Final Reflection: How long i've come.

To be honest it feels weird to be writing this blog post, this day felt so far away for so long and it's finally here i don't even know what to write. I think that my journey doing my film opening has certainly made me a better filmmaker because this is one of my strongest pieces but i think arguably more importantly i am coming out of this a way better cinematographer because this is the only piece i have done cinematography for that i am genuinely proud of the cinematography. Honestly i am very surprised i have a film opening because of all the hurdles and challenges up until like an hour before i stared filming i was genuinely wondering if i was going to have a film opening it just seemed like everything that could go wrong was going wrong, and then some.

I started this project by wanting to do a critique of the U.S. Military and i eventually landed on the idea of the daily life of a veteran who has returned from war. I hate this idea so much, not necessarily because of the idea or message i still like those and agree with the message, but because of all the stress it caused me, it was literally a production from hell. Everything that could go wrong did, and that's why i hate it so much. If i were to list every single thing that went wrong this blog would be 8 or 9 pages and i mean this very seriously i did not think that i would have a film opening until i finished filming "Monotony". What this taught me is that sometimes when something isn't working it's better to just cut your losses and do something else and my ego and arrogance had me stay on the military idea for way longer than i should have because i jut couldn't admit that one of my ideas was bad and wasn't working, my only regret i have when it comes towards this project is that i should've switched ideas way earlier because i would have had time to perfect every little thing about Monotony because since i switched so late i didn't really have the time to perfect every little thing about it but it's not a big deal because i am very proud of the end result and i think it turned out great and same with my CCRS.

The change to Monotony. The most stressed i might have ever been was the night when i decided to drop the military idea and had to come up with an idea quickly. Thankfully Pink Floyd saved me and gave me the amazing idea for "Monotony". When i was making "Monotony" i also faced a lot of production setbacks as i had to rush all of the pre production because of the time i lost on the military idea and when it came time to film my cinematographer cancelled on me like an hour before filming and he had the camera, tripod and shot list so when my actor the amazing Luke Dierking arrived i had to make up every shot on the fly because i really only had 3 in mind, the rack focus with the broken picture frame, the match cut, and him rising from the bed and staring at the camera so the cinematography certainly was a struggle especially because i have a history of being pretty bad at it. Everything after filming went surprisingly well though. I managed to finish editing the film opening only a day after i filmed and the CCRs went smoothly i filmed each of them in only a single day and by the next i had them pretty much fully edited. Overall i am really appreciative of this portfolio project as it helped me grow as a filmmaker, taught me valuable lessons and overall helped me become better at techniques i thought i was notoriously bad at and now consider myself decent at like, sound design and cinematography.