Living and Learning from School Projects: Yikes

Chasing Windmills: The Reclamation of Hope from Britany Elise Rickett on Vimeo.

In the words of the great philosopher Duffy circa 2010, "Well, well well."   I was going through my Vimeo since I am updating my reel and came across this gem of a production starring my older brother as a suicidal father finding a way to cope with the loss of his child aka bike with a wheel spinning to the sounds of Thuggish Ruggish Bone with a few splashes of real news footage. Hey...at least it had a message! Peep the handmade gun made out of alumnium foil and premium USDA certified Smith and Wesson Nerf Gun. Struggling filmmaker in school just making do with whatever.  Shoutout to the amazing Professor Alonzo Crawford for making sure I pushed harder than this in my later productions.

I had a great soundtrack too:
Art of Noise - Moments in Love
Bone Thugs and Harmony -Thuggish Ruggish Bone
Howard Gospel Choir (Howard University) - Even Me


Takeaways:

• Don't go overboard with the Sound FX 
• Audio levels are high priority even in a partially "silent" film
• Don't make quick cuts when the audience has to read something on screen...better yet...prove your point visually.
• It seems I thought I was a still frame Terrance Malick (Tree of Life) during my photo montages. Leave that to the elusive yet genius Terrance Malick.
• Faux weaponry exudes a satirical tone rather than boasting a dramatic effect

I did, however, get some great stills of my step-father's hearse, grand father's church, and a cemetery on Pine St.

Pics after the jump.