This is a screenshot of my Bins in Premiere Pro for my Film Studies piece "want", i imported all of my records into premiere pro and placed them into 4 bins so that access to the clips would be quick and concise, rather than searching my SD card looking for one particular clip.
The bins are labelled as
Joe Footage (all recorded footage of subject one)
AJ Footage (all recorded footage of subject two)
Misc Footage (footage that was not of the subjects, essentially filler footage)
Alternative colours (the reversed colours shots of subject one and two, there are only a couple of these shots, so rather than them be lost in the subject folders, i placed them in there own)
Health and safety was a key issue when filming the Bristol promotional, the fact that we were in a city which non of us were familiar with only added to the possible issues we would run into.
To maintain our safety whilst filming in this unfamiliar location, we grouped into teams of three or four, this was done not only to have more people filming at any given time, but also the additional benefit of safety in numbers. If we ever were to find ourselves in a dangerous situation we would have the support of the rest of our groups to rely on. Filming in groups also helps us to locate our filming locations.
Groups also help us to transport and protect our equipment, carrying hundreds of pounds worth of equipment brings its own risks, but being in a group means that whilst two or three of us are filming, the other can keep our unused equipment safe.
Loose wires and equipment also raises issues in regards to health and safety, during Filming it was sometimes necessary to lay our wires and cables, this created a danger of a pedestrian or indeed ourselves tripping over the wires and injuring ourselves. If a member of the team were to fall over some of the equipment this might not be such a big issue, but if a member of the public were to trip on our equipment than this would be much more serious. To remedy this we used tape to secure all of our equipment together, minimising the area which an accident could occur, we also had a member of out team stand next to the wires to warn anybody who passed by of there presence.
We also tried to avoid public locations during peak hours, at peak times of the day the presence of the public is to large to film, not only for access to locations to film, but also as a health and safety risk. Filming in these locations in these locations during these times would increase the risk of injury on the the equipment.
My promotional video proved to be quite challenging, shot types, colour grading, camera techniques and lighting varied across the clips due to the fact that the entire HNC contributed to this piece. For example, one persons aperture might be slightly higher than it needed to be, on its own this wouldn't necessarily be an issue, but directly after it there might be a clip where the aperture is higher than it needed to be. This creates a contrast in quality that is hard not to notice, whilst this is a flaw in the work it would prove to be very hard to fix, each location required its own camera settings, its own lighting settings and so on.The only way i could imagine this being fixed if i were to recreate the piece would be if a small group of people filmed everything, rather than a large group which assisted me in this piece.
The fact that this piece was cut to music also raises issues with its quality, due to the fact that the music within the video is fairly fast paced, with rapid, consistent beats upon which i used as a template for my editing, the final piece could perhaps be to rapid for viewers, the audience only has a few seconds or two to interpret and appreciate the images they are seeing. whilst this is an issue, i believe that this is still true to my original plan for the video.The rapid pace and the frantic editing only justifies my idea of representing the fast pace, grimy and essentially human aspect of Bristol and our time there.
Another issue with the final piece is the inclusion of the vox pop, specifically the transition into it, i reduced the volume of the music slowly so it blended into the audio of the vox pop, I lowered the audio about a second to quickly, resulting in an obvious disconnect between the music and the audio if the vox pop. If i were to re-do this piece id extend the transition to about half a second longer, so the transition from both audios is smoother.
After showing the piece to the client he was pleased with the final piece, but also highlighted some issues within that he would like to be corrected. He explained that whilst the song did give the piece a certain energy and vibrancy, it could potentially turn off some potential HNC applicants due to its more chaotic and intimidating music. Whilst i can clearly see how this would impact with HNC applicants, i believe that this song still fits perfectly, and is an accurate representation of my time at Bristol.
When making my music video, my number one priority was to capture the meaning behind the original songs lyrics, the distrust and paranoia, the rising anxiety of social unrest of the individual. This piece was made with the disorientation of the audience in mind, the rapid succession of the images and clips are here to confuse those who watch it.
I wanted to contrast the society we are told to believe in, the utopian, clean, problem free society we see in mainstream media against what we actually live in, the almost dystopian, filthy, paranoia filled we inhabit. The lyrics of the original song speak of a man who has been awoken to the rising social tension around him, whilst not visible, he can sense it. This music video is a physical representation of what he sees.
As mentioned earlier, the video follows a compare and contrast formula, i show the world as shown to us, the impeccable politicians, cold and calculated in there image, against how the general populace sees them, precise and deliberate, surgical with there words and essentially, heartless. The piece is very literate with its metaphors, but for such a meaningful subject matter, i felt that this was the only way to represent it.
The video starts with a static shot of a Tv playing feedback of an old Vhs. This was filmed myself, the purpose of which was to show the foreshadowing of the video itself, how all of the clips shown after are products of the media, lies and exaggerations force-fed to us by the media to lull us into a state of complacency, this also gives the benefit more intellectual weight when i contrast the two versions of the clips against each other.
Every clip i use in this piece (excluding my own) was ripped and downloaded from youtube, this prove to be awkward to do however as every clip varied in quality, the more professional shots such as the speeches given by politicians are well shot and of high quality, whereas footage recorded on an individuals phone such as the grenfell fire video was recorded hastily and therefore, lacking in quality.
For every shot i showcase in my video i created a reverse for them, i manipulate the RGB tones and disrupt the placement of the multiple levels of colour of the video, the result of which produces this ethereal, corrupted visual effect, this was intended to be a representation of how the individual in my analysis of the lyrics see's the world, the distortion intended to be a visual representation of how the society around him refuses to see or even acknowledge the world around them. After this i went frame by frame of footage which clearly shows peoples face, and added Black lines across the eyes and mouth of the subjects, this was incredibly time inducing as every single frame had to be manipulated, i couldn't reuse the lines i used previously, as the individuals of the footage were constantly moving, meaning that the placement of the lines would have been altered. 5 seconds of footage would take 20 minutes to manipulate.
The lines over the eyes of people in the video was intended to be a representation of the individuals recognition of the world around him, anyone showcased in the media is presented as a two dimension individual, there motives and methods dont matter, only them and there actions. This works for both ways, a political figure is presented as a crusader for progress, no matter what there opinion, and a protester in the street is presented as a blight on society, a tool for destruction. I wanted to show the audience that we are all fighting for a cause, we may not agree with each other, we may fight each other, but at its essence, we fight, and we fight for ourselves.
At the halfway point in the music video my own recorded footage is shown, i filmed an abandoned industrial complex just outside of Nuneaton, in the 80's the complex was a hub of industrial might, now it means nothing, a once proud and defined building is now derelict. This was intended to be a visual metaphor for social unrest with our society, how issues and criticisms are spotlighted, then fade forever with no change being granted.
After the halfway point i begin to reverse the footage, i made sure that the cuts were ever so slightly off the beat of the music, this was in order to install paranoia with the audience, to make them feel the disruption to the established formula of the video, just as the individual in my analysis of the lyrics feels. I also begin to fade in tv static as the song progresses, subtlety at first, but then dramatically, and with great intensity. the reversal of the footage and the static of the tv as intended to be a metaphorical and technical representation of a supernova, how under great intensity, everything collapses upon itself. This is obviously a metaphor for how under social tension, at some point a boiling point is hit, upon which total and grand civil unrest, anarchy is met.
Due to the fact that my piece was so time intensive, i had very little time to make fine adjustments to my piece, the cuts on some sections are slightly off compared to the beats of the song, with more time i would have gone over these and altered them so they are set perfectly against the audio. The fact that i used found footage for the majority of my piece disrupted my own filming, no matter i tried i found that all my footage was violently different to the majority of the film, the contrast between found footage and own footage was blatant, and went against my ideas of blending the two seamlessly, with more time id record more footage and select footage which fit perfectly, rather than settling on footage that was only passable.
For my contextual studies final piece i wanted to create a short piece that highlighted the technical aspects that made the new wave moment so inspirational. focusing on camera techniques and editing rather than narrative and characters. It was my intention to accurately portray these techniques within a film of my creation, and explore how they all affect the film in there own way.
The film opens with a static close up of an individual lighting a cigarette, i wanted the very first shot of my film to be a perfect representation of the New Wave, and the subtlest most stylistic option for me atleast was to have this smoking shot, in essentially every New Wave film we see characters drenched in cigarette smoke, most notably Godard's film "Breathless", in which the protagonist is constantly smoking, almost to comical effect. by incorporating this i hoped t set the tone of the film instantly, a love letter to the French New Wave.
After this i incorporated rapid successive jump cuts of the subject driving her car, in the context of the New Wave, jump cuts were not only used to represent the passing of time, but also as a tool to criticise the mainstream, jump cuts were used throughout conversations and scenes that normaly would never feature jump cuts. for my film i saw rapid jumpiest in unusual scenes as a ,method of not only demonstration and representing time, but also as a tool to to connect the audience to the protagonist, the passage of time not only shows the audience the degradation of the protagonist, but emotionally connects the two due to said degradation.
During this scene i spliced shots of the road the individual drove on in-between the footage of her driving, this was done to give a sense of location to the film, and to brake up the repetition of the film. showing footage of the location we filmed in also gives us the added benefit of showing the audience the environment the protagonist lives in, giving a more in depth look at the protagonist without resorting to hefty exposition. This technique also stems from the French New Wave, the camera would almost linger on shots of the streets of Paris highlighting the environment the people live in, and how they have essentially became a product of said environment.
the next shot is of my subject walking through a car park, just like the previous scene i use jump cuts throughout the scene, to spend up the pace of the film and to further represent the passage of time. the camera has jagged movements never resting still for a moment. i chose to use a handheld camera rather than one on a steady rig or a dolly as it gives the audience the impression that they are simply a fly on the wall, an outside observer looking into the intimate and personal world of the subject. This is similar to how cameras were used in the New Wave. due to the cheapness and guerrilla filmmaking, expensive cameras used in hollywood films were unavailable yo the filmmakers of the new wave, so cheaper handheld cameras were used in there absence. There use of which provides a similar emotional response as to my film.
The following shot is a static close of the subjects face as she walks around a shopping centre, the camera in this scene was suspended on a make shift dolly which she than proceed to push around the centre. I placed the camera this way to provide he audience with an unflinching view of the subject, as a method of expanding on the emotional connection between subject and audience. Similarly to the previous scene, the makeshift dolly is a further representation to guerrilla film making during the New Wave, limited budget meant that professional was almost impossible to come by, the Filmmakers would resort to makeshift tripods, dolly' and other equipment currently used today. the make shift dolly i used for this shot was again another way for me to use techniques used in the New Wave.
If i were to re-shoot or re-do this piece there are several changes and corrections that i would like to make, due to time restrictions i wasn't able to create a more fleshed out narrative, whilst i like the quaintness and intimate nature of my final piece, i feel that creating a story with motifs and dialogue using themes present throughout all New Wave films would have been a better choice in order to capture the essence of the New Wave.
another aspect that bothers is me is that some shots of the individual in the shopping centre are slightly out of focus, there is no explanation for why this is, i simply made a mistake with the focusing, if i had the choice i would go back and reshoot these scenes.
During some of the car journey scenes, we can see grain throughout the frame, due to filming at night i had to increase the ISO to make up for the loss of light, doing so resulted in heavy grain. if i were to reshoot i would have a light source in the car itself, providing more light for the lens meaning that i wouldn't have to increase the iso to make up for the loss of quality.
In conclusion i am happy with my final piece, i feel that it not only accuratly represents the essence of the New Wave, but also highlights and recreates environments and techniques that made the New Wave so.
Lack is a Avent Guarde short inspired by the unique aesthetics and visual narrative of 1962's La Jetee. The story explores lacan's theory of intrinsic lack within the individual through still images and use of abstract audio, resulting in a short that challenges the physical form of film itself and simultaneously, representing the Lack within us all.
or this 4 hour film challenge we were given a copy of another groups film plan, including a detailed story board and equipment list, our task was to effectively recreate the plan whilst still applying our own personalities to the film. for this film we worked in a large group of around nine people, whilst this proved challenging at times i believe we all benefited from the experience of working from a pre made plan and in a larger group.
for this particular 4 hour challenge we wanted to put our efforts into the technicality of the piece, rather than focussing on narrative and themes. to do this we resorted to working in the gym, this cavernous room gave us the flexibility to create the shots that we wanted, long wide shots which not only created a sense of isolation for these characters, but also as a way to establish the location of the film. by trading in narrative for an emphasis on technical work, we wanted to create a variety of shots, multiple angles on the same scenario would give multiple perspectives on the characters, high angle shots juxtaposed with low angles created a sense of mystery to the characters, allowing for a wider range of audience perceptions.we also wanted to experiment with more complex camera techniques, reverse dolly rooms, pull focus, tracking and panning, it was our belief that by littering our film with these shots, we could create a more in depth and professional film.
critique
upon reflection both myself, my group, and the creators of the original script have identified several aspects that diminish the films impact, the first point that was raised was the fact the setting didn't necessarily fit with the songs themes and atmosphere
self summary
simmarily to our last film, we aimed to create an experimental short that completely disregarded the classical narrative structure. The only structure we had for this 4 hour film challenge was that it had to revolve around an 'unusual perspective", for me and my group, this was oddly hard to decipher. at first we thought of visual perspectives, and how we could experiment with technical aspects of a classic narrative to produce an unusual and visually challenging perspective, after a lot of discussion we came to the realisation that we couldn't effectively create this vision, we wanted to create a film that would utilise all our expertise effectively, and we didn't want to run the risk of creating a sub par film. we also discussed the prospect of exploring an unusual perspective through the use of narrative, this yielded more results, at first we discussed the possibility of a film that revolved around a single character, our brainstorming resulted in the idea that our short should revolve around a character who was suffering through psychosis, to effectively recreate a character who essentially suffered from a mental illness we planned certain shots and editing techniques to re create this. we used multiple fast jump cuts to represent the ever moving mentality of an individual suffering psychosis, how there mind never stays in the same place for once, our camera shots focussed on the movements, the subtle twitches and flaws our character makes. the audio we used is also worth discussion, we wanted to show our audience how these people suffering from psychosis suffer, to do this we looped guitar feedback from an amp alongside a constant heartbeat, the amp feedback was used to represent the intense mental pressure and disorientation the individuals who suffer from psychosis feel.
in conclusion i am thoroughly happy with our final piece, i feel that is not only accurately recreates an individual suffering from mental health, but at the same time it also recreates it on a technical level
peer review
upon critique, me and my group identified certain faults that were raised in our film, for example, our audio at a certain point was obviously looped, the pitch dipped and then raised back to its original state obviously. we could easily correct this by cutting the audio down by a second and moving it back to the point of the cut, this would have resulted in a piece of audio that was seamless. another fault that was raised was that out film seemed to have no narrative, who was this individual, why did he have a gun, why was there no ending, were all questions that were raised. we explained that our film was intended to have no narrative or no explanation, that it was intended to simply to be explanation or a recreation of individuals undergoing mental illness, however we can understand that the audience didn't understand what was happening, there is no narrative and there is no explanation, because that is by design
another critique that was brought up is the fact the light level changed across the film, this was due to the level of natural light and how it increased over time, there was no way we could have changed this, given more time and more advanced lighting equipment we could have compensated for they increase light by repeating the exact same lighting, but due to time and equipment restraints we could do neither.
in conclusion i am extremely happy with out final piece, i believe it entirely meets our initial plan of recreating a representation of mental health in an individual, not only thematically but also technically. however if we were to re shoot this piece, i would put more time into tho planning of the film, especially the time it was filmed, in order for a constant level of lighting to be present.
A short Noir experimental film depicting a investigator discovering the crime scene in which a woman discovered something unknown, our film shows uses of multiple pull focuses to confuse and disorientate, paired with quick violent jump cuts, rising non diegetic sound and low key lighting to create a narrative with depth, intrigue and a sinister atmosphere. a combination of static and moving camera angles such as a point of view shots and static wide mid shots creates a sense that the protagonist is both watching and being watched. the product of these techniques creates a viewing experience that fully absorbs the viewer.
self-review
upon re watching my 4 hour film challenge i have become aware of several errors and flaws that i could re shoot in order for my film to reach a higher quality of production. one of the most glaring problems within my film is the fact that a large section of the film is slightly out of focus, this was due to myself trying to overcompensate for the dark setting by raising the aperture of the camera, in turn this raised the brightness of the image at the expense of rendering the footage unfocused, to remedy this i would have to go back and re-shoot the footage with the aperture in a more suitable setting so that the footage remains high quality, i would then have to raise the overall brightness of the footage in post production.
another problem that was raised in the group evaluation of the films was that there didn't necessarily seem to be any narrative to my film, and if there was narrative then it was hard to uncover. whilst i can see that this would be considered a fairly huge problem for a film that relied heavily on its narrative, i wouldn't necessarily call this a fault within my film, my film was intended to be experimental, its purpose was to confuse and disorientate the viewer, and only upon multiple viewings can any narrative be discovered. another issue that was raised in the group evaluation was that the ending seemed some what blunt, that there was no narrative climax to the film, again this was intentional, during our pre production we realised that our film had slowly began to conform to genre cliche's, extreme close ups and tracking shots gave our film the impression of a generic horror film, it was our belief that with a un-climatic ending we would subvert these expectations. however i can see how the film had very little narrative climax to it, if we were to re-shoot these films i would certainly go back and potentially plan an ending that had more weight to it.
personally i fount that the time scale i had to work with in order to create this film was extremely short, time quickly caught up with us, meaning that we had to cut parts of the filming, the planning and the editing in order to make sure we had enough time to get the basic footage and editing complete. theres very little i could have done to change this as the 4 hour time limit was out of my control, however, next time we are presented a 4 hour challenge, i can plan ahead, focussing on quality of shots and editing over quantity of footage, this would therefore create an admittedly shorter film, but one that consists of slick visuals and aesthetics.
suggested lighting for a small documentary in which portability is paramount
For a documentary in which portability is crucial, you would need to use a set up which is malleable to the environment it is being used in, and is also relatively easy to store and set up. standard lighting equipment used in film making would be unreliable in this scenario as it would be far to heavy and cumbersome to reliably use. therefore we would need to use equipment that is smaller but just as reliable as its bulkier counterpart. for interview type shots the most reliable lighting tool would be a three point lighting kit,
a standard set up for a three point lighting technique
a three point lighting kit would essentially be three led lights on three seperate tripods, the three tripods would be able to collapse down, meaning the equipment would be easy to store and transport around. the led lights could easily double as a tool to illuminate ares required for filming, meaning not only are we able to keep the amount of equipment low, but are also able to have one piece of equipment for multiple purposes. a possible struggle that might be experienced with this piece of equipment however is that it is only really reliable in a indoor setting, where light can naturally be controlled to fit the scenes purpose. if you were to use a three point light outside, the natural lighting cannot be controlled, meaning that lighting would be very unreliable, however we can work around this issue by limiting the equipments to indoor use only, allowing us to control the lighting reliably. however this equipment can only reach its full potential when used in a interview, three point lighting wouldn’t be effective in any other situation, except as a way to fill a small area with light
for open or ambient shots we would need a piece of equipment that is capable of filling a large area with light, but is also relativey easy to set up and transport, for this we would potentially use a led light suspended by a tripod, a led light would be able to easily match other light sources, balance a large area with ambient light and be extremely easy to transport.
the LED lights suspended by a tripod
suggested lighting for a 'talking head interview'
for a talking head interview a three point light system would ideally be used, a three point lighting set up would bring my depth and vibrancy to a already static “talking head” shot, the three point light would essentially transform a dull 2 dimensional shot into a three dimension shot. since portability is not an issue in this scenario, we can rely on bulkier, more powerful equipment, this would mean we would be able to easily control the light emitted from the lights. however, an issue that could potentially arise from the use of a three point light is that it has now become the standard set up used in interviews, meaning that the shot would have very little individualism when compared to other interviews, the three point light could also limit us in terms of creativity, as it isn’t a very flexible tool to use.
another piece of equipment we could use would be a camera mounted LED light, with this we would not be as restricted as we would be with the three point lighting, resulting in more dynamic and creative lighting techniques for our footage. the light could also be detached from the camera and stationed elsewhere around the subject, allowing for more diversity in our shits. however with this piece of equipment we run the risk of the footage looking two dimension, lacking vibrancy and depth. we could fix this issue by harnessing any nature light around the subject to compliment the LED light Camera and Lighting Techniques for Moving Images Production
