Film Production Commons^™

Framing The Heart: A Director Of Photography’S Role In Crafting Cinematic Emotion, Mitchell D. Partlow

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explain the process of being the Director of Photography on the film Echoes from the Dock by Bella-Jace Moreno. I will discuss my process during Pre-Production, Principal Photography (Production,) and Post-Production, and walk you through the process of being the Director of Photography on a feature length production. Echoes from the Dock was one of the hardest tasks I have taken on, but through trials and tribulations, it is not about the journey, but the product. Pushing me to my creative limit, here is my journey through the Director of Photography’s Making of Echoes from the Dock …

Ai And Creativity, Herbert Midgley

Faculty Publications

This article argues that artificial intelligence is best understood as a tool in continuity with earlier technologies like digital cameras, non-linear editing, MIDI, and desktop publishing, rather than as a magical threat that will erase creativity or employment. Drawing on historical shifts from film to digital video, manual paste‑up to graphic design software, and acoustic instruments to synthesizers, the author shows that new tools disrupt workflows and certain jobs, yet ultimately broaden access and generate new creative opportunities. Concerns about AI’s resource use are contextualized by comparing its water footprint to bottled water, agriculture, beef production, and textiles, concluding that …

A Year From Now: A Behind-The-Scenes Documentary, Calvin Henson Jr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explore A Year from Now: A Behind-the-Scenes Documentary, which I shot, directed, and edited. It will explore the 19-day production process of the 2019 SFA summer feature film, A Year from Now, shedding light on the experiences of both the cast and crew throughout production. Additionally, it will examine my role as the behind-the-scenes documentarian from being assigned the position, through gathering the footage and conducting the interviews, and developing the finished product.

The Making Of The Russian At Christmas, Armando Rey Silvas Jr.

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will explain the process of making my feature film, The Russian at Christmas, which I wrote, directed, and edited myself. I will discuss my influences for the film, and how those influences led to my own visual and writing style. By walking through the stages of pre-production, production, and post- production, I will discuss the film from conception to completion. My time in the SFA film program – including working on four other summer features – prepared me to direct my own feature film. Completing this feature film was a daunting task that has no comparison to …

Digital Orchestration In Media Compositions, Jimmy Bartley

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As composers gain access to better tools, digital mockups have increasingly grown in popularity. Composers often aim to emulate an idealized orchestral sound in their mockups. By understanding the nature of acoustic orchestration and instrumentation, specific techniques and approaches for virtual instruments and sample libraries, and methods to process and manipulate MIDI audio, composers can achieve this idealized sound. This thesis will focus on the common techniques and methods that composers can use to achieve this in digital mockups. Concluding the thesis is an original work that combines digital and live instruments while exploring different techniques to achieve an ideal …

My Journey Through Cinematic Camera Movement, Tim Johnson

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explains my journey to becoming a cinematographer and finding my cinematic style through both trial and error and classroom instruction at Stephen F. Austin State University, learning advanced camera and lighting techniques, and working on the 2022 summer feature as a Director of Photography (DP). I will begin with a little bit of history and then move into my influences, experiences, and preferences as it pertains to cinematography and camera movement.

Antyesti (Last Sacrifice): Funeral Rites Performed By Hindu From Western Region Of Nepal, Krishna Niure

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This Thesis will discuss the process of making, “Anyesti - The Last Sacrifice” which I have directed, produced and edited. It will cover the rites performed by people residing in the western part of Nepal. It will recount how the concept of making a documentary about the last rites came into my mind.

Mom's Money: A Dark Comedy, Buddy Ketelle

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will recount the making of the feature film Mom’s Money which I produced, edited, wrote and directed. My influences on the story and visual style of the film will be discussed as well as my prior work and the way those combined forces drew me to make this film. Breaking this into the three stages of filmmaking- Production, Pre-Production and Post Production- I will explore the film from its conception to its completion. The collaborative nature of filmmaking and the way the particular collaborators I had on this film gave me an advantage (while still providing an occasional …

Making Summer Feature: A History Of Sfa Student Productions, Dudley Kyle May

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will discuss the documentary film Summer Feature: A History of SFA Student Productions, which I filmed, directed and produced. It will discuss how this documentary came into existence and the process I went through to film and edit the interviews featured in the final film. It will also detail the process of discovering the theme of the film, from the initial concept through post-production.

Immigrant Stories: Exploring The Conflicts That A Filmmaker Must Face In A Documentary, Berenice Saez Briceno

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study attempts to address the personal conflicts that a filmmaker must face in the making of a documentary. It contrasts definitions and theories with the experience of producing the documentary entitled Immigrant Stories and the ethical implications of making it. To conclude, it summarizes the results of the study as final thoughts.

Duality, The Methodology Of Shooting A Documentary As A One-Man Crew, James Mcmahen

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis will discuss Duality, a long-form documentary about artistic nude models who also create art involving the nude female form. This thesis will discuss the inspiration for the film, as well as the deciding factors that made me choose this as the topic for my thesis documentary.

This thesis will also cover the process and methodology of shooting a documentary as a one-man crew, beginning with the process of preproduction, then the principal photography of the documentary, followed by the editing and postproduction process, and finally premiering the final film.

Dreamcatcher From Mao's Last Revolution: My Venture Into Creative Social Documentary Video, Christopher Shea Howard

Student Publications

Dreamcatcher From Mao’s Last Revolution is a filmmaking venture into creative social documentary production undertaken by this filmmaker as his own experimental departure from narrative feature film production and the fiction genre. This thesis report not only describes aspects of this film production that are specific to the methodology of documentary film production, but also describes the film’s cinematic expression of memory and the filmmaker’s telling of the story. Some cinematic and conceptual aspects of the story are related to the film’s influences, specifically to those theoretical concepts and techniques employed by documentary filmmaker, Werner Herzog.

The documentary story is …