In the tute we screened a short film called Rolling – a film made in Film-TV1 a few years ago.  In 300 words or less describe what you thought worked or didn’t. At this stage we don’t expect you to have a great deal of film knowledge or language. Don’t be afraid to use your own words. Things you could talk about – script, casting, timing, camera movement, location. You may not remember much detail, if so, it could be helpful to talk about your first impressions, after all this is what most of us are left with after one viewing.

Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of Rolling.  I felt its biggest problem was the lack of plot direction, along with characters who displayed both little emotion and personal development.  The story seemed like a half-hearted attempt at a romantic comedy, however it was neither romantic nor comedic; instead an awkward in-between which left me, as an audience member, confused.

The film revolves around a young man who while attempting to talk to his muse, a young attendant who works at the local supermarket, nervously tries to initiate conversation with her, stumbling over his words with her and somehow manages to purchase fifty extra large packs of toilet paper; a nice comedic touch, but that’s about as bizarre the film (or at least its script) gets.  The film should have expanded on this gag, and at the very least, incorporated more humour into the film, so that its genre was more defined and didn’t lack emotions.  Alternatively, the film could have been situated in a flower shop, of something of the kind, and play up the romantic interest in the film, however the two leads had no chemistry between them, so perhaps the comedic route was the way to go.  It’s hard to shift the blame solely to either screenwriters or actors, but both elements refused to gel as one.

In addition, the film’s locations, while generically appropriate, simply felt lifeless – much like the film itself.  Camera angles and shot selections were awkward, and emphasised the obvious height difference between the leading couple.

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. 

I enjoyed Rowan Ayers’ piece on Sound Recording, which stressed the importance of sound and sound quality, bringing unwanted background noise to attention, as he raised the point that “…the human ear is selective.  It can focus on one sounds source and reject other noises, but the microphone cannot.  It will pick up every sound within its range, even some which your ears may not have noticed”, demonstrating the importance of sound recording while on a shoot, and then being incredibly selective as to what sounds you want, or don’t want throughout your scene.

After exploring Cinema Verité documentary last week in Cinema Studies, Stanley Alten’s reading on Creating the Sound Design was also interesting, discussing how sound recording could be used and manipulated in the observational form of documentary, simply by selecting different microphones for varying effects, despite the ‘truthfulness’ intended to be conveyed in cinema verité.

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 faint, haunting echoes heard throughout Clown Train help to not only establish the scene’s dank, underground surrounds but also creates an eerie and unsettling mood for the film.  The brief zaps of the flickering lights, the rattle of the air-conditioner and the disconcerting wind effects outside the train add to this effect.  The timpani, which sounds along with abrupt shots of the clown, creates a disturbing unease towards the character, but on the whole I feel that all of these effects could have been applied more heavily and appropriately throughout times in the film to create even more tension and add to an even stronger atmosphere.  For me, there are too many moments of ‘ambient silence’ throughout the film, and although at times, this creates positive effects, it is employed too often and makes the audio work seem slightly disjointed.

I drew an obvious, immediate connection between Clown Train and Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight (2008) via the ‘Clown’ and Heath Ledger’s Joker performances with their dark undertones and black humour.  Despite lacking world renowned actors and a budget of around $185 million, Clown Train attempted to create similar tension throughout the short film, however could have potentially benefited from drawing further inspiration from Hans Zimmer’s soundtrack for The Dark Knight, with tension gradually building throughout entire scenes with a crescendo of strings, rather than beginning to build, before decaying repeatedly to next-to-nothing, which causes Clown Train to lose this building tension.

I enjoyed the week 1 reading on the creation of Narrative Roles in fictional media texts, such as ‘heroes and villains’ and ‘good versus evil’.  But it was interesting to note that they are not solely restricted to fictional forms.  Narrative roles can also be used in non-fiction forms of media, such as the news, where language can be used to attribute characteristics to non-physical forms, such as weather, turning natural forces such as wind and storms into ‘the villain’: “This was Nature at her most unforgiving”.

Similar to Jasmine’s lecture, it was pleasing to see in the reading “Getting An Idea” that some well-known motion pictures had been thought of spontaneously after an unexpected life moment.  Kevin Brownlow’s It Happened Here (1966), which depicts Hitler’s Britain had Germany won World War II, was founded when Brownlow in 1956, then a trainee of a documentary film company, witnessed a man shouting in German to a companion in London.  “The scene was straight out of a war film; only the surroundings were unusual,” Brownlow says.  This moment helped to trigger a train of thought in Brownlow; “What might have happened if the Germans had invaded England?”  Ten years later, the film was complete and Brownlow’s dream achieved.

I love writing, and the most common issue I have is finding the perfect story to tell.  Sometimes a cohesive plot won’t seem to form in my mind, others times, characters seem to lack inspiration and are difficult to relate to.  Jasmine’s lecture was incredibly insightful in the way she made it seem so easy and effortless to find ways to come up with simple brainstorms and ideas to kick-start an intriguing story.  Perhaps the most exciting of these was to come up with a problem and “write your way out of it”.  While, in my opinion, this method might not always leave you with the most believable or cohesive storylines, it’s definitely a method that won’t leave a page empty for long.

For this semester of Film and TV 1, I would simply like to gain experience undertaking and attempting multiple roles of the many that are required to produce a (short) film.  It may sound like a basic and uninspired goal to some, however for me, filmmaking is a very new prospect and one I never thought I would be trialing even after enrolling in RMIT’s media course.  I very much feel as though this subject could be a highly influential deciding factor on my future career, and will not hold back when given the responsibility to accomplish set tasks.  I would gladly accept any job given to me, but would particularly relish any opportunity to either write our short film’s screenplay, or even to be handed the seemingly high pressure task of directing; both roles of which I feel I would be capable of tackling.