Documentary- Analysis of The Lost Tribes of New York City (Andy and Carolyn London, 2009)

The Lost Tribes of New York City is a brilliantly captured documentary playing with the conventions of what the genre is. Similarly to the ideas of Creature Comforts the London's use animation to play with the genre and create new view of New York City. It references to individual groups in New York such as racial minorities and builders etc and uses the typical views expressed by them turning the everyday objects such as post boxes and drain pipes into the speakers. I really enjoyed this piece as it mixed entertainment with serious issues that the documentary genre expresses. I thought the shots used were very simple and the animation used was fairly basic therefore it was more interesting as a short piece. I will use this as inspiration as it gives the genre a twist and creates entertinment for the audience.

Documentary- Analysis of The Ice Tribe (Heidi Vilkman, 2006)

The Ice Tribe is an interesting piece as it shows a simple routine that people have in Finland but due to the cultural differences we have with them this is seen as phenomenal when we watch people do this. The documentary is about people who swim in an ice lake daily to give themselves the wonderful feeling that it is supposed to give you. I enjoyed this film and chose to analyse it because of its difference to our lifestyle and the new knowledge it has to offer. The documentary makes the lake swimming seem like a positive thing and is creating an interest in the viewer to try ice swimming. The filmmaking is also interesting as it is centered all in on small place, around the ice lake mostly and in the house during some of the interviews. This is again a simplictic way of filming but works in the context that it is describing. The documentary is focused more on the event that it is showing than the filmmaking it is creating. This is relevant to the documentary we will be making as I want to identify something that is subtly different and interesting in Liverpool that will be out of anyone's normal daily routine.

Documentary- Analysis of The Archive (Sean Dunne,2009)

I have chosen to analyse The Archive due to a combination of it's filmmaking and it's emotional depth that Dunne has gone to to show the unacknowledged victory that Paul Mawhinney has achieved by collecting these Vinyls. I think this combined with the statistical understanding of his collection gave ma an emotional attachment to Paul.
The filmmaking throughout this piece is interesting. Dunne's use of cutaways especially at the end are cleverly juxtaposed with the music in the background as clarified when the lights turn off to the music at the end of the piece. I also think his choice to extend the shot of Paul upset by his unacknowledgement is extremely helpful in gaining the audiences emotional attachment as Dunne puts stastics about the Archives worth and selling price which allows us to understand the gutting feeling that Paul has. This combined with the music in the background creates a successful mood and was something that I found interesting when viewing. The statistics used are in Pauls interest as it helps us to realise his loss and the interviews of both him and his wife help to make us realise the determination that Paul has for his records. I enjoyed this piece and could appreciate the choices of filmmaking that Dunne has used in this documentary. I think the use of simple shots that stay in the same room throughout is also good as there is a lot of things to focus on in the room and Dunne identifies all of this individually. The ideas used in this piece will be useful when creating our final documentary.

Analysis of The Apology Line (James Lees, 2008)

The Apology Line is an interesting piece due to it's originality within the documentary genre. Similarly to Pockets it looks at many different peoples identity however this is really the only thing that connects these two films. In this documentary Lees has juxtaposed cutaways of a city estate with the shocking but interesting confessions heard on the Apology Line. As the film short progresses we dig deeper inside different peoples lives which is cleverly contrasted with the relevent shots seen on screen which get closer to the people who's faces he has hidden off screen.
At first I was sceptical about this documentary as it didn't seem to show any relevance on screen however on realising it is the conversations that is truly the basis of this documentary I found it a lot more interesting and can appreciate the simple but cleverly constructed shots that have relevence in singling out the identity of certain individuals who call the Apology Line. Lees is trying to say that it could be anyone, anywhere and that we all have confessions to apologise for. From a production perspective I could appreciate Lees simplistic use of filming and sound to create the documentary as he uses in Pockets. I will take insiration of this simplistic filming when creating my documentary in Liverpool and focus more on the story than the filming.

Documentary- Analysis of Pockets (James Lees, 2008)

Pockets by James Lees is a thought provoking documentary showing the identity of people through what they hold in their pockets. We are taken through lots of different Londoners that are interviewed and ony briefly discuss the item they are holding and it's significance. Through the combination of seeing the item, the face of the items holder and hearing what they have to say about it we can find out a lot about the identity of the individual. For example the woman with the crack pipe and money is seen to be a typical crack addict however when we see her face we can see the regret in her eyes as she describes something she cannot attach herself from.
The documentary kept my interest and allowed me to think about each person as an individual instead of just the population of London. I have taken some inspiration from this short film as it is created with simle shots and simple sound editing that does not have any complicated editing or shots. As a whole I enjoyed what this documentary had to offer and will use some of the techniques when filming in Liverpool.

Experimental Film- Final Thoughts

Altogether the project was a success. We were able to grasp the idea all the way from the initial response to the assignment. As a team we closely collaborated all the way through the production process and because of this we were able to create a completely original piece. This even included the soundtrack of the film which was created in sync by Tom Newsham, this is a strong piece about our film as we did not have to worry about any copyright and can say that this is our own original work that is inspired but not copied from any other experimental film. The planning process was a little rushed due to the time contraints that we had but we still met up 4 times before shooting to collaborate on all the ideas and note down a finalised script, shooting schedule and storyboard to create an image ready in time for shooting. I think the editing was my strong point personally as this is where I contributed my main role and I was able to create the image that we all wanted to have for the finished piece. Hopefully the film will be up to the standard of the Level 4 Film and Media Production class.

Experimental Fim- Editing Stage

Today we edited the Experimental film. We began very early and finished, as you will realise, very late. However 13 hours of editing allowed us to carefully consider each individual clip and edit with the story. Not just the quickest and easiest order. In my opinion the edit was the most difficult obsticle in the production stages for this experimental film. This is because there were a lot of changes that I made when editing and some of it was improvised to try and capture the best outcome to share with the audience. We had loads of choice when it came to deciding on shots for the scenes we captured due to the use of multiple camera set ups throughout shooting. I really favoured this idea as I knew the editing would be better if we had choice as continuity and emotion could be captured in the scenes we planned. The only problem we had was trying to get 5 mins of video. However after trying numerous different cuts we decided to leave it without unneeded filler as it would spoil the overall mood that we had grasped in the final cut. We have called our experimental film 'Monotony' as we felt this outlined the feeling of the video and what the character we represented would feel.

Experimental Film- Second Day of Shooting

Yesterday we had our final day of shooting in the ocation of Crowle. We filmed in Tom's house and dressed two of his rooms with props for suiting what we thought would outline the character psychological instability. Also whilst shooting we came up with the isea of a repeating poem that would become significant in the overall film. This turned out to be a good idea as we recorded videos and voices in many different way to give a range of different choices in the editing stage. Altogether the shoot went brilliantly. We didn't shoot the whole shotlist however we collaborated on the unneeded footage and decided that we would not need certain shots that were on the shotlist in the panning process. Tom Mann our actor was very effecient and we were able to shoot quickly but carefully to capture all the necessary footage we will need for editing.

Experimental Film- First day Shooting

Yesterday (8th February) was our first day of shooting. We completed the bathroom scene using multiple camera set ups and recording sound on the Marantz 660. It went suprisingly well, we were able to get more shots than we thought we would and got some good close up tight shots that exaggerate the claustrophobia of the small room he is in. However a problem that may occur in the editing stages of production is the use of improvisation that we added when shooting yesterday. Hopefully we should be able to add these pieces in through intricate cutting with both audio and video we captured. Although this was a problem we created a good look to the bathroom scene and have a lot of choice when editing thanks to the multiple camera set ups.
We are recording the rest of the shot list on Tuesday which leaves us in a tight schedule to get the editing finished. However we have booked early and will be editing from tuesday evening onwards as to get the final film as good as we possibly can.

Experimental Film- Analysis of Telling Lies

This short Experimental was really effective as it used comedy within a series of phone calls by combining the words that are spoken on the phone with the wrods on the screen that show the truth of what the people are thinking. I enjoyed this even though you don't see anything except words on the screen. However the brutal truth these words display effectively show the comedy in a day to day life of what goes on in our heads. The dialogue is clear and we know that it is clearly a series of different phone calls without having to see anything as the sound used describes everything for us. I enjoyed this film and appreciated the difference it had compared to normal film. I can see that there are plenty of comedians that have used this idea now such as the Phonehacker on channel 4 as this is a funny concept.

Experimental Film- Analysis of Ballet Mecanique, 1924

Ballet Mecanique was an interesting experimental film. This was seen to be a completely new concept at the time of it's release and is definitely different to anything I have seen. The music created for it is a strange almost collision of music that for me created a certain uncomforting feel. I thought that it suited the film however as it was essentially a load of random images using mostly the shapes squares and triangles. These were cleverly repeated throughout making the images important to the viewer. Also many of the images are moving. I think that this film has something to do with the constant movement in society. This is because the fast and strange music mixed with the constant moving images gives a fast paced feel to the audience. The repeating image of steam and pistons moving is something that further exaggerates a social movement as 1924 was a time were there was a fight to revolutionise within europe due to the after effects of the First World War. I think the machinery and the shapes must have some sort of indication of the constant moving pace of society. I personally did not like this film due to the huge difference it has from any other film I have seen. However I appreciate it's value within the influencial side of film as this has changed the way filmmakers have created film and has shown that film can have no boundaries in things such as narrative and so on.

Experimental Film- Schedule list for film

The below list shows the schedule in which the film will go. It has no linear narrative and focuses on one character within a confined space, this is representing his clautrophobic mind that he cannot escape from. As a group we will discuss this in more detail and create a step by step shot list as to shoot the entire film in the aloted time we have given. Hopefully this will be successful on the shoot day.

- Credits and title.
- Montage of parallel images starting slow and then building up
pace for about thirty seconds. Everything - being clean and tidy and checkerboard style, nice and neat.
- Close up and side close up of character's face and hands- handheld.
- Close up from behind of him standing up.
- Cut to him standing in front of mirror - mid-shot.
- A close up of his hands shaking as he takes pills.
- An extreme close up of his mouth saying "go on, take your pills!"
- An argument with himself in the mirror, split into three parts.
- Parts split up by his suffering of OCD, repeating actions such as putting his shoes on and off, toast burning, light switch on and off, writing on the wall obsessively and washing his hands frequently due to his hygiene.
- A montage of him organising everything - aligning things in his room.
- In the montage put random shots of him looking at the camera, cutting himself and shouting out.
- Repeat image throughout of the character looking at the camera.
- Shots of the character putting together jigsaw puzzles calming, finding solace and comfort by distracting him. Puzzle reflects his mind.
- Flicking light on and off - when light is off it is complete darkness.
- Last flicker of light it cuts to character cutting his neck and then cuts out at the same time.

Experimental Film- Script

- Get a grip mate!
- Stop looking at yourself!
- What's wrong with you? - You know what's wrong.
- You're acting crazy!
- Stop doing this! - I can't! I need to do this! - Just
stop!
- *Takes pills and tries to swallow all of them but then spits
them out and is sick* What are you doing to yourself?!
- Your pathetic!
- Can't do anything!
- Go make yourself useful for once!
- Wash you're hands ten thousand times or go walk up and down
stairs! *laughs*
- Like you're useful for anything.
- I'm sick of looking at you!

This is the script we wrote in our last group meeting. It is showing him battling mentally with his Obsessive Compulsive Disorder and conveys his anger to himself and therefore shows the audience the emotions he feels with his psychological state. We thought this would be good as it really shows the character in his own eyes. We hope this will be successful in the shoot and the final video.

Experimental Film- Storyboard, second meeting

After our second meeting as a group we drew up a rough storyboard for the first scene in our Experimental Film. This was accompanied by a short script of dialogue that we have decided to use for the mirror arguement scene. I think that although we have a lot more planning to do, we are beginning to create a strong idea in our heads of how the film is going to look at have discussed many different ideas that will be useful to use when shooting and editing. In our second meeting we further collaborated on the ideas we had for the film and each of us gave interesting ideas to the group that we have all taken on board in creating the shot list and storyboard for our shoot. We hope to shoot on Tuesday the 7th February as to allow plenty of time to edit for the next weeks final presentation. Hopefully this will be successful and show the effort we have put in in the pre-production stage.

Experimental Film- Equipment List

In our Experimental film we will be using:

2x Canon EOS 550D DSLR Cameras
2x Tripod
1x Audio technika rifle mic
1x Omnidirectional mic
1x Marantz 660

Acessories include: XLR Cables, Headphones, Canon lenses, Desk lamp, Spare Batteries

We will be renting out only audio equipment in this project as we plan to use our own camera equipment for similar quality shots and wider range of shots when editing.

We will be using Final Cut Pro and Soundtrack Pro and will be referencing to our planning material throughout the production and post-production stages.

Experimental Film- Inspiration- Everlong music Video, Michel Gondry

Ok so this is very loosely related to the Experimental film idea we are going to make. However it is the duality between reality and the mind that is significant in this video. The fact that in the dream state we see certain desires or nightmares that you believe, to a certain extent, in reality. I liked this idea that Gondry uses. This is one of the many music videos he has created, most of the videos are done in one shot or very few shots and opposes what we as a film watching audience are used to. Therefore his work in creating music videos is inspirational in creating a short film that opposes the audiences perception of reality.

Experimental Film- Shot planning

The shots and shot styles below are a list that we think will display the feeling of claustrophobia, order and control(or loss of control):
Depth-of-field to make the character seem smaller in the shot.
Some square and formal shots to show that everything has to be in order.
Unique angles to reflect how his mind works.
Multiple close ups of the character and his surroundings.
Repetition of shots through multiple takes and quick editing.
Quick cuts and seamless editing to show how his mind is fractured.
Low key lighting to add an atmosphere and aura of darkness and feeling alone.
High-angle shots to make him feel insignificant and isolated.

These ideas are useful in displaying to the audience the psychological state the character feels. We aim to put the audience into the mind of the character and experience what he experiences. This will show a sympathetic stance toward the obessive state he feels, allowing the mind of the character to be interpreted by the audience. We are able to convey this by using multiple set ups using 2 Canon 550D's and careful planning to mke sure we do not cross the boundaries we have made.

Experimental Film- Initial Idea

When considering all the inspirations I have stated below we came up with a reasonably strong initial idea within our first group meeting. We have decided to focus on a character who is psychologically unstable due to his obsessive behaviour. This was a good idea as the character is unstable therefore if we look at the world in his own point of view there will be no narrative and no true reality in the film. It is this loss of reality that we are going to display to the audience to be able to interpret his behaviour by what is going on in the shots we take.

We are trying to make this a unique film. We are going to use tight close shots to show the claustrophobic feeling that the character has and combine this with quick paced cutting in editing to The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo trailer as this gives the sense of the thoughts rushing through the characters head, constantly changing due to his obsessive behaviour. In the editing we are also going to add implicit images throughout that at first will just flicker in the editing to confuse the audience but then as the story progresses they will understand these underlying images.

The music we hope to achieve will be similar to that of Intervals by Peter Greenaway as the beat he uses that is syncronised to the cutting of the shots is a powerful tool in creating order, something that we want to exagerate in our film. The fact that Greenaway also uses different sound on each sequence is effective in providing different interpretations of the same sequence. We want to do this to allow the audience to recognise the psychologically fractured mind of our character as to get some sense of meaning from this short film.

We also plan to use black and white for the entire film as this will deepen the sense of darkness within the character. He has demons as his mind is controlling him yet he is fighting to control it. This will really show in the scene we have decided on where he argues with himself in the mirror. This theme of control and order will run throughout and with black and white the duality in the film will be further exaggereated.

The shots we plan to use in our short film will all be constructed as checkerboard and parallel to most of the things we are focusing on. This will be explained in more detail in the shot list blog post.

Finally we are able to have multiple camera set ups in this film as both myself and Tom have Canon 550D DSLR's. Therefore we will have more choice and better continuity in post production. We can also have a wider range of shot angles and cutaways. Furthermore sound is also going to be controlled and we aim to use a minimum amount when shooting and dub the narration in post production.

The downside of this project is the amount of time we have to complete it. This is our first project with both Camera and sound yet we have the shortest amount of time to finalise it. This may effect the overall quality of our shoot and edit. However we aim to create as strong of a short film as we can.

Experimental Film- Inspiration- Art

It seems ridiculous but this has been an inspiration during the creation of the Experimental ideas in the planning stages. It's not the im age of Barrack Obama but the fact that it has been created by thousands of little images put in a specific order to make the bigger picture. This idea of thousands of little shots put together in order is something we very much thought about in our initial idea. We have considered numerous montage sequences in fast paced. And if these are not ordered right and put together right it will not make a clear picture similar to if I moved some of the little picture above. This would mess up the picture and the final image/theme would loose it's clarity to the audience. Therefore I have had to keep this in mind when creating every element of our idea making sure that the underlining theme of psychologically fractured bahaviour is considered in every bit of the film.

Experimental Film- Inspiration- Memento, 2000

Memento is a jigsaw film in the way that the film is put together piece by piece and you can only understand it when you have every piece put together. This idea is one I admire when watching films and enjoy trying to project in my films. Therefore I have tried to incorporate a sense of mystery in a non linear narrative throughout the initial idea to try and keep the attention of the audience and more importantly give the audience an interpretation that they can feel when watchin the film. I want to keep the audience from understanding the psychological behaviour that goes on within the characters head but see everything that he sees so they can interpret what they see rather than what I want them to see. This poses a certain threat to the film as it could potentially wreck the film becoming simply misunderstood. Therefore Memento has given me certain influences that create boundaries for what is good to display in the film to allow the audience to recognise certain issues in the Experimental Film. This includes such things as a guide, which in Memento is shown in the form of the tattoos on the main characters body.

Experimental film- Inspiration- Meshes of The Afternoon, 1943

This film by Maya Deren cleverly represents the mind of a woman as she looses her grip on reaity. This shows some stylistic emotions and themes that we took as insiration in our idea. The way the characters mind is reflected in this piece really gave us the idea of fractured and twisted reality, the hooded person, the telephone of it's hook the knife, these images that create a specific theme is something that we hope to achieve in our final film.
The soundtrack for this piece is also influential on our idea as its alternative style that it has really gives an uncomforting and strange atmosghere to the piece and further gives the sense of the loss of grip on reality. I like this as it is different to the usual music that we hear in contemporary films and experimental films of this era.

Experimental Film- Inspiration- Intervals, 1969

This experimental short was important in helping us find inspiration for an initial idea. In Intervals, Peter Greenaway cleverly uses repeating checkerboard shots on walls and shopfronts throughout Venice. The sequence of shots are repeated three times, each time with different sound clips in the foreground of the film. The sound makes the sequence different each time as we interpret a different meaning within the film. The first time it is just the walls. The second time the Italian alphabet is being recited which gives the interpretation of labelling or order within the sequence. The final time there are rhyming couplets recited which interpret certain themes within the sequence such as family. The idea of the three sequences having different intepretations is an idea that we strongly pushed when creating the intitial idea within our group. I thought that this combined with a repeating montage sequence would be effective in showing the psychologically fractured mind of the character we are going to represent in the film. The film is also shot in black and white, a common theme that runs through most experimental films. We are also going to use black and whiteto convey a typical experimental convention. This film helped us to set boundaries within the initial idea we created and has given us a lot of influence when finalising our idea.

Experimental Film- Inspiration

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WVLvMg62RPA

The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo trailer is very distinguishable as it is essentially a montage or series of clips from the film that form a significant advert showing what is in this film. I really like this idea as it keeps the audience watching as well as thinking quickly as these clips only last for a few frames. When deciding on our initial idea for our experimental project we looked at this trailer as a ground for the idea we are going to convey when the film is finished. However our fast paces editing is going to be used as a means to show the psychological behaviour that our character has throughout the film. We thought it would be a good idea to start the clips cutting slowly and gradually speeding up to extremely fast paced to try and put the audience in a similr position to what is going on in the characters head.
There is also no dialogue in the above trailer something that we are initially deciding on for a way of leaving the film more to audience interpretation. This is because issues become a lot more ambiguous without dialogue therefore it will give the experimental approach more significance for the character this film is based around. Altogether this trailer has been a crucial idea in the initial planning of our Experimental Film idea.