Mattrick's Movies (and assorted Film School Projects)

[Mattrick]

I'm just wrapping up my first year of film school at Ryerson University in Toronto (technically my own fucking house on Zoom because of Covid...) and I've made four film so far. I'll keep this first post to post my school films I make (or contribute to making) over my four years of school, and perhaps any films I make on my own.

In this first post I will post links to each video through the links posted in specific posts in this thread. I will have little write ups/explanations/stories to go along with it, as well as the link to the film you can watch embedded or on YouTube. Just make sure you click the gear icon and set it to 1080p for the best viewing experience.

Subscribe to my YouTube Channel hosting all my films:BT Films (https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCHxytpekpvkTsxKp7IjdYKQ)



Year One Films

Silent Film

Film One: Untitled - Silent Documentary (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1250403&viewfull=1#post1250403)
Film Two: Study Night - Silent Short Film (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1250403&viewfull=1#post1250403)


Year Two Films - Fall Semester

Documentary Production

Film One: Next Station (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1250262&viewfull=1#post1250262)
Film Two: At Eyesore Cinema with Daniel Hannah (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1251968&viewfull=1#post1251968)

Visual Arts II

Film One: Gone Viral Gone (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1250262&viewfull=1#post1250262)
Film Two: Silent Words (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1251032&viewfull=1#post1251032)
Film Three: Aurora (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1251881&viewfull=1#post1251881)


Microcinema



Year Two - Winter Semester

Film Production - Fiction

Film One: Caldo Verde (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1255601&viewfull=1#post1255601)
Film Two: A Moored (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1257295&viewfull=1#post1257295)



Miscellaneous Videos

The Falcon That Ate a Trash Bird (https://www.thedarktower.org/palaver/showthread.php?23320-Mattrick-s-Movies-(and-assorted-Film-School-Projects)&p=1251426&viewfull=1#post1251426)

[DoctorZaius]

Looking forward to seeing what you come up with.

[Still Servant]

Awesome! Way to go! I have to think a film class on Zoom is pretty tricky. Does everyone just shoot with their phones?

[Mattrick]

Awesome! Way to go! I have to think a film class on Zoom is pretty tricky. Does everyone just shoot with their phones?


Some people were strictly digital all year. Those able to go to the school were able to use Bolex cameras. I used a Bolex for my first two films in the fall, even if it was a pain the ass taking the train all the way to Toronto just to drop off film for development or to exchange the camera with someone. Second semester I went all digital. I calculated that between the cost of film/development/transit to use a Bolex, it was around 500 dollars, I so I spent that money on film equipment instead...I got studio lights and a shotgun microphone, and I further invested in a 70-300mm telephoto lens, which came with some extra stuff like diopters and stuff I made use of already.

My Camera: an entry level Nikon D3300 which is pretty light on features, but takes acceptable video and great stills. Unlike say Sony and Canon cameras though it's not as effective at shooting film


https://scontent.fymy1-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/177520948_10165653123435571_860674178010068121_n.j pg?_nc_cat=107&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=0setDWJFmsEAX-oCYOb&tn=x-pDLCCDrXGRYhqD&_nc_ht=scontent.fymy1-1.fna&oh=a300628ae5c8b914fb2f11bbda984f1b&oe=60A806BD


My lights: neewer 660 Bi-colour LEDs 3200-5600k

https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/142072996_10165256979495571_264547013597054549_n.j pg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=LkVRnDRo0KoAX9XU0cr&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=1584afa50fcd051e05d56631b0c80973&oe=60A7DFEA


https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/142252202_10165256979295571_3727457082865398444_n. jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=2MCdNAKvPu8AX8fpueg&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=a29b603e14e497ab361eb16915719751&oe=60A7CE3F


My zoom Lens and other lenses that came with it:



https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/138933762_10165203780445571_9106146096328419637_n. jpg?_nc_cat=104&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=sRweG_x9ysIAX_t7HNq&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=5963a4d2bc65c2191100d15591e38aa0&oe=60A9E53C


https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t1.6435-9/138920727_10165203855420571_2829341718040701152_n. jpg?_nc_cat=103&ccb=1-3&_nc_sid=8bfeb9&_nc_ohc=Qt-noXxkVWEAX9NwZe1&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=45c7db1f38135a7b75c6c83ae0e9e18f&oe=60AADD93


The silent film camera we used from the school was a Bolex H16 RX5 Reflex. It came equipped with three prime lenses you can rotate: 25mm, 40mm, and 70mm



http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pUqheeZCocQ/UScUf_DEPxI/AAAAAAAAAPs/7UH7YSH8QWI/s1600/Bolex+H16+RX5.jpg

[fernandito]

Nice. Can't wait to see the videos.

[Heather19]

So cool. Can't wait to see the films.

[Still Servant]

Very nice starter kit! Do the lights let you change the color temp? What are you using to edit?

[Mattrick]

Very nice starter kit! Do the lights let you change the color temp? What are you using to edit?

The lights go from 3200k to 5600k so right in the optimal range. Remote control. Nice range of brightness too. I'm editing in Adobe Premiere/Audition. My laptop is pretty good for video editing...16gb RAM, Ryzen 7 4800 GPU. Its quick working and renders fast.

[fernandito]

I edited a few home made movies for school back in the day, did it on Adobe Premiere Pro. I think I still have the gangster-movie trailer I did for my capstone project on a CD somewhere.

[St. Troy]

Sounds awesome.

[Still Servant]

Very nice starter kit! Do the lights let you change the color temp? What are you using to edit?

The lights go from 3200k to 5600k so right in the optimal range. Remote control. Nice range of brightness too. I'm editing in Adobe Premiere/Audition. My laptop is pretty good for video editing...16gb RAM, Ryzen 7 4800 GPU. Its quick working and renders fast.

Nice! 3200 and 5600 is all you really need. Adobe Premiere is good. Very user-friendly and orients well with other Adobe apps.

[Mattrick]

This week my year is having an online film festival where our second semester films will be shown. You'll get to see my films premiere, plus a lot of other good work from a bunch of young whippersnappers.

Days:

Thursday April 29th @ 2-5pm EST
Friday April 30th @ 6-9pm EST

I'll post the link when it's open for anyone interested.

[Ricky]

Cool! I'll check it out when you have the link. :)

[Mattrick]

The link for Today. It's starting up now:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmGRJ_Dp074

[mae]

Sweet!

[Mattrick]

My films won't be shown until tomorrow night.

[Mattrick]

Those were the group films...Solo films link forthcoming

[Mattrick]

Not sure why they have separate videos for groups/solo films, but this link will cover the rest of today's showings. I think there are 22 films.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WmGRJ_Dp074

[Mattrick]

Well, apparently the youtube video isn't work so we're watching on Zoom, meaning I can't share it...sorry!

[Mattrick]

The technical difficulties today shouldn't happen tomorrow so I should be able to post the links up without issue. If you can't watch live there should be links available to watch at your convenience.

[Mattrick]

Link:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VA8UtZDkXaU

[Mattrick]

Here are my first two films for the year. I'll be uploading my films from last year to this channel once I upload them, plus more as I go. Subscribe to my YouTube channel, which I'll slowly start building up with school projects and some stuff I do on the side if I get motivated enough. I'll be editing the original post with links to these individual posts with the little write ups and videos.

This first film was for my visual arts class. We had to rip footage off the internet and use it to make something of our own. I decided to go for a funny video with some biting social criticism. FYI the video is SFW, YouTube just has rules against kids watching stupid people do stupid things so kids don't do the stupid things too.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QJoVDQyO4HY


This second film was a collaboration for my documentary class. We had to transform a real world space through sound and photography. Me riding the subway maybe once a year and my partner having had just moved to Toronto weeks before still find the subway to be an unfamiliar place we're not used to. Our goal was to make it seem unfamiliar enough to other people who are very familiar with it, kind of make them feel how we feel, only exaggerated. We both filmed (though about two-thirds of the footage is mine since she was working on the music made of subway sounds). I did the editing and she did the sound mix. The music is a little janky in the opening as the footage/cuts supported a different pacing, but we just didn't have time to fix it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myJ55oFB_-I


The current project I am working on is a group project for my Visual Arts class. In a group of 6 we had to create a list of words (12 for us) and then we had to go out and film representations of that word. Each of us has to film each word, (we're trying for 3-5 shots for each words, each). Then we pool all of our footage and we each make our own unique cuts from that pool of footage, with footage that represents all twelve of the words.

[Ricky]

Hey Matt, nice work. I watched Next Station. It made me feel very anxious, which I guess was your intention. It gave me lots of Danny Boyle vibes.

[Still Servant]

Nice work, Matt! Loved the visuals in Next Station. I love the shots showing the bend of the train. Some great editing as well with the unsettling music.

The viral video was creative as well. I love Red Letter Media, so that was fun to see!

[fernandito]

Very cool Matt. 10/10, would watch again.

[Mattrick]

My two first semester films. Both of them on silent and shot on a Bolex Deluxe. It's the only time I've gotten to shoot on film so far due to covid, and we didn't even get to edit it by actually cutting the film and had to work with digital prints.



This first film here (I posted it awhile back, I think) was challenging to shoot because it's all outdoors and the thing about video is dealing with the brightness of the sky. Even with digital it's very tricky to not blow it out, and it's inconsistent. Some of the shots here ended up washed out, not only because it was insanely bright during filming, but also because I reading the wrong part of the light meter when I had the High Slide in. A high slide is a little metal slide with some small holes that you use when you're outside and it's so bright your light meter registers off the scale, so several shots end up over exposed.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=36Qc4fTWH_I


This second film took a lot more planning. For those who have never shot on film before, it is INSANELY hard to shoot interiors. Kind of the opposite problem as shooting exteriors during the day is the total absense of light. To properly expose a small room with light you need at least 1600 lumens, but closer to 2000 lumens. The average LED lightbulbs fall between 250-500 lumens. I was going for a chiaroscuro effect for much of this film (strong contrast between light and dark) so to achieve that effect I bought a 1000 lumen bulb (which at ten feet away barely registered on the light meter at all, so I typically had to keep the light within 5 feet of my actor) and black cardstock and taped it around the shade of my snake lamp, effectively making a really big shade to keep the light directed and strong...basically ghetto barn doors.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yNdP3sp02VY


Some shots are definitely too dark and you can only bring them up so much in post before they get extremely grainy with film. I cheated with certain shots due to only having the ability to film so much. We only had 6 minutes of film on two reels and the film had to be 2-3 minutes long so there isn't much room for error or extra takes or coverage shots. Some shots I planned didn't turn out so well in execution, others turned out pretty good. But these films are really about learning from your mistakes anyways and I definitely learned a lot making this film. And my friend's daughter who is in this still hasn't watched it because she's afraid it'll be real embarrassing. She did fine! If there's anything embarrassing, it's my shitty acting while filming myself in my second semester film from last year!

[Mattrick]

Over the next few weeks I'll be dropping what...5 films? 6? I've lost count! (Interesting fact I spent 2 hours trying to fix a rendering glitch during THE LAST SHOT, and it's a beauty!)


ASSIGNMENT: In groups of five, compile a list of words. Then each member films those words, either as literal, symbolic, metaphorical, or abstract as we want. Then we pooled together all of our footage and we had to create our own 3-5min film from it. Despite having the same footage all of our films should be quite different. For our shooting we all opted to compared and contrast nature with urban, natural vs artificial, and the like.

--Words List--



1. Consumption
2. Destruction
3. Flight
4. Landscape/Cityscape
5. Lights
6. Reflections
7. Rough
8. Smooth
9. Tendril
10. Texture
11. Water
12. Wind


Filmed by Me, Andrea, Julia, Kai & Miles


Music is a medley I mixed of Silent Hill music as composed by the great Akira Yamaoka ft. "Fear of the Dark" (Silent Hill), "White Noiz" (Silent Hill 2), "Forest" (Silent Hill 2), "Black Fairy" (Silent Hill 2), "World of Madness" (Silent Hill 2), "Noone Love You" (Silent Hill 2), "Heaven's Night" (Silent Hill 2), "Day of Night" (Silent Hill 2), and "Breeze in Monochrome Night" (Silent Hill 3)

NOTE - DESIGNED FOR HEADPHONES. Wear headphones for optimal experience.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMvwTo_kNEM

[Mattrick]

Not a school project. I just noticed this falcon outside. It seemed to have already had it's fill of the seagull though. I'd have loved to have gotten some footage of it eating.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EGCvj9oZv5U

[Mattrick]

It's about that time of the semester when I start dropping all my films. I have this one now, and I'll have another one to drop Friday. Then I'll have my final two coming next week. It's been a very busy term!




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YX4FnYyQMeE




Assignment: Create a video portrait of a person or place that is 3-5mins long (I went a little over!), with a strong focus on sound. I chose to film my 8-month old niece. While I got plenty of great footage, ultimately a lot of great stuff went on the cutting room floor. My original assembly cut was over 18 minutes long, taken from about two hours of video. My rough cut got that down to about 5:15. However, there was nearly two minutes of footage I really wanted to include so I cut myself out another 35 seconds, deleted a few clips, and managed to squeeze the best of it in to 5:10...5:25 with the little outro I added. All in all I think this came together almost perfectly.

I didn't want to add any music originally, but the problem with recording a baby when its parents are cooking, cleaning, working from home, is that getting clean audio whenever I'm recording was nigh impossible. I had to trim around so much unwanted noise, use audio effects to drown out faucets and dishwashers. Also, when you're recording at any opportune moment...sometimes you forget to switch on your shotgun mic and that great footage has zero sound. So I had to string together a little montage for music to cover up the bad audio. I didn't want to choose some kids music or anything cliche, so I opted for Images pour orchestra II, Iberia, by Claude Debussy. It's one of my favourite pieces and the segment I took offers some complement to beauty with some playfulness. And the little Aurora riff at the end, considering that's her namesake, well I had to do that. Don't you copyright strike me for that, YouTube!

[Mattrick]

Here is my mini-doc production


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9__n1qftcA


Assignment: Create a 3-5 minute doc (we went a little over that!) where the primary purpose is to interview someone. We had to stage the interview, light it ourselves. The only real drawback here is our sound. My partner's job was to get the sound equipment from the school, a recording, lavalier microphones, and a boom mic, since I'm several cities away and it's easier for them. They had issues, and then the order was wrong, and really I think they dropped the ball on actually picking it up and kept putting it off or forgetting to do it. Our sound guy had a pretty decent microphone and it's much better than in camera sound, but if we had of had lavalier mics and a boom it could sound so much better. Also the person doing the picture edit took too long so between our sound editor and me doing all the colour grading as cinematographer, we had less than 48 hours to do our post-production. All in all it still turned out pretty good considering what we had to work with. All I know is that if we get a low mark it ain't got anything to do with me! I think the picture edit would have gone better if we'd prepared for the interview more. The interview ended up going for like 80 minutes for a 5 minute film. So sifting through all for the meat couldn't have been easy. If the director was on top of the production we'd have conducted a tight 20 minutes interview so editing would be easier. Oh well...that's all part of the learning experience for everyone at the school.

[Mattrick]

Here is the first film from my second semester. I actually finished it a few weeks ago. I was the film editor. We just finished shooting what I'm considering my first actual movie that I director with actors and a small crew. It'll likely be about two weeks until my editor is finished with it.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FU2ze1lKRDY


ASSIGNMENT: Create a video about someone missing someone else. We cannot use dialogue, and we cannot use text to inform the audience of the story, character, or meaning.

We literally had no turnover time for this assignment. We were given the assignment and we had to have a script or outline done in 5 days and have a production meeting with the professor after a week, then we had 7 days to make changes, film, and then do the picture and sound edit.

[Mattrick]

Some screencaps from the first film I directed. I made the costume, which was surprising difficult to make it look just right.



https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274512752_10166640041815571_8815998292939415488_n. jpg?_nc_cat=108&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=cxtsZqshQV4AX_NheBw&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=00_AT_VNpmNERAeZ3Xx7K3VSU8Zxwhj6D0KrCceonsLl1xq vg&oe=6218A366


https://scontent.fybz2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274474817_10166640041675571_688206137270434055_n.j pg?_nc_cat=110&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=Nq6E6VC8WEAAX-wD8e8&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-1.fna&oh=00_AT_DHcPJ3h8-O9nJBgi4lDkTSie_JUX9jJHU7tttIRsZ0w&oe=6217EEEE


https://scontent.fybz2-1.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274469394_10166640041635571_6592012970205073241_n. jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=uuu8LSK356EAX_wWnsZ&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-1.fna&oh=00_AT_ZWwgb-wQJFmr2NF1qBM3t2paQQW8NB4HDwoSsk49UrQ&oe=6217863D


https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274558957_10166640041580571_674363644586652184_n.j pg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=5EX0ZYWU4YEAX_s50n3&tn=KjcP6tGiM5zRBQdC&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=00_AT_LQlDuQzEYZVwj0aajC8Qr5wM07cW6OOPBvTuCTrvp Gw&oe=6218818F



https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274515096_10166640041705571_1031047920505437225_n. jpg?_nc_cat=106&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=uzIWEp6QgQgAX9QZpoF&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=00_AT-8Rosa7AYEvbB7F6c6B8sM6KIOpTgGbvNe9Pk8mOt10g&oe=6217A3B8


https://scontent.fybz2-2.fna.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/274472764_10166640041775571_647468106305944038_n.j pg?_nc_cat=105&ccb=1-5&_nc_sid=730e14&_nc_ohc=CQXh8l_1sOEAX_zaBMA&_nc_ht=scontent.fybz2-2.fna&oh=00_AT_JUU5Gfka8nGVCM4FaBIzQBKp7d9-LXK85l9kx50dyhA&oe=6218A036

[Mattrick]

Here is the film I directed


A Moored




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lCVTlsFkako


ASSIGNMENT: Person A loves Person B, but person B doesn't know. We can only use two locations, two actors, and we cannot use dialogue.

[Mattrick]

Well, it's about that time I start uploading films again. We filmed two interviews and a bunch of b-roll for our interview with Doc of Doc's Leathers in Toronto. I am director of photography/camera operator for the project. This is an unedited snippet at the start of our second day of interviews. This interview shot will really pop once I colour correct it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E0afDv7RlEw


We have one more day of interview to shot with someone else. Then it's just a matter of editing down like 2 hours or so of interview into 10-12 minutes. That sounds harder than it will be. He rambled a bit and repeated some stuff between both days. I'd say of the 2 hours we can easily toss 40 minutes of it. Then we'll have to find a good narrative line.

But we think we will have enough material to make a longer cut of like 25-30 minutes so that we can submit it to some festivals.

[fernandito]

Good stuff, Matt. I'll check these out later today.

Can I go Armand White on them after I watch them

?

[Mattrick]

Good stuff, Matt. I'll check these out later today.

Can I go Armand White on them after I watch them

?


I expect nothing but exultation and boundless praise.

[Mattrick]

I put together a little sample of what the colour correction on our documentary footage will look like once we're picture locked. This is just adjusting the luminosity and not actually adjusting the colour itself and it looks much better already. It's not perfect because it's just an example. In the last 15 seconds you can see the effect of the two masks I put on, to dim the green bankers lamp that is blown out, and the mask to brighten up Doc's face behind the counter. The doc will be totally done in two weeks. The director/editor are just wrapping up the final stages of the edit.

(it might not play due to it being unlisted so you'll have to click watch on YouTube)




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2zTLRx9dQe0

[Mattrick]

I made a mock credits sequence for film tech class using B-Roll footage from our documentary.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skhY7GWOBWM

[Mattrick]

After two months of work, here is our short documentary!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIKwMC1cvoI

[Ricky]

Congratulations, Matt! I know you guys have been working hard on it. :)

[Mattrick]

We've had some really fun bickering about the changes we're going to make our short film script. And to think if people had have just voted for mine, we wouldn't be having these issues with a weak script with a bad ending and awkward dialogue. Oh well. Here is an impromptu set I put together in cinematography class where he had to use motivated lighting to simulate daylight on the soundstage.




http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cZMaQSwBG1c&

[Mattrick]

This was my little warm up assignment for Cinematography. We had to pick an advanced camera technique (i.e. lighting changes in camera, deep focus, forced perspective) and I chose high speed photography. I would have loved to have made this even slower, but my Nikon only records up to 60fps. I was originally going to try 200fps, but alas I couldn't.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xcw1GMiDeU

And then I decided to redo it with a more nuanced and controlled usage of slow motion. I think it's better now. As posted here you can play both at the same time and see how wildly different theyare.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EzuJqijxJQQ&feature=youtu.be

[Mattrick]

I've got a bunch of pictures over the semester of just things I've been doing. People on my Facebook may have already seen them, maybe not. A month or so ago I went to W.F. Whites, which is the biggest cinema equipment rental chain in Canada i.e. it's all top of the line Hollywood equipment. I got to play around with the Arri Alexa Mini LF, the same camera Roger Deakins used for 1917.

I'll post more in the coming days



https://i.ibb.co/4JfR75s/20230208-130114.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/6ytWDyg/20230208-132116.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/Yj95g8v/20230208-145048.jpg


This is the Alexa Mini LF with telephoto cinema lens (100-400mm). If you include the monitor, the wire Arri focus pulling system, the lens, the camera, and the tripod, this setup is probably valued at about $400,000.



https://i.ibb.co/0yR27DV/20230208-154623.jpg


You're goddamn right I wanted to play with that focus puller! This system with this device (which is proprietary Arri hardware so you can literally control the camera with the focus puller...you can do everything except actually move the camera...which is great if you're trying to film something on your own and you have 40,000 to spend on this thing)

https://i.ibb.co/hZKxmKY/20230208-161940.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/2s8DX6k/20230208-165104.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/8mGZ24x/20230208-165805.jpg
https://i.ibb.co/vYx4QMh/20230208-165829.jpg


These are a set of Arri Signature primes, a set of Arri Master primes, and a set of Cooke Panchro lenses. I'm no expert on lens pricing, but I would guess this is somewhere between 300-400k worth of lenses.



https://i.ibb.co/RDDBkXL/20230208-170114.jpg


And here is the glorious rig I shot our third year fiction short film on. It's a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema 4k with a Rokkinon 50mm prime lens.



https://i.ibb.co/SVfKS9Q/20230311-200707.jpg


This set up would likely retail at about 4,000 (not including the good quality masking tape!). I had to jury rig our shoot power supply on the shoulder rig counterweight.

[Mattrick]

This past Saturday I assisted my cinematography teacher (also the program director for film) with the open house for prospective students. He wanted to set up an example of what the program has to offer in terms of getting an authentic film set experience. So me and another student built up a simple set, decorated it, lit it with the big boy light, and even constructed the dolly track, which we've never done before since the floor in there is smooth enough to not need it. It took us about an hour to set this up.


https://i.ibb.co/VYy6LSC/20230318-115336.jpg


Our lighting set up.
https://i.ibb.co/xM73hSv/20230318-121329.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/vzgG5ky/20230318-121350.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/4VC9c41/20230318-121403.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/kJ4FfKf/20230318-121407.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/dM5YWjn/20230318-121434.jpg


The camera is my teachers own personal Red camera. I'm not sure what model it is though. I really should've asked.
https://i.ibb.co/kDqGbSL/20230318-121422.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/qdwrjvN/20230318-121544.jpg


https://i.ibb.co/pLxS3Rs/20230318-123051.jpg

[Mattrick]

This is my final cinematography assignment. I partnered with my classmate Sam. Me and her are both into chess and play all the time together so it was natural for us to collaborate. The footage is kind of a split between both of ours. Maybe you can guess what shots are mine and which aren't! This took us about 7 hours to complete though a lot of that was due to unforseen delays and difficulty, like our camera assistant put a data card into the Arri Amira camera backwards and it got jammed! (The school will have to send the camera away to Germany now for Arri to take it apart and free the card.

This was filmed with the Arri Amira, in 4k, in ProRes4444 format. With a mixture of of 50mm and 85mm Sony cinema primes.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QcZbs40imxA&

[Mattrick]

This is a project I was gaffer on and did production design for (what little there was to do lol). Not sure how long it will be up so watch it while you can!


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ayX021NNfs

[Mattrick]

Going into my final year in a few weeks! With any luck, my script will be one of the ones chosen. I have a really good idea and a solid first draft that I can tell I'll have to simply for a short film...figure out ways to minimize the dialogue as much as possible. Might help if I storyboard as I go so I can illustrate how it will look. I'm not quite at that level yet as a script writer (hopefully the Screenwriting 1/2 classes this year will put me there) where I can describe just an image or a shot to convey important narrative detail. So it should be a productive few weeks before school where I develop this script. Then I have to develop a second script because I want to apply for money to make a non-thesis film during the year. I could end up writing/directing two short films! And at least if my film doesn't get picked, I can make that for my non-thesis short film and hopefully be Director of Photography on another project.



The students have all been putting together their demo reels, so here is mine for Cinematography.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t-9WRrXSWXE

[Mattrick]

I've written my first draft for a potential Thesis short film (really a third draft). I'll be developing it for the next 5 weeks or so before I pitch it to be greenlit as a film. I'll post revised drafts as I go along in here as I go along.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/16idjYYAg4Q6sFIwa7X5amUXSpY2LiIbM/view?usp=sharing

[Mattrick]

Not sure how many people even look at this thread, but that's okay! Like just writing it out sometimes anyways.

Been a busy month or so with plenty of highs and lows. I wrote like 6 drafts of my thesis screenplay and I wasn't greenlit. I think they made the wrong call, and I planned originally to make mine independently with a drastic rewrite (from drama to horror since I would have freedom) if I was approved for reimbursment through the Creative School Society's grants. But I only had a few weeks to get my proposal which meant assembling creative keys while everyone who pitched unsuccessfully scrambled to fill out their required number of crew roles. It wouldn't have been able to happen.

Like the next day after this I go in touch with the people who also signed up to do a Dead Space Soundtrack analysis video for my Directors and Composers class and all 4 of them get back to me, saying they dropped the class in week 2 after signing up. So I had to join the Last of Us Part 2 team (at least I finally get to play that this weekend), but I was so excited to dive deep into the Dead Space score because it's amazing. My teacher shared in my disappointment as he was looking forward to see it for the same reason. Kind of tangential, but not really.



A few days later I get an email telling me that I was a potential award winner and to keep it secret and to send in some of my work. A few days later I was told I was winning an award, and I'll get like 2500 bucks with it! I've been saving up my change (I have over 200 dollars now) to get myself a WWE Undisputed Title Belt for graduation because I've wanted it for 20 years...it was going to be what I bought when I published a book, but graduating with a 4.0 GPA will be a a big accomplishment too! I had a week of disappointments, but things were definitely starting to turn around. Even my friend Sam got an award for Cinematography, and the only thing she was cinematographer on was our joint Final Cinematography project, the Chess video up above - so that is officially an award winning film y'all! And while it's in Sam's name, we both know it's really our award. But she gets some cash for her award, I get cash for my award. It all works out.



If we weren't greenlit for thesis then we would become "Streamers" which means we have to 2-3 major roles (DP, Editor, Producer, Production/Art Design etc) and 2-3 minor roles (gaffing, grip, camera assistant etc). Since I couldn't do cinematographer and most of the 1st AC roles were filled already, I wanted to contribute to the image and I've done colour correction and colour grading before, so I'm doing colour on the only documentary, which will spread my workload out over the winter and on one short film. I also decided to join the Thesis Film Festival as Events Photographer/Videographer as a minor role.



But it was hard for me to find that next secondary role. Everything I had experience in like gaffing, grip, camera work, were basically down to helping hands, and I wanted to do something more robust for my one production gig. Well, I came up with an idea for the film festival in producing a bunch of interviews and other promo material for us to roll out over a span of 3+ months on social media, YouTube, the website, etc, and my production professor said that could fulfill my other minor role. So while I'm totally bummed I didn't get to make a thesis film, at least I still get to creative and manage a set and kind of be the boss...and I'm coordinating with the Events and Programming teams so it's going to be all collaborative and also creative, and I'll get to do a bit of everything...I can take over lighting one shoot, camera the next, I can just produce, I can direct. And everyone thinks it's a great idea. It'll give those who didn't get to do roles of choice (DP, Editor Producer etc) a chance to do something. And I can recruit some third years to do the grunt work. That's what they're there for!

And I'm not even done there! I also learned TMU just started an MFA in Scriptwriting and Storytelling so I've decided I'm going to apply for my Masters of Fine Arts. Not only will I learn so much about screenwriting and other things as well, but it will give me a lot more options. It'll make it easier to land an agent who can help me shop around scripts and manuscripts and open doors for me there. With a Masters I can also look into teaching as a day job. Like, telling a bunch of 20 year olds their writing sucks and they need to get better would be such a great job! I'd be like the Terence Fletcher of the screenwriting world!

Lastly, I'm going to be applying for a special summer course over the summer where, if I'm accepted, I'll be spend 2 weeks in Los Angeles meeting industry professionals (like executives at NBC Universal, Marvel, AMC, SkyDance, CBS, etc) and then at the end we get to actually pitch a Series to some of these same executives. Of course, the course costs 8000, room/food costs 2300, plus we have to buy our own plane tickets and we need spending money, so it'll probably cost a good 4500 dollars all in all. The good news is I just won this award for 2200, and I set aside 1500 dollars in case my film was greenlit, which now is free cash, so that puts me at around 3700. I'll also be getting my Tax Credit cheques in too (about 250 every quarter) so that pretty much puts me right where I need to be. Of course I'm still buying my title belt, but with a little penny pinching and the luck of finding some summer work, if i'm accepted I should be able to make it work. But you know what's going to help me getting accepted? I got a 4.0 GPA and just won an Award that is only given out to a single student.

[Mattrick]

Got my award



https://scontent-ord5-1.xx.fbcdn.net/v/t39.30808-6/404790175_10168881423325571_6401455639464263976_n. jpg?_nc_cat=101&ccb=1-7&_nc_sid=dd5e9f&_nc_ohc=2vB_FsEQfFkAX_QwfSj&_nc_ht=scontent-ord5-1.xx&oh=00_AfCh35n2OEJN-cNMJtIDDv-ux3zeqqvnL3K3RncOSYIEMQ&oe=656E705F


The coolest part was meeting Alan Goluboff, who was a 1st AD on Silent Hill! I love that movie. I got his contact info and he offered to shit down and shoot the shit over coffee some time and I'm definitely going to take him up on that. My first industry contact! He was also AD on The Killing Fields, Resident Evil: Apocalypse, K-19 The Widowmaker and on a couple Stephen King properties, The Mist TV series and the recent Firestarter adaptation.