Studio History:
The studio was formed October 1928, when the Keith-Albee-Orpheum Theater chain and the Joseph P. Kennedy's Film Booking Offices of America combined.



Major Stars: 
Fred Astaire, Ginger Rogers, Katharine Hepburn, Robert Mitchum



Famous Movies:
King Kong, Citizen Kane, The Hunchback of Notre Dame.



Studio Today: 
RKO studios ceased production in 1957 after years of failure under Howard Hughes. The company revived itself into a small independent film company in 1989 named RKO Pictures LLC. 



Recent Work: 
Beyond a Reasonable Doubt - September 11th, 2009
A Late Quartet - November 2nd, 2012
Barely Lethal - April 30th, 2015

Seventeen Music Video

For this music video, my group chose the song Seventeen by Peach Pit. In this song, it talks about a seventeen year olds perspective on growing up. After listening to the song several times, we chose to focus on the life of a teen who feels separated from their friends. For the video, we wanted to show a full day of a teen hanging out with his friends and slowing feeling more excluded throughout the day. We also wanted to switch between band scenes throughout the video to show more contrast in the artistic style.

After we had a concept for our video, we began storyboarding and creating a beat sheet. Since we were producing a music video, it was important to create a beat sheet that allowed us to plan what shots we wanted to use to line up with specific phrases throughout the song. We also storyboarded the video by drawing both the band scenes as well as the friend scenes. Before we began producing the video, we also researched similar music videos and selected an image that fit the aesthetic we hoped to achieve with our video. Overall we wanted our video to have a vintage aesthetic that had bright primary colors similar to an old MTV commercial. After we had finished all pre-production planning, we began filming our video. We had 3 filming days for this video that all were around golden hour and night. Our actors were all friends of the juniors in my group and we were easily able to select a crew that were comfortable acting as friends around each other because they already were. Filming was done at a park, in a basement, and along a street. These locations were all fairly close to each other which made filming run a lot smoother. As we shot the video, we focused on first filming all the friends scenes and then finishing with the band scenes. After we finished filming, Mario worked on editing our video. Mario edited throughout the weekend and we gave feedback one day and he revised the edit. The editing process went really smoothly and I believe the editing made the video look a lot more professional.

After filming this video, I learned a variety of new skills. This video mainly helped me get to know new students in my entertainment video classroom. For this project, I worked with a group of all juniors who hadn't had the experiences to create a feature film already like I have. Since I had more experience, I had the opportunity to give more of my feedback to the ways set needed to be run and how we could make our video look more professional.

I mainly used communication, collaboration, and project management in the production of this music video. Since I worked with a new group of people, I had to get used to working with different people by using collaboration skills. I also had to use communication a lot because my group had to communicate with a cast of around 5 people and make sure they were on set every day we needed them.

If I were to do this video again I would want to film more scenes with the friends and not shoot at night at all. I really liked the band scenes in our video, I just wish we had more friend scenes to alternate between throughout the video. I also didn't like the idea of filming at night. My group really wanted to get the night aesthetic types of shots, however, achieving this look is really difficult as student filmmakers. I believe our whole video would've looked way more professional if we didn't shoot at night so that we didn't have any unnecessary grain.

However, I believe our group did a good job with casting and the editing of our video. The group of teens we casted were able to interact together really well and were all different. Having a cast that works comfortably around each other is really important and something that I want to continue in all of my videos. Our videos editing was also a super important part of the process and continuing to give the editor enough time to complete a video helps make the final product look a lot better.

After completing this project, I feel a lot more comfortable making music videos. I haven't done a music video since sophomore year and having the opportunity to create another one as a senior has helped me see how much I have learned throughout the past few years and has taught me skills I can take into my college application videos. Music videos are really similar to short films and by making 2 now, I believe I have learned a lot in storytelling and how to develop a storyline without dialogue in only 3 minutes.

Overall, having the opportunity to make another music video was really enjoyable for me and I hope to make more throughout the next year. Music videos have always been one of my favorite parts of the entertainment industry and I enjoyed the experience to work with a new group of students.

Taylor Swift - Look What You Made Me Do Music Video Reflection

For this project, we are analyzing the elements of video production in industry professional music videos. For my music video, I chose Taylor Swifts Look What You Made Me Do video because of the unique elements that make it different from Taylor Swifts usual music videos. In her music video, I really enjoyed the cinematography and lighting that made the video unique. The colors and lighting in each scene made every shot look very beautiful and cinematic. The shots all flowed really well together as well and transitions were added naturally in certain shots.

This music video focuses on the ideas expressed in her song as well as her new Reputation album. This album focused on the hate she has received recently as a musician and she used her image as the focus of her video. Throughout the video, it visually shows her in acts of aggression, surrounded by snakes, as well as interacting with the "old Taylor". These images tell her story of how she has changed and how peoples views of her has affected the way she acts.

After watching this work I would definitely want to add the lighting into my own work. Creating good quality lighting is always a challenge on small sets and I want to learn more on how to better light a scene and how the way a light is positioned affects the shots mood.

In this video, there are a lot of transitions that are used which is something I have already learned and want to continue using in my own work. Transitions really help make a simple story line look more professional and interesting and I want to continue to use them more frequently in my work.

I believe the creators did a great job at showing Taylor Swift in a new light in this video. Lots of Taylor Swifts videos have a very lighthearted vibe to them and they contain lots of light colors. However, this video focuses on showing how Taylors reputation has affected her and by using a dark teal and red color grade, that message is shown more.

I think this work could only improve one thing, and that would be Taylor Swifts acting. Taylor Swift was supposed to be overreacting her emotions in the video, but I believe some of it seemed really cheesy and could defiantly have been improved.

Overall, I absolutely love this music video and the way the songs ideas are expressed. The video shows so many different locations and moods that come together as a whole to show Taylor Swift in a completely new way which works really well. The cinematography of the video also really helps in getting her message across and the beautiful dark color grade makes the video seem super professional.

Product

My group decided to advertise Glide Floss Picks as our product for our commercial. We chose this product because it is through a company that isn't always advertised or expected to have commercials for. For our commercial, we wanted to begin by showing a couple having a cute date in a park. As the couple strolls through the park, they casually interact with each other and laugh as they make their way to a park bench. After the couple sits on the bench, we wanted to show a perfect moment that was eventually ruined by the boy having food in his teeth. Once the girl realizes something is in his teeth, she pushes the boy away and gives him a glide floss pick so that the "perfect moment" could continue.

Process

Production Role

Professional Guarantees

On this project, I was able to develop my technical skills by shooting a different style of video. I have never truly shot a commercial and it was interesting to learn about a new cinematic style. This project also took a lot of focus on communication and collaboration. This project was the first time I worked with Erin, Cade, or Dominic and it was interesting to get to understand everyone's different perspectives on making videos and their experience. By working with two juniors, I was also able to advance my leadership abilities by teaching them about set and how to run a production so that it is time efficient and successful.

Changes

If I was to do this project again, I would probably have spent more time on set and in choosing what music to use. When my group filmed this project, we were extremely rushed because a huge rain storm was about to come when we were shooting. We had to finish abruptly because it started to rain, and I wish my group had more time to develop the ending. I also would have liked to spend more time choosing the sound effects for the video. We weren't able to find any tell the day the video was used. Although, i'm happy with the sound effects, I wish we could have found some that fit the overall tone better.

Successes

Principles of a Commercial and Filmmaking

Conclusion

Production Role:

For my classes feature film,  I was the Director of Photography. A few challenges I faced was mainly with ideas being communicated on set. A lot of the time, our director Brady had a very specific vision for the scenes shots which messed with the shot lists I had already planned. Their mainly needed to be more director to director of photography communication the day prior to set to make the shoot go a lot smoother. Along the way of this production, I learned more about camera equipment and planning shots. I began by storyboarding every scene detail by detail which ended up with a lot of my on set creative ideas being limited. As DP, you need to be able to make a general idea of shots before filming but should be open to finding new ideas based on your surroundings and actors the day on set.  A lot of people believed the cinematography in our film looked very professional for a student film and it really reflects an artistic style that is seen in the movie industry today. However, there were some shots on steadicam that were not great and I would like for us to have more time next year to get familiar with new equipment. Overall I'm really happy with the way the cinematography looks in this film and I believe the artistic style added a lot to the movies theme.


Time in Class and on Set

During class, I mainly spent time collaborating with Amanda and Brady in making shot lists and brainstorming different shot ideas for each scene. When I finished early, I spent time watching film making tutorials on ways to make shots more interesting and on more creative ways to film dialogue s scenes since it is a style of filmmaking I don't have a lot of experience in. Outside of class, I usually spent more time creating shot lists and preparing my storyboards to have a successful time on set.


Strengths and Weaknesses

I believe I have a strong creative eye in visually telling a story and I was able to show that throughout this film. I have had a lot of experience creating videos but being a part of a feature film allowed me to work more in actual film cinematography.

However, I think I could have done more planning in shots and spent more time learning how to properly use the steadicam and become more experienced in using lights to illuminate a scene.


Summary

I really liked how personal the premiere awards were by the way the directors presented and the actors were recognized. I also really enjoyed the limo ride because it made the night feel a lot more special. Overall, I really enjoyed getting close everyone in the production of this film and making friends who enjoy creating movies like me and want to be involved in film in the future as well. I wish that the premiere had more time of us hanging out in the Limos in a more interesting environment instead of just around Overland Park. Altogether, this film has been one of the most exciting experiences I have gotten involved in this year and it has allowed me to meet amazing people and become more confident in film making. Next year, I really want to see more class participation and collaboration between juniors and seniors from the first day in class. I think our Entertainment students need to be open to try new things and try important roles on set and get involved because it is so worth it and so important to feel involved in your class. Overall, this film has greatly changed my perspective on film and has encouraged me even more to want to make movies the rest of my life.

For this project I explored the website No Film School and found a video essay that described a topic I was interested in relative to my production role on set. In my classes feature film, I was the director of photography so I researched the DP behind Wes Anderson's most iconic films, Robert Yeoman.



Check out the video here: 
Cinematography of Wes Anderson

This video did a great job at analyzing Roberts style of cinematography by providing examples of him working on set as well as some of his most famous shots from the Grand Budapest Hotel. Robert Yeoman has worked with Wes Anderson for the majority of his projects and he has developed a very distinct style of work. Robert focuses on using symmetry, bright and colorful sets, camera movements, and wide lenses to create his vision through his work.

The style of cinematography commonly seen in Wes Anderson films is what I want to take into my own work. The creative use of wide lenses to shoot close ups and effectively using tracking shots to show movement can add a lot to my classes next feature film next year. I also want to use Wes Anderson's style of cinematography in making our shots more interesting. The video talked about how important it was for Robert Yeoman to establish every shot almost like a painting. Every item had a purpose and ever line provided symmetry and structure to the image. I hope to include more color to more effectively use the areas i'm working in in my projects so that it can reflect a more professional and unique style.

Overall, I greatly enjoy the artistic style of Wes Anderson's films and learning about how they are created from the DP helped me learn why certain decisions were made. I want to make my work reflect a similar style to Robert Yeoman and I believe I can accomplish this by studying more lighting tutorials as well as becoming more comfortable in creating tracking shots.