Wednesday, 17 December 2014
Evaluation
My finished individual film had been intended as a piece that showcased the impact of man-kind on nature and I do think that it shows this. The paint represents acid rain, and it is clear to see the damage on straight onto nature directly in this way as the colourful paint shows up extremely well. However, I did then do a reshoot after getting my marks back. I shot the film indoors with a background of nature sounds. This included the sound of the filter of my fish tank and the water, and my neighbours chainsaw on a rainy day. I redid the sound, as sound was not a strong point on my initial individual piece. I made the paint solely black, to highlight the damage done to nature through human influence- as black would give connotations of decay and deterioration. I then ran into the problem of the quality not exporting correctly, which meant that although the footage on my camera and on my computer is HD, it exports with a grainy feel. This was a big blow, as I had only been able to do a couple of takes due to the fact that I ran out of plant material and had to buy my own. However, I feel like this can be overlooked and it is a good piece regardless. I am happy with my film but I know that there could be a lot of improvements that would have improved the quality of the piece dramatically. I feel like I learnt a lot from it even though it did not meet my expectations, as I really struggled with this piece in a creative aspect as I was unsure of an idea for a long time.
Our finished group experimental film was intended as a piece that showcased what I did in my individual film- but to a larger scale. We wanted to juxtapose the beauty of nature with the destruction caused by man made structures such as power-station and roads. We intended from the beginning to use archive footage, and in our finished piece I think that this has worked really well and is extremely effective with our shot footage. Our nature scenes are very visually stunning, and my favourite sound parts come from the underwater scenes that we use halfway through the film. The nature segment really achieves what we set out to do, which was to show the beauty of nature and yet also how fast it is vanishing and how differently the world would be for when our own children will grow up. The archive footage also exemplifies this, as in years to come images of nature that we have shot like these will also be nothing but a distant memory.
Our industrial scenes are very looming and imposing, out of place in the film just like they are in nature itself, and that is also something I love about the piece. I think the shot of the pollution cloud curling up to the sky is my favourite one, which we sped up and is very effective. What we set out to do and what we achieved is extremely similar, we planned everything down to the last detail and we stuck to it and this way we knew exactly what it would look like when we edited it. We were also extremely tight when filming and we had some luck on location which meant that we got some shots that we weren't planning on that happened to go extremely well with our theme and the look of the piece overall. I feel this also does the job of taking the film away from the beauty of nature and to the eyesores that man has created upon the world.
One weakness I feel our project does have is sound- as none of us were particularly good at sound editing we had to do our best with the sounds we had shot. We did several cuts of sound and although I am pleased with how it sounds, I do think that sound could have been a stronger point for our film and we could have had a few more sessions working on the sound. The ending could also perhaps have been a little stronger, but we had planned on using the sunset as the ending and the pacing of the film meant that it had to be sped up to make sure that the sun hyper lapsed, meaning that we lost some of the serenity and impact of the ending. I feel however that the ending is a beautiful close to the film, and really hits home the point we are trying to make about how much of this beauty will be left when we are finished with this world.
Making my individual film I found to be difficult as I had to change location and the weather did not work to my advantage. The complication of the sounds of the bottles of paint in my film also meant I was at a disadvantage, but other methods of trying to get the paint onto the leaves (such as throwing a water balloon) had failed and it was the only option. Even though I'm not completely happy with the finished piece I feel like I learnt a lot from it, as its harder than I previously thought to make an unedited static single shot film and therefore you have to be even more resourceful than usual. Not being able to edit it meant that more than a few takes were essential, which is a practise thats idea for making any film just incase you end up with not enough footage. I do feel like the exercise has given me a fresh look at film-making and also helped me to develop some independent skills when it comes to making footage.
Making our group film was a lot easier than the individual, and we used a few cameras to produce the footage and I had never worked with more than one camera before which was a new experience for me. The locations we used and the footage we got weren't in Sheffield, which meant we had to travel and in doing so we came across opportunities to film that we would not have done had we not gone further afield for the footage. Learning how to angle the camera to make sure that objects were not in the shot was also a learning experience, as when we were across the road from the power station there was a main road and a car park between our camera and the cooling towers. This meant that we all had to position the camera in places and ways we would previously have not thought of to make sure that we had a clear shot. I also learnt how to edit archive footage with Amy, which I had never done- we were inspired to use archive footage by the workshop we had with Martine using the Steenbeck, both of which were experiences I had never had before and were extremely informative.
When making the group work, although we did not go with my initial treatment that I had created for the group that we presented, we did an amalgamation of all of our ideas which meant that I was very present for the planning process and we did have a lot of meetings to go with this. I feel like we all had an extremely equal part in the process of creating and planning the film, which has not happened on projects I have previously been involved in. The only challenge I encountered with working as part of a team was time management, as we all work and therefore we had to find days which we were all available to film and meet up to plan and to edit. However this was a minor inconvenience as we managed to work around this quite easily by planning ahead of time when we would meet and what work we would bring to discuss to meetings.
I think that working as a team has widened by employability as group work and working with others is a large part of the film industry. Going to different locations and getting experience is doing so has also broadened my horizons with film-making. I also think that doing the experimental main project on such a far reaching and important subject has further impacted my employability as a film on such an important issue shows that we are aware of the world around us and are capable of educating others. The pitching and presentations that we have had to do have improved my verbal communication, as before the course I used to dread standing in front of a crowd or a group and presenting, but now I find that I am not bothered as much by this. The individual assignment has also improved my initiative which I carried over into the group film, and I think I have come out of this module with better skills in those areas that will help my employability.
Our influence for the works came from some material that we watched in sessions, such as 'Continental Drift' by William Raban. Our influence to use archive footage came heavily from this piece and also from the workshop that we had using the Steenbeck. The seamless transition into archive footage from real location is what we wanted to capture in our own film and I think that we really managed to connect the scenes between the nature and the archive footage well. When it came to recording the archive footage, the super 8 film was played onto a Steenbeck and the filmed the played back footage.
A powerful inspiration to do the juxtaposition of industrial and nature for me personally was 'Rezign Live' by David Myriam, as although he does this by split screen it was something I thought would be easy to show by a mix of the two types of footage we had shot. Another influence from session I believe on our film is 'Without You' by Tal Rosner, the sounds and the matching onscreen industrial landscape are something that really influenced the feel of our industrial footage and we really like the film itself. Another film that influenced me on the subject personally was a documentary I watched called 'What a Way to Go: Life at the End of an Empire' by Timothy S. Bennett. The ruthless cinematography and message behind it in this film inspired me to put climate change forward as the subject matter of our main film. I feel like it is impossible to not make the connection between environmental issues and nature in our film, which is what we were aiming for.
When it came to the cinematography of the film, Nicky Hamyln's 'Film Art Phenomena' had a informative, interesting chapter on space and proportion that I tried to put into practise with pull zooms and positioning of objects inside the frame. This was to make the power plant appear even more looming than it already was in the landscape and to hit home our points. We really wanted to explore 'what it was like to be human' in this piece, knowing how you are effecting the world, knowing you are both the problem and the solution and this is really the entire theme of our film, and we became well versed in the subject of climate change both before the creation of this film, and after.
I feel that the work comes between industrial experimental films that were popular since Stan Brakhage who that took influence from land art film-maker Robert Smithson. Some of his main work married the innocence of nature, which is also what our group did with our experimental film. His work at the time was a contrast to the urban experimental films that often prevailed. In the shine of the industrial revolution at the time, nature had been put to one side and forgotten about. But now it is more important than ever to realise what our industrial spread as human beings has cost the planet and nature as a whole. This means educating a lot of people, some of whom don't even believe that we are the source of climate change and that we must act now in order to secure the planets futures. Now, even though there are just as many films on nature as there are on the industrial climate, I feel like our film hails from these beginnings rooted in the industrial revolution and the past.
Word Count: 2,095
References
Continental Drift (2005). Short Film, William Raban, UK.
Hulme, Mike (2013). Exploring climate change through science and in society: an anthology of Mike Hulme's essays, interviews and speeches. Routledge.
Goudie, Andrew (2006). The human impact on the natural environment: past, present, and future. Wiley-Blackwell.
Hamyln, Nicky (2003) Film Art Phenomena. BFI Publishing. Chapter 9 - “SPACE” p.126-128
O’Pray, Michael, (2003), Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions, London, Wallflower Press.
Rezign Live (2008). Short animation, David Myriam, France.
What a Way to Go: Life at the End of an Empire (2007). Documentary, Timothy S. Bennett, USA.
Without You (2008). Short Film, Tal Rosner, UK.
Our finished group experimental film was intended as a piece that showcased what I did in my individual film- but to a larger scale. We wanted to juxtapose the beauty of nature with the destruction caused by man made structures such as power-station and roads. We intended from the beginning to use archive footage, and in our finished piece I think that this has worked really well and is extremely effective with our shot footage. Our nature scenes are very visually stunning, and my favourite sound parts come from the underwater scenes that we use halfway through the film. The nature segment really achieves what we set out to do, which was to show the beauty of nature and yet also how fast it is vanishing and how differently the world would be for when our own children will grow up. The archive footage also exemplifies this, as in years to come images of nature that we have shot like these will also be nothing but a distant memory.
Our industrial scenes are very looming and imposing, out of place in the film just like they are in nature itself, and that is also something I love about the piece. I think the shot of the pollution cloud curling up to the sky is my favourite one, which we sped up and is very effective. What we set out to do and what we achieved is extremely similar, we planned everything down to the last detail and we stuck to it and this way we knew exactly what it would look like when we edited it. We were also extremely tight when filming and we had some luck on location which meant that we got some shots that we weren't planning on that happened to go extremely well with our theme and the look of the piece overall. I feel this also does the job of taking the film away from the beauty of nature and to the eyesores that man has created upon the world.
One weakness I feel our project does have is sound- as none of us were particularly good at sound editing we had to do our best with the sounds we had shot. We did several cuts of sound and although I am pleased with how it sounds, I do think that sound could have been a stronger point for our film and we could have had a few more sessions working on the sound. The ending could also perhaps have been a little stronger, but we had planned on using the sunset as the ending and the pacing of the film meant that it had to be sped up to make sure that the sun hyper lapsed, meaning that we lost some of the serenity and impact of the ending. I feel however that the ending is a beautiful close to the film, and really hits home the point we are trying to make about how much of this beauty will be left when we are finished with this world.
Making my individual film I found to be difficult as I had to change location and the weather did not work to my advantage. The complication of the sounds of the bottles of paint in my film also meant I was at a disadvantage, but other methods of trying to get the paint onto the leaves (such as throwing a water balloon) had failed and it was the only option. Even though I'm not completely happy with the finished piece I feel like I learnt a lot from it, as its harder than I previously thought to make an unedited static single shot film and therefore you have to be even more resourceful than usual. Not being able to edit it meant that more than a few takes were essential, which is a practise thats idea for making any film just incase you end up with not enough footage. I do feel like the exercise has given me a fresh look at film-making and also helped me to develop some independent skills when it comes to making footage.
Making our group film was a lot easier than the individual, and we used a few cameras to produce the footage and I had never worked with more than one camera before which was a new experience for me. The locations we used and the footage we got weren't in Sheffield, which meant we had to travel and in doing so we came across opportunities to film that we would not have done had we not gone further afield for the footage. Learning how to angle the camera to make sure that objects were not in the shot was also a learning experience, as when we were across the road from the power station there was a main road and a car park between our camera and the cooling towers. This meant that we all had to position the camera in places and ways we would previously have not thought of to make sure that we had a clear shot. I also learnt how to edit archive footage with Amy, which I had never done- we were inspired to use archive footage by the workshop we had with Martine using the Steenbeck, both of which were experiences I had never had before and were extremely informative.
When making the group work, although we did not go with my initial treatment that I had created for the group that we presented, we did an amalgamation of all of our ideas which meant that I was very present for the planning process and we did have a lot of meetings to go with this. I feel like we all had an extremely equal part in the process of creating and planning the film, which has not happened on projects I have previously been involved in. The only challenge I encountered with working as part of a team was time management, as we all work and therefore we had to find days which we were all available to film and meet up to plan and to edit. However this was a minor inconvenience as we managed to work around this quite easily by planning ahead of time when we would meet and what work we would bring to discuss to meetings.
I think that working as a team has widened by employability as group work and working with others is a large part of the film industry. Going to different locations and getting experience is doing so has also broadened my horizons with film-making. I also think that doing the experimental main project on such a far reaching and important subject has further impacted my employability as a film on such an important issue shows that we are aware of the world around us and are capable of educating others. The pitching and presentations that we have had to do have improved my verbal communication, as before the course I used to dread standing in front of a crowd or a group and presenting, but now I find that I am not bothered as much by this. The individual assignment has also improved my initiative which I carried over into the group film, and I think I have come out of this module with better skills in those areas that will help my employability.
Our influence for the works came from some material that we watched in sessions, such as 'Continental Drift' by William Raban. Our influence to use archive footage came heavily from this piece and also from the workshop that we had using the Steenbeck. The seamless transition into archive footage from real location is what we wanted to capture in our own film and I think that we really managed to connect the scenes between the nature and the archive footage well. When it came to recording the archive footage, the super 8 film was played onto a Steenbeck and the filmed the played back footage.
A powerful inspiration to do the juxtaposition of industrial and nature for me personally was 'Rezign Live' by David Myriam, as although he does this by split screen it was something I thought would be easy to show by a mix of the two types of footage we had shot. Another influence from session I believe on our film is 'Without You' by Tal Rosner, the sounds and the matching onscreen industrial landscape are something that really influenced the feel of our industrial footage and we really like the film itself. Another film that influenced me on the subject personally was a documentary I watched called 'What a Way to Go: Life at the End of an Empire' by Timothy S. Bennett. The ruthless cinematography and message behind it in this film inspired me to put climate change forward as the subject matter of our main film. I feel like it is impossible to not make the connection between environmental issues and nature in our film, which is what we were aiming for.
When it came to the cinematography of the film, Nicky Hamyln's 'Film Art Phenomena' had a informative, interesting chapter on space and proportion that I tried to put into practise with pull zooms and positioning of objects inside the frame. This was to make the power plant appear even more looming than it already was in the landscape and to hit home our points. We really wanted to explore 'what it was like to be human' in this piece, knowing how you are effecting the world, knowing you are both the problem and the solution and this is really the entire theme of our film, and we became well versed in the subject of climate change both before the creation of this film, and after.
I feel that the work comes between industrial experimental films that were popular since Stan Brakhage who that took influence from land art film-maker Robert Smithson. Some of his main work married the innocence of nature, which is also what our group did with our experimental film. His work at the time was a contrast to the urban experimental films that often prevailed. In the shine of the industrial revolution at the time, nature had been put to one side and forgotten about. But now it is more important than ever to realise what our industrial spread as human beings has cost the planet and nature as a whole. This means educating a lot of people, some of whom don't even believe that we are the source of climate change and that we must act now in order to secure the planets futures. Now, even though there are just as many films on nature as there are on the industrial climate, I feel like our film hails from these beginnings rooted in the industrial revolution and the past.
Word Count: 2,095
References
Continental Drift (2005). Short Film, William Raban, UK.
Hulme, Mike (2013). Exploring climate change through science and in society: an anthology of Mike Hulme's essays, interviews and speeches. Routledge.
Goudie, Andrew (2006). The human impact on the natural environment: past, present, and future. Wiley-Blackwell.
Hamyln, Nicky (2003) Film Art Phenomena. BFI Publishing. Chapter 9 - “SPACE” p.126-128
O’Pray, Michael, (2003), Avant-Garde Film: Forms, Themes and Passions, London, Wallflower Press.
Rezign Live (2008). Short animation, David Myriam, France.
What a Way to Go: Life at the End of an Empire (2007). Documentary, Timothy S. Bennett, USA.
Without You (2008). Short Film, Tal Rosner, UK.
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
New Treatment
We
are hoping to create short film showing a collective shots of landscapes from
urban and rural that show the difference between the two settings; showing the
environment and how it changes the world we live in. We want to incorporate
archive footage of a family home video linking the idea to our title with the
children of today being over taken by the world and not seeing things the way
they should; in the country getting more of a sense of life. It will show the
comparison of the two worlds which separate the world we live in,
distorting the two settings between each other.
For our nature scenes, we
are hoping to go to Grindleford, where the nature there in the Peak
District is diverse and beautiful and it will create a stunning contrast to the
industrial parts of our film. We are hoping to get shots of the river, some of
the trees- and we are hoping to go early morning to get the sunrising in
the trees. Amy also has some footage from Qatar which is some gorgeous
underwater fish footage that we are hoping to use, alongside some archive
8mm film footage of her father and her aunt from their childhood.
The industrial places we feel
will capture our idea well will be, Sheffield steelworks, motorways, city
buildings and power stations (Newark or Drax). The other locations will be
mostly filmed in and around Grindleford which is located just outside Sheffield
in the countryside. We will start with the sounds and imagery of children and
the countryside, before moving onto the industrial half of the film, where the
film will now be interspersed with images of archive and industry.
We will be using DSLR cameras
and maybe a Go-Pro for the motorway industrial scenes that we plan to film. The
go-pro will be very handy for this, and will be versatile for the shots we are
hoping to get outside of the moving car. We are hoping to shoot this particular
scene on the way back from the filming at the power plant and then if we don’t
get enough footage for this, on another day.
We are hoping that the piece
will be thought provoking, and will make the audience question about the human
impact on the Earth’s ecosystems and biomes that are slowly being destroyed and
changed because of our species. Climate change is an issue that is widely
debated but in the forefront of the minds of everyone living in the world. It
is something that is highlighted as one of the most important issues to be
tackled by the world, due to the fact that if it is not helped then there will
be no more nature as human expansion has become far too widespread- something
we hope to show in our piece.
The sound for our piece will
be composed of both nature sounds and the sounds of industrialisation. This
will mean having to do some foley sounds, perhaps with some metallic items
such as barbed wire or kitchen pots and pans to make violent, clanging noises
for our film. For our nature sounds, perhaps water and the sounds of leaves-
these are soft sounds which will highlight just how different the two
really are, and that is the entire message to our film. This composed
soundtrack made of these sounds and hopefully some additional will be thought
provoking and hopefully just help to serve our film.
This juxtaposition between
nature and industrial is one that we have looked at in many short films such as
‘Foxes’ by Lorcan Finnegan. The way industrialisation brushes up against nature
is something that can’t be ignored and that will be apparent in our film.
Colour will also be important, so we will be trying to get as much of the
colour palette of nature vs. the colour palette of man-made structures is
something vital. This should get the main theme of our film across in quite a
concise way to the viewer, there will be no way that it could be mistaken.
Another inspiration for our
film would be 'Rezign Live' by David Myriam, although his split screen is a
more visual interpretation of the juxtaposition we are wanting to show,
the message is still the same. Climate change, and also 'industry vs. nature'
is a central theme of Rezign Live and the influence of this film is something
that we all looked at and agreed we wanted the message of our film to be
similar. We also found landscape photographer called Mike Curry inspirational
because of his ways of capturing industrial shots showing climate issues in
a beautiful picturesque manner.
We are looking forward
to creating our film and are excited to work on a subject that we all feel
so strongly about.
Presentation
We are now finished with our presentation, which we will be presenting to Martine tomorrow. Here are screenshots of our finished presentation on our experimental film.
Monday, 15 December 2014
Thursday, 11 December 2014
Refilming Experimental
I decided to give it a go at re-filming my individual experimental film after the marks I got back for the previous one I had done. I knew exactly where I went wrong and decided to try again.
I tried to make a backing soundtrack for my new piece, which worked well as I used a combination of weather sounds, my fish tank filter and the sound of a chainsaw I got from my neighbour.
However, there was something wrong with the way it imported into my computer, as it has come out not as great quality as it looked on the camera when I tried to redo it. This means that it has partly been a waste of time and money as I also had to buy my own plant to make sure this could be done. In Final Cut where I have added a title, the piece appears to be fine, so I am wondering if it is an exporting error.
I tried to make a backing soundtrack for my new piece, which worked well as I used a combination of weather sounds, my fish tank filter and the sound of a chainsaw I got from my neighbour.
However, there was something wrong with the way it imported into my computer, as it has come out not as great quality as it looked on the camera when I tried to redo it. This means that it has partly been a waste of time and money as I also had to buy my own plant to make sure this could be done. In Final Cut where I have added a title, the piece appears to be fine, so I am wondering if it is an exporting error.
The black paint in contrast to the many colours I had used before was something that had been discussed in my presentation of the original work, as it made it appear more 'toxic'
In any case I will be handing this in in addition, as I don't believe it could hurt my chances of a better mark despite the problems I have been having putting it onto a disc. It is too large to export to Vimeo, so I am having to hand it in by disc and I have emailed Martine to see what can be done about the quality. As long as you do not watch in full screen it appears to be in HD, I do not know if this is a setting error or not.
Tuesday, 9 December 2014
Experimental Film Theory and Nature
Experimental film has often been called 'film art' which when you are filming an aesthetically pleasing piece it is easy to see why it is called so. Nature in experimental film has been something that is widely explored, as it is the one constant thing around us on the Earth and makes for an easy subject. However, the meaning behind experimental films that focus on nature can vary immensely, from metaphors to being very literal with their content.
Stan Brakhage is an experimental film maker that took influences right from the beginning of land art such as Robert Smithson. Some of his main work married the innocence of nature, which is something that our group and myself looked at intently. His work at the time was a contrast to the urban experimental films that often prevailed. Pushing the boundaries of film making is often conventional of an experimental film.
Therefore in our experimental film, we wanted to create association in the viewers mind between man and the effects of it on nature. Also we wanted to show the innocence of nature just like Barkhage did in his works that challenged the urban perceptions of experimental film at the time.
Focusing on the human impact of the Earths ecosystem, humans are now classed as an invasive species and it is our influence on the environment that is causing the decline of the ecosystem and extinction of vegetation and some animal species. This means that we are directly having an effect on the rest of the planet and in a bad way. Our experimental film is meant to show this, and how we should be showing the children the way to conservation now as they are innocent to the ways that we are ruining the world.
We are planning to show the connection to ozone depletion with the footage of a power station, which in connection with the nature footage we will be filming at Grindleford will forge a strong connection in peoples minds. In my own individual film, I was trying to show the effects of acidic weather on vegetation with the use of coloured and black paint instead of water to show visually how we are ruining our ecosystem. If I have time to refilm this I will, but with expenses I'm not sure realistically whether I will be able to get to a power station as the nearest ones are all 45 minutes away since they tore down the Tinsley cooling towers.
References.
Goudie, Andrew (2006). The human impact on the natural environment: past, present, and future. Wiley-Blackwell.
Stan Brakhage is an experimental film maker that took influences right from the beginning of land art such as Robert Smithson. Some of his main work married the innocence of nature, which is something that our group and myself looked at intently. His work at the time was a contrast to the urban experimental films that often prevailed. Pushing the boundaries of film making is often conventional of an experimental film.
Therefore in our experimental film, we wanted to create association in the viewers mind between man and the effects of it on nature. Also we wanted to show the innocence of nature just like Barkhage did in his works that challenged the urban perceptions of experimental film at the time.
Focusing on the human impact of the Earths ecosystem, humans are now classed as an invasive species and it is our influence on the environment that is causing the decline of the ecosystem and extinction of vegetation and some animal species. This means that we are directly having an effect on the rest of the planet and in a bad way. Our experimental film is meant to show this, and how we should be showing the children the way to conservation now as they are innocent to the ways that we are ruining the world.
We are planning to show the connection to ozone depletion with the footage of a power station, which in connection with the nature footage we will be filming at Grindleford will forge a strong connection in peoples minds. In my own individual film, I was trying to show the effects of acidic weather on vegetation with the use of coloured and black paint instead of water to show visually how we are ruining our ecosystem. If I have time to refilm this I will, but with expenses I'm not sure realistically whether I will be able to get to a power station as the nearest ones are all 45 minutes away since they tore down the Tinsley cooling towers.
References.
Goudie, Andrew (2006). The human impact on the natural environment: past, present, and future. Wiley-Blackwell.
O’Pray,
Michael, (2003), Avant-Garde Film: Forms,
Themes and Passions, London, Wallflower
Press
Sunday, 7 December 2014
Group Experimental Film Shoot
On Thursday we had a tutorial with Martine in the morning, and in the afternoon we set off to film for our group experimental film. First we visited Drax Power Station and filmed some footage from the outside and across the road. Drax power station is the largest coal firing station in Europe, with large imposing cooling towers. We thought that this would be the ideal place to film, as it is also ironically surrounded by nature. We also had Newark power station in mind, where we would go back to film if we had the time.
We got a lot of footage at the power station and we were very lucky to find that across the road was a childrens play area so we lucked out on that and was able to make a strong association between the innocence of children and the ruining of nature through shots. We will now review the footage and begin editing.
We then on the way home stopped off to get some scenes of the motorway to also go with our industrial scenes in our film. Myself and Amy stood on the overpass to get the footage of the cars going underneath it, and we will be speeding it up to make it look more aesthetically pleasing and also effective.
The only problem with the bridge is that due to the wind and the fact it was quite well used as a method of crossing the motorway from a school is that it moved quite a bit when we were trying to get a still shot. This might impact on our footage but I don't think it will be that significant, and hopefully we have some still footage from the more stable shots we took. I think it was a very successful day and we got some really good footage that will go well with our nature scenes.
Saturday, 6 December 2014
Zoom Sounds to be Recorded
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Monday, 24 November 2014
Main Project Experimental Film Treatment
We have decided to combine ideas for our experimental film and shoot an almost 'nature vs. industrial' film. We are planning to film shots of nature, in areas such as Grindleford- we are also planning to use a GoPro to shoot some down stream shots. We will also be going to Drax power plant to make use of the industrial landscape, and on the way back in the dark film some motorway shots.
For the sounds we were wanted some archive sounds of children playing and laughing to juxtapose the imagery of the industrial landscape. Nature sounds will also be a likely accompaniment, and since the workshop on scratching film we have been wanting to use a clockwork camera for the sounds that they create to use in our piece.
A short film showing a collective shots of landscapes from urban and rural that show the difference between the two settings; showing the environment and how it changes the world we live in. We want to incorporate archive footage of a family home video linking the idea to our title with the children of today being over taken by the world and not seeing things the way they should; in the country getting more of a sense of life. It will show the comparison of the two worlds which separate the world we live in, distorting the two settings between each other.
Here are some images of nature which we would like to capture in the film:
For the sounds we were wanted some archive sounds of children playing and laughing to juxtapose the imagery of the industrial landscape. Nature sounds will also be a likely accompaniment, and since the workshop on scratching film we have been wanting to use a clockwork camera for the sounds that they create to use in our piece.
Treatment
'Innocence of Youth'
A short film showing a collective shots of landscapes from urban and rural that show the difference between the two settings; showing the environment and how it changes the world we live in. We want to incorporate archive footage of a family home video linking the idea to our title with the children of today being over taken by the world and not seeing things the way they should; in the country getting more of a sense of life. It will show the comparison of the two worlds which separate the world we live in, distorting the two settings between each other.
The industrial places we feel will capture our idea
well will be, Sheffield steelworks, motorways, city buildings and power
stations (Newark or Drax). The other locations will be mostly filmed in and
around Grindleford which is located just outside Sheffield in the countryside.
We will start with the sounds and imagery of children and the countryside,
before moving onto the industrial half of the film, where the film will now be
interspersed with images of archive and industry.
Here are some images of nature which we would like to capture in the film:
We will be
using DSLR cameras and maybe a Go-Pro for the motorway industrial scenes that
we plan to film. The go-pro will be very handy for this, and will be versatile
for the shots we are hoping to get outside of the moving car. We are hoping to
shoot this particular scene on the way back from the filming at the power plant
and then if we don’t get enough footage for this, on another day. We are hoping
that the piece will be thought provoking, and will make the audience question
about the human impact on the Earth’s ecosystems and biomes that are slowly
being destroyed and changed because of our species.
This
juxtaposition between nature and industrial is one that we have looked at in
many short films such as ‘Foxes’ by Lorcan Finnegan. The way industrialisation
brushes up against nature is something that can’t be ignored and that will be
apparent in our film. Colour will also be important, so we will be trying to
get as much of the colour palette of nature vs. the colour palette of man-made
structures is something vital. This should get the main theme of our film
across in quite a concise way to the viewer, there will be no way that it could
be mistaken.
Thursday, 6 November 2014
1 Minute Film and Presentation
I have since changed my idea for my short experimental film. I instead filmed paint dripping onto leaves instead of rain for my idea of a colourful and toxic ecosystem. I filmed it in a park not too far from where I am living in Sheffield and got a friend to assist me in the pouring of the paint.
I also got some really beautiful still shots of the plants after they had been doused with paint. I wanted to capture beauty with my 1 minute static film and I hope I really did. The problem is that I only really got the beauty, no real substance, which I wanted to gain.
When I went in for my tutorial, the idea of working with a power station was suggested and I found this something to really think about. Some of the experimental films I had taken inspiration from had relied heavily on other locations, but as mine is a single shot I found it much harder. I think having a man made structure in the background would be a good idea, and refilming it to be in a space that is much less noisy is also a good idea.
Some of the inspirations I had came from 'Foxes' by Lorcan Finnegan, shown here. Although technically this is a live action almost drama piece, the shots and the cinematography of the nature are the things I was focusing most on when I watched it and allowed myself to become enamoured with the piece. This has been a particularly hard exercise for me, as I haven't been entirely sure what I was wanting to show until I started to look at the effects of man on nature.
My original idea had been almost drama like, but I had realised that there was nothing that would have stopped me from making the film that I had planned in the drama module, which showed that it was the wrong thing to make for an experimental. Therefore, I started to look around at things I was passionate about and the environment is one of them.
Another film I was inspired by, but involved a lot of archive footage was 'Humans and the Nature' shown here, which I think really shows gritty and hard footage of the world with humans interference (e.g. nuclear warfare) and it really hit home for me the concerns of environmental damage that's happening because of our species. This was something that I wanted to portray in my own film, and I'm not sure I'm 100% there yet, but will mention this in my presentation.
References
Foxes (2011) Short Film. Dir. Lorcan Finnegan, Lovely Productions, Ireland.
Humans and the Nature (2011) Short Experimental. Dir. Clement. Self Produced.
I also got some really beautiful still shots of the plants after they had been doused with paint. I wanted to capture beauty with my 1 minute static film and I hope I really did. The problem is that I only really got the beauty, no real substance, which I wanted to gain.
When I went in for my tutorial, the idea of working with a power station was suggested and I found this something to really think about. Some of the experimental films I had taken inspiration from had relied heavily on other locations, but as mine is a single shot I found it much harder. I think having a man made structure in the background would be a good idea, and refilming it to be in a space that is much less noisy is also a good idea.
Some of the inspirations I had came from 'Foxes' by Lorcan Finnegan, shown here. Although technically this is a live action almost drama piece, the shots and the cinematography of the nature are the things I was focusing most on when I watched it and allowed myself to become enamoured with the piece. This has been a particularly hard exercise for me, as I haven't been entirely sure what I was wanting to show until I started to look at the effects of man on nature.
My original idea had been almost drama like, but I had realised that there was nothing that would have stopped me from making the film that I had planned in the drama module, which showed that it was the wrong thing to make for an experimental. Therefore, I started to look around at things I was passionate about and the environment is one of them.
Another film I was inspired by, but involved a lot of archive footage was 'Humans and the Nature' shown here, which I think really shows gritty and hard footage of the world with humans interference (e.g. nuclear warfare) and it really hit home for me the concerns of environmental damage that's happening because of our species. This was something that I wanted to portray in my own film, and I'm not sure I'm 100% there yet, but will mention this in my presentation.
References
Foxes (2011) Short Film. Dir. Lorcan Finnegan, Lovely Productions, Ireland.
Humans and the Nature (2011) Short Experimental. Dir. Clement. Self Produced.
Tuesday, 4 November 2014
Film Workshop
In our workshop today we learnt how to scratch and draw onto film to create a reel of film. Every 24 frames is 1 second, and we spent time drawing onto clear film and then played it through the Steenbeck. I learnt a lot this session as before I was totally clueless as to how any cameraless film was made. I now know that there are many ways that film can be made without a camera, with not just drawing on the clear film stock but scratching at black film stock.
George Eastman of Kodak was one of the first people to develop and begin using film stock in 1878 (1). The fact that film became more and more mainstream in the 1900's in cinema reels showed that this way of making film was accessible and although took a long time to create a film they were shown in the cinema and are still created now.
It was fascinating to learn how to use the Steenbeck, including how to set it up to play back the films we made in class. I made a 5 second film and was pleased by how it turned out. Although I know that its not something that I would pursue as an active way of making film it has given me the experience and knowledge for if I ever do need to use it or need to teach someone else.
(1) Kodak. (Unknown). History of Kodak 1878-1929. Available: http://www.kodak.com/ek/US/en/Our_Company/History_of_Kodak/Milestones_-_chronology/1878-1929.htm. Last accessed 4th Nov 2014.
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
1 Minute Film Spider Diagrams
Here are two spider diagrams I have done during the visual planning of my one minute experimental film so that I can get the ideas out of my head and onto the page at least. I have enquired into a few people about hopefully helping me with the acting to be done in the short film and they seem like they are eager to do so.
EDIT: I have left these spider diagrams on here even though I have since completely changed my idea for my experimental one minute film.
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Team Experimental Inspirations and Treatment for Idea
Simple Research
After talking to Martine at the tutorial and not having a lot of ideas until then, I have been kickstarted into thinking about the idea of dance as a representation of social and political issues.
Dance is a very universal language, which means that it is open to everyone of every background, which other means of conveying an attitude or ideology might not be. This gives everyone, young to old and educated to uneducated the chance to experience equality in this aspect.
I am very enamoured with "Pulled Away/Pulled" by Adriene Hughes (here) and the way she has edited it, and the way the dancer expresses themselves is something I feel has greatly given inspiration to my idea.
An example of a filming of my idea would maybe be a ballerina, dancing practising in the street rather than the studio as perhaps she cannot afford lessons. Or perhaps a mixed race or ethnic ballerina performing in an abandoned warehouse. The idea of beauty juxtaposed with somewhere that it is hard to find it, a political commentary on how many people are looked over simply because they do not have the opportunities and privilege others have to make it further.
Adriene Hughes makes a lot of experimental dance films, which I think are a very rich source of content for my idea and she has a lot of different editing styles, some beautiful and some showing the raw power of dance as an expressional tool. She has a blog here where her works can be viewed for free.
Dance is also an expression of culture and values, in countries such as South Africa it is a staple part of their culture and expression of beliefs that can be clearly interpreted by anyone - there is no language barrier. Dance in South Africa is woven into their social-political, even religious everyday lives(1) and therefore is an important part of not only an individuals everyday life, but their entire culture and country. It is very influential in ways perhaps the western world cannot comprehend, but can admire.
Treatment
I think shooting in colour would be the most effective way to get points across with colours of costume and location. Movement in the work will represent the way that issues are never at a standstill, always moving forward, and also the essence of dancing is to move. A static camera for some pieces and perhaps handheld for a more close up shot would be a good way of getting the audience to interpret the frame with more precision, their eye will be drawn to what the camera is showing in the centre of the frame. The dancer would probably not always be the centre of the film, as the location is also part of the social commentary that I would be trying to communicate to the audience, and also if we can use natural light through say a window as apposed to artificial it would give it a more realistic edge. But thats juxtaposed with whether bright lights would make the dancer look like the location was their 'stage' which may be more poignant.
I don't believe that there will be a narrative to the piece as dance is fairly abstract. Still imagery will probably not be something we include, but found footage would be a good way of linking the dance in to what the issue is (perhaps projected on the wall that the dancer is dancing on?)
As far as sound goes, I think a mix between sounds of dancing with no music, and composed music would be a realistic mix, as audience is meant to interpret the background of the dancer and think about why it is that she isn't dancing in a school or in a class. It shouldn't be too fast paced but I don't think that excessively slow would be good either as it may make the audience rather bored as opposed to captivated- and they are meant to feel an empathy with the dancer.
(1) Glasser, S. (1991). Is Dance Political Movement?. Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement. 6.3 (1), 112-123.
After talking to Martine at the tutorial and not having a lot of ideas until then, I have been kickstarted into thinking about the idea of dance as a representation of social and political issues.
Dance is a very universal language, which means that it is open to everyone of every background, which other means of conveying an attitude or ideology might not be. This gives everyone, young to old and educated to uneducated the chance to experience equality in this aspect.
I am very enamoured with "Pulled Away/Pulled" by Adriene Hughes (here) and the way she has edited it, and the way the dancer expresses themselves is something I feel has greatly given inspiration to my idea.
An example of a filming of my idea would maybe be a ballerina, dancing practising in the street rather than the studio as perhaps she cannot afford lessons. Or perhaps a mixed race or ethnic ballerina performing in an abandoned warehouse. The idea of beauty juxtaposed with somewhere that it is hard to find it, a political commentary on how many people are looked over simply because they do not have the opportunities and privilege others have to make it further.
Adriene Hughes makes a lot of experimental dance films, which I think are a very rich source of content for my idea and she has a lot of different editing styles, some beautiful and some showing the raw power of dance as an expressional tool. She has a blog here where her works can be viewed for free.
Dance is also an expression of culture and values, in countries such as South Africa it is a staple part of their culture and expression of beliefs that can be clearly interpreted by anyone - there is no language barrier. Dance in South Africa is woven into their social-political, even religious everyday lives(1) and therefore is an important part of not only an individuals everyday life, but their entire culture and country. It is very influential in ways perhaps the western world cannot comprehend, but can admire.
Treatment
I think shooting in colour would be the most effective way to get points across with colours of costume and location. Movement in the work will represent the way that issues are never at a standstill, always moving forward, and also the essence of dancing is to move. A static camera for some pieces and perhaps handheld for a more close up shot would be a good way of getting the audience to interpret the frame with more precision, their eye will be drawn to what the camera is showing in the centre of the frame. The dancer would probably not always be the centre of the film, as the location is also part of the social commentary that I would be trying to communicate to the audience, and also if we can use natural light through say a window as apposed to artificial it would give it a more realistic edge. But thats juxtaposed with whether bright lights would make the dancer look like the location was their 'stage' which may be more poignant.
I don't believe that there will be a narrative to the piece as dance is fairly abstract. Still imagery will probably not be something we include, but found footage would be a good way of linking the dance in to what the issue is (perhaps projected on the wall that the dancer is dancing on?)
As far as sound goes, I think a mix between sounds of dancing with no music, and composed music would be a realistic mix, as audience is meant to interpret the background of the dancer and think about why it is that she isn't dancing in a school or in a class. It shouldn't be too fast paced but I don't think that excessively slow would be good either as it may make the audience rather bored as opposed to captivated- and they are meant to feel an empathy with the dancer.
(1) Glasser, S. (1991). Is Dance Political Movement?. Journal for the Anthropological Study of Human Movement. 6.3 (1), 112-123.
Sunday, 19 October 2014
One Minute Films and Short Experimentals
One minute films are very easily accessible and have a larger commercial range than experimental films that are longer than say five minutes. It means that the ideas and interpretations can be conveyed in a succinct way but also be quite clever. It also means that the point of the film (if there is one) is shown almost immediately because there is not time to be lengthy about it.
In the 1890's films were usually under a minute long and also consisted of a single scene, and with the rise of social media and the internet there are now a lot of short films that are five minutes and under to capture the audiences attention with aesthetics or plot. This means that experimental films are now available in the mainstream.
This also means that experimental films can now also be more easily spread around and watched by a wider audience, and therefore are now under more critical acclaim. It means that blogs can recommend short experimental films. For example, a blog did a review of Andrew Thomas Huangs 'Solpisist' (read here)
This means that experimental films are now reaching a much wider audience and therefore are being found and debated by more people - not just people in 'the know'. Alongside the usual exhibitions of experimental film such as the Tate Modern and the New York Underground/Experimental Gay and Lesbian Film Festivals, the internet is now a large contender for the distribution of experimental films. Although you still need to pay to access some films on websites that largely distribute experimental films, it is a new and widely accessible viewing platform rather than having to travel a long distance to view the films in person.
In the 1890's films were usually under a minute long and also consisted of a single scene, and with the rise of social media and the internet there are now a lot of short films that are five minutes and under to capture the audiences attention with aesthetics or plot. This means that experimental films are now available in the mainstream.
This also means that experimental films can now also be more easily spread around and watched by a wider audience, and therefore are now under more critical acclaim. It means that blogs can recommend short experimental films. For example, a blog did a review of Andrew Thomas Huangs 'Solpisist' (read here)
Thursday, 16 October 2014
Ideas for Individual Experimental
Since I have now been given the brief for the individual 1 minute film project I can now start to think of ideas. Although there are a lot of restrictions, it means that I have a lot narrower spectrum from which to research ideas and techniques. The camera has to be static, so I have been thinking of including the cityscape or some other type of landscape in the background of the static shot.
It also has to be one continuous shot and contain an object and a person, so I have been thinking about including a girl or woman in my shot. Therefore I'm thinking that perhaps I can also incorporate a car into the 1 minute.
I have watched a few 1 minute experimental films on Vimeo and one that stood out at me was someone drawing on a sheet of paper in invisible ink and then at the end it was revealed with a different coloured water pen that the picture was of birds- and the accompanying atmospheric track was also of nature and birds. (View here)
My initial idea therefore is to film at sunset or on a rainy day, and have a long shot of the cityscape before a car pulls up. A woman or girl should get out of the car, take something from the boot and walk off frame and there should be some loud noises. It should be unexplained and uncanny, perhaps the entire static shot is from behind a tree or another car, which is just visible at the side of the frame (as if a voyeur) and then the car should leave.
Another idea is that it should open with a girls back to the camera, perhaps it appears that she is writing something. Or drawing, rather the cityscape that is in front of her. Yet with a twist, as the cityscape she is drawing is a skewed version of the one that is in front of her.
I'm going to be doing some research into other short and one minute films, I have found a good website where I can get inspiration and watch films to get ideas. View here as they host a competition between 25 one minute films and as it is all an online competition they are all available to watch on demand.
The restrictions are a bit hampering to the idea that I had which included editing but this means that I have to be more restrictive with my creative ideas. I'm hoping to come up with a good idea from the ones above and do some more research into the long take which will essentially be what our short 1 minute film consists of. I will also be doing more research into experimental film theory itself, to understand the reasonings behind a lot of experimental film techniques.
It also has to be one continuous shot and contain an object and a person, so I have been thinking about including a girl or woman in my shot. Therefore I'm thinking that perhaps I can also incorporate a car into the 1 minute.
I have watched a few 1 minute experimental films on Vimeo and one that stood out at me was someone drawing on a sheet of paper in invisible ink and then at the end it was revealed with a different coloured water pen that the picture was of birds- and the accompanying atmospheric track was also of nature and birds. (View here)
My initial idea therefore is to film at sunset or on a rainy day, and have a long shot of the cityscape before a car pulls up. A woman or girl should get out of the car, take something from the boot and walk off frame and there should be some loud noises. It should be unexplained and uncanny, perhaps the entire static shot is from behind a tree or another car, which is just visible at the side of the frame (as if a voyeur) and then the car should leave.
Another idea is that it should open with a girls back to the camera, perhaps it appears that she is writing something. Or drawing, rather the cityscape that is in front of her. Yet with a twist, as the cityscape she is drawing is a skewed version of the one that is in front of her.
I'm going to be doing some research into other short and one minute films, I have found a good website where I can get inspiration and watch films to get ideas. View here as they host a competition between 25 one minute films and as it is all an online competition they are all available to watch on demand.
The restrictions are a bit hampering to the idea that I had which included editing but this means that I have to be more restrictive with my creative ideas. I'm hoping to come up with a good idea from the ones above and do some more research into the long take which will essentially be what our short 1 minute film consists of. I will also be doing more research into experimental film theory itself, to understand the reasonings behind a lot of experimental film techniques.
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