Updated Budget

* Denotes a rented item

Going over our budget

Our Budget

5D Mark II camera rental:  $158 for a week  (borrowlenses.com)

DP Slider: $300     (dpslider.com)

Lens rentals:   (borrowlenses.com)

-cannon 10-20: $50 for a week

-cannon 24-70: $49 for a week

-cannon 50: $35 for a week

-cannon 70-200: $37 for a week

Tripod rental: $32 for a week

FCP X: $300

Food- A pizza for every day that we shoot.  A 24" pizza from the Wilmington House of Pizza is $11.99.  We plan on shooting for 6 days.  Our food budget should be $72.  

We are planning on putting $150 into a fund for festivals. 

The entire cost:  $883

Chris' devotional cinema response

Nathan Dorsky's Devotional Cinema was an interesting read.  My feelings about it are a little mixed.  I don't think he ever clearly made his point about what constitutes devotional cinema, though I think I understood what he was getting at.  When it comes to movies, there seems to be a special few that really draw me in and capture my imagination completely; movies that at their core mean something while also having no explicit meaning at all.  There's something about film; it has this special element that is uniquely its own, that is also very hard to describe. 
One example of something that bothered me about Dorsky's writing is his repeated use of the term "nowness," which was how he described the movies that were to be considered devotional cinema.  I think I know what he was getting at with "nowness," but he never really defines it.  The whole essay, or I guess speech, while inspired and interesting, has the same pitfall as the term "nowness."  It's too vague.  Though I guess the point of this blog post is not to criticize the essay but to note my thoughts on it and how it inspired me. 
Nathan Dorsky is clearly inspired by film.  It shines through in his writing, which is in turn inspiring.  It got me thinking about the films I've watched that had the "nowness" that Dorsky describes.  The first thing that came to my mind was No Country For Old Men.  I was totally immersed in that film the first time I saw it.  It beautifully balanced meaning with ambiguity in a way that I have rarely seen any other movies do.  I thought of Gus Van Sant's Elephant and Bela Tarr's Werkmeister Harmonies.  There's just something to those movies and describing that something in words wouldn't do them justice.  There's a relatability to great films that other art forms can't replicate.  There are small moments in movies that can be incredibly powerful to one person while to another they mean nothing. 
It makes me want to be part of making something that will inspire someone just like I was inspired. 

Equipment needs by week

We're getting Ryan Sarfan to shoot our movie on his cannon 5d.  We plan on working with him on the weekends of 2/18 and 2/25.  For a back up and as a second camera we will check out the T2I on those weekends as well.  Ben has his own H4N, so we won't need to check one of those out from the equipment room. 

-On Monday 2/13, I will put a request form in for pick up on Wednesday to shoot on the upcoming weekend.  It will include a T2I, a boom mic, an xlr , a kino flow light kit, and a tripod. 
Ben will supply his H4N and a wheel chair for dollies, and Ryan will bring his 5d.

-We will make the same equipment request form for the following weekend. 


After those two weekends we will go over all of our footage and determine whether we feel like we are done shooting or not.  If not, we will put in the same request for the following weekends. 

In March we will start having weekly rehearsals for writing music.  By the end of the month we will start having foley sessions.  The first session is scheduled for the week of 3/18.  We will need to put in our request for various microphones to check out by 3/13. 

We will put in the same request for the following weekend. 

-Starting on the weekend of 3/31 we will have our first recording session for the music we have written.  We will again need to check out various microphones.  We will turn in our equipment request form by 3/27. 
We will put in the same request for the following weekend to finish up recording the music. 

For the rest of April we will be editing. 

pre-production/production/post-productin schedule

-By Saturday, 2/11 we will have the first drafts of our segment scripts finished.

-By Wednesday, 2/15 meet again with revised scripts.

-Friday, 2/17- have Final segment scripts done.

-Saturday, 2/18- first day of shooting.  Shooting mostly scripted segments. 
-Sunday, 2/19- second day of shooting.  Shooting B-roll.

-Tuesday, 2/21- screen work for class

-Saturday, 2/25- third day of shooting from 8:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

-Saturday, 3/3- First musical rehearsal/ writing session.

-Wednesday, 3/7- second musical rehearsal/ writing sesh.  

-Saturday, 3/10- Final weekend of shooting.

-Week of the 3/11- Spring Break, continue jamming and writing.

-Week of 3/18- Music rehearsal/ begin Foley sessions

-Week of 3/25- Continue Foley Sessions and music rehearsals

-Week of 4/1- First recording session for all the music we have written.

-Week of 4/8- continue recording music, begin editing

-Week of 4/15- editing

-Week of 4/22- editing

-Week of 4/29- editing

Devotional Cinema - Lauren's response

Nathaniel Dorksy’s poetic approach in describing film in his book Devotional Cinema was really unique.  I thought the description of film as a “sculpture of light” was profound and as a creative mind, it inspired me a lot.  We focus so much in the beginning of film school on style and elements within the frame, that we seem to overlook the meaningful spectacle itself of going to see a film.  We had talked about this during our installations for experimental last year, and the thought is still bouncing around in my head.  Furthermore, as an editor the article brought to my attention the balance of shots and cuts.  Dorsky’s analysis of editing was a different outlook than most articles that I have read, and I found it entirely refreshing.  Although the concept itself may be elementary, his explanations were very in-depth and made me look at my (hopefully) future job in a different way.  Rather than focusing on finishing the film as a whole product on the timeline, Dorsky draws attention to the miniscule aspects of each individual piece (whether it be a shot or a single cut).  Neither piece could function without the other.  As an editor I consider myself to be a bit of a perfectionist, in that even the smallest detail that bothers me always has to be fixed.  This editing section stressed the importance of every detail and validated the OCD-perfectionist feeling that I get when I am working on a piece.  I also think that after having read this book, I will be more attune to the shot duration and the balance between shots and cuts.  Overall, I thought this book was an interesting and enlightening read, and although I dread reading, I actually enjoyed it.

Devotional Cinema - Ben's Response

Nathaniel Dorsky's Devotional Cinema likens watching a film to religion, recounts certain films that had a great effect on him, and what makes a good film.

Honestly, most of this book confused me. I can see the points Dorsky is trying to make but he has a tendancy to ramble without giving much argument for his point. According to Dorsky, good film sticks with you, makes you think, and opens up humans to one another. His first main example is Rossellini's Voyage to Italy and how in the elevator ride afterwards people were crying and more open to one another than after most films. I agree that certain films do open us up, make us think, connect us with one another, and can even heal us, but I feel that Dorsky spends too much time on how bad most cinema is. His ideas about good cinema are there, but they are shrouded among several ideas of what make bad cinema.

Overall, Dorsky states that a good film revels in the miracle that is reality, lives in the now, has motivated shots and cuts, and makes us appreciate life and humility while being open much like religion should. Again, I agree, but I don't see why he couldn't have said that in a short essay instead of cluttering about 50 pages.