Portrait Lessons

One thing I learned from creating my portrait assignment was that the specifics of how a film turns out can be somewhat unpredictable. What I mean is that when you make a film, you try to control all the variables that you possibly can - but ultimately you cannot control everything. Part of what makes a good film, I think, is its ability to account for and take advantage of those things that the filmmakers couldn't control. Certainly there are varying degrees of control, from filmmaker to filmmaker. At this point I wouldn't say I am good at either of those abilities described above.

For example, Matt Phillips was the DP for my film. He strikes me as very capable of doing that job and he seemed to know what he was doing the whole time - and I thought we communicated and worked very well together. Nonetheless, after shooting the film I noticed several technical problems with the footage. Several shots were underexposed. The composition wasn't always really innovative or interesting. Some of the shots that we got only one take of (because they required props of which we had limited resources) went on too long or were imperfect in some way. At the time I felt like we both did a good job of keeping our eyes on what we were doing, and yet there are these problems.

I guess that just tells me that next time I need to be more obsessive about every shot. I would say something about my classmates work, but I've already written too much. I'll just say that it made me wish I'd done a better job on my film.

Itchy Nub

Itchy Nub from Levon Peirce on Vimeo.

This is a short film depicting an average day in my life. In it, you will see the everyday routines that I routinely execute and problems that I face daily in an everyday daily routine sort of way. Nothing that exciting, really.

Director - Levon Peirce

Director of Photography - Matt Phillips

Levon Peirce as Levon Peirce

Music by Levon Peirce

Shot with a JVC GY-HM100U.

Sony and JVC Camcorder Comparison

In working with the two HD cameras, I found that in general the picture from the JVC camcorder was sharper. That is only a subjective observation, though. There are other, more obvious reasons that I prefer the JVC. The mere fact that it uses an SD card is a huge advantage to me. It means that you don't have to deal with the peculiarities of tape. You don't have to worry about timecode breaks, which means that you can review your footage any time you want. This has come in handy quite a bit. You also don't have to capture the footage when you're done shooting, you simply copy the files.

Simply using solid-state media has advantages over using mechanically operated media. For example, an SD card can be written and rewritten a virtually unlimited number of times. A tape can be rewritten as well, but it can create timecode breaks and, in my experience, it can often create errors in the way it records the image. That is, you might see strange colored squares all around the screen at various times. Another advantage of the JVC camcorder is its ability to shoot in progressive scan. The Sony camcorder will only record in 1080i, whereas the JVC will record up to 1080p. From what I've read and what I've seen with my own eyes, there is pretty much no debate over the fact that 1080p produces a better image than 1080i.

On the other hand, there is one advantage that the Sony camcorder has over the JVC that is readily apparent to me, and that is its easier access to manual controls. The Sony camcorder has a ring both for focus and for zoom, whereas the JVC has only one ring that must be switched in order to control either focus or zoom. Because the Sony is slightly larger it also has more space for buttons, which means that some operations that require multiple button-pushes on the JVC can be done with only one button on the Sony. But these advantages are rather small considering that they really only mean that, in the case of the JVC, you need to plan out ahead of time what you need to do. The advantages of flash-based media far outweigh this slight disadvantage in my mind.

Goals in Filmmaking

My overall goal in filmmaking is to create something that is both interesting and different on one hand, but also something that will appeal to someone. I guess what I mean by that is that I want to create films that are striking and sometimes even shocking in the way that they portray things, but I want them to be based - if very loosely - on a foundation of knowledge about visual art and what "works." This is something that, I think, is going to require a lot of work.

I've been making movies my whole life - from the time when I first got my hands on a camcorder, which was when I was around 10. Yet, despite all that experience I don't really have a good handle on how to make "effective" images. As I alluded to in my other post, I am able to make visual art (drawings, paintings, etc.), but even with that I have sort of fallen out of practice and it seems I don't have a good "feel" for it anymore. So I guess one of the main things I hope to get out of this class is "practice."

I want to get some momentum going so that when I start a film I don't feel like I'm starting from scratch - so that I'll feel like it's already moving from the beginning. This is the way I feel about music. I create music often enough and am actively engaged in it to the point that when I sit down with a guitar I already have a framework to think in and I already have energy and enthusiasm which merely needs to be directed. This is something that I would like to develop with regards to film. Of course, part of what it takes to achieve that level of proficiency in film is technical proficiency. So I'm hoping that this class will teach me some of the technical details that I am a little unsure of or of which I'm not even aware.

Ultimately, though, practice is the main goal. In my experience, practice is the key to any art. Practice teaches you the limits of the medium you're working in, and it teaches you what you like. It teaches you how what you do affects the result, and through this process you learn what your goals are as an artist and what you want to do that is unique. Of course I've had plenty of practice with film/video already, but most of it was unguided and not really aware of what was already out there. So I need some guidance as well.