Film update. *sigh*

This week is a bit stressful. Due to lack of communication we seem to be lacking in a male actor when filming on Wednesday but I do hope this will be sorted before then! Also, I have just booked equipment and sent off risk assessment for hopefully the final time to be checked. I seem to have a lot of responsibility this time round, not good. :(

Anyway, me and Alyssa discussed a few scenes we could shove into the equation from influence from other films. For instance, we like opening credits from Napoleon Dynamite which use names written on paper being pulled out from a wallet. We could do this in the style of a ticket as this is the name of our film.

I will work on some quick doodles we could use for this just in case nobody else does. :P

I cant wait for this filming to be done so I can get the editing started as this is meant to be my role in this project, ah well at doing everything else too ahah!

Will update when I have some footage finally!


Au revoirrr..

Le Fabuleux Destin d'Amélie Poulain

Love this film - Amelie (Jean-Pierre Jeunet). I watched it at college whilst studying narrative image making. The use of shots focusing on facial expression and the character of Amelie are really effective. I also like the tone/hue of the shots throughout the film -a sort of warm, yellow tone. I think this is successful in terms of adding to the romantic genre/feel to the film. I would like to edit our film to give a similar feel to it if possible as I think it is very aesthetically pleasing.


[[ http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Am%C3%A9lie  << plot and other info. ]]




PS. PASSED MY DRIVING TEST TODAY. WOOHOOOO! :D

London Trip. Hmm.

We went to London for a short while last week in order to research practitioners and work for our assignment 2 - visual essay. This essay will be based upon my choice of which practice to study at level 2. At the current time I assume this will be my original interest of animation (virtual environments) although I do find it quite challenging at first, I feel it will be the most interesting to progress in and become accomplished with.

To be honest, a lot of us found the work at the V&A and science museum in London not very appropriate to what we would like to do in years 2 and 3. However, I found what i saw of Mat Collishaw's exhibition "The Magic Lantern" quite interesting. However, I don't think we managed to find the actual main piece of this exhibition! D: It was all very confusing that building. :P I also found the Space & Light exhibition by Edward Gordon Craig quite helpful. Although he is a practitioner in the theatre side of art, I found his use of light on his woodcut designs quite interesting in association with the "virtual environments" pathway, and could also be linked to moving image. I also looked at the "Isotype" exhibition in this museum, which is the only thing I thought could help with the interactive pathway, but I dont' intend to choose this anyway.

I tried to video the magic lantern piece in the garden at the V&A and this about the best one I got without mainly seeing my camera and hand in the reflection, lol.

Untitled from Samantha Freeman on Vimeo.

Images from V&A:

We also looked at a couple of exhibitions in the Science Museum in London - "Psychoanalysis" and "Dan Dare & the Birth of Hi-tech Britain". I found these exhibitions even harder to link with my Context 1 work to be honest! But found the psychoanalysis one quite interesting and made me think how artwork can be linked with this subject. I also looked at the evolution of technology towards the end of the Dan Dare exhibition - cameras, tvs, computers, etc.

Images from Science museum:



Lecture Task.

As I woke up feeling a tad icky today, I have had a bath and am now about to read the lecture notes on the NOW. I did do the task for the lecture however, and am posting my notes from my word document I was going to print off for the lecture on here to show I did it. :P I think i understood what we had to do. I chose the Playstation website to analyse in terms of its brand, as it is something I am interested in and understand what it has to offer in comparison with other companies.

Official Sony Playstation Website.

http://uk.playstation.com

Playstation brand.

The brand provided by Playstation, from observing this site, is a range of high quality gaming systems (particularly PS3 and PSP) with a range of both original and competitive titles. It also offers features such as Blu-ray movie compatibility, music, photos and TV. Another of its main perks, in comparison with its competitors, is an efficient and free online gaming network – the Playstation Network (PSN). Also recently introduced is the Playstation Move accessory, which is made to compete with the original motion sensor console – the Nintendo Wii.

Examples from site:

·         “PlayStation Network is a free-to-access* interactive environment where you can play online games, chat to friends and family around the world and surf the web - and all for free. It doesn't cost a thing to get connected, so sign up to PlayStation Network and get stuck in today. “

This emphasises on how the network gaming is free to use, in comparison with its main competitor – Xbox Live, who charge their customers for online gameplay.

·         “Breathtaking games, incredible High Definition Blu-ray Disc movies, easy access to your favourite music, photos and the Internet - all under your control. Welcome to entertainment on the next level.”

This focuses on the point of quality of graphics and games on their main system – Playstation 3. The feature of Blu-ray discs also competes with the opposing console - Xbox 360.

·         “Use the controller in conjunction with the PlayStation Eye camera for genuine augmented reality experiences as you control your actions with your voice as well as your body”

This gives the impression this particular part of their brand is more successful than some competitors due to phrasing such as “genuine augmented reality experiences”, telling the audience that it is much more accurate than other motion controlled systems on the market.



Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uoJTgM4DEUA
(Embedding disabled, see link!)

I have watched this film many a time and have noticed a similarity to the sort of characters we wish to portray in our short film. The girl, Alice, is not so much shy, but slightly strange, yet intelligent. The boy, Hamish, is rich and well thought of, as well as quite confident.

I also like the use of shots in this scene, switching from the perspective of both characters, and then to the crowd's reaction. I also like the pale, less colourful feel to this scene in comparison to the much brighter surreal parts later in the film. I think this in conjunction with the strong use of music in the background adds to the sense of both romance, awkwardness and tension in the scene.

Film Week 2 Update.

I am currently in my 4th moving image seminar for Design Practice 2. We have learned about language and vocab used within the film industry and need to understand this more to progress in this project successfully. We have also started experimenting with Frameforge software to try to show what shots we could use in our film through storyboarding. It is rather confusing! But I will give it a go for another half hour or so more anyway. Over the next week we plan to confirm locations and actors, as well as revise our risk assessment for these changes and plan everything that is needed before filming in the following week. Hopefully this will all work out!

Here is a sample of what I have been doing in frameforge.. I dont get it really so just screenshots for now!

p.s I will hopefully be posting some images and random bloggage about the London trip later on tonight when I get home. Or I may just go on Little Big Planet 2. Who knows! :L 

Pitch Summary.

Having just completed our pitch to our tutor about our film idea, we are now summarising all the details we gave and what needs to be done within the next few days.

Our main idea for an interpretation of the script "Ticket" is a theme of love at first sight/the start of relationships. The main idea of mood for this is quite awkward, shy or uncomfortable between the male and female characters (Sam & Lisa). We have assigned tasks for each other between us, appropriate to our general roles within the film group.

As the editor, the main things that need to be done in order to confirm our ideas before filming is research of visual styles and genres appropriate to our idea. For example, I will carry on to find examples of both short films online and full length well known films using the idea of romance and awkward starts to relationships, etc. I can also concentrate even more on discussed camera techniques and shot types we may want to include within our film and research how these are achieved most effectively through existing examples. I will also help produce and check risk assessments before we want to film. This could possibly be done tomorrow when we have Deborah for our seminar.

Film - Ideas researched through existing films

One of our ideas is to film for a period of time then fast forward it to show progression of time. eg. film people passing bus stop for about 10 minutes then fastforward it into a few seconds. This film on Vimeo shows example of this sort of technique.


wanderlust from Thinklab on Vimeo.

As editor, I have roles in assisting and guiding both camera and sound people in our group, therefore have looked for good examples of these to help us along the way. We watched this short film in our first seminar and I thought the use of sound and video together is really good, and i also like the use of cool colour/lighting throughout to set the mood. Interesting shots are also used.



After deciding to base our film on the genre of romance and the phrase "love at first sight" i thought this film was very appropriate as a research piece. I like how it focuses on the feet walking at the start, and uses different angles and shots of the same sort of subject (character walking along).

Moving Image Seminar Numero Uno (:

Hey there.

Sooo.. had my first seminar of design practice 2 today. My first project in the group 3 carousel is moving image (film). The title of the brief is INTERPRETATION. Basically we have to read a chosen script and choose how to adapt it to our own ideas and what is possible within the time limit and area.

I am in a group with Charis, Alex, Stephie and Alyssa (females :o) and our roles are as follows:
Producer - Charis
Director - Alex
Camera & Lighting - Stephie
Sound - Alyssa
Editor - MOI!

Our script is called "Ticket" and involves two characters meeting at a bus station or stop and discussing how they have seen each other but never spoken, etc. For tomorrow's seminar we have decided to all come up with a few ideas on how to interpret or alter the script to help with the finalisation of our main idea.

From looking at the script, I have come up with a few simple ways of genres/styles...

-Romance (this was the most obvious idea we came up with as a group)
-Comedy (comedy is often linked with romance - ROMCOM D: )
-Drama/thriller (the caharcter of Sam in the script is suspicious - tension!)
-Silent movie (instead of dialogue, music and subtitles)

I will continue to look at short films throughout the project, but for now have decided to look for films using similar genres to my ideas and script to help with our session tomorrow.

Romance



This is an example of a short film using a romance genre, using a similar idea of meeting on a bench. I like the composition in some of the shots, and how it switches between shots from the front quite close up to from behind throughout. I also think the pauses between lines and a sort of awkwardness between the characters is something we could use in our film ideas.

Film interpretations..

As I am starting yet another moving image project tomorrow (not my favourite area of work...) I thought I would look at a couple of the examples mentioned in the initial DP2 lecture associated with script adapation/interpretation to help with ideas for this project.

I love love love Tim Burtons so it's nice to hear I can use him as influence for both this project and the animation project this term. I suppose I could also with interactive media... Anyway! Alice in Wonderland by Tim Burton. Possibly the best remake of a film ever. I love the use of both dark and bold colours throughout this film and how he always gives film a dark more sinister feel to them effortlessly. He has also used intepretation by using scenes that weren't included in other versions of the film but link in really well with the narrative (proposal/garden party scenes). Love this film and everything about it to be honest. I am a bit biased towards Mr Burton though. :P



Another interpretation of the same story by Lewis Carroll is this example by Jan Svankmajer. He is also another director/animator I have looked at previously, whilst focusing on Czech animation. He also uses quite sinister styles but less intensely. For instance, his film uses much less special effects, but is very quiet and features odd props and character styles, adding to the general serious mood of the piece.

eXistenZ. As others have said... weird film indeed.

Strange film with fleshy games, umbilical cords and Jude Law. Yeahhh... ;D

 

Yes, the first lecture back into the new university term and we watched a film with Jools for Context 1 - eXistenZ. We have been given the task of writing about this film in terms of the three main multimedia threshold concepts. These are:
-Narrative
-Interactivity
-Convergence

"A threshold concept is like a portal, opening up a new and previously inaccessible way of thinking about something. It represents a transformed way of understanding, or interpreting, or viewing something, without which the learner can not progress"   Meyer & Land (2003)

I must say this idea has confused me somewhat, but I can get a jist of what it all means. I think the main meaning of a threshold concept is a method of viewing a piece of multimedia, for instance, in a way that the viewer did not necessarily think of before or that was not available to them. It is pretty hard to get a grasp on.


So, eXistenZ.  How do these threshold concepts tie in with this film? How do the three concepts help the viewer to see things in a different light?

Narrative: The narrative of this film started with the launch of a revolutionary gaming system called "eXistenZ". (This was later found out to be a fake, virtual console. Confusing!) The creator Allegra Gellar is wanted dead by people who believe her games are deforming reality. She makes Law's character Ted Pikul have a bio-port installed (a hole in back to allow gameplay) to join her as a friend in her own game (eXistenZ). They carry on to progress the game, switching between game and reality, getting confused about which is which until the end, where it is revealed the whole story was a simulated game experience during the testing of virtual reality console "tranCendenZ" and the testers and creator are all the characters from the main narrative. Therefore, I feel there are multiple narratives all happening at the same time without the audience realising it until the very end. (see convergence)

Interactivity: In terms of interactivity with the audience, think this film is successful in involving the viewer through the confusion between games and reality throughout the narrative of the film. I feel this film's success, in terms of its plot and interest, relies very much on this interaction with its audience. For instance, if the audience knew exactly what was happening in each of the scene transitions throughout the film, it was not be so intriguing or interesting for them to view.

Convergence: I think the convergence of reality and fantasy in this film is one of the most successful concepts. As I have said in the other sections (they all seem to intertwine, hmm?), throughout the film the scenes swap between surreal, game scenes and the assumed reality of the characters lives. Towards the end of the film it is revealed that a lot of this "reality" was in fact fake like the rest of the film, and makes the idea rethink what is real and what isn't - a successful threshold concept indeed?

I probably haven't understood this very well but have given it a good go anyway.



p.s starting another one shot film project tomorrow. expect a lot of posts on my progress... and moaning. :P