Storyboard draft.

This is the basis for the storyboard for my one minute film. I am going to conduct a practice shoot tomorrow, and see how it flows together when I edit it to create narrative. And then I will know what does and doesn't work and then can plan a reshoot to make it better.

0"
1"
2 Shot zooming in on a picture being thrown into a fire and burning, close up on the faces in picture.
3"
4"
5 Quick cut away, camera quickly cuts to the left.
6"
7"
8 Shot of doll hanging from tree, slowly start swinging from the branch, cut to close up of face.
9"
10 First actor name shows on screen.
11"
12 Shot starts dark, then a lamp out of shot turns on, showing jar.
13"
14"
15"
16 Shot of tray with bloody knife.
17"
18 Close up of blood dripping off scalpel.
19"
20 Actor name.
21 Close up of label on jar.
22"
23"
24 Shot of protagonist (over the shoulder) stabbing and ripping photograph.
25"
26"
27"
28 On the floor shot of glass smashing on floor.
29"
30 Actor name.
31Picture burning in fire, sped up.
32"
33"
35Close up of hands sticking pins into straw doll.
35"
36"
37 Birds eyes shot of doll spinning in tree.
38 Close up of dolls face out of focus, and background behind her.
39"
40 Actor name.
41 Crane shot of hand taking lid off jar and putting hand inside.
42
43
44
45
46 Close up of lighter flicking on and burning bottom of photograph.
47
48 Technical names.
49
50  Panning shot of jars on shelf.
51
52
53 Actor name.
54 Hand taking out object from jar.
55
56Montage of around three of the shots flicking back on the screen.
57
58
59 Television Show name.
60 ''

Camera tutorial and test shoot.

Today I had a lesson on how to properly use the cameras and how to edit because of my background in only theoretical practices I was lacking practical knowledge. And so I went out and experimented with a few main shots; wide shots, zoom in/out, panning, tilting and so on, also trying to work out focusing and other necessary things I could not afford to learn on a day where I actually had to get something done.
The shoot itself went fine, I think I got a few interesting shots and I enjoyed editing it, and making it look how I wanted it to .
My main problems with it, and I did not see this at the time, is that my editing was baggy, there was time for my audience to get bored and not stay engaged with it. I needed to shorten it, and to also not make it jump straight in and leave abruptly, instead show a nice fade in and out so also give it establishment and exposition.
I feel that when I conduct my filming and editing for real next time, I will be a lot more prepared and less likely to make these mistakes because I am now aware of them and therefore will put things into place to avoid doing them again.

Developing ideas for one minute film.

Today we had got the brief for the new assessment, and it was to create a one minute film. We had no other restrictions, and this was both a blessing and a curse. At first thought I thought it would be a lot easier, in my naivety I considered one minutes to be an incredibly short space of time and thought it would be a lot easier than it turned out to be. I did not however, consider how much has got to go on for it to have any kind of narrative structure. I also heard a few people making their pitch, and the people that had been told they couldn't do it, I tried to figure out why that had happened and came up with a few reasons; they hadn't planned and therefore hadn't thought of the feasibility, and were being too ambitious.

I sort of  felt like I had been thrown in at the deep end, and was struggling to think of any ideas that I felt confident enough to pitch and back up why I wanted to do them. So I decided to look through all of my inspirations and what I loved about the things I loved to watch, be that in film or television. My first thought was one of my favorite shows, American Horror Story and more specifically, the title sequences. The title sequences have always been my favorite part of the show because every new season there is a new one as it is set in a different time with different protagonists, and as the episodes pan out and you watch the sequence again you can see little clues that add up to solve the main enigmas of the programme. I have also always loved the sinister edge to them, and so I decided to try to recreate something with this guiding me as my main influence.

Link to the Series One Title Sequence: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2c3VVJb562Y

The next step is to begin to create a shot list, make props and decide what it is going to look like. And also conduct a camera tutorial.

UCAS Fair + choices + filling out form.

I have had my mind set on going to Manchester Metropolitan University pretty much since I have wanted to go, but when I heard there was a UCAS fair where all of the universities were going to I thought it might be useful because I could investigate back up plans in case this fell through and also speak to the representatives from Man Met.

I managed to do just that and I decided (after considering it a lot) that I was going to apply for three courses in two different universities;

Film and Media Studies at Manchester Metropolitan.

Film making at Manchester Metropolitan.

Film Making at Salford.

At the moment I think I will choose the film and media course, this is because I want to keep as many doors as I can open for me, and the career choices and even things I will be making is so much more varied that it seems to be the safest option for me.

I have also chosen to hopefully go to Man Met for a few reasons; I have a secure, flexible part time job over there which will prove to be extremely helpful as far as living independently is concerned. I also spend a lot of time in Manchester, so that ensures I will know where everything is I need and where I will be going, And I also like the course briefs, and will be able to attend open days.

I also filled out and sent my UCAS form, something which was a stressful experience, and I am glad I had help with my personal statement because I| really struggled to write a comprehensive to the point statement.

Exhibition night.

After almost a week of being at the church everyday and working to make it look good enough to hang the beautiful pieces of work, it was finally done.
It was amazing to have been there on that first day and to see what it was like, and then seeing all of the people there seeing the work, it was also a good excuse to actually absorb all of the inspiring things on show. The building was set up in the way that from the main room in the middle, you could see a little of what was inside of the other rooms, which enticed you to go in, for example, when you were stood in the middle of the room you could see a film playing which made you go inside to watch it and maybe read about it.

Getting involved with the exhibition.

This week we were offered the opportunity to help out in preparing the venue for the 'Those who can' exhibition, which was showing work from the tutors from college. I knew this
would be a good opportunity because we have to put up our own exhibition at the end of the year so I thought if I had some hands on experience on all of the work that goes into it I would be properly prepared to do our own at the end of the year.

When we first got to the hall it was slightly overwhelming, as there was things to do such as peel masking tape of windows, paint a few coats of paint on all the walls, cleaning and generally making it look presentable.

We had around a week to do it, and it was amazing to go in every day and see it looking better and better. It was also good because it showed a range of mediums being exhibited; there were paintings, drawings, photography and moving image for example. This was interesting because it showed us all the different ways our work would be shown.

Film screening.

The film we watched today was the 1966 Czechoslovak comedy/drama film, and was directed by Vera Chytilova.
When the film first came on, I was a little skeptical about what I would think of it, because it had a few moments when it was slow. But there were a few elements I loved such as when they were cutting up the magazines the screen appeared to be cut up, which still looked effective in 2014 which intrigued me. I loved the fact it could still impress people in this time, when you may think that it may be dated now, compared to the big productions we have now.

I think some of the scenes did tend to drag on longer than I thought was necessary but thinking about it afterwards I think it made them more memorable, such as the lengthy scene in which they end up at a banquet and eat and throw all of the food around.

In conclusion, watching this film has inspired me to think about possibly think more about the cinematography, and to think outside the box about the camera angles I am going to be using in my films,

Assessment feedback/reflection.

I had my assessment today, this was basically to see where I'm at in terms of progress, and the roundabouts and also to choose where I am choosing to be for my main pathway.
After considering it for a long time, I decided on media. I had been stuck in between media and photography, but I thought that career wise, I would be better on choosing something in media, this gives me both a wide variety of areas to choose from and more options university course wise.

I had prepared my blog to be seen and provided pictures on it of the work I had been doing, and the feedback I got from all the tutors were that my written work is good, but I lack the experience, as my previous course was all theoretical and I haven't had opportunities to experiment with cameras and other equipment. So we decided that my strengths were indeed my written work, on my blog, and my weaknesses were my lack of practical work.

We planned to fix the weaknesses by arranging for me to have a few tutorials to learn how to work the cameras and whatnot, I also plan to do a test shoot to see how well I can do it on my own, and under pressure. Overall, I am very excited to start my main pathway into media, and to start developing small ideas, to have them being made and to be seen by people!!!

Crit reflection 'should art be made if it offends?' and Art space shoot.

When the weekly crits were done this week- the debate arose about whether art should be made if it could offend people. This really got me thinking, I couldn't get the question out of my head and so I decided to write a bit of my opinion on my blog. This topic is a strange one, and the concept of offending someone is so complex that you can't really begin to describe it in words. I think that there are so many different types of people with so many different environmental and mental concepts that anything and everything will offend someone somewhere. I also think to offend means to generate debate and create even more meaning because people will have associations with the work and it will in turn bring people together to unite in their shared opinions.  And so in my opinion I do believe that art should be made to offend because of the emotions it raises in people which I find intriguing.

After college I took part in shooting a promo for an local organisation for 'Art Space.' This is where things go on such as stalls selling handmade products, live music, art exhibitions and more. This was rather challenging because I hadn't really filmed anything before and we had a small crew and only one camera, we also had issues with lighting and less people turning up to the event than expected. But overall I did enjoy taking part in it because it meant I would have experience using the cameras and editing.

Cosmo Sarson Lecture.

Today we had a lecture from the artist Cosmo Sarson- previously I had looked online about his work so I would be prepared to ask him questions about it and also so I knew what I was going to be seeing.  I found his work really interesting because I had never seen some of it done before such as the interactive mural he showed us. The lecture was intriguing because he was talking about he is mainly into fine art to begin with, but then had to expand his knowledge and broaden his horizons in order to get a bigger portfolio and more work- such as architecture and set designing.

Here is a link to his website containing his work, the journey it took to get there and pictures and reflections of the process; http://www.cosmosarson.com/

Some of his work includes; Advertising art director, TV and film art director, scenic artist, concept/artist and fine artist. How he started off was quite interesting, he did a fine art and painting degree and then went into advertising for money purposes, but wanted to do more art. He called up Pinewood studios to ask to talk to the set designer and from that got a job painting sets and props to fund his studio time and has worked on films such as Guardians of the Galaxy, Pirates of the Caribbean and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory which really interested me. I was also curious as to what the process of set painting would be- he said that you would plan and draw a storyboard, get a script, plan camera angles, shots, etc and have meetings with the directors to discuss minor details. He also gets the scales of sets and photographs and makes prototypes first. I was quite shocked to find out that he could work on a set for months and months and then the director of even the actor could say that they do not like the way it looks and it could be instantly scrapped.

I loved some of his art murals- he had a quite controversial piece called 'Breakdancing Jesus' which caused mixed reviews. I thought this was really interesting, I love pieces of art that cause a lot of debate as to whether it should be made or not, he said it caused a bit of trouble from the religious communities in Belfast. This image of the mural went viral, and you can see how truly vast this was from looking at him stood next to it in the corner, and the amount of work that went into it.

Another piece of his that I found the most interesting was the interactive mural, which was made in Windsor. To make this work you downloaded an app on your phone called Aurasma and then when you pointed your phone and the mural it moved and talked. I just thought this was so clever and had never seen anything like this done before and I would love to see this in the flesh. There is a video showing this working on his website.








He also talked about how some of his murals were anamorphic projections, which allowed for camera angles to make them look especially good when photographed. He said that some of his inspirations were people such as Carvaggio, Andy Warhol, The Chapman brothers and Banksy.

When asked what he is currently doing he talked about how he looked at Greek mythology and got people he knew to pose in positions from myths and then painted them into murals, paintings and such. This particular work on the right took on an entirely different meaning because it was before the Islamic State murders in which they beheaded people. And so that means that now when members of the public look at that mural they will have an entirely different association with it. But because it is on a massive wall, it is not so easy to just cover up or destroy.

In conclusion, I really enjoyed this lecture because of how diverse and how he had worked on a whole range of interesting projects.

Third pathways.

Today I tried two pathways; Media and Photography. Ever since we had started the pathways I had been excited to do these ones because I plan to choose one of the two for my main pathway. In the morning I did Media- in this we watched two different examples of scratch films, looked at the reel for a trailer and collaborated to make our own scratch film!

The first one we watched was 'A colour box' by Len Lye. I enjoyed this because I found the patterns almost kaleidoscopic in the way that they made you not want to look away from it in case you missed something. I was somewhat shocked when the advertisements for 'Cheaper Parcel Post' popped up on the screen. but it did not distract me too much. Something I thought about this piece was that to say it was from the late 1930's it looks almost like something that could have be made and shown now in a music video perhaps. For me it was one of those things where I was completely transfixed from the start, and that doesn't happen often because things generally don't grab my attention.
A link for this is here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqf9QiwM7vk

The second one we watched was 'Mothlight' by Stan Brakhage in 1963. This consisted the corpses of moths but for some reason I liked it just as much as the first if not more. I found something oddly intriguing about it- the contrast from this to the first is vast- this is black and white, whereas the first had color and this was silent instead of having some non diegetic sound. I almost had a weird association with something quite Tim Burton esque and I enjoyed watching it, it could almost be included in one of his films.
A link for this is here; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S5P5vkegmvU

Next, we saw a section of a Spiderman film trailer, it was so interesting to put into perspective how many stills make up even the slightest movement on screen. After this, we each got three seconds of time which is 75 frames to draw on. I enjoyed this because it looked so great on the screen when all of our work was put together. The only annoyance I had with this was doing the tiny little drawings in the spaces and the limited time we had, I wish we would have had longer there.

After lunch I moved onto photography. First, we got split into groups of three and got out the torches on our phones, then when the room was in complete darkness we used a slow shutter speed to photograph movement with the torches. (Pictures to come.) We had some different ideas, such as one of us posing with her arms out and then I shone the light over her profile, this turned out looking really good.

This was a good task but it infuriated me because the ones we planned out and got excited to do, didn't turn out like we wanted them too, or even at all. But it was fun because it was a challenge, and it made us really think about what we had to do instead of just doing it. Next, we went outside of the classroom to the rest of the building and were told to photograph shades of grey, this was relatively
because there are a lot of grey things about, we tried to get creative by taking pictures of grey cars and other more obscure things you could see from college.

Photography experimentation.

I have had a lot of ideas going around in my head, things that I had originally planned to do at Dolphinholme, but ran out of time. Whenever I've been outside in a woodland area since, I have been collecting random things, planning to take pictures of them placed in a structure. Today I went out and tried just that, I had a large flat rock and a handful of conkers and a pile of leaves- armed with these I went down to my local nature reserve. I tried it in two locations- first on a piece of wood to achieve the shape of the sculpture I was making, and then at a more scenic place, on the roots of a tree next to a beautiful river. I loved my final result, and so I thought I should put this on my blog- below are a small sample of the pictures I took.