Overall Oppinion

All in all, I have thoroughly enjoyed working on this Experimental project. It was something exciting, fun and interesting to do and I have learnt a lot from it. My camera and creative skills have certainly improved as a lot more work had to go in to each shot because we always had to keep the audience's oppinion in mind. Also, the basic idea itself had to be very carefully thought out in order to not be too narrative, so this has helped my creative skills.

Most of all however my editing skill have developed the most as a lot of thought had to go into each shot such as if we wanted split screens, overlapping shots, picture in picture etc. WE did have some problems with the editing and sometimes it wasn't going as to how we wanted it and we were worried we weren't going to have five minutes of material. However, in Experimental film a lot or repetition is used so eventually we solved the problems and managed to produce a final well thought out edited piece.

Parashoot

Here are the basic screen shots from our Parashoot.

Meshes of the Afternoon - split screen idea

Here is a screenshot taken from "Meshes of the Afternoon". I particularly chose this as I really liked the whole "split screen"/"double identity" that this shot portrays and I think it will come in useful when editing our footage in order to try and achieve both the "normal" and "dark side" to the characters personality.

Equipment list

Here is a list of everything we used whilst making our Experimental piece of film work. It was essential that we had everything booked out for the correct days in the stores so that we would be able to stick to our scheduling as much as possible!

More Inspiration...

Once we had decided on the whole "dark side" of the girls personality, I remembered watching a video when doing research for my music video in 6th for A level media and I came across this really clever video (shown above). The majority of it is in black and white, which I think is what we were aiming for due to most Experimental films being this way. But, the main reason I chose to show Hannah and Natalie this video is due to the dark eye make up used on the girl in the video and how she is portrayed as "dark" in the close up shots.

Also, along with the close ups of her dark eye make up, their are several shots of her consuming alcohol, smoking and taking drugs which also ass to the elements of this "rebellious" character along with our character in her film and her "dark side".

So, we thought of an idea of overlapping a shot of the "dark" side drinking and smoking in comparison to her normal self to reflect and show the change in her identity.

Now that I have all these ideas I cant wait to put them into the editing sessions!

Inspiration

In this following music video that was made within my same 6th form group when completing A level media, I remembered a couple of really good shots that were quite 'out there' and I think if we incorporated them somehow into our Experimental film and putting our own twist on them it would look really effective.

The first shot we really liked was the one of her smearing out words on her chest almost to 'make them go away':

So, we used a similar shot but had me looking directly straight down at the camera (in order to make a better connection with the audience and that's one of the main points in Experimental film making - to get the audience connected with the footage in order for them to make/create their own interpretation of it). Also, we wrote the word "IDENTITY" across my chest in a bold pink lipstick to contrast with the dark eye make up used to portray the "dark" side of her personality. We surrounded this with question marks to add to her confusion.

Another shot i really liked and showed to Hannah and Natalie is where the girl in this music video is lying down on the floor upside down to the camera and is surrounded by news paper cuttings of various things (music themed as this was for a music video). It shows her picking some up and placing them down, but also screwing and ripping some up too.

So, we then took inspiration from this and decided to have me lying upside down facing the camera and again looking directly towards it. We filmed it in a number of different combinations, both with the "dark" character and both with the girl in her "normal" state. WE then filmed it with just the words, just the images and then both together. Also taking it in turns to pick up, drop, screw up and rip a few. I think this really looks effective and we are unsure whether to put it in colour or keep it in black and white, but when it comes to editing I'm sure we will make the correct decision in order to fit the Experimental brief to the best we can.

I'm glad I found this video when doing some research as it has given us many ideas to put into our project that by making them unique to these original shots, we can really make a good Experimental piece of work.

Scheduling!

With not much time to film and edit we agreed to film on Thursday 2nd February and Saturday the 4th as these were the most appropriate days that we were able to attend. With bad weather (4 inches of snow!) this didn't stop us as we were determined to stick to our schedule as much as possible. Also, to our great excitement, a lot of spontaneous filming was completed too, mostly on the Saturday as we had had a chance to "get the feel" for what we were trying to achieve when it came to actually "putting pen to paper" and filming for real. Here are our schedules:

Tutorial Feedback

Esther was unable to attend this session so we told and explained our basic idea to Dom instead which was a great help as he pointed us in the right direction in terms of camera angles etc. Overall I think he did like our idea, however he was in strong agreement with us that we were scared that our idea was going to be too "narrative" and not experimental enough.

So, in order to achieve the "Experimental" look as much as possible he said to try and be spontaneous with the filming rather than having a really strict storyboard to follow as sometimes, the more spontaneous the shot ideas are on set when filming, the more likely they are to steer away from narrative and more to achieving Experimental correctly.

We also realised much more research is needed then what is just shown in the session itself so we all agreed as a group to research into Experimental film as much as possible, whether it be in the library, online or watching films. This way, hopefully we will have grasped the concept much better then we are at the moment.

Shot Ideas/Story board

Here area few rough ideas as to what type of shots we want and how they are going to be achieved:

Our Idea

After watching the various different Experimental pieces and researching into it in my own time online, I felt ready enough to come together with Hannah and Natalie (my other group members) to discuss ideas. We had a brainstorm and after reading the brief we realised that our piece had to be based on either a single word, object or poem. So, we originally picked a "mirror" as the object and we had a vague idea of a girl who was living in 'two worlds' and had an 'uncertain identity' or was confused as to who she was. However, we then realised this wouldn't work as we wouldn't be focusing on the chosen object enough as the brief had said.

So, after a little more discussion we then decided to use the word "identity" or in short "I.D" which was taken from the original idea of the object of the mirror. Our idea then expanded into the idea of 'schizophrenia'. She doesn't know who she is, she doesn't know her identity. The video is about exploring, conflicting and realisation what her identity is. She clashes with her other personalities, her 'darker sides', 'her fears and pains', to in the end, realise that the fight may never end, even though she thinks it's already over.

Sound wise we haven't thought of an exact idea as to what we want to achieve. Also, it will be much easier to fit the sound effects/music to the images once its fully edited as they will appear at the correct points we need them too. On that note however we do know that we want some form of creepy/weird sound effects to contrast the shots of the 'darker' side to the character (who will be played by me may i add!).

Myself, Natalie and Hannah are all really looking forward to filming and editing our Experimental piece and I hope we achieve what we have set out to!

Meshes of the Afternoon

Film maker: Maya Deren
Experimental Film: Meshes of the Afternoon
Year: 1943

This was my second favourite piece out the six or seven we watched. This had the most 'narrative' approach, even though ti still doesn't have a set one. It included repetition, but rather then showing specific objects or words like the other pieces did, it was focuses on this woman who was following the figure in a black cloak and kept cutting back to various parts of her journey. Again it was all in black and white and had a piece or eerie music to accompany the footage. This has shown me that I will most definitely have my piece in black and white, unless my idea changes this and I also think it is essential that I need to include good accompanying music and sound effects.

These shots above were one of my favourites used in the Experimental piece. I love the close up and slightly low angled shot of the eye and the way you can see the light glinting in her eye and this is something I would like it to be interpreted into my own piece by possible doing a close up on a certain part of the characters body. However, due to our ideas being 100% uncertain yet, we will have to wait and see until it comes down to filming and editing our own Experimental piece.

I really enjoyed looking at the majority of the different Experimental pieces, but this was one was definitely my favourite.

Ballet Mechanique

Filmmaker: Fernand Léger

Experimental Film: Ballet Mechanique

Year: 1924

The main purpose of this Experimental film by Fernand Léger was to show his passion for ballet, by not demonstrated by humans, but rather various mechanical objects juxtaposed with different sounds. He supported this with various related ballet visuals such as pianos, propellers and various other objects rotating in a circular motion to represent a ballerina turning around.

The colour of the piece plays around with different shades of black and white and some shots are more over exposed than others. Particular in a few shots of a face which is shown from left, right and centered.

The piece as a whole continues this "spinning theme" all the objects that we are shown are moving in a circular motion, or backwards and forwards like the woman on the swing, again these can all be linked into the movements within ballet, hence the name "ballet mechanqiue". The mechanic bit is shown when various pieces of metal piping/instruments etc are shown, again moving in a motion which links the title of the piece together.

Overall, I did enjoy the piece and I really liked the repetition. My favourite part however wasn't the images shown, but it was the music that accompanied them. It was a cross between out of tune pianos along with high pitch violins, which to me are usually associated with horrorand thriller soundtracks, but having not seen any Experimental work before, I didn't have any idea what to expect.

After watching this it has given myself and my group a few ideas as to what we would like to achieve in our piece: Creepy/weird music (but not scary) along with a black and white piece of footage which is repeated in various ways, whether be the angle of the camera, the exposure of the shot or the motion it can be rotated in.

Experimental film

Our new topic for this semester is "Experimental Film" which i am really looking forward to as I haven't really touched upon this in nay previous work I have made. I hope that with the correct research and enough planning I will be able to achieve a unique and individual piece of experimental work which is different from anything else that has been made yet, along with my two other group members, Natalie and Hannah.

The term "Experimental film" itself describes a range of different film making styles that are mostly different opposed to more typical "mainstream" film making which most commonly follow a direct narrative, where as Experimental does not. This is the part I think as an individual I am going to find most difficult as I have never made nay piece of film before that hasn't followed a basic narrative.

By not having a set narrative to an Experimental piece, it tends to mostly follow a "linear narrative" which involves a lot of repetition of similar images/movements along with various 'abstract' techniques such as out of focus shots, non diagetic sound or even the absence of any sound at all. The main 'goal' or 'achievement' of Experimental film is to engage and involve the audience as much as possible and for them to almost come up with their own view on what they have just watched. This part I am looking forward to as I think it will be interesting to see what different feedback I receive from my fellow peers as hopefully everyone will make their own interpretation of it.