The Camera

     Hey Everyone! For the last reflective response of this school year, I thought why not end the year by sharing a great short film with you all. So today, I'll be talking about the short film, 'The Camera" by Peter Lewis on Vimeo. This was the first short that he made, and it was all filmed on a Canon T2i with a $50 budget! This goes to prove what Andrew Jenks said at the STN 2014 Convention; It doesn't matter how much good gear and expensive equipment you have, but what matters is your drive and passion with your idea. This short film is about a young girl who finds a Polaroid camera in an abandoned house, but finds something unusual about it as she starts taking photos. I absolutely love this video and everything about it. It's superb! The lighting, cinematography, audio, music, etc. Let's start with the lighting. The lighting was excellent and consistent throughout the video. I think this might have been a challenge for the camera operator since a lot of the shots they filmed were outside, in the daylight. This means that they had to keep the amount of light even and steady, or else you could run into continuity problems. Although the lighting is really nice, my favorite part of this short film would have to be the cinematography. It's just really amazing! Even on a short budget, they managed to get really smooth tracking and moving shots. When I first watched it, I thought they filmed it with a DJI Ronin! It was that nice! They had lots of compositions and angles, and I was especially fond of the over the shoulder shot of the abandoned house. I also really liked how the screen went into a white shade of color really quickly to show the flash of the camera, it was unique. The visuals were great, but lets talk about audio now. I don't think that there weren't any dialogue, but there were NAT, or natural sounds. I remember hearing them while opening doors and taking photos. Most of the audio was purposely overpowered by piano music. The piano music that filled the video really set the mood. It gave the video a kind of mysterious, creepy yet curious atmosphere. It's truly amazing what music can do to a video. Those were the main points of what I liked about this short film, although there are plenty more. If you'd like to watch this 8 minute film, I embedded it below! I hope you like it as much as I did. On a side note, I hope this video inspires you to create your own films or do anything, no matter any restrictions or limitations. Remember what Andrew Jenks said! Well, that is it for the final reflective response of this school year! I've loved this year of media, and I am very excited for more! Thank you so much for reading! Bye! Hope your summer is fantastic!

The Camera (short film / original score) from Peter Lewis on Vimeo.