4 hour challenge 2- an unusual perspective

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.

4 Hour Film Challenge

4 Hour Film Challenge 

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. 

Recommended Equipment summer task

HNC induction task






B

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 

Easy Rider scene analysis

easy rider- cemetery analysis- HNC induction

first and foremost easy rider is a critique on the state of decay that America found itself in during the 60’s. America during this period was undergoing drastic social changes, people were realising that the fabled american dream was nothing more than a illusion. the cemetery scene represents this existential moment perfectly. 

the scene starts with the two protagonists sitting in a cemetery with two prostitutes, the camera in this scene is a mid shot, angled slightly downwards this combination creates a impression of uncertainty, the static camera makes the viewer feel uneasy, a state of uncertainty that anything could happen in the moments following, the slightly tilted camera angle the shot relies on could be considered condescending, we are looking down at these individuals, the bottom of the social chain, we can easily relate this shot set up to the existing existential motif, the low angle and static camera represent that these people are people are stagnant, the american dream is dead and for these characters it has died with them, they have given up on the illusion of happiness and its pursuit of it 

following this we watch as the four take LSD, a psychoactive stimulant that induces hallucinations, immediately after, a non diegetic pulsing metallic clanging plays and continues to play throughout the scene, the metallic clanging is alien and disorientating, this could possibly be a representation of the the american dream, about how men and women forced themselves to conform to the ideals set by society at the time, a slow repetitive march that leads nowhere. the scene uses cross cutting at this point to represent the characters trip, the scene frequently cuts to religious iconography, slats in walls which resembles crucifix, are decayed and warped, possibly a representation on how america is now out of touch with its founding morals and principles, a preacher reads out scripture whilst the camera shifts in and out of focus, disorientating the viewer, shots of the sun, shot extremely close up till the screen is engulfed in white create a feeling of nothingness, of a blinding light that creeps forward unwaveringly possibly a representation of the characters impending deaths. one shot used within the cross cutting is particularly interesting, a prostitute lies completely naked in a graveyard, her limbs obscured by water droplets, making her look deformed and warped, this was filmed on a fish eye lens, resulting in a frame that is perfectly rounded which only adds to the alien aesthetic of the shot. this could potentially be a representation of to this fringe group of people, sex is the only thing that matters, not wealth or money or the american dream, but sex in all its forms. we are also presented with fast consecutive shots of one of the men crying next to a statue, upon analysis the statue is a model of the liberty statue, he utters the words “why did you leave me like that, shut up”, the fact that he is saying these words to the statue of liberty itself could mean that he feels as though america has abandoned him, the very ideals that america was built on have escaped him. the scene ends with one of the men sitting on the statue almost mockingly, the sun lights fills the screen and ends with nothing but white, this sunlight which eventually takes over the entire screen could be seen as the protagonist finally accepting that he has finally succumbed to the vices that have claimed so many before him, his sudden realisation that the american dream has indeed died, and this is his moment of clarity 

easy rider was released in 1969, filmmaking during this period was primitive when compared to the digital era we are in now, all film was recorded on reels, and were edited by hand, to create an effective cross cutting  a editor must have spent an extreme amount of time and determination to finish editing. 1969 was also a time in which american avont guarde cinema was being released, for the time this style of film making and editing was considered very experimental, with most directors of the time focussing more on linear narrative and 

well established filming techniques. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDAdzb9IeGU