Exhibition Photos

Here is photographic evidence of my experimental film exhibition =0 =0 =0

Evaluation

I am both pleased and disappointed with my final piece. Admittedly, my final piece was very different to what i had previously planned, due to both a change of ideas and the fact that some scenes were proving to be exceptionally hard to film. The structure of my film changed dramatically, as I felt that a sense of repetition would prove to be better than a normal structure, In the end I was particuarly pleased with my choice of structure. I felt that some of the camera work may appear rushed and extremely amateur, however, I was pleased with other parts, I believe that i should have included the use of a tripod in all my scenes, so not all of it was shakey. Some of my scenes had to be perfect within one take as I could only take them once. Although initially my film was going to include stop motion as well as live action, I opted not to do so for the sake of both time and effect. I think that I originally only had a small concept that would give full illustration of my idea to the audience, hoever, I believe that my final film allowed the audience to interpret it in their own individual way. My soundtrack music was easy to create, but I feel that added a unique atmosphere to my film as one member of the audience quoted "It felt like it was never going to end", which is just what i was aiming for, as well as to create an sense of Unease and edginess, for my editing I made some scenes in black and white and even reversed some, i think that this added well to the way that the audience may interpret my piece. I only decided toreverse some of the scenes during editing as I felt that it would look better visually, and it also sped up the scene as it was too long at the time. The thing that I was probbaly most pleased with was my exhibition, I did this in a dark room and projected my film against a friends back, although the film was still easy to view, I believe that it was a rather unique way to show it and the exhibition itself added to the experience of viewing the film. The part that I was most disappointed with was the fact I did not include all ideas for shots, I took nearly a third of them out, and admittedly the final film looks nothing like the original storyboard, I think that If I had taken the time to film these shots, my final piece would be better compiled and could flow better. All in all, I would say that I am pleased with both my reaction and audeience reaction to my final piece, and although it was not as originally intended it came out better than I had hoped in some ways.

Chapter 3- Narrative and Non-Narrative Structures

Some films have a very straight forward Narrative, whilst other may have a more complex one, or none at all. An example of a film with a clear narrative is 'Eel Girl', the scene is immediately established and the story is easy to follow and understand, with Main Characters pointed out and easily understandable dialogue. An example of a film with a rather complex Narrative is 'girl chewing gum' because to start with, it is thought that the narrative is simple- a man directing actors with what to do, before it soon becomes clear that this is spontaneous and not pre-planned, the only part of the film which has an intended narrative is the dialogue, whilst everything else is left down to chance.

Chapter 1- Discuss both past and present works

Although there is a long lapse of time between the creation of many of these films, They hold similarities with each other, be it the concept of the film or the craft, you can find something in common with most films. For example Gisele Kerozene and Everything Turns are both stop motion pieces of film, and although Gisele Kerozene and Everything Turns hold a gap of over 20 years between each other, it shows that some methods of cinematography do not die out. Some films are keeping up to date with the happenings in the world, for example doll face by andy huang can be seen as a protest to today's impact of media on people's ideas of perfection. Although today many films from some time ago are viewed as primitive, chances are that equipment used was state of the art at the time of production. Some films are particuarly high budget e.g. Eel Girl, whilst some are seemingly low budget, e.g. Girl Chewing Gum, however, each film, whilst with similarities, has it's own individual effect on the person watching, as the creator of it would have desired.

Everything Turns- Matt Hattler

For me, Everything turns by Matt Hattler was a short but effective piece of film. Created using what i believe to be stop motion it has a metaphorical concept of time. The audience seem to be watching time in fast motion and viewing the progression of both life and objects, I believe that the title everything turns is taken from the images conveyed in the film as most of them are spinning. The film is relatively new and gives the impression that eventually everything is going to come to a stop.

Eel girl- Paul Campion- 2008

Eel Girl, which is probably one of the most recent and more disturbing films that I have viewed. It tells the story of a fictional science lab and a so called experiment of a hybrid creature, Half eel, half Human. Originally the film was going to be a music video, but it was later decided to cut it down and make into a short film. I believe that the concept of the film is the typical ‘song of the sirens’ or ‘Venus flytrap’ idea of someone succumbing to seduction and then having to pay for it. The film seems to be quite high budget as it utilises some special effects to be rather convincing. The whole atmosphere of the film seems to be rather bleak and artificial, in an abstract yet realistic setting.

Gisele Kerozene

For me Gisele Kerozene was a very intriguing piece to watch, it was an earlier example of Stop Motion and I think that the way it was used worked very well. The concept seemed to be a pursuit of witch like characters trying to retrieve an object from another, although it was initially hard to grasp the whole idea, the foundations of it was easy to get. The flying effect created in stop motion, which presumably was made by taking pictures of the actors jumping in the air many times, was rather effective as it made the viewing seem very jumpy, and for me, added to the aura of the characters.

Girl chewing gum- John Smith- 1976

The girl chewing gum, made by John Smith is a very simple yet unique film. The film uses a simple concept; the director is instructing his “Cast” of actors what to do, from speech to the smallest action such as pointing. It is eventually revealed in the film that the director actually has no control, and he is simply directing previously seen observations, as he is in a completely different area to the one shown on screen. The film is shot in Black and White and is seemingly quite low budget compared to other films I have viewed. I think that there is meant to be a mild amount of comedy behind the piece and I also think that the film manipulates the audience for quite some time- causing them to believe that the director is indeed ordering the slightest action whenever he pleases, until eventually they realise that this is not possible and the comedy sets in. The title of the film “Girl chewing gum” comes from a part of the film that holds no particular significance, but easily illustrates the whole ideas of the film.

All Filming diary parts

Filming Day 1
12:05- Scene 10
For my first time filming I opted to do the easiest and most cost effective shot first, which of course would be the legs dangling from the bench, the shot was aimed to be used closer to the end of the film rather than the start.
I completed the shot within 2 takes, the first time round the legs were not completely still, so I had to re-do it. Of course there was lots of talking, but I did not mind as there was only going to be non-diagetic sound included in my final piece.
The final shot was only around 15 seconds long.

4:00pm- Scene 1
I had decided to record my first scene at the end of the day, on Crawley bandstand. I had originally planned for a character wearing a triangular hat to walk slowly across the scene in which I would later speed up, But I later opted for a simpler method of filming a friend for around 5 minutes, just sitting in one place the whole time, I thought the outcome would be more effective as this would be the only person that remained on camera for the whole scene. I completed it in 1 take and have decided that I am going to do it in fast-motion played backwards, rather than just fast motion.


Filming Day 2
5:00pm- Scene 3
This was probably the most tricky shot to do as not only did I have to arrange a suitable time to visit a friends house, but I also had to purchase a pineapple. However, the shot ran quite smoothly, The Gecko that I used thankfully remained stationary and the only flaw which I later noticed was a shadow briefly moving across the shot, but I decided to not re-take it as it can always be edited out.
Filming Day 3
6:00pm- all remaining scenes
I had so far decided to leave out a few scenes, as I felt that my idea had taken a new path to the original one in mind. I was to no longer have the screaming crisp packet or the swiss roll, and I had to make a few changes to existing Ideas due to not having all needed props.
The first shot filmed during the time was Going to be a pirate, it had become quite dark at the time of filming so we had to find a suitably lit place, underneath a street lamp seemed to look the best on camera. This shot only took 2 takes and was completed with relative ease.
The shot of the clown hat I had planned was relatively disappointing as the make up I used could not really be seen in the light under which the actor was in. But I was happy with the way it was conveyed and decided to keep it, as the surrealism was still intact and the makeup was not really an important feature. I managed to do this in just 1 take and was relatively pleased with the end result.
The last scene I had to film was a jar of mayonnaise smashing, this had to be planned so that it could be tidied up relatively easily and not cause a disturbance to the public. It took 2 attempts to actually get the jar to break, but the camera managed to get it all in when it did happen so I was happy with the shot.

Editing Day 1
On this day I forgot to bring in my tape so I attempted to start work on background music for my film. I made a relatively simple tune using the piano on Garage band and put it on a constant loop, so it would carry on throughout my film, I thought the end result connected well with the intended atmosphere and would add further effect to the audiences perception.
Editing Day 2, 3, 4
In this time I admittedly worked rather slowly, I started to put my shots onto Imovie HD and begun editing them. I wanted to change around the arrangement of shots that were the original Idea, instead of having the whole of one shot played and then going on to the next one, I wanted all the shots to be played over and over, kind of like a 5 minute montage. I edited my first scene (The bandstand) and reversed it and sped it up, giving it a very good outcome. Since this is the longest shot I had taken it was going be the predominate part of my movie.
The next shot I worked with was the lizard on the pineapple, I cut this into several parts and placed each clip in random intervals of the bandstand scene, each one of the clips was only around 3 to 4 seconds long but worked well.
I was to do the same with all other shots that I had, other than the clown turning around I have decided to place that half way through in it’s entire form.
I am now very close to the completion of my video.

Chapter 2: The use of technology and techniques and styles

Pieces such as Girl Chewing Gum, were made in the late 70's, although by todays standards the equipment used is primitive it may well have been the best available at the time. Many films experimented with the use of stop motion such as Gisele Kerozene, which was made in 1989 and creatively combined photographs to create a realistic looking piece. Doll face by andy huang is perhaps one of the most modern pieces that I have looked at, it combines clips of videos with computer animation, this would not really have been possible to do with a low budget until the late 90's, before only a few computer animated pieces had been released. The differences between the use of new technology and old technology are easily observed, newer technology is obviously more efficient to use, but It also can help set the mood for the film.

Chapter 5- How these works might inspire my own work

Not only would these pieces inspire my own work but they have also inspired many previously created films. Many forms of experimental videos have had their features adopted by mainstream feature films and have been very successful in doing so.

I wish to interpretate a few examples of the technologies used in the videos. Such as stop motion and reversing and repeating clips. Also many themes from these pieces could be adapted into my own, such as Andy Huang's 'Dollface' theming on a rise and fall and the same with Kooyanisqatsi.

Chapter 6- Audience interpretation

Just about any film can be interpretated in it's own different way by whoever is watching it. Many films seek a different reaction from those who watch it, as they are left to be intepretated by the audience themselves as the meaning is not exactly described.
This can be seen especially in experimental films as they aim to provoke a new reaction from the audience as many of them do not have a normal structure that most mainstream films would have.
The artist is simply the creator of the art, he can influence the interpretation of the piece but he cannot control it, this is down to the person viewing, and the environment in which it is being viewed.

Koyaanisqatsi- Godfrey Reggio

In my personal opinion Koyaanisqatsi is an exaggerated opinion of how the human race is very much in repeat and in a rush. It depicts many everyday events in a fast motion, for example- People queuing for an escalator, buildings being demolished and people eating meals.

The film goes from the destruction of something to a peaceful scene constantly, until at the end it finishes on a destructive scale of a rocket going up in the air.

The music throughout changes to synchronise with the image being shown on the screen.

Chapter 4: The use of exhibition space to create meaning.

Just about every piece of art has it's own individual way of being observed, just like the emotions conveyed through the artists at the time of the work's creation, it will continuously need to be viewed in such a way.
Many variables can be seen that act upon the context the art is viewed in, for example:

• The size of the room
• The colour of the room
• The amount of noise in the room
• The amount of other people in the room
• The temperature of the room
• The amount of other pieces of art in the room

These are just a few examples, the surroundings in which the art is in can be considered to be part of the art itself as it to can play an important role in affecting the viewers emotions. A cold room, can put the viewer on edge and in a rather depressive state- if the artist so wished to do so. Whilst a room crowded with talking people can make the art more lively and adds parts of the reality in the room into the art itself. If a piece of art is surrounded by other pieces it could be overlooked or combined with other pieces near it to create an entirely new meaning. Whilst if it is in a room on it's own it can have the viewers full atention.

One piece of artwork that I saw was a computer animation entitled "Two Minutes Out of Time" By Pierre Hughe. It was a short anime/ Computer animation that made great use of the surroundings it had. It shared the room with a similar but different piece of work, and they alternated between each other on 2 seperate screens. The room was blank, and dark, allowing the viewer to fully appreciate the art, and it seemed that silence was necessary as the audio was very quiet, and took some effort to be heard.

Doll Face - Andy Huang

Doll face is a computer animated short film created by Andy Huang. It is created around concept and is a very metaphoric piece. It seems to be able to depict something that most people feel, but in a very surreal way. The animation itself depicts a woman like machine, trying to reach upmost perfection from what she is viewing on tv, until eventually the robot destroys itself by reaching too far.
This could show that the robot is holding itself back from reaching the so called perfection that it is viewing on the television in front of it. The film craft itself could be based on the creators personal experiences or indeed trying to transfer the reality of individuals seeking perfection as a sort of protest.