Documentary analysis.

As a starting point, in one of the seminars we watched a handfull of documentaries to gather a better understanding on different approaches. I chose two that I liked which I thought would be very inspirational;

Skateistan (2010) Director- Orlando Von Einsiedel

Skateistan directed by Orlando Von Einsiedel is a nine-minute documentary that follows two Skateistan students, Murza and Fazila, through the poverty stricken, war torn streets of Kabul.

This documentary was beautifully shot by Orlando who wanted to make everyone aware of these children. People stereotype and this film shocked many (including mine) ideas of the children of Kabul. We often see areas such as Kabul as a poor, depressing place but through this documentary we see the children free and happy. Orlando juxtaposes these shots with shots of the war torn Kabul so we get a sense of freedom from the children but they narrate that they arent free from whats happening around them. In this documentary the characters narrate the story with no interviewer present. In some shots characters voices are overlaid on top of images of kabul or other characters on the skateboards. I thought this was very powerful and this is why I chose this documentary as inspiration.

Ideas of a century

So I joined in with a four, joining with people I haven’t worked with before. As a five we discussed possible themes we could base our documentary on. Knowing what little information I have on Liverpool, I suggested a football theme (as Liverpool are very passionate about their football team), I also suggested the Hillsborough disaster, but this was a bit of a grey area, and some of public may not want to talk about this. Other suggestions were the making of the city, the architecture or a documentary on Liverpool it’s self.

We talked about the docks as ‘Mark’ (member of the group) lives not far from Liverpool and knows that the docks are quite famous and historical, as the Beatles would often perform gigs at a local pub in the docks area.
We decided to go away and do some research, gathering information on ideas we could document.

Documentary Approaches

Having thoroughly read the brief, I found a part on the possible approaches to a documentary, this interested me and opened my eyes at the actual variety of documentaries there are available, they go as follows,
Observational;-the filmmaker does not intervene but uses the camera to observe the day to day life of the documentary subject-usually requires a contributor highly involved in an interesting task that has a finite time span.
Direct Cinema; - the filmmaker is very much an active participant in the film, interrogating the subject of the film to reveal information.
Educational/informative; - the film usually revolves around exploring a subject in detail and presenting factual or expert information, often with multiple contributions from different contributors.
Poetic; - uses metaphor, visual lyricism and soundscape or music to portray an aspect of life- often with a universal human theme.
Investigative;-usually a journalistic approach exposing information not commonly known, or understood.
Collage; - often combine stills, archive, found footage and moving image and juxtaposes them to shed new light on a subject area.

New Day, New Project

We have conquered Experimental and so forth (but slightly different) comes Documentary (Dramas last which I’m looking forward to).

We were given the brief for this project and I was surprised that the base of this work will take place in Liverpool. Having visited Liverpool once I don’t really know how the city operates, so it will be intriguing to find out more.

The Brief:
Working in groups of 5, we will need to undertake roles in creating a brief documentary on the theme of ‘Liverpool Stories’, we also have to think about our possible approach to this documentary.

So we have to scour newspapers to find out any stories on Liverpool, (best not try The Sun eek)…not having much to do with documentaries and how they function I’m happy to find out more, this project for me will be a learning curve that I’m excited to delve into.

Evaluation

When we were given the brief I did not fully understand what an Experimental Film was. After much research and viewing examples I soon realised what was asked of me through the brief.
I am satisfied with the group I chose as we all played our parts well, often helping each other in stressful times. I believe we researched into our project fully and discussed fairly what we wanted to interpret in our work; we appropriately created a prop list and a call sheet which helped whilst we were filming.
Meshes of the afternoon was a huge inspiration to use in our project and we developed some of our ideas from this. I would say our main disadvantages to our film would have been the cold weather which hindered our project. I would also say that we did not gather enough footage, this also being down to the weather. I also think that we did not fully portray the meaning of the storyline of our film and more scenes would have been useful so the audience would fully understand, however we have taken this into account for the next projects. Our main advantage to our project was good communication through out. The roles were swapped about a lot but this was done to help eachother, we did not want to leave any members to stuggle.
Overall, I am satisfied with our work, I have learnt much through the new techniques of editing, helped through workshops and individual teaching. This project has also introduced me to Experimental films.

Editing

Eventhough I was not in charge of the editing process, I did attend to oversee and give my input in the development of our work. We wanted to use the editing process of cropping numerous frames into one (much like the scene with the women being seen around the table all at once in the film Meshes of the afternoon) and so we experimented with this. We also decided to use black and white scenes to insinuate the actors sub-conscious mind, and colour scenes to insinuate his conscious mind.

In these images we tried to show the cutting up and piecing together images. We also wanted to show the effects and levels we added to numerous clips.

Hyperthermia!

When we completed the filming we were satisfied that it all went as planned.
However, we did not take the weather into account and it was absolutely freezing! Even though we planned to film a few more shots we decided to call it a day as all our clothing was wet through and we were on the brink of hyperthermia, we also wanted to keep the actor comfortable when clearly he wasn’t. Our hands were numb so we couldn’t pick up any of the items.
While we wanted to enjoy the experience of filming and directing our project we were slightly miffed that some of the project was ruined by this annoying cold weather.

Call sheets

Project Roles

As the brief required we were asked to assign roles for each individual of the group. I volunteered to be the Director/Producer. At first I did not know what this role required of me but I knew I had to be the overseer of the project. For my first role I discussed with the group which location we should base the shoot at. We all agreed that Grenoside woods would be the best due to it being convenient for everyone to get to and the large scale of the woods meant we wouldn’t be interrupted by the public. Also a member of the crew knew these woods well and scouted a suitable, safe location for us to film in.
My next role was to acquire an actor for the shoot as we all knew it would be un-professional to have one of us to star in the project.
I asked around to see if anyone would be available until I found someone mature and responsible to be the actor.

Once the location, plotline and actor were safely taken care of, I assigned who would need to bring what props on the day. I knew it would be un-fair for one person to be delegated with this job as some of the props were too big to carry, so we equally shared this job by agreeing on one person bringing the camera equipment and actor, another would bring the large mirror and sound equipment, whilst the other would bring the other essential props and paperwork.

The next job I had to do before the shoot was to fill out the risk assessment and develop on the call sheets for the day.

Meshes of the Afternoon

Meshes of the afternoon is a short experimental film directed by wife and husband, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. This short clip was shown to us in our seminar, even though it has a circular narrative with repetitive symbolic images this clip stood out for me. The film contains various recurring images including a key, a knife and a scary looking figure which is hooded and uses a mirror as its face.

The use of circular narrative and the attention plus repetitiveness of certain props inspired us into using this technique for our project. Meshes of the afternoon also uses multiple repetitiveness of the same character and as a group we agreed we wanted to interpret this.

Overall we agreed that this film is a massive influence to use for our project. It helped us develop our ideas and even experiment interpreting some of the ideas in Meshes of the Afternoon.

Experimental Project Lists

Once we had our initial idea we started to jot down what we would include in the film, what sounds we would need and various locations.

PROPS:
- Cereal
- Milk
- Spoon
- Hammer
- Nails
- Large mirror
- Small mirror
- Phone
- Tin can
- String
- Camera
- Tripod
- Portable TV
- Shovel
- Jacket
- Razor
- Folding chair
- Umbrella
- Bag
- Birthday card
- Pen

LOCATIONS:

- Woodland – Grenoside woods?
- Reservoir Edge/water edge
- Long country road
- Think of more potential locations?

SOUNDLIST:

- Static
- Footsteps- Path, tarmac, mud, grass, woodland, gravel?
- Leaves crunching, water
- Wind
- SOUNDTRACK
- General ATMOSPHERE
- Cereal, milk
- Bag, opening and closing/the zip
- Eating
- Phone
- Interference
- Laughter?
- Twigs snapping etc

Idea Processing

As a group we decided to meet up and discuss our ideas in full. We all had an input and decided on an idea which would be experimental, innovative and contain all of our work and ideas.

After all the planning we came up with a concept for our film, it is a little confusing but i'll explain it best I can. Our film will not contain a storyline. The main character who is going to be walking around is represented as the 'ego' - the consience, ordered, raional and stable moral part of the mind. The character who will be reflected in the mirror(s) represents the ID, or the unconcious mind.. the unstable, dreamy part of the character's brain. The mirror also represents the ID.The camera itself (the camera on-screen) synbolises the character's consience.. be consience of being watched. In our film we wanted to explore how mirrors can represent different parts of a character's mind, ego, consience etc.. for example being afraid or paranoid of being watched, exploring voyeurism. By layering a variety of shots over the top of one-another I feel we managed to convey a message that these 'different' people all link together in one-way or another. For example the person looking through the lense of the camera, and the same person on the other end being 'watched'. Whilst the same person is looking into a mirror, perhaps seeing his alter-ego, the side of him in-which is paranoid or psychologically unstable.. The shot that features the main character forcing a shovel into the ground is meant to represent 'normality' or 'anger'. An activity that is percieved as a 'normal' thing anyone could do, contrary to someone sitting in front of a mirror looking back at themselves.
Other shots that feature mirrors in the background are there to obscure normality/convey a message that the character is being 'watched'. The soundtrack we used feels well-suited for the piece we created, by syncing the visuals on-screen to the beats/notes in the music, we set ourselves a rythm that feels fluid yet obscure.For example in the cereal scene, the soundtrack dips/changes in tempo when the cereal is being eaten, perhaps portraying a message to the audience that by eating the cereal, something has changed or is about to happen, the whole point of this scene was to think of something that you would rarely see or even think of in the real world, creating something obscure.

In our final shot we hopefully want to symbolise ID (the unconcious mind) taking over the ego (the rational, realistic, ordered part of the mind).. we want to cleverly take the character 'out of the mirror' and showing him taking over the ID, this will result in a smashed mirror. Another way of interpreting the scene is that the character will attempt to overcome his paranoia of being watched, by smashing the mirror that features the camera (symbolosing being watched/vouyerism).

Project Discussion

After watching various Experimental Films we were asked to go into groups. After choosing our three we decided to assign roles.

I chose to be the Director and Producer, James chose to be the Sound Recordist/ Editor and Lewis is the Camera/Editor.

On what time we had left we thought of ideas we wanted to interpret into the Project. I had the idea of using stock footage which would give the benefit of using various footage which we might not be able to capture.

Through the Inspiration of Fernand Legers Ballet Mechanique, I wanted to use shapes. These shapes could be in front of the lens or manipulating other images which I thought would be very creative. Another idea which inspired me from Fernand Leger was the use of quick editing, but also shots either reversed or turned upside down.

Fernand Leger-Ballet Mecanique (1924)

Ballet Mechanique is a 1924 Experimental Project by Fernand Leger, composed by George Antheil.

Fernand Leger was a developer of distinctive versions of Cubism in his paintings, often

using stylised machine parts. His use of these machine parts contributed to the central principal in Ballet Mechanique.

Fernand contradicts the initial denotation of Ballet in his project as we expect flowing dancers rather than machine parts creating a mechanical dance.

Even though Fernand uses objects such as hats, bottles and kitchen utensils he juxtaposes these into moving like machine parts. He also uses human actions and turns these into mechanical gestures.

I enjoyed watching this abstract film and it was very inspirational for me. Even though we are at the early stages of developing the project I would like to use some of Fernands techniques in our film(project). His various amount of scenes go well with his idea of machinery such as the mechanical movement of the women on the swing and the opening and closing of the eye. The only concern I have with this film is the over exposure of some on the scenes, however, Fernand had a very little budget and this comes under Experimental films idea with some of the projects being funded by the director/producer/cameraman themselves.

http://www.zappinternet.com/video/wadtpiypep/fernand-leger-ballet-mecanique-1924

Experimental Films

"Filmakers may wish to express personal experiences or viewpoints in ways which would seem eccentric in mainstream context"-David Bordwell and Kirstin Thompson (2008) Film Art: an introduction.

Some filmmakers set out to create films that challenges orthodox notions of what a movie can show, and how it can show it. These filmmakers work independently from studio system and often they work alone. Their films are hard to classify, but usually they are called 'Experimental' or 'Avant-Garde'. -David Bordwell (2008)

Experimental Films are often created by one person, or occasionally a small group collectively, working on a minuscule budget most often provided out of the filmmaker's own pocket or through small grants. Experimental films are often made out of personal passion and do not offer a linear story that unfolds in the theatrical space of mainstream narrative.

These kind of films are divided among different individuals and groups: the filmmaker is the producer, director, scriptwriter, director of photography, cameraperson, editor, sound recordist, and sound editor, or performs at least half of those functions.

New Project: Experimental Film

Coming back after Christmas we were given a new project.

The Brief; Create a 5 minute Experimental Film. In this project we are assigned to work in threes with each individual taking on a specific role. These roles are Producer/Director, Camera/Edit and Sound Recordist/ Editor.

Not having much of an idea what an 'Experimental Film' is, I decided my first step with this project would be to do some research into these films to get an overall idea.

My initial idea of this brief was positive, I was however concerned about the time limit we had for this project but through previous experience I believed good planning and organisation I will be able to complete this project without stress.

My Creative mind

So instead of using Blogger for just university work and inspirations, I thought I would put some ideas up of my own initiative. I wrote down a little idea that came off of the top of my head.

Synopsis: A character takes a random pill and he begins transporting to various locations significant to his life and his loved ones lives.

In reality the character has overdosed and is dreaming about these events taking place before he dies in a delirium neither completing the tasks in his dreams.

Its a random idea but I think it could go somewhere and i'll hopefully branch out from it.

Lost Quote :)

John Locke, "Why do you find it so hard to believe Jack?"

Jack Shephard, "Why do you find it so easy!"

John Locke, "It's never been easy!!"

'A squabble between Jack Shephard and John Locke over typing in some numbers in a console that will save the world, with Jack Shephard 'believing' its all a psychological test and John Locke 'believing' they will save the world.'

The Grey

2012 is the year the film, 'The Grey' directed by Joe Carnahan was released. At first I did not take any notice of this film as honestly, 'The Grey' does not sound very exciting. However, I saw the poster for this film and immediately knew that the Liam Neeson was casted in it (and recently most films he has starred in have been very good), but the poster was so ambiguous. The poster gave no evidence of what the film was about or who else starred in it. This ambiguity encouraged me to go home and do a little bit of research on this film without given too much of the plot away and now I want to go and see this film!

I think the lack of information on the poster, and the hardened look of Liam Neeson will have (probably) inspired most people to go and find out what this film is about.

Lack of information and ambiguity on a poster does creates more of an audience and I think this is the reason why the director had the poster designed this way, a ploy I may use in the future, hopefully.

Blindness

Blindness(2008) is an adaptation of a 2005 book by Jose Saramago about a society suffering an epidemic of blindness. At first I was un-sure about the film as it wasn't that acclaimed. However, after watching the film I was very surprised by the innovative of the storyline.

A group of people are struck down by blindness but no-one is sure why. These people are put into camps away from the outside world incase of a spread of this disability. However, a women who can actually see sneaks into these camps with her blind husband agreeing to keep her sight a secret. She soon sees the decline of the overcrowded camps as the blind people can't look after themselves and many die of disease or suicide. The outside world soon stops sending help and the people in the camps soon turn to violence and exploitation in a hysteria to try and survive on the limited food supply. The women finally escapes with a small handful of people and her husband to horrifically find that the entire world has succumb to chaos and squalor inflicted by the blindness.

I found this film very clever in the way they portray human beings instincts when they are at their most vulnerable and weakest. The lighting is perfectly created throughout the film. Inside the camp's the lighting is dark, this has been done not to just show the limited light source, but to also make the audience feel the blindness and claustrophobia. When the survivors escape, the lighting outside is bright and over exposed to give the feeling of freedom and the ability to see.

The casting for this film was spot on, Julianne Moore played the 'seeing' women perfectly as the leader, her weak dishevelled character at the beginning of the film was then built up to be a strong, able, saviour in the world of darkness.

The location I think enhanced the films feeling of being lost, trapped and the horrific feeling of claustrophobia. The use of colour such as the grey, dark walls and the untidy, dirty, ruined clothes of the blind people also added to the feeling of lost hope.

Overall, I was very pleased with this film. All the conventions in the film fitted well with its genre to create emotions and feelings. The film lived unto its expectations of what it was about and I wasn't disappointed.