Evaluation.

Evaluation.
My research has helped me to produce a very creative piece of moving image as I have been looking at contemporary, mainstream artists such as Danny Boyle, Mark Simon Hewis and Dan MacGee, who, in their films deal with surrealist themes and styles of editing that help to create fantasy effects such as flash editing, layers and juxtaposing scenes.
In this module, I have learnt extensively all the filters and editing techniques used within “Final Cut Pro” – for example, colour balance settings, filters and layers, as well as sound editing on which I have come to rely very heavily to create various moods. This is avery painstaking and time-consuming part of the making of a video. This was my first time on “Final Cut Pro”. Previously, I was using “I Movie” which was quite limiting and not as advanced. Also, we have used most types of equipment not available at college such as the synthesizer that helped to produce the unusual sounds and the projector for the lighting effects. Within the team, this was one of our key points to get everyone to rally round and organize times, equipment and props. I felt that our team worked very efficiently and swiftly. Also, with the planned out jobs that were allocated, we swapped around so that each one of us learnt all the new techniques. I found that this module was very useful as I have learnt why video-making is so time-consuming and now understand why brainstorming is so vital and also video planning so as to build a truly conceptual and flowing video. The equipment we could get from college was quite extensive. What would have been better would have been if we had known exactly how much equipment was available to us – for example, the HD cameras, dollies and tracks etc. I felt we could have done more if we had been provided with a full list of all the equipment available to us at the college.
We were able to spend more time on video editing and this is the most important part of video production. The editing room closes at 4pm but B89 is open until college closing time so we made full use of this facility. The main problems that we faced during the production of the video were the time element and the obtaining of permission to record in certain locations. Where permission was refused, we had to revise our plans and some of our scenes had to be changed. A whole new style was created in order to detract from the time of day that some of the scenes had to be shot. Scenes were actually shot in a different chronological order than originally planned. Another problem was that maybe our video ran for too long – but I felt that its length was crucial to give the audience sufficient narrative to understand its content. Another problem occurred in the middle of our video, as, due to the time limits, we did not get permission to film in the location required for a particular scene. Therefore, I felt that this scene fell down in comparison with all the other scenes in the video. Also, the time allocated for editing was quickly used up, before we had chance to run through the whole video to check it for any glitches or problems that might have occurred.

bibliography
"28 Days Later" Daniel Boyle
Blueprints Big Push by Daniel MacGee
"Trainspotting" (1996) Daniel Boyle
http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/film-detail.jsp?id=45385
http://www.hewis.co.uk/LSZpresstimeout.html

http://182light.blogspot.com/

Evaluation.
For this scene, I used a hand held camera that was placed on top of the supermarket trolley. Thus I obtained a shot of the Parker character pushing the trolley away and wandering around as if he has no knowledge of what he is doing. In the post production editing I used two layers to create the same flowing effect but changing the colour saturations so that one was black and white and one was cross processed colours due to the changes of curves and contrast colour. By changing one of the video layers by a second this created a very uneasy scene to look at as the scene actually appears as if it is repeating itself over and over connoting the sense of insanity and mental breakdown.
For this scene I could have used a shot outside of the trolley but I felt it was better to get it inside the trolley with raw action.
Due to the opening times of the supermarket, our time was limited for filming inside Morrisons but once we were outside on the concrete floor of the shopping centre we were not able to replicate the smooth motion of the shopping trolley which had been achieved on the laminated marble effect flooring inside MOrrisons

For the opening scene of the dream I am focusing on the idea of the character's mental instability which is reflected in his nightmare. In the dream I show a pair of eyes overlapped with the fuzziness of a TV screen. This is presented in the first sequence and is the underlying visual icon which echoes the constantly repeated appearance of eyes in "Bladerunner" where Ridley Scott used a shot of human eyes which were intended to connote various meanings.

Evaluation.
In the creation of this piece of video I had to first obtain a projector and use a camera that would give me the correct white balance in manual setting with a white piece of card in order to produce the colour I wanted for the eyes. The production featured a TV set filmed on a mirrored setting to create the weird fuzziness. The eye was photographed on mirrored effect also in order to create the perfect symmetry. The second shot was achieved with a CAMERA MOUNTED ON A TRIPOD REVOLVING AROUND THE SUBJECT
and this was shot in a Morrisons supermarket using one of their trolleys. This created the slick smooth style that I required to convey the idea that these images are hovering around the subject. Of course I could have used a handheld camera which would have produced a more realistic effect but this not what I wanted as I needed the dream sequence to appear unreal.
In the post production aspects and editing for the eye and the TV I laid them on top of each other by using opacity and placing the TV on the lower level so as to make it shine through.
I changed the colour levels to create the contrasts that I wanted with a fade out to sink each scene. For the next scenes showing the character lying on the floor, I used the same techniques but I placed the levels at a fraction of a second different to create the ghostly figure that flickers slightly to suggest that the soul of the character is trying to escape from the dying body.
I felt this worked very well and helped to create a very vivid scene.
Also, I used non-diagetic sounds to create a heightened sense of emotion. I could have used natural sounds but this would have made the scene seem too real and I wanted it to appear unreal and like a scene from a fantasy/horror film. For the editing of the music I blended the sounds from the TV into the music by gradually blending the two together to create a beautifully flowing scene. I wanted the music to be as obscure and unrecognizable as possible with no lyrics or memorable tune. I came across an orchestral band called "God Speed You Black Emperor". They are an instrumental band that play psychedelic avante garde music. By copying and pasting their music and using only 30 seconds of a one and a half hour track I achieved the effect I wanted but it was quite difficult to cut the music down in this way. By selecting a very eerie section of music with voices and supernatural sounds

Research and Development of Ideas

In this clip, one can see my inspiration for my shots of the Parker character walking through his environment to his destination. Danny Boyle used this same effect to indicate that his character, Renton, is dominated by his environment and is in a state of isolation and loneliness. Also, this shot is very symmetrical and reveals Boyle's background of Fine Art studies and photography. Due to this, he is obviously very technically accomplished. Also, he applies the same concept in "28 Days Later" as he was here also trying to present an apocalyptic view of the urban landscape in which his character is dwarfed by his surroundings.

Amateur Film Maker replicated the opening scene of "28 Days Later between 4 and 5am on a summer morning with excellent results.

Footage from actual film "28 Days Later."
Made in 2001. Has since become a cult classic. The cinema photography for this film was done by Anthony Don Mantel and this is absolutely breathtaking in the apocalyptic opening scenes and won an award on its own.

Research and Ideas
Another individual artist whose work I have been studying is Daniel MacGee. One of his premier videos was for a Document issue done for the Blueprints Company's Big Push edition where he constructed a series shots for the intro where he used a number of dollies and tracks to create a very visually edited special effect where the background swirls around the foreground due to the motion of the camera whereby one zooms in whilst moving out making a very striking surreal effect. This technique was first employed in Stephen Spielburg's "Jaws" in a very memorable scene where the main character is looking out to sea while the shark attacks. This is a very effective shot to get the audience's attention. Also, this technique has been used on various "slowed down" commercials produced by the Government which is exactly like Danny MacGee's scene and this is probably where he got his idea from. The idea is to catch the eye of the target audience and get the message across as clearly as possible. Another style which I have also been inspired by is the old fashioned vignette-ing effect used by Danny MacGee in this production whereby the outside edge becomes darker to replicate the hand-cranked film camera of the late 1900's. I intend to use this for my dream-like sequence as this is a clear visual ident for the audience to tell which state of mind my subject is in as it has a non-linear pattern narrative. Also, the connotations of this editing effect help to establish the mood and atmosphere that I want to create for my film eg. the insanity/isolation. Also, the vignette-ing replicates many motion pictures that try to encapsulate dream sequences as dreams are often portrayed in this way. I have also noticed that a lot of mainstream and prime time television programmes such as "Top Gear" and "The Apprentice" and many other reality T V shows use this vignette-ing effect to create glamour and expensive-looking shots but this is not what this technique was originally intended for as it was in fact a mistake which occurred due to the poor quality equipment available in the early days of filming. Also, this method is at least 100 years old and one wonders why these effects now have these con notations

Research and Development of Idea
For the juxtaposition of the two states - reality and imagination - I needed a very subtle but dramatic edit similar to the edit used by Daniel Boyle in "Trainspotting" (1996) where Mark Renton jumps over a wall into a drug den leaving his normal life behind and entering a nightmare existence. Also, the following scene where Renton goes into a coma I have tried to replicate in my scene where my character becomes insane as I felt this had the same connotations as Boyle's scene. Renton and my character are both in a state where they are in their own private worlds with the real world revolving around them. In my version, I have tried to create a differentiation between the two worlds - one being saturated in its colours and one de-saturated. This helps to connote different states of mind - depression, isolation and insanity in turn.
"Trainspotting" is a good example of a film that focusses on a main character and how his actions affect other people and his own state of mind through insanity and final rehabilitation after drug abuse.

Footage for Video. For the dream scene, we shot various types of footage. The first footage was of the dead body being trailed along the floor the Parker character. By using a shopping trolley and mounting a tripod on it, this helped to create a smooth motion and a very slick and not shaking camera shot. This produced an effect as if the camera was not actually there at all. Editing this footage, I created several layers within it. The first layer was de-saturated and high contrast and gamma level whilst the other layer was a highly saturated cross processed colour effect and cropped in to 50 per cent. The third layer was the same saturation but cropped 25 per cent. This helped to create the effect of the surrealist dream that the character is re-living. The multiple layered shot helps to create the very close up motions and difficulty that the character has with moving the body for we see not only the entire image but also fractions of the image of the body e.g .its legs and hands. This multiple layered effect of different colours also connotes a dream like state as often in real life dreams we get the effect of black and white visions with flickering colours. Also, the mise en scene helps to connote the sense of a surrealist hellish nightmare.

http://www.timelapsemovie.co.uk/
Research into time lapsed animation is one subject I am very interested in for it is sometimes the most powerful moving image that a film may include.

In these videos what has happened to the time lapse is quite unusual as the camera is not just fixed onto a tripod for the camera is placed on a track which moves whenever a frame is taken to create a three dimensional time lapse

Video.

VideoTreatment.
Title name - "Twilight"
Plot - Narrative
The plot consists of equiallibrium, disequallibrium and at the end the audience and characters are left with no closure. Therefore the window is left open for inferences and enigmas.
The plot follows one main character through his daily life and through his descent into insanity which leads to homicidal tendencies. The video is split into two different narrative strands. One is reality and the other is his imagination which is clearly visible through visual iconography as I change the saturation of the colours accordingly. Also, blended with this I will create different layers on top with fraction of a second difference between each layer to create a juddered reality.
The main character will be represented as a loner and virtual hermit. The audience does not get to know the character very well during the film and therefore they have to make their own assumptions about the state of depression into which the character sinks and these assumptions are quite stereotypical. Through the film I will only have non-diagetic sounds to indicate emotions and states of mind. Also, as well as this, the cinematography will be constructed to represent three different emotions. The camera will be held very steadily at first and a very smooth motion will be created to indicate that the world is moving around the character and this helps to connote his state of mind at this stage. Camera movement number two will consist of the camera being placed in a fixed position with the character moving through the shot to suggest loneliness and isolation for there will be nothing else in the shot except the solitary figure of this character. These shots will be very symmetrical like the shots from Stanley Kubrick's "The Shining" and Daniel Boyle's "28 Days Later" intro and also will be reminiscent of "Trainspotting". The iconography will also help to anchor the emotions and the overall plot of the story as the colours will be very de-saturated signifying boredom and depression. As well as this the shots will be in very high contrast to suggest horror and enigma. The editing will be very subtle with fades in and fades out and also there will be juxtaposing of one scene.




For this video production we will be focusing on the main character. Emotion and feeling will be displayed through the cimematography relating to his state of mind, loneliness, depression and isolation. By using surrealist shots and steady motioned shots from the camera which will produce a very smooth flow with no jarring to use the environment
. One shot to create this will be done using an escalator and tripod in order to create this smooth motion
A shopping trolley and tripod will be used to create a world that revolves around the character as the character is not moving himself unlike a simple camera shot where the camera is pointed and the subject walks by the camera.
Another shot using a mirrored effect on the camera to create a surrealist picture
.A shot of a fuzzed out TV with extreme close ups to create the sense of loneliness and intensity
.

http://hub.tv-ark.org.uk/images/cult/cult_who/titleseqs/doctorwho1963al.jpg

The pilot title sequence (clip above left) was created by Bernard Lodge, who filmed and manipulated the "howlaround" feedback of a TV camera pointing at its own monitor. A column of light rises before ripping and swirling, as if to suggest a journey through time. Delia Derbyshire's extraordinary original arrangement of the famous Ron Grainer theme music accompanies this footage, in its day the most alien-sounding piece of music ever recorded and still prone to sending a shiver up the spine.
For the Video production we are going to have the same sort of footage of looping the camera to the actual television with the silhouette within the frame as this will create a very surrealistic depiction of the character's nightmare and his state of mind or by using a mirrored effect to create a halucinogenic image.

Life Size Zoetrope by Mark Simon Hewis

The zoetrope is widely regarded as the precursor to movies and in this documentary we watch Mark Simon Hewis as he attempts to re-create the zoetrope movie effect life size using photos of naked friends in a whirling fairground ride. The story is well covered up to the point where the volunteers will have to enter the ride: then it stops. It is an interesting experiment so we hope the rest of the story is on its way to FourDocs.
http://www.channel4.com/fourdocs/film/film-detail.jsp?id=45385




http://www.hewis.co.uk/LSZpresstimeout.html
http://web.mac.com/markhewis/iWeb/Site/The%20Life%20Size%20Zoetrope%20(2007).html




Check out this video: Hewis Showreel



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