So the guidelines for this project are to make a video with footage from life that exemplifies an emotion. I chose fear, as I am a horror fan and with the weather being so dreary, I had plenty of inspiration within a few blocks’ radius of my home. So I did what any aspiring filmmaker would, took an hour walk through a local park and took footage of anything that caught my eye, as well as some planned ideas that I thought would work nicely. I also benefit from living near the Richardson Complex, now the Hotel Henry, a beautiful and haunting historical building that looks like it came from Shtter Island. (And yes, Dr. Dunkle did display the project with fear as a choice of emotion, but I love the horror genre too much to turn this opportunity down.) If I were to pick another emotion, I would’ve wanted to use joy, but for that I would have wanted a snowy environment, and winter has yet to hit.

So the video is a slow burn, with rainy nature scenes interspersed with metallic fences and monstrous sculptures. I think it benefits from having little evidence of human existence in the scenery, implying that mankind has disappeared. (This is a story that revealed itself to me as I was editing the video, and I believe it woks incredibly as a trailer.) The video begins very slowly and with many long takes, which I was inspired to do from Stanley Kubrick’s The Shining, but then as the video continues, the editing becomes more rapid and the clips more intensive. The clips themselves go from being very passive and faraway to more up close, as though the subjects are looking to grab the viewer and pull them in. I was most proud of two clips that I captured: the first was a fsteamy pipe that emitted from the Richardson, which I used as the video’s rising action because of how visually halting it was. The second was using a large sculpture from the exterior of the Albright Knox Museum, which has a spidery appearance. This monstrous presence is a building source of tension and shock for the video, and is a subtle connection to my first project in this class!

Now as John Carpenter said, horror is not scary without music. His score for Halloween is an iconic piece of music, so I tried to channel that feeling of anxiety and suspense in my own score. So the Garage-Band application served as a tool to bring my piece to lie. I’m not strongly musical, meaning I can’t read music notes or play an instrument, but I have been told that I have a good ear, and so relied on instinct to make the piece. And for my apparent disadvantages, I am most proud of the music that accompanies the video, more than the visuals even! The music is very rhythmic, based with orchestral piano, but I included synthesizer music (another reference to carpenter) with increasing chaotic energy.

The last shot of the video is a sped up long take of the viewer racing toward a bridge, then colliding with the brick walls. This was an idea I had from the very beginning, no doubt derived from Evil Dead. Sequencing the clips of footage relied on my plan to build tension for this shocking emotional release. While we’re discussing editing, the amount of times I had to begin this project again as I moved across computers was the most upsetting, but I think it ws alos worth while. I don’t think I lost any quality across my tries at perfecting the project, and if anything was inspired to add something else. nce I added the song, which I intentionally saved for last so I could plan when the song should change in intensity down to the second a clip appears. For the past project I felt as though I hadn’t been as original in execution, but here I feel that my creativity and passion is so obvious it hurts. Watching the finished prodcut is one of the most rewarding parts of being in this class, as under no other circumstances would I have ever been able to make such a product, even if I dreamt of doing so.

Aftr all this raving, I’m sorry to say that I don’t not have any links to the product. It is submitted directly to d2l for grading, and then I had to save it on my flash drive. I don’t have any outlets to post my film, so I suppose it shall have to remain in my hands. (Maybe it’s better off in my memory than being able to see it over and over, judging the nitpicks my work.)

Do I think this is a path I would take as a career? Probably not. Filmmaking is primarily digital nowadays, leading some outlets and Hollywood mainstays to believe that film will die out because of television or online content, which I always feel is overtly ridiculous. But this experience has done one wonder for me: validate the strength of my creative ideas. On a more personal note, I have been brought down over whether I thought I’m a genuine idea- person. Application is a matter of work ethic, but creativity is difficult to nurture. From doing this project, I felt that I supported the idea of myself as a creative person who can create interesting works of art, even if they only please myself. The sky is the limit for this project, and I think that is a strength that has been consistent with other assignments: that my input and ideas improve the overall product.

If there are any important takeaways from this class that I want to carry with me into the professional world, it would be the following: the first is that being detail oriented and goal focussed can get you far, but noody is born knowing how to do everything. Any new process does not have to be scary, as there are real steps one can take to better themselves in a subject and become proficient in it themselves. I found this with almost every program we used, as having the directions made my process far easier. The second sentiment is one that I finally made with this project, that my ideas are what makes a project strong. Originality is what makes a piece of art stand out, and drawing from yourself and your inspirations is one of the ways a person can make art that strikes others. It is not an easy process, as opening up is difficult, but the result is satisfying for the mind and soul.