Picture Perfect

As I'm working today on editing and creating my documentary's poster, I realized I never updated you all on how shooting for this went. I took the pictures in school Thursday as I had said, and although I'm happy with the results, they are a bit different than I planned. Before I show you the final image I'm currently editing and manipulated, I wanted to do a kind of spot the difference and just reflect on what I said I was planning to do vs. what actually ended up happening.

The plan:

• Utilize blue, purple, and white lighting
• Have silhouettes formed by the back light, in other words, just have black figures as my performers
• Use of solid black for stage floor

The result:

• Utilization of pink lights and bright white spotlights in order to create the "silhouettes"

As it turns out, although I have spent endless hours throughout the years on and in my schools stage and auditorium, I am one hundred percent a performer and not a backstage technician. I completely overestimated the lights we had and the ways I could manipulate them. The blue and purple lights were originally inspired by an image I took in the wings of Morsani Hall in the Straz Center- a theater primarily used by professional touring companies and performers. The blue and purple lights I wanted to recreate, I was trying to do so in my public high school's amateur theater. We did have these colored lights, they just didn't really read well and were not as bright and powerful as I remembered, so, I opted for a pink tint in lighting which is just what ended up working best. 

The ceiling of  the stage where the blue lights were located.
They're clearly there, just didn't do much for the shot. 

The pink lights were located in a manner where they
more faced the stage rather than came down
right on it. You can see the pink was capable of totally
taking over the auditorium. 

• The "silhouettes" are actually completely visible colored bodies

Again, an misunderstanding of the placement of the lights in my theater. The colored lights, like I said, were not bright enough and faced directly down on the stage, not able to give me the silhouette effect. The only way I could get the effect of shine and light falling on the performers was by using spotlights, which although got the job done, created a different look than I anticipated. Because of this, you can see the performers clothes perfectly; and because I didn't plan on this happening, I didn't tell my subjects to wear anything specific. Now, this could have been awful and ruined my entire picture, however, I think it actually worked in my benefit. All of my troupe-mates that volunteered to be in this picture for me were conveniently wearing solid colored shirts that worked well together, giving the shot a nice bit of color, but nothing too crazy. 

• The part of the stage I shot on is actually wood, but I didn't even end up capturing it in some shots. 

This one is actually up in the air; it could go as planned, but also maybe not (I'm making two versions of the poster right now to decide which is best later.) Originally I had planned to have my actors stand on a black stage, which is what I thought the stage I would be using was, and I mean, it was, but not the mantel, which is where my subjects had to stand for the picture to work with the lights. If I use the image that shows the wooden, unfortunately not black, stage, this means I have to crop my "6510" title and get rid of the background to be able to use it on my poster (since the background of this picture is black). If I use the image that doesn't even show the stage, I may just end up putting black at the bottom of it and easily pasting the picture over it. But this will all be decided with the final result.

Anyway, enough explanation. I'll just show you the two pictures I'm using for my poster. I guess the one I will actually end up using for the poster will be a surprise, but for now, I think I'm leaning towards the second. 

 

Website Wonders

As I've started working on my website, one of the largest unexpected challenges that I've encountered is creating a compelling and representative synopsis for my documentary. As I established before hand,  the about/ synopsis page is an integral part for any film or tv show's website since it is what audiences unfamiliar with the piece will first be drawn to in order to gain immediate information; therefore, it should give consumers enough information so that they can decide if it is something they are interested in, not enough information so that they feel they know the whole story, and engaging enough that they desperately want to watch. A good synopsis is also extremely telling of a stories character and quality. "When a plot synopsis is still compelling without all the little details, that's the test of a story's foundation." (www.scriptmag.com)

That being said, this is what I've come up with so far. I may make some edits, however, I'm pretty satisfied with it.

"The theater community is one that expands globally, capturing many individuals with its diverse art and performance forms; the connection felt among performers and theater connoisseurs because of their love for this craft is unparalleled to most human connections. The foundation of this bond and community often begins early on among students and young performers alike.

In a high school in South Florida, students in its award winning drama club work year long as a troupe preparing for the Florida State Thespian Festival and competition. With over 7.000 thespians in attendance each year, the festival is identified as the nation's largest gathering of high school theater students of its kind. Here, students spend a week in Tampa, Florida immersed in performances, workshops, master classes, and the ambiance of the city being completely taken over by theater.

Following the troupe’s journey from initially imagining and rehearsing their pieces for the district festival in hopes of receiving the coveted Superior ranking to be able to qualify for the State Festival, to capturing the devolvement and growth of their relationships and performances through States, We Proudly Represent Troupe 6510 witnesses it all. It tells the story of art, passion, camaraderie, and community as these thespians transform from just a troupe, to a family."

Editing Feedback and Updates

Since I last said I finished editing, I went back and made some adjustments on my own before actually showing my documentary to anyone. The most relevant change from my first draft to the second draft, and the one I'm most excited about because I think it looks so pretty, is the look of my title! By this point I think you've heard me talk about this title so much you're probably expecting something good, I hope I don't disappoint. It's nothing too fancy and extravagant but I really like how it turned out, and really, it was exactly what I envisioned. Here's the grand reveal.

Here's the original title, which I had displayed in a previous post 

And here's the title now, complete with the marquee light 6510 my brother so kindly created for me

Maybe it's silly to be as excited about an aspect as seemingly small (in comparison) as a title's graphic, but it's just so encompassing of theater and the "big time" dream that I think it embodies a very important aspect of my documentary very nicely. I'm also happy because now this means I get to work with and adapt this title for the other minor components and I know the final results will probably look just as good.

Now into the meat of the update: tonight, after finally being pleased enough with my editing to feel ready to show people for critique, I shared my project with a few peers from my class. Lari, Celeste, and Isa were the one's that mostly gave me feedback and they had a lot of great things to say that going back and fixing will make my piece just that much better. From everything they told me as well as a few things I personally caught when viewing my draft for the millionth time, I complied a list of some general, but also very specific things I have to fix and edit in order for my documentary to be as complete as I want it. Though it wont make sense right now, I'll post my notes here and in time, once I finally share my end product, I'll come back to insert my drafts so my progress and changes can be seen. But for now, here's just this:

Overall, however, my friend's really enjoyed the piece and said that their notes were mostly knit picky which makes me feel really good about my project so far since I worked so hard on editing. With this all finally coming together, although there was never really a doubt in my mind of the subject I wanted to focus on for this, I'm glad I chose what I did. Not only was it perfect timing to be able to film and what not, but it's also a topic so personal and important to me that (it's about to get really cheesy and borderline lame in here) I've enjoyed creating the project and now have a reflection of incredible memories that I know will last me a life time. Now onto the next! I've already started working on the website and this Thursday I will officially be taking the pictures for my poster, so that's what this week is looking like. 

We are LESS THAN 2 WEEKS away from the due date!!! But I'm making great time. I want to have all components finished by Sunday, the end of this week, that way in the final week I can take a few days to do the CCR and still have time to spare to fix any mistakes and then finally, enjoy my spring break and time off. 

Done Editing!!! (Kinda)

Last night, I am happy to say I finally finished editing my documentary!!! I am pretty happy with the way it turned out with the exception of one transition in the end of it that seems to change subjects with no meaning or purpose. This is where the "kinda" done editing part comes in. I really love everything else about my piece, but this week I'm going to show my product to a few classmates and have them give me input as to whether or not they think the transition/end is weird and or abrupt. I also want to ask, obviously, about what they think overall so that if need be, I can make changes while there's still time. I think a main critique that I may possibly receive is that the task at hand it to create an excerpt from a TV documentary- my entire TV documentary capturing the Troupe's work and challenges leading up to and after states, with my excerpt documenting the time at states- but I think rather than an excerpt I made more of an "op doc". If the people I show this to absolutely hate that aspect of it, it can be easily changed and I already know how I would go about it, so that part I'm not too worried about.

Other than that all I need to do to finish is insert the graphic for the title which I'm waiting on, and also I'm still looking for background music to include for the end. I mentioned my struggle with music before and not being able to use the tracks I originally wanted, but the way it worked out, I don't think those tracks would have all fit into the piece anyway, so really, it was nothing to stress about.

I'm nervous, but mostly looking forward to sharing my excerpt with others and getting feedback on my work.