Alexa Barrett - Senior Project

Snowed in and working on my film!

Theme song

Today after school I am meeting with my mentor, Kenny, who also played the male lead, Arnold, and we will record the song that will be playing at the end of the film. Kenny will be singing the song, which is previously played in the film by another male, and it will come across as extremely creepy. I am going to use on of the Sony PD 170s to record with the shot gun mic in the TV Studio at Ross so there is no ambient noise. I am using the camera so that I can get the best sound, but will be extracting the sound from the video once I upload it. I have two weeks to finish the film now, I will be working on fine tweaking the edit but the majority of my time will now be focused on producing a high quality and fluid sound throughout the film. My last step will be adding the end credits and the introduction credits. I am also going to watch Smooth Talk finally, which was made in 1968 I believe, and is a professional adaptation of the same Joyce Carol Oates story Where Are You Going? Where Have You Been? I did not want to watch it before I finished my edit because I did not want to be influenced by it when doing my own work. 

Time for Feedback

The film is going well. People are starting to ask me about it which is a little scary. Frankel told me today he was looking forward to coming to screening night and now that the date (Jan 12!) is only around the corner, the pressure is really on!! Its been really stressful, as with any creative project, and I just can't wait to see the final product. This weekend I will probably go into the city on Saturday to show my current cut to my boss from when I interned at a small film company last February and get feedback from her so that I can move forward and have more advice. I also want to try to make a DVD of it so I can watch it on a big screen and write notes, from a viewers perspective, (as opposed to the editing tools at my fingertips as I'm watching it and constantly stopping it) about what parts to change, as well as where I'm at with sound. I also plan on showing it to the crew that worked on it with me over the summer and get any feedback from them since they're so well versed with the sript and the footage. I think that will be really valuable input, especially since they have their own film company and are experienced in editing and films. These are additional outside consultants from my official outside consultant, Bob Reeves. I am being very selective with who I am showing the footage to, at Ross I have only shown Kenny. And other than the two of us, my mom is the only other person who has seen it. But now that I have a well defined rough cut, I am at the point where I have these next four weeks to show and get advice, tweak, and finalize. Over Holiday break, I will learn how to work and change the sound so that it is seemless and will most likely be in the city learning from Mayur or one of the other crew members. (Mayur was the sound engineer).

Music

This week I've been continuing to work on my 4th version of the rough cut. I met with Kenny to review my product so far and he was happy with where I am and thinks I should focus my efforts now on figuring out where to extend some shots and make the tension higher by creating hesitations during the dialogue. I also am now in touch with the lawyer for Matt and Kim, who turns out is also the lawyer for major artists such as John Mayer, Fall Out Boy, Lady GaGa, and more. I've asked him if any of his other clients are open to students legally using portions of their songs in student films.