Jeremy Sarka\’s Media Work

These last two weeks haven’t gone too well for me.  Between the looming deadlines, struggling to bring my project together, and anxiety about what to do next year, the stress has really been starting to get to me.  Nevertheless, I’ve managed to get a good bit of work done.  I’ve learned a lot about my limitations these last two weeks.

For any readers who care about the gritty details, I have finished:
Fliming: ~95%
I just have one small scene left, which I might decide to drop anyway.
Writing: ~90%
I have a very satisfactory first draft which should require only minor revision.
Transferring: ~90%
I’ve transferred everything I might use—much more than I need—except for the stuff I’ve filmed since I got back to Olympia.
Editing: ~15%
I haven’t gotten that far with the editing yet.  I’ve finished the opening sequence and have rough ideas of several other scenes.  However, now that the writing is just about finished, I’ll be able to really start editing in earnest.  I hope to have a rough working edit finished early next week.
Soundtrack: ~5%
I’ve just started to look at my ambient sounds to figure out what I’ll be able to use.  I’ve finished the sound for the opening sequence—probably the most sonically complex of the whole project.  I haven’t recorded any of the music or narration yet.

Overall, I would say that my project is about 60%-70% completed, which isn’t actually that bad for Week 7.  In recognition of all the progress I have made, I’ve decided to take a well-deserved (and probably ill-advised) break this weekend.

See you next week!

P.S. Here is the opening title sequence I mentioned, updated from last week: it’s now complete with sound (and in the correct aspect ratio)—and about 2MB: letters_title_small

I’ve finished transferring all of my video, so here’s a quick sample of what I’ve been working on…  This is the opening title sequence (well, a first attempt at it anyway).

P.S. I apologize for the aspect ratio being wrong… I haven’t gotten that to work in Compressor yet…

Letters in the Sand, Opening Title Sequence: lits_title

I don’t have that much to report this week: I had to focus on preparing for my return to Olympia, so my production work sort of fell to the sidelines. However, I was able to spend a few days shooting around the city, which happened to yield some of my best footage yet. This week I “logged” all of my video (that is, I made a paper log of all the clips I have, with notes on quality and content); this will, hopefully, make the editing process much shorter.

On the other side of my project, I have finished most, if not all, of my research. I just want to look at a few books about Washington for contrast, even though I have decided to forgo the “compare and contrast” approach. I have completed a strong draft of my essay, and have I good, solid start on the narration itself. I plan to meet with my narrator on Tuesday to discuss the material. Finally, I have begun planning my recording schedule. I have only just realized that I neglected to record ambient sound at most of my locations; I’m still working on substitutes, but expect that I will have only minor difficulties.

This week was centered around an intensive production schedule.  Production during the first two weeks focused on striking desert and coastal landscapes, which I believe illustrate key aspects of my psyche.  This week, as last week—and continuing into next week—I am going to focus on the shots of my “native environment”—the Santa Monica Mountains and West San Fernando Valley—that will form the bulk of the film’s visual track.

This week I have relaxed my research schedule, as I instead focus on writing an initial draft of my “essay”.  Although I have satisfactorily completed the bulk of my research, I intended to continue researching at least through next week, or until the preliminary writing phase is completed.  After a great number of false starts, I have finally settled upon a method of structuring my thoughts which I believe will satisfy my goals for this project.

I had little time to meet with my affinity group this week, as both of our production schedules were quite demanding.  However, I have been discussing my footage and brainstorming ideas with my Los Angeles crew.  Their input has been quite valuable and will be missed.  However, I anticipate that meeting will be easier once we have all returned to Olympia.

I began this week by meeting with my affinity group. We did a joint shoot of the East San Fernando Valley and the Hollywood Hills from overlooks on Mulholland Drive, near Studio City. I got some very good footage during this shoot. I showed them some of my Santa Barbara footage; they were very impressed. I have had trouble communicating with them since then, and have been unable to set up a second meeting this week.

I am still continuing my research. The books I am reading this week are exceptionally resonant and have helped me to focus and crystallize my ideas into a coherent thematic structure. However, I am still having some difficulty articulating these themes into a satisfactorily filmic structure—I am hoping to work on this with my affinity group next week.

During this week’s shooting I have focused on shots of the metropolitan landscape of the San Fernando Valley that I have grown up in. I have been experimenting with using variable frame rates to compensate for ‘strobing’ effects during fast driving shots; I have been generally satisfied with the results. These shots, which I will continue to work on over the next two weeks, are probably the most important for the overall arc of my project.

This week I have focused on refining the project on a strategic and conceptual level. I have completed the “search” phase of my research, and have started reading some of the books which I have requested and received. I have begun brainstorming on the concepts and themes I want to cover in this project, and discussed some of those ideas with my affinity group during our first meeting on Tuesday.

I screened some of my Death Valley footage for my affinity group. There opinions reflected my own about the success of the shoot (see comments in previous report). Belinda also fixed the tension problems with my tripod—it now pans very smoothly and steadily. Although we scheduled a second group meeting for Sunday, it had to be cancelled due to several scheduling conflicts that arose. We plan to meet on Monday instead.

Again, this week some additional time had to be allotted to travel preparations—this time for a trip to Santa Barbara. This will be the last of my major shoots out side of the Los Angeles area. Some time was also spent working on the three segments of the first phase of the proposal packet.

The weekend shoot in Santa Barbara yielded very solid results. Despite difficult lighting conditions (scheduling issues required that the shooting had to be done in the late afternoon/early evening) the shoot yielded many good and several excellent shots of ocean landscapes (including one I intend to use for the title sequence.)

During this first week I began seriously researching my project by identifying and requesting potentially relevant books from the Los Angeles Public Library. I have not yet solidly articulated the specific themes and arguments I wish to address in my project—hopefully, this research will help me to do so. In the previous week, I purchased my camera, tripod and other accessories; and I have begun familiarizing myself with the new equipment.

The preparations for my four-day, three-night trip to Death Valley have consumed a large part of my time, and I have not been able to schedule any meetings with my affinity group this week. However, even if we were to meet, we would have little practical to discuss, since we are both at a very early stage in our productions.

The three-day shoot in Death Valley was exceptionally successful. (Although the trip was four days long, the first was completely taken up with traveling.) I have gotten a wide variety of shots—mostly landscapes—evocative of the California desert. These shots will play a crucial role in my film, as the desert environment remains an essential component of my personality.

The only major difficulty during the Death Valley shoot was a looseness in the panning tension on my new tripod, which imparted a jerky quality to some of my pans. However, some of the pans turned out quite smooth and usable, while I also did many static shots which were not affected by this problem at all. Overall, the footage from Death Valley has been characterized by remarkable color reproduction and near-perfect exposure and framing on most shots. Not bad for my first real-life shooting attempts with a new camera…

We’ll, I’ve finally gotten around to launching this blog at Evergreen.  I meant to do it last week, but I’ve been really busy with production here in LA.  You’ll here more about that when I post my production report for this week.  For now I’m going to post my production reports for the first three weeks.

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