portrait film write up

Portrait film project. Bitch Bartender and the Revolving Barstool.

The main idea of this project was to show the character of a bartender who is forced to put up with customers on a daily basis that push her patience to the limit. Between a love sick girl who is depressed over a recently broken heart, a man who is obsessed with the economy and threats of the government, and a man who is financial incapable of going out and drinking, the bartender finally snaps revealing her true feelings toward these types of people.

I personally work at the same bar in which the film was shot. I have had the same feelings as this bartender in the many years I’ve worked in the serving industry. Some people have no idea what it’s like to work in this industry. As a bartender you rely on your customers to provide you with a way to pay your bills, they are the main ones that provide your income. On several occasions I have experienced ridiculous customers that tell me more than I want to know and have a way of pushing my buttons to the end.

We wanted our audience to experience the agony a real life bartender feels in a different way. Instead of displaying the true feeling a bartender feels in a realistic way, we turn the emotion to an amusing comedy.

Basically this bartender goes through a series of conversations with three different customers in which her true character is revealed more and more with each conversation. The bartender finally snaps after the final conversation with a man who is financially down on his luck.

The theme of this project I think is controlling emotions. Each character in this piece displays exaggerated emotions based upon whatever is happening in his or her life. The bartender stands off at first but eventually lets her true emotions toward these types of people get to her. The camera never shows the faces of the customers so that the focus can center solely on the bartender.

The strong points of this film in my opinion lie within our actors. They took the time to get into their roles and they took the video to another level.

Some problems we encountered during this film were time limitations, lighting, and setting. After watching the video, there were some lighting issues I noticed such as the strong shadow behind the bartender and I think there should have been more backlighting. We made the mistake of doing white balance under different types of light when moving the camera, which made our shots turn out blue. We all had busy schedules so we were short on time to shoot the film. I wish we would have gotten more camera angles and played with the lighting more.

I learned exactly how much time really goes into making a film. It takes a great deal of planning and organizing to pull off a video with multiple people. The only frustrations I had while doing this was getting to know the equipment and exactly how everything works. I feel like if I had played more with different setups then the outcome would have been much better.