Anna Akatherine

My plans for next semester are still very up in the air considering I was unable to get into any classes - I just have an overabundance of waitlists sitting in my seanet. I had originally planned to take Russian II, but after both being unable to get into the class before it filled up and realizing that it won’t fulfill my degree requirements, I’m unsure about it. I could always take it as an easier elective, but I’m not sure that’s not going to be a waste of time. I had also planned to take another film production course, but every class in the film program was completely full by the time I could register. I also planned to take a life drawing course, which I am currently waitlisted for but I had the teacher before and he agreed to let me into the course if I don’t get off the waitlist before then, so i can safely plan on taking that one. I also need to take an American History class and an English class, so my days will be heavy with writing next semester.

I was really interested in seeing a lot of the films playing at Cucalorus - particularly ones like Princess Cyd, Mr. Roosevelt, Porcupine Lake , and Life as Zucchini . Unfortunately I found the process of attending them very difficult. While being significantly outside of the price range I have to spare every month, when I did indeed hand over the amount required to buy tickets on the first floor of Thalian - as soon as I made it to the second floor I was told that the theater was filled to its fire safety capacity and I wouldn’t be allowed in. I understand that fire codes must be respected and they’re doing their job to ensure the safety of everyone in the theater, but I have to admit it was disappointing to have to walk back downstairs and drive all the way home, having lost the gas to get there and back, and having to miss out on the plans I refused in order to go to the festival without actually getting to see the film. The first time this happened I just resolved to go the next d...

Editing was somewhat of a challenge concerning the audio - because the water was so loud in the background of each dialogue clip, when we cut between them, you can hear the water changing places. We did solve this though, for the most part, by cross-dissolving the audio at each cut and using a high-pass to block out some of the boat engine noises. We had to color it to carry the transition of colors through sunset, and the actor's skin came out a little green, so we color corrected that. The shot placement was fairly straightforwards since we had storyboarded so carefully - we just had to drop things into place and judge the pacing. Some of the cuts are difficult to judge the pacing for - I learned things like you should cut before the actor looks away, because when they look at something, it prepares the audience to see what they're looking at as the next shot, and when this doesn't happen, it becomes misleading.

The Master Shot scene went well I think - I got to the location at 1 pm and began setting up the equipment - everyone was on set by 4, and we started filming at 5 - before we were rehearsing and managing equipment. We filmed just around sunset, wrapping up right after. Everyone left by 8 pm. I brought water for the cast and crew but in retrospect next time we should bring a cooler to keep it cold, it was very hot. We had a last minute actor cancellation for the executioner so he had to learn his lines very quickly, but he ddi well under the circumstances. I'm very satisfied with the actress's performance. It was extremely difficult to do sound with the wind and the water being so loud, but I think we still managed to get some alright audio. It will just require a bit more care in post-production.

I was in charge of the storyboards, overheads, and the shot list. Storyboarding was fun because I got to visualize the sequence of shots in my head and think about how I want to reveal the information, and the overheads and shotlist appear to be pretty straight forwards. I have an idea for the editing where all of the dialogue is shown solely in close-ups at first, so the audience is unsure of what’s happening, intermingled with ominous sounds of ropes being tied and the river rushing and crows, until the final line, where Bran (the witch) says she might need it (the dead language) someday, and then it cuts to a long shot of her about to be drowned, and it’s revealed what’s been happening. I think this editing style might add some humor to the situation, so I’m hoping that it can work well with the shooting style meant for coverage.

I’ll be fulfilling the role of director for our master shot scene. We talked about ideas and one that my producer had that I think we’ll go with is to shoot the dialogue as if it was between an accused witch and the executioner during the Salem witch trials. I’ve seen a lot of short films use this script, and the delivery always came off as inevitably awkward to me, no matter how the actors tried to say the lines, so I think setting it in an already awkward and slightly humorous interaction might suit the tone better. I found an actress to play our witch (Bran), my friend Mack - she has really large and wide eyes, so I think the likability and innocence of her face will work well on screen as the accused witch. I’ve scouted the location of the Carolina Beach State Park twice - once with my producer - and we’ve decided to shoot there to work with the creepy, swampy, feel of the trees and river.