Month: March 2014

Film and TV1 – Reflection 2 Question 4

gabriellemcleod

In the tute we screened a short film called Rolling – a film made in Film-TV1 a few years ago.

Describe what you thought worked or didn’t.

The film Rolling has elements that are successful as well as elements that are poor.

The elements that I found most effective were the dialogue, acting and actual storyline of the film.

The dialogue was simple and straight forward. It played it’s role perfectly in telling the story, so the story did not rely solely on dialogue, however was not only told through filming techniques. The balance was great.

The acting in the film was effective too. I felt that the acting was not too overstated for TV as a lot of acting in non professional films is. The film was well cast and the actors looks and physicality suited the characters well.

The storyline was also strong and perfect for a 5 min.

The major flaws I found with the film were a few technical things that I thought made the film slightly hard to watch. These were with the sound and the lighting. I found  that the lighting was a bit harsh and wasn’t aesthetically pleasing, this could have been because of the location but was something that could probably been have overcome by some better planning.

Film and TV1 – Reflection 2 Question 2

gabriellemcleod

Select from one of the readings, up to but not including Week 5, and briefly describe two points that you have taken from it. Points that excite you, something that was completely new to you.

Idea One: 

A point that is discussed a lot in Writing for the Screen: Beyond the Gospel of Story by Kathryn Millard is the major use of conflict in script writing. Many script writers have the view that story is  formed through creating some kind of conflict, Ken Dancyer states in his book Scriptwriting: Writing Beyond the Rules ‘The focus on conflict is so central to storytelling that its use can be traced from the original Ten Commandments.’ (1995: 2)

Raul Ruiz points out that there is in fact a flaw in this general ‘conflict theory’ and puts forward the idea that, ‘Rather than being drawn from many cultures, the idea that conflict drives all behaviour is drawn from one particular culture … that of the United States.’ (1995: 21)

This fact is true and therefore the theory that conflict causes certain behaviours and happenings in stories, is not in fact a general statement for all script writing and story telling.

Idea Two:

The other point that I found interesting in Millard’s article was the idea of Wim Wenders. Wenders sees story to be the most integral part to a film. He state: ‘The actors are interchangeable, the director, too, of course, and so is everybody, except for The Story.’ (2001)

I can definitely see why Wedners thinks this, and agree with him. Even with the best actors, director and crew in the world, a film can fail without a brilliant story.

Ruiz, R. (1995) Poetics of Cinema, Paris: Editions Dis Voir

Wenders, W. (2001) ‘Once: Pictures and Stories’, English Ed, New York: Distributed Art Publishers

Dancyger, K. (1995) Alternative Scriptwriting: Writing Beyond the Rules 2nd Edition, London: Focal Press

 

Film and TV1 – Reflection Question One

gabriellemcleod

In the film Clown Train how does sound contribute to the atmosphere of this film? Describe what you heard? Can you make reference to another genre film and how they utilise sound to create tension and a unique filmic space?

The simple use of sound in Clown Train creates suspense and tension through a lack of sound. The music that is featured is quiet and simple, yet powerful.

The music is not played throughout the whole film, this allows the music to highlight the high tension parts of the film.

Other than the dialogue spoken between the two characters, which is minimal, the other sound effects are few and only used for major actions, for example the train doors opening.

The sound is also used to create the location. The film is set on a train that is stopped at a train station somewhere in the middle of nowhere. However, it was actually filmed at a train museum, therefore the location is created through a powerful use of atmospheric sound.