Author: hbetts24

I was thinking that I could maybe have a short story that follows two characters that are siblings who start messing with each other mildly like taking something from the other and then having it get progressively more chaotic and ‘dangerous’ over time. One sibling is younger so it’s only fitting that he would mess with the older one knowing full well that he has ‘baby of the family’ privileges. This type of thing requires planning in the form of a storyboard or script, both of which I am not good with so I’m not leaning into this one much but I’m going to give it a go and try before going to the backup plan.

The backup plan for if that doesn’t work out, is something like what was mentioned in class about an interview with a fake band. I thought that it would be great to have my brothers and dad, who all play Rock Band and Guitar Hero, be the band I interview. With my gathered knowledge from the Interview assignment I have faith that I could pull it off better this time around.

We decided to follow a drink that has an adventure with the elements before meeting up with its original owner at the end. We used a few main pathways on campus and a few side ones to get the shots of the bottle and we had some assistance from a friend from another class as one of our actors besides myself, Jeremy, and Miryssa. We also used the cafeteria as our starting place since it made the most logical sense. Everyone that was in the background of the cafeteria shots all gave permission for us to film around them too.

Here’s the final cut.

Here’s the rough cut.

Here’s the in-class interview.

Here’s my AI video project.

I picked ‘Light is Waiting’ for my analysis.

There is a lot of layering done in Light is Waiting by Michael Robinson. Light is Waiting uses this trick and even layers audio with video that doesn’t really match but the effect is still clear. I enjoyed that it started like an old show with an audience off screen in order to have said audience laughing in the background after someone does something stupid.

The voice editing with the ‘broken record’ like sound is very interesting in a way where you can still tell what the person is saying but the extra noise is almost distracting in such a way in which you could miss the words but that may not be the point. In the start the world feels very normal, two kids sitting down to do homework and wanting to have fun at the same time but unlike current times they couldn’t just put some videos on their phones and have that going while they watch the news.

They were working with the limitations of the time the world was set in but after the crash of the TV that reality shattered into something coherent and yet far away. The scene changes from siblings doing something foolish to landscapes and then to mirrored scenes and then to overlaid video that is set so that each frame is a few frames apart giving the appearance that there is a kind of blurred state of being going on.

The mirrored videos are back along with having the blur of overlapping frames and all this is interrupted by the error screen that shows up when signal is down or a screen breaks and has the rainbow lines to indicate so. The ‘error’ is accompanied by the classic sound that goes with it, the ear splitting screech of an incessant beeping that refuses to stop no matter what.

Looking at things like this just makes me realize that the people who do this kind of stuff for a living are really talented in what they do because I don’t think I have the raw talent for things like this but I can give it my best shot and learn where I’m supposed to be.

Here’s my ‘window’.

Here’s the montage project.

Here’s the redo for the second time but for real.

I feel like the scene is showing something along the lines of organized chaos since there is so much going on at once after the shot of the note on the fridge. It has a sort of feeling that despite everything going on at the same time there is a form of synchronization between all the family members who manage to fluidly follow the previous person that was being interacted with. Visually, it looks like another day of breakfast with a seemingly too large amount of people. There’s also the details like the washer shot and the filling the milk jug so everyone has enough for their cereal.

The continuity is set up to be at the kitchen table and the areas around it which include the kitchen itself and the washing machine. It sets up how the room is laid out and helps the audience get a view of how the family lives. As said before, there is a certain amount of synchronization between everyone as they go about separate things at the table while also paying attention to each other at the same time. It’s something that likely takes practice and time to get used to. Some anchors of attention are the milk jug and the box for the electric bill payment. The milk starts out the sequence and is then followed by the box for the payment, it guides the scene along and gives something to focus on with all the chaos happening in the ‘background’.

The scene demonstrates what I feel is the peak form of multitasking, something which is fairly hard for some people to do and easier for others. I find that for myself I’m better at multitasking with certain things and not other things which has helped me figure out what works and what doesn’t. Having music in the background while doing almost anything helps me focus more on what I’m doing rather than getting distracted by other things while cleaning or working on homework. Even when I read books I’ll sometimes have music going just to block out other noise, when on long car rides or road trips and sometimes at home but more rarely.

The scene I picked is the train one where the truck is pushing the car closer to the oncoming train seemingly out of impatience.

The arrangement of shots makes a believable space by utilizing the cut-in/match on action form of editing in order to give context to the scene. The space seems to be large since we get all kinds of angles, low shots, backwards(in relation to the main character) shots, and close-ups of the main character while in a panic and slightly angry that the truck is trying to ram him into the moving train.

The framing focuses attention to narrative detail by switching from varying shots and angles rapidly which helps keep the tension of the moment high. Emphasizes both panic and stress from the main character as the truck pushes him closer and closer to the moving train. 

The role of sound in supporting the spatial relationships made in the cuts is done well to have the car’s struggle to resist, the truck’s roar of dominance, and the train’s clattering and clanking down the track without knowing what’s happening as it passes by. These noises come in at just the right moments with the various shot switches that occur to cause tension. Then adding the dangerous sounding music in the background adds more depth to the scene by escalating it further. 

The continuity editing of the scene builds tension through the rapid switching from shot to shot, compounded further by the use of background music to set the feeling of ‘danger’ even higher and then having the vehicle noises when they are specifically in the focus of the shot.

What narrative information is revealed and concealed in the scene through the cuts? There isn’t muh background scenery since the primary focus of the scene was the train, car, and truck. Some narrative information that is revealed is that the truck seems even more impatient than the main character and is thus pushing the car/main character towards the moving train. Something that is hidden at this point in the film is the fact that the truck was actually out to get the car/main character the whole time and just played it off numerous times before we actually see the ‘true colors’ of the truck.