... And that's a wrap

Well that went better than expected. And now I can no longer say that I've never directed anything before.

I'd like to give a shoutout to my crew,

Jay the floor manager
Sala, the Tech Director
Sophie, the Asst Director/time keeper
Auroa* the Audio person
Kam on Graphics
Jerrau, the talent,
Christian & the other 2 camera people (Can't remember your names)

And Adam Morgan for rolling tape/helping me "keep calm and direct on"

Special thanks goes out to...

Jack Horkheimer (d2010) who always told the viewers of Starhustler/ Star Gazer to "Keep Looking Up."

The project was a 30 second commercial on whatever topic you chose. Adam gave us a loose set of guidelines, we had to use 3 cameras in the studio and have audio. There were some suggestions for things to be included, but were optional.

One of the first things you have to know about me, is that Astronomy has been a hobby/passion of mine since I was little and when this assignment was given, the first thing that popped into my head was The Lunar Eclipse, on Sunday September 27th. (This was given the week before the eclipse, so at the time the eclipse hadn't happened yet.)

My mom, and one of my "adopted" siblings Lizzie went out with me to an area off of 20th street in Oroville to take as many pictures of the Red Moon Rising. On the west coast the eclipse started before moonrise.

Unfortunantly, my laptop decided that that day (the 27th) was the perfect day to die/refresh itself, which caused me to panic.
Fortunantly almost every program I needed for school is back on it.

(the eclipse part will be posted on my blog "Journey of an eclipse chaser." )

I took some awesome pics which can be found on my facebook album "Super eclipse"
and after a couple hours snapping pictures with Unicam Observatory

two moons? yes it's technically a blooper, but it is pretty cool

we had a dinner break at Wendys in Oroville....

Ultimately the images that ended up in the final cut of the commercial were

in this order

    

                             

with a chroma key of my talent holding up his celphone to snap a pic of the moon. Adam had the bright idea (said with a bit of sarcasm) for me to use iMovie (a program I've never used before. I use a PC not a Mac.) and run it with the prerecorded audio.  The commercial was inspired by Jack Horkheimer Starhustler and in tribute to him included the line "and always remember to Keep looking up." 

I panicked my first few times, first of all finding the movie file in iMovie is a pain, Trying to get the camera crew (who were nice to work with btw)  to get Jerreau into position (and the fact that any prep work I went through went right out the window) I forgot to use all 3 cameras

"Ready camera 1, take 1, ready camera 2 take 2." it took Adam telling me to let the audio and graphics play through at least once. I kept saying take 3, when I meant to say take camera 1 or ready camera... take... so the commercial itself was ok. 

The best way for me to describe directing for the first time is Rarity's reprise of Art of the Dress. where she is "always stressed" 

Directing's easy

every scripted call

needs a new revision,

got to pick up the pace,

still hold to my vision.

Or the song Putting it together by Barbra Streisand.

The Selfie I took after class with the director's headset

Still, even with all the hassle it was quite thrilling, almost like killing your first dragon in an MMORPG, There's nothing quite like it.