CLASS REFLECTION

Johnny Gibbons from UA, Telecommunication and Film on Vimeo.

Class Reflection:

Where to start, well, this class has been a huge eye opener for me in to the wonderful world of film. Ive feel like I have learned more in this class than I have in any math, science, or even history class that i have ever taken. Probably the best greatest eye opening thing that i have learned was that it is very hard to make your artistic vision come to life. The techniques like camera movement and shallow depth of field are important tools that i will definatly use in my career. Overall, i think that this class improved my knowledge dramaticly about viedeo production and help me find out who i am as a videographer. Its been a great class and one of my greatest college experiences and has confirmed my deep passion to persue a career in film.

ARTIST STATEMENT

Artist Statement of Johnny Gibbons

There are many things that I would like to accomplish both as a director and a cinematographer. Although I enjoy non-fiction and documentary film, my main goal and passion throughout my career in film is to make fictional films. My goal for all of my future films is for my cinematography style to bring you into and show you a fascinating and impossible world that will have you begging your logical mind to let you give in and throw yourself into it.

I want my shots to bring to life these mystical and enchanting realities and there are several ways in which I plan on doing this. The main way is my favorite and probably the simplest way to do this. This way is through the effective use of slow motion. Some people might think that excessive use of slow motion can make the film seem corny but I think that when used right it can thoroughly transform a movie. I’m not on big on action movies but when John Woo stepped in and directed Mission Impossible 2 I think that he made the greatest movie in that franchise. He change the mood of just another action movie into a beautiful piece of artwork by slowing down the shots and creating a steady, almost musical, flow of cinematography. He did all of this without changing the script.

I want my films to be an escape from reality for people. I am not worried about making them as realistic as possible; I will leave that to the documentary film makers. Even if the film I am working on is not science fiction or fantasy I want every element of it to exaggerate extremely from what would happen in real life. I think that most people come to the movies to get away from what is real and or to throw themselves into someone else’s life to take a break from their own. So why not make the story and shots as beautiful and fun as possible?

CAUTIONS OF LIGHTING

I have recently discovered that lighting for video is very hard. The hardest part for me is not invisioning what a want my shot to look like. That part comes quite easy. The tough thing for me to do is to figure out just how in the hell to get it done. The technical part canbe very frustrating. My first project in this class taught me that i should be very cautious a letting it get overexsposed. I have found that after i fix that part of the problem that it becomes much easier for me to create my vision. I operate much better is low light conditions!!!

BEAUTIFUL BACKGROUND VS. SHALLOW DEPTH OF FIELD

I think that there are two good methods that film makers use when filming actors. One is to put them in front of a beautiful background and the other is to drowned out the background with shallow depth of field. I think that both of these ways have there place. Being in this class has opened my eyes to shallow depth of field and i have finally learned how to use it. It is my favorite tool now and the only time I really would want the background to stand out in on of my shots of a character is if it represents the characters mood. Otherwise i dont really want the audience to be distracted by a "beautiful" background unless the background is what i am trying to show them. So haveing said all of that i think that it is best to use shallow depth of field whenever possible.

CLOSE UPS!!!!

I want to take some time to talk about close ups and how I think that the majority of the shots in a movie should be shot this way. When I say the term close up you should know that Im not really talking about the tachnical term for the a close up shot. I just mean that I think that a film looks best when all of the shot have as little excess room in them as possible. I think that there are exceptions to this of course like wide open landscape shots but I think that any excess space in a shot can be very distracting and keep lure the viewers attention away from what they are suppose to be concentrating on. Shallow depth of field is a great technique that you can use to draw them away from the excess space that you cannot get rid of. I love movies that excessively use shallow depth of field because sometimes gives the movie a kind of dreamy surreal look.

MONEY SHOTS

I think that there can be many types of money shots. It really depends on what you are going for or who you are trying to impress. If your trying to get a job for national geographic it my be a shot that shows how close you can get to wild animal. If your trying to get a news job it might be some of your past shots with news anchors. I think that the most important thing to remeber when your shooting your money shot is to try and create a shot that you have never seen before. Try and come up with someting new and original!!

GREEN SCREEN USE

It think that this guy did an awesome job useing a green screen.

Useing a green screen can be a great way to use special effects in your video. I think that it is really important to pick a good background that will be believable to the audience. In my opinion the most important part of effectively selling your green screen shot to your audience is to do a good job layering in post production.