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. 

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.

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. 

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.

Experimental Film Inspirations

We  were shown some films in our seminar session today that I have found influential in kick starting some ideas for my own experimental films. 
 

The Chair by Grace Schwindt is an example of a personal experimental film, the subject is at first a chair but it leads as a gateway into a conversation with the woman's grandmother about her treatment and victimisation at the hands of the Russian Army as a younger girl. It is a very personal conversation, covering topics such as rape, but the speaker is very detached- something that often happens to victims as they speak out about the sexual abuse that was done against them. 
 

The images on screen are at first during the explanation of the origin of the story of the chair, just a wood texture or still image. Then, a hand places a stack of papers with images of chairs in the centre of the frame and during the conversation with the grandmother they are peeled back. 

I liked this piece because it was a very personal experimental film. I think this really changed my views on experimental film as I realised that it could be something heavily personal to you. I feel like although it is a terrible subject and the information given isn't what you want to hear, that you can't help but be moved by the plight of the story and be drawn into the experiences of the Grandmother.

It is important that the story of the Grandmother be heard, as victims of abuse from that time were often brushed under the rug as a victim of wartime crimes. Yet the crimes against people that were also committed, such as rape are often not covered and are just called a 'consequence of war' when this absolutely should not be the case and I think that the film helps the reader connect with this fact.
 

Here is a screenshot of one of the chairs, you can still see the hand where the page has only just been turned over to reveal a new style of chair on a new sheet of paper. The captions indicate the conversation happening between the woman and her grandmother as a voiceover, they are speaking in German.

References

The Chair (2008). Short Experimental Film. Dir. Grace Schwindt. Germany.

The Perfect Human

Today was our first session back of the new year and we were introduced to a piece of experimental film called 'The Perfect Human' shot entirely in black and white. I think that the original short film does the justice of showing us that the perfect human, in the end is not infallible - shown by his emotion at the table when he describes how alone he is at the end.

The Five Obstructions is quite a humorous take that in essence humanises the two film-makers, and shows that there is more to film making than what is shown on the film. The last obstruction shows that Lars has been all along pandering to the whim of a filmmaker with essentially writers block and shows in the end that he is the perfect human, perfect film maker and this can be interpreted in a number of ways. 

With this in mind we have been given our own set of obstructions for our experimental films. This includes only having one protagonist, and having no narrative in the film. No narrative is something that I struggle with, yet I think that it will help to expand my abilities. Also working in a group with Amy and Isabel who have different skill sets to me will help me in that aspect.