COMMERCIAL

The commercial project took a lot more work than almost all of our other projects, in my opinion. We first had to be assigned actors and then brainstorm ideas, which proved difficult in itself. Of course Baruch had some ideas... but we’re not gonna talk about those, haha. We did come up with the idea to make fun of how hard it is to sign up for flex block by turning it into a literal obstacle course, with a couple different obstacles and whatnot. However, we realized pretty quickly that all our ideas so far would be super hard to execute in the 30 seconds allotted. We had to simplify it a lot so that it would be doable, and that made the whole process a lot easier. When we did get to filming, we had a solid plan and story board to work from, so we knew exactly what we needed. We took a good variety of shots for each scene so we had a lot to work with when it came to editing. Someone from another group told me that he was frustrated with his group because their director didn't take the time to get the shot perfect, and only had one take for each scene, even when it got a bit messed up. This made the editing process a lot harder for him, so I'm glad that we took a lot of takes for each scene just to be sure we got one that worked just right for what we needed. I originally wanted to edit the footage because I wasn't sure if I could trust anyone in my group to be detail oriented enough to do it. Baruch wanted to edit as well, so we both edited and then decided which was better (we chose Baruch's edit, which I ended up helping him make some decisions with). I think doing that was a pretty good idea, because everyone has different ideas for editing, and one person's might be better than another's. So I'm glad it worked out the way it did. I think our commercial ended up being effective and it was a good experience!

 Canon T3I / T5I 

A camera that can be used for either photography or cinematography

 Cinematic

A term describing the property a film has

 Continuity

keeping props, costume, makeup/hair the same throughout multiple shots of one scene (i.e. an actor should have the same outfit in both shots, or their arm should be resting on the same spot on the couch every time, etc)

 Director

The person calling the shots on set, literally "directing" where actors and crew go and how they should do what they do

Director of Photography

The person in charge of keeping the camera and its components in working order, and makes sure the shot it set up well, that everyone looks good on camera, etc.

Dissolve or fade

Transitions available in FCPX

Editing

What is done to the footage after it is filmed to get it into its final form

Editor

The one who does al the editing

Establishing shot

A shot that shows the setting , sets up the rest of the story/scene

Eyeline / Eyeline Matching

Along the lines of continuity — you should have the line of sight for each actor match what it was in the first shot. If they're supposed to be looking up at a TV, then every shot should have them looking up at the TV.

Green Screen

A really cool bit of green colored wall or curtain that allows graphics/backgrounds to be added behind a piece of footage 

Pre-production

The set up before filming can begin: brainstorming, storyboards, scouting for actors/extras, asking permissions, gathering filming materials, etc.

Post-production

Basically everything done after filming: editing, adding sound effects, correcting simple mistakes, etc.

Shot List

Literally just a list of shots needed for the film

Shotgun Mic

a directional microphone that must be pointed directly at its target sound source for proper recording.

Storyboard

Looks like a comic strip of what will be filmed. Almost like a visual shot list.

Transition

Something added to a film that makes the switch between different shots more smooth.

Voice-over

When an audio recording of narration or something of that sort is added on top of a film

I have to say, Forrest Gump may now be one of my most favorite movies. Up until watching it, I had been completely misled — I thought the entire movie was about Forrest running across the country, when, in fact, that was only about ten minutes of the plot. I'll come back to that later, though. The story was full of twists and surprises, it was written and acted very well, and it had just the right amount of... everything.

First of all, I loved how the movie was written. It was a common situation, just a guy sitting at a bus stop, talking some lady's ear off about his life, which turns into the movie itself. The story doesn't seem like much of anything special at first, just kind of sad. This boy had to wear leg braces, wasn't very smart, kind of slow, and was bullied a lot. Then things start to change, somehow. It started with breaking out of his leg braces. I watched this partially with my mom, and I mentioned afterward that the least plausible part of the whole thing was how his leg braces fell off and suddenly he was fine to walk and run and do everything else. But my mom said that moment was likely supposed to be more of a metaphor or analogy, like Forrest was breaking away from everyone's expectations of him, or maybe even just that the story would take off from that point on. I don't think I would've picked up on that if she hadn't said anything. There were actually quite a few metaphors in the movie, I think. When he's running back and forth across the country for three years, I think that was to show that he was trying to run away from everything, in a sense. Maybe he was sad and frustrated that Jenny had left, or maybe it was a combination of things, but I think he just wanted to get away for a while. 

I truly loved how unexpected the story was. As I mentioned, if you don't have any knowledge about the movie (like I didn't), it seems kind of sad at first. Then little by little, Forrest has these unexpected, totally accidental victories. He's running away from bullies, his braces fall off, and he's suddenly able to run like the wind; he's running away from bullies again, and happens to run right in front of a college football scout, which lands him a scholarship to college; he decides to get a shrimping boat in honor of Bubba, a single storm wipes out all of the competition, and he gets rich — and I think you get the drift. So much crazy stuff happened to this guy, and he doesn't seem to realize it. He got the congressional Medal of Honor after serving in Vietnam, he basically goes viral because of his running across the country for three years, he makes it onto the cover of Fortune magazine because of how rich he gets from the BubbaGump Shrimp company, and a lot of other little things. 

Tom Hanks did an amazing job portraying Forrest, as well. His acting reminds me a bit of Leonardo DiCaprio in What's Eating Gilbert Grape? He plays a boy with autism, and if I didn't know who Leonardo DiCaprio is, I would've thought he was actually autistic. Same goes for Tom Hanks. He doesn't play a character quite like DiCaprio's, but there obviously must be some training and lots of practice involved to create and portray a character so unique as Forrest Gump. He had his own way of pronouncing things, putting the emphasis on different syllables than one might typically put it, unique mannerisms, etc, etc. It's no easy task, and I think he acted it beautifully, without ever making having a mental handicap of some sort a joke or making it seem like something to be made fun of. That, in itself, takes a lot of good acting and immersion in the role. He seemed genuine and true to character all the time. He was innocent and kind and all of the good qualities you could think of.  Tom Hanks really is a classic and well-loved actor who was perfect for this role.

There are a lot of other things I could go on about, but for time's sake (both mine and yours) I'll end this here. The movie is a classic and it's something I definitely want my kids to see. It's got some good messages and is a very entertaining film. I'm glad I took the time to watch it for the assignment because it's definitely a favorite now.