Editing Screenshots

When we began to edit our audio we put it in order and Edited what parts we didn't need and needed.

On this slide it shows the effects we were adding. It also gives us a clear understanding as to what numbers each effect was so we can add them to each track.

This slide shows the amplitude on the track being too high. To solve this we clicked on the Amplitude tab and manually corrected this. We had to do this with every track so they were not peaking.

On this slide it shows the layering of tracks. It also shows single tracks put in to signify a certain event in the project. Editing this project has been exciting and very experimental, It has helped me gain knowledge on Sound Track Pro.

Sense of Space- Photos

Here I am recording the Intro for our project using the Samson CO1U USB studio condenser microphone.

Here Dan is using the microphone to record the splatter of water on the floor using a cut in half bottle.

In this picture I am recording the movement of water using a Hydro-mic. I used it at the top of the bath to see if the mic could/would pick up different sounds.

In this picture me and Dan recorded the 'swishing' sound. Dan recorded the sound whilst I made the movement of the water.

Sounds

We created a list of the sounds we want to use for our project.

Sound Effects needed.

Sperm race (swishing frenzied).

Race Jumps.

Sperm, Less swishing

Wriggling

Ping (Victory)

3 minute water throughout.

Muffled music through a solid item.

Bed movement.

Food consumption.

Tv noises.

Hospital Noises.

Baby Crying.

Baby kicking.

Gushing noises.

Drum roll and pop.

Hospital Bleeping.

Bottle squirt.

Muffled plastic being put down.

Sick noises.

Post-Production

Whilst we were editing we thought we would keep a record of all the effects we added. We wanted the 'Mother', 'Father' and the family members voices muffled to get the out of womb effect. With the sounds we collected we put them in order and either looped or lowered the Amplitude on them.


We used a mircophone that Dan brought along which was a big help to us as it was able to block out background noise.

Timetable Dates.

We constructed a timetable that we are adamant to stick to. Each of these days we are free to develop on our project. This will help us organise our time.

Timetable (December)

Thursday (1st) Tuesday (6th) Wednesday (7th) Monday (12th)

.Thursday 1st- Record Vocals for intro to project.
.Tuesday 6th- Create Script and develop on sound ideas.
.Wednesday 7th- Record sounds, edit sounds, and put together sounds on timeline with recorded vocals.
. Monday 12th- Ensure project is together, all sounds are correct. Develop on presentation.

Timeline

This is an estimated timeline for our project, we wrote down the times of each track and if they would fit into three minutes.

Rough Script

Rough Script

(Plastic put down, muffled footsteps)

Baby: "There was a mummy and a daddy".

Mum: "Bill...I'm Pregnant"

Baby: "Said mummy"

Daddy: "Bloodyhell"

Baby: "Said Daddy"

(Thud)

"Daddy didnt say anything else, he went to sleep"

Baby: "Everyone seemed excited , Auntie Maude, Uncle Dave, Grandma Maude, Grandpa Dave (Voiceovers congratulating)....and even Snoop Dogg!" (Dog Bark)

Baby: "But mummys belly wasnt happy" (sick noises)

Baby: "It must be all that Jelly she is eating" (Jelly noises)

Baby: "..or all the exercise...which isnt very comfortable (jiggling noises)-(30 secs)

Baby: "That soon slowed down and mummy was getting big!, she spent alot of time watching TV, and I learnt lots about the world"(news sequence)

Baby: "But i'm middle class apparently so im okay"

Mum: "I think Henry"

Dad: "No"

Mum: "George?"

Dad: "No"

Mum: "William"

Dad: "No"

Baby: "I did say middle class didnt I?"

Dad: "How about...Dave?"

Baby: "Oh no"

Mum: "Dave it is."

Baby: "Grrrr" (Kicks)

Mum: "Bill he's kicking"

(Kicking Noises)

Dad: "I think he likes Dave."

Baby: "No!"

(Kicking louder)

Mum: "Bill, I feel a bit strange"

(waters breaking)

Dad: "Bloody Hell"

(Thud...ambulance siren)

(Screams continuous)

Baby: "Dave?, Dave!....Not Dave..Mum (kicks) are you listening? (screams) you'd better stop this now! listen? Not Dave!"

Mum: "Make it stop!"

Baby: "No" (kicks)

Mum: "Argh! (screams)

Ambulance Driver: "Just take it easy Mrs Scott, what you gonna call him?"

Mum: "Dave, he's going to be called Dave"

Ambulance Driver: "Thats funny you know, I'm a Dave too"

Baby: "You would be"

(Bed movement, Hospital noises)

Dad: "Deep breathes Amy"

Mum: "Shut up Bill"

Baby: "Yeah Bill..hang on, whats happening

Ambulance: "Here he is coming...one last push"

Baby: "I'm not read-d-d-d-d" (Drum Roll)

(Squish/pop) (static/fade out) (Silence)

Dad: "Hello Dave"

(Baby Crying)

Baby:

Microphones

I stumbled upon a website explaining the various Microphones that are about and which ones are used for what purpose. Not having much knowledge on microphones this website gave me a taster and introduction on what can be used to capture perfect sounds.

http://www.shure.co.uk/support_download/videos/how-to/microphone-basics

Introduction...Sperm Race.

For the introduction for our film we wanted to include a commentary for the conception of the baby. This Intro will involve swishing sounds (sperm racing) which are interpreted to sound like horse hooves.

(IN STYLE OF RADIO)
We start off today with a new one from William Scott and Amy Scott and it’s called “Makin’ love…”(BED NOISES)

Hello and welcome to wetter than usual day here, for the William Bill sperm stakes coming out of A-Scott, THEY’VE JUMPED THE START…. AND THEY’RE OFF!!!...

(SOUND OF SPERM SWISHING IN RHYTHM WITH THE SOUND OF HORSE HOOVES IN A RACE, MOMENTUM CHANGING WITH COMMENTARY, with fallers less swishing)

Messy start there for some, but it appears 20 million male sperm, 10 million female sperm and a hermaphrodite got away with a clean break, coming up to the cervix now and male sperm 36985 seems to have taken an early lead, closely followed by female sperm 11, AND WE’VE LOST HERMAPHRODITE!, A FALLER AT THE CERVIX, it seemed he/she didn’t know which way it was going!

Lots of fallers there infact and we appear to be left with around 700,000 in the race. Male sperm 36985 still pulls away upfront heading towards the uterus a giant swish there to go clear of female 11 WHO FALLS!!! And she’s taken more than 90% of the field with her, male 118 avoids that wreckage like the experienced semen he is to take second place and close in on the lead.

A test of skill now as we come to the fallopian tube, and Male sperm 118 squeezes out 36985 allowing female 11 leg room to take the lead… NOW THERE APPEARS TO BE 3 LEFT IN THE RACE! A female sperm, male sperm, and tracking them both, A POTENTIAL TWIN SPERM!

Twin sperm takes the lead, followed by female, male and the rest didn’t make it, twin sperm and female sperm are level head-to-head BUT MALE SPERM NOW! MALE SPER< COM ES THROUGH THE MIDDLE TO TAKE UP THE LEAD, FEMALE SPERM FOLLOWS, AND TWIN SPERM IS TAILED OFF… THEY BOTH KNOW THE END IS IN SIGHT AND HIT THE OVUM!! MALE SPERM, FEMALE SPERM This race will be won and lost on the wriggle now…..

(DING/PING and CHEER).

This commentary is full of puns and will be the main humorous part of our project. We look to record this narration with the sounds and for it to last about 1'10seconds.

Initial Storyline

Once the Womb idead became solid we constructed a small storyline of what we want to include in the 3minutes.

This is the rough storyline of what we want to include;

1. Big introduction for a big reaction (the sounds of conception) leading into immediate character involvement in the form of…

2. The sperm race (narrated as though commentating a horse/sprint race) fast paced water / swimming sound effects with declaration of a winner being….

3. Character introduction for the listener with background effects of - (discovery of pregnancy, congratulations, morning sickness)

4. Continual narration and opinion through activities such as feeding / being fussed over / educated via music, exercise (going for a walk)

5. Sound of hospital visits, easing of movement by mother e.g. watching tv etc. which then sets into boredom of the baby resulting in impatience…

6. Kicking and complaining from the foetus’ inner voice causing the mother to believe the time is ready…

7. Waters bursting / rushing to hospitals / confusion of the baby’s character / the sounds of childbirth (screaming , encouragement etc.) and then to finish the piece, the birth and the end of internal voice narration from the baby, replaced with a cry in a now un-muffled outside world.

We wanted to make sure every second of the 3 minutes is filled with activity, via the atmospheric sounds, the narration, sound effects of a mixture of twos and the three between them. We will get on-board people to play the characters such as the mother, grandmother, friends etc. and we will also contribute largely as the voice of the foetus and other characters e.g. father.

Project Idea 2

For our second Project Idea, we wanted to create an atmosphere effect of a foetus in a womb. We wanted to add humour to this piece by using commentary from the baby such as, the disgust of what his mother is eating, the embarrassment of his fussy family and how un-comfortable he is within his mother.

We also thought about adding a 'horse racing' commentary for the conceiving of the child, with the sounds of the sperm swimming together. With this project we can experiment with the various microphones to achieve our requested affects, such as the Hydro Microphone and Directional Mic.

We will also be able to experiment with various sounds to try and mirror a baby in a womb.

Project Ideas

When me and my partner first met we decided to do a small spider diagram of ideas that we had thought of whilst being introduced to the project. We collected our ideas together and thought of numerous projects to create, this is the spider diagram of our ideas.

Picture to come.

Idea 1

We wanted as many sounds available and one of the ideas we came up with was a busy kitchen area, where someone is either cooking or baking a meal. We would have this sequence going in order, such as, opening of cupboards preparing the equipment for the meal, then the spark of a cooker being turned on with overlapping of other sounds such as eggs being broken and whisking noises at the same time. We then would have the hissing and spitting of meat being placed on a frying pan, and the low hum of an extractor fan.

We incorporated another idea from the one above of someone doing their weekly shopping in a supermarket.

Noises such as the squeaking of a trolley, then the rustling of carrier bags and goods bring brought off the shelve to be then thrown into the basket. With this idea we would have voices interspaced, such as a cashier talking or the calling of an intercom, and someone trying to sell certain food items.

With this idea I think it would be very achievable, we would have enough sound footage to fill the 3 minutes.

We would also have a large array of sounds to use. I also think the genre and concept of our project would be easily perceived for our audience to understand.

Sound Inspiration

Whilst I was watching Kill Bill 2, I noticed that the first fighting scene is very inspirational for the project I am creating.

Even though I have watched Kill Bill 2 before, i closed my eyes and played the first '2.30' (which is the fighting scene) to try and make sense of what may be happening, this is fully achieved as all the sounds used in this scene are ever day recognisable sounds such as, footsteps on grass, the low-pitch hum of a lawn mower, banging of car doors then the ringing of a door bell, quickly followed by footsteps opening the door. Once the door is open loud, serious music is played, immediately signalling something is happening creating tension. Throughout this whole sequence no voices are used.

The next part of the clip we hear fighting noises, such as punching and heavy grunting of the women fighting, we immediately hear glass smashing, choking of one of the characters and the banging of wood being used as weapons, all these sounds are interspersed within each other. All the sounds used are loud and repeated and many of them are over lapping.

This scene is very inspirational as sound is used to guide us through what is happening rather than a narrative being used.

Kill Bill Sequence 1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hg6rqDX-1wQ

Project 2, examples.

Once we was given the brief we was shown small examples of sound with no footage, we had to distinguish what each sounds where, and what affect it had on us. We had to look at how many layers are included in each clip and if the 'dynamic range' of sound helped create a sense of space.


Meat Factory, Ear worms.

This clip is a short documentary of a man's life entering and working at an abattoir. Within this clip we are given a narrative so we immediately know what the project is about.

Whilst he talks we can hear different sounds in the background creating a sense of space, we are placed directly into the slaughter house, noises such as cows and machinery with knifes clanging together can be heard. The narrator often digressed to his life outside the abattoir, such as meeting up with his work colleagues and finding a way to switch back on after his hard, gruesome day. Whilst he is talking about this we instantly hear car noises and cheery music is played, with the narrator singing along changing the mood of the story. I think the reason for this part is to show us the narrator switching on the end of the day, forgetting the horific sights of the slaughter house.
I found that this clip flowed and I understood from the offset what he was talking about.

My only concern with this documentary is that I didn't fully understand what he was saying due to his dialect, also, because he digressed a lot to happier cheery times, (with him singing and have fun with his colleagues) I did not know if I should have taken this clip seriously or not. All these factors I will take into consideration when creating my own project .


Tunnel Vision

This clip is a short documentary, giving us a small insight into the life’s of two different people, and their feelings upon entering the London tube train.

At the beginning of the clip we immediately hear the stopping and starting of the London tube. The doors open and the repetitive call of the women saying, "please mind the gap'. This sets the scene for the story.

We then hear the narrators commenting on their personal life’s. With this clip I found that it was rather embarrassing to hear as the narrators were revealing secrets, the listener would agree with this as the narrators often paused and coughed in embarrassment. None of these signs were edited out making the documentary very personal. A lot of the clips in this project were interspaced and it skipped from one narrator to the next with interspaced sounds of the tube in the background.
This documentary flowed and had rhythm, it was easy to understand as all the sounds where clear, this clip was enjoyable to listen to and has inspired me.

Creative Media Practice Project #2

On the 17/11/11 we were given our second project.

Again we had to work in pairs to create a '3 minute', Audio, 'Sense of space'. This project will contain no footage just sound, as no space is silent, sound always exists.
We are asked to look into how we can perceive given space as one of high activity, or of marked quietness. It can either contain that of human presence or even the presence of machines or nature.
Even though this project will contain no footage, I think it'll be exciting to create and experiment with sound as it is a major value to put into consideration.

Final Edit

Today ( 9/11/11) we have completed our final edit for 'Portrait of place'. After a lot of hours of choosing which clips go where we have finally polished off our film. Overall I have enjoyed making this film, it made us explore the country side using better equipped technology and allowed us to experiment with various effects to further our film. We have come across a few problems along the way, such as some of the footage being destroyed due to rain on the lense, and in post-production we didn't know if our film would bore the audience or not, but in our presentation we will see hopefully their full response. In this project I have thought outside the box creatively using the thought process of trees showing emotions. Due to the project being silent this has caused a problem for us trying to represent the theme of the film, but we have worked around this factor by using visuals such as De-saturation and opacity on certain images.

This project has given me experience with the camera equipment and it has helped me work on storyboards and shot lists which prove very helpful and I cannot wait for the next assignment!.

Editing 2

In this clip we wanted to show us editing and piecing together our footage.

Eventhough we did not use this effect, I wanted to show that we experimented with various effects to try and create an atmosphere for the audience.

In this image we wanted to show one of the transitions we have used, again it shows that we have experimented, and by doing this it has taught us how to use Final Cut Pro.

In this shot it shows the effect of Desaturation, it may not be inspiring to some but I think it portrays our effect of spooky a lot better than the actual colours.

This is the final image that we took and it shows the final piece of our project. We have begun to add the titles for our project once we for sure knew that it is perfect edited with no mistakes.

Editing

We are now at the editing stage piecing our rough edit together. Once the footage was in an order, we cut parts and muted the sound.
We showed our rough cut to our module leader and her feedback was very helpfully as it guided us into make the project have an effect. Our module leader said that the film had more of a dreamy outlook rather than a spooky uneasy affect, she said in her opinion that the project was a bit boring in the sequence we put it in and that newer images should be added.
Luckily, we had quite a lot of footage to look through which was a major advantage, however, due to the rainy weather some of that footage had been spoiled by rain drops on the lense of the camera through no fault of our own.
We then went back to properly editing our work and putting it in a more coherent narrative. As we wanted to make our project spooky and un-sure, we add a desaturation to each clip making it black and white. This worked well and we decided to keep it this way, we sped up some of the clips and even used reverse narrative, which I insisted upon.

Filming in Edale

As predicted the weather in Edale was atrocious. The sky was dull and we all got very wet, some of our shots were jeopardised by this and it was very stressful. However, Edale is a glorious place and we was able to capture a large amount of successful footage.
I was worrying though that some of the footage may be too repetitive and boring.
Another blow to the day as well was our change of mind to our project, we decided that we didn't want to do the seven deadly sins idea. We kept the same storyboard and shot list concept but changed our idea. We wanted to make our project spooky, we also wanted to create un-easy for the audience. Our storyline now is entering the woods by showing close ups, to extreme close ups with the footage getting faster and faster then at the end we zoom out of the trees, exiting.

Equipment list

Me and my partner sat down and went through everything we would need, we realised that in Edale we would be doing lots o walking and so we decided to not over pack on items that did not seem appropriate. We checked the cameras out at the university and checked everything together and the batteries were fully charged.

This is the list of equipment we will bring to Edale:

1) PD170 Camera
2)Tri-pod
3)2x mini DV tapes
4)Climbing Harness (If rope is available)
5)Climbing rope (if available)
6)Plastic bags for rain cover
7)Warm clothing/suitable footwear/waterproofs
8)Food
9)Torch
10)Map of local area
11) Mobile (for emergencies)
12)Planning/work documents
13)Contingency money
14)Back pack to contain some items

Changing idea concepts

Whilst discussing our project we came up with a change of idea. We will keep to the same concept of, 'Emotion through trees', but instead change the various emotions to the seven deadly sins. We came up with this idea as we think our project will be too ambigious to our audience, if we choose trees that represent these sins and still use the one word sentences to describe the tree maybe the audience would understand this and see what we are trying to achieve.

SEVEN DEADLY SINS:
Wrath
Envy
Sloth
Greed
Pride
Lust
Gluttony

Shot List

As stated in the storyboard, we did not know what order we wanted our sequence in, so we created the shots we wanted in the shot list and put them in a jumbled order, then in post-production we will determine what shots we want and where to put them.

Shot List

My only concern to our shot list is that we may not have three minutes worth of footage. We have come up with an idea of prolonging each scene but this may cause our footage to look like still images. We will see what we can do in post-production to solve this matter.

Storyboard

Due to us not having a narrative we did not know what order we wanted to film our sequence in, however we knew what shots we wanted to take. Also, we didn't know what part of E-dale we was going to visit so we didn't know if we would be able to acquire some of the shots we wanted. Me and my partner created a storyboard with the shots we wanted to use and put them in a rough order for the basis of our storyboard.

Further Research

As we wanted to represent emotions, we needed to know how many emotions there is. Looking at various websites I found an interesting site that explains various emotions, it also delves into what triggers emotional arousal such as food or the weather.

http://changingminds.org/explanations/emotions/emotions.htm

This is an extremely useful website and it has helped me and my partner lots. With this website we can now be able to go and film trees knowing what we are looking for.

Project Research

We decided to choose idea 3 for our project as this is more creative and experimental. We wanted to get as much inspiration to try and interpret others work into our film. I looked at many websites on trees and how they are represented. I looked on YouTube and found a song, 'Rush the trees', it is quite inspirational, the video for the song has a lot of images of trees , each image inspired us and we wanted to interpret some of these images in our project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

Deviant art shows a lot of images that are easy to access; me and my partner looked at tree emotions. We found hundreds of images of tree emotions (a lot of these had been photoshoped), we thought in post production we could interpret these effects using colour saturation and various other colour correction effects.

http://browse.deviantart.com/?qh=&section=&q=tree+emotions%2C+tree+in

As an avid fan of lost I viewed a clip that I wanted to try and interpret in our project, this would work well with our project.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ulwWolBrcbo

This extreme tilt up looking at the forest top technique is used in a lot of films and I think it works well and I have always wanted to experiment this, now this project will allow me to do this.

Third Idea

'Emotions'

For our final idea we wanted to film 'trees representing emotions'. This is a strong idea because Edale is mainly made up of vast open land and various types of trees big and small so we will have a lot to film. For our idea we wanted to film trees representing various emotions such as, strong and upright trees can be percieved as stable and secure. Leaning and withered trees can be percieved as exhausted , sad or giving up. Entwining trees or grouped trees can be percieved as frustrated, madness, anger or they could be percieved as strong reliable and safe, for this we would show one word titles next to the trees to show understanding.

This is a more creative idea but as it is a silent project we did not know if our audience would understand our meaning.

Second Idea

'Journey'

For the second idea we wanted to represent 'Journey'. We wanted to create an emotional journey represented in a physical way. We wanted to interpret concepts of the first idea, using the use of small spaces, but gradually the spaces getting bigger and more open. With this idea we also wanted to show the decay of nature through urbanisation, abandonment and over all decay of time, for example, showing buildings that have been abandoned and broke down, also the texture of trees and roots to show age. I like this idea as we will be able to collect a lot of shots. However, the only issue with this idea is we dont have a narrative, but i dont think that this will pose as a major problem.

First Idea

We reviewed, broke down and in other cases connected our mind map ideas and came up with various ideas as to what we could create for our project.

For our first idea we came up with the idea of 'Physical and emotional contrast of open and enclosed spaces'.
We thought for this idea we could film Forests to represent enclosed spaces showing claustrophobia and fear, representing all of this we would show an anonymous character cowering and writhing in-between the trees to represent his emotions.
We would also show open fields and the character dancing and smiling representing freedom and calmness.
We would also show different levels of observations, on cliff edges, in bunkers and in vast open spaces.
This idea is simple but can be effective but it may be perceived as a bit ambiguous to our audiences. I also think we won’t be able to capture people’s attention for three minutes but we did have a lot of creative ideas for this piece.

Mind Map 2

This is another mind map I created this time showing further creative values. I wanted to definatly include these ideas into our project as I think they are strong and beneficial ideas. Having researched into Edale I think these ideas will be capable. One of the ideas is 'camera angles', I thought the use of various camera angles would be extremely effective using our knowledge of long shots, tilts, pans, extreme close ups and hand held to create an effect.

Starting the project.

To begin with we teamed up in pairs, with my partner we decided to draw out a spider diagram, branching out our terminology of 'Place'. We came up with a lot of ideas and exanded off of these. We wanted to think outside the box with this project as we knew that being in Edale with limited boundaries as to what to film, a lot of pairs would have the same idea, or same images.

This is the spider diagram that we created, it's basic, but contains all the connotations of place.

PROJECT 1-Portrait of a Place.

Project 1.

We was given a project brief on Portrait of Place, asking us to shoot a 3-minute silent moving image on a place, this given place was Edale in Derbyshire.

In the project we could include;
. an exploration of a physical place.
. an exploration of a person/people within a place.
. a fictional place or characters being developed.
. a self-portrait within a place.
Any of these could be used in the style of a;
. Documentary.
. Drama/ Narrative.
. Experimental/ Poetic.

Reverse Narrative

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EqWLpTKBFcU

The Scientist is a song created and sung by Coldplay front man Chris Martin. I like this song (even though it's of a depressing one), but I really like the video for the song.
It's quite inspiring as it's about love and apology, it is solely shot in reverse narrative. We witness him waking up and travelling backwards showing us little bits as to what's happened. The main reason of me liking the video is the story behind it, we do not fully understand what is happening or what has happened until we get to the end of the song (in the video the beginning of his day), it is a different concept as to having a video shot normal, and I think this reverse concept keeps people watching.

Another video I found that is shot in reverse narrative, is the video for 'Dead Island' the game. This video is very effective (mainly because of the music) but also the composition of reverse narrative and normal narrative mixed together working really well.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ialZcLaI17Y

Lost quote

"Live together, die alone"-Jack on Lost

Contractions by Christopher Hewitt and James Cambourne

Contraction is a short drama clip with an ambiguous meaning.
Whilst watching contraction I did not understand the subject matter. I think the director has created this clip to keep us guessing or to make up our own mind as to what ‘we’ think is happening.

In my opinion I thought the character (man) had died and the female was trying to resuscitate him back to life. When the ground began to move every time she applied compressions I thought it would soon break apart and he would be swallowed into the ground which would mean he has died.
This clip is also questionable as to why they are on a roof, and why he is in that state.
I did not enjoy watching this clip because of the amount of questions around it. I felt like I was watching something that had no beginning or end and wasn’t going anywhere. In my opinion I think the clip was un-successful in dealing with its subject matter as it is so ambiguous.
However, I did like the editing and the sounds, the sound and movement of the floor was what kept me engaged as it is very cleverly done, also, the women saying, “Where did you go?”, keeps us guessing as to what actually happened, even though I did not understand this clip, it did make me think creatively of a story as to what could have happened to them and how they go to be in that situation.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DbQ41VR6AZE

High-rise by Gabrielle Russell

High-rise is a short drama clip which is about a woman who seems to suffer from post natal depression, who lives in high risen flats in Leeds.

The first shot is of the baby happily playing with a doll on a sofa, we then pan to his mother who to me looked depressed, pale and dishevelled. I think the director has done well in portraying this character like this, the lack of make-up on her shows me that she has given up on trying to look pretty this representing she feels run-down and very un-happy. The camera then pans around the women’s room which contrasts with her character, toys are littered on the floor, the colours are bland and the walls are mucky. We immediately realise this women has no pride in how she looks, or how her house looks anymore she has given up. In this clip we can hear the voices of contestants on a TV show the women is watching, I found this very loud to which I realised this is done deliberately by the women so she can drown out her baby who is making noises in my opinion the baby annoys her and she does not want him.
Throughout the three minute clip I also found out that this female character does not interact with the baby at all, this enforces the fact that she regrets having him.

The baby then throws the doll towards an open window; inquisitively he goes to fetch the doll. The mother sees this and attempts to stop him giving us the hope that she actually cares about this baby. However, she drops to the floor also dropping the baby’s bottle, this proves the fact that she has physically given up as well as mentally giving up.
The women then looks at the baby who is getting closer to the window but does not attempt to get up, we then see numerous shots of the bottle which has begun to drip on the floor. The camera focuses on the milk which in my opinion represents her zoning out from her surroundings, choosing to forget. The milk dripping shows her life dripping away with the burden of having a child, she isn’t able to do things she wants in life because of this baby.
The women then slowly glance towards the door before getting up towards it.

We are then located into a dark corridor where she shuts the door, this symbolizing she’s blocking out what’s happening in the living room. The hallway is dark which shows she is hiding from the fact she knows what may happen to the baby. Sound is used cleverly in this shot as all we can hear is her breathing cutting out all sounds around her she is seizing the chance to change her life.

However, we then hear screams to which she immediately runs into the room to which we find out that it’s actually on the telly, the camera then cuts to a shot of the baby who is safe and playing with another toy. She then runs to the window and looks down at the doll which has fallen. I think this shot is shown to make us, and her realise what could have happened. The camera then moves away from the block of flats, this to me is a cliff hanger as to what could happen next, we are left with the questions of. ‘Is she redeemed with the realisation of what could have happened to her baby?’ And ‘what will she do next?’

I really enjoyed watching High Rise, it kept me engaged the whole time and I understood what was happening throughout the clip, the clip touches on the matter of reality, this does happen in day to day lives, and I think the director wanted us to feel sorry for this woman as post natal depression affects millions of women and she is showing us the effects of it. There is no narrative to the clip which I think makes it successful, we are able to determine the situation and what’s happening through facial expressions and sound. I also think the director is successful with dealing with the subject matter’s she creates an atmosphere with mise-en-scene, such as the décor of the room, the use of (or lack of) make up.

Steel Homes

Steel Homes is a short documentary based on a storage facility that harbours peoples belongings, this documentary is very personal to the people who narrate it as they find comfort by coming to the warehouse to look/feel the belongings that are stored away.

I think the primary aim of this documentary is to show the endless storage homes and how many people are linked to them, I think the director is also trying to put across how people come attached to items that remind them of their past, or items that are linked to a certain event in their life and how they store them away so they can come back to them to bring some happiness once the storage doors are opened. However, I also this think this documentary has a sad undertone, there is no music within this short film which I think is done deliberately to symbolise loneliness, this also links with the people who enter the warehouse as they keep themselves to themselves, they don't get involved with other peoples belongings or life's.

Another thing I found sad was that some of the storage houses where crammed full of items, some of which the narrators would possibly never see again (due to the limited space), this is upsetting to see as it shows some people cannot let go and this obsession will only carry on.

The interior of the storage house is not of a warm atmosphere, each 'home' is identified by a number showing the lack of identity of the owner, the director shows us the endless, bare corridors and we hear the harsh metallic sounds of doors opening and closing. I got the feeling that the warehouse is a depressing place for a person who cannot let go of their past and the warehouse is a sort of drug for them. I think this is what the director wanted to portray.

More over, we are not shown into peoples storage containers and I think this is has been done deliberately so we dont invade peoples belongings/space, but it leaves us guessing what the stories are behind the items hidden inside.

The documentary is narrated by several people each explaining their stories and struggles as to why they store away their items. I like this documentary because of the narration plays a key part in telling the story, we are left questioning who is speaking as it does not show the identity of the narrators, (just as we are left questioning what items they harbour in their containers.)

Overall i found this documentary very intriguing, it not only showed us the warehouse, but we got to hear the about peoples life's within this warehouse. I think the director was successful in dealing with its subject matter as it kept me watching and wanting to know more. I felt like the narrators wanted to tell their story to explain how they find comfort within the 'steel homes' and they did this well as I understand more about these storage facilities and why people use them.

Lost

Lost the Tv series was (and still is) a massive inspirtaion to me, having watched the programe from 2004 to 2010 i would say i am an avid fan!...Lost had opened up a creative portal in me having witnessed nothing quite like it. The storylines, character development, the edge of the scene action and cliff hangers kept me watching religiously.

Lost inspired me into what i wanted to do in the future (Film) as Lost introduced alot into its series, such as varied storylines of each characters and how it developed them, which intriqued me massively. Damon Lindelof and J.J Abrahams wanted to create something different and new which would have great ratings but also be watchable for a wide audience to enjoy. I think the creators of Lost created the best Tv show that i have ever viewed, Lost will always be my number one tv series.

R.I.P LOST-2004-2010

Book Inspiration

Having read Desperation for the second time I have to say it's possibly my all time favourite book!

Desperation is wrote by the legendary Stephen King which is set in the desolate Nervada desert.

Lone travellers are abducted by a mysterious policeman who claims to help them, but instead takes them to the town of desperation which is eerily quiet. A couple of chapters later we are told what has happened to this once bussilng, ex-mining town.

Several of the innocent hostages soon escape and they realise all is not right with the manic policeman who has started to decay externally and internally, but defiantly still stands strong. We soon then realise that the 'entity' in the policeman is able to inpersonate certain members of the hostages which leads to speculations, betrayals and confusion in the group, who are intent on escaping Desperation.

This book holds alot of inspiration for me, the storyline is able to keep me immersed in the book,also, Stephen King has a certain way of getting me involved in the characters lifes. He descibes the characters perfectly so we are able identify who they are with their appearance and personality.

I enjoy stories that involve a band of survivors who have to work together to escape/survive an evil entity of any kind trying to hunt them down one by one, with this storyline we get to know an array of characters and are able to identify each character and their traits, which i find interesting. The book splits into different chapters and each chapter gives us an insight into each characters life and perception on their harrowing events in Desperation.

One day I would hopefully like to create this book into a film using my own inspiration for audiences to see.

Inspiring Websites...

In one of the lessons our group was asked to input creative websites onto a list for us all to share. These were websites to show our inspiration and influences.

Most of the websites I observed were very useful and influencial. However, two websites stood out for me which i havent come across before that are informative and very useful.


http://www.britishcouncil.com
British Council Film is a film organisation that work to 'profile' innovation,diversity,creativity and excellence of British Films.
BC films also help to promote and arrange UK movies abroad to show the creativity and imagination of British films.
This site allows us to watch continuous expansion of short films, feature films, documentaries and animation produced by British companies.
The site allows me to watch various genres of films and gives me a factual insight into when the film was made, by who, where and how long the film lasts. This site is clean, fresh and easy to navigate.

http://www.animateprojects.com
Animate Project is an arts organisation in the UK that shows experimental animation.
The site aims to realise the potential of animation and allows cutting edge animators the space to take creative risk, to explore new forums, and processes to redefine animation.
Animation is not necessarily something that inspires me nor what i choose to look at in the future. However, upon scanning this website it has opened my eyes to the aray of short stories being created. Animation also helps to create lots of emotions such as the way a character is drawn, e.g to look sad or happy. A real life film would not necessarily be able to portray these range of emotions well within 10 seconds of being viewed. This site has opened my mind more to animation, and i have took it into consideration for the future.

http://www.animateprojects.org/films/by_date/films_2008/black_dog

This short story harbours lots of emotions. The animation is cleverly mastered and craftly works well with how it is produced. This clip has been created with lots of imagination and skill.

Good 'Ole' Movie Quotes.

"Movies don't create psychos. Movies make psychos more creative."-Scream 1996.