I'm Moving on up Now...

Since I'm now Level 5 I've changed blogs, my new address is:
http://jwaterallfilm.blogspot.co.uk/

See you there.

That's a wrap.

Well, after many many projects and mishaps I've come to the end of Level 4. Overall I feel like I have refined a lot of my technical and problem solving skills as well as added to my portfolio of work.

Tyrannosaur

Warp films' name has been synonymous with quality and gritty realism. Tyrannosaur is no exception to that rule, painting a grim and true to life picture of the lives of two people and the people they encounter on a rundown council estate in the Midlands.

The story centres on a widowed man who in a drunken rage accidentally kills his dog, grieving he befriends a woman working at a charity shop, from there it leads to friendship, sadness and shocking revelations.

As per tradition with Warp films the tone of the film is very grim, not holding back on any front, some of the events depicted are rather shocking and gory, including rape, a child being mauled by a dog and our main character decapitating the said dog. These scenes while unsettling successfully depict the harsh and unforgiving world in which the characters live, which while at times can be exaggerated is very believable   and all the characters feel as if they could exist in real life. I also think it was an interesting role reversal to make the male lead a widow as this isn't done often, while the main character tries to act masculine and stereotypically tough his human side eventually shines through

The acting in the film is also top notch, all the main characters and even the side characters and extras give engaging and believable performances that characterise them.

Whilst this type of story has been done in this style many times it's still done very well here, which isn't really something which can be faulted.

Editing screenshots

Here are some more screenshots of the editing process. I've successfully compiled a rough cut together, however it's WAY over time, currently running at about 7 minutes long. Whilst I have started to cut it back the director (who was absent) needs to view the rough edit before I can do anything too drastic that removes meaning from the story. I need to get the fine cut finished today so that the sound designer can work on the soundtrack.

Filming Complete

Okay, so yesterday after borrowing a suit from the fire museum we successfully completed principal photography for the drama project. Now we can finally use the footage and finish editing the film, ready for the sound designer to do his work. As I type this I'm waiting for the files to render in Final Cut Pro (which is one of the obstacles in the way at the moment.

Hopefully I'll be able to finish most of the picture editing today, giving us time to work on the sound and make any alterations, should they be required.

Hope for the best!

Drama Project Update 06/05/2012

To say we're running a bit behind schedule is an understatement, we still have footage to shoot and editing to complete, we also need a reshoot of scenes containing a cosmonaught (since the costume doesn't look very convincing).

On the editing front I think I'm working well with the limited footage I have available. Challenges I have encountered include:
- Converting DSLR footage in Compressor to make it editable.
- Chroma keying on green screens with differing lighting.
- File size limiting the transfer of footage.
- Having to edit without the director present, which can cause misunderstandings at times.

Here are a couple of screenshots of the editing process:

I have had positive feedback from the group, several other students and my tutor, so I'm confident that despite being pressed for time, if all other production elements go to plan that we should be able to get the project finished on time.

Drama viewing materials

http://www.gboyle.co.uk/aag%20qt.HTM

Whilst this film is well shot and edited it suffers from an unlikeable main character and a story that doesn't really answer a lot of questions that are brought up. The main character is a teenage girl from a northern council estate as she explains why she's unhappy and frustrated with her life, with her divorced parents, unpleasant surroundings and little to no opportunities. This character, although unlikable and "chavvy" with her vocabulary and accent does have a motivation: To get into the music business and move away from her current surroundings, she sings Britney Spears songs both alone and with her friends. However at the end of the film the girl drops a stillborn baby into the canal before leaving in a saddened state, the meaning of this is mostly left ambiguous though it may be implied that she herself had the baby and it was born dead.

Personally I disliked the main character due to the previously mentioned aspects and found her aspirations a little delusional, I also didn't like the ambiguity of the ending and its relative suddenness. That being said I think the film did depict life in these areas relatively accurately and I think a lot of people could sympathise and understand the main character a little better than I did.

Sign Language

"Sign Language" is an enjoyable short concerning people with one of the most mundane jobs in Britain; standing around with advertising signs. Told in the style of a documentary it follows a man who claims to be "an advertising technician", the man is very upbeat and optimistic about his extremely boring job and keeps his spirit higher than anyone in his position in real life might do. The whole film has a tongue in check style, from the man describing his "co-workers" with terms that certainly seem very misguided. The penultimate scene where the advertisers turn round is a rather amusing twist to the story as it goes someway to confirm the man's claims of his co-workers being nice after he himself has started to lose hope in them.

I enjoyed this film and how different it was filmed, and the main character was very likable with his optimism and upbeat attitude.

Audiotour

This film again has a very tongue in cheek value to it and made me wonder what it would be like if machines had thoughts and a personality. While the audio tour starts off normal enough it soon becomes clear that this will have a humorous tone to it when the machine starts describing a man stood by the woman who is listening. From then on the device starts to describe a lot of the aspects of life, objects and behaviour that the woman encounters, eventually accumulating with a small character study of herself, making her realise that she is a flawed character. The audio tour recording is an interesting character in his own right, acting very cynical with a lot of dry humour and despite his obvious limitations of being a machine he does seem very human and is the only character in the film with any dialogue as such.

An Empire of Dreams, aka George Lucas is GOD!

I love Star Wars.

Well, when I say that I mean the original movie from 1977 (now referred to as "A New Hope"), I've not watched "Empire Strikes Back" that much but I think it's okay, I like "Return of the Jedi", "Phantom Menace" is mediocre and feels like a kid's film, "Attack of the Clones" is unbelievably boring, "Revenge of the Sith" was flawed but enjoyable and I really don't care about the expanded universe.

But enough of my thoughts on the movies, today I'm going to talk about the documentary made for the 2004 DVD re-release of the original trilogy (remastered) "Empire of Dreams: The Story of the Star Wars Trilogy".

The Documentary is what it says on the tin, a chronicle of the making of the original Star Wars movies and how they changed film making processes, the shift in culture they inspired after their release and the various challenges Lucas had to overcome in order to bring his vision to the silver screen.

The film does a particularly good job of showing the uphill battle Lucas had to endure to get the first movie made, from studio executives saying it would never work to trouble with the pioneering technology and other production problems. It does the same for the following two films though in a more abridged fashion.

The narrator (Robert Clotworthy) does a good job adding tension to the "story" through its more tense and uncertain moments, aided by the music and while it is all music from the films' soundtracks it is used appropriately, emphasising the emotions the filmmakers want the audience to feel.

In addition to clips from the movies the documentary features interviews with not only Star Wars cast (Mark Hamill, Harrison Ford, Carrie Fisher etc) and members from all areas of the production team, but also American historians who add to the historical context and filmmakers who the trilogy inspired such as Steven Spielberg, James Cameron and Peter Jackson. This aids the films argument that Star Wars was "inspirational to a generation". Concept drawings and rarely seen unused posters are seen along with audition tapes from casting.

All these elements make the documentary rather fascinating to watch as it provides an interesting  account of Star Wars' creation, it's production and legacy.

Don't mention THESE!

However, since the documentary is meant as a tribute to Star Wars there's A LOT of information missing. David Prowse who was Darth Vader's body actor is only mentioned a few times, probably due to his bitterness of having his voice replaced without his consent.

Though can you blame them?

 

There is also no mention of Mark Hamill's car accident between A New Hope and Empire Strikes Back, which scarred him for life, nor is the behind the scenes drama surrounding Return of the Jedi covered in any great detail, the film also attempts to make Star Wars seem like a Godsend to the world and anytime something apposes Lucas he's always portrayed as the victim, in a situation which usually resolves itself in Lucas' favour. The film also emmits the less well received elements of the franchise, including the infamous Holiday Special from 1978, the lukewarm reaction to the prequels and generally it feels like the film iconises George Lucas rather than tells the entire story.

That being said the documentary is still enjoyable for a Star Wars fan and for anyone who is interested in science fiction filmmaking. I'd recommend watching it.

Green Screen Test

 

In preparation for my editing role on the drama project I've been experimenting with chroma keying effects. The following video was made in Apple Final Cut using the bare basics of plugins and effects, since the effect is far from perfect (the image is all interlaced, which I put to being a formating issue, and there is a dark outline around the head) I may resort to using Adobe After Effects for the scenes using green screen, though this may cause more problems than it solves due to the format differences from Mac to PC and just a general risk of loss of quality during rendering.

Update on Drama 25/4/2012

Since I last posted here we have a finished copy of the script and we're due to start filming this Friday through to next Wednesday, giving me about a week to edit it. In the meantime I'm contemplating coming in and trying out some of the effects that we'll be using in the project, so I'm not scratching my head when it becomes heated.

I'm also slightly concerned about not having much to write about on this blog until the editing process begins aside from reviewing some of the drama pieces we were shown.

Drama Project

Well, after dare I say a bit of a false start with a lack of information we've got ourselves organised with our drama project. We now have an idea which we think will work as a short piece (this idea may be subject to change), the story is of a man has a sort of epiphany, ending on an ambiguous note.

I've been assigned the task of editing the film, which is both exciting and daunting at the same time: the exciting part is that this will be my first time on one of these large projects where I have had this role, so it will an interesting and maybe enlightening experiance for me. On the other hand the script is quite advanced and heavy on special effects, this means it will have to be cut carefully to keep the desired feel and tone, as this type of story while done a lot is quite difficult to pull of "right" and often ends in failure or a lower standard than hoped for, the special effects side of things is also slightly concerning as I don't have a lot of experiance with special effects.

It has been suggested that we edit the footage as it's shot so we have plenty of time for the effects, the problem is that as a film is being shot the tone and feel can change, meaning a lot of reworking may need to be done.

To keep communication during the process we've set up a facebook group to suggest ideas, arrange meeting times and make sure everyone is up to date with what's going on.

GUARDS!!

"The Guard" is a film I've been wanting to see for a while now; as stated before I'm a fan of shows and movies featuring the emergency services, seeing how "Hot Fuzz" worked I was eager to watch "The Guard" and while I didn't expect the most exciting and action packed movie I still thought this would be a good laugh since everyone has been raving about it and praising it.

And I have to say...I found it pretty underwhelming.

Granted, some of the characters were enjoyable; my personal favorite was Sergeant Boyle, played by Brendan Gleeson, he was the definitive old policeman who does things the "old way", who may be an arse on the outside but deep down he's a good man.

I also found the FBI agent enjoyable, simply his reactions to this new environment were quite funny at times, him and the sergeant aren't exactly close and don't see eye to eye, this can work well but in my opinion it's one of the film's downfalls, they don't spend enough time together to get a friendship or mutual respect going, there doesn't feel like enough chemistry between the two or playing off each other for the relationship to work.
It may just be the style of comedy that I'm not a fan of, most of the jokes revolve around the FBI agent being black and American, not fitting in with his new surroundings, this joke can work and it made for some funny moments but it felt like that was the only joke they had and they overused it a bit too much for me. Then there's the swearing and there's quite a bit of it. I'm okay with swearing in films if it's necessary and here I felt it was a bit too over done, it would make sense if just one character swore a lot as it would aid their characterisation but instead most of the characters have potty mouths, it just feels unnecessary.

Now to be fair the film isn't terrible and it's not even that bad, it just didn't click with me as it did for a lot of other people, still people enjoy it and they're welcome to, again it's probably just my taste in comedy. Then again this is more of a serious black comedy than a laugh out loud flick, so maybe I just had my expectations set for the wrong sort of movie.

Eh, that's a wrap.

Well it's taken many hours of planning, discussing, travelling, filming and editing but our Liverpool project is just about finished. Jordan and Sam have spent hours if not days in the edit trying to tidy up the footage and make it look as good as we can get it, as I speak they are composing the musical score and with a bit of luck it should be burned to disc by tomorrow. Today I have been there supervising the edit, offing a bit of input and I was also able to see a rough edit of the film, which considering what we had to work with I think was very good.

However, our sound man seems illusive today and left Jordan with a good deal of work to do in his absence.

Overall, this project has been a huge learning experience: we've been in a city many of us are unfamiliar with and as such we had to face up to problems as they occurred rather than retreat from them into our comfort zone. It was a very advanced location shoot with more crew and equipment than we've used before. I do wish I wasn't ill on the first day and subsequently more of an idea of what we were going to do on the second day but I suppose it couldn't have been avoided.

Parashoot form

This is a section of the ParaShoot form I filled out in preparation for our trip to Liverpool.

Some pictures of Liverpool

Whilst we were preparing to go to Liverpool I was tasked with looking for locations that would convey not just the deprived and derelict areas of the city but also it's rejuvenated and modern buildings associated with its culture and heritage. (These were taken with Google Street View.)
The recently redeveloped and heritage heavy Albert Dock.
The new Liverpool Echo arena, a symbol of wealth and culture as it hosts a lot of events.The Metropolitan Cathedral, a symbol of religion with a modern design aesthetic. In contrast, Liverpool's Catholic Cathedral has a much more traditional and maybe Gothic appearance. The derelict and rotting Edge Lane is the first thing that people see when they enter Liverpool via the motorway and is off putting. Most of these houses were undergoing demolition when we arrived, however some were still standing and created a nice juxtaposition with the new houses which had taken their place. The Liver building and Titanic memorials both hold significance for the city, the former being one of Liverpool's most recognisable buildings and the Titanic memorial being a symbol of a disaster that claimed the lives of many Liverpudlians. Liverpool One, a vast redevelopment of the city centre illustrates the amount of money that the city had when it became the city of culture and is a hub for retail and social activity. This marina is close to the Albert Dock and usually has some watercraft in it, some vintage.
Some more wealthy and up market residential streets not far from the Catholic Cathedral and Chinatown. These industrial units are further out of town and have just been left to rot.
Lime Street is awash with large victorian buildings including the train station, Empire theatre, Walker Gallery and City Museum.

A Review of a review (paradox?)

As a rule I don't listen to a lot of radio as I don't believe that a lot of the programming caters to my interests and enjoyment. One programme that I will willingly sit down and listen to though is Kermode and Mayo's Film Reviews, broadcast on Fridays between 2pm and 4pm on BBC Radio 5 Live.

The show features interviews with filmmakers who might be promoting a new film or just in the public eye at that time, a list of the top 10 films at the box office, letters from viewers and of course reviews of the latest films, both mainstream blockbusters and smaller independent films.

Mark Kermode is the main film critic on the show and certainly has his own style of presenting and criticism, making him unique and often fun to listen to. Though at times he can come off as picky, opinionated and on the odd occasion slightly immature, it is still interesting and entertaining to listen to his thoughts. Where most critics will judge a film solely on its visual elements and story, measuring a movie's pros and cons, Kermode does not just this but also analyses the film as an experience and whether or not it was forfilling enough and worth your time to go and see.

Simon Mayo makes less of an impression, seeming a lot like Kermode's right hand man or dare I say 'sidekick', although he offers his thoughts on some films they very rarely have the same comic or thought provoking nature of Kermode's. That being said it is still a lot of fun to listen to the banter between the two critics and how they play off eachother really makes the show special, you couldn't have one without the other, they're almost like a double act.




Unlike most reviews this show doesn't take itself too seriously and isn't scared of adding humour, as previously mentioned the banter between the two critics is fun to listen to and reminds me of Siskel and Ebert to a degree. They even dub their show "Wittertainment", they know what they are and they embrace it. They even have running gags such as: Kermode's hatred of 3D, impressions of actors and film characters (done by Kermode), Kermode's apparently large hands, the duo's comic attempts at avoiding spoilers and they have even created their own code of conduct for cinema patrons.

What's also great about the show is that blockbusters at the multiplexes aren't always the main focus and independant films likely to be shown in local independant cinemas are given more focus and generally get better reviews than the mainstream films, this is brilliant because they're using their large audience and popularity for the good of the smaller budget filmmakers struggling to make a name for themselves and a positive review from this show is likely to make more people enclined to go and see it.

This show is unique amongst radio schedules dominated by current affairs, music and sports programming and whiles I'd be lying if I said I listened to every episode it is still an entertaining show and podcast which is a must listen if you have an interest in film. (I usually only listen if there's a particularly interesting film being reviewed or discussed, perhaps I should listen more in case a gem that I could enjoy gets mentioned).

My final piece from last year

This is the final film that I produced for my course last year; a parody of the opening of the CSI programmes. Fast paced and colourful, featuring many forensic images and songs by "The Who" these title sequences have been spoofed time and time again. My version, like many of the episodes begins with a "Previously on..." segment, which features random clips that are seemingly unrelated to anything cohesive and structured, making it confusing. A small segment of the "episode" follows with the main character suspecting a murder, putting on his sunglasses before the opening titles roll. In retrospect I wish it was a bit longer and polished than it currently is, the fact it was filmed on an OLD Sony Handycam didn't help and I wish I could have synced the sound up better (rerecording the sound on a marantz). But on the whole it was well received by tutors and the rest of the group.

(sorry for the poor quality, i lost the original file and had to rip this off the DVD)

Possible inspiration:

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/sea_change

This is one of the inspirations for how our Liverpool documentary could be structured in terms of editing, showing transitions between various locations from day to night or showing minor similarities between places that otherwise contrast with each other.

However, since the editing for this project is quite experimental in terms of what we're trying in terms of structure, pace and so on this may change at some point.

Post Documentary shoot.

I'm just going to come clean and say that I don't think I contributed enough to the actual production stage of our documentary project, the main reason being I was ill and unable to attend the first day of filming, when I arrived the day after quite a bit of footage had already been shot, I had missed the production tutorial and from what I can gather the idea had been altered slightly to resemble a sonic postcard style.
Yet despite these problems I think the production went relitively smoothly and we got done what we needed to in good time, mostly thanks to the director knowing what he wanted to accomplish and took charge very well.

From the Archives: Extended Degree

Since it's been a while since I posted any of my prior work on here I thought I'd show some of the films produced last year on the Extended Degree in Media course. These films served as good creative practice that has helped me this year.
"The Policeman and his 'Balls'"

The first film I every made for university was for a project in which we had to produce a film based on an urban myth, my contribution to this film was sourcing the story we would base it on, provided the policeman's outfit (from where I work) and of course acted in it. While at the time it was interesting to work in such a way that we hadn't done previously in retrospect it feels very amateur: The white balance and exposure constantly changes (due to the time of day it was filmed at and the lack of ANY white balancing) due to a lack of audio equipment and the music is too loud, the editing looks amateur (with Windows Movie Maker and a change in aspect ratio), the sound design is awful (the background noise drowns out the dialogue) and the acting on my part is bad as I keep looking at the camera, (the cameramen were snickering the whole time). That being said it was quite fun to do and it was an interesting outing for our first project.
"The Terror Mutant Robots"

This project was produced entirely by myself, the brief was to create something that resembled the style of a particular filmmaker or genre. For this I chose the style of B-movies from the fifties in which a lot of badly acted and written sci-fi films were shot with virtually no budget, rather than producing an entire movie I decided it would be more practical just to make a trailer for one. I watched some trailers for this type of movie (like "THEM!", "Plan 9 from Outer Space" and "The Day the Earth Stood Still") as well as the movie "Be Kind Rewind". All the special effects shots were done in front of a blue screen using Dalek models, Star Wars figures and just general bits and bobs, the effects are deliberately bad and cheesy and the use of stock footage and over the top narration only add to the campiness. On the whole I'm personally proud of it. (Even though it looks crap, I spelt 'Mutant' wrong twice!).
"The Times are Changing"

This film was mostly inspired by the opening credits of "Watchmen", we were tasked to make a film about time in some way, being a sucker for history I chose to do it on the changing face of Sheffield, using footage from "Sheffield a City on the Move" and other documentaries I think it shows a good comparison of how much the town has changed, I just wish I could have made some of the shots match up better.

Decided

After a meeting the director has decided to make a film based around the notion that whilst Liverpool was the city of culture a few years ago it has more recently been labelled England's most deprived city, looking at the very best and worst of what the city has to offer at different points in the day told in a poetic style.

I will look at what happened during the time Liverpool was the city of culture and if any special events took place. Once I see the director's treatment I will try and produce a shot list, a schedule and risk assessment as well as print off consent forms for if we have interviews.

The editor and myself attended the production meeting and booked out our sound equipment (our cameraman will be using his own camera for filming).

Documentary ideas

After a meeting with some members of the group we have debated some ideas that we think could be used to make a short documentary about Liverpool or a news story about it.

liverpool-is-england-s-most-deprived-city-says-new-report
Although recently Liverpool was the city of culture and is undergoing redevelohttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifpments to improve its image it is still listed as one of the most deprived cities in England, this idea could be used in a poetic style and juxtapose imagery of both deprived areas of Edge Lane and other areas and prosperous areas such as Liverpool 1 and the waterfront and feature interviews with residents offering their views on the city's distinction and notoriety. The different areas could be looked at during different times of day and weather permitting different lighting.


occupy-liverpool-set-up-chavasse-park-camp-in-liverpool-one
The "occupy city craze" seems to be sweeping the nation at this point with morehttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif and more people protesting against capitalism by camping in public areas. Making a film about these demonstrators could be interesting as many different viewpoints could be represented with interviews from each side of the argument and we could also ask the locals what they think of the protests.


titanic-ties-that-bound-tragic-liner-to-liverpool
Although the Titanic itself didn't visit Liverpool a lot of the engineers who perished when she sank were from the city. With the 100th anniversary of the ship's fateful maiden voyage I think a slightly poetic and collage documentary would be interesting to do, with clips of the White Star's old HQ, other dockland buildings and the waterfront, there could be interviews with people concerning what they think the disaster means for Liverpool and possibly a look in the maritime museum. The only downside is that the Titanic isn't usually assosiated with Liverpool, there can't be any interviews with survivors for obvious reasons and the premise may not fill 5 minutes.

These ideas are subject to change as more can be bought to the table and existing ones can be adapted on.

I have also set up a Facebook page for group members to make suggestions and communicate without having to physically meet up.

Documentary Viewing materials:

As one project is done another raises its head, this time it's in the form of a documentary, to be shot in Liverpool. To give us inspiration we've watched some short documentaries of differing styles and subjects:



Depicting life in Kabul, Afghanistan for a group of young skateboard enthusiasts this film is short and simple, showing an activity that many won't think of when talking about Afghanistan making the film feel unique, it uses this to its advantage, using juxtaposition of the fun loving children against a war torn backdrop, with soldiers, military equipment and derelict streets and surprisingly for a documentary it features likable characters that are distinct and grow on the audience. My only complaint is that it often feels too staged, with some of the things shot it is obvious that they couldn't have just done it spontaneously and some planning must have been required.



Telling the story of an aging man who is instantly likable from his first few lines this film made me want to hear more about what he had to say. Although slightly lacking in focus (a broad area is covered but not expanded upon in great detail) it is heart warming to see what happened during this man's life and although the film ends on a bit of a downer he doesn't seem to be too emotionally affected by it. This is a traditionally styled documentary that features composed interviews and no visable or audable off camera input.



Another film with an upbeat vibe to it; a man who holds the record for time spent laughing visits Britain's gloomiest town and tries to lighten the mood. The man tries to show that problems and difficulties can be overcome with laughter as this man has had some unfortunate events happen to him in the past. Although this film is trying to be charming and it makes most of the time it's given (3 minute wonder) I personally found it slightly odd how someone just goes around laughing constantly.

Experimental film: Just about finished.

Well, the experimental film is finally finished and ready to hand in. Overall I would say that this project has been interesting to say the least, working with somebody new and in a genre that is alien to me. However, with the project being of that genre I am unsure of how it will be received and critiqued. I also wish that the film was more technically sound, there is a problem with the aspect ratio due to the fact that the film was shot on two different cameras and an error might have occurred during the importing process (I feel ashamed of this as I think I should be beyond silly technical errors by now).
That being said the production process has provided me with more experience in working with others and I will learn from the mistakes made and critical analysis to make my future films more competent.

Some shots of the editing process:
- Cutting and speeding up the paper shreds to spell "The End" (not the most original idea but interesting none the less)

- Chroma Keying the footage to make the apple stay green while everything else is desaturated (in a similar style to 'Sin City')


After watching the film back again I think there is inadvertently a sort of 1920's silent movie feel to it, with black and white images, some jerky movement and music from that era. I also find it slightly freaky how the music and images seem to sync with each other (in the edit the track seemed to automatically sync with the footage we'd shot).

In terms of what roles we allocated ourselves for the production as mentioned before it was more difficult than I hoped to specialise roles as our group was a man short, that being said I had roles in:
- Camera operating (during day one of filming)
- Writing
- Producing
- Secondary editing (my partner did more than me)
I wish I could have specialised more and will try to do so on the next group project.

Experimental project: Shot list

The above item is the rough shot list that Jordan and myself conceived, so we'd have an idea of what we were going to shoot, as we thought a storyboard would be impractical and difficult to produce when we weren't certain what we were going to film, instead we got a list of ideas for shots we thought would look interesting when editing to change the motion whether it be slow, fast or reversed and worked from there.

We have also listed what editing techniques we could use later down the line in post production.

Influences for Experimental Film

Finding influences for a film that can be about as much or little as you like is more difficult than it sounds, and in the case of this film I have found it increasingly difficult to find influences for our 'motion' based film as the experimental genre to me seems almost alien and I find it hard to draw on films of that genre to influence what I do. That being said I have drawn on several films and in some instances just clips to help the project.



"Man with a Movie Camera" (1921) was revolutionary when it was first released, created by Dziga Vertov the film tells the story of a day in the Soviet Union using seemingly unrelated shots of static objects, people and daily life. At a time where realist filmmakers who believed editing was corrupting and filmmakers pioneering montage were in heated debates about cinema's future. Vertov disliked the idea of a conventional story, instead shooting this film in the style of a newsreel, this early example of Cinéma vérité is the influence for the non-continual editing style that our film has.



Seeing things happen in slow motion has always fascinated me, where something at normal speed may be mundane and something nobody would look twice at, it almost takes on another dimension and becomes interesting to watch (at least for me), whether a slowed down shot is to show an action in great detail, to let the audience marvel at the complex movement or to empathise an emotion slow motion makes almost anything seem like it has a rhythm to it, and make things that in normal motion are too quick or insignificant to register look all the more impressive.

One way of seeing movement that we'll probably never see without the help of editing software are things going in reverse; everything we do has a different look and style when going in reverse; water, smoke, eating and most notably breaking stuff, seeing objects repair themselves or someone throwing up the food in such a way is facsinating and is garenteed to make the audience react.
For example:




Fernand Leger - Ballet mecanique (1924)
Ballet-Mecanique has been the primary experimental influence on our film, as it features non-continual editing, a variety of different shots with the imagary ranging from conventional to just bizarre, the audeince never know what shot's coming next, if it's one they've seen before or whether it'll be a new one.

Garageband test

Recently we were introduced to a sound design software called 'Garageband', which can be used to make MIDI files and foley sound effects either not captured on camera or that need to be recaptured for quality reasons. We were given the task of rescoring one of the scenes we had been provided with, I personally chose a scene from the 2002 remake of 'Solaris' as although space is a soundless vacuum I like it because it can be interpreted in a variety of ways sound wise (such as the ballet music from “2001: A Space Odyssey” or the “Hollywood” interpretation a la “Star Wars”). I opted for a dark, errie and mysterious feel reminiscent of the later scenes in "2001" and in that respect I think it works well, having not seen the film prior (I have since seen the scene in its original form and at the risk of sounding arrogant I think my version is superior, considering what I was given to work with).

06/02/2012: Experimental Film report, teething troubles

Well, with just two weeks to go and several ideas being bounced around I think that my partner and myself (despite not meeting yet and communicating purely over Facebook) have settled on an idea: Making a film composed entirely of still frames or fractions of quick cut film, giving the illusion of a stop motion video. Perhaps experimenting into how a film plays out when there is limited animation between points of interest in a film or just trying out a way of filming which is new to us.

Maybe something like this:


With frames missing or running at a different rate a film can be interesting to watch and will probably be more interesting to try and make.

Also, here's our initial ideas sheet:

Another review: Four Lions.

When a film is set close to home there is automatically a novelty in spotting local areas, this is just one of the elements that makes 'Four Lions' one of the funniest films I have seen in a long time.

Set in Sheffield (or the "Islamic State of Tinsley") the film follows a group of inapt terrorists fighting for Jihad, over the course of the film the group are sent to a Pakistani training camp, plan attacks in several locations and fail miserably at making threatening videos.



These characters, despite their diabolical plans are very likeable and the whitty banter that goes on between them make you sympathize with them and you actually end up ROOTING for the TERRORISTS. Their silly plans for attacks and avoiding detection are accompanies by their occasional use of subtitles when calling eachother explixit names (whilst speaking in their language) which makes for some extremely funny moments.

What makes this film work is that it takes something that many consider a threat to society and not just makes a mock but also makes you care about what happens to them, making it all the more sadder towards the end of the film when they realise what they have to do. The localisation as mentioned prior added to the entertainment value, with Warp Films in charge of production several recognisable locations were featured, from local landmarks to small shops, the characters also speak with Yorkshire accents, again adding to the comedic value.

Four Lions is a fantastic film and a great modern example of satire.

30/1/2012: Experimental films

In preparation for our experimental films project we watched several films of that genre, some in the bizarre abstract style that many people associate with the genre to more conventional and structured films that were easier to follow, here's a selection:

"Ballet Mecanique" by Fernand Leger (1924)


Fernand Leger - Ballet mecanique (1924)

An example of what many will think of when experimental film is mentioned, this early attempt at abstraction could be best described as an "assault" on the senses, with loud and fast music accompanying seemingly random bizarre imagery, this film is very heavy on the eyes and ears and many will find it quite off putting (myself included), personally I don't find this sort of film appealing at all as it felt unpleasant and repetitive. However I do respect that at the time it was quite revolutionary in ignoring narrative conventions and attempting something which few people at that time had. The music does feel like something out of an intense ballet production and while there are themes present in the film such as industrialisation and feminism, these only exist as flashes of imagery in what feels like a mess of ideas.

"Star Guitar" by Michel Gondry (song by The Chemical Brothers) (2002)

Star Guitar - The Chemical Brothers from Chen VM on Vimeo.

Music videos can be considered short films in their own right, this one in particular is moulded to the song it accompanies and for every new beat or addition to the track a new layer of imagery is added and an object passes the camera, again containing the theme of repetition, the video sucessfully replicates the sort of hypnotic and rhythmic sometimes musical depiction of a train journey (that people who have iPods and travel a lot might be familiar with). I also enjoyed the almost abstract element of seeing the same scenary pass multiple times, which makes me wonder how the whole thing was filmed and edited.

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/fisticuffs"

"Fisticuffs" by Miranda Pennell (2003)


(I couldn't find a link to the full film, so this is just an extract)

Resembling the TV series 'Shameless' and with hints of a Shane Meadows film 'Fisticuffs' is a British example of an experimental piece, incorperating the themes of a Western film, with seemingly pointless bar fights that just seem everyday for the bar's patrons and cowboy costumes in the dancing scene. There is an essence of ironic humour which is native to British media where the increasingly violent and and brutal fighting are comedically placed alongside elderly people talking over a pint and partaking in Western style dancing. There are a few artsy moments in the film such as the begining in which the same actions are repeated and scenes in which the same people are seen in two parts of the room simultaniously, perhaps adding a theme of deceipt, making the audience expect one sort of film, only to be surprised when it changes.

Experimental?

Well it's 2012 and pretty soon a new project will be upon us: To create an experimental film. While many people will consider an experimental film as a bizarre art house style piece along the lines of David Lynch's films or something you'd see at an art gallery that doesn't make much sense.

However it could be argued that any film could be experimental for the people involved if they've never tried to do anything like it before, e.g. someone who has specialised in writing drama may find shooting a documentary as an experiment or a specialist in comedy may find horror as a kind of experiment and so on. What someone else has done for years could be completely alien to someone else.

Equally, experimental films could be something that is slightly conforming to what is perceived as the norm, for example; in A2 film studies our class was offered the idea of Fight Club being an experimental film, as it features a plethora of themes, mixing of genres and concepts not usually touched upon in mainstream films.

Simply put, experimental films can be non conformist and different without having to resort to being "Eraserhead".