Michael Steffen

Telmahre: The Alpha Shoot

This past weekend, we did a test shoot for my thesis project. The test shoot consisted of two parts: one on the greenscreen soundstage (representing the Great Hall) and one in a classroom mocked up as a 4-walled set (representing Tobias' study). The Great Hall shoot was acted by myself and Geoffrey Jon, and crewed by Ken Leung and Mike Brazil. The Study shoot was acted & crewed by Jessica Rosenblatt, Paul Steffen (my dad), and myself. Thank you so much to everyone who helped out!

The Great Hall

This shoot was pretty smooth, once I remembered how to turn on the lights for the greenscreen (lighting grid patch 119-210). We'll need to have a full crew and a cinematographer when we do this for real. Geoffrey Jon was a lot of fun to work with--I was lucky enough to find him the day of the shoot on NowCasting.com. We'll definitely be considering him when we cast the real thing!

The Study

Jess was going to direct the scene, though a lack of actors made it necessary for her to play one of the roles. No one knew their lines, so we had scripts in hand the whole time--we did not focus on performance, so please excuse the mediocre acting when you see the alpha demo. The set had 4 walls, and so we performed each branch of the scene 4 times, one for each wall. Some things we learned.
- Shooting each wall seperately is a bad idea. This did not fully occur to us until we actualy did it, but it is very difficult to preserve continuuity and nearly impossible for the run-length of each to match exactly. So when we do it for real, we are going to set up 4 cameras in the center of the set, and run them at the same time. This will make for a scene that is a lot like theater, except that the audience is sitting in the center of the stage--"Theater in The Doughnut", Jess coined it, playing off the term, "Theater in the Round."
Blocking in Corners is Bad -- We had some moments in the scene where actors were partially or totally off all the cameras because they were standing in corners.
Need to Rewrite to Up the Drama--Playing out the same scene as many as 12 times really showed me where the weaknesses in the writing lie. I feel that the scene lacks drama as currently written. Stronger character motivations are needed, as well as a cohesive character arc for Tobias.

I'm sure we'll learn more after I put the footage together into an interactive Alpha demo, such as "How interesting is the interaction?" The alpha will provide a good model to build off of, even if it still lacks a lot in terms of design.

Beyond Spirituality: Thoughts on the David Lynch Talk

I enjoyed hearing David Lynch speak on Wednesday night. He is an inspiring individual, and had a lot of good things to say on the topic of transcendental meditation. Now I am a Christian, as many of you know, though I don't believe there is anything inherently incompatible between meditation and Christianity. In fact, I wonder whether the kind of enhanced state of consciousness that Mr. Lynch speaks of could enhance one's spiritual life--one's faith as well.

That said, I wanted to add a few thoughts--personal opinions, which may change as I think through them more:

"Self-Seeking"?

Though I've never actually performed transcendental meditation, I do often spend time trying to get in closer touch with myself. Lynch and especially John Hagelin seemed to suggest that being completely in touch with "self" is the highest awareness one can achieve. But such a view, I believe, is incomplete because it does not acknowledge God, the One who is greater than ourselves. In fact, the Abrahamic faiths teach that we must deny ourselves in the face of God who is greater than us--submit to Him, rather than ourselves. Only then are we truly free.

Oneness or Duality?

Hagelin talked about achieving "oneness." Again, I think opening oneself up to a higher level of consciousness through meditation is an interesting idea, though I think caution is advisable. For I think that there is not a "oneness" to everything, but rather a duality. That is, good vs. evil. If one opens oneself up to a higher level of consciousness, I would think that would make the person susceptible to influences both good and evil. I haven't meditated transcendentally though, and perhaps I am comparing meditation too closely to prayer.

Beyond Spirituality

He's more than the laughter or the stars in the heavens;
As close as a heartbeat or a song on our lips. - Jars of Clay

Spirituality is a wonderful thing--and I would much rather have everyone just be spiritual than not at all. Though a defining element of my own faith is a belief in a personal God--a God who chooses to personify himself for our benefit--one that we can each have a personal relationship with. I just feel that spirituality, religion, whatever you like to call it, is incomplete without this one important element.

Don't get me wrong. Lynch and Co. are onto something--and it many areas, I am sure they know far more than me. But without God directly in the equation, I question whether Mr. Lynch ever will fully reach enlightenment.

But again, these are merely my personal opinions and should be taken as such.

Tobias' Study Mockup

For a large part of the footage for my thesis, we're going to build a partial set and then shoot scenes on it. Here is a 3D mockup of the layout of this set.