Week 14

There was not too much done this week due to Thanksgiving break. I chose to stay in Wilmington instead of flying to see my family so I would be able to complete my film projects for this semester. 

Since my editor will not be able to meet until later tonight, I edited Waterfowl(ed) as much as I could. I added additional b-roll and I also began adding lower-thirds and titles. I was very pleased to hear that everyone in class thought my documentary had a good narrative arc and meaningful b-roll. I am very pleased with my first directorial debut. With all of the difficulties while producing this film, I have grown and learned a lot as a documentary filmmaker. A good portion of our later footage looks stunning, but I wish this was the case for the entire film, but you live and learn!

We have also completed budgeting from pre-production, production, and post-production costs. Druscilla and I also discussed changing the postcard design I originally created. It is a bit murky and our website, indiegogo, and film are not as mundane.

I have scheduled an additional editing session with Luqi on Thursday, but I believe we may be able to complete the majority of the film by tonight. I am also hoping to submit it to the Student-Screening tomorrow afternoon. 

Week 13

I am ecstatic to say this week was our final week of filming!!! We managed to schedule an interview and two days of b-roll shooting. It all went quite well. The weather managed to be in our favor until Sunday morning. It was raining and cold the morning we returned to SkyWatch Bird Rescue for our b-roll reshoot. Amelia was accommodating and pleasant as always. When we told her that we would be donating any additional funds from our film, her expression was priceless. Amelia's reaction assured me that my documentary is addressing a worthy cause that needs to raise awareness.

After reviewing the footage in the editing lab, I was not extremely happy with Dr. Gnyp's interview. It is slightly out of focus and the lighting is a bit flat, but if there is anything that I have learned this semester, it is to take what you have and make the best of it. The b-roll we shot at SkyWatch and around Wilmington was stunning. I think my DP has finally learned to use the FS100 to its full capability. Sad to say that this did not happen until our last week of filming.

Sunday afternoon, I met with Luqi for another editing session. I confirmed the narrative structure for Waterfowl(ed) and Luqi helped me cut out redundant or unnecessary information. We cut down the film to roughly under 15 minutes. Color-corrections are completed. All we need to complete now is edit audio and add some more b-roll where it is needed. Although the footage within my film is not the best quality, I believe the story I have constructed will make it a suitable documentary.

Cucalorus Reflection

I attended the Devil’s Tongues shorts block, which screened The Babysitter Murders, CROW HAND!!!, Disco Inferno, Fuck Buddies, Man Without Direction, Ramona, and Trust. This was my first year attending Cucalorus, and I must say this shorts block was a great way to start my experience. I am a huge fan off all things horror and gore. Each of these films covered the wide spectrum of horror film genres from demonic gatherings to campy prosthetics. The shorts block was held at Jengo’s, which provided a cozy and relaxed atmosphere. Everyone felt comfortable to laugh, scream, or moan in disgust during the screenings. However, the late night gathering at Jengo’s backyard was also occurring at the same time. The noise was extremely loud and took me out of the films, especially hearing drunk girls whining about how cold it was outside. The director of The Babysitter Murders, Ryan Spindell, attended the screening, but I was extremely disappointed that they did not organize a Q&A for him. He did talk briefly before the screening, but I would have liked to ask him questions after viewing his film. Ryan made an excellent point that not all horror films need to be feature length, that some of the scariest stories don’t take a long time to develop. He said he is greatly inspired by The Twilight Zone and how their episodes, although short, left a huge impact upon the audience. I completely agree with him and I feel most theatrically released films lose their sense of horror because of this ‘need’ to have a longer runtime. The Babysitter Murders was better than an recent horror film I’ve seen in theaters.

Another phenomenal screening I attended was The Anthropologist. This was the number one film I needed to view at Cucalorus. I was excited for it ever since it caught my eye in the film listings. The Anthropologist is exactly the type of documentary that I wish to create for my career. I was even presented with the amazing opportunity to meet and converse with the director of the film, Jeremy Newberger. I was in the Filmmaker's lounge to kill some time before the screening of The Anthropologist, and Jeremy was sitting right across from me as I was talking to my friends about how ecstatic I was to finally see the film. My dream career is to do exactly what he does and it was inspiring to meet someone who has had a successful career in this field. Jeremy also directed The Linguists, which addresses the death of languages and how the studies of linguists help preserve endangered languages. I even viewed this film for my linguistics course a few semesters ago. At first, I was terrified to start a conversation, but he ended up being very welcoming and offered me terrific advice in pursuing anthropological documentaries, such as how to scout for a topic and how to prepare for travel. We exchanged contact information and I hope I will be able to contact him to kick-start my career! The screening overall was fantastic except that someone next to me was obnoxiously crunching on some popcorn they brought. The Q&A afterward even included the anthropologist herself, Susan Crates! Having anthropology as my second major, hearing her insights and studies in person was inspiring as well. This was without a doubt the best experience I had while at Cucalorus! 

Week 12

Since our film shoot last week had to be cancelled, Druscilla confirmed and scheduled a new film shoot for this coming weekend (Nov 20-22). This will be our final film shoot for Waterfowl(ed)!!! 

We will being interviewing Dr. Joni Gynp, a veterinarian for the Cape Fear Raptor Center and Rocky Point Animal Hospital. I reviewed the interview questions I originally wrote and revised/edited them. Our interview with Dr. Gynp is scheduled for Friday at 8am. 

Amelia has also already confirmed for a reshoot of b-roll at SkyWatch Bird Rescue for this weekend. 

For our third day of filming scheduled for this weekend, we will be traveling around Wilmington to gather more diverse b-roll. We plan on going to Greenfield Lake, Hugh McCrae Park, Hewletts Creek, and also on UNCW's campus. I also went through SkyWatch Bird Rescue and Carolina Waterfowl Rescue's websites again to collect more photos of waterfowl injuries. 

I would have liked to have met with our editor this weekend, but she was a full-time volunteer at Cucalorus. We are planning to meet this coming weekend to trim down my 'rough' rough cut, which has a run time of 18 minutes. 

Week 11

This week we originally had two film shoots scheduled, but all of the FS100 cameras were already checked out of the equipment room and we had to postpone them to the weekend of November 20th.

I met with our editor Luqi and we completed color corrections of all of the b-roll I will be using so far. I also completed an 'rough' rough cut of Waterfowl(ed). Right now, the film is at an 18 minute run-time. Amelia has so much to say and it will be difficult to cut out a lot of her input without addressing the issues I wish to focus on. I still wish to include a veterinarian for the film to provide an alternate view, but I'm not sure if it is necessary.

Again, I definitely need to obtain more diverse b-roll to incorporate into Amelia's interview. I also collected many photos from both SkyWatch and Carolina Waterfowl Rescue for waterfowl injured by fishing lines, volunteers, and oil spills.  I believe this archive photos will provide the audience with a realistic view of what these organization deal with everyday without exploiting injured wildlife on film.

I believe the most difficult task I have to face now if condensing my film into a 15 minute cut without losing vital information needed to provide the audience with adequate knowledge on how to prevent harming waterfowl.

Week 10

This week I met with our editor, Luqi Zhao, and we began color corrections. We color corrected the Amelia Mason, Jennifer Gordon, and Dr. Mallin interviews so far. Luqi has been an amazing help and the footage is already looking festival ready. The biggest issue we are facing in regards to color-corrections is that Dr. Mallin's setting is mainly green, but his face is very pink. These color palettes are very close together when color correcting; we will hopefully find a way to fix this issue.

The Waterfowl(ed) Indiegogo campaign has been a huge success! After 11 days of being live, we are already 152% funded. Kathleen Scott, a San Diego producer and conservationist, found Waterfowl(ed)'s campaign and said she is looking forward to my film and would like to see updates!

I have also put together a list of festivals I would be interested to submit to, which include:

• International Wildlife Film Festival
• RiverRun International Film Festival
• Colorado Environmental Film Festival
• Margaret Mead Film Festival
• Cucalorus Film Festival
• Vancouver International Women in Film Festival
• Women's Independent Film Festival

This weekend, we have our B-roll reshoot at SkyWatch Bird Rescue and generalized b-roll (lakes, rivers, fishing, trash, drainage, fertilizers, retention ponds) scheduled. We are hoping to schedule an interview with Dr. Gynp for Friday morning, but Druscilla has yet to receive a confirmation.