Research and development: Tonnes o' fun

Being a part-journo student research of topics has always been key to creating a good story, or in our case a documentary. some of the key reasons for research that I have learnt before are below:

- For your subjects to take you seriously: If you have no idea what your talking about your subjects may give less informative and fruitful answers in an interview.

- To be able to ask good questions in an interview: Without researching a topic (and subject) you won't know what questions to ask, or ask good questions. When you know more about a subject you can ask more in depth and quality questions as you have the pre existing knowledge.

- To add more flesh to your story: Without knowing much about topic, your documentary will be empty apart from interviews. After researching a topic it makes it easier to put your on perspective on a topic, as well as being able to back up your opinions and perspectives.

So it becomes obvious that research is key to creating an entertaining and persuasive documentary.

Ways to add a unique edge to a documentary

Todays lecture gave some interesting to give a documentary an interesting and emotive twist, rather than being just a news report or documenting of events. Below are features from the films in todays lecture and what I learnt from them:

A Propos de Nice (1930s) - "by showing certain basic aspects of a city, that city is put on trial."

- Having a variety of shots can keep the viewer visually interested.

- These sorts of non-interview shots can really help get a message across by showing it, not telling it.

From the East (1993) - Still shots, movement (or lack thereof) all within frame

all diegetic sound and lots of silence

camera as the recorder of life

- Again this emphasises the ability to "show" a story, not tell it

Zidane (2006) - "feature film that follows the protahgonist of the story without telling the story"

- Filming Zidane throughout an entire match

- Majority of shots are close ups

- I though this was a great example in how a story can be told, or a message delivered by the facial expressions and body language of a subject, rather than the words they say.

Sunrise over Tiananmen square

- Uses many photos and still cartoons

- Using a form of film that adds to your arguement

-

Rocky Road to Dublin (1968) - taking french new wave style and putting in another countries context

It Works - Great example of showing through cinematography rather than explicitly telling the audience

- Shift in perspective, putting audience in position of films subject

- POV shots

So overall, the lecture showed that there is far more to a documentary than narratives and interviews. To really persuade the audience towards your point and to entertain them. Artistic visual elements are just as if not more important than spoken elements.

Film TV2 New blog

Time to get back in to the swing of things. I'll start by pitching my idea, although it now seems kind of pointless as I prefer two of the ideas in my Group. But, without further a do, here is my idea...

I wanted to creat a doco about a Yoghurt store in Glenferrie road which was opened by two friends who were pretty much fresh out of school. The store has been highly succesful and I beleive that they are about to open a second one.

I would want to make a documentary which explores what it takes to open a business, especially at such a young age and I presume without much money. The two guys who own the store are both reasonably charismatic and would make for interesting and entertaining interviews.

The doco would focus on some of the hardships they may have faced and how they overcame them. I would also like to explore how and why the store has become so succeful and what the owners think are key pointers for starting and maintaining a succesful business.

I would Hope that I could find some sort of emotional angle or emotional ties that had to be severed in order for the business to succeed, or even relationships that were significantly strengthened.

Screw Youssical - the second version

One of my favourite films from Friday's screening as the title suggests.

There were two aspects of the film that I thought were excellent.

Firstly the dialogue. I thought that the script was really well written with clever Dr Zuess-esc rhymes which also used more adult language. The dialogue was genuinely funny and entertaining and for me was one of the main reasons that the film was one of the most entertaining.

Second was the costuming and make-up. The bolder colours used for the actors costumes really reflected a Dr. Zeuss story and made for a vibrant visual experience.

I found the framing of some of the shots was great aswell, alos reflecting something from Dr. Zeuss, including a lot of close ups with a wider angle lense, which also created a bit of humour considering the good quality acting.

A few cheeky tips

There's a fair bit I've learnt from the process of making a film this semester and I think there are a few things which are absolutely critical for a films success.

- Organisation is key, planning is everything. Our group was well organised in terms of shooting, which lead to a relatively stress free day of shooting. However, we could have organised our casting and actors a bit more carefully and maybe had a few more rehearsals. This showed up in editing and although we are able to cover some of it up, we could have benefited with the above.

- Supergroups, praise christ. There is no way we could have ran a shooting day without the extra people: Thanks a heap to Caitlyn, Heath and Lincoln. There is simply far too much do do for a group of 5 and some of their tips and abilities really came in handy.

- Continuity is key - Thankfully Lincoln really kept an eye on the continuity of scenes for us, which has really proved helpful now that we are editing.

- Use an extra monitor on set. We didn't hire a monitor for the shoot and this proved a bit costly. Without the monitor and considering the confines of our shoot, I was unable to always get a good look at the actors faces during takes. This meant that when it came to editing, we had a few shots that we really didnt like because of facial exopressions and body language.

- Communication is crucial. Throughout the entire process, from the very start to the evry end, communication with group members and actors is key. At the start of pre production our groups communication wasn't great but it improved dramatically thorughout the process and in the end helped with a smooth production.

These are definately some pointers that I will remember for next time.

Production day

So they day had finally arrived... how did it go?

An Early start...
We arrived at around 7 am on a Sunday (word for the wise.. film on another day) and luckily I had nothing on the night before so I was fresh as a daisy, or as close as I could be. Set up went relatively smoothly and the actors turned up on time so we got off to a good start. Filming outside didn't prove too much of a problem, other than having to wave through the occasional pedestrian.

In terms of coverage, we were rushed for our main scene (the pub scene) so we definately could have gotten more. Unfortunately for Daan we had a fridge in the background which was continuosly producing annoying sounds.

The supermakert scene took a lot of directing. As our actor for the supermarket attendant was, in a nice way, average at best. But thankfully we got enough coverage here to almost make up for the lack of acting ability.

The shooting of the montage was my favourite part of the day. It was just a lot of improv and we got some good shots (thanks to Paddy) and some funny footage.

Overall, the day wran pretty smoothly and we were finished by just after 5. We couldnt have doner it without the help of our friends Lincolon, Caitlin and Heath.

Casting Time

So it's been a while....

Casting was one of my favourite parts of the entire process. Unfortunately (or fortunately depending on how you look at it) Out of almost abut 15 people who said they were coming, only 5 or so turned up. They were a real mixed bag.

Luckily, out of the five that came we found two that we really liked the look of. But for the then hairdresser role, we didn't really find what we were looking for. I'd say this was due to the fact that only two candidates (one of which was a long shot) turned up.

In terms of directing the casting, the acotrs we like did not need too much direction and rather than using a lot of verbs, with some of the actors we just6 needed to tell them to be less dramatic or more emotional.

Untitled from Patrick Hassall on Vimeo.

Objectives and La Ban

Following up on last weeks lectures I thought I'd apply these principles to our films Characters

The Man:

Overall objective: To find a connection with society, form some sort of temporary relationship which will cure his inner loneliness.

Actions: To attract some sort of sympathy by presenting his urn and talking about his dead mother or father (which is a lie or very manipulatiuve)

La Ban Principles:

heavy

soft

indirect

leaning more towards the slow side but hes is smart

The Bartender:

Overall/Scene Objective: To serve his customer, put up with what he has to say, go with the flow.

Actions: Listens, serves drinks and gives advise.

Beat: Where Bartender really starts to listen to the man and becomes more sympathetic, after just listening and not really being emotionally connected.

La Ban Principles:

neither heavy nor light but leaning slightly towards light

hard

direct

again leaning slightly towards slow but he is smart

The Hairdresser:

Overall/scene objective: To cut the man's hair and move on to her next customer

Actions: Cutting the man's hair and moire prentending to listen than actually listening, off in her own world.

Beat: Happens between shots, once hairdresser realises what The man is talking about she also becomes more sympathetic

La Ban Principles:

Light

Soft

Indirect

Slow

Reflection week

I understand that my reflection is meant to be my entire blog but I figure why not reflect on the semester so far anyway... Most importantly, My groups film is coming along nicely. We've completed our production portfolio and just have to put a few finishing touches on the pre prod. We've narrowed down our candidates for the acting roles from starnow (down from 65!) and are set for audtitions next week, which I am keenly anticipating! We have had what appear to be some quality actors that have applied, as well as those that we have deemed to have 'the right look.' I feel like casting makes up a large part of my role as director and let's be honest... I'm also excited for a bit of a power trip at the casting (but who wouldn't be). Second, I was happy, as discussed in earlier posts, about my synopsis which was heavily Larry David inspired... not surprising since Curb Your Enthusiasm was about all I was watching at the time! But I think I could have done better with my story idea, which I put significantly less time and effort in to. Last... reflecting on this god damn blog! I think I could have put more work in to it, but I have struggled to. In all honesty I hate having to write about myself and what I'm doing.. it feels overly narcissistic and quite unnecessary. Frankly I think the film project should be far more heavily weighted and the blog less so. I feel that reflecting on my work myself is far far less useful than having someone else look thorugh it and give a second opinion. However I guess it is something I have to do and I have been meaning to do Lenny in final cut for a few weeks. The problem though is that I don't have the time to stay an extra few hours at uni. I will attempt to do it during the easter break. So there it is.. . my reflection of what's gone down so far.

The Dead Hold the Key and The Big Lebowski

For the last week I have been thinking and jotting notes on what I think should be part of my directors statement and notes. After going through the script and coming up with some shots, I then watched 'The Big Lebowski' (Which Daan had talked about in class that day) which I believe to be similar to our film in several ways. The first of which are some aspects of Jeff Bridges' character the dude. These aspects don't have a lot to do with the dudes personality and mannerisms but, I think we can draw influence from what the Dude wears which help portray that he is a bit of a 'deadbeat'. The clothes are drab in appearance and are always plain, dull colours.

Secondly is the scene where The Dude and Walter are scattering Donnie's ashes. The mid shot camera helps display the humour involved by showing more detail of the characters faces and focusing more on dialogue. I think we can take aspects from this and use them in our 'throwing of the ashes' scene.

Finally, this is more of a generic technique, but I liked the use of camera angles, low and high, to represent the powerplay between characters. I think we can use this technique to display both that Jason is a bit pathetic (high angle) and that he is conniving and possibly more controlling the situation (low angle).

One more shooting technique I liked and think we could use to give a nice touch to our film would be the flooding of the screen at the end of a scene with one colour (in our case Jason's dad's ashes), then cutting to the next scene which starts by the frame being flooded with the same colour (again in our case, the hairdressers apron), I'm sure there is a name for this technique but I don't know what it is!

Sight vs Sound

Which is more important?

Both have their advantages and disadvantages to beeing seen or heard by themselves. Personally, i've always found sound to evoke more emotion than vision. For example, watch a horror film without sound and it becomes devoid of scariness. Listen to a horror films sound track and you may still have the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.

On the other hand, I find that a picture can set a scene in a much more effective way then a sound. This obviously, because you can actually see the scene and what it encompasses, wheareas with a sound-byte, you can only guess what is in the scene.

While both have their strengths, each will struggle to exist without the other in film. Without sound, the audience will become bored, the same as if there is too long without an image. As stated in the reading "Sight and Hearing", the sound and the image work together to create the film and do not have to be equal at all times. If there is a striking image, then have a far for subtle sound and with a more intense sound, have a subtler image as the two can clash. I would argue that this is correct for almost all film, bar a few scenes. An example of this would be in a horror or thriller film, when the cinematographer wants to shock the audience they may use an extreme image and an intense sound to cause the audience to jump out of their seats.

All in all I would argue that neither sound nor sight are superior, but both need to work together to create a final product worth consuming.

for the below post...

Sound: The Wilhelm Scream

The Wilhelm screen (as can be heard on the embedded video) is a classic example of an on screen sounds effect, made to seem as it is coming from one of the actors... or could be easily confused as a wild sound. It is often heard when a character is falling from a height, jumping out the ay of a car or a train, or even as it's name originated in 1953: being hit by a bow and arrow. The scream is something that can easily go unnoticed unless you are carefully listening or deconstructing the sound of a film.

Reflecting on reflecting: week 1

In all honesty there are very few, if any types of assignments i like less than reflective writing. I thus found it quite a monotonous task to read through a reading on reflection and conked out after a few pages. I've normally found that if I get a good enough idea, I will most likely remember it, or i'll just jot it down in a note, rather than keep a journal or blog. Also in terms of reflecting on how well I've done at something I've always found I would much rather discuss it and get another opinion than have to write down something and stew over it myself.

In terms of the lecture, it was good to have a recap and a summary on what the course is about. While it was relatively basic, it was good to have a refresher on the creating of a story, specifically for film. However, while it is all well and good to have a set of guidelines, such as making a 'bold choice' with one aspect of your character, I think someone can either come up with a good story or they can't. This isn't to say that once someone has an idea, the guidlines discussed in the lecture wouldn't improve the story (Or that i can come up with good ideas), but I don't beleive that a story created by just following the guidelines would be overly entertatining.

First Post - Synopsis

Finally have the blog up and running so I can reflect on my story idea and synopsis.

My original story Idea i have to admit was a bit half-assed. While i think it worked as a story, it lacked any considerable drama. While I think there would have been able to be some tension built up, the consequences of actions of the character may have been relatively insignificant.

So for the synopsis i tried to come up with a fresh idea. The story idea, as Robin noticed, was heavily influenced by a Larry David style of writing... not surprising as Curb your enthusiasm was about all I was watching the week before. From watching it at the same time as looking at the concept of "story", I think "Curb" provided an excellent example of how to write a well put together and interesting to follow plot. I used Curb as a launching pad to think of a story, and while most stories are to complex for a five minute film, I figured I wold be able to write a "scenario" that would fit in to 5 minutes.

When writing the synopsis I made a conscious effort to not have too much of a backstory and also to make characters actions and decisions believable. I also made an effort to give the story an obvious beginning middle and end, with the ending acting as a sort of punch line. I think I achieved to get a strong beginning and middle, the end could have perhaps left the audience with a bit more closure.