Author Archives: rosiepavlovic

VIDEO ART – Journal Prompt 6

LIGHTING – Lykke Li – Hard Rain

There’s a vast array of lighting sources in Lykke Li’s music video for the track Hard Rain. I’m going to analyse a few of them, as the clip features many beautifully lit scenes, thus I will have to narrow it down to      . Cinematic lighting in this clip is imperative to the narrative – a music video without a linear structure, character backgrounds or dialogue needs to communicate it’s message via visual cues only, and the use of lighting conveys this.

This opening shot sets the relationship between the lovers from the beginning. The mis-en-scene suggests that they are separated, distant but vying for a connection through the plastic border. The lighting favours Lykke Li. She remains illuminated whilst the light is refracted off the plastic and does not fall on the man. His only lighting source is the backlit window casting him into a gloomier side of the room, whilst Lykke remains emblazoned in a passionate red.
I think this would be achieved by lighting the room with either natural lighting in the back and using freestanding lights with red gels for the key lighting. The natural lighting could be generated by an outdoor light panel, however I think that’s a bit off brand for Lykke who often uses naturalistic sets.

This shot occurs after the first one, Lykke climbs the stairs and stares in her mirrors reflection. The upstairs area is flooded with natural light and it seems as through she has escaped the underground area where the plastic sheet was hung. Her face is lit with television standard off-lighting; where the light hits the side of her face furthest from the camera.This is intended to bring a depth to the shot, along with highlight cheekbones, lip lines and brows. The light is soft and I think this was achieved with the help of reflectors, natural lighting and highlights.

Finally, this shot is using wholly natural lighting and using reflectors to avoid the couple being a total silhouette. There also may be a small, diffused low light however I believe they used the light provided from the sunset. Though the screen-grabs suggest the couple are more than content together, the ending of the clip is a little more sinister. Thus, the man in the shots is always a little poorly lit compared to Lykke who is constantly highlighted throughout the video. UI believe lighting was useful in conveying this narrative arc.

PICTURE THIS – Reflection

With my final assignment submitted and as we make preparations for the Media Festival, it’s time I begin my final reflection on what I’ve learnt, unlearnt and discovered in Picture This.

My final assignment has more depth than all my previous scripts combined. I look back at the script I wrote of the two girls at the bus stop, which I’ve used as a guinea pig to apply writing techniques unto. There’s more colour, vibrancy and most importantly clarity in the revised versions. The smallest action can be thought out in great detail making it so much easier and exciting to adapt onto screen. I dwelled on the functionality of a screenplay before this class; it served only as a shot list, stage placement and a reminder of dialogue. Screenwriting didn’t excite me the way I knew it should.

What excited me about this class however was the freedom to play with the constraints of the format. I’ve enjoyed subverting the ‘old stuffy screenwriting rules’ (to quote Stayci), and enjoyed utilising techniques that make a screenplay stand out. In my final script which I’ve titled ‘Sidewalk’, I begin by writing the big print in a tone which denotes the genre of the screenplay. I’ve attempted to use this technique in the opening scene of the script, involving the line;

The girls share the camaraderie known only by
workers engaged in mutual suffering.

This isn’t inherently a visual statement, yet it lets the reader know that this statement ins an experience of the writer, and that for anyone who works, they can relate to this particular kind of working relationship which is so important to the end of the script. The reader needs to understand the stakes between the characters – this is not just a co-worker but a close friend.

I’ve also tried to experiment with writing shifts in perspectives within the big print. I only wanted to do this once in the screenplay as it not only shifts what the reader focuses on but also brings an air of vulnerability to the subject. An example:

Three figures lean against the entrance of the tunnel,
talking, smoking, just out of her focus. They notice the
girl in the red uniform making their way towards them, and
stand to face her.

This line tries to isolate Clementine, to make her feel smaller than the figures. From being guided by her perspective the entire time the shift is jarring and I hope it builds the intensity of this moment.

I’m quite pleased with my final submission – I wanted to begging this class by being able to write with a prompt, by creating constraints I could work under to guide me to a topic. I’m happy to see that I’ve been able to write with focus but also be able to subvert the writing constraints I originally sought out.

PICTURE THIS – WIP Feedback reflection

The feedback we received during our work in progress presentation was so valuable to me. I thought we were given honest and thought provoking critiques, especially from Smiljana. I think she pushed us to consider the world we were creating, how it reflects us and how it reflects the people we decide to write. Our guest speaker Catherine mentioned that we should employ specificity when writing characters from diverse backgrounds or they might be susceptible to altering to fit the dominant ideology. Smiljana suggested that if we are to create a character from a minority, there’s a duty of care we need to take by connecting with the cultural community they’re from. Write from the beginning knowing they are of that race, gender identity, sexuality, and let it impact their character. It gave me a lot to think about regarding the universe I decide to create, and whether it’s impact will be positive or negative.

A key piece of feedback I would like to reflect on was some of the suggestions I received on how to write the ending. I brought up my concerns in my presentation about resolving the end the piece with an explosion of dialogue. I’m trying to come up with a way for the protagonists to express all the conflicting emotions they feel about self determination, fear and safety. My first thought was to jump to dialogue. The feedback I received acknowledged that using dialogue is one way to do this, however, maybe there should be no dialogue at all. It would be more impactful to communicate a feeling through visual language rather than express it vocally.

So thus in a rewrite of the order of action, we could potentially see something like this: As Carol blares her lights into the shadows, she swings the door open for her friend as if to say Get In. Clem gets in the car with Carol. The two sit there in the still car watching the headlights blare onto an empty street. This is the moment they non-verbally share another moment of camaraderie, again, of mutual suffering. Suffering under a system which confines the way they move within this world. Suddenly I’m excited to write this part, rather than dreading it.

Communicating without dialogue will push my visual storytelling further, to express such a key moment in this narrative  through human connection, expression, setting, movement and sound.
To end the piece like this brings even more bookends into the narrative; I’ve begun to visualise the car as being a sanctity – Carol’s presence and friendship brings the warmth back into the scene which we lost when the shop lights dimmed. Now headlights replace this brightness.  This moment highlights the value of solidarity between women when faced with adversity.
I was imagining a song to play as the women drive away, something along the lines of It’s a Man’s Man’s World.  This could come across as cliche but it gives a clearer message to a script I’m scared could loose it’s political motivations. The use of silence between the two women in the car is key to express their disenchantment. The use of a song like that playing as they begin to drive off could push this message further.

Another piece to focus on was expressing fear and apprehension without physically showing these figures in the distance. They might never need to make an appearance at all, if we as the reader know that there is something to fear from Clem’s behaviour and body language. The feedback focused mainly on expressing the protagonist’s inner emotions, something that will see me reflect on key readings from the course.

 

PICTURE THIS: Work in Progress

I began developing my idea when I was on my way home from work one night. I have been trying to observe moments of quietness in my life and see if this influences my visual intake. This walk was especially creepy and dark, and I was skating down Wellington street in Collingwood. My partner had vehemently warned me not to skate to the station, and rather to catch an uber. It was going to cost me $17 to get back to Preston, that was nearly an hours work. Nothing angers me more than two things; being ripped off, and having my rights infringed.  Walking safely in the dark should be a human right, and for a spooky girl like me, it’s a passion.
When I inevitably returned home later than expected, my girlfriend scolded me and asked; what if it was me? What if I was walking home in the dark alone?
I regretted it, knowing that when women walk home alone, it’s a gamble. It never happens to you but it could.  It’s a choice between autonomy or personal safety. I wanted to write a script that asks; does she walk home without fear, or is it safer to ask for help, and why does this system exist anyway?

Conflicting feelings about walking home safely is universal.  I’ve tried to illustrate this desire for independence and self-determination in a world where it’s not necessarily safe. I’ve decided to commit to the walking home from work narrative – it’s something I feel super strongly about. I’ve written about this film on my blog before but a key text that influences me for this is A Girl Walks Home Alone At Night (2014, dir. Ana Lily Amipour). The title acting as a hook for the film shows how unsettling the circumstance can be. I had intention to write this script in the same tone as the film. In my original ideas, the protagonist walks home and confronts these attackers whilst walking home to find how worried her family and friends were. This was what I was working with for a while but every time I went to write the ending, it gave this sense of victim blaming; as if she made a ‘stupid decision’ and compromised the comfort of her loved ones. I didn’t want this to be my message – I wanted to express how depressing and disenchanting living in fear can be.

EXCEPT ONE:

Structurally I began in the beginning – I have been meaning to ask in class if this is recommended? I have never started writing anything from the middle or the ending. It could be a cool exercise to practise potentially.
I’ve began by attempting to give a feel towards the relationship between the two workers. I wanted this scene to be warm and feel safe, and the moment Carol leaves the fun and warmth is sucked out of the room. A revision I made after our Monday reading was to avoid double announcing location.
ie. INT. PIZZA SHOP. NIGHT
Clementine mops the floor of the pizza shop.
Now it has become Clementine mops the checkerboard floor.

Another revision is to give Clem some likability, so she can carry this narrative as a relatable character. I wanted to show her playing around at work, kicking mop buckets and joking with her friend. Determination is also a trait her character will have, also her enjoyment of quiet walks in the dark.

I’m hoping the feedback will help me wrangle this idea into a beginning middle and end I’m really unsure of how this will end, part of me wants it to snap back to the question where she is asked fir a lift and this time she says yes, but that comes across as a weird government ad telling women not to walk home. I hope they can help me resolve this ending without needing too much dialogue.

 

VIDEO ART: Project 1 Planning

STORYBOARDING
I’m begging mapping out how to visually represent how the television can be an obtrusive frame that shows violence, and how his has little visible impact on us anymore. I keep returning to the dinner situation, which is where I first observed what    refers to as ” talk about it being an uninvited guest”. At first I was going to discuss violence towards women and how we allow graphic violence to seep into our homes via television, but again after watching TV, Married At First Sight particularly,  I’d also like to discuss how free to air television is a heterosexual landscape and that is a reason why myself or my girlfriend don’t watch it. We do watch television but we tend to look online for content that we find represents us, and interests us. I’ve also begun to storyboard how I can represent this visually through video medium.

excuse the Deli paper I had to draw on at work

SOUND
Sound is going to be an integral part of this piece. There is an importance on creating an overwhelming presence of the TV set. This is going to be dominated by sound rather than the visual size of the screen, as the screen will be comparative to that of a dinner guest. I want there to be an emphasis on the sounds from the television, but I also want it to be matched by the conversation and happy chatter to create a juxtaposition of emotions.
This bring me to discussing my source material for what’s on tv. I would love to attempt to film and record the sound for a convincing crime drama, however, it might not be graphic enough to send a convincing message. I am hoping to download some clips from TV shows that feature violence and chop them up so they’re unrecognisable, not only for a jarring effect but also to be able to dodge online copywright. I am planning on adding the soundtrack over the video in post, then editing to sound as if it were distant and spoken through the tv’s speakers.

EDITING
I’m not sure if it’s a video art convention to keep your shot static and uninterrupted by edits. I suppose this would align a video as classical forms of art such as a painting or photograph which moves through the medium of video.If I were to film a static shot I think it would compliment my ideas about the television as a frame, and the ‘frame within a frame’ concept would come across more clearly. I think I will try to make two cuts within the whole piece, as it’s more of a filmed performance rather than relying on editing conventions to make a statement. I am goint o film for a while, as the more comfortable my friends and I are on camera the more realistic it will be and hopefully I will get a genuine performance rather than something that feels staged.

COMPOSITION
I want the camera to be unobtrusive, like a fly on the wall, andI’ll place it behind the couch with the couch in frame, blocking it to appear as an observer rather than a party guest, which the TV will be. In the second shot I’m considering, the camera will remain in the same place, maybe tilted to the side to get a better shot of my girlfriend and I who will be streaming off our laptop while aggressively heterosexual content plays on TV.

VIDEO ART – Journal Prompt 5

 In anticipation for the upcoming season, I’ve recently revisited Westworld. This particular scene occurs twice within the season, and in each version, the stakes have changed. The scene depicts the outlaw Hector and his gang robbing the saloon – an integral narrative the characters repeat as an attraction for the visitors of Westworld. In the first robbery happening early in the season, the characters are premiering the robbery performance. In the second, the stakes have changed and the characters have become aware of the stakes, and this time the robbery is part of a ruse – their performance is trivial. I will analyse the way the use of diegetic and non diegetic sound in each clip illustrates this shift in narrative.

FIRST ROBBERY

In this robbery, we open with a cover of Paint It Black by The Rolling Stones as the menacing gang ride in to the town. The foley artists would have had a field day with this show, the gunshots along with the clinking of cowboy boots along wooden floors brings me back to The Foley Man video we watched in class. As the song builds, there in an incredible moment where Hector shoots the sheriff in the head – this action drastically changes the music and vision. The gunshot is both diegetic and non diegetic; its unsure to say whether the clash is an echo of the shot or a deep bass drum when the music begins its crescendo. The vision slows and we enter a slow motion unfurling of the mechanics of the heist. This slow motion breaks when Armistice begins firing rounds at the townspeople, nearly matching the beat of the song. Paint It Black creates a fearsome and calculated performance perfectly interwoven with action and diegetic sound.

SECOND ROBBERY

In this clip the stakes have changed as the characters are now to perform their same heist but under new circumstances. This clip is intended to make the performative duties of the park’s hosts appear trivial to the viewer at home. Thus we hear a new, less fearsome ballad – Carmen Habanera – Georges Bizet, 1875. The build of this song brings a much lighter, even comedic sense to the robbery. The producers are showing us the same scene again, but far less fearsome than the original. The action as a far slower pace, completely a slow mo, and offers more focus on the park directors. This is intended to show that the hosts are manipulating the directors right under their noses.

The use of diegetic and non diegetic sound in these two clips produce two incredible examples of how sound creates tone, even in the most similar of circumstance.

Picture This! – An influential text

An influential textI’ve encountered within Picture This, which I have referenced previously in my blogging, is Claudia Sternberg’s “Written For The Screen: The American Motion Picture Screenplay as Text”. This reading is influential in the way that it highlighted the advantages of informal stylistic writing; how the tone of the genre you write in can influence the big print of a script.
Sternberg cites the screenplay Unforgiven. As a Western, It’s context within the oral mythology of the wild west sets us up with character descriptions that read in the same tone as the dialogue.

Alice is 25 but she’s been around some, whored some tough cow-towns, and she has too much bone and character in her face to be outright pretty but she attracts men like flies.

The screenwriter takes on not quite a narrator, but more-so a third character who belongs in this world witnessing the action, and from this unbiased third character we find ourselves, the reader. In my own developing practice, I found the loosening of formality in the big print beneficial. Not only my blogging style but my writing mannerism of the last three years has been strictly academic. I’ve struggled to loosen my writing to match my speech, which is littered with colloquialisms.

I think that writing a piece in tone with the genre is an exciting concept and immediately my mind ran two two of my favourite films: Priscilla, and Muriel’s Wedding. I am stinging to get my hands on a copy of P.J Hogan’s original screenplay. I love to write my characters in a strine, working class Australian voice, one I was raised with and one that defined my youth and childhood. I think the option of writing in this voice inspired my ideas for my final project. I also attended Melbourne Queer Film Festival’s short film exhibition. A combination of both of these had me thinking about writing some sort of backyard Australian lesbian romance, something with humour rather than melancholy mumble-core shorts I’ve reserved myself to writing. Not that there’s anything wrong with mumblecore, but this is my first shot at ‘proper’ screenwriting so I want to throw some dialogue in there, or at least some action that isn’t wholly conceptual. I’ve loved learning about screenplay formalities but I’m really keen to dig into some more theory on creating the actual story itself.

Picture This! – Cueing sound and image

“screenplays should be experienced […] as a form of cinema itself” whereby “both, although via opposite polarities, are audio-visual (the screenplay cueing the images and sounds in our mind)” (2009, p. 109). Reference: Dzialo, C 2009, ‘“Frustrated Time” narration: the screenplays of Charlie Kaufman’, in W Buckland (ed.), Puzzle films: complex storytelling in contemporary cinema, Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp. 107-28.

As I unpack this quote by Chris Dzialo, I believe he is discussing the equity between screenplays and films for their audio-visual storytelling purposes. Though we often credit films for the combination of sound and image to create meaning, screenplays are capable of pushing the reader to create the sound and image within our minds. Rather than to shoot directly from the storytellers prose, we use screenwriting to explore and develop these initial ideas an open them up to interpretation from others. This can lead to changes in the story, enhancements or destruction. Ultimately as screenwriters, we place our ideas in the path of change, with the hope they grow and develop from criticism, revisions or adaptation. This is what differentiates screenwriting from cinema – interpretation is as far as a cinema can change in our minds.

Cueing sounds in our minds is one of the facets of screenplays I’m becoming interested in. In Claudia Sternberg’s  ‘Written For The Screen’, she discusses the description of sounds across various texts, comparing them to the sound functions in comic strips. Total Recall utilises the style of a comic strip balloon text, as a character falls down an elevator shaft:
“Richter falls to his death, SCREEEAAAmiiiiinnnnnngggg”
This line not only cues the sound of a falling scream fading away into a hollow abyss, but also visually cues the elevator shaft depth, cues an actors expression and length of delivery.

There’s a specific script I want to reference, where aurally, we can find insight into the protagonist’s motivations and feelings, which we aim to illustrate in visual storytelling. The except is from Transamerica by Duncan Tucker, however I am unable to find access to the screenplay. The story follows the life of a trans woman a week before her gender-reassignment surgery.  The expert I wanted to reference shows our protagonist listening to a record on an old gramophone. She places her finger on the LP to slow the vocals down to a low baritone, before letting the song resume at normal speed, returning a high pitched female alto. This aural cue illustrates the character’s internal actions and motivations concerning her upcoming operation, and symbolises the weight of change they are about to experience. The combination of visuals and sound in this specific piece of writing allows us to explore this character’s emotions on screen and on page.

 

Video Art – Project 1 Creation ideas

Our assignment has been issued for television art and it requires us to discuss and address television as it is now in 2018. While I began this semester focusing on the construction of an adbreak, I think i’ve veered my ideas towards discussing the content of what’s on tv these days.

This is particulary directed at the normalisation of violence towards women on primetime television. In my observations on television, crime dramas are still a popular genre, however narratives in these shows are all too often spurred the graphic violence or death of a woman and focus on how the men who exist around it cope, or in other words “female characters being victimized in order to further the plot of their male significant others”. A short list of television shows that use this narrative could include Twin Peaks, Game of Thrones, Law and Order, CSI, House of Cards etc. Whilst those are the big name shows that are accountable for using this trope, during my television observation exercise I noted that graphic violence was being shown on prime time television on Free To Air tv in Australia.

I noticed this at the dinner table at a family dinner with members of my extended family, including my young cousins. As we happily ate and conversed, Law and Order SVU blared in the background, an obtrusive guest to the dinner contributing the gurgled screams of female murder victims to the conversation.

No one batted an eyelid.

This got me thinking about the physical object of a television itself; a moving image in a shiny black frame. A frame that we have no autonomy over what fills it.  We literally allow a corporation, or a small group of television programmers to infiltrate our lounge rooms, bedrooms, with images of whatever they think will sell, and these images are too often violent. This is what I plan to discuss in my video art assessment

PICTURE THIS! – Doing not Being

Doing not being:
As discussed in this weeks reading by Walderback and Batty, scripts must find a way to externally express what a character thinks and feels internally. Walderback and Batty suggest that we can achieve this with four essential writing techniques which I’ll try to illustrate below:

  • Using active verbs ie.
    Adam is in the kitchen feeling miserable. < Adam crouches over the kitchen bench sobbing.
  • Working with environments to achieve metaphorical backdrops:
    Adam crouches over the kitchen bench sobbing. A pile of unwashed dishes fill the sink.
  • Body movements and physical actions,
    Adam crouches over the kitchen bench sobbing. A pile of unwashed dishes fill the sink.  Adam sharply inhales and begins to frantically wipe his tears away with the back of his hand.
  • Employing objects to express inner motivations.
    Adam crouches over the kitchen bench sobbing. A pile of unwashed dishes fill the sink.  Adam sharply exhales and begins to frantically wipe his tears away with the back of his hand. Pulling himself together, he turns to the cupboard and begins to pack his children’s lunch.

The reading has taught me to use verbs rather than adjectives in scene descriptions to effectively express a situation.  “Adam is in the kitchen feeling miserable” isn’t straightforward enough to translate to screen. ” Adam crouches over the kitchen bench sobbing. ” is visual and active, more direct and dramatic. In a class exercise we were asked to rewrite an emotional situation and translate it into visual storytelling. The prompt I chose was:
Rinaldo’s so tired of his children’s bickering. He can’t bear to be a single dad and is at the end of his tether. He feels guilty and angry with himself. 

I wrote:
Crumbs crunch under Rinaldo’s shoes as he walks down the hallway. His fists clench at the sound of thumping feet racing upstairs. He draws his leg back and punts a discarded teddy bear across the room, the force of which triggers the bear to play a monotonous electronic jingle – “You Are My Sunshine”. 

At this point the class suggested to construct a moment between the bear, the song and Rinaldo that shows guilt. These are my suggestions:

  • Rinaldo looks up to see a shadow in the doorway. Connor (9), quizzically stares back at his father.
  • From across the room, the pathetic bear’s button eyes bore into Rinaldo’s, A look of pity washes over Rinaldo’s face. He sighs deeply before collecting the strewn toys into a wicker basket. He gently places the bear on top.

I think what works in this technique is that it keeps my writing dynamic and full of movement. It’s much more entertaining to read and carries the narrative rather than placing it there. The still sentences look a bit chunky. Sometimes I feel like I’m directing or ordering a character around rather than letting them find their motivation naturally. Is this something that comes with a fully realised character? Right now Rinaldo is a stranger to me, and I am not invested in him or his past/future, and thus I suppose I feel like I’m directing him around. I suppose a character organically moving through a story would come with understanding their motivations, personalities, and what they would/wouldn’t do. Hopefully the deeper I write on a character in this studio the more this becomes realised.