20/02/23
This weekend and today I have been unwell and haven’t managed to do anything as of yet. I was gutted that I missed today’s workshop – once the lecture slides are uploaded I will do what I can in my spare time to make sure I have gained what I would of done in class but at home.
Hopefully tomorrow I will be feeling 100% again, it’s been a weird week, a week of honestly just rehabilitation of my mind. In the shed tomorrow I will hopefully be able to start the compositions and experimental video’s to do with time and lighting. The item I was going to bring was a gig ticket from mine and my partner’s first time at a gig together and talk about how much has affected me etc, especially in terms of our relationship.
WORKSHOP REFLECTION:
Looking over the lecture slides and reflecting over the gig ticket then thinking of something that connects the past, present and future; I try to imagine if we were to have a bridge that would have a successful connection between the 3 elements of time (past, present, future) then I would lean towards maybe not a physical element but more of a philosophical one. A MANTRA. This mantra would come into physical form as a poem that I would write (this is what I would of done in the workshop I believe) and present on a piece of paper that is bio-degradable. We would then study this mantra then the mantra would return to the earth then transform into a future tense of an existence, soil etc.
I have started the early proposal form, once the project is properly on a starting point, I will then be able to finish it and submit it by the end of the week.
21/02/23
As I have no way of currently producing a storyboard digitally, I have decided to try and envision it through a word document in the form of a worded storyboard. This seemed like the best use of my time today as I have sadly missed university again due to what I think is now a chest infection. Below is the start, this will update as time goes on in further posts. Once I am better the proper work will begin to take shape and will be posted to the notebook, its surprising – I thought I would have recovered by now.
I believe that the vision of the film I wish to create is there – it will be an experience in how I relate to time as mentioned before with my memories, present tense and the stuff around us in our daily lives. Think of it as a film for the senses both visual and emotional.
The type of imagery I imagine within this film I wish to create will be inspired from multiple films that have left a mark on me in the past. Such films that hold quiet interest imagery and close ups of objects and the human self. For instance Requiem for a Dream:
A feast for the senses indeed. My film won’t go down the dark route that Requiem holds but more just having impressions from the extreme close ups and far distant work that is within the film itself. I have been looking into macro lenses to obtain this shot of the eye and I can’t afford one – but I will enquire in the photography department as I have been told they loan out lenses which is awesome. If not I reckon I can obtain this shot within the lighting studio using my macro zoom lens.
Another film that came to mind is 127 hours, the way the film stacks up shots into sequences showing the flow of people/time and place. Think of this way – a tap dripping matching the tick tock of time. This will come through to the film in one sense of or another in a shot.
The effect and influence music and their video counterparts had on my early teenage years
I have an absolute huge amount of respect for the music video genre when it comes to film. Some videos can literally tell a story within a matter of 3-5 minutes (with the song boosting the storytellings) and it’s an incredible wonder of on art form, they can have a look or feeling to them and can bestow an absolute amount of energy on to the viewer. These are some stills from some of my favourite ones from bands:
The use of the green screen in grab 1 is effective and I may try to use this in the lighting studio I have built at home to approach this look. With the film being experimental and a hopeful ‘feast’ for the senses, I may want to tred into new ground of visual styles and green screen approaches.
When I was 16 I was obsessed with YouTube and music videos, I would always search and search looking for new bands and usually the first thing I would see from a band is their music videos. I remember sitting around with friends for hours drinking and just putting music on until early hours of the morning and being in awe of what new songs we would find and discuss them.
Grab 3 and 4 from the song ‘Doomsday’ by Brighton based band Architects, based on a scene from the incredible film ‘The Fountain’ by Darren A, an emotive film about the struggle to accept the reality of someones demise and the quest for a cure. This song is incredible, whether you’re into the genre or not, the emotion is waterfall of emotional weight form the band. The magnum opus and potential last composition of the now sadly passed guitarist and songwriter for the band, Tom Searle was an amazing songwriter and the person in the video is his bother and drummer for the band.
23/02/2
Tried doing some drum beats I wrote a few years ago on my MacBook keyboard – I actually found the results to be quite interesting in terms of a piece, results are below:
These are also based on time signatures that can be suitable towards heavier genre’s of music and more.
Middle Finger, left hand – kick drum
Thumb, left hand – Hi hat
Thumb, right hand – 2nd Kick drum pedal / Snare
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Earlier today I started doing some filming with my phone and Mirrorless camera, testing the waters as to which device I wish to use more. I recently had to change my phone due to financial change of mind – so it’s not as good as the phone I used or my previous films. So the mirrorless may be the best shout. I’ve genuinely been struggling to pace together what I should do to achieve this film, I may have to not think about the quality this time and more the vision and overall shot focus.
Below are the screen grabs from the phone footage shots:
These shots are well defined, they’re not HDR so theyre not as moody and more true to life. With editing these could look interesting but I’m in the dark about how I will chase up the real footage I want, it’s been a hard week due to illness…we will see what the breadmill turns out. The mirrorless will probably be the best bet. I will upload those tomorrow morning.
Later on we went and toured the art centre – I didn’t attend the tour last year and I’m glad I managed to this year. It was valuable as it now made me realise what type of shots I wish to convey through projections. Below are the photos of the spots I photographed as potential locations:
I am leaning towards multiple projects of shots from my film whilst I either
Play live with a piano.
or
Play my soundtrack on a loop.
To end this week, here’s a screen grab from a video of my recently adapted cat Maeve:
26/02/23
Last night a thought came into my head, why not try something more physical and artistic? I’ll save this for next week if any results come through…
my suggestion is to keep it playful Mike, one shot at a time, no need to plan yet, see what evolves, see what the relationship of one shot next to another brings forth, let it evolve through experimentation rather than an outside controlling force, feel it, feel each shot, know you want to make a film, know you want to project it, perhaps leave the rest to chance..