Final Update

Well it's all coming to a close! Tomorrow will be the live performance of Estranged. I am incredibly nervous I have never presented anything like this, let alone in a room full of my peers and people that I know. I think I would rather hide in a corner or leave the room completely while people watch it. haha I am really excited though, I hope that at the very least people are surprised by what this all turned into. It has been a very long semester for me and I can't wait to get some sleep! I am extremely glad I took this class even though at first I wasn't too sure about being a director considering how "shy" I can be, but I think as time went on and the more I had to present to the class the more comfortable I got. Tomorrow night will definitely be the big test though! I have learned a lot about myself this semester, I wasn't to sure I could do it... but I did!

update

This past week we were able to rehearse with our live performer! I am really excited about the tone this aspect of the project brings to it. Our actress is really nice and down to earth so that is really nice. She seems really into the project and is really serious about trying to achieve what I am looking for to the best of her ability, she nails it quite well. I've noticed that a lot of my ideas are quite simple but they have alot of underlying meaning which makes it really exciting for me. I like the fact that there are somethings that are going on in this piece that maybe won't make since to everyone, but to me it does and maybe some other people will get it as well... Gotta love artistic choices!

update

This week we wrapped up all of the filming of the memories with Ally and Emily. It was a lot of fun especially since the scenes are kind of fun and very simple. I am really enjoying watching everything in my head come to life as we slowly put it all together. I wasn't sure that it was going to look like what I imagined but I am pleasantly surprised to find that it really does! It's like it was pulled straight from my brain. We also have a live performer now that we will be rehearsing with soon I think it's going to be really exciting to add that aspect of it and get to see it all really come together.

Visions

Visions was awesome it was cool seeing everyone together and some very interesting pieces that my peers created. I didn't catch my bumper but I saw my name in quite a few places so that was neat! Also when I got my badge I got a t-shirt, I was really unsure as to why but who doesn't want a free t-shirt! You could tell that a lot of thought went into the festival I enjoyed last years as well but I felt as if it definitely grew and had progressed from last year. I wanted to go to the after party but unfortunately I had to work! I heard it was a lot of fun though. I really really liked the video race entries! It really made me sad that I didn't participate it looked like it was loads of fun and I'm sure anyone who didn't participate and saw them like me, will want to do it next year!

Festival reasons

Finding festivals that take installations proved to be somewhat difficult. So we went about it in a way that met different criteria. Such as "Queer" festivals since I the director fit that category although that word sounds awkward to me. Queer? Anyways the App queer festival in WV, I actually went to one of their fundraisers that my "estranged" sister invited me to completely randomly (strange I know) and I talked to the head os the festival. They are a new festival and I told them about my project and how it was difficult to find festivals that take installations and they said they would take it! They said they have experimental and they are sure they could find a way to accommodate. The Mix NYC festival and Sundance were both chosen because they take installations. Indie Grits was chosen for experimental and because they take filmmakers from the south. Most all of the festivals were chosen because either we fit a category personally, or because they took installations or were very experimental and seemed as if they would at least give us a good thought.

Week 11

This has been the most difficult week of the semester for a few reasons. The indiegogo isn't catching on as well as I thought it would which is becoming pretty stressful wondering how we are going to fund the things that we need for this project. Also when I looked at the footage that we took of the woman I was far from satisfied and this overwhelmed me a lot. I went ahead and went with it because I knew that we needed something and her story was really great and I figured the mistakes with the lighting could be fixed. So I cut it up and pieced it into a story as I did with the first interview, then I left it alone for a few days to see if that would help in figuring out what to do. Later I went back and took a look at it and began trying to figure out what I was going to do about the lighting. It was nothing that I had imagined and I'm not sure why we didn't realize at the time of the interview that it was going to look nothing like the first interview. So I ask there for hours upon hours tweaking it and trying to figure out how to fix it. I don't know much of anything about color correction but I figured if I played with it long enough that I could figure it out. this was a complete fail and I ended up not sleeping at all that night and becoming sick with stress. We still have a few more interviews that this learning experience will definitely help with. I won't let my vision escape me from now on and forget simple things that could potentially make or break the interview.

week 10

This week we went to myrtle beach to do an interview with a woman who was put into foster care as a child. Her story was extremely interesting. She had 25 brothers and sisters whom she wasn't in contact with. Each one for one reason or another either was lost or just didn't want to be apart of her life. It was sad listening to her story but it was extremely interesting. She told us about one of her brothers who was murdered by a serial killer and how she wished that they had gotten to grow up together because now he is gone and she didn't even get much time with him. She was a really nice lady it was difficult to understand some of the things that she was saying but I think that the important parts are easy enough to understand.It was fun getting out of wilmington to do an interview. She began to cry towards the end of the interview the more she talked about missing her siblings and not knowing why they left and wont talk to her. In my mind I knew that her story was going to fit so well into this project because she was saying very similar things to how I feel about my situation.