My current plan for the final project is to follow the story of a letter discovered by the main character (me) that talks about a hidden time capsule or buried wealth of some kind at a place a few hours away from where the main character lives/presently is. The story will follow along as the main character makes the journey many hours (not actually hours away) drive away to an old barn or similar abandoned location that the letter says the item is located at. Then the character will search for the item, only to give up after a few hours of searching. As the character walks back into his car, the camera will focus onto the item described in the letter. There are other elements to this story, however this is a simplification of it that will also likely change as it is continued to be refined. In theory, from how I plan to record, there will only need to be 3 main locations. One at some kind of library or coffee shop, one on the side of a quiet road somewhere (traveling B-Roll), and one at an abandoned building or yard somewhere. Between these three filming locations, I believe I will be able to simulate the illusion of the 4-5 locations the character visits in the story. This should hopefully be able to be split across 2-3 days, each only really taking an hour or 2 max for each recording session.

I have not yet filmed my interview, however, I have some fairly concrete ideas of how I will go about doing it. I plan to use a wireless lav mic to capture clear audio instead of just the built in camera microphone. Along with that I plan to use a portable light to help keep the lighting conditions consistent; even if clouds are moving in the sky changing the natural lighting, the scene should stay relatively stable. One of the main things I’m keeping in mind is keeping questions within the scope of things that are able to be filmed for B-Roll.

This video was generated through the use and reference of VEED Ai and Runway ML.

Note: Original video is 30 seconds long, an extra second added by Youtube during upload.

This is a unique circumstance where traditional methods of gathering “Visual Evidence,” as described in the text, are not possible, thus a more robust strategy must be implemented. To start with, I would gather as much possible footage from outside the hospital as allowed, staff and individuals entering the building, ambulances arriving, and anything that would depict the nature of the hospital during the pandemic. To follow this, I would include interviews from at least 4-5 nurses if at all possible to ask about life in their occupation during such trying times. A quote from the text that really resonated with me was one from the very first page. That being “in a documentary about a protest march, there was a shot of a cold-looking police officer standing by a police barrier. Behind him was a completely empty street. The narrator said, “Twenty thousand people took to the street in protest … ” But the visual evidence said nobody was there. Imagine if the voice had come from an interview rather than from the narrator.” This very long quote from the text goes on to conclude that the viewer would think the person being interviewed was lying since the visual evidence contradicted what the person would be saying. Therefore, it is important to consider what visual evidence is being presented to the viewer and whether or not it matches the audio the viewer is hearing. Going with that, depending on what responses I would get from the nurse interviews, I would do my best to get footage that best fits the verbal responses given. If someone describes budget cuts effecting hospital operations, perhaps getting some footage of damaged windows or cracked concrete on the hospital campus would help visualize that particular problem. This is the overall methodology I would use when creating this short documentary.

Works Cited:

Visual Evidence, A/B Roll Editing” and “A Short Sermon about Interviews” 

Name: Ammaar Akhtar
Date: 9-13-24
Class: DTC 208

This relatively short clip has so many different things happening in it. It feels very intentionally chaotic yet also methodical. The scene depicts a family, of sorts, assembling for breakfast and collectively contributing to the electric bill due to be payed that day. Some of the stand out things that I noticed were the long camera shots where several things happened in a single scene as the camera moved around observing the carefully executed chaos. When they have all sat down at the table to eat, they pass around a money collection basket to pay for the bill. As this happens, the camera swaps between moving shots following the box around as it is passed, and swapping between different characters speaking. It does so relatively quickly but not in a way to where the viewer cannot keep track of what it happening. Before they all sat down, the camera got several shots of everyone going to sit down at the table, which I would imagine allowed the following camera shots at the table to be more fast-paced since the viewer already knows what is happening overall. Even though the scene is clearly much shorter than a real breakfast, it doesn’t feel this way at all when watching; the editing, sound effects, and overall coordinated pacing helps make the scene feel natural and not rushed any more than what was intended.

Name: Ammaar Akhtar
Date: 9-5-24
Class: DTC 208

Duel is such a unique film in that even with a relatively basic plot, it is able to truly keep people at the edge of their seat as the movie goes on. Of the 4 scenes listed, I chose the first clip, “Duel Remastered (1971) – Road Trouble | 4K UHD” (https://youtu.be/31n1H8PNXh4) because I believe it has quite a number of different continuity edits hidden in a short time frame. One of the most heavily used continuity edits here is the Match-on-Action shot(s) that are present throughout the scene. The constant switching from looking towards the main character to looking back through the rear view mirror makes the scene feel continuous; it is clear to the viewer what is going on and what they are looking at. Going along with this, another common edit used in this film is the POV shot. Throughout the scene, many of the shots are either looking back through the rear view mirror, or looking out of the protagonist’s car’s window up towards the truck in some way. This makes the audience feel like they are really there in the car, experiencing the events of the film. Another type of edit that is more or less used in this scene is the 180 degree rule. For most of this scene, anytime the camera is outside of the protagonist’s vehicle, it is somewhere on the right side of both vehicles (or left from the direction being driven). There are a few parts of the scene that seem to break this rule, however, for the most part the 180 degree rule is adhered to well. Some of the subtle parts of the sound design really intrigued me the more I watched this scene, for instance how as the camera slowly moves ahead of the protagonists car to reveal the truck, the sounds of the engine get louder and drown out the other sounds of the scene. Something that most people would say “of course, that makes sense, the truck would get louder as you get closer to it” but is just one of the small details that make this sequence great.

Name: Ammaar Akhtar
Date: 8-30-24
Class: DTC 208

One of my favorite scenes from any movie or show is from the final episode of The Mandalorian season 2. Among the many great parts of this episode, is a scene where the protagonist, the Mandalorian, has boarded the antagonists’s ship to rescue a captured individual. It is here he meets the antagonist himself, Moff Gideon, who is holding the captured individual in the brig. When they meet, they both begin to conversate, the antagonist calmly and methodically explains why he has done what he has in a clear attempt to gain any from of sympathy from the Mandalorian. In this process, the shots continue to zoom in further and further each time they switch between the faces of the antagonist and the protagonist. The music also changes from the fast-paced track that was playing as the protagonist was searching the ship to a more relaxing and simple sound as the conversation goes further. By the end of the conversation, the antagonist promises the protagonist that he can take back the captured individual so long as they both leave and never come back. The shots at this point are almost all medium close-up shots and the music has nearly completely faded out. The protagonist cautiously agrees, and as he walks to un-cuff the captured individual. As he does this, the antagonist withdraws a sword and begins attacking the protagonist. The music immediately picks up and returns to being fast-paced and at its original volume, along with this, the shots change to being medium close-ups, to being long and even extreme long shots as the fight begins. As they continue to duel, the scenes seem to alternate more and more from different ends of the focal range between shots. As in, one second there is an extreme long shot, the next it is a medium close-up. This rapid changing of shot types, I believe, helps emphasize the fight more so than if they were all the same shot type. One thing to note is that as soon as the trap is sprung by the antagonist and the fight begins, a lot of the camera scenes not only alternate in focal lengths rapidly, but also incorporate some level of movement; at times even quite complicated movements. In between shots 11 and 12, the camera does this sweeping motion going from a near close-up to a long shot as they fight pauses long enough for the Mandalorian to grab his metal spear. Other parts of the scene also make use of movement in the shots, such as shot 14 where the character’s sword and spear have locked against one another while being pressed against the wall. As this happens, they both begin to move horizontally along the wall since there is nowhere else to move, leaving fiery tears in the ship’s hallway as they move.

1. Medium Close-Up

2. Medium

3. Medium Long Shot

4. Medium

5. Long Shot

6. Medium Long Shot

7. Medium Close-Up

8. Medium Close-Up

9. Medium Close-Up

10. Medium Long Shot

11. Extreme Long Shot

12. Long Shot

13. Medium Close-Up

14. Medium Close-Up

15. Extreme Long Shot

16. Medium Close-Up

17. Medium

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