Week Six Workshop Exercise
- What is the ‘controlling idea’ (Robert McKee) of your portrait?
The most interesting thing I want to communicate about Vic is her passion for her work. Music is what she really loves to do and I hope that comes across in my portrait.
- How is your portrait film structured?
My portrait film is framed by ‘found footage’ of a trailer for Judy Garland’s “A Star is Born”, the portrait then cuts between footage of Vic being interviewed and shots of her playing guitar. Vic responds to questions that aren’t heard in the video.
- What do you want your audience to make of your interviewee? I want my audience to see Vic for the cute, kind and passionate woman that she is. I think the portrait really displays her being herself, she’s not putting on an act or anything so it’s an honest representation of her. I also hope to make my audience realise how talented she is by using her music as the backing track for the portrait.
- How is your portrait being narrated? The portrait is narrated by my participant Vic. I think at times it can make the structure slightly confusing as she occasionally would forget to restate the question in her response but I think my audience is able to still understand what is going on.
- What role will the ‘found footage’ play in your portrait?
After playing around with my found footage I found it worked best as a bookend for the portrait. I chose this found footage because I think it reflects how I feel about Vic’s talent and how I think she needs to feel about herself, so in that sense it’s slightly ironic as she isn’t currently ‘the most beloved entertainer of our time’ but she is on the right track.
- /7. Does your portrait have a dramatic turning point? When does this turning point in your portrait and why?
In a sense the portrait does, but not so much from the content of the interview as the change from the found footage into the footage I shot myself. I made this decision to give the film a dramatic turning point.
- How does your portrait gather and maintain momentum?
The portrait gathers moment by opening with a considerably long shot of found footage before cutting to the footage I’d captured myself. The portrait maintains momentum by continuously cutting between interview footage and b-roll footage of my participant playing guitar to keep the audience engaged.
- Where will your portrait’s dramatic tension come from? T
The portraits dramatic tension comes from Vic talking about the hardships she’s faced as an artist and what she has had to overcome to be successful in her career.
10. Does the portrait have a climax and/or resolution?
I would say the climax of the portrait is the previously mentioned dramatic tension, to resolve it I followed that response with Vic giving advice to herself, and young artists generally, on how to be successful.