Experimental Project: Tutorial Feedback

We had a quick idea/feedback session with one of our tutors for the project. Overall I was pleased with what we had come up with. One of the fears we had were that the piece may follow a too-close route with a narrative piece, but I believe that if we take the time to add a range of footage, random, related to create the piece in a way that is randomised, doesn't follow a straight pattern, we wouldn't run into that problem. I'm quite confident with this idea, and I think it's now about developing it, going out with equipment, recording anything and everything (as well as things we want to record), looking at sounds and creating a plan to bring the project together!

More research is needed, because after our session, we realised a few different conventions (more styles) of an experimental. Therefore we need to set ourselves rules, and then approach the project from then on.

Experimental Project Idea One: I.D.

'I.D.'

For our experimental project, we decided to base it around a word as well as an emotional piece. We didn't know many poems and wanted to concentrate on something we could use quite well. We also had the idea of 'Love' and expressing the different methods, both good and bad. But since this was experimental, I wanted push myself to try something totally different, random almost, to make it more creative and a more exciting project to complete.

We chose to base ours on the idea of someone not knowing who they are. They display multiple personalities, like schizophrenia sufferers. She doesn't know who she is, she doesn't know her identity. The video is about exploring, conflicting and realisation what her identity is. She clashes with her other personalities, her 'darker sides', 'her fears and pains', to in the end, realise that the fight may never end, even though she thinks it's already over.

A couple of early ideas for sound were to have a music track which would be played throughout the piece. After research, I've noticed that this is the most popular type of sound, because the genre has no narrative, therefore dialogue can make it something the film-maker doesn't want it to be. We want the tone to be quite dreary, yet feature beats to represent the conflict and pain the character feels. We also wanted to include a faded, distorted voice within the music to represent her other personalities tormenting her, telling her things that don't make sense to her, making her feel more trapped and scared - but as stated before, we don't want any normal dialogue in the footage.

We also thought up some early shots we wanted to use. One was of the character looking at an I.D. card of some form, and seeing her other personality on the photo, moving and talking to her (in the sound piece). We thought it would be effective to try do a shot inside another shot, hopefully, it'll work!

Another shot I thought of was setting the same scene, but split screening the footage. One side would be her innocent, lost self who is trying to find her identity, and the other side her other personality, mocking her, or just to clearly show there's two sides to this person.. or even more....

I wanted to use a lot of overlap shots which show the character in multiple places on the same frame. Because it was meant to be all of these identities at once, which slowly decrease to leave just the one - her true identity in the end. 

Another idea for a split shot, was to have the good and bad in the same shot once again, getting out of bed at the opposite sides. I wanted to create the idea that she is never alone, these other personalities are constantly with her and it kills her to know she doesn't know what it all means. 

I like the idea of jolt shots - meaning you quickly jump from one piece of footage to another and back again, which i think would be good to show different things, such as: good gets orange juice/bad gets vodka, good puts her hood up/bad stands in the rain and lights up a cigarette. And every so often to jolt the audience as well.

Another shot idea was to have a reflection in the water. The 'good' side would peer into the water, only to see the 'bad side' smiling back at her. She splashes the water in fear until her own reflection is back....

Random thoughts, which are all over the place at the moment, but that's experimental I guess! :)

Experimental Project: Fernand Léger - 'Ballet Mecanique'

Filmmaker: Fernand Léger

Experimental Film: Ballet Mecanique

Year: 1924

Fernand Léger was a French filmmaker and artist. He created the film ‘Ballet Mecanique’, to tell the story of ballet – Ballet not being a show performed by human dancers, but rather mechanical instruments. The mechanical pieces were supported by ‘Ballet visuals’ such as pianos, propellers from planes and more.

I believe that the idea of structure was based around everyday objects. The objects are sometimes enlarged, passing one another, repeating throughout the piece, interrupting each other and changing.

The film begins with a woman, who is seen swinging towards the lens and then away again repeatedly. The shot shows the depth of the frame in the piece. The shot is also over-exposed, as well as black and white. It gives you the feeling that the light or luminance is important to the story of the piece.

The piece then shows a woman’s lips, which change from a smile to a saddened expression. There is no face, therefore it takes away the personal element of the person and isolates the motion of the lips.

The piece moves onto the repetition of a motion of spinning, twirling or ‘pirouetting’.  Everything spins, all the objects, the propellers, and the woman on the swing. The image turns upside down and darker, which I found quite interesting because it shows even further depth.

We’re then introduced to vast amounts of geometric forms, they attack/interrupt each other, such as the numbers, the rotating steel objects and the reflections of the camera. These images are changed, transformed by the mechanical process of filmmaking – for example, it says ‘we have stolen the pearl necklace for 5 million’ and the 0’s flash and rotate creating a more mechanical effect than an emotional one.

I think the main aim was to have mechanical motion, and no emotion. For example, when we finally see the woman’s face (of who the lips belong to) and her eyes, however they are closed, as the head rotates delicately. The eyes close up, and then always stay closed.

New Project: Group Experimental Project

:)