Category: Reflection on course

On Tuesday, Joey, Jaden and I grouped up to explore cinematography and how changing that shifts viewer reactions. We tried obscure angles such as dutch angles and shooting a dialogue scene from the perspective of the persons feet. We also shot a dialogue scene where the person talking was not the one being filmed, and it was solely on the person reacting. We compared a stagnant camera with a moving camera. All of these effects seemed silly in production, I’m not sure if it’s the fact that it’s a humorous thing to do or that we’re not professional actors and anything we do likes objectively a bit silly. I like the concept of using cinematography to shoot something comedic, alike The Office, but that be more form than cinematography? But again it’s more so the camera movement that allows you to see the humour, so maybe it is cinematography. I’m still struggling with creativity around this “uncomfortable” concept, but to be honest I’m already uncomfortable with the fact that nothing seems high quality or creative enough so maybe I’m doing the right thing… I’d just like to create some work that feels significant? Or at least successfully subversive. We’ll get there.

Anywho, we decided to keep the same group for Assignment 2, so on Thursday we explored these concepts further and with better equipment and more planning. It’s nice to have other peoples ideas and skills when creating this sort of content, so I’ve enjoyed the collaborative element. We began planning for our 3 videos on cinematography/performance, narrative structure and editing, starting shooting first for our cinematography video. We chose to shoot a creative POV-esque piece, with the camera acting as the person. I think this is a funny way to approach cinematography, so I suppose the subversive element is there, but it does have its downfalls. Such as, with the mic on the camera it messes up the audio when the camera pans away, however this could be solved by using a lapel microphone and matching the audio, so hopefully we’ll look into that for next week. Additionally it does make transitions stunted, which also creates room for discomfort if we chose to go down that path. It is hard with the time limit and our acting skills but I am looking forward to seeing what we come up with. For narrative structure, we’re looking at exploring my previous idea of a backward’s story. So mixing up the timeline and starting the film at the end, then going backwards but leaving room for plot holes and interoperation. This one excites me the most so hopefully we can pull it off.

Over the course of this weeks tutorials, and through the reading, we’ve focused on learning the rules of scriptwriting and analysing film form (formal expectations, conventions and experience, form and feeling, and form and meaning). This knowledge is intended to help us when it comes to making content, being that knowing the rules is the pathway to being able to break them. I do feel a bit creatively bound by these conventions though. Having had explored them so thoroughly in Cinema Studies, as well as a general lack of ideas and inspiration when it comes to creating fictional videos, I am having a hard time conceptualising content. And even when I do come up with ideas, the size of the project seems unattainable and I find I am lacking an achievable mindset; that is, an acceptance that whatever I make will not be a creative, award winning, life changing masterpiece, screened in Cinema Nova for masses*. C’est la vie.

On another note, ideas for assignment 3 & 4;

• Short film begins with stagnant dialogue scene, maybe a dinner scene? ROmantic candles
  • • get into argument, normal just talk
    • some short of climax
    • that resolves to a silent or orchestra track sequence of photos
      • maybe film photos
      • colour? b & w?
      • shows progression of argument
      • difference in setting, position
      • cuts in time???
    • dunnnnno how it ends or what the photos depict
•  film backwards
  • (someone falls down stairs at end of film but thats beginning of dream sequence)
  • some sort of dream sequence, argument
  • dream sequence ends with person at bottom of stairs
  • and then shot of falling down stairs: in different colour?
• day in the life literally, no soundtrack, nothing special
  • linear day
  • emphasising points of anxiety
    • showing fidgeting
    • through loud breahting, shaking
  • never really show narrator, solely pov
  • until bathroom scene look in mirror and try to calm down in social setting

* Yet (humble beginnings).

The first weeks of the uncomfortable film studio have not been what I was anticipating, that is to say I’ve enjoyed it more than I thought I would. I’m mainly excited to start creating my own content and exploring the depths of uncomfortability in film making, and what that means to me. I liked the subversion of Monty Python and the Holy Grail more so than Unedited Footage of a Bear, probably because of the humour element in the former rather than the perturbance caused by the latter. As of yet, we’ve explored ways in which to create discomfort in film, may that be through content, cinematography, performance, lighting, editing, sound, or form. We have also touched on genre, expectations and was in which to analyse films more critically. All establishing points for this course as a whole and for the rapidly oncoming assignments. I look forward to creating uncomfortable content as it is not something I would lean towards or strive for ordinarily, so it will good to get out of my comfort zone and explore with the first assignment. Questions I have would generally be around intent: what motivates people to make uncomfortable or subversive content and therefore what will motivate me, especially since it’s something I have to be doing academically? Looking forward to finding out…