more. Editing & audio/sound are her strongest
parts.
Only one more film remaining this semester. No plans yet for film 5.
Next -> Film 4 Report Card
[507
Semester Index Page, USC Film School Chronicles]
[Master
Index Page, USC Film School Chronicles, Graduate Production]