Run Lola Run Presentation Critique

https://docs.google.com/present/edit?id=0AQBh9CqpbvPzZGRzeDcycnZfMTJoaDJudm1wMg&hl=en_US
Above is a link to my group's presentation.

I. Interpretation of the film as it related to your assigned section and use of film language
First of all, my group's presentation was about ideology. I talked about New German Cinema. As I was explaining this, I don't remember using film language that often. I thought that I did a coherent evaluative interpretation of my assigned section because I gave a clear explanation. For example, when I defined the New German Cinema, I had a quote about Tykwer's unique style. After I explained the quote, I used an example from the film to make my analysis strong. 
Second, I did a good job stating why Tywker made the film. For example, when I stated the quote about his unique style I related it back to the New German Cinema. During this era, many young directors used unique styles. Even though this film came after the era, Tykwer used his own unique style. Overall, I give my grade for my presentation a 16-20 mark- band because I did not use film language and I had a good understanding of the meaning of the film as a whole. 


II. Strengths of your presentation
I thought I had a pretty good presentation. So, some feedback I got from the audience was that for the first quote I used on the slide was very good, and that I did a good job relating it to the film as a whole. I also did well explaining how the socio-cultural context. For example when I talked about gender switch, I made the point that in each story, Lola and Manni are represented differently, however in the last story, Lola and Manni are equal in gender because they both get the money and run away. Also thought that my slides were easy to read and I had good titles to guide my presentation. I also explained my analysis with example from the film. For example, when I talked about Lola's appearance, I used an example from the film when Lola enters the casino.


III. Challenges and Areas for Improvement
First, I got really nervous, so I began to speak really quickly. I also knew what I had to say, and brought up notecards just in case I get nervous. Next time I am going to have less notecards, so that it will force me to speak naturally. I also need to use film language. 
One challenge for me is to give a persuasive explanation of my section. I think that it's very hard, but I have to practice until I get better. My analysis was not that clear because I was so nervous and scared that I kind of blanked out. So, next time I have to take a deep breath, and do what I can do the best. I briefly touched on how this film relates to Germany's economy or society. 

Treatment #1: The Project

An establishing shot of the street then the camera moves into a medium close up of the girl sitting at the curb. The camera cuts into a close up to see the girl's face. The setting is very quiet as she looks at her phone with a blank facial expression and she has a notebook next to her.

The phone rings and she jumps because the cellphone ring is really loud, and then she answers the phone. Her friend Mindy calls her. As the girl is hearing Mindy's voice through the phone the camera is placed on the side of her face and the shot is a close up. On the phone Mindy says: "Meet me at the park near the swings so we can talk about our essay for the english project due on Tuesday."

So as the Mindy speaks to the girl the audience sees Mindy talking on the phone while they hear the girl say, "Cool I will meet you there. Bye!" Then the camera goes to a medium close up shot as we see the girl put her phone in her pocket.

She sits there for a minute and as she gets up. Then there is parallel action between the girl and Mindy walking to the park because both live pretty close to the park. The main problem is that the girl forgets her notebook on the floor. As the girl is walking away from the camera, there is a guy who picks up the notebook and walks into Mindy's direction.

Mindy passes by the man with the notebook but has no idea about the notebook and doesn't really look well at the man walking across of her, but she notices him. As she turns the corner to the park she sees the girl near the swings.

As the two girls walk up to the swings there will be an extreme high angle shot of them walking toward the swings and then cut to a medium close up when they unite with each other.

Mindy asks the girl about the project, and the girl had a weird expression on her face. She begins to panic and tells Mindy, "I forgot my notebook". Mindy says, "Don't worry its just notes you can copy from me, its not like you had our essay for the project in there! Haha!" Then the girl says, "Yes I had the essay in there and we have to go find it".

Then, both of them run in the same direction they came from as they look for the notebook. Mindy remembers that she saw a man holding a notebook as she was walking to the park, so she runs in that same direction the man was walking in. As Mindy runs she called the girl to run in her direction also.

As they get to a corner the camera is a long shot and both are reunited again. The music is very upbeat and fast paced. Then the girls finally see the man holding the notebook and they confront him.

They go up to him as they try to control their breath and ask him for the notebook back. The man gives them the notebook back and the girls walk away as they talk about their collaborative essay for their english project.

The music is slowed down as the camera is in a long shot position as we see the girl walk down the street and their voices fading away.

New Dress Code Segment- Critique

http://chs.smuhsd.org/bigue/art_of_video/index/fa11_news/fa11_dresscode.mov


Preproduction:

Ms. Shanks sitting down for interview

My partner and I came up with the idea by focusing on what would be interesting. Since the dress code is new, it would of been a good segment to inform the students of Capuchino and to show students/teachers opinions about the new dress code.

Camilla in different location and standing up

We thought that Ms. Shanks would be an important interviewee because she is the principal of the school and students should hear her opinion. We asked Ms. Ferro if she wanted to talk about the dress code, and she agreed. During first period I went around the cafeteria and asked for a sophomore to be interviewed. We wanted a sophomore than a freshmen to be interviewed because they knew what the old dress code was like last year.
I think that our interview questions were focused and direct because the interviewees stated their opinions and the rest of the segment was informal.

Production Quality:

Ms. Ferro's eyes are not looking at the camera

Our locations and background for each interviewee was different because we wanted different shots. One interviewee was near the cafeteria and the other was in front of the office. The students that were interviewed were standing up, and Mrs. Shanks and Ms. Ferro were sitting down.
The most difficult thing in production was getting b-roll. It was really hard trying to get b- roll because its not a topic that can be graphically seen all the time. So we had lots of photoshop pictures.

B- roll was shaky

The interview with Ms. Ferro wasn't that good because she is looking on the wrong side of the camera. Our b- roll was shaky because we did not use a tripod. We mostly got many pictures off the internet.
The lighting in our shots came out good, but the audio was off when we transferred the b-roll to final cut pro. But, Jenna fixed that problem. Some of the audio for Alec didn't come out well because of the construction noises.

Script:
My voice over introduced the story by saying the rules of the new dress code. Then I said "let's see what students and faculty think about the new dress code." I grabbed the audience's attention with the line written above. I think that our segment was informative because we explained the new dress code and had different opinions on the subject.
At first my voice over closer was pretty long. We had to cut up big chunks of it because of time. I wanted the audience to hear all of the voice over, but the parts that I said was good enough to close the segment. I think the people should have listened to the original voice over, but we tried to leave the key parts of it.

Editing

Title

First of all, I thought that our title was really good because it had a nice effect to it. We had transitions between images and b-rolls. We used many pictures for b-roll, so for example, Ms. Shanks was talking about old people, young people, people of color or gender, we showed a montage of pictures. Some pictures weren't full screen but we would crop the picture and show on the screen while we see the person speak. We had a couple of jump cuts in our footage, and we cleaned some of them up by putting b-roll.

Montage of clothes/shoes

Overall
The best thing I like about my piece was while I said the voice over opener, there is a montage of clothes students are not allowed to wear. If we had more time in the segment I would of added the original voice over closer. The most important lesson that I learned while doing this project is to make sure to check your audio levels on the camera before you interview someone.

Character in Time

The woman is sitting in her office desk. There is noises of her employers in the background. She looks very tired and hopeless. So she is typing a document on her computer as her boss comes to her.

Her boss with a pale face looked at her and told her that she is fired. He also apologizes that he fired her and said he will help her find a job to support her kids, since she is divorced. The woman looks confused and angry.

The boss told her to clean up her things and leave by the end of the day. The boss leaves and she sits down on her chair with a sad face. She begins to cry and puts her head on the the desk.

All of a sudden, her cellphone rings. Her brother was calling to tell her that he is arrested and he needs her to bail him out of jail. So the women runs to help her brother.

Next scene, she bails her brother out of jail for 7,000 dollars because he was drunk driving. They argued the whole ride back because she is now in more debt.

She goes home and her kids come home from school. Her daughter has a problem, but the woman is unable to help her because she is overstressed. She tells everybody in the room to leave her alone.

She tries to escape reality and imagines herself laying on her couch looking straight up toward the ceiling. She hears voices of her kids and brother surrounding her. They ask her many questions, and the woman feels tired.

As she is laying down, she has flash backs of her day. She remembers when her bossed fired her, bailing out her brother, and not helping her kids. So she tries to calm down but she can't. So she imagines herself  laying on ice in the middle of nowhere alone. But she has so many flash backs of stressful things that happened to her, she wasn't able to relax. All she was thinking of was her kids and her debt.

 The woman imagines herself wearing a dark red dress. This represents her anger. She is surrounded by ice and she is still not relaxed. She decides to wear the dress because everyone in her life targets her or looks for her for help.

 In the end she never gets to solve her problems because everyone relies on her and she can't say no. So she has to deal with other peoples problems everyday, and the stack of ice she is laying on will increase. She tries to get away from her life because she is over stressed. So in the end there is a fast forward of her life.Montage of her getting a new job, helping her brother get a job, taking care of her kids, and being happy with her life.