How to make a movie

I found the HRC exhibit to be informational and enjoyable. I personally love movies (even gave them up for Lent excluding the ones for class) and was always interested in how they were made. I knew that there's a lot of jobs to do when making a movie but I never realized how detailed everything was. For example, the costume designer for Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf had written a letter describing her sketches and in one of her designs, the costume was light gray
so that it could photograph well when the actress walked in and out of the light. This made me realize that every little thing contributes to the overall perception of movies and that by designing something a certain way, the designer wants something specific to be done (like in Fog of War with the slanted background).

The setup for the exhibit was really organized and easy to follow. I noticed that some roles only had one wall like the art director, and others had a large section like the costume designer. Unfortunately, the music section was rather small which affected me because I am partly responsible for the music for our video. Nonetheless, the information presented was still helpful. Composers found it easier to have the movie playing in the background during recording sessions to get the timing and mood right. Although Lindsey and I won't be instructing an orchestra, we can still apply this to our project by watching the actual video or parts of it to get a good feel of the content so we can use the appropriate music. Also, I think it will be a good idea to have a general understanding of what we want the audience to feel so the music can reflect the desired mood. Music is an important component in movies because it really influences how the audience perceives what they're seeing.

The displays showed the chaotic nature of movie making. Lots of the scripts and notes had many edits written on them. Things were scratched out and added in, showing that ideas are constantly being revised so I expect this will also happen in our video. One area where I got the strongest sense of the stress of movie makers was the writer's display. The museum had a large picture of a woman in a paper-scattered room. What caught my attention was the fact that she wore one shoe normally but her other foot sat on top of her other shoe. I just thought this was really strange, and it made me feel that writing out a script will be no easy task.

After visiting the exhibit, I have a better sense of my role as composer and of how we are to make this video successfully. It looks challenging and stressful to make a movie so I'm mentally preparing myself to come across problems, but as a class, I think we can make this video effective.