The Magic of Movies

Why is conflict important?  What is its purpose in the story?  What are the differences between the different kinds of conflict? Conflict is important because conflict drives the story and keeps the audience engaged. Conflict is a struggle between opposing forces. As a character tries to reach a goal, someone/something is stopping them. There are many different types of conflict but, two types of conflict are commonly used external and internal.  External conflict deals with the obstacles the character faces in the external world. External conflicts gets the story moving in the right direction. Internal conflict deals with the internal choices the character must make. 

Why is drama important to conflict?  How do you create effective conflict in your story?  Drama is important to add to your story when it comes to conflict because what are the stakes? What is the character risking? Thats what people want to see and know. You want to create an elusive scenario where the characters fate is at risk. You need to show that there's a chance they might not succeed in their goals, same things goes for the antagonist. To create effective conflict you want to put an obstacle over their wants, create external and internal conflict, create tension and suspense. That's how you create an effective story that comes with conflict. 

What's the difference between the wants and needs of your characters?  Why is it important to know these for your characters?  What happens when you don't have these? The external want is external their needs are internal, so in their head/mind. Their needs are internal because they need to learn for themselves to grow and ultimately fulfill their goal. When it's a want you can take Beatrix the bride from Kill Bill. She wants to kill her former lover and get vengeance. That's a want not a need. For a need I'd say a good example is infinity war. They needed to stop Thanos from collecting all of the infinity stones. They needed to do it to save the world from half of the population disappearing. It's important to set clear objectives for your characters otherwise your audience won't know what direction they're going with. 

What is the hot seat technique?  How can you apply this to the next script that you write to create interesting characters? You want to picture yourself living the characters life. Start off with the basic emotions get inside their head their journey. This is the hot seat technique you get direct prompting, and attempt to relive the persons experience, feelings, and find solutions to problems. You need to put more flesh on their burns, put scars, add a reason to why and how they are this way. You need to figure out every single important detail about your character give them a reason for everything they do. It is helpful to do the hot seat technique because it helps you figure out what makes your character tick. You need to know your characters well be familiar with their habits. In conclusion this technique helps you build a connection with your own creation of a character. and get more immersed into their story 

What is the key to creating empathy with the audience and our characters?  How does success play into this?  To show your characters empathy you need to show the audience what the character loves and cares about. They need to see their desires, their motives, etc. Desire is the key to creating character/audience empathy. We automatically relate to characters trying to get something, because we want to get something too. We can disapprove of many antagonists values or morals. But we empathize and picture ourselves into their perspectives. Most people like to hear a successful story, including empathy create a connection with the character and audience. They want to see and hear their win but they'll only care or empathize if they're given a real empathetic story. 

Reflect on this video and the character exercise yesterday. How can these exercises help you develop and improve the characters you create for your next film? You want to brainstorm your character what their traits are, morals, values etc. It's important to figure out what you want your character to act like and why they act that way. It's important to brainstorm character qualities such as being a country boy, addicted to partying etc. You want them to have their quirks and habits/qualities that make them for them. Secondly you want to add detail and information on their relationships with others. Create a simple trope. Brainstorm all the possible connections to add more depth to the character. Once you figure out your character relationships you'll finally come to figuring out your storyline. Connect the dots with the ideas you've given yourself. Build off what you've put together. 

What are the common copyright myths that this video talks about?  Do any of these go against what you thought you knew about copyright?  What are three more important questions you have about copyright and how it applies to filmmaking? One of the common myths about fair use is if you're not making money off it, it is okay. That is not entirely true. Depending on what source it is that you use it will either get you a copyright strike or not. Another common myth is a specific number of seconds or less is always fair use. The rule is 30 seconds so the flexibility gives you its pros and cons. My first question is, can you use any song instrumental? My second question is can I show any movie scenes as long as I don't use its original audio? My third question is can I continue to use whatever as long as I credit it? Those are my three questions when it comes to uploading my films/content. 

How does copyright and fair use apply to Youtube?  Write a reflection on three instance where you might have violated copyright on YouTube.  Now that you've learned more about copyright, how might you have solved each of these three situations using the fair use clause? Fair use is basically a clause in the Copyright Act people use copyrighted material in their content provided that a couple considerations taken into account and there four of them. Number one the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for non-profit educational purposes; Number two the nature of the copyrighted work; Number 3 the amount and substainiality of the portion used in relation to the copy-righted work as a whole; Number 4 the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copy-righted work. If I'm doing a movie commentary typically I shouldn't use the original sound because it could be copyrighted. A way to dodge the fair use c...

What are the four 21st-century skills?  As an advanced student, how do these 21st-century skills apply to the work that you are doing in the advance class?  How do you think you can apply each of these to your work in this class going forward into the year? Be specific and give an example of how each of the four key 21st-century skills apply of your filmmaking career going forward    The first skill is to listen and repeat after me. You want to apply this as an adv student by helping others who are beginners. You want to help them memorize the subject and repeat it. Second skill is critical thinking. As someone who is a critical thinker, I know it is very important to give your honest critical feedback, if you don't do so you or someone is most likely to never learn or improve. You want to evaluate anything effectively. Technology is an important resource when it comes to adequate learning. Technology is another 21st century skill that we need to know and use. A 21st...

What are the key responsibilities of a production assistant on a film set, and how do these tasks contribute to the overall success of a production? Reflect on how you would approach the role of a production assistant, including any challenges you might anticipate and how you would overcome them. The first one is you want to know where everything is at. Have a map of your location. It is often that your crew members will ask you where a certain place or thing is located, you want to read your call-sheet as well. Secondly you want to prep the night before. You should always have your ETA set in mind so you never arrive late to the set. If you're early you're on time, if you're if you're on time you're late, and if you're late you're fired. Punctuality is crucial. The last thing is your first hour on set you're going to want to politely speak to any crew member and ask for the AD or director to send you on a task, if given the chance you'll want to eat...

Now that you are advanced students, you will be expected to step up and become a leader in the classroom.  Read the following article and write a detailed, well-thought-out reflection based on your experience from last year. Considering how you behaved last year, select 3 of these leadership qualities that you are weak in.  How can you positively develop these leadership qualities going forward this year?  How could improving these aspects of your leadership make you a better class leader and filmmaker? The first leadership quality that I feel that I'm lacking in is extroversion. I'd say I'm an ambiverted person meaning showing qualities of both extroversion and introversion. I tend to be more introverted socially speaking but, this year I plan on changing that or at least improving it by showing my genuine interest in the questions beginner level students ask me. Friendliness and confidence in my responses will also help me. The second quality I feel that I need to work ...

Overall, how do each of these characteristics of professionalism apply to filmmaking? How do they apply to your daily work in this class? Please select three characteristics to give real-life examples of how you can work toward improving them in this class. Please write a complete paragraph on each of the three characteristics, along with an introduction paragraph. Professionalism is something you practice and present to your colleagues in the work place. It's an ethical skill. You always want to show that you know what you're doing and here's how.  The first thing I learned is to be confident not cocky. Some people don't know the difference between confidence and cockiness you should always be polite and well spoken whether you're interacting with customers, superiors or co-workers. Keep your calm, even during tense situations. You also want to have good communication skills and nice body language/facial expressions. Secondly be an expert in your field continue to...

How did your 72 Hr. Filmmaking Challenge go over the weekend? What were some of the challenges that you encountered? How did you overcome them? What do you still have left to do? I feel that it went overall really well we didn't have many complications because we always figured out a solution to our problem. We did forget a crucial piece of equipment for the dolly, which was the rails to move the tripod. We managed to still do our trucking shots by using a wagon that Jose brought for the equipment. There was another problem we faced which was bring jelly for our dropping jelly on shoe scene we worked around it by using some fiber bars that we had supplied on us. I think that pretty much was it in terms of issues that we faced. Everything else about the shoot was good and productive we had a 15 minute break then resumed to production and we successfully completed the challenge! 

What are your 3 filmmaking goals for the 2024-2025 school year?  Don't simply copy everything this creator says.  Really look down and decide what specific goals you want to set for yourself.  Look back at your goals that you set in last years class.  Did you achieve them?  Why or why not?  How can you make steps to achieve these goals?  Where will you need to look to gather help or resources? Please write a complete paragraph on each of three goals, along with an introduction paragraph. Last year my goals were to learn more about film, improve my editing skills and learn how to use different platforms, lastly learn about different directors and how they created iconic films. I can definitely say that I learned so much more about film. I learned good film composition. I also learned about how to write scripts, make and sign contracts, casting, locations, and so much more. I learned about the pre-production process and post. My goals last year were to a...