Producing the Music Video

Being assigned the role of Producer for our Experimental music video group assignment was unexpected to me, but I’ve had a solid experience with it. While I would have preferred more creative input in the music video project, and while Producer was one of the roles I least wanted, I’ve found that collaborating with every group member and keeping everyone on the same wavelength has been relatively satisfying. I’ve been helped by all the other group members; they’ve helped to modify the schedules I’ve made and have posted communicatively in the Facebook group page I started.

An important factor in this group has been the dedication we all feel toward the project; we all foresee the music video as being the magnum opus of the F302 class this semester, and we’ve all agreed to put aside other classwork and work to make the time for filming this. We’ve decided from the very beginning that we want to stay on top of the pre-production planning, to ensure enhanced production. While the required use of a film camera for our videos will prove a large hindrance to the creative potential of each group, we will still make the best of our regrettably outdated circumstances and pitch together our talents and efforts to make a great music video for our songs.

As Producer, I’ve kept the meetings and planning structured and succinct, and I intend to direct the actors and set-up of shots in assistance with our Director. We’re ready to put all our planning to work and make something that we can show to people outside of this class and in the years to come. Along the way, we’ve developed creative bonds and will probably work together outside of this class again. In the meantime, I’ll help make decisions about creative details and guide the filming forward.

From Art House to Microcinema response

Rebecca Alvin’s article addresses some important points for the art house/microcinema scene; the references to the transformations of the purposes of art house cinemas is familiar to me. In Charlotte, where I live outside of school, our art house theaters show only limited release studio productions and/or Oscar nod films with, as it was put, “limited box-office appeal.” I’m not old enough to remember days in which these theaters would have played more local and/or abstract (“sourceless”) cinema, but by now the theater is like a sub-cinema of big-budget studio releases.

On the other hand, the technology-influenced transformations of the art house scene seem mixed to me; while innovations such as the VHS probably did have a noted impact on the attendance and style of the old art house cinemas, the Internet further down the road can be seen as having changed the scene again in a different way; aberrant filmmaking can nest on YouTube/Vimeo channels and reach a wider, albeit mostly anonymous, audience.

But the fact remains that these art house theaters that were, are, and will be are changed indefinitely by the tides of society. The adventurous spirit and sense of community are no longer the way they were in many small-screen box offices, and that’s an important change to note, at the least. Such flashbacks can renew ideas for the current implementation of independent films and teach us about what such a gathering has to offer.

Collective Filmmaking

So far this semester, I’ve learned some important things about collective filmmaking and reinforced some things I learned in FST 201. As filmmaking is arguably the most collaborative artistic process, it can be stressful, discouraging, or even intimidating to count on that many people to deliver a film, as well as to try to get through to them. But in some ways, this emphasized collaboration can be a great blessing as well.

There are times when a vision of mine for a given assignment or film can go relatively unchecked, like if I’m the one with the most ideas and/or know-how required. But as the semesters pass on (and I think this will become increasingly true as I get further into the Film Major), I notice more fellow students with the passion and experience and desire to learn that I have. This can stimulate something of a competitive urge in me, but by the end of the day I find it exciting in the most positive way possible; I realize that me and my classmates are capable of far more than before, and that I want to not only impress my professor and myself, but the other students as well.

I’ve also found that I’m far more likely to impress myself if I have the help of some of my gifted classmates along the way to make simple but crucial suggestions, apply their expertise to things I’m less familiar with, provide a fresh perspective, etc.

Needless to say, there is quite a good deal of talent in our F302 class this semester, and I’m simply just excited to work with them more. I don’t want this class to end anytime soon, and I only want to keep working on larger projects with them like we’re doing now in our Music Video crews.

The collective filmmaking and film community with increasingly passionate and skilled, and even agreeable classmates, is a blessing that most other majors probably seldom/never experience. I try to take full advantage of this, and once I finish my Computer Science minor, I’ll look forward to committing far more time and energy into my collaborations with fellow students and teachers!