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.