The Final Cut

My final portfolio after realizing that I, Kimberly Starr, am a filmmaker!

IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY

My first attempt to become a filmmaker commenced with a music video to the U2’s popular tune, “Beautiful Day”. My best friend from home, Sara, came to visit me, and she is a wonderful painter, therefore, the perfect music video setting was formed. She painted a beautiful and mystical tree on the wall in my bedroom, and then we took a journey around South Street in Philadelphia, and filming the day.

Armed with knowledge from Walter Murch’s novel, In the Blink of an Eye, I felt confident in my filmmaking capabilities. However, I soon realized I needed a little bit more experience after viewing my first music video draft. A few things needed to be corrected. After listening to the feedback from my peers, everyone agreed to add more of Sara actively painting on my wall, and to place it throughout the music video, and show her final product at the end. It was also known that there should be less scenery, and more of a story for the audience to become engaged and connected with.

Here is the video for my first draft:

Beautiful Day from kim starr on Vimeo.

For the final Beautiful Day product, I added Sara’s painting into different areas of the video, and specifically placed them during the chorus, in between scenes, and toward the end. I also took out the ending with the group of friends in my apartment, because it did not tie into the main theme of the video.

With the help of my classmates, I was able to see that adding the footage and placing it in different spots to make it more creative and enticing for the viewer.

The final video for the music video:




A world without the internet

Our next project was a group project, and our group decided to run with the thought of an 'internet-less world', and what would happen.

The rough draft

Untitled from kim starr on Vimeo.

The final 'Internetless' video follows exactly what our classmates told us to change:
the sound
more 'facts' about the future in an internet-less world
and a meaningful question at the end

In order to accomplish this, we added more 'facts', such as the stock market crash, the decline of college graduates, and how the ease of websites such as Mapquest or Google Maps - which are used multiple times a day by many people, are no longer available. However, we did not want to persuade our audience; instead, we decided to show the positive and negative aspects for an internet-less world, and allow the audience to decide if they are agree or disagree with such a thought. Therefore, we ended our video with the question, "Are we better off in an internet-less world?"

The final look into an internet-less world

An internet-less world.. dun dun dunnn from kim starr on Vimeo.

After watching the video - do you agree?

TEDxSJU

The final video took me on a more creative journey, personally, because it had to be fun, interesting, attention-grabbing, and most of all - to get the student body to come see TEDxSJU!

My first draft was definitely rough. I wanted to begin with someone 'freaking out', and then telling the viewers of the video to relax, and come see TED talks at SJU.

Rough first draft

Untitled from kim starr on Vimeo.

Thanks to my fellow classmates, they told me they liked the idea, but that a description of each of the speakers is needed.

I completely agreed with them. Therefore, in order to make it eye-catching, I started the buffer with a famous YouTube video, also known as "The Greatest Freakout". I kept the original idea of telling people to 'Relax, and attend TEDxSJU'. Finally, I added a short description for each of the speakers, so watchers can see who is coming, and why this would be a great even to attend.

Untitled from kim starr on Vimeo.

Mini-Darth Vader Sells Cars

After watching this commercial in class, this is definitely my favorite video. It brings you in right away - there are not words, just the famous 'Star Wars' song everyone knows, followed by the cutest kid in the world dressed up as Darth Vader.

However, there is more to the story.

The 'Darth Vader kid' is actually six year old San Clemente, and he has a heart defect.

"He had his first surgery when he was 3 months old at Children's Hospital of Los Angeles," she said during the interview. "They saved his life and gave him back to us. About a week after his first surgery he had to have a pacemaker. He has maintenance on that. So he's seen routinely at the hospital ... he's a real inspiration ... he can do anything."

His mother is quoted in the article --> OC Register Article.

This commercial offers more than a minute of 'something cute', but a great story behind it. I applaud you, Volkswagon.

It's a Beautiful Day

My best friend from high school, Sara, visited me from Thursday to Sunday, and I wanted to show her what Philly and SJU was all about!

Walter Murch's Afterwood

Mr. Murch's novel, In The Blink Of An Eye proved to be very helpful when creating films. I never thought of a movie to follow my eye-blinking, but after watching different movies, I realize this is idea is extremely important to make the video, movie or television show more of a reality.

In his afterword, the best way to sum up the section is when he explains:

So the queasy feeling in the pit of the stomach of every editor beginning a project is the recognition - conscious or not - of the immense number of choices he or she is facing. The numbers are so huge that there is no possibility of turning film editing into a kind of automated chess game, where all of the different options are evaluated before making a move.

I can only imagine how difficult, chaotic, and intense this must be. There are so many shots, and so much detail into every single second of every single movie. It must all make sense, create an awe from the audience, and keep the attention of everyone watching the film.

After reading Walter Murch's book, I have come to respect the editors of each film in a completely different way. I had no idea, that one of America's favorite past times - watching a movie - was so in-depth, intense, and time consuming. I tip my hat to you, film editor's of the world. I thoroughly enjoy your work.

Walter Murch

VMA-worthy Music Videos

This music video is one of my favorites among the list, and one of my favorites in general. I showed my roommates and they all loved it as well. The simplicity in the shots along with a fun, laid-back feeling make the music video feel 'personal', and like the people are 'real' - unlike in other videos where even the extras seem like super-cool people.

One thing about a video like:


One thing I personally do not like are the jumpy clips - it kind of makes me blink a lot and makes me nauseous. So when we make a video, although the different clips can look cool, maybe put little buffers of actual video so it is not so intense?

"No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yes!"

Walter Murch's description of the role of the editor in the film making process in his novel, In the Blink of an Eye, made me realize how trivial and somewhat annoying it must be. The most interesting depiction of an editor's job is when Murch explains, "the editor is actually making twenty-four decisions a second: 'No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yes!'" (16).

I watched one of Walter Murch's films, The Talented Mr. Ripley to witness his technique, and I could not help myself, for the first 20 minutes of the film, to say "'No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. No. Yes!" every second (which is actually kind of fun!) and see what it must be like to watch a movie not for enjoyment, but as work.. very detailed and meticulous work.

Murch also explains the importance, in his opinion, of what a movie should portray to the audience.

1. Emotion
2. Story
3. Rhythm (The 'right' moment)
4. Eye-trace (audience's personal focus)
5. Two-dimensional plane of screen (like a photograph)
6. Three-dimensional plane of screen (The character and their relation to the space in the shot)

Throughout the entire movie Murch's editing skills are clearly portrayed, yet one scene in-particular (one that I cannot stop thinking about) includes every aspect (emotion, story, rhythm, eye-trace, two-dimensional, three-dimensional) perfectly - the moments before, during, and after Ripley murders Dickie with an oar.

The two friends are on a small sailboat, in the middle of the ocean, and get into an emotional fight, which quickly turns from callous words to physical.



This picture is during their verbal altercation, and as you can see, Walter Murch makes the entire controversy feel very claustrophobic; I especially felt as though I could not breath in the two minute scene. Murch not only illustrates the emotion in this scene, but he purposely makes the entire altercation fit the entire screen, zooming in on the actors' extremely intense emotions.

Their verbal fight quickly turns to physical as Ripley hits Dickie in the face with an oar, and the audience, just like Ripley, is face to face with a bloody, terrifying Dickie, as you can see in the picture below.



Walter Murch brilliantly portrays the emotion of the characters in this film. You knew what each character thought, even if they did not say one word. Murch believes emotion is the number one most important part in editing the film, and because of it, The Talented Mr. Ripley is now in my 'must-see movie recommendation' list.