The Art of Storytelling

While I have filmed many amateur movies since I was a child, this project marks the first time where I took time to create pre-visualization materials prior to the shoot. While I can definitely see the benefit behind creating storyboards and shooting plans, unfortunately, for me, this was decidedly difficult. I am a passable visual artist, at best, and being a bit of a perfectionist, I can believe that I spent way more time than perhaps I should have trying to make sure that I was illustrating a storyboard that appeared cohesive and also comprehensive. Thankfully, my wife, being a professional comic book writer, was able to assist me with the Ins-and-Outs of sequential art, and making the "action" and "movement" trackable. Additionally, the shooting plan was surprisingly rather helpful to me, as it allowed me to get a real sense of the space, where we can place the cameras, and how to generate an efficient workflow without having to figure it out on the day of the s...

            From NYPD Blue, to Law & Order , to Blade Runner , some of the most suspenseful and intriguing scenes in Film and Television revolves around the interrogation room.  For the master shot scene, I am interpreting the Bran & Park dialogue scene to have a bit more sinister undertones.  Bran, in this instance, will be taking on the role of an investigator, looking into the mysterious Park -- a polyglot with a criminal record that seems to be decidedly silent and a hard nut to crack open.       It is my intention to use low lighting to evoke a noir-esque  feel of the scene, hearkening back to classic detective dramas. Low dialogue volume and subtle microexpressions will be absolutely key to giving this scene the weight and the intrigue that it requires. While Bran & Park's conversation occurs within the interrogation room, a mysterious, silent third party (which we're referring to as "JOHN,") will be...

During the course of shooting our documentary, amusingly or frustratingly enough, we had a bit of difficulty finding decent sources for our vox populi.  While there were no shortage of individuals in the downtown area, finding individuals willing to talk on camera, even for a limited time, was more difficult than one would expect. Even guests on the tour seemed rather reluctant to talk about their thoughts and feelings toward it, however, thankfully we were able to reach a few guests who were very eager, indeed, to share their thoughts on the tour. Luckily, we were able to find a guest who had gone on the tour multiple times -- and thus had no real shortage of interesting stories and anecdotes with which to share with us. Additionally, we were able to interview Kent -- a new tour guide with the Ghost Walk who was also very learned in local Wilmington history.

For our expert interview, my team and I interviewed Anna Gamel, a tour guide with the Ghost Walk of Old Wilmington, a popular tourist trap here in the Wilmington area. Anna has a great number of years of experience in storytelling, theater, performance and, so we are led to believe, experiences with the supernatural. Unfortunately, due to the limited space, we were forced to film within the cramped confines of an employee breakroom, which necessitated that we get rather claustrophobic during the course of our filming.  Unable to set up a wide range of lighting trees, we were luckily able to ascertain that a single key light provided very intense and dramatic shadows that were very fitting for what we were about to shoot.  The harsh light and deep shadows on Anna's face providing a very spooky image, reminiscent of placing a flashlight under your chin while sitting around the campfire telling scary stories.