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Film – Week 10 – GTD – Getting Things Done – Part 2

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Image from BiggerPlate.com

Teens are overwhelmed, partly because they don’t yet have the skills to manage the unprecedented amount of stuff that enters their brains each day.  – from LifeHacker.com

“Your mind is for having ideas, not holding them.”

“You can do anything, but not everything.”

― David Allen, (GTD) Getting Things Done for Teens: Take Control of Your Life in a Distracting World

SUMMARY

This week I learned more about getting things done and then I got those things done while using different systems like my planner. Trello, Flora, and more.

PRACTICE ROOM (TUTORIALS)

Screenshot from Sneakonthelot.com
Screenshot from Sneakonthelot.com
  • Set a timer
  • Spend up to 60 minutes in this ‘room’
  • Complete…
    1. First Time User
    2. Introduction To Film

CLASSROOM (THEORY & ANALYSIS)

Screenshot from Animated Book Summary And Review at YouTube

You are going to learn to develop your own version of David Allen’s Getting Things Done (GTD) process in this ‘room.’

I think the way that these videos described the process of getting things done makes a lot of sense to me. I can see how it helps with de-stressing because it is a great way to organize the billions of thoughts people have in a way that isn’t overwhelming or overly complicated. I think that these resources will definitely help me with how I approach getting things done in the future.

LAB (THEORY PRACTICED)

Screenshot of David Allen TED Talk
Screenshot of David Allen TED Talk
Screenshot from Animated Book Summary And Review at YouTube

Examine Two GTD Maps: Basic and Detailed

  1. Detailed map by guccio@文房具社 icensed under CC BY-NC 2.0
  2. Basic map from BiggerPlate.com embedded below

GTD-based Trusted System

Image from Trello.com
  • Examine and pick a trusted system from the 4 options listed below to ‘capture’ your work
    • A trusted system is your method for managing your tasks in a way that you consistently get things done
    1. Trello.com with a – GTD Template
      • We use Trello in this class to manage group projects
        • You will create a Trello account a few weeks from now regardless
        • You might want to start now
      • We start using Trello in the second semester
      • Watch Mr. Le Duc Creating a Trello Account and Add GTD Template Tutorial (3:45)
      • You can get the free Trello app at the Apple Store or Google Play
    2. Your phone
    3. Paper and pen or pencil
    4. Examine LifeHacker.com’s GTD Resources

OUTSIDE (PRODUCTIVITY & THE BRAIN)

  • Go for a 15-minute walk, if it is safe to do so  and follow the advice from David Allen
    • Bring a notepad
    • Walk and relax and allow your mind to wander
    • If you land on something that needs your attention, write it down
    • Continue throughout your walk
Image from GoodReads.com
Image from GoodReads.com

STUDIO (CREATING MAPS)

  • Set a timer
  • Spend up to 15 minutes
  • Then watch David Allen summarize the steps
    • “Very simple folks! …
      1. Just WRITE STUFF DOWN
      2. Decide the ACTIONS and OUTCOMES embedded in them
      3. Get yourself a MAP OF ALL THAT so you can step back and take a look at it.
      4. And then, basically, you USE THE MAP TO DECIDE, “OK, here’s the course that we’re going to go on.”
      5. You then LAUNCH the ‘ship’ on a trusted course in the short term, as well as on the long horizon that you’re moving on.
      6. And then, on a regular basis, you need to REASSESS, “OK, we need to take in NEW DATA, CLEANUP, RECALIBRATE, and REFOCUS for the next leg of the journey.”
    • It’s that simple…”
  • ‘Capture’ all the ACTION ITEMS you can in your GTD Trusted System

WHAT I LEARNED and PROBLEMS I SOLVED

This week I learned more about getting things done and what systems work for me. One problem I had to solve was when submitting my application to UW, I didn’t get an email back with confirmation. I emailed UW admissions, and they responded and made sure they received my application. I also had to prioritize submitting that application over some of my homework assignments, which is why I finished this blog post late.

Developing Quality Workflow

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What is Workflow?

Image Creative Workflow from Behance.com, https://www.behance.net/gallery/27919515/Creative-workflow-GIF

Work•flow /ˈwərkflō/

“The sequence of industrial, administrative, or other processes through which a piece of work passes from initiation to completion.” – lexico.com

What is a quality workflow?  How do we develop it?  Below are elements of the production cycle that most creative people move through as they create something.  First, we must identify the stages of project production. What is each stage and what are the quality checks for each stage.  Read on and find out!

Stages of Creation Development

Inspiration

How do we find ideas to develop?

  • Find inspiration from professional filmmakers
  • Tools like YouTube
  • The process should involve a combination of collaboration and communication with other students along with individual research to create ideas
  • Grades measure quality (unfortunately) but so do your own goals you set for yourself: if you meet your own goals, you have made a quality product

Intention

How do we clarify our specific goal(s) for a project?

  • To clarify our specific goals we first need guidance from Mr. LeDuc on requirements
  • We need to pick one or two learning targets/goals that we wish as a group or individual to meet throughout making the film
  • We need to collaborate and ping ideas off each other to finally find a goal that suits everything we want/need
  • The goal or goals should be not to difficult and not to easy to reach, somewhere in the middle

Pre-production

How can we brainwrite, brainstorm, storyboard, and plan our ideas at this phase?

  • Tools like simply a pen and paper should be used to brainwrite, brainstorm, and storyboard, but then can be transferred to things like dotstorm
  • There should be a balance between individual and collaborative brainstorming
  • The quality of the brainstorms should increase as we collaborate and further strengthen our ideas with our goal found above in mind
  • Mr. LeDuc should make sure we remain on the right path, and provide simple guidance

Production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our plan for this phase? This is where we actually make the project.

  • Tools like Trello, email, and the Schoology calendar should be used for students to communicate with each other and for Mr. LeDuc to communicate with students
  • The process requires every member of the team to be held accountable for their responsibilities with the film, Mr. LeDuc can help hold us accountable
  • Quality means that we meet our goals, to meet those goals everyone has to play a part, tools like Trello will help with this
  • We should keep our main goals and idea for our film in mind throughout the whole production process so we don’t lose our intention

Post-production

How do we communicate with each other and execute our final stages of the project for this phase? This is where we publish the project.

  • Tools like iMovie and other free editors will be used at this stage
  • Again, the main intention of the film should be clear as we go through post-production
  • Due to the lack of in-person communication, we will have to communicate with the editor via Zoom
  • Adding on to the above statement, even though we are in online school there should still be lots of communication between the editor and the other roles, if the communication stops and the editor is left on their own then they won’t have as much support
  • Quality means we met our goal and our intention remained clear

Presentation/Performance

How do we share our project with our learning community, advisory members, and the world?

  • Tools like YouTube and social media can help share our film since we are not in person currently
  • We should present our film in a way that shows our intention clearly
  • We should follow similar presentation steps for when presenting to advisory members as last year
  • We should make sure everyone has something to talk about, and that this presentation is prepared for beforehand

Feedback

How do we conduct a feedback session at the end of the project development cycle?

  • Tools like dotstorm can be used or a Google Form
  • There should be a Zoom meeting where for a chunk of time all we do is talk about what worked and what didn’t
  • We can then make a list of 4 or 5 main points we wish to improve upon within our workflow for the next project
  • Mr. LeDuc should use what the students talk about to create guidelines for the students to use and focus on in the next project

Story of Film – Episode 13 – New Boundaries: World Cinema in Africa, Asia & Latin America

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CC Image boundary by Roger at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

1990-1998: The Last Days of Celluloid – Before the Coming of Digital.

Story of Film – Episode 12 – Fight the Power: Protest in Film

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CC Image Protesters by Matthew Peoples at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

The 1980s: Moviemaking and Protest – Around the World.

Story of Film – Episode 9 – American Cinema of the 70s

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CC Image 70 by Aslak Raanes at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

1967-1979: New American Cinema.

  • Duck Soup (1933) dir. Leo McCarey
    • example of one of first satirical films
  • Artists and Models (1955) dir. Frank Tashlin
    • color, style and happiness meant so show how society is fake, manic, and infantile
    • similar to cartoons
  • Catch-22 (1970) dir. Mike Nichols
    • one of great movie satires
    • made fun of war
    • people perceived it as being “un-American”
  • Mash (1970) dir. Robert Altman
    • war satire
    • tragic moments filmed with upbeat tone
    • used zooms and long lenses
  • The Graduate (1967) dir. Mike Nichols
    • set satirical tone
    • was meant for a lost younger generation
    • turned lights off and on to give pace to scene and dialogue, made it more interesting to look at
  • The Fireman’s Ball (1967) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Miloš Forman
    • filmed similar to documentary
  • One Flew over the Cuckoo’s Nest (1975) dir. Miloš Forman
    • naturalistic light
    • close-ups
    • similar style in The Fireman’s Ball
  • The Last Movie (1971) dir. Dennis Hopper
    • movie about making a Western movie, anti-western
    • hate letter to American film
    • critics called it a fiasco and it bombed
  • McCabe & Mrs. Miller (1971) dir. Robert Altman
    • anti-western
    • low contrast imagery to show lost characters, no heroics
  • The Conversation (1974) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
    • about getting lost in the fragments of other peoples’ behaviors that your own life dissolves
  • Mean Streets (1973) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • tracking shot scene in church, meant to show a modern saint of society, that society being made-up of gangsters
  • Taxi Driver (1976) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • about vietnam veteran, took place in hell’s kitchen
    • themes of existentialism and self obsession
    • scene where main character calls girl he’s obsessed with, camera tracks away from him as if in embarrassment at watching the conversation, very modern idea
    • emotional wisdom similar to Chikamatsu Monogatari
  • Chikamatsu Monogatari (1954) (introduced in Episode 3) dir. Kenji Mizoguchi
  • Raging Bull (1980) (introduced in Episode 5) dir. Martin Scorsese
    • about self-destructive man who hits rock bottom before finding redemption
    • filmed documentary style: long lenses, flat lighting, etc.
    • boxing scenes: different style, switched from slow-motion shots to fast cutting, used wide lenses, zooms
    • never before had explicit italian catholicism been a theme of American film
  • Italianamerican (1974) dir. Martin Scorsese
  • American Gigolo (1980) (introduced in Episode 7) dir. Paul Schrader
    • used 80s red lighting
    • main character floating through the world
    • about superficials and glamour
    • very similar ending to that in Pickpocket
  • Light Sleeper (1992) dir. Paul Schrader
    • again an empty character
    • existential cinema
    • very similar ending to that in Pickpocket
  • Pickpocket (1959) (introduced in Episode 7) dir. Robert Bresson
  • The Walker (2007) dir. Paul Schrader
  • The Birth of a Nation (1915) (introduced in Episode 1) dir. D. W. Griffith
  • Killer of Sheep (1978) dir. Charles Burnett
    • one of greatest films of 70s
    • Burnett got into film because of racial disparities in Hollywood
    • told from a kid’s POV, meant to be much different than average Hollywood
    • black and white
    • used great black music
    • made about how school system killed kids
  • The Shop Around the Corner (1940) dir. Ernst Lubitsch
  • Annie Hall (1977) dir. Woody Allen
    • explicitly Jewish character at the center of film, not your average Hollywood male character
    • free-form
    • beautifully filmed montage scene meant to show appreciation for Annie
  • City Lights (1931) (introduced in Episode 2) dir. Charlie Chaplin
    • Annie Hall was offspring of this film
    • Chaplin was center of his films, made himself the joke, similar to woody allen
  • Manhattan (1979) dir. Woody Allen
    • “compositional form”
    • imagery is in love with the structure of the city
    • wide screen images
    • Jewish character at center of story again
  • The Last Picture Show (1971) dir. Peter Bogdanovich
    • mixed old and new
    • uses old movie style: black and white, conventional reverse angle shots, country music in background, old heroic character
      • at first similar to a John Ford film
    • mixed in new concepts such as dissolves and wide angle tracking shots
  • The Wild Bunch (1969) dir. Sam Peckinpah
    • stretched neorealism idea of extending time to slow down a scene, revealed agony and beauty
  • Pat Garrett and Billy the Kid (1973) dir. Sam Peckinpah
    • themes of the macho west
    • films a character in half light to show how he was part of main character’s conscious
  • Badlands (1973) dir. Terrence Malick
    • damaged characters, almost mentally ill
    • Malick studied philosophy, showed in his films
  • Days of Heaven (1978) dir. Terrence Malick
    • “golden world”
    • flowing camera movements, first time panaglide was used
    • cuts between characters and landscape shots to show character trying to comprehend the infinite
    • dropped peanut shells from helicopters and then reversed shots to imitate a locust swarm, actors had to walk backwards so that they would look normal after shots were reversed
    • climax of scene only used lighting from fire, shallow focus, worked with films mythic ambitions
    • Malick had connection with Earth and life, showed in his films
  • Mirror (1975) (introduced in Episode 8) dir. Andrei Tarkovsky
    • work was similar to Malick’s, also used wind
  • Cabaret (1972) dir. Bob Fosse
    • could have been old-style Hollywood musical, except was shot with close-ups
    • “choreographed and directed using best of old techniques”
    • “political messages and celebration of non-conformist sexuality were very 70s”
  • The Godfather (1972) (introduced in Episode 6) dir. Francis Ford Coppola
    • immoral
    • shot like a Rembrandt painting
    • no long lenses, no helicopter shots
    • lit above head to create shadows under eye sockets, “north lighting”, was rare in American cinema
    • shallow focus which internalized their focus
    • showed a network of relationships
  • Chinatown (1974) dir. Roman Polanski
    • also about lust for power
    • similar to film noir mixed with modern 70s cinema
    • shot widescreen
    • muted 30s colors
    • precise framing
    • “corruption is all-invasive”
    • Polanski made ending extremely dark, “tunnel at the end of the light”
  • The Maltese Falcon (1941) (introduced in Episode 2) dir. John Huston
  • Jules et Jim (1962) dir. François Truffaut

Story of Film – Episode 6 – Sex & Melodrama

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CC Image dramatis personae by katie weilbacher at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

1953-1957: The Swollen Story: World Cinema Bursting at the Seams

Story of Film – Episode 4 – The Arrival of Sound

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CC Image MUSIC – Raphael Saadiq at Lincoln Center Out of Doors Festival by Steven Pisano at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

The 1930s: The Great American Movie Genres…

…And the Brilliance of European Film

Story of Film – Episode 2 – The Hollywood Dream

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CC Image Hollywood by Joe Nguyen at Flickr

Notes

The following material is from Wikipedia.

1918-1928: The Triumph of American Film…

…And the First of its Rebels

Collaborative Film Project Goals

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CC Image goal by michaelnewport at Flickr

Core Film Production Roles

Director

Some core skills for this role are leadership, sense of direction, time management, organization, and being able to see the big picture.

I would probably need to research more in the areas of mise-en-scene and being able to have more of a sense of direction when it comes to where I want the film to go/end up looking like.

Editor

Some core skills for this role are organization, time management, detail orientation, focus for long periods of time, and enough film knowledge to make the editing flow well (not feel choppy).

I would probably need to research more in the areas of keyboard shortcuts, tricks found in Premiere Pro, and editing tricks to make the scenes flow well and look professional.

Skills and Interests in a Team

I am reasonably skilled in organization and staying on task so in a team I would be looking for someone who is good with a camera and has more skill in cinematography because that is where I lack the most in. I also have very limited musical talent so I would most definitely need someone who is able to compose a soundtrack.

Filmmaker Goals

  1. I would like to direct and edit a documentary of a subject of my choice this year and enter it in the All Girls Film Contest.
  2. I would like to gain more experience in the sound/audio role as I have never taken on that role in film before.
  3. I would like to try and make an animated film in Unity using my experience in both Game Design and Film combined because I think it would be very challenging but also very fun to combine experience from two different classes.

Core Team Members

Form your core production team.

  • This process can be a stressful experience for some
  • It shouldn’t be a process of picking teams publicly, but rather a process of discussion, negotiation and mutual agreement.