Due to scheduling conflicts and also recovering from a surgery I was unable to film all the footage I needed. So here’s the first two(ish) minutes that I mostly have footage for

Our plan for the one minute short film is a team of four “professional” crooks working together to pull off a high-stakes heist. Each member of the team has a crucial part to play, which will be detailed in the film.

A driver, a reconnaissance master, a hacker, and a leader. Each person’s role will be detailed as their characters are introduced via montages.

They are setting up to steal a priceless painting from a renowned artist’s studio the day before it debuts.

The majority of the film will be the team going over the plan “one last time” before the mission, and the team providing concerns and rewriting the plan

“You are hired to make a short documentary about local nurses during the COVID pandemic. The problem is you are not allowed in a hospital with a camera. What is your story? And what will be your “visual evidence”?”

It would be very difficult to show the care and dedication of the nurses during the pandemic if I couldn’t film inside the hospital… But there are ways around this.

So let’s assume I’m going to do this the legal way and not sneak a camera into the hospital. (Also why are they not allowing cameras in if they know it’s meant to be a positive documentary? Sounds suspicious to me). Not that filming inside a hospital is Illegal but still…

If possible I would first try to capture testimonies from the nurses, doctors, receptionists, and other staff. Just a few short statements about the work they do and how its been impacted by the pandemic.

I personally would utilize most of this footage as voiceovers, showing each person at the beginning of their segment. Just before and after they begin speaking to establish a face for the viewers.

It would be relatively easy to film the outside of the hospital, especially if I used a drone so they can’t catch me. I’d first create an establishing shot of the entire hospital complex in a single shot, soaring overhead and around the out side of the building to show it’s size and complexity. With variations in the time-pacing of the shot. Next I would utilize a few timelapses of the emergency vehicles, patients, and staff coming and going.

This sort of footage would make up about one-third of the documentary.

The remaining two thirds would be comprised of the nurses homes while they’re away at work, or  getting ready for, leaving, and coming home from work. The goal of capturing this footage would be to illustrate and embellish how much they work to take are of people.

I would take shots of empty homes, lonely pets, busy families, all the time making sure to leave space in the frame for the absence of the nurses. To illustrate the lives they would be living if they hadn’t chosen to commit to serving people in their line of work as a way on honoring them.

Considering the story about the Good Mother – Bad Mother, I want to be very intentional on capitalizing on the exemplary discipline of the nurses, but also highlight the humanness that makes them so lovable.

I will need to be mindful about how I edit and shoot the footage. Otherwise it could look like I’m telling a tale of travesty rather than honorable sacrifice.

Star Wars, Everything, Everywhere, and All at Once

(An Analysis of Star Wars Wars)

I grew up watching Star Wars, and my family is a huge fan of the original and prequel trilogies. (My dad even owns a film-accurate First Order Stormtrooper suit, and is working on an Imperial Storm Trooper suit as well) So I already have an interest in  Star Wars. I’d also heard a bit about Star Wars Wars (though I forget where I heard of it)

I was not prepared for the onslaught of everything that Star Wars Wars was. I am very impressed with the layering. I can only imagine how much finagling it took to find the best blending mode for each layer.

It’s very interesting to watch different parts of each episode through the shapes and shadows of another. There’s an interesting sense of temporality, seeing everything happens at once.

It brings to mind the phrase with which they begin every episode, “A long time ago, in a galaxy far, far away…” All these Star Wars stories take place “a long time ago” by the time we’re seeing them, we’re already far outside their time. All these event have already taken place, and we’re just watching them play out. Over and over and over again. Just as the layers of the films are placed over and over and over, the top of each other.

The effect becomes dreamlike, and really embraces the narrative of us as the viewers being completely separate from the Star Wars Universe.