I went to the 7:45 winter showcase.

We're going to film Leonie an Nan interviewing other international students and asking them about Christmas and break. We will have Christmas hats and clothes and hopefully have Christmas decorations or snow in the background. 

Ruiqi and Nan and I set up the camera, and two light outside of the health center closer to the road in the corner of the walkway. We thought about filming inside the library with the snowy trees in the background. But after Mr. Muench' suggestion of using the winter weather to our advantage to help give more holiday spirit, we moved outside. And it definitely felt like winter. I think the temperature was below 20 degrees Fahrenheit. All of the students that let up interview them were cold and seemed to question their decision, but they were happy to help us. This project was awesome especially cause we had three international students in our group and had two good interviewers with Leonie and Nan. Also, Ruiqi has great vision and knew how to adjust the angle and lighting to get the best results. I was able to bring in Christmas hats to give the perfect Christmas feeling. I haven't seen the final cuts yet, but I expect it will make a very good news story video and will get a bunch of international students to watch the whole news story episode if not just this part. I'm glad we decided on his idea.

WATCHED BLACK AND WHITE MOVIES:

-The Gold Rush

-Schindler's List

-Phsyco

I watched The Gold Rush with comedian Charlie Chaplin. I was surprised to see that Chaplin was the main actor in the film and also wrote and directed it. I'm thinking that he only wanted to trust himself with the responsibilities of the film because he had a strong vision of what he wanted it to look like. Also, I'm guessing that filmmaking was very different back then, and it might have been normal to star, write, and direct the film. I think that this was a very good film, and I was very entertained considering that the movie is almost 100 years old and used barely any technology compared to what we use now. 

The movie is about a lone prospector (Chapman) going through the cold terrain of Alaska during the 19th century gold rush and meeting the people who are also there. He meets Big Jim Mckay and Black Larsen in his cabin, before it blows off of a cliff, and then finds a town, built in Alaska to hold the gold miners. In the town, he finds a woman named Georgia and falls in love with her. He tries to get her to like him, and afterwards they board a ship with Big Jim Mckay going away from Alaska after they found millions of dollars worth of gold. 

From the beginning of the film, I was expecting to be a little bored, as the historical part was a little dry, but that might have been on purpose. The second scene with Chaplin was very funny. I was laughing at the parts with Larsen forcing him to leave the cabin and with Chaplin almost getting shot by accident and when Chaplin cooked him shoe for food. I thought it was cool that Chaplin was able to make it so entertaining with mainly his movements and behavior when there was no sound and the shot had to stop for text to explain what was happening.

I thought the text worked well for explaining what the character were saying and what was happening and where the scene was taking place. It did disrupt the fluidity of the film a couple times, but it mostly worked well. It could not have been that bad for the quality of the film as commercials use blank screens with text to give context or tell messages. Even though we have the option to use sound to say things now, visual text is still used sometimes.

I think the lighting and shot angling was pretty effective. The shots were just wide enough to show the walls of the rooms or the landscape, but also focus in on the characters' facial expressions and body language. 

Overall, I really enjoyed the film and the storyline. I had underestimated the quality of the silent film and expected a clean cut product that was boring to watch. Instead, it was a little rougher but was funny and entertaining and impressive in the effects and filming techniques used. I probably would not have enjoyed this movie a few years ago or even before taking Cinematography, but now I'd recommend it to anyone interested in filmmaking who has not seen a movie made before 1930.