Life on ADD: Jack Shepley

Life on ADD: Jack Shepley

Themes and Focus Throughout the Year

Artist Statement

In the beginning of the year I explored Propaganda films because I wanted to make art that would leave an impact on viewers and force them to rethink their previous beliefs. However, I have adapted this idea throughout the year. I started off with interviewing my Mother who has ADD but had overcome her challenges with the disorder and is now a CEO of a multimillion dollar corporation. Doing an interview on such an influential human being while also discussing a topic that hit home to me really ignited a creative spark inside me. I have severe ADD so hearing, recording, and presenting other stories of living with the disorder left me feeling confident that I can rise above adversity too. Thus my Life on ADD series was born.

The first video in my series was not well done. I had these glorious ideas but not enough organization, planning, or background knowledge to follow through with my plans. It wasn't bad, there were some great technical aspects of it, but many many poor qualities and mistakes. My lighting set up was advanced, with a background light that gave dimension to the room and depth behind my subject. However, I used a shot put mic instead of of lav mic and the sound was horrendous. There was static in the audio that I tried to minimized by adding a reducing effect to the audio in After Effects. This left the audio warped, the levels out of wack, and the static not completely gone. This made the whole film seemingly less professional. After coming out with my first film this year I dedicated 2 Marking Periods to research. I planned on doing a documentary styled interview on a fellow classmate, Jack Shepley, and wanted it to turn out better than my previous one. So I planned, sketched, researched, ran through techniques, familiarized myself with my camera, installed C-Log and LUTS, and so much more. My interview set up was a lot more complex. I did a 3 camera multi-cam set up with all different angles, 3 point lighting including a backlight, and a lav mic that recorded him speaking and was attached to his shirt. I also typed up and printed out a checklist that made setting up so much easier. It included things like; white balancing all the cameras, adjusting and synchronizing exposure, clapping to help match audio in post production, ect. The whole process went a lot smoother than before and the footage and audio came out a million times better. Using a multi-cam set up allowed to to seamlessly switch angles in post production which helped hold viewers attention and adds a level of sophistication to the film. I also dedicated an entire day to shooting B-Roll footage with him. I planned out my shots on a story board and even got a fog machine to help reflect the light. The fag machine B-Roll footage is some of my best work. I also used a customized LUT Plug in for my B-Roll C-Log footage. It takes the C-Log footage, which is basically a setting that desaturates and flattens footage while you are taking it subsequently allowing a wider range of color grade possibilities, and adjusts some of my color grade settings for me and increases my red and blue values. I really liked this LUTs because I had the ability to make it my own by manually adjusting some of the settings. This too improved my film past the standard set by my previous documentary.

Overall, this year was one of major personal and artistic growth. I have learned so much and advanced my skills past my previous amateur level. I finally have the background knowledge to make my insane ideas come to life through film, the organization to work efficiently, and the imagination that sets me apart from others. At the end of this school year I have adapted my theme from Propaganda to Journeys. I have realized I don't want to change other peoples opinions, I believe everyone's opinions should be unique, but I do want to educate and illicit emotion from my viewers. In my series I illustrate the journey my subject has been on, the journey of life, and more specifically, their journey dealing with ADD. Their struggles only crown their victory because they triumphed passed seemingly impossible struggles in order to become a better person and succeed in life.