Production 4: Commercial

Disclaimer: I wrote a lot in reflection, but I wrote it for myself. You can skim if you want to, sorry.

Our break from normal class for ITVFest, together with our sudden partnership with Jim Raposa's acting class and the longer timeline, made this production really feel like a 'new chapter' in my Cinematography experience. A lot went wrong and a lot went right with "BBA Wristbands", but, most of all, I learned a lot.

From the beginning, our group was uncertain on what to do. On the first day, after we met our actors, we came up with many ideas for commercials to film but did not settle on one. I was trying to get the group to think of problems at BBA, so we can design a solution to the problem that would, for purposes of humor, create an even larger, albeit funnier, problem. My German exchange brother Johannes won a Gawlik award for "BBA Energy" in this category last year; it had a plot like that, and I wanted to make something like it. I, however, didn't end up contributing much. By the next day, we decided to expand upon an idea we originally called "trackers", and went to work storyboarding, shot listing, and scripting.

"Trackers", which became "BBA Wristbands", was to feature two students sitting, sad and alone, at the lunchroom, as two 'cool kids' walk by them. The product, BBA wristbands, would then be advertised to the sad students as a way to "be stylish like those cool kids" and support their school at the same time; with these wristbands, our characters would become friends with the "cool kids" and skip class to go to Starbucks with them. Meanwhile, a teacher follows the group to Starbucks, where the ruse is revealed that the BBA wristbands are secretly trackers employed by the teachers to catch kids leaving campus!

On our first day of filming, on location at the lunchroom, issues immediately began to arise. Most of the issues that plagued us during this project, and there are many, on this first day and later, essentially stemmed from poor pre-production. The BBA Cinematography page for the Commercials project warns us that "preproduction is critical!", but this was a warning that we apparently failed to heed. 

We had made a large and detailed storyboard, right there for everyone to see. We divided our commercial into two sections, the first being the scenes leading up to and including the selling of the product, and the second being the students cutting class with the teacher following them. Abby had set times for each scene and each section so that the end result should have been exactly 30 seconds, the limit for a Gawlik commercial category film entry. Yet, when we got on set, everyone involved seemed to have a different preconception of what "BBA Wristbands" should look like. Rather than everyone being on the same boat, knowing exactly what needed to be done on each day to finish the project on a timeline, which would have been ideal, everyone only had a general idea of what the commercial would look like at the end. And, well, as I and hopefully we all learned, it is a bad idea to start filming when the crew has only a general idea of what to do.

The storyboard wasn't very well drawn... I thought I understood what we were going to do, but I quickly discovered that I didn't, and the only person that apparently knew what was on there was Abby. The Google doc we had dedicated for our shot list and script was incomplete on the first filming day, so we only had a general idea of what the voiceover of God would say and how our actors should react, which was bad. Although we made sure to carry all our equipment to the location, it took us a generous amount of time to set up and find the right camera angles because we had to agree and figure out what to do on the spot, but this was the least of our problems. For example, even though we and our main actors were already on set and ready to go, we didn't have our "cool kids" extras picked out... so Fynn ran upstairs and selected two random girls from a French class. Ok... he did his best but this really shouldn't have been something that needed to be done; we should've had actors ready and notified beforehand. This issue only grew because when these extras were selected, they weren't told they had to commit themselves to another on-location shoot, far away from school and during their Flex block and class time, no less. Our mistake in choosing extras resulted in a delay in shooting the final scenes, but really we were lucky our extras were even generous enough to be willing to take another two hours of their time to film with us, or else essentially the entire commercial would have to be reshot or redone. We did better in choosing Mrs. Hyatt for the next major shooting day; Fynn found her and got her on board a day before the action.

From that day on out, I believe communication between the crew and overall fluidity of the process got better but never became perfect. Fynn used my SD card to film, so when I got home I uploaded all the footage into a Google drive folder and shared it with Abby and the crew to review. I believe this actually became one of the best things we did, and greatly helped us to have whatever success we had; our folder allowed everyone involved to have a copy of each day's videos, so we could all comment on them and make progress on our film outside of class, Abby could arrange them into iMovie later on in preparation for more complicated edits the next day, and I could download them to think about sound later on. When Ian recorded his first voiceover, Abby wrote a new script, and Ian recorded the voiceover of that, all those files went together in the same place. I want to do this again for every production I partake in.

The initial planning and the first day of shooting wasn't the best, and the entire rest of our timeline can be thought of as a recovery period, where we (especially Abby and myself) tried very hard to turn all these unconsidered clips into something usable and, more difficultly, something under 30 seconds.

Fundamentally, "BBA Wristbands" was just a weird idea. I liked the idea when it was first proposed, but after delving into the details it became clear that this was just too complicated to fit in a 30-second time period. It also isn't very funny. Take "BBA Uber" for contrast, made by Josh Pearson and some others: 11 shots, but the entire story and reveal was told in under 30 seconds, with a comedic disclaimer at the end finishing the commercial with an impression; they also filmed in one location, used only two actors, and probably took much less time to shoot their better commercial because of its simplicity. "BBA Uber" was a great, funny, short and to-the-punch commercial; "BBA Wristbands" was not. Ultimately, Abby and I decided during post that the commercial could not be any shorter than 37 seconds without ruining the pacing of the story, so we left it that way, thereby disqualifying our film from the Gawlik awards. Near the end of production we threw around the idea of adding an additional scene of teachers talking before the events we filmed, plotting to catch kids cutting class, elongating the rest, and thereby turning our commercial into a 1-minute sketch comedy including a commercial element. That's just about the only way I can think of to turn this into anything good.

It might seem stupid to some to even consider getting a Gawlik nomination for the first serious film I've ever worked with a crew to make, but that was unironically a major concern of mine from the second I was called on stage to work with this group. If I'm going to make something, I not only want it to be good, I want it to be perfect. "BBA Wristbands" is not perfect, and it is only debatably 'good'... it is evidently not a Gawlik winner; consequently, I had a bad time throughout this production.

I enjoyed working with Jim Raposa and his actors, specifically Erin and Eric in this production. Erin was possibly the only person on the whole set that did a better job than I wanted them to. She's a really great actor and even involved herself during the later part of the process when Abby and I were editing. Eric, however, noticeably suffered from a language barrier: he was nervous in front of the camera and didn't do what Abby directed him to at times; he also waited until the end of the entire class period dedicated to planning to ask what a wristband was... I felt bad about that. Regardless, I know he still did his best.

Olivia and Florrie, our extras, were maybe not the best for their roles but I appreciate that they took the time to do this with us; they didn't have to. Mrs. Hyatt, though, did great and went above and beyond what we asked of her... her look and smile at the camera at the closing scene of the commercial was actually partially improvised, and I think it's one of the best shots.

Fynn and Ian did everything they had to do, and did it well. I actually did not interact with them much off the set, though, but they are reliable and I would want to work with them again.

The foremost dynamic between members of this crew was, though, in my opinion, the interaction between Abby and I. I don't think I'm incorrect in saying that the two of us were the most invested into this project. Abby was the director, I wasn't; I struggled with this. As I mentioned before, I'm ambitious in the scope of the films I want to work on. I wasn't very attached to any idea on the first day, but when I first committed myself to the "tracker" idea on the second day, I quickly developed a very specific image sequence in my head of exactly how I wanted everything to look like, everyone to go, and every word said. Needless to say, my idea was different than Abby's idea, and my idea was not realized... not that Abby's idea was either due to our pre-production complications, but she's more adaptable than I am and I don't think she was bothered by this as much as I was. Our pre-production inadequacies only exacerbated the initial conflicts between Abby's vision and my vision, which was not helpful for the health of the production. I like Abby, I think she's a very nice person, but her problem is she's too nice, and in her first directorial position she was too indecisive because she didn't want to be devisive. I knew Abby knew what she's doing, and that she knew what to do better than I did, but on some level, I felt more had to be done, and consequently, I believe I overstepped my bounds in "suggesting" things to do on set of the first shooting day (my "suggestions" would always be attempts to make each shot more like I imagined it to be, but maybe not what Abby imagined it to be). We did end up using most of my "suggestions", but after that first day I realized that she wasn't liking what I was doing and I shouldn't be doing it, so I increasingly tried working with Abby rather than against Abby, and acting on her vision, not mine. When I realized that this production wasn't going to win me anything no matter what, I tried especially hard to help Abby and do everything she wanted me to do with the commercial. From the night of day 3 onward, we sent numerous emails to each other to bridge our initial divide and work together to build this commercial into its best form possible; the Google drive folder mentioned earlier was important in fostering this. Over the course of production, Abby definitely got better day over day with communication and direction and so by the end she was doing great and everyone knew what had to be done. I certainly didn't do the best in my position, and I understand she knows she didn't do the best either. I know she learned a lot through "BBA Wristbands" and she knows she has a lot to learn, and even though I mostly did not enjoy working under her for this project, she may become a good director of a future film. I'm eager for my turn to direct a film as I believe I can learn much through her mistakes on this project as well as mine.

Although I was originally the designated editor, I cannot take sole credit for this job as Abby probably did more with this (and much more in her own time) than I did, and I cannot complain about that. What I did do that I maybe didn't need to, but am glad I did, was spend an hour one day making the fake iPhone lock screen and the tracker prop, which I think came out really well, and three hours another day scoring the commercial with Mr. Freebern's guidance, which included enhancing Ian's voiceover and adding a sound effect, although I made an error in principle by combining all the audial elements into one bounced-out file. I was a general assistant and also generally put myself in charge of file management and organization, as mentioned earlier.

I could write another essay about every specific technical aspect and creative choice in production and post-production, but I don't feel the need to as nothing complicated was done. My most important takeaways from this production was the importance of pre-production and crew dynamics.

What went well with "BBA Wristbands" that I can try to continue to do in my next production?

• Carrying equipment and setting up, especially after the first filming day
• Planning entering the final shooting day, at Starbucks
• We deployed and put away equipment well, never misplacing an SD card
• Using a Google drive folder, shared with all crew members, to organize and share files
• Use of props - the wristbands, wristband with tracker, and iPhone lock screen
• The post-production process: color correction, ordering clips; Abby and I were able to adapt and shorten the commercial in a way that was different but better than the original "plan"
• Adding a Tascam voiceover
• Communication in the later part of the production: sending emails
• Adding music

What can I do better with in my next production?

• Come into class with an idea, don't waste a day sitting around the table finding one
• Ideas need to be reasonably executed within the time limit requirement, we have a better understanding of this now
• Pre-production - if I'm the director, have a shot list and script ready to go on the first day and have a plan to share with my crew to tell them what's being done on each day, within a reasonable timeframe; if I'm not the director, work with the director to make sure we have this
• If I'm the director, I need to be decisive and make sure everyone knows what we're doing, if I'm not, I need to help them be decisive and do my best to follow their vision, not my own
• Secure actors and extras at least one day in advance, preferably more
• Adding music - bounce out individual tracks, not one combined file, for the purpose of potential later editing in FCPX after LPX
• Adding music - I need to refine my skills in this department by working with Mr. Freebern

See the timeline below for more details on what we did each day. This was, unfortunately, only made after the fact.

Day 1 /// Tuesday, October 24:

• We (Abby, Fynn, Ian and I, the cinema students) got to know Erin and Eric, our principal actors
• We all gathered around a table to find an idea for a commercial
• We did not choose an idea by the end
• Several ideas: (from the email Abby sent out after our session) - "forks", "furniture", "napping", "trackers", "hair", "fight against flex", "emoji", "lunch line shield", "advisory", "clones"

Day 2 /// Wednesday, October 25:

• All the directors were called on stage, but we still weren't sure on our idea!
• We got together after that and quickly decided on "trackers", one of our top choices and the one that I initially liked the most... I think it was Fynn that originally suggested it
• We regrouped at Muench's computer room and began working on our rough storyboard on the big whiteboard; Abby led this and drew on the board while I made a shared document for the script and shot list on my computer

Day 3 /// Thursday, October 26:

• We went and borrowed wristbands from Mr. Knutson
• We began filming, on location at the lunchroom
• Fynn recruited our two extras
• We filmed the scenes 'walk', 'models', 'friends', and 'throw'

Day 4 /// Friday, October 27:

• Second day of filming
• We filmed the scenes 'skipping' and 'wristbands rotate'

Day 5 /// Monday, October 30:

• We went back to the lunchroom to film closeup shots of Erin and Eric's faces

Day 6 /// Tuesday, October 31:

• We tried to get our extras together to film, but they couldn't make it
• Ian recorded the voiceover with the 'Tascam'
• Fynn recruited Mrs. Hyatt to act as the teacher
• Meanwhile, Abby and I began to edit our first clips together
• That night I made the tracker prop by gluing electronic components onto the inside of a wristband (sorry Mr. Knutson) and made a fake iPhone lock screen screenshot featuring the 'BBA Tracker' app letting its owner know about unauthorized students leaving campus

Day 7 /// Wednesday, November 1:

• Last day of filming; we took from the beginning of class through the end of Flex
• We filmed all the 'teacher office' clips featuring Mrs. Hyatt, including a closeup of the phone
• We brought our equipment and all our student actors to Starbucks and filmed the 'Starbucks entrance' scene
• Mrs. Hyatt came in her car; we filmed her pulling in, getting out, following the students, and the 'tracker reveal' scene
• That night Abby made a rough cut of part 2 (of the clips of that day's filming)

Day 8 /// Thursday, November 2:

• Abby and I got all the clips together and began to edit them
• Issues began to arise: including every scene we filmed made it way too long, the goal was only 30 seconds but our film was over 40!
• We used speed effects in FCPX for clip brevity
• Option+cmd+r to "retime" clips (change speed)
• Henry Ahlfeld told us our commercial was too complicated
• That night Abby made a rough cut of the entire commercial, although it was 43 seconds

Day 9 /// Friday, November 3:

• Abby had Ian record a different line for the voiceover
• We reshot the 'tracker reveal' scene, at a table in the lunchroom, because the lighting in the original was determined to be bad
• We continued to struggle with post-production

Day 10 /// Monday, November 6:

• We cut our commercial down to 37 seconds as that was now good enough
• We tried to find a song to fit the commercial
• After school, I took the liberty to edit (enhance) the voiceover, add in a phone buzz sound effect, and score the commercial, with the guidance of Mr. Neil Freebern

Day 11 /// Tuesday, November 7:

• Abby put the final thing together as the rest of us moved on to PSAs, added popup words
• Muench talked to Abby and I about the defects of our voiceover and my mistake in the process of adding audio, that is, combining all the audio elements into one file
• I went back to Freebern's and bounced out each audio element individually, but by this time we were done!

• Canon T3i / T5i - DSLR cameras used for professional photography, also used in cinematography (we used them on this project); difference between T3i and T5i - the T5i has better autofocus and HDR for video and a touchscreen
• Cinematic - having qualities characteristic of a professional-quality motion picture
• Continuity - continuation of visual (and audial) elements between shots so that the shots flow together seamlessly in unity
• Director - the person on a film crew in charge of a production, responsible for calling the shots and making sure everyone is doing what they're supposed to be doing
• Director of Photography - the person on a film crew responsible for usage of the camera equipment, including angles, framing, and focus
• Dissolve or fade - a simple type of transition involving the overlapping of two images where one increases in transparency as the other simultaneously decreases in transparency; can be used at the beginning or end of a film to fade from or to black, or to transition between shots
• Editing - the process of tweaking and arranging raw footage and other elements to create the final viewing product
• Editor - the person on a film crew responsible for editing
• Establishing shot - a shot that shows the audience the setting of a scene, usually a wide shot to see the area surrounding the characters
• Eyeline / Eyeline Matching - a technique for enhancing continuity, involving the camera following and mirroring the gaze of the featured character between cuts
• Green Screen - a green background, useful in editing because the color can be easily detected, removed, and replaced with a dynamic background... this works well in easily creating a fake environment around actors as long as they are not wearing green!
• Pre-production - the planning before anything is filmed; includes making a storyboard, a shot list, a script, scouting the set location, casting, and more
• Post-production - what is done after filming is complete; editing, music, CGI and special effects
• Shot List - a list of every shot to be filmed, usually in the order of appearance or the order they are being filmed; will quickly describe the set, the camera angle, lighting, and the position of actors
• Shotgun Mic - an external microphone, sometimes mounted to a camera, with an elongated shape that records audio in a high beam of concentration directly in front of its length
• Storyboard - a sequence of drawings/pictures that can quickly show what the camera and the audience will see in each scene
• Transition - the transformation of one shot into another by some pattern effect; added between clips (or at the beginning and/or end) during editing
• Voice-over - an independent voice overlaid over a film to tell the story or convey the message; usually not spoken by an actor in the film, usually in the second person perspective in commercials and in the first or third person in documentaries and news

What an interesting trailer...

Anyways, in this project I had the opportunity to watch and reflect upon any of the American Film Institute's top 100 movies of all time... faced with such a vast paradox of choice, I chose "Citizen Kane" because it was recommended to me by my friend. That was great because I had heard it was a renowned classic movie but hadn't actually seen it or knew what it was about, so I wanted to watch it. Because of that, I actually expected a lot from this movie.

"Citizen Kane" tells the story of a wealthy American newspaper business magnate named Charles Foster Kane. The 'present scene' of the story (more on this later) takes place immediately before American involvement in World War 2, in 1939-1941, in New York City. The movie features a nonlinear storyline, with the end coming after the start but everything in between before the start, and does not really tell the story of Kane through Kane's perspective, although he is obviously featured in the movie at various ages and stages of his life. Interestingly, after a brief, documentary-like introduction to our "hero", essentially lauding Kane as a model American citizen but also somewhat questioning his high-profile lifestyle, the movie begins its plot with a meeting of unrelated news men in a dimly-lit room. In this room, the news men tell us Kane has died and his last word was "rosebud"; since Kane drew a lot of water, one news man is sent on a mission to find what Kane meant by "rosebud", and this requires interviewing Kane's friends, family, and advisors. So, the unnamed news man first tries to interview Kane's wife, unsuccessfully, before finally getting the story of Kane's youth out of a book written by Kane's former business advisor.

Rather than listening to a narrator speak, "Citizen Kane" tells Kane's story by cutting to let the audience see what the interviewees are describing, like a flashback, a pattern that continues and keeps the audience's attention. In the first 'flashback cut' scene, with young Kane, Kane is sledding outside his rural home as his mother signs a deal with a businessman to send Kane to the city for a better education, to Kane's discontent. From there, in the present, the news man meets Kane's partner in his news business, Mr. Bernstein, who is willing to continue the story, and Kane's old friend Jedidiah Leland, who builds upon Bernstein's account. Finally, Kane's wife, now known to be his second ex-wife, consents to an interview and finishes the story, describing how Kane treated her in his old age. Throughout the story, Kane's moral character declines as his business dealings grow, and he is self-centered to the point where he pushes theatrical fame upon his actually-ordinary-class second wife, only so he can boast, to her discontent. (I'm going to break a rule here, but the ending is important for understanding my reflection on the movie... spoiler alert) The news man's quest seems unsuccessful in finding what "rosebud" means, but in the final scene, as Kane's vast mansion is first photographed and then cleaned and taken apart, an old worthless sled, with the word "Rosebud" written on it, is thrown into the fire.

"That sucked," proclaimed my brother as my family and I finished watching "Citizen Kane". "It was so boring!" Ok, I disagree, but this movie still somehow wasn't what I expected. On one hand, it was very well put together; there were a lot of unconventional lighting techniques used, shadows were used for dramatic effect more than once, not only in the establishing news room but also nearly every scene featuring the interviewees and many others. Every actor was perfectly cast for each role. The cinematography in the opening scene showing 'Xanadu', Kane's crazy mansion, was also captivating, as was a twice-appearing sequence of the camera showing the outside of a bar with Kane's ex-wife inside and then entering the building through a skylight. I inferred that all this camera work, pre-, and post-production was especially hard to do in 1941. In the song "Babylon Sisters" by Steely Dan, recorded through a long process in 1980, the perfectionist artists individually edited the audial characteristics, such as panning, of even each drum beat in their sequence, creating an amazing stereo sound... not only is the song great, but I know and appreciate the weeks of effort it took to produce the song without computer assistance. I react similarly to "Citizen Kane": the cinematography is good by modern standards, but for the technology available at the time it's incredible; Orson Welles and his crew did amazing with the limitations they had. However, if the same shots were filmed with 2017 camera quality and color, I feel like they would look much less impressive, even awkward at times to a modern audience that has seen much better.

I initially wasn't sure what more I got out of this movie. Yeah, the cinematography was great, the plot made sense, the director had a vision and he realized it well, but what was it all for? My dad and I discussed the lessons of "Citizen Kane" after we watched it. What does "Citizen Kane" teach us?... money and business success can't buy happiness? ...money can't buy love? ...money corrupts people? We were confused. This confusion was only exacerbated when I learned that the movie I had just watched was not only rated one of the top 100 movies of all time, it was rated the number one movie of all time. This can't entirely have to do with it being the first movie with a good director or a budget, either, as the list is recent. What was I missing?

I asked the friend who had recommended "Citizen Kane" to me. "Can you think of a movie that better shows the entire life story of a man?"

I couldn't. It may seem cliche, but I think "Citizen Kane" teaches us all the lessons I'd considered previously in the most artfully intuitive way. The way Charles Foster Kane is depicted for us in the documentary/news-style segment at the beginning of the movie is learned to be inaccurate. Through the expanded stories told by those closest to Kane, the audience gets to know Kane better than the news, we get to understand his 'why' just as well as his 'how', and in opening that perspective, the movie does great. That said, I wouldn't recommend this movie to everyone. I thought it was good, but there are still (many) movies I would rank above it in my 'top movies of all time' list. I still think I don't fully understand this movie, and to appreciate it on a level intended by the director is not something any average Joe will be able to do. I don't think most people will find "Citizen Kane" entertaining, but as a student of cinematography, I'm glad I watched it.