the home stretch - remember to breathe

It's week freaking 12, people.

It seems like only yesterday we were sitting huddled in a circle with Di and Paul, tossing around ideas for characters and script-crafting.

And now we're here. Some of us have already filmed, other are just about to. My group falls into the latter category, but I'm kind of glad we chose to grad it out. Especially considering that no matter how much time you get in pre-production, you're always going to feel half-baked when you venture out on set.

This week's lecture was another Final Cut intensive. Timely, I must say, and it's nice to have it shown on the overhead so that we can get some kind of mental feel for the software. I swear that program has a level of complexity that not even I'm used to coping with.. argh. Anyway. It was good to learn how to insert text - we are reccommended to use the fade in/out technique as opposed to lame-o rolling credits. I think we'd have gone that option anyway, considering the feel we have chosen to embellish our piece with.

It's good to know, too, that we have options in post to make our film look spiffy, should some of it turn out underexposed or just plain droll. The formula Paul used went something along the lines of 'white whites, black blacks, saturation, softened edges' - sounds simple enough, but I swear it made a hell of a difference to the footage once the settings were applied. Just like magic :P

Grounded some of the basics once more, I think more than anything so as to solidify them in our skulls. Some key things to remember when shooting, and I think Robin summed this up nicely back in week 9: 'Sun is light and silence is still sound'. Omission is a very deliberate move in film - which is why post counts for so much.