Blog 5 (addition to my artist statement)

Christopher Gross 1/25/09
FilmP 150.04 Professors Anderson and Lucas
Artist Statement
From age three to eighteen and beyond I realized that I when I grew up I wanted to be famous. Now most kids around three to ten years old usually want to be professional athletes or policemen or doctors, I was not like any other kid. From the first time I saw The Godfather when I was three I wanted to make movies. I’ve always been fascinated with the aspect of editing the movies and screenwriting. The whole editing aspect really intrigues me because I am into making something out of a bunch of minuscule items. With editing I have the opportunity to take thousands of shots and put them together into a phenomenal piece of work. When looking upon my career choice as a filmmaker I realized that my inspiration and motivation are my family and my friends. My family and friends are my driving force in life and through my work in film, I hope to impress my family and friends and make them all proud for the things that they have helped me accomplish. I have a background in editing on Final Cut Pro, Avid, Vegas and Adobe Premiere Pro, where I have edited many locally and nationally acclaimed pieces as well as famous works of motion picture. This has intrigued me ever since I started editing in the 9th grade, although I was studying film since I was a kid. On said editing software I was named one of the top four contestants in the country for the R.E.M. Supernatural Superserious contest where I edited a music video together for the rock band R.E.M. I have also edited various commercials for Honda, Coke and VH1. I truly admire the work of Spielberg, Hitchcock, Coppola and Welles, but I enjoy watching all works of motion picture because I learn from the mistakes and the triumphs of each and every director. I enjoy watching the greats because I love how they depict every aspect of each character and how they twist the plots or exploit one certain aspect of a certain character. I’m interested in showing the world a side of me that will shock many and woo others, being I want to bring forth the social problems in the world, with children and express them in my work. I also want to entertain many by writing something’s that nobody would have ever thought of writing, and after writing it, I want to make it into a feature length motion picture. Although im using this as blog number 5 im going to add onto the first artist statement because I could not find a way to rewrite this current one. After taking this class I re affirmed my need to want to become a filmmaker. Just with this class I noticed that I want to be more involved with film and not with New Media. New Media, although taking over the globe is not my field of choice, therefore I wish that we had more to do with film but its ok. I really enjoyed all that went on this semester between the wrestling, the moving into my own place, the fact that I am now signed on to film some rappers , my whole life has truly changed since I moved down to the city.

Blog 4

I recently took a "soundwalk" of Harlem and noticed many key sounds while i was walking. Through the streets you tend to hear different noises of cars going by but i distinctly herd many of the street vendors and many of the stores had microphones that let them announce what was on sale or what they were selling. Many times i would walk by the stores and be dragged into the stores due to the excessive haggeling done by the store owners. There are many other sounds around the stores and people as well. If you walk down the street and stop and look to your right on 106th and 2nd you should see a pizza place, across the street there should be a supermarket, if you listen clearly you can hear the sound of the door opening, and then listen clearer and you will hear the noise of the cash registers. This is usually a landmark to myself, due to the pizza place on said street. The people are loud to begin with andn they make life so intresting. Walk even further down and you can hear the cars whizzing by your head as they speed down the street. You also notice the people on the street talking on their cell phones, boppin to current music, or even singing to their ipods. The sounds of Harlem are truly a magnificent feature and should be noted. While on this i did notice that Harlem is a diverse area full of wonderful areas to sit and take a breather while taking in all aspects of a certain race or certain races.

Design I like

Personally when thinking about a design that works for me i think about title sequences of feature film or commercials. The title sequence of a feature film draws the attention of the viewer to the screen and is supposed to captivate them in every way shape and form. The way that each letter is represented and displayed on the silver screen has everything to do with well for one the design of the movie and two how is is going to captivate the viewer. For instance, in a horror film, the titles are usually presented on top of a creepy backdrop or creepy music is in the foreground. The way that the title is portray by the font that's used also takes a big tole in the captivation of the viewer. If said title is in a boring font style the viewer will not only thing its stupid, but will not be captivated by its originality. Besides the style of the font and the way its presented, the title sequence also plays a big part in captivating the viewer. If the titles are to film and dont just present themselves, it makes the viewer more involved with the movie. In such movies as bettlejuice, the titles were infront of an action sequence where the camera was moving through a cemetery forcing the eire vibe to appear in the movie almost instantly. When a title sequence appears above a moving background the viewer is captivated into another world where they want to see more and more and more. If a movie title is in your face, i.e. the design of it in general, it will attract the viewer, maybe add a little more revenue to the filmmakers "baby".

Blog Assignment 2

Well, I recently went and rented The Godfather and studied the film to its utmost extent. I noticed that Francis Ford Coppolla used many techniques to further enhance the film and make it one of the best films ever made. The way that each shot was framed and the way the camera moved in each shot made the characters come to life and traits in each characters become easily relate able with the viewer. Each sequence was filmed in a certain point of view. That point of view made the movie more personal for the viewer making it easier for each viewer to further relate with the story at hand. Even though it was an intense mobster movie, with much drama and action, each shot and each sequence told a story. That story was about a mobster on a revenge streak. The movie followed Vito and Michael Corlone, and the reign of the godfather of the Corlene crime family. This movie, alothough very graphic in nature, was very moving due to its intense story line and its wonderful directing. The way coppola directed Godfather made it easier for other directors to see what a great american film looks like, through the intense angles and techniques that Coppola used to make his film, he was able to make all the necessesary arrangements in his techniques to further enhance the film itself. The way that the movie itself was shot enabled many directors in the future to further enhance the style and use it in their own films, making it more apparent to the viewer that what they are watching could be considered real.

Museum of the Moving Image

Well, when i first got into the Museum i was amazed at how much my projected field has progressed since the first camera was invented. I had the chance to partake in multiple demonstrations of how the motion picture industry and the items used to produce a quality film have progressed through the decades. The one demonstration that i was quite fond of and that i felt had the greatest impact on film is the green-screen demonstration. Green screen has made it so much easier for films to be shot, if a director is not able to get on site location for his or her film ,they are able to shoot it in front of a lime green screen, and green screen the actors into the site that is needed for the shot. Green screening is capable due to the cameras ability to not pick up a green background therefore giving the editor (soon to be me!) room to work in post production. Green Screening or also known as chroma key is used in multiple films now, therefore making it more cost efficient and easier to use. Personally i have great experience with all aspects of film making and editing, but green screening and editing intrigue me, one being that i am extremely talented with my editing capabilities, and two that it is the most fun to make something come to life when you are given a bunch of nothing shots. Editing i believe might be the most important part of film making due to the fact that it is where all of the nuts and bolts are worked out, making the film come together and look like an actual peice of work.

Hey, if your reading this you probably know why I created this blog. I am an aspiring film editor with such knowledge of Final Cut Pro and the Avid suite which i have vast experience in. I have edited pieces which have seen much local acclaim such as a piece on the Angle Fly nature preserve and i recently entered a contest for REM which I edited together a music video for one of their new singles Supernatural SuperSerious. I am also a aspiring film writer, I have had much experience stidying film and how it is written along with how it is shot, edited and produced. I am currently working on a TV show which i hope to pitch to a major network in the fall. I study most famous directors and how they make movies therefore i can learn what a good work of motion picture looks like.