I have had to redo my animatic as the original version, the first 30 seconds that I previously posted was firstly just a tester to see if it worked using Vimeo but secondly, was only saved on the school system and I forgot to transfer it to my own home computer. This first minute is the final first minute of the animatic.
I will post the animatic in segments of one minute and then a final complete version, so that if I need to find a specific place in the animatic for referencing, I can find it easier and quicker.
I am amazed that I have not actually created a stop motion, or frame-by-frame animation using artwork that I have created, I am hugely inspired by art and wacky artists.
It will be hard to include something from an artists imagination in my own work, it would be hard to include anything in my film from my imagination as well, because of the small budget that I will be working with. It would have been brilliant though.
I am so inspirted by people like Tim Burton, Edward Gorey, Patricia Piccinini, Dr. Seuss, John Tenniel etc. There are so many people that have such intricately weaved worlds from their own minds, that I would have loved to create a short diving deeper into a world on the same level of complexity and detail.
The inspiration that all of my favourite artists have on me is still present in the work I will be doind, live action footage rather than animation, but in an easier and more realistic form. Elements of all of my inspirations will hopefully creep into the work and like the homage I will be paying to my favourite directors and producers, there will be moments where the shot looks as if from an art piece or artistically weird world.
I simply would have loved to have created a short about my own weird world, with fully living and breathing characters. Obviously to an extent I am, the unnamed and un-classifiable time period makes it quite surreal and like something from an artists world. The point I am trying to make, I think, is that I would have really liked to have created a world from scratch, with weird buildings, characters etc. like a Tim Burton world or Dr. Seuss one.
In my own way however I am creating my own world as there is no set date or place to my piece and it does not, or will not appear to look completely similar to reality and earth, so in that sense there is definetely something fantasy like about it, or there definetely will be as I have not filmed it yet.
Here is the first 30 seconds of my animatic. This is a tester to see if I can actually upload successfully from Windows Movie Maker to Vimeo to Blogger.
I really like that everybody who receives media, no matter what the media is or what way in which it is received, the audience/receiver will be taken it in for any numerous reasons more than likely stemming from the uses and gratifications theory. Whether or not the receiver is intentionally looking for something to satisfy, disrupt or challenfe each individual stage of the theory, I will use the theory to further understand how I could disrupt and challenge each section in my own film. For example the security and safety need can be challenged by putting the audience in an unfamiliar and uncontrollable environment, in which actions deemed evil or cruel by society take place. The planned death/s in my short film will, although relate to the individuals understanding of society, also move them from their comfort zone of normality and dayto day occurences. The main way what I can challenge their needs, security and safety and also social need, is to create a non-linear storyline that twists and morphs quickly from setting to setting and time period to time period. This will leave the receiver feeling far from normality and security. The social need will be lost from the lack of affection running underneath the surface of the piece. Although the story centres on love, evilness and amorality run deep in the actions and emotions represented by the vicious and dark characters.
The simplest way to further a specified target audience, is too look at the effects model and NRS social grade. As I previous stated my intended target audience would be that of socially educated and art acknowledged lifestyle. The effects model below is an excellent way of understanding the psychological consmption that each individual will be a part of when consuming medias. The main intention that I would have for my audience, is that the would definately not be a hypodermic audience, and would not passively absorb every message given to them like a sponge, I want people to watch my film who can decipher the various images in their own individual ways and with their own intentions, i.e. if they want to believe certain aspects they can and if not they do not. This in mind, the main theory would be reception theory that I am hoping that my audience would apply to. The reception theory allows the audience to elicit their own meanings from the text from personal cultural and social issues. Also the obstinate audience theory is hugely influential on my intentions, as I do not wish for the receiver to just believe everything they see and accept it, I want them to interpret every shot differently and with their own individual twist. It is hard to put a class boundary on your film as all classes will undoubtedly be free to watch the film when attending the cinema, if they happen to be watching the film my short is positioned in front of, but also online. The more likely class boundaries that my film would be aiming at would be lower middle class to middle class, as these are the boundary audiences that the film exhibitioners that I am targetting my film to be shown at, target their products at. Also the higher educated audience in bands B and C1, although hugely stereotypical as this may be the boundaries prove that the higher earners are better educated, these will be the more understanding of an art based/art contextual based short film which explores film making and style rather than plotline and character depth.
Today it was brought to my attention again, that I need to explain and expand on my desired and intended target audience. It occured to me that I had not stated clearly who I was aiming my piece at so far, and so thought it best to establish who I am intending my short film to be aimed at.
As the first ideas and thoughts that I had about my short film, were to make it look more like an artwork, a visually appealing film, this unwritten style has stuck in my mind in the basic preperations that I have had to do with my short film. I really wanted, and still do, to create a film that looks like a piece of art, like something that you would hang on your wall more than a film. This preference of mine would undoubtedly lead to a whole different audience, an experimental piece of work into light and colour would far form keep the interest of an audience of five year old girls. The initial thought is that of art aware people, well educated art followers with a keen sense of creativity and individuality. The piece would need to target someone who would appreciate something with a fairly simple storyline, as they could appreciate the visual style of the piece instead.
From the various trips I have made to Cinema City, a local picture house in Norwich, I have begun to see a pattern in its audiences. With the exception of myself and the other 'young' folk that I have gone with, it seems to be a matured audience obviously with a good understanding of film and their desired genre and also with a quirky personality that allows them to explore into other directors works and stlyes.Perhaps however, this says something more about the film than the cinema. However Cinema City, not being a mainstream and regular ODEON or UCI, it does attract more well respected figures of society. This gave me a basic, perhaps stereotype is the right word, over the regular viewers of such artistic films and this appears to be the same audience that I imagine watching my film.
The age range would obviously be from middle twenties to late fifties, a range of well educated people from various cultures and backgrounds can be present here, but all with different understandings of the world and each with their own artisitic backgrounds and artistic experiences. This would lead on to the general profession/hobbies of people, and that being art. I would be aiming my film at artists, art students, art curators, art journalists etc. anyone familiar with artistic movements or histories. It would also apply to the generalised public, rather than this niche market of twenty to fifty year old artists, although this audience would be the targeted and the audience from which they would most appreciate and understand a work attempting to be visually impressive.
Opening in a dark, poorly lit and fairly creepy theatre, a formally dressed unnamed male introduces the lead act to the show, an escape artist who will be performing an escape from rope/chain or other such equipment. His also unnamed girlfriend/fiance/partner is watching from behind stage along with the envious eyes of her stalker/fancier, also unnamed. An accident occurs in the escape and the artist is killed. She rushes to the stage and soon realises that it was the other man who wanted her for himself who has killed him. She goes to his dressing room, or just a random room where he is and kills him. She then climbs the steps of the theatre tower and jumps off.
This is the simplest form of the story, the film itself will be non-linear, so you will see the death of the main man fairly close to the beginning, the death of the lead female at the end and the death of the killer near the end, her descent to the tower will be at the beginning. The clips of her waiting to jump, climbing the stairs, her partners performance, his death the killers death etc. will all be pieced together in a fragmented and non-linear order. This however will not take the audience away from the storyline, it will not be complicated to understand, and also this will not degrade the visual style of the film in anyway.
First published in July 1989, edited by Barry McIlheney and published by Emap, Empire Film Magazine was, and still is the leading British Film Magazine. It is also published in Australia, Turkey and Russia.
Empire is extremely popular amongst the British public, undoubtedly for its wide spread coverage of mainstram films and art and independent films.
There are various other articles present in the magazine, along with the customary film reviews and news articles. These include;
A Classic Scene a transcript from a notable film scene.
A regular Top 10 feature list, which list's Empire's top ten of film related subjects.
The At Home section which focuses on DVD/Blu-ray etc. sales and reviews.
Pint of Milk. A section which asks celebrities silly and unusual questions, including the question 'How much is a pint of milk?' A clever technique into their touch with reality.
'Spine Quote', a quote published on the spine of the edition which obscure and sometimes direct links to the featured article/s. There is a prize for the reader if the send in to Empire the correct film that the quotation is from.
Kim Newman's DVD Dungeon, in which reviewer and critic Kim Newman reviews the most obscure DVD releases, usually low budget horror films.
Celebrity Mastermind is another regular in which celebrities are asked questions about their own films they appeared in or directed. Celebrities range from Quentin Tarantino and Christopher Lee (who are near the top of the scoreboard) to John Carpenter and Michael Keaton (who are near the bottom of the scoreboard.)
The Masterpiece section is a regular article, since issue 167 (May 2003), in which a two page spread article is written about an At Home DVD release. The selection are random and follow no pattern, for example not the best film released on DVD, specific directors works or even the worst DVD release.
I am planning to begin constructing a layout for my magazine review, from the research that I will be conducting into how 'Empire' and 'Total Film' magazine both write their reviews and how they lay them out online and offline.
From this research, I should be able to get an idea of the best formula to creating a review and will therefore be able to adapt my ideas into a successful review of my film.
Review. In the lesson I was able to read an EMPIRE and TOTAL FILM magazine review, and also begin to break down the fundamental structure of the magazines reviews.
I have also been guided to look closer at small independent review magazines, mostly the art and music ones. Norfolk has very few artistic/creative magazines with the exception of 'Outline', which seems to focus mainly on music rather than film, although they do showcase no and upcoming work of music, art and film creators. London's 'Timeout' magazine will be another to look at, as it is a fairly underground magazine which looks at local creative talent.
Now I had seen various Twin Peaks episodes before understanding who Lynch was, and it came of no suprise that he was the creator of the T.V programme when I saw, or sampled other works of his.
Firstly I will briefly mention Eraserhead. From what I can decipher of the film, I quite like it. A mix of the unexplainable, the unrealistic, the unbelievable and the damn stupid makes this film something that seems to has had a lasting effect on me. Namely, the most recognisable feature of the film is the look, black and white highly contrasted and exposed footage of darkly lit rooms and weird tormented figures. The overall black and white feel of the film adds to the suspense and the tension, along with the storyline of course, the film noir like feel present in the film adds a lot more scare and creepiness to the film than what there would be if it was filmed in colour. I myself found it hard to pull myself away from the style and look of the film, looking deeper into the shadows and closer and the dark twisted shapes that lurked around the characters, rather than the storyline not that that there is much of one present. I find his use of character the most interesting feature of his work/s. Eraserhead for example has such peculiar and such outlandish characters, or more accurately creations, which build up and away from human emotion and personality and juxtapose various forms of the human life into their own new forms of emotion and personality. He seems to create completely new versions of the human being. Henry Spencer, the lead to Eraserhead seems vaguely familiar to the human form, but has such deformity and disfiguration, not literally like his mutated newborn, but in the way that his actions and speach make him quite scarely different to any normal human being. The film as well follows down into his darker side with the poor lighting and shadowed edges to the screen. I found myself more disturbed by Spencers otherworldy presence and the dark and depressing locations he lurks and fits so well into.
'Mulholland Drive' is another example of how Lynch manipulates our basic understanding of human emotion, to create a more dramatised film which appears more like an early Shakespearean play with the actors switching role throughout the film. You cannot follow any basic understanding of the actresses or even of the characters they are portraying, you have to let yourself watch the film for the characters and events inside of it, rather than looking to closely at the people who are playing them. Even then it is confusing and the switch of roles in the film makes no complete sense to the plot and even more so, Lynch seems reluctant to this day in revealing the true meaning and reason behind the film.
Even when you look at Lynch's earlier works, namely 'Dune' and 'Elephant Man', you begin to see his enforcise on character and the bond between audience and text. He attempts to make you feel more involved with the characters and especially in 'The Elephant Man' the audience feels hugely emotional toward the protagonist and engaged and apart of the characters life. Even here you can see his use of odd and peculiar human qualities exaggerated and expaded beyond normal realistic ways. 'Dune' to a certain extent also has this regular fourth wall between text and audience broken, with the deep and philosophical character backgrounds and histories. Frank Herbert's mastery skill at writing science fiction stories is mainly rewarded for this deeply historical and vastly detailed family tree/s in Dune, and it is unfair how the film slightly lacks the vastness of the book. However saying that, Lynch still manages to bring the audience closer toward the characters through the believable characteristics and also the overworldy ones, you may have to strain to understand the complexity of the families history but this undoubtedly just brings you closer to the characters.
His works seem so similar to where he was born, "the kind of small-town American setting so familiar from his films." - (IMDB, David Lynch 2010). Although I am unaware of his early life, according to IMDB and also Wikipedia he was born in a small town in America and was moved quickly from state to state. This reflects so heavily in his work, the small out of the way towns that nobody knows of which are perfect communities, created by the strong bonding inhabitants, for something odd and out-of-this-world to happen. It is completely believable as nobody has ever seen these small towns and their traditions or beliefs.
The strongest thing I have learnt from Lynch's work, is his extensive use of the character and emotion and personality within them. He creates such strong bonds between the audience and the characters, protagonist and antagonists, that the audience begins to believe the stories tellings and relate and believe the characters emotions. This strong bond and break down of regular audience and character relations, is something that I would love to pay homage to in my own piece. Being a short film however the bond must be made quick if I am going to attempt to create them, and they must also be elaborared, or more likely destroyed quite quickly.
The Fall undoubtedly has lead me to want to create a visually appealing film, over an excellent story line, even though the story line in The Fall does follow on the same lines as the twisting and complex shots/scenes used in being slightly complex and confusing.
The main inspiration that Tarsem is on me is his indivuality and what must have been perserverance to get what he wanted from his films. I just love the fact that he adopted a certain remarkable and recognisable style that can now be seen in most, if not all of his works. I will not be replicating his style simply paying homage to it, as I want my work to be as independent and individual as possible, with also being able to show who and what I find interesting and a great inspiration on my own work.
I will explore different colour techniques in postproduction and post on here once I have experimented. My style will follow the Tarsem basic idea of bright striking colours, but will look different to his final works. Actual the whole process is more similar to Jean Pierre-Jeunets' method of working, in which he more than often edits the colours after production.
"Thriller is a genre of literature, film and television that uses suspense, tension and excitement as the main elements. The primary subgenres of thrillers are: mystery, crime and psychological thrillers. After the assassination of President Kennedy, political thriller and paranoid thriller films became very popular. The brightest examples of thrillers are the Hitchcock’s movies. Thrillers are mostly characterised by an atmosphere of menace, violence, crime and murder by showing society as dark, corrupt and dangerous, though they often feature a happy ending in which the villains are killed or arrested. Thrillers heavily promote on literary devices such as plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers. They also promote on moods, such as a high level of anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror. The tones in thrillers are usually gritty, slick and lurid." - Wikipedia (Oct. 2010)
This is unquestionably the only genre that my film can fit into, the elements of suspense, tension and perhaps excitement will definately be seen in the piece.
Thrillers embody, mainly: suspense, tensions and excitement
They often centre on a story based around: violence, menace and crime
They prompt heavily on literay devices such as: plot twists, red herrings and cliffhangers
They also prompt heavily on emotions such as: anticipation, adrenaline rush, arousal, ultra-heightened expectation, uncertainty, anxiety and sometimes even terror.
The story builds toward one climax
These elements, with the basic ideas I have in my mind, appear to be the words I would use to describe specific individual elements of my film. It is hard to describe exactly how my film will be a thriller without giving examples though, and I cannot give examples without having an idea of what some of the shots will look like when complete. I do see these conventions to be the main focuses of my film however, and will more than likely, actually I will be definately writting a story idea based upon these elements and will make sure to include the key aspects such as tensions, cliffhangers and suspense, along with anticipation, uncertainty and possibly a small amount of terror.
The thriller genre is definetely the genre I wish to follow. I instantly know most of the conventions of the genre, and it fits everything that my initial ideas want to become.
The research below leads onto the thriller conventions post later on, but the research was to see what people expected from a thriller. This would help me understand what is intended, to make my piece look and follow thriller convention.
I can see here that the top three points which are most recognisable in thrillers, from the twenty individuals I asked, are; 1. Suspense, tension and anxiety. 2. Psychological, mind warping, confusing plot. 3. Realistic gritty characters with faults.
Leading on from here I can adapt the expectations either completely into my own piece, or possibly break convention and not create what the normal convention and expectation of a thriller would be.
10. A short film in its entirety, lasting approximately five minutes, which may be live action or animated or a combination of both, together with two of the following three options:
A poster for the film; A radio trailer for the film; A film magazine review page featuring the film.
Boundary Performance for AS / AB
Points awarder for each level
Sample Marking Criteria for Unit G324: Advanced Portfolio in Media
Level 3 12–15 marks
There is proficient research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is proficient organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is proficient work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
Time management is good.
There is a good level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
There is proficient skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
There are proficient communication skills. Level 4 16–20 marks
There is excellent research into similar products and a potential target audience.
There is excellent organisation of actors, locations, costumes or props.
There is excellent work on shotlists, layouts, drafting, scripting or storyboarding.
Time management is excellent.
There is an excellent level of care in the presentation of the research and planning.
There is excellent skill in the use of digital technology or ICT in the presentation.
Marking criteria for anything involving; Film/Television/Video
Level 3
The candidate is expected to demonstrate proficiency in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately for the task set;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task set.
Level 4
The candidate is expected to demonstrate excellence in the creative use of most of the following technical skills: holding a shot steady, where appropriate;
framing a shot, including and excluding elements as appropriate;
using a variety of shot distances as appropriate;
shooting material appropriate to the task set;
selecting mise-en-scène including colour, figure, lighting, objects and setting;
editing so that meaning is apparent to the viewer;
using varied shot transitions, captions and other effects selectively and appropriately;
using sound with images and editing appropriately for the task.
Tarsem Singh has amazed me now with two excellent films under his belt and with a whole range of excellently executed music videos from artists like REM to Deep Forest, along with an amazing collection of at least one hundred directed commercials. His most famous and most praised commercial to date is the more outlandish Pepsi advert - Gladiators, shown below.
Another one of Singh's best works is the advert Voodo for Levi's. This was however banned from ever being shown publicaly due to an innapropriate message.
I simply love his two feature films however, The Fall and The Cell because of their outlandish visual magnificence. The creative element in his films that make each and every frame appear more like a photography than a video is stunning. In the Fall or example the opening sequence simply looks like a collection of black and white photographs strung together, you could stop it at any time and see a brilliantly framed and composed photograph. (Shown below)
I love the composition of the frames, especially the ones in the desert or vast lonely landscapes, they are amazing. There is such simplicity and bleakness, I just love how they have been composed with the landscape being dominant over the characters and cast. Something I know I will not be able to do, but would love to do in my own short film. Also below is an example of his magnificient ability to shown one landscape, or character, and turn them into something else. The example below is the monk into the snowy mountains.
The Fall trailer. Singh's other unbelievable achievement is his first feature film, The Cell. A psychological thriller that gives you a real head trip when you watch it.
"This is 'SEVEN' meets 'SEVEN' for the post- 'SEVEN' generation." - Q magazine
"Jennifer Lopez sizzles! In a 'SILENCE OF THE LAMBS' style psychological thriller." - Vogue
I simply love to hate and be disgusted at this film. The visual style once again is breathtaking, his ability to manipulate these magnificently preserved and beautiful places in the world into weird and wonderful dream like landscapes for his film is brilliant. And his ability to disgust in The Cell, is also brilliant. I myself am a big fan of anything disgusting/disturbing macabre/twisted and also bright/elegant beautiful/enchanting; The Cell does both for me. On one hand you have the vast desert landscape seen later again in 2006 with The Fall matched against the dark and twisted rooms of the serial killers brain. Below are snippets of the film at two points, the brighter 'happier' scenario and the dark and video game like memories.
He is also hugely inspired by artworks, such as Damien Hirst and Odd Nerdrum, artworks that you can see replicated in his own work.
I myself love the twisted characters he has created for the film, and how they replicate something almost from the video game Silent Hill and also how you can see he is inspired by artists like Marilyn Manson and their music videos.
Stills from The Nobodies music video by Marilyn Manson
One a website I was searching on for information about Singh's inspirational background, I came across an interesting comparison one writer has looked at, between Tarsem Singh and Mark Romanek. I myself had never heard of Romanek but after hearing that he directed the $5million Madonna music video for Bedtime Stories I was instntly familiar with hsi work, along with Nine Inch Nails - Closer. (I have recently found out however that Tarsem is hugely inspired by Mark Romaneks work and so the following work is slightly pointless as I know now that he was inspired by him.
"I have read that this is based on Islamic symbolism. I have no idea if that is true or not, but on the left is Romanek's "Bedtime Story" and on the right is Tarsem's The Fall." - Brad Brevet (Ropeofsilicon.com)
Brevet is right, when you compare the two pieces next to each other you really can see the huge inspiration that Romanek was on Tarsem.
The same with this scene, you can see the extreme similarity between the two directors work.
- I guess I am in fact inspired by Tarsem who was inspired by Romanek so, Romanek is my key source of inspiration. -
Comparison between Romanek and Tarsem courtesy of; http://www.ropeofsilicon.com/article/comparing_tarsems_fall_and_cell_to_romaneks_bedtime_story 29th September 2010
Salvador Dali's work was, and still is, of such high ability and style that you cannot help but feel this sense of awe when you see his work. The ability of his technique that goes into the vast and intricate landscapes is unbelievable. His artowkr is something that I am looking deeply into in art, and his photography I will briefly look at in photography. However the area I am looking at in his work at the moment, is his short film Un Chien Andalou and quite simply I am glad I do not have to look at it to deeply.
I think I had too high expectations before watching the film and to many pre-planned oppinions of what the film would be like. Being fairly familiar with Dali's painted work, I had already assumed that the film would be replicating his artwork. I was expecting more surreal imagery and a more varied use of bleak and surreal landscapes. The argument stands I guess, to how little I think a hole in a man's hand with ants crawling out of it, or a man cutting a woman's eye open with a razor blade is surreal. I think as it is a dream sequence there is no real meaning or symbolism of reality in it. As it is a dream sequence there is not a real strong narrative that you can follow throughout the piece, however there is a recurring feel or emotion of love and relationship in the piece, and this is represented by the constant usage of the two protagonists having various encounters. There is an hidden feel of longing and belonging to somebody in the slight element of love that is present in the sixteen minutes of film. The film, as it is so short has to capture its main qualities quite quickly, however as it is a dream sequence it is hard to see any real messgae or opinion of belief.
I do admire the ability not to establish any real narrative or point of origin in the piece, and the completely surrealist attitude toward composition and mise-en-scene. It makes the piece like the dream it is supposed to be, and makes the sense of creepiness and slight macabre actions in the film seem acceptable and believable, it is very convincing as a dream sequence. The ability that the film has to chop and change quickly, makes the sense of a dream sequence real, it holds no fixed narrative path however, but the fact that you know that it is a dream sequence, or at least as it appears to be a dream sequence, makes the obscure mise-en-scene and edited pace acceptable as also easy to follow. Simply put, the fact that you know it is surreal and a dream sequence makes the, what would normally be difficult to follow cuts easy to follow.
The only thing, unfortunately, that I will be carrying away from watching Dali's work, will be a stronger inner feel to comfortably and hopefully successfully allow my own piece to be slightly surreal. It has made me more confident, to see a juxtaposed and complicated narrative short film and to see that it works quite well, that my own work can have a same strength of surrealism throughout the piece, without it being confusing or boring.
Bunuel made clear in his writings about Un Chien Andalou, that he and Dali had numerous conversations about what the film should embody, the came to conclude that, "no idea or image that might lend itself to a rational explanation of any kind would be accepted." He went on to state, "Nothing, in the film, symbolizes anything. The only method of investigation of the symbols would be, perhaps, psychoanalysis."
This sums up the film in exactly the same way that I viewed it, and what I actually expected in the film as well, that nothing makes sense and nothing has too. Surreal films can be about the subconscious and the dreams, memories and fantasy of the mind. Creating a surreal film allows me to capture the deeper feelings of human emotion in a fairly random and juxtaposed film. It will be a chance, like how it appears Dali was thinking when filming his film, to create something not replicating reality and to show symbolism and inner belief and emotion is a collection of random events.
I was just rewatching the trailer, and I am just as impressed with that as I am the real thing!
This film was brilliant. Not for a new breakthrough piece of technology, it is nice not to have to watch a film in 3D at the moment, and not because of such unique and indidividual camera angles or technique, even though Nolan's technique is brilliant, and not because of a big hollywood a-list celeb. crammed pack film... No it is because it makes you think. About the ability to be able to jump into a dream, to be able to steal a dream. The ability to manipulate the world around you through thought, that is what I love about this film.
Nolan had already captivated me with his reincarnation of Batman, Batman Begins & The Dark Knight , a new fresh and cleverly skilled director/writer who could bring new life in to Burton's slight cock-up of the classic DC legend. The Prestige blew me away with the complex, up and down 'twisty turny' plot that captivated me from start to finish and which left me wondering what had just happened, not in the sense that I did not understand it but there were so many little clips of the film that needed to be rewatched to see the obvious (and unobvious) clues to the final twist.
Inception beats them both. The visual elements of The Dark Knight, the dark and creepy city with its darkly emotional characters and brilliant street scenes of train and car chase wreckages, with the brilliant and deep plot of The Prestige.
I won't say to much in the way of plot, except for the brillaint layer after layer formula that is applied to each see. Meaning that each scene has so many meanings and metaphors in them that they relate to an almost scientific or mythological book. It is such a deep plot and such a successfully sculptured one that the complexity of it just amazes me.
Writers, directors, producers etc. these two men are brilliant examples of postmodernistic cinema and the creativety and surrealism that seems to come with it.
Spike Jonze's work.
'I'm Here' - Jonze's excellent short film about robot love and is a celebration to life enriched by creativity.
'Where The Wild Thing's Are' - Jonze's scream adaptation of the classic childrens book by Maurice Sendak.
'Being John Malkovich' - Kauffman's surreal, yet excellent film about...whatever it is really about...
'Adaptation' - A Jonze/Kauffman film about Kauffman's writing life and his turn to help from his twin brother Donald. (Basically an autobiography of Kauffman's life by himself)
Charlie Kauffman's work
'Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind'
'Human Nature'
This also lead me onto Michael Gondry, another eccentric writer who replicates Kauffman's/Jonze's amazing writing abilities. His collobaration with Kauffman was through 'Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind'.
'Be Kind Rewind'
'The Science of Sleep'
'Lost in Translation'
Gondry and Jonze are also keen Music Video diretors'producers who have worked with the likes of Bjork, The Beastie Boys and Weezer.
For recreating my own video, I firstly wanted to create one that had brilliant visual creativity, one that looked more arty than a recreational shot of the band. However with the budget, or lack of one rather and having to recreate one minute of the music video as perfectly as possible, I knew I would have to tone down my choice.
Below are some of the first music videos I wanted to replicate.
An animatic storyboard is a digitally created storyboard that is created by still images taken and being edited together in sequence. This method has the same technique as hat animated films, short films etc. use. It is a much more visually helping type of storyboard compared to the basic hand created storyboard.
Animatic storyboards still require illustrations/sketches of the individual shots, but with the use of digital media it is possible to edit these frames together in a more accurate motion and time way.
This process allows the animators and directors to work out any screenplay, camera positioning, shot list and timing issues that may exist with the current storyboard. This animatic storyboard is a great help to animators as it cuts down the possibility of having to delete scene from the final production, animation is a long, time consuming and expensive process which is made easier, and cheaper by cutting the amount of footage that the final production needs to have removed.
Sounds can be added at this process to once again help with time and motion, as to see how long speach will actually take to perform. A sondtrack or score could also be added here to get a basic understading of how the piece will look and feel with the selected musical score or soundtrack.
We visited the Forum today for a workshop on music videos. BBC are running a local music video festival which is suprisingly the only one in the whole of the UK. It was a collection of local and also national music videos from independent artists.
The event to place in the Forum's Fusion room, a round room with the curved wall having the capability to be projected onto. I have been lucky enough to visit the room and its various events many a time since it has been opened and I have always enjoyed being able to just sit and watch some of our local talent and also to be able to see what other counties are producing. We were encouraged to watch a selection of the music videos on offer here, before given a lecture on the good's/bad's of making a music video.
The lecture was constructed to give us a taste of a good example of music video alongside a bad attempt at one. The lecturer, gave the interesting idea that music videos also have their own genres, ranign from chase videos to videos of the band performing. Below are some of the examples that I particularly liked, namely the ones with the better songs!
1. The worst music video of all time...coincidentally the best video also!
Armi Ja Danny - I Want To Love You Tender
2. Here is an exmplae of a music video that films the band, although it was named under the category that used heavy amounts of lighting, or something or a similar nature.
Casually Sunshine - Brother Build Me A Wooden Horse
3. Here was one of the good examples at how music videos can be created. A mix of band footage and also a story/narrative video.
Drunk Girls - LCD Soundsystem
4. This was one of the best msuic videos from the whole day, actually probably was the best.
It has the art feel, literally, the video is clever how it has been constructed and also the song is not that bad either.
Hold Your Horses - 70 Million
It is hard to put a class boundary on your film as all classes will undoubtedly be free to watch the film when attending the cinema, if they happen to be watching the film my short is positioned in front of, but also online. The more likely class boundaries that my film would be aiming at would be lower middle class to middle class, as these are the boundary audiences that the film exhibitioners that I am targetting my film to be shown at, target their products at. Also the higher educated audience in bands B and C1, although hugely stereotypical as this may be the boundaries prove that the higher earners are better educated, these will be the more understanding of an art based/art contextual based short film which explores film making and style rather than plotline and character depth.
He is also hugely inspired by artworks, such as Damien Hirst and Odd Nerdrum, artworks that you can see replicated in his own work.
