A Portrait of My Grandmother

[LuckyMovie]

Happy New Year everyone!

This is my first time posting my work here...but I've definitely learned a lot from all of you. I guess this is kind of a big moment for me because I consider all of you my mentors - and I really hope that you enjoy my work!

Like the title implies, this is a portrait of my grandmother. It was her 80th birthday present from yours truly. I used an HVX200 w/ SGpro rev 3 (Nikon 50mm 1.4) and I recorded the narration with an Oktava MK012. There's some old digital archived footage spliced in there too.



Please let me know what you think! Any comments or criticism would be EXCELLENT!

Best,
Gary (Mei Jia-Li)

 

[filmman]

That's a cool thing you did, Gary. I wasn't going to watch it all because it was going to be too long and the music was getting to me; but ... I ended up watching it to the end. I don't know, maybe it's because I made a movie about my grandmother twenty years ago....

You made a lot of use of pictures and that was something that I didn't do, so I think it was a good thing that you did it. It definitely gives one a perspective and creates a certain amount of empathy.

I think you should have used bits and pieces of music to underscore the dancing and special locations. The piano music united the whole piece, but it was too monotonous and sad. The whole piece would have been a lot more upbeat if you had used different cuts of music.

I think you have a beautiful family. This was the main attraction of the piece. Your grandmother is a dynamic woman; I can see why you decided to do this movie on her.

However, you needed to do an extensive interview with her and used her voice in telling the story of your whole family.

Congratulations and thank you for sharing.

Vic
www.releasing.net