Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 29th November

Tuesday 29th November 2016.     Comparative Film Practices.   Dan Paolantonio

My Group: Josh Timbrel, Ed Mawhood, Nathaniel Marklew, Matt Miller and Dan Discombe.

Location Scouting - Super 16mm Project

My group decided to go location scouting today, we had the idea that we wanted to film a location where we could highlight the shadows of our character as they move around. The first place that we went too was the park out the back of the hoe, we saw potential through the open area, the way the trees were aligned on either side of the path, however we wanted somewhere that had an aura too it, we felt like the park looked too clean and so we wouldn't have been able to use our ideas of a rustic look for the film.

We then moved over towards the pavilions where we found a small wooded area, this was perfect for our film, we were able to reflect shadow on the trees as we ran past, we thought about utilising the lonesome park bench as a point of contact for our main character who is never revealed on screen. We thought that this small part of ground could be seen as a place for reflection, perhaps something has happened too the character within this location.

The second location that we visited was on the marine football ground, this place was old, had a great aura and we all planned out 6-7 camera angles that would work well for the film. I took a few pictures and videos of the location.

Behind the Scenes - Super 16mm Location Scouting

Marine Football Field - Trees behind the shot, shadows on the trunks as someone dashes past

Hoe Park - Idea of utilising the trees for exterior shots - shadows along the floor as someone travels through the woods.

Capturing the light as it just peaks through the gaps in the tree branches, aiming the camera towards the top to capture the beams of light as they reflect down the trunks. 

(All photos taken by myself using my iPhone 4)

Shot List - Cinematographer 

Panning shot leading across the tops of the trees - In a rainbow shape (up and down), starting from a really old architectural building and leading too a rusted old looking building.

Panning shot of the architectural steps or the entrance to the marines football field park, pillars either side, characters shadow outlined as if he's walking inside. 

Various close up shots of trees - seeing the characters shadow moving across the tree trunks and displaying an outline of their clothes on the ground.

The sun beams shining through the tops of the tree branches, forming an outline on the ground.

Close up along the floor with the grass being blown, perhaps we see a hat rolling along the ground or someones old glove. 

Leaves being blown across the ground in front of the camera

High/Low angle shots of the park to give a sense of space - the location is pretty open, giving an insight into the landscape.

Wide Angled Shot - Portrays a bench at the front of the frame, with a bowling green in the foreground and a monument thats visible in the background. 

Moving Narratives 2 BAFI202 - 29th November

Tuesday 29th November 2016       Moving Narratives 2.      Kaz Rahman

The Third Man

Locations - In today's session we watched the 1949 film "the third man". The film itself was interesting too watch as it was set in Vienna, the main shots were all around the city and I thought it was clever the way they used old stock footage at the start to signify the end of the Second World War, the film featured many bombs out buildings associated with post war.

Story - I thought the story for this film was interesting, the way the main character played by Joseph cotton went about his life, it was evident that he was a well known author for his western interest. He almost became somewhat a detective as we discover that one of the main characters played by Orson Welles (Harry Lime) is not actually dead. The whole film has become centered around the death of Harry Lime, also good to note that citizen Kane was another film that was played by these two main actors, after watching both I feel as if citizen Kane had a big influence on the making for "The Third Man"

Cinematography - one key element that I picked up was the way that almost half the shots within the film had been tilted, after researching about this film I discovered that it's called a Dutch tilt, good way to set the scene within a film, we can get a feel that an image is out of place. From watching the angles and taking note of the story as it unfolds, I feel as well as the music that the tilts make the piece feel out of place, until the very end we as the audience members don't understand the whole plot twist which is made clear towards the scene where a cat wanders off into the shadows of a dark alley where a man stood in the pitch black, holly Martin (Joseph cotton) referred to the man as a spy.

I felt that the use of low key lighting was fantastic, it's what's to understand who we are looking at until they step out into the open, gives the characters a sinister look. I thoroughly thought the film had been lit well, especially within the sewer scene, it wasn't until the dark tunnel chase as the end that we were unable to struggle to find Harry Lime.

The music I thought was somewhat upbeat, it reflected the tragic situations that we were viewing on the screen, I though that the tube was very catchy as well, it felt like the tune was always played as a signification that Harry Lime was about to appear.

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 23rd November

Wednesday 23rd November 2016              Comparative Film Practices             Dan Paolantonio

Pitching Super 16mm Project Ideas - Discussed ideas about possible VO, how the film would be shot, did some location scouting on the internet, looking around Plymouth to find suitable and reachable places. We thought about the content for the film as well, trying to understand the content for our film.


Decasia - Bill Morrison

On first look I loved the visuals for this short film which I thought were very appetising, I found myself scanning across the screen picking out the images that were underlaid, trying to make sense of the storyline, if any. The way the images were repeated, it gave the impression of a cycle, linking back to the footage of workers, we see the processes involved for developing film.

Through the archive footage that was used and the series of events that unfolded on the screen, i think that this piece had a link to space and time, the way that the camera panned across action, the way of movement through people i.e. dancing around or just walking from place to place. The music itself played a huge part towards bringing the visuals to life, almost gave the impact of emotion that the subjects on screen were feeling towards certain parts of the film.

Bibliography

Decasia (2002) - Directed by Bill Morrison - America

Moving Narrative 2 BAFI202 - 22nd November

Tuesday 22nd November 2016.            Moving Narratives 2.               Kaz Rahman

Double Indemnity - 1944 Film Noir film

Directed by Billy Wilder - written by Raymond Chandler

Opens up too Neff being in the main office for the insurance business, he is confessing to what he has done using Keys phone! The confession is used as the main story throughout the film, without this type of dialogue I feel like we wouldn't understand the film, I would find myself asking what is going on, especially when Neff and the lady daughter meet up together, almost felt as if he fancied her and that it wasn't all about trying to make her stay quiet about the information she has about him and Phillis.

After the discussion before the film I couldn't help but watch the film as a lighting piece, the way the venetian blinds were everywhere, even though they are typical for the style for that of Film Noir, I found it amazing the way that they caste beans of light across the room and the characters throughout certain Scenes of the film. It almost worked as a way to create suspense and build tension for the atmosphere around the characters.

I feel that now I have watched the film, I became clear of the story towards the end when keys discovers neff in his office. I feel like if I watched the film again I would be able to follow the characters a lot more clearer, in particular the feme fatal I.e. Phillis.

There was definitely some innuendos within this film that I picked up on which made the film somewhat enjoyable to watch, washed over me as I paid close attention to the movement between neff and Phillis as they plan to kill mr dickens.

This film had a lot of snappy dialogue, not only was it straight to the point but it was fast and at times extremely hard to understand what was being said, especially when the insurance managers were having a meeting and they invited Phillie into speak about her husbands death.

Contexts of Practice 2 GCOP200 - 17th November

Thursday 17th November 2016                   Contexts of Practice             John Sealey

Literature Review - Narrative Story Telling

How narrative develops within films, the difference between a narrative short film and a nature documentary.

Talk about the cycle, the way the story line loops over and over as the interviewee is telling a story about being a drone pilot.

The way the story gets interrupt and sidetracked I see that as a predator invading another animals habitat.

Find an extract about the evolution of man, tie it in with the footage of monkeys from life story, link the cycle of life and the repeated storyline to evolution of man. - find a quote from Charles Darwin online and use that to back up the idea of evolution through the nature documentaries and then find something about a filmmaker's interpretation of narrative story telling.

Start of by talking about what is narrative, then my subject for modular narrative and the difference between modern cinema and that of a nature documentary.

Primary Research - film clips

Omer Fast - 5,000 Feet is the Best - http://www.gbagency.fr/en/42/Omer-Fast/#!/5-000-Feet-is-the-Best/site_medias_listes/1444 - Everytime that the pilot enters a different door he tells another story about the dreams he has had as a pilot, meaning that he never finishes the main story that he has been asked to tell and is being filmed.

Life Story Series - Narrated by David Attenborough
Young Fox Hunting in the snow - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0EiV-ERKRRs - Travel 100km a day just in search of food, same day routine, temperatures sidetrack the fox as it becomes harder to dive for lemmings, becoming the hunter in the snow.

Secondary Research - extract about the evolution of man

Life is all about evolution. What looks like a mistake to others has been a milestone in my life. Even if people have betrayed me, even if my heart was broken, even if people misunderstood or judged me, I have learned from these incidents. We are human and we make mistakes, but learning from them is what makes the difference. Amisha Patel
 https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/keywords/evolution.html

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 16th November

Wednesday 16th November 2016.             Comparative Film Practices        Dan Paolantonio

Postcards and Super 16mm Mood-board - Below is my postcard that I created

Chosen Quote: "lithography was surpassed by photography"

Front Side

Back Side 

We researched into some of the work that Walter Benjamin had completed, he wrote a paper up in 1936 which was titled "The work of Art in the age of mechanical reproduction. I found this article to be of great interest despite only reading a short piece of the paper.

Towards the second part of the lesson we were given two tasks, the first to pic a quote from the extract we were given, next we would have to create a postcard around the quote cutting out images from old film magazines and then we would have to re-write the quote in our own words, I thoroughly enjoyed this exercise as it got myself thinking about how different concepts of art can have different perceptions, understanding the use of technology and of course their pro's and con's.

For the last exercise we were to form groups of 6 people that we would work together well with for the super 16mm 1 minute film project, which will be filmed using the Arri flex film camera. We were told to mood board any ideas that the group may have had, I wrote down everyone's inputs as well as any decision making that went on through our innovative thinking. I thought about the story, shots, content, sound, editing techniques, motives, whether it would be one take or not and if so why.

Here is an image of the mood board that I created for the group to show our initial ideas.

Moving Narratives BAFI202 - 15th November

Tuesday 15th November 2016                   Moving Narratives 2                      Kaz Rahman.         

Created by Orson Welles - His background included theatre and radio - radio creates drama through the voice which I think worked within this certain piece of work as the voice was through the newspaper baron, "Charles Foster Kane" - ACTOR/WRITER/DIRECTOR

1941 - Citizen Kane - presidential ambitions - newspaper baron in 1930s in US

Key areas to look at while watching

Performance

Characters Complex, aging, developed.

Acting is about the voice as oppose to the movement like the other films we have watched

New approach to naturalism

Susan (female actor) shows two sides, becomes angry at the end but we remember her as being nice towards the centre of the film when her and Kane meet out on the street.

Story

Film opens with Kanes death, then we see a news reel - feels like documentary footage

Rosebud - last words, cryptic

Multiple perspectives

News reporters continue on Charles foster Kane's legacy

Flashback - non linear structure

Sophisticated dialogue

Humourous elements

Cinematography

Gregg Toland

Deep focus and sharp

Sound

Gets louder towards the main subjects - focus points

Multiple voices going on

Higher octane voices

Edit

Same shots repeated - no trespassing sign and start and end

Starts off with same editing style to that of sunrise (super impositions).

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 7th November

Monday 7th November 2016                 Comparative Film Practices               Dan Paolantonio

Set Task - 2 minute narrative film using stills to show time progressing

After watching "Le Jetee" last week in the studio theatre, we were set the task to create a 2 minute film where we would explore the use of still images in order to create a narrative for time. We would possible have to make the images black and white to fit the theme of the film and to link our stills back to being taken in the past, give the film stock or stills an authentic look.

Myself and my team had written up a poem which we would use as the main narrative piece to tell a story of the travels that the actor had within our piece, in this case I was the actor, I dressed up looking formal wearing black trousers and a white collared shirt, linking in with the idea of getting ready for work.

We all worked on the edit together and we all participated in getting stills for the piece including locations like beaumont park, play area, bus stop and even the friendly abode which we used as the characters place of stay throughout the piece. the idea we had to show time would consist of different locations to show the movement of the character but also we decided to repeat the images in some parts to give the effect of a cycle of life but also we thought that we could take out some o0f the images to make it look like things were disappearing one by one, as if he was loosing his mind.

Behind the scenes

Wide Angled Shot of the Park

Mid Shot - Walking around the park

Low Angled shot - Leaving for work

Cut Away Shot - Trees in the Park

Arriving at my bus stop to commute to work

Extreme Close Up - Going to sleep

Practical Screencraft 2 BAFI201 - 4th November

Friday 4th November 2016.                       Practical Screencraft.                Andy James

Recapped over the set 1 minute film from last weeks task.

Call and Response Project

We were set a new task - create a 1 minute film which explores 1 piece of equipment from the list below, we would then choose our sound recording devices or any additional software to create our sound bites, as well as utilising a camera to create a 1 minute film.

Task Brief

We used a Canon C100 for the filming but we also used the on board mic slot for a directional microphone to record any of the sound effects that were picked up through the camera.

I had the director role throughout this piece of work, at first I thought that it was a pointless exercise, however after looking back at the idea and the film I feel like I learnt to manage my time a lot more efficiently within a crew. I also worked on the set design and chose the camera angles specifically for the subject that we were addressing within the dissertation that I was attempting to write up.

The script idea that I came up with was to use a watch as the main piece of equipment, linking to the idea of time passing in a short space of time, I wanted to give the feeling that I was under pressure, stressing out and starting to get really angry with the repeating ticking noise that you can hear if you listen carefully. I think that the piece itself was edited together perfectly and I think that the shoot was well planned which included all the aspects of the production for "Clocking Out"

Behind the scenes for "Clocking Out"

Selection of equipment for the shoot

Creating the set design - Messy Study Area

Configuring the watch to tick - Utilising my acting skills

Sound Recordist and Cinematographer Stationary

Directing and discussing ideas as a crew

Editing the piece together 

(All of the pictures above have been approved for use by Aidan Wright - PCA Film Student)

CLOCKED OUT - FINAL PIECE

Clocked Out - Practical Screencraft from Luke Curno on Vimeo.

Contexts of Practise GCOP200 - 3rd November

Thursday 3rd November 2016.                Contexts of Practice.             Lecturer: Lucy Leake

Laura Mulvey - PDF Reading - Male Gaze

Action Research - Practical Demonstration - bring together search materials

Key Words

Enunciation - form of speech, speaking, what am I saying

"Laura Mulvey got people talking about representation through her article man as the bearer of the look"

Always remember to support your ideas through action research, whether it is valid

Have to look at either gender, race or sexuality

Action research task - Find a piece of text and support this by two video clips

The defiant ones -1958 - Stanley Kramer

Text - "WE WORK WITH YOU" We offer hands on practical help and support to tackle issues in your business with you.

Slides and Information

Comparative Film Practices BAFI205 - 3rd November

Wednesday 2nd November 2016           Comparative Film Practices        Dan Paolantonio

Super 16mm Film Camera - Inducted to use the Arri Flex SR2 - Re-flex action (Flex)

Had a go at assembling the camera together, using all of the component parts as well as being shown how to take light metre readings, whilst adjusting the camera accordingly.

Arri Flex SR2  

Ensure Metal rods are attached

Step 1 - Place Battery pack down on pin,

Step 2- Screw in Film stock, magazine and make sure the top silver pin is pointing towards the camera.

Step 3 - Screw on the pistol grip and attach pins to the underside of the camera body

Step 4 - Slide on matte box - Presents lens flare

Step 5 - Turn the camera on and start rolling

Light Metre

Using the light metres, look through the key-hole, click the side button to take a reading and then adjust the aperture according to the light meter. Point the white dome towards the camera when taking the readings.

The focus is positioned at the front of the camera, the zoom is at the back.

Le Jetee - Studio Theatre Screening

For the second part of the session we watched a film by Chris marks

"Le Jetee" which I thought experimented well with the passage of time. It was almost like a dream sequence, the way the scientists were holding experiments on a prisoner who was defenceless, trapped inside his own mind. I liked the way that the photos worked together, especially with the clever usage of consistent transitions I feel like it was made evident if someone was moving. The more the images were repeated, the more I felt like time had stopped for only a second or so.

Moving Narratives 2 BAFI202 - 1st November

Tuesday 1st November 2016                     Moving Narratives              Kaz Rahman

Film that we watched - Sunrise - 1927 - Big Budget film

The film that we watched definitely contained elements to that of German Expressionism, (around the 1920's) was really moved by the way that the film had a happy ending by finding the mans wife and rescuing her from the water before she drowned. 

I almost felt as if I wanted the film to end with the mistress (city girl) being killed as she was the one who had caused all of the upset.

I thoroughly enjoyed the film itself, there were many different key elements which helped to keep the piece moving, the use of dissolves through editing, the use of multiple pictures being overplayed, there was always something new going on. 

I liked the way that the man went into the church to hear the vows of a wedding being said, made him realise how much he loved his wife, even though he had been having an affair behind her back.

The film itself showed low key lighting, really high in contrast but at the same time it was really dark for some bits, especially towards the water scenes where they would venture out together on a small boat, the misty atmosphere helped to build up tension and make us on edge as the audience. 

I don't think that this film needed any dialogue, I feel like the way we get opened up to the characters through footage, we are given clear details about each cast member which helps to generate the character profiles. 

This film used a variety of different prime camera lenses, this was made apparent through the use of camera angles, I feel like in many cases the lenses helped to show off the defined space that the characters had been put in 

This particular film had a few moments of dry humour which made it easier to watch, everything serious and the music rhythm on its own I feel would have been a lot less interesting to watch, so for me I feel like thee sound design was key to helping this film generate an atmosphere.

The scale of the sets were huge, due to the budget, I particularly liked the set design for the carnival and the city, it really made the film feel as if they had travelled from peasant farm house into a much more upper class place, this was of course re-enforced by the reactions that they got as they were at the carnival, one of the musicians played Midsommer - Peasant song - which we can see the two main characters dancing too towards the end of the film. 

Comparing this film to the other film scenes that we watched, I feel like the set design was a lot different, advanced and a lot more detailed too films like the "Cabinet of Dr Caligari". I feel like the set design was a lot more stark, however the colours of lighting were the same through every film we watched, there was a heavy use of low key lighting which was very dark and high in contrast which really helped to give an eerie feeling to the piece, as well as the production side through shadows, making certain scenes in sunrise stand out and cast lots of shadows.