Julia Simoes – Mastery Journal

FT3 CLASS

This month was a big challenge for me. I already know how to edit, but I never edited someone else’s project. I learned how hard it is to edit something that you did not direct. First, if the 1st AD did not slate, the editor’s work is an exhausting job. If there were not enough takes, the editor will ask for more. The more the better.
In FT3 class I also learned how to use video and sound effects. I could notice how the transitions from taking to take needs to be fluid and never cut it brutally. Jump cuts also could mess up with your project.
Editing takes time. This is the most important lesson that I never thought about. Especially when you are editing a project that you do not know what is about.

Sound is what gives feelings to films. When adding a sound a scene changes completely. That is when the editor should be careful because if it does not match with the film’s gender, it changes the audience’s understanding.

Colors and lights are easily manipulated by the editor. You do not need to learn too much about colors to know how to color grade your film. However, the colors have meanings, so you need to match them with the gender of the film.

Editing is as important as shooting the film. If the editor and the director do not work together, the film loses its sense.

Bad acting, noises, and transitions can be easily replaced and fixed in post-production. The will always be a way to make a film better when editing it.

Sound effects and soundtracks should be always royalty-free and updated. For example, you cannot choose an old ringtone to add to a scene with an iPhone. The audience will notice something wrong.

Film Analyzes: Enola Holmes on Netflix

Nowadays the audience is focused on the streaming service rather than going to the movie theater. It is simple and easy to understand if analyzes the price and quality of the material offered in streaming services. Because of that the streaming channels are improving their platform and achieving goals that one day could make the movies shut down. Just like other films, Enola Holmes from Netflix contains several elements that a cinematic film should have. Such as dramatic structure, production design, cinematography, sound, and editing.
First, to understand its logline, this film is narrated by the young sister of the detective Sherlock Holmes. She wakes up on her birthday and finds out that her mom vanished without any explanations. Along the way, she finds gifts that were left by her mother. Sherlock and his eldest brother, Mycroft arrived. However, she thought they were there to help her find their mother. After Mycroft meets Enola he decided to send her to a fishing school just for young ladies. Enola escapes and goes to London and keep searching for her mother. Her goal changes in London when she meets Viscount Tewsbury and now she is involved in another mystery. Without stealing her brother’s title, she becomes another detective in her way of acting and living.
The genre of the film is classified as action, crime, and adventure. When Enola searches for her mother she is always trying to escape from her brother, which leads it into action. The adventure is established when she invites the audience as a friend to solve the mystery of her missing mother. Moreover, crime is part of the genre when she escapes from the fishing school or runs away from her home and meets Tewsbury that involves her in a search of a crime.
It is important to understand that Enola presents the tone of the film to make it more fun. Since the first scene of the film, she talks to the camera as if she talks to a friend, that way the audience feels like a close friend that follows her to solve the mysteries along with the story. Her funny mood differs from Sherlock Holmes which is more dramatic and changes the entire atmosphere of the film. Enola plays such a vital role in telling the audience how to feel.
Furthermore, the basic dramatic structure of this film is what catches the audience to keep watching it. It all begins on her birthday when she explains how her life is and what is happening at the moment. This part explains the exposition of facts which is the first step of the story outline. She shows where she lives, who lives with her, what happened to her family, and more. The starts rising when she meets her brother Sherlock. He does not want to ruin his reputation by the poor way she dresses or that she does not have an education. So, he puts her in a school for ladies and makes her wear fancy clothing. Of course, Enola does not want to obey her brother, she just wants to find her missing mother. The climax is reached by her scaping from this situation, fighting with her brother and running away to London. The actions start falling when she meets Viscount that brings her to solve another mystery and it changes the conflict were focused. Last, the resolution comes when she turns into a detective just like her brother because life brought her into this situation and showed how she is good at it.
Moreover, the production design is based in the year 1884 in England. The scenes are always well balanced, with actors on each side of the frame or set design elements. The arrangement of people, photos, and paintings. The story sets in the afternoon, morning, and rarely sunset. There is a lot of greenery that characterizes its decade living in farms and castles. Production design transforms 2020 back to the 1990s successfully. The paintings on the wall, photos, furniture, everything. Even the doorknob set looks aged. Everything in the frame is all organized and is pleasing to be watched. The most used props are cards, a vase, flowers, letters, and a box. Costumes, Hair, and makeup match the year when women wear long dresses, braids, gloves, and hats.
Talking about cinematography, medium shots, and close ups are most used in this film. Long and ELS shots are used only to show the passage of time, like a journey or walking to somewhere far away. For example, when she goes to London. A low angle was well used to show how inferior Enola was feeling next to Sherlock. The way the camera is held by Enola’s side gives us the perspective of the audience being her friend, walking along by her side, and listening to her story. The focus was right using large and small depth of field. A lot of natural lighting is most used in this film. When shooting inside, it is used low-key lighting which gives a lot of shadows. I also notice how filters helped to get smooth lighting in each character’s face. Desaturated colors are used in the whole movie, except for greenery and the drawings left by Enola’s mother. The film used a lot of brown, blue, white, green, and black. Space is mot used focusing on the main character.
Last, the audio is clear, you do not hear any sound that bothers the audience. Room tone is used most of the time. Music comes into it when an instrumental background plays, but there are no lyrics. The editing shows no jump cuts in the entire film, which is good. Dissolving is hardly good to see in a film, but it was well used in a montage. Soundtrack and sound effects make everything more realistic. It does not follow a pattern of edition; it is different in each scene.
In my thesis project, I will apply most of the elements used in Enola Holmes. The tone of the film because it gives a fun mood that catches the audiences’ attention. The desaturated colors which bring the feeling of a mystery until it is solved. The composition that shows balance. Primarily the usage of instrumental music which brings the film a unique characteristic and feeling.

My Personal Experience in a Film Set

Hands-on is the best way to learn. It is just like a puzzle. The theory is the pieces that you already have from classes and projects. Now I just needed to place every piece in its right spot, so things make more sense. Spending this class on a film set was crucial to understand about the set itself, to shoot my film, and to learn lessons.
First, I have been on a film set before but never understood where things are located and how to properly use them. I had a class on a soundstage that I learned how lighting, power, and organization are important. I learned where equipment should be placed, how lighting follows the mood of the film, how power is important to be understood for safety issues.
Moreover, after being on a film set, I was able to set up equipment in my film. Position and lighting were a little tricky for me since I never knew how to manage them. In my film, my DP also helped and explained to me how to use them, so I can take it as a lesson learned. I achieved most of my objectives. However, when shooting I realized that changes should be made, and it turned out into a new movie different from my script. The essence is the same, but the story itself needed some adjustments. Even though, I am very satisfied with the film result.
Lastly, I learned many more lessons than I learned when just studying theory. You do not know what it feels until you feel it. When shooting my film, I confess that on the first day of shooting, I almost went crazy. It was my first time and I did not even know where to begin. After a couple of shots, I realized that I should organize my stuff better than the way I did. It was organized, but not the way to make things easier to find. I can say that I learned the organization comes first-ever. Another lesson learned was that after feeding people, they do it better. I gave two days of lunch for the crew and they were so grateful that after that I saw how hard-working, they were trying to be. If I could say everything that I learned, I would never stop writing. Even proper shoes, pants, bags, were things that I did not know that I should have specific stuff.
To conclude, being on a film set gave me the chance to experience the good and bad sides that increased my knowledge. I am grateful to know what position I should be working in. How to set up equipment. How to organize me. How to motivate my crew and my cast. I would never forget these opportunities.

My Goal in Business of Film

Images retrieved from: https://pt.123rf.com/stock-photo/aventura.html?sti=lx9r0i9zjvba901sok|

It is almost time to fly. I am almost ready to reach my goals. This pictures are perfect to describe how I feel right now. Just like a little bird waiting to fly in this huge planet. Little because I am still learning, and huge because a lot of opportunities are out there waiting for me. I always wanted to learn how to deal with a job interview. However, I never had the feeling if I was right or wrong when answering personal questions.

As I was expecting, this class is considered my wings to start flying. I learned how to deal and talk when I am at a job interview. That is one of the most important things that I will always apply in my professional life. As part of a job interview, I also learned how to negotiate a salary. Another takeaway that I will apply as well. That Prof. Peter encourage me to always remember, it is how I am worth it and how I deserve to be recognized in my career. Of course, in the begging is hard just like it is in all professional areas, but as time passes by and I get experience, I deserve to have a good salary.

In addition, I learned not only how to negotiate a salary but also a director or my crew when working in a film production. I need to remember that my crew also deserves the incentive and motivation to keep working.

To conclude, I am now happy that I got wings to be able to reach places with confidence. I feel ready for a job interview and negotiations. . I feel more secure how a face to face conversation should be and how I should act. As I said in the begging, my time to fly is getting close and I am in ready position!

Story Development for Film

Retrieved from: https://bomdia.lu/se-e-poeta-ou-escritor-pode-ganhar-25-mil-euros/

It is always good when we have a bright idea that could turn into a great story and later become a film. Sometimes I dream about stories that I wake up excited with. There are also thoughts that I think could be useful to write about in the future. However, when I have ideas like these floating around in my head, that’s not the time to grab my computer and begin writing. That is when this class helped me to choose whether it is a cliché story or a different concept worth writing. Since it is part of pre-production, it is also always possible to consider fixing what you want in post-production. Story development supports how characters, story, plot, camera shots, dialogue, and production are essential. Even this class happening online, I learned how to organize, create, and produce a good worthy-story for my thesis project.

First, it is very important to organize your thoughts and ideas before writing. Always having in mind that you can never show and tell the same information. So, in this class, we shared how each student and Georg, our instructor, have different manners to brainstorm. This is a way that I will implement in my routine since I was always lost and wondering if my idea was good enough to be a film. Georg taught us how to ask several questions that could help to solve doubts about the plot and figure out if that idea is worth it. Once I found it helpful, I will implement these questions in my future projects. Another point that I consider vital is to pay attention if what you are writing is not a copy of what you got influenced by. It is necessary to ask yourself questions to compare to the story that your inspiration came from and see if you are not recreating the same story. Another relevant fact in Story Development is film analysis. We watched several videos, series, and scenes that made me understand better about the information transported and consequently improve my writing skills.

Furthermore, after organizing my ideas I learned how to picture in my mind the scenes that I would like to see in my project. When you have an idea, close your eyes and imagine like you were in that place. This helps to “live” the moment and figure out what would you do if you were the character or if you were in the scene. Asking questions like, where are you? What time is it? What time does the routine start? These are also ways of creating a world of the story that will lead to the sequence of scenes. Every story needs a world that a character interacts with and live in. In this world is necessary to stick with rules to do not make your audience confused. For example, the narration of the story needs to go with the acting or when you have a major event happening, show it. The perspective of the writer is what will connect the audience to the story. The world of the movie has to be “real” to be convincible that it is fun to watch, even if it is made up. As well as that, creativity is part of the process that will inspire and come up with the magic of original ideas.

Lastly, in the production part, we bring ideas to life. I learned that after developing your story, it is time to get your project ready for the next step in the production process. In addition to this, some rewriting strategies that makes the story flows. For example, remind that every scene in the screenplay should move the plot forward. Not every scene needs to dramatically end. Also knowing the objective in the scene will help you accomplish what you want to achieve. In my thesis project, all of this will be used when I get to production. I think that by applying these steps would be easier to see a story becoming even more mature. A well-planned story has the best potential to, later on, become a good production. The most successful films had decent pre-production that made the production easier to be done.

To conclude, organizing, creating, and producing a good story for my thesis project was a strong point in Story Development. The class combined with the instructor’s and students’ thoughts made me understand how pre-production is relevant to see good results. I also got to know specific questions about my character and story that will help me describe details between the lines that I did not think about. At this time, the world of the story is also significant. Now, creativity is more than welcome to be part of it. It is necessary to follow the rules of your world to do not make your audience confuse. These rules will set the goals and obstacles that your story needs to go through to get to the final point. It is crucial to follow all steps that I learned to produce a good project. It is hard to choose only some points from this class to implement in my project since I found everything meaningful. I will apply everything that I learned in Story Development to make the best short film!

Direction Talent

To have a better understanding of directing a scene, I should get experience on set because it complements all the theory and reading that I got in this class. I know that coronavirus blocked us from that, but when we go back to campus I will have a better direction to focus on directing and learn more from that.

I can also keep reading the book from this class, since it was really helpful to me. When watching movies I should also have a different vision to identify the direction’s ideas. Exploring new adjectives is also considered additional learning when writing a script or even trying to understand each character’s behavior.

A Film Analyses

First, the tone of the film is based on a cold color palleted that is composed of a lot of dark blue, blue-violet, black, dark red and gray. These colors are connected to the plot that involves a lot of anxiety, fear, concern, and sadness. Especially black, which demonstrates mystery, which is one of the strongest feelings in the film. For example, the colors of her gym clothes and even her earrings. These colors complete the visual components and follow the genre of the film.

In addition, the narrative follows the structure of the inciting incident, when Isabel prepares herself to the tournament, the midpoint when she also prepares herself to abortion. The climax when she aborts the baby and faints on the hospital’s floor. Last, the resolution of the narrative represented by she is going against her parent and coach to compete because it is her last chance to reach the top. Isabel decides to compete, but she fails at the very end. It summarizes how the conflict is done through character versus self, an internal conflict that Isabel experiences in her journey.

Furthermore, the set is most of the time the interior and exterior of the gym place. There are some shots in her house, the sidewalk on her way to the gym, the hospital that she does the surgery to abort, and a bus that she uses to go home. The elements that compose the cinematography are various and well organized with the plot. Costumes are related to a gym tournament, parents, and hospital. There are not a lot of props, however she uses a bag and a bandage a lot. In the set dressing, there are a lot of components that fill the set. For example, in the ladies’ room, it is seen a lot of bag packs, clothes in the hanger, benches, and mirrors. Hair and makeup are simple, nothing too much.

Moreover, it is curious how the film does not start with a master shot. It starts with a close up to show Isabel’s facial expression and excitement for the gym. The film is done in close-ups, with rare inserts to show her putting the bandage, grabbing the bag pack, or the doctor doing the abortion. Long shots are barreleye seen. In the rule of thirds, it is seen symmetry, especially when she is the bar in which the character and the set are in the center. The golden ratio is also seen often because most of the time Isabel is on the right or left side of the image. A dutch angle is also seen once the cinematographer uses this technique to show movement in the scene.

Least but not last, there are natural sound and small dialogues. The music is only seen in the climax, when Isabel is practicing, and in the moment that she feels bad. For example, when she is vomiting because she is pregnant, she knows that will abort and the background music shows guiltiness and fear. There is a montage in the middle length when she is getting herself dressed to practice. There are also jump cuts that are mixed with continuous shots. It is clear the preference of the cinematographer in continuous shots instead of making jump cuts.

Although the film is very creative and organized, I did not like the end of the narrative. I was expecting to see the gymnast succeeding and not failing. For a dramatic purpose, I would implement more background music, extreme big close-ups to show her sweat and eyes, maybe her foot touching the bar. I would also use a bike as a prop to show more excitement when she is going home. In a zero-low resource film, I can use all of these elements and cinematic storytelling that was used in this short film. To conclude, the challenges could be a way to be more creative and solve the situation.

Reference: https://www.shortoftheweek.com/2013/05/28/magnesium/

Harley Quinn: Birds of Prey

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This week I watched Harley Quinn’s movie which was directed and produced by females. I could notice how the girl power is still alive in woman, and how they ask for respect during the entire movie. Respect and woman support are shown through costumes, make up, and way of acting. I felt so inspired to write about this movie because I could see how females still fight for their place in the world. What a great movie!

12-Month Course Goals and Strategies

Whats the difference between a documentary and a movie based in true facts?

We all know that a documentary and a movie based on a true story have the truth in common. This week I tried to clarify the main different between then, because if both share the same main idea, then why wouldn’t it be classified in just on category?

First, the documentary is stuck with reality. It has the essence to show only true facts, information, education, and instructions about reality. On the other hand, a movie based on a true story has a lot of fiction behind it. Of course it tells you the truth, but you cannot be 100% sure, since the essence of a movie is fiction.

To conclude, I find out that a documentary is for those who are looking for information and knowledge. A movie is for the audience who wants to relax and do not worry if the truth is being told.