Last week's class session completely altered the way I view film-making. I have gained a tremendous amount of respect for everyone involved in the process--editors, sound effect specialists, directors, writers, etc. For example, prior to the class I always praised the actors and actresses after watching a really good movie. Now I know that EDITORS have more power in how a film turns out because of their ability and skills to make a really terrible actress seem like a great one.

I also never realized the rigorous amount of time and effort it took to create appropriate sound effects for a film. After class, I watched Fracture that night--just out of curiosity I muted the movie for about 10 minutes and tried to imagine upbeat music playing. Needless to say, I think the original music and sound effects in this film was perfect and perfectly conveyed the mood the audience was meant to feel. I am certainly more aware and more appreciative of sounds effects in film.

Overall, I felt extremely overwhelmed as I watched all of the clips about film-making. It is baffling to me that a 2-hour long movie could be prepped for production for months and then take another few months to actually shoot. I always knew that films took a while to produce but I did not realize the amount of time and effort that everyone involved spent---it looked like they were up all hours editing and meeting about editing for months! I am very excited about the film project in class, but at the same time terrified!

This is the First Day of Our Class.

We learned about metaphors in early motion pictures.

-Edward Muybridge gave us the first instance of moving pictures by attaching still pictures of a galloping horse together. I must admit that the tidbit we learned about the misconception that horses galloping with at least one foot on the ground was used many times as conversation starters this weekend!

-George Melias used motion picture to imitate the theatre. He created magic videos with fixed camera and in the clip we saw he gave us the first examples of "stop motion" to create illusions. I found the clip quite amusing and I even showed it to a friend this weekend and he chuckled at it as well.
-The Lumiere Brothers approached film differently and used motion picture to show real life. We watched the Train Station which I found very ordinary and insignificant. However, once Donna explained to us that in this approach the camara becomes our "eye" that allows us to witness something we cannot actually be at, I was more appreciative.

-Edwin Porter used motion picture to tell stories. We watched a clip from the Life of an American Fireman and saw the first example of "cross cutting" which sequences events that are happening simultaneously. I thought this was interesting because cross cutting is a technique so commonly used that I've never even thought it was ever a technique, let alone a revolutionary one.

-I am extremely excited about this class because I learned so much in the first session and left challenged to think beyond the characters I am watching when I watch film!