FlashBAck

To make the film thrilling we included the element of the genre and used characters personalities to reflect this. The common characters in thrillers include convicts, criminals, innocent victims, characters with dark passed, I think we used these very well in our initiative to produce our film as interesting as possible.

Our pre-production was the most challenging because this was where we had to come of an idea that would meet the criteria for example we had to stick to the same location which was the college campus. The easiest storyline was to have something based around school life and situations between a student and teacher. The people involved in our group made good characters to fit the story-line.

During our production of the thriller ‘flashback’ we had a few flaws that we overcame very quickly and continued very well.
Our first scene was filmed in a classroom this was the opening scene. The scene included the two spontaneous pair (Scarlet and Damien) and a quite character (Steph). They don’t have any direct contact within the classroom environment. The classroom is also full of extra people to create the classroom also there is the teacher played by myself.
Acting the scene was not as stressful as it was to film myself.

Evaluation of video

my video "life is like a rainbow" wasn't as good as i liked it to have been. overall i thought the film was of an average standard and reasonable. i think i tried too hard for the idea and think i should of thought of a simpler subject. my video was about emotion and feeling and that is a lot to put together in a space of 5 minuets. my video did not flow as well as i had planned it. through the feedback i received some people obviously didn't understand what was going on because of the short little scenes of the actress angry on the phone then going upstairs to calm down then in another scene she is happy when she receives some presents. then there is a scene of her walking through a grave yard showing sadness and at the end, there is jealousy/ revenge of her scratching the car and trying to break the window of the car and running away. [to be continued]

dairy of filming

I tried to stick to my original plan of my video with a girl’s dairy entry and I went of the idea of a dairy entry and decided to do emotions within a person and the use of colour to represent the feeling. My video is very similar to my anamatic using the colour and emotions. When I started filming the first scene I got very critical the first time round and wanted perfection so I got my actress to do each of the scenes a number of times and I cut the clips that I thought were reasonable for my video. My filming schedule wasn’t followed promptly but I still got the filming done in the time I had with my actress. I managed to do the outside filming after finishing work and did the first scenes at home in an evening and the other scenes such as the car scene was done in another day. I didn’t think the filming would be such a challenge but this wasn’t the case it proved to be difficult because the actress was young and not very experienced in acting as the whole film was about emotion it needed facial expressions to really show my point but of view. Once I had come up of the idea of colour and emotion I put together the video filming around everyday use of things. Overall the filming went well because I did do retakes to use the best footage for the film even though my actress did complain a lot about doing this but I still ensured it happened. I found the editing easy once I got the hang of it. I did a once over with the effects and found the video wasn’t very clear so I deleted all the effects and re did the effects with a help of a classmate with experience of usage on another editing programme.

My questionnaire for my Experimental video "life is like a rainbow"

Questionnaire of my experimental video
Zoyia’s Life is Like a rainbow

1. Did you enjoy watching it?

Yes No Some parts

2. Was there anything about the video you didn’t understand?



3. What was the best effect used in the film?



4. Did you understand the concept of it, if so what was it?



5. Did you like the music; did it match the video itself?




6. What could I have done to improve the video?




7. Rate the video 1 being the least and 5 being the most.



1.Poor 2.Good 3. Alright/Average 4.Satisfactory 5.Excellent

My exhibition

My exhibition will be shown in a classroom, blacked out with two spotlights to reflect the use of colour in my video. It will be on view on 15th December 2008 to students from the college. I will also post it online on to youtube for a different view on the video in an open, comfort environment to see if the videos concept is as obvious as it is in my controlled exhibition. In the classroom it will be on a projector screen with between 10 to 20 seats in a semicircle with the spotlights going over the audience.

exhibition space to create meaning

Susan Hiller film work was in a dark room with five big screens. Each one of them showed clips of different films which had telepathic elements and things around movement using eyes and thoughts. There were seats for the audience to sit on with the screens around the seating area. Throughout the clips there was a rhythm of drum beats. The room was blackened out and each one of the screens had a tint of colour and there was a change every couple of minuets with the TV buzzing and the clips changing from screen to screen with a repetition.Jonas Mekas work was like Susan millers blackened room but only with one screen with black and white images of a couple who get married and party. The film had a sinister twist and the flickering effect gave the idea that something bad was going to happen. I liked the way the film was viewed in a small dark room with no other distractions around so you really get the feel of the film and get hooked on to what the film is really trying to represent.Dominique Gonzalez work was interesting with the large open space, bed frames laid out throughout the big warehouse-type space and big sculptured placed in certain places. I felt distracted by the surroundings to watch any of the film also the film was quite fuzzy to watch and there was no proper seating area for an audience to watch.

TREATMENT

Btec National Diploma In Media (Film and TV)

TREATMENT (drama)


PROGRAMME TITLE:
Emotions

DIRECTOR/
CAMERA OPERATOR:
Zoyia Ali

DURATION:
under 5 minuets

FORMAT:
Digital Video

AUDIO:
Sound effects of heartbeat and voice.

OUTLINE OF AUDIENCE

Over 16s, late teens, young adults and whoever wants to watch it.


OUTLINE OF STORY

its about emotion and what someone goes through. i am going to use the colours of the rainbow to represent emotions for example red for anger, green for envy and yellow for happiness. the story will be about a dairy entry.

CHARACTERS:

Audience, and audience interpretation of the work

Videos are made specifically for an audience it could be a film to be viewed by a certain group of people because of theme and content, however it can be enjoyed by others or even hated. For example an audience made up of people in a college watching a film may not have the same opinion on the film or experimental video; some people might love it while others hate it because of the content of the film.
Reaction of audience is very important because films and experimental videos are made to watch, reviewed, opinionated, questioned and enjoyed. Movies that are shown in cinemas have an age rating so they are usually aimed at a specific age group which also depends on the theme of the film because not everyone of that age the film its certificated to, will enjoy.
In some viewers opinion girl chewing gum will be dated, boring and lifeless while others may think it’s a great concept and enjoy it thoroughly. People of older generation would enjoy the films made around their time unlike the new generation.

--How these works might inspire my own work

The videos that inspired me the most were Simon Ellis’s video ‘Telling lies’ and Doll Face by Andy Haung. ‘Telling lies’ was filmed in a clever and humorous way, this is what inspired me the most and I took in to account that the topics in experimental videos aren’t always serious like Koyaanisaqatsi and 1001 Nights in which the theme was around war and conflict. I think ‘Telling Lies’ was trying to put a point across it’s like going inside someone’s real thoughts and how seeing and hearing isn’t always for believing, Simon Ellis demonstrates issues well and the way he interpreted it was well done. ‘Doll Face’ inspired me with the use of computer generated images and the meaning behind the video was an obvious modern concern of image of us as people and how some of us copy what we see on TV and how obsessed we are with how we look and would go to drastic measures to ‘get the look’.
In my video I will use some of Koyaanisaqati idea of pace through the audio. Because the film started with slow music giving the viewer a sense of beginning, it then carries on the music goes faster then slows down again near the end. I think it gives a good effect to a film and makes it more interesting to watch. I want to use Simon Ellis’s video idea where he shows how people act in different situations and what they say to deceive someone, and say things when they actually mean something else. I will base my video around a letter which includes all types of emotion and use a rainbow of colours to represent emotions for example red for anger, yellow for happiness, green for jealousy etc.

--Narrative and non-narrative structures.

'Koyaanisaqatsi' had a story line from beginning middle and end. It was narrative which could be clearly seen. The film started of slow and it speeded up through the middle and then slowed down to give a sense of the film ending. ‘Girl chewing gum’ didn’t have a narrative structure even though from the beginning you think there was because you are thrown in to the main scene with someone’s voice saying what’s happening where you assume that it was the director speaking, it was neither structured with a start, middle or end. 1001 nights had a narrative structure.
Individual interpretation is very important because without this, the video will have no meaning or motive. Having your own interpretation of work gives an artist more meaning. And when an artist gets feedback from their viewers they know what they are doing well and what they aren’t doing so well and how they could improve their video. this is how an artist can build a relationship with his veiwers and make videos more in the favours of the audience.

--The use of technology and techniques and styles

Girl chewing gum john Smith 1970
Koyaanisaqatsi- life out of balance by Gidfrey Reggio 1982
Doll Face by Any Haung 2008

Both of these films were made around the same time with a ten year’s difference. ‘Koyaanisaqatsi’ was made before ‘Girl chewing gum’ it had used more technology than ‘Girl chewing gum’ obviously the year in which the film was made wasn’t the issue but the use of equipment and budget the producers had to film both of these films. You can see Gidfrey was more experimental and spontaneous with his films with the use of imagery like bombs exploding and the effects he used. Unlike John Smith his film was based around one set and a real life film setting. The concepts of both films are good as each other even thought they are made with a ten year gap so the use of technology isn’t always the issue to make a good film however it does depend on idea and how the producer makes the film. Gidfrey Reggio had an immense access to technology like cameras, lights, setting, people, and music on the other hand John Smith didn’t have as much access as Gidfrey did to money and technology. However both films had good impression on viewers. Another film called Doll Face which was recently made had the same concept as Girl chewing gum both were made using one set without any location change; the difference were that one had more money than the other and the use of technology has expanded in time so the ‘Doll face’ film had more choice and ideas.

--Both past and current artists and works. comparing general similarities and differences between them.

Koyaanisaqatsi, 1001 nights, Telling lies.

The three films all had a similarity in which all had a story to tell. In Koyaanisaqatsi made in 1982 had the meaning of life and how the world goes round. A conclusion sets for you as a viewer at the beginning of the film with the explosions. The film starts of slow with cave drawings then goes in to bombs and explosions. In the middle the film gives a sense that the film is going faster with the music background and then slows down again showing slightly altered cave drawings.
In 1001 nights the similarity is that both topics are based around war and terror, the difference is that koyaanisaqatsi is more graphical with the imagery on the other hand 1001 nights is all spoken in a monologue with no image just explanations and description in words through voice.
Telling lies is a modern film with modern humour unlike the other two films it’s made up of phone conversations with only a subtitle like imagery and a voice over, and a different topic altogether. Telling lies and 1001 nights where similar in visual with black background however telling lies was more of a computer generated film.

Start of film reveiw (assignment one).

1001 nights by J A is a film of five women talking about an event or dream that they had. They each talk about their feeling and what happened, each of their stories are all based around wars and fears. The set in which it was filmed was very bland, dark and simple. The only colour that was there was of the five women only showing their faces and shoulders with everything else blacked out, blended in with the background. The five women were either standing or sat next to each other. Starting with their eyes closed they all took turns to talk about their experiences and each actress spoke one at a time and each one had their eyes open only when speaking. In my opinion J A structured the sequence well with the actresses’ well timing of speaking and acting (open and closing eyes and talking at the right pace).

Telling Lies By Simon Ellis

A four minuet film made up of words and sound. The main character was Phil who was played by Tim Cummingham. There was only audio of the characters and no images of them. I like the way Simon Ellis scripted the film and what came on the screen. The story was about what had happened to Phil the night before and the dialogue works around phone calls that Phil makes and receives. It starts with Phil talking to his mum as she calls. The first lie of the conversation is that he doesn’t care bout how his girlfriend is feeling about him but just says he hasn’t spoken to her. In a way Simon Ellis is showing typical lies that people make and do on a daily basis and makes you see situations in a different perspective and it actually affects the person.

The Girl Chewing Gum by John Smith

The Girl Chewing Gum film is nine minuets long. The main shot of the film is on a building by a roadside. The way its filmed looks and sounds like watching a live film being filmed with the director's voice in the background telling the actors what to do and what props to use around the scene. The colour of the film is grey and not colourful, almost lifeless. while watching the film it did seem like the voice over the scenes was a director, talking like he was telling the actors what to do as he spoke just before they would do it however when he mentions things like 'pigeons cross over, left to right' you know he cant make that happen and probably did not have the technology to actually do that. The man's voice was just doing a commentary over the scene like a reporter would commentary on a live football match and he wasn't the director at all.

1001 Nights by Jananne Al-Ani

Although this video was very short it seemed very long because of the way it was recorded which was quite predictable. There were five women sat next to each other or maybe standing because you can only see the top half of them, only the face and shoulders. All the women looked mature round the ages between late 20s to mid 50s. The video seemed very dull as there was hardly any colour but just a black screen, it looks like it was filmed on a plain film set with five women sat or stood there each taking turns to speak for about a minuet each. One by one spoke. The actresses all had their eyes closed until it was their turn to speak. In my opinion film was boring because of its content and subject how ever director and producer structured it well and the timing of actors was great.

KOYAANISQATSI- Life Out Of Balance

This movie showed how life moves around and gave the sense that life is just like a circle where things do go wrong and you have to build yourself and pick yourself up and start over fresh. the movie started of with bombs going off, lots of smoke, fire and misery. At the beginning of the film the images shown are very disruptive which contradicts the music because the audio was had calm sounds.

Brighton

This place was once a place of enjoyment now an empty shell of old decking and tables, their life soaked up by the sun. In my opinion this place was enjoyed by tourists and locals having tea, coffee, hot foods and ice creams with a beautiful view in front of them to enjoy.

The Nastiness of Brighton

This picture below taken in Brighton doesn’t look like the beautiful seaside resort does it? You can see its not what you expect to see in a location like Brighton. The seaside’s of Britain are used and abused and not respected. Not only it looks disgraceful it affects people living there and brings down standards. This place is obviously not cared for because this little corner of trash was actually locked up and smelt really bad.

What is experimental video

Experimental video is a way in which people can express their views and art work using moving images. The videos can represent a persons feeling or their point of view on a certain subject or topic. They project their thoughts not just in words but using images. It can contain cut video clips from other videos and different sounds to create such video. In my opinion it's like painting a picture using art materials but with moving pictures put together. An experimental video can make up different ideas up in your head and even make you change your opinion on a certain something. For an assignment I would expect to make my own video and write about what it represents and what I researched to produced it.