Tag: reflection

Let’s Get Virtual

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A Look at How the Development of Virtual Reality Filmmaking is Mirroring History Light, sound, camera movement, editing: the building blocks of cinema honed and refined over 12 decades since the first public screening in 1885. Looking at modern day cinematic masterpieces like James Cameron’s Avatar or Barry Jenkins’ Moonlight it’s hard to believe that, just under a decade ago, the first film was nothing more than a 10-minute black and white long shot of workers leaving out of a factory.  Over the last one hundred years, film has seen huge developments in lighting, sound, camera movement, editing and more thanks to filmmakers eager to push the boundaries of the art form and discover innovative waves to unspool a narrative. The invention of 360 video and virtual reality, however, turns back the clock and puts filmmakers back at square one. The lighting, sound, cinematography, and editing techniques that have been…

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Virtual Reality Village

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It isn’t always easy for people to give up control, especially when it is something they birthed and brought up in this world. For me, it was hard to give up my baby. The screenplay I conceived consensually with myself in the darkest corners of my mind. They say though it takes a village to raise a child, but in my case, it took a writers’ room to raise my words. Every parent must learn when to let go a little to let their child find their own way and with Knot for Sale, I’m glad I did. The script I originally presented to our production class was never written for Virtual Reality. It was a second-year submission that I had touched up for the purposes of this class. I didn’t know how to write in 360-degrees at all, but I figured the script was simple enough with a decent…

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Entry into VR

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Nothing could have prepared me for my first few steps into virtual reality. I could go on and on, over the course of a few paragraphs, try and get as in depth about the experience as could possibly be done. But it wouldn’t be worth a cent. Nothing can do that kind of experience justice save for putting on the goggles and entering the brand new world yourself. Back in April of this year, I remember hearing that 2016’s incarnation of the University of Victoria’s “unicorn class”, WRIT 420, was going to comprise of an experiment of the virtual variety. I recall feeling let down, bummed out that instead of having the chance to put together what I knew would be a solid short film, the class would be stumbling into uncharted territory and taking a chance on a medium that the industry’s experts only barely have a grasp on.…

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Coming Around to VR

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When we began the semester, I felt like I was diving into a misguided niche. I didn’t believe it could be a viable medium for film and much less a medium unto itself. I think this attitude was informed mainly by a romantic feeling towards “traditional” film. In the same way there was massive resistance to color film, 3d film and even lighter cameras, I was truly against using VR to tell a story. Throughout the filming of Knot for Sale, my attitude towards this medium only strengthened. Being one of the directors of the second unit “flattie” version of the film, I felt almost like we were directly competing with VR. Who could tell a better story? The people who planted an odd camera in the middle of a scene and attempted to guide eyes and interest to where important beats are being performed, or the guys who could…

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           My experience with 360° VR film is from afar, since my main focus was casting during pre-production, and doing continuity for our secondary, standard film, and there isn’t a need for this job in the 360° format given the lack of editing multiple shots of the same scene together. What I can say about shooting in the round, is that you need actors who can be depended upon to perform for the entire time that the cameras are rolling, the crew need to be experts at hiding out of view of the lenses, and the camera dolly needs to cooperate to ensure that whole scenes aren’t unusable. Beyond that, I’m a bit clueless, so I’ll talk instead about the aspects of filming that I contributed to.           First, there was casting, which was an altogether awesome experience. We’d already filled three…

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“Props” to the cast and crew of Knot For Sale

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I think everyone who worked on Knot for Sale found shooting in 360 to be vastly different, in good and bad ways, from traditional filmmaking, but props is maybe one area where the contrast isn’t so steep. For Knot for Sale, I went through the same process as with the last film I worked on, my Writ 320 project. For Fortune, though, I was also doing about eight other jobs, so it was delightful to put all my focus into props and set dressing. Plus, I had a small budget! I borrowed some props, bought others, and made some. The most integral prop to our film was the dozens of cookies boxes that our protagonist Stacey needs to sell in order to prove she’s just as good as her nemesis Madison. I had a great time designing the boxes, putting them together, and coming up with a way to create an…

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Blog Reflection:

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         Knot for Sale has been an interesting project for me to watch from the outside. I was unable to attend filming due to a medical emergency, but have been able to touch up this blog (in a not very timely manner). As someone who’s never been apart of making a film, watching one come together is one of the most intriguing things of my degree so far. To see so many different people coming together to push deadlines and work with individuals they might know outside of class — it was fun! During class, shooting ideas around and seeing how people reacted to them; did the class murmur with dread, stay silent hoping someone else would pounce in on the idea, or get excited about what was said?         For me, I wish I could have set more deadlines for myself. I got…

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