Studio Reflections

Prompt 1:

From Phantom Cinema, a project that really stood out to me was ‘Cut into the Capitol’ which utilised the Capitol theatre to present scenes from films, demonstrating how the Capitol theatre holds so much film history. By using iconic film scenes in the project, the creator has shown to his audience the significance of the Capitol’s rich history in film. I thought it was very clever how the creator used different aspects and areas of the Capitol that worked well alongside the scenes he used from the films selected. It created a very real effect to the combination of animation to footage of the Capitol theatre. For example, the lighting of the Capitol, specifically the spotlight was used to match up with a scene from Whiplash, making the whole final piece very attractive to the eye and flowed nicely, it almost fit together like a puzzle piece. I thought that this project responded very well to the prompt as it gave the Capitol a lively feel to it. It made the Capitol feel like its own being that is still alive and maybe has been forgotten but can be remembered through the films that have visited the Capitol over the years. The other project that I was really interested in was the video presented in the Capitol called What Remain: Unmade Films. This video essay highlighted the significance of films throughout history that were filmed but never released. The purpose of the video essay is to emphasise the significant impact that these unfinished films have on filmmaking today. These pieces should be preserved and kept safe where people can view them and be inspired by them in their own filmmaking. They have also provided examples of times when film makers have used historical, unmade/unfinished found footage to inspire their own work. When studying Phantom Cinema, this idea of “unmade films” acting as the phantom like being that has been forgotten and become almost ghost like is very intriguing. They emphasise not only the historical but the cultural importance of incorporating these films into modern day research and media as we as creators can be inspired and educated on the lives of people from around the world and in different times and places throughout history.

Prompt 2:

The studio that I have selected to reflect on is Uncomfortable Filmmaking, something that is interesting to me because I am already quite uncomfortable making films, so I wanted to explore what kind of uncomfortable filmmaking this studio would include. What I encountered when researching this studio were many films that in some way or another evoked a feeling of eeriness and uneasiness in me. They were films that did not follow the traditional formula of a standard, mainstream film, but instead used obscure techniques and ways of filming, acting, editing to make the film ‘uncomfortable’ for the audience. I think the studio focused on a mix of creating content that will make the audience uncomfortable, as well as putting the students making the films out of their comfort zone by creating these not so mainstream films. One film emphasised this which was called Do Geese See God. In this short film I felt very uncomfortable watching it as it was filmed with reverse techniques but not how normally done. Instead, it is the actor doing the reverse movements, which is then reversed to look “normal” but of course looks far from normal. I thought this was very clever as it showed the technical skills as well as thought that went in to making this work. The actors and creators of the work also wrote in their reflections how this was challenging and uncomfortable for them. The slowness of the film, along with colour also added a good uneasiness to the work. The other one I found myself immersed in was called Daydream. This one had a similar edge to it with the eerie silence and music combination, with the video following a singular character who appears to go through the process of a positive mindset to a negative state of mind. The visual effects do a great job of creating the desired mood of the film, with the start being light, airy, and quite aesthetic and pretty to the viewers, but as the film goes on, we see subtle changes with early on showing quick flashes of an evil like red shadow. The acting also made me feel very uncomfortable as it shifts between an innocent like nature and behaviour to a creepy, distorted acting. Overall, these films successfully responded to the studio, creating a visually uncomfortable setting, mood, and emotions through a variety of film techniques.