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I want to become a movie director. My thoughts have grown too. When I first wanted to become a movie director, I was inspired by fabulous movies such as Tranformers, Scoop, My Father, Herb, and May 18, but I also wanted to meet the cute and famous actors as well. Now, I think that there is something more that. I want to put in my opinions and thoughts in the movie and use it as one of the ways to express myself.

Movies are beautiful. I am saying that it is something more than a DVD  you bought for 4,000 won or a ticket that costs 6,000 won. You can know more about the world, and what people with different tastes might enjoy, and what people with disabilities might suffer. The only movie when I was ever close to crying was Herb, because when the main character’s mother was dying, the girl at first did not know that her mother was dying, and begged for her to get up. When she finally realized that her mother was dead, she was mourning and there was nobody to help her, because they were on their way to a herb field on a bike, in the middle of a pouring rain. Movies are one of the ways to see the world without having to travel, in fact, one of the best ways.

In a movie called Secret Sunshine, a woman who loses her husband who was having an affair (she didn’t admit it) to an accident moves to his hometown called Milyang with her son. She is already depressed, but then she also loses her son to a local who kidnapped and killed her son. She then becomes furious for a while, but joins the church and becomes an enthusiastic church-member. To forgive the man who killed the son, when she visited the prison, the prisoner says that he was already forgiven by God. Confused and angry, she says that God cannot forgive him without her consent and quits church. She becomes crazy and does things that God forbids; having an affair with a married man, interrupting a religious ceremony with a song called ‘It’s a Lie’. All this time, another local she knows stands by her all the time and tries to help her. The clever part of this movie is that it makes viewers think that the local who stands by her side loves her, but it is actually because he is a good man and wants to help her, because she is in a devastating state. This is one of the movies which got some awards outside of Korea, such as 2007 Cannes Film Festival, the Best Actress Award for Jun Do Yeon. Personally, I wasn’t exactly crazy about this movie, but its depth of human mind was amazing. I also thought that the actress acting for this movie had to be Jun Do Yeon, because she is a phenomenal actress. It pictured her when she was in pain, when she was angry, and when she was confused. I want to produce movies that are in depth. I want to produce movies that may not necessarily receive awards, but deserve to receive one. Maybe not from the beginning, but later in my career as a movie director.

I am a greedy person. People who saw me eating may know. I never eat foods that I don’t like, but I eat anything that I like without any limits, so that is, till my stomach bursts. It is the same with my dreams. I don’t just want to make movies. I also want to make soap operas. I also watched a lot of amazing soap operas in my life, such as I’m Sorry, I Love You, Dae Jang Geum, Full House, and My Lovely Samsoon. I was especially moved by I’m Sorry, I Love You, because it was like Romeo and Juliet, where two lovers died. It was foreshadowed in the beginning because the female main character, Eun Chae (Im Su Jeong, pictured in the photo below), always dreamed of a love like Romeo and Juliet. I also want to make influential soap operas that can make people laugh and cry, something like I’m Sorry, I Love You.
I’m not just interested in making movie and soap operas, I’m also interested in making music videos with storylines. That is why I wanted to make a parody of the music video ‘Lie’ by Big Bang (which is not in a good shape, or in fact, doesn’t have any shape because I haven’t filmed it at all). Some music videos I like are ‘Irony’ by Wondergirls, and ‘As We Live’ by SG Wannabe. I want to make music videos because I like music, and it is also similar to films, more like a mini film.

I have not yet reasoned why a person like me would want to become a movie director. I have an interest in movies, soap operas and music videos. I want to become famous for producing good movies like Park Chan Wook, Lee Chang Dong, and Heo In Moo. I want to become successful at presenting my thoughts and views, and getting credit for it.

Most of the times I’m not that serious. I tend to joke around a lot more than when I am sullen and grim. Right now, this minute and second, I am feeling quite sour. Ok, I got the actors I need, and I have the storyboard, but when can I set the darn time? I know that I can’t ask everyone to stay afterschool just to act for me. It would be very impolite and selfish of me to require that. I don’t know what to do, because the actors’ classes are all different, such as English and Chinese, etc. I of course want to film this, but when can I set the time?

Since I wrote quite a lot of posts concerning film, I’ll write something different, and also something which I hope would be interesting. Since I lived in Moscow for three and half years, I have a pretty good idea of how that place is like.

When I first arrived in Moscow, I thought it was Korea in the 1960s, right after the war. Since Russia hadn’t yet recovered from Stalin and his pathetic idealism (communism, the KGB etc), it wasn’t exactly the best place to live. The school I went to, ‘Anglo American School of Moscow’ was good because it was one of the places where it wasn’t like Russia. The culture was very diverse, because there were students from over sixty different countries, from Albania to New Zealand. The majority of the population was Americans (of course), second was Canadians (I think), and the third was Koreans (yay!). For some unknown reasons non-Korean students loved Korean words, and for some known reasons most teachers hated Korean students (because we spoke a lot of Korean).

Our first house was in a street called Stari Arbat (Old Arbat), and I had to hear at least five beer bottle shatter (it’s a weird Russian tradition to shatter beer bottles to celebrate something), and at least three grotesque voices singing songs in Russian (I wouldn’t have wanted to know what they meant anyway) every single night. Apart from these annoying aspects, the house was fine. Our second house, which we moved to about three years later, was sort of scary. A pack of giant stray dogs lived outside of our apartment, and my mom got bitten by one of them, and I’m allergic to dogs. This was the major reason for why I hated our apartment. One of the only good thing was that the Korean Embassy (where my dad worked) was really close, so I could go on the computer when I wanted to because our apartment didn’t have connection to the internet. Another good thing was that it was also near to a huge shopping mall, so I used to hang out with my friends mostly at that mall.

Russians were interesting people to meet. They are racists, stupid, hostile, and ugly. In this post I would also like to clear the misconception of Russian people being beautiful. That is nonsense. Of course, there are some blond, tall, skinny people that come out in magazines, but that is rare. It is like trying to find gold in a pile of dirt. The rest are brunettes (I have nothing against them. I’m just saying they’re not blond), fat, ugly, and short. Some of them are desperate enough to ask Koreans out in random Metro (subway) stations.

Among the Russian population there are a group of people called ‘Skinheads’, and they are a disturbing bunch of air-headed, bold blokes. They are against any race that is not Caucasian, and they beat up and kill the person they pick on. During my stay in Moscow, the skinheads killed the Iraqi ambassador’s son, a couple of Armenians, some Kazakhstanis, and maybe some Japanese tourists.

This is a video about Skinheads. It’s scary.

All in all, Moscow is a nice place to live, if you are careful enough to not get bitten by stray dogs, try to stay away from skinheads, and if you can speak Russian.

I finished my storyboard after a couple of hours drawing unrecognizable stick figures and staring at the video like Frankenstein for details, one can know how enthusiastic I was about this storyboard by looking at my impressive artwork (Haha. This is a joke.). I have just sent an email to Mr. Hadley pleading him to help me make the darn video, by finding actors for me. If he consents and finds actors for me, I probably will be able to start filming next class or next next class.

This is my lovely storyboard :

Pre-writing
-find a standard
-brainstorm
-model production in mind
-how to convince?
-research
-collaborate
-creative interpretation
Outline and treatment
Pitch idea
Resources (acquiring rights)
-don’t use copyrighted material without permission

Lighting
key light-primar
fill light-balances
back light-separates

Transition
The cut - the point where two shots come together
Dissolve : the blending of two shots to communicate a passage of time and/or location

Shot Composition
wide shot : once
medium shot(two shot)
close up

Once again I feel that making movies are hard.

As I finished writing my first draft of the video, I realized that I could watch other parody videos of the original ones, because it is so famous. I searched through Youtube and Daum TV pot, and I found one that I really liked. It is this one :

I am thinking about making a video somewhat similar to this one. For any suggestions, please comment on this post, even if this is too short, because the previous one was longer, not that it has any relevance.

I have just noticed I am running out of time, which is not a good thing. I do not like my second script, so I haven’t started on the storyboard yet, and I’m thinking of ideas for the new script. After the miserable movie I uploaded to Youtube, I got one comment saying that it sucked. I know it is true, but hearing it directly from another person made me a little annoyed, so I deleted it immediately, but regretted it because I wanted to also criticize him/her/it. It was an annoying experience, but I satisfied myself by picturing myself beating up the anonymous (since I forgot his/her/its ID name) critic. I am so easy to please (just in case one did not notice, this is another boring sarcasm of mine). So I thought of a new idea that I might make me more interested than the previous one.

I like songs so much (listening to them, not singing, my voice is a disgrace) that my MP3 got taken away for a long time, and it still is. I listen to a lot of music, like Korean rap and ballads, I know a good deal about the songs and singers, and I’m not exactly into crime as much as I was in the beginning of semester. I was thinking maybe I could make a parody of a music video, which is related to crime. I have one in mind, and it is Korean, but it is a very good music video, and it has to do with crime. Personally, I think it is the best music video I’ve ever seen. It is far better than the English which has rappers sticking out their middle fingers. The title is ‘Gujitmal’ (Lies) by Big Bang.

Again, I will try make it funny, but I do not think I’ll succeed.

I have just talked to Mr. Burell, and he says that I cannot use copyrighted music, and even though I am still interested in crimes, I am not interested in committing one, so I forgot about the music (sadly). I am now planning to make a parody of the music video that I just talked about, but without the music, and on second thoughts, without the sounds. This is not a happy video, so maybe non-existant sound effects will put more effect(?) into the whole video itself.

Lastly, it may be one of the many little thoughts that come to my mind every minute, but since their name is Big Bang, I might want to add to the title that production is from Small Bang. Haha.

(This is the original video)

This is Big Bang. Aren’t they cute? Haha.

I have finished making my first movie, and I am not sure if I feel good about it. To start on the good side, I think that the use of sound effect is pretty good, but I am not proud of the camerawork. The acting was fine for the most part, and the props were bearable, since we didn’t need a lot of them. I am still not sure if it is good enough to upload on Youtube.

For next time, I need to learn how to use the tripod properly, because the whole movie was very shaky and the camerawork had to improve. The lighting wasn’t too bad, because the classroom and hallway that we captured in were moderately bright. What I really like in my movie is the sound effects. Some of them are meant to be funny and ironic, and overall, I think it suits the purpose and concept of the movie. The visuals, such as the titles, are good enough because they have fonts that go along with the movie.

Most IMPORTANT, I have to use my storyboard. I worked really hard on it, and for some unknown reason it slipped out of my mind to actually use the storyboard when I was filming the film. Nice. There are some pictures of my storyboard, so check it out. (My fantastic artistic abilities..argh)

This is the movie, so please try to notice how the movie could have been much better if I used this storyboard.

I uploaded the movie anyway, so please view this darn thing! I’m willing to make the next movie much better than this one, and if anyone would care to look at this movie and comment on it, it would be so much welcomed.

Any lessons learned? I definitely did.

This week I made the first movie, and I must say, it sucks. The acting was OK I guess, but there were some unnecessary sounds that I made by mistake, such as giggling or laughing because I was nervous, which sounded more like I was sniveling, if that’s what people call it. The tripod was stiff, and made small creaking sounds that went along with my giggles to interfere with the movie.

I thought the cool part in the movie was using a real knife and fake blood (which we also call ketchup) and no real blood actually came out (instead, I received some suspicious and disapproving looks from the cafeteria ladies when asked if I could borrow the ketchup).

Sometimes I zoomed in to the wrong direction and got only the nose instead of the whole face, and it was depressing, because for the ‘librarian scene’, I abandoned the tripod because I had to turn 180 degrees, and I was afraid the the stiff tripod would fall or won’t move, because it’s stiff. I’m hoping that the movie will come in a much better shape after I work on it in iMovie, as soon as I learn how to do it without breaking my computer.

Overall, I’m not sure if I can call this movie successful because I don’t think it came out very well. I will keep working on it because I tried.

Thanks to :
Ann, Eunice, Beatrice, Paul (for acting), cafeteria lady (for letting me borrow the ketchup, in spite of the suspicious glances), Mr. Bray (for letting Ann and Eunice get out of the classroom), Beatrice’s Chinese teacher (for letting Beatrice get out of the classroom, and for not being mad at me), librarian (even though she made walk up and down the stairs to retrieve a library pass), and Mr. Burell (for letting me use the camera and tripod).

Looking at the sites in www.alltop.com, the crime section, I have found some blog titles that look so boring I do not even want to even visit that blog, and some titles that look interesting and look like they have at least something to do with crime. The top three boring titles are : CNN.COM-LAW, MSNBC.COM: CRIME & COURTS, and NYDAILYNEWS.COM - NEW YORK CRIME HEADLINES AND ARTICLES - NY DAILY NEWS. These titles make me want to sleep. On the contrary, there are some interesting and hooking titles such as DUMB CRIMINALS, DUMB CROOKS, and STUPID CRIMINAL FILES. I picked the blogs that had the words ‘dumb’ and ’stupid’ because when someone says ‘crime’, we tend to mention sinister detectives running after an equally sinister, but more evil criminals. When the words ‘dumb’ and ’stupid’ come out on a crime blog title, it is ironic, so it catches one’s attention, and also, we may want to know the limits of one’s stupidity, which seems endless nowadays. When we go deeper into blogs, we find posts. I chose to go into the blogs which had funny and catching titles, to see whether they had similarly entertaining titles or if they had really boring titles which again would make me want to sleep. I just found a boring title ; A Kid is into Pot. Who cares about a kid in a pot? I am sure that there would be enough stupid kids in the world to try that, no matter whose child it is. The second title I chose was ‘Mary Ann From Gilligan’s Island Arrested On Marijuana-Related Charges‘. The reason for this is because there are too many bastards doing marijuana in the world to keep track of everyone (oops, in this case, not a bastard, because the name seems female). The very last title I think is not good is ‘Man Reported After Reporting Pot Theft’. Wow. I, and hopefully the readers of this post realized how boring a title can be. The world has certainly changed a lot.

Back to the bright side with lots of interesting crime and stupid detectives (that was definitely one of my cynical sarcasms), I will now present some super titles that instantly makes you want to read the post, for example, ‘Don’t go to Court when Wanted’. This is funny!! A even funnier one is ‘Man Eats Marijuana in Attempt to Hide it from Police‘. This is interesting because marijuana is not for your digestive system, it is for your lungs. I felt sorry for that man who would have had all that crap in his stomach. The third title I chose was ‘A Dork with a Spork‘. I didn’t know what a spork meant till I searched in the dictionary - ‘a spoon shaped eating utensil with short tines at the tip’. Then, I didn’t know what tine meant, so I went and searched my good friend dictionary once more - ‘a prong or sharp point, such as that on a fork or antler’. Then, I didn’t know what prong meant (thanks to my fantastic vocab skills), so I searched the dictionary again, hoping it would be the last time - ‘each of two or more projected parts at the end of a fork’. It was the last time. To explain for why I think this title is funny is because - it rhymes. I couldn’t care less about a man in Alaska with a spork in his hands, but the rhyming part was actually entertaining.

All in all, I think that the element of a good title is getting attention, and having some sort of humor in it. Thank you for reading this post.