My own little thoughts.

Just set up a few new goals for me to achieve for the first half of this year. Gonna make some changes! Hopefully my mind, body and spirit keep me going. Don’t want to fail now.

way-up-there asked: Hey there! Watched your entry for a competition and checked out a few of your songs on your YouTube channel. Just wanna say that your voice is really good! Keep singing, Samantha! :)

Will do! Thank you (:

helloflamingo asked: Hi I feel creepy, but I just read your recap about meeting David and saw a video of you singing to him on youtube. You're very lucky :)

Thank you very much! Yea didn’t expect any of these to happen. (:

e-c-l-i-p-s-e asked: i just read the whole story of the POND's video competition. You're so lucky that you met David Archuleta for the second time!!! - @ayaaa_29

Awh thanks haha (:

caseydonahue:

davidseger:

Take your lens cap off!

Hit the record button!

Always remember to “F-Stop”

Marry a good cook!

Acting is an artform, not a science.

Eat a small lunch.

Only work with animals or children if it’s reaaaally funny.

If you lose your tripod plate, just give up and go to med school.

This, really, is all you need to know to be a good filmmaker. I’ll add “Plug in your mic!” to this list.

I’ve been watching this particular TV series for a while now. It’s a story about an anthropologist who specializes in bones and an FBI agent. They both work closely to solve homicide cases that involves human bones. I thought the story to every episode is amazing and challenging, you cannot help but think how it will end up. The genre to this is drama, mystery and crime. Each episode has it twist on its own and for me that’s one of the best part other than the characters.

The anthropologist, Dr. Temperance Brennan, has a very unique character. She’s very drawn to her world and very enthusiastic as well. She’s definitely has that round character but I’m not sure whether she’s a dynamic or static character because she’s a very strong woman and she knows her goals and aims. I think it’s hard for her to change and adapt to new things and it will take so much time for her to expand her characteristics. However, her little changes is a very big deal and it makes it exciting to see how her character will ‘evolve’ at some point.

This show is interesting from every aspect there is. I’ve come to realize that the cinematography is very, very fascinating. I think it’s a very stylistic way to tell the story. The colors are sharp and the composition from wide shots to close ups are amazing. They always have this amazing wide shot whenever they are in the lab to show the equipments or maybe the bones, etc. They would pan and zoom slowly right at the center. There were no rule of thirds and it’s pretty much a very static composition but it works really well. Sometimes they would pan from above and move the camera to an eye line. I think it’s just amazing that they making it very constantly.

I forgot to review my 90sec film project thing. I know I’m not a writer and the thing is to start an idea is quite hard for me. I’ve been learning a lot about classic Hollywood cinemas and it probably gave me the idea to not make it predictable. Yes, it’s only 90 seconds long but to compress everything and make it a film is quite a challenge.

The genre that I’ve chosen is drama but throughout the whole process of filming, I think the genre changed a bit. Not that I care so much about it but I guess that’s my weakness. I tend to let the story grow and not keep it on the right path. However, this project is a very good exercise.

Since this subject is all about production and direction, I think those two terms for me is how I want the film to be in the end. The way I thought of my process is to have those changes so that I can actually go back to it and have the best outcome I can get.

Here’s the stills:

Who can forget Kylie Minogue’s music video of Come Into My World? This music video is probably one of my favorite music video ever. It’s amazing especially when I saw it when I was a kid.

Michel Gondry was the director for this video and he made a very interesting technique which was very simple but it looked amazing. In this video, there were probably five Kylies and as well as  the other extras in the background. This was shot in one take and it’s just crazy. They had them to move with a loop but of course they got to have perfect positioning and placement for the characters.

And here’s the trick:

I think this video is very stylized especially because it’s Kylie Minogue. It’s got to be amazing. (;

I’ve never watched a very powerful short film before and I think Gasman by Lynne Ramsay gets the title for it to me. From the way it was shot, to the camera movement, from the colors, setting, everything amazed me. I still can’t get over this film.

I think Gasman has a very powerful opening scene in a very strange way. Usually an introduction to a character is just straight forward but what I get from this film is that it feels like Ramsay wanted the audience to guess and have a little experiment with the characters through their movement, the way they talk without showing their faces.

This shot was one of them and I think it is amazing how simple it is but still gets your full attention towards each characters. I’m not sure if this is actually a stylistic way from Ramsay to give out intro information or just the way she wanted a different point of view. Watching this amazing introduction actually made me very, very anxious towards the story. There’s a part where they finally revealed the kids and they went out the door, their mother walked towards the door but didn’t actually reveal her. The way she walked towards the camera in the dark got me excited because I thought I was going to see the mother’s face but they cut it to another. That example actually made me realize that there’s so much more going on in this film. Started with a little confusion and anxiety, Gasman felt very emotional.

With the story of having an emotional child who was experiencing jealousy towards another kid that apparently the children from different mothers but the same father was very strong. I thought the casting was very clever and perfect.

As you can see the facial expression from this kid gave a strong emotional stage and mood. With the depth of field and shot like that I think it worked perfectly to give more depth to the emotion that this kid is having. The colors in this film was beautiful, giving that 70’s feel and included a little bit of grain was just marvelous.

At the end of the scene where this girl felt the climax of her emotional stage, again I felt very anxious of what this girl is going to do next. Judging by her character, she’s a little girl and he emotions are not stable and jealousy is a very strong word for kids. When she looked back to the other girl, she grabbed a rock and just stared at the other girl from behind. I was very anxious and scared because clearly she doesn’t know what she’s doing and I’m just scared if she’s going to throw the rock and kill that girl but she didn’t. My heart didn’t stop pounding watching this film. It is such a powerful film.