I’ve tried a two different ways of creating a production diary; JamBoard and Slides.
I started off using JamBoard as I find the capabilities much more user friendly and easier to customise however I had doubts about the professionalism of the website. After two big projects I switched to Slides in hopes of having a more professional and organised look but in the end found that a lot more overwhelming and daunting than JamBoard so actively avoided it throughout the project. I think that, as I’m quite a visual person, I definitely prefer being able have colourful blocks of text alongside large images - I’ll research to see if there’s anything that sits between these two websites but for now JamBoard is 100% my favourite.
I found this project quite hard especially when it came to idea development- we ended up changing our initial idea a week before the deadline so the end result was definitely more rushed than I would’ve liked. However, this project really tested my Premiere skills and was a good opportunity to learn about a lot of features I probably wouldn’t have touched before.
In this cycle you have the opportunity to explore the notion of a PLACE. In simple terms, a place is a geographical area but there is much more to be conveyed in a specific location. A place has an identity, a tone, a community, voices, stories and histories. A place can be dark or light, cramped or spacious, large or small or a combination and contradiction of things. In this project we will ask you to choose one place and produce a film that communicates its essence and/or features the setting as an important part of the narrative.
I started off thinking of ideas with a mindmap right after reading the brief. The first thing that came to mind surrounding the idea of 'one place' was physical locations and areas; my initial locations related to this were all outdoor, open spaces that had a history or were a good showcase of natural beauty. I started to explore some potential locations where filming was feasible - although this was very much the first stage of planning I was starting to think of what form my short film would take and what I would/could include. After this, I started to think of 'place' in a more abstract way -- belonging: knowing you have a place, memory: a place that creates an emotion within you.
I liked the more abstract way I had explored the idea of place in my previous mind map so decided I would identify some potential ideas I could choose from that were associated with the overall idea of 'identity'. The three locations I mention here all have significant memories attached to them (good or bad) that play a part in my view on 'identity'. All of these places have more than one memory attached so i felt it would be good to explore some of the feelings I experienced in these places through a montage. I'd made a montage in a previous project so for this one I thought id try to include something of a bit more substance and with a more personal touch that would /hopefully/ give the film more impact and emotion. A poem I had written a few weeks prior for English Literature also explored the idea of identity in a very personal way to me, so I felt it fit to base some of the film around that.
IDENTITY
A view on yourself like a hand, drawn across a frosted window
Blurry eyes peering through,
An artists interpretation.
A facial composite.
A forensic sketch,
of nothing more than what makes you, you.
It’s a luminous cave that’s hidden beneath so many folds
It’s like forcing open a cavern in your chest.
How am I meant to explain the most me thing there is when,
I don’t even know myself?
When your view on your life is quintessentially from another’s words;
How can you form the words to weave a web of things that mean
you to you when,
You can’t even form a clear thought of who you are?
Where do you stand?
What a personal thing it is to refine your everything to a material good
Emotions of emotions:
Wonderful, fantastic short-lived outbursts
the most beautiful and radiant thing you’ve ever seen,
How can I label those feelings?
How can I define this to you?
The smell of rain on blazing concrete
After weeks upon weeks of not a drop in sight.
Relief as the colour returns,
Like the stark contrast of blooming red on your white cheeks,
The cold sets in.
I know you’re still alive,
I perceive that.
I know who you are to me but;
My own translation is lost
in my colours, my words.
It’s like trying to offer you every thought I’ve ever thought.Your joy as the seasons start to change.
We spend hours after the hardest days of our lives
Indulging in rich reds and a gold that matches the long-forgotten sun,
A dazzling fantasy that we know we can’t afford.
Your voice cut through the traffic,
I could hear you through the noise and my aching limbs.I remember your tears,
Like diamonds re-compressed to coal, hanging heavy in my heart
Your head was heavy on my shoulder.
Small moments of warming sun before the ever wide sky is covered by a lead cloud.I know who I am to you; what I need to be in your life but,
What am I to myself? What paints the same feelings in a conceivable way?
How am I meant to explain the most me thing there is when,
I don’t even know myself?
Further exploration for ideas:
The red string of Fate -
‘One Japanese legend tells of an old man who lives in the moon and comes out every night to search among kin spirits to reunite them on Earth, who have something to learn from each other, and when he finds them he ties a red thread to them so they find their paths. Thus, our red strings end in someone else.
But unlike other amorous superstitions, the Japanese one isn’t limited to couples, or a single person who one is destined to find. It speaks of a type of arterial ramification that emerges from a finger toward all those with whom we will make history and all those whom we will help in one way or another.’
Screen grabs of filmed clips:
Overall I was very happy with this project and really enjoyed the planning and idea development aspects of it. I struggled to make the clips fit together in a cohesive way and ended up not having enough footage in the end so ran out of time. I really enjoyed the brief for this project and would quite like to revisit it in the future to give it a better go.
The sound design for this project was something I found particularly hard; I would like to spend longer really looking into creating effective soundscapes that fit alongside my footage.
Three brilliant African-American women at NASA -- Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) -- serve as the brains behind one of the greatest operations in history: the launch of astronaut John Glenn (Glen Powell) into orbit, a stunning achievement that restored the nation's confidence, turned around the Space Race and galvanized the world.
Hidden Figures (2016)
A large group of white men surrounding her -almost encapsulating her. they all appear taller than her (power imbalance), all wearing white and ties looking formal but very much the same which could be positive or negative. On one hand, it could imply that she is special to the group; her intelligence is unmatched. However, it could also highlight the segregation in the group. In my opinion -in this particular screencap- it can be viewed in a more positive light, her central positioning alludes to her place as the centre of the project and the brains behind the operation. She is the only one wearing colour and the only person of colour, her dress code highlights her individuality and draws the eyes of the audience to her -- this is done many times in different scenes as well -- which leads me to believe that its to highlight the mass amount of segregation our black leads follow, in other scenes many of the black women are the only ones wearing colour compared to the often beige or grey of the white people. Her non-verbal code (arms folded in front of her) suggests that she is a fraction uncomfortable with the situation but still her much in control and confident (shoulders back, open chest).
Community, Gender and Race
How is racism exposed and dealt with?
From the very first scene where the 3 women are broken down on the side of the road and the police officer comes along, we are exposed to the racism they must face in their everyday lives. The moment they see the police car in the distance they all move to stand in front of their car so as to seem completely non-threatening, the police officer talks down to them and only starts to respect them after they explain their jobs. Later on in the film, we see the microaggressions towards the women begin to amount up, not only are they belittled and not trusted to do their work because they are women but they are also segregated and held back from opportunity because of their skin colour. An example of this is the first time Katherine goes to get herself a cup of coffee; despite no complaints about her checking their calculations or any protest about her being there, the whole room turn their eyes to her and sit with mouths agape and judging stares - Katherine doesn’t react to this until the next day when she returns to find a coffee pot labelled ‘coloured’. This and the fact that she has to travel 40 minutes to a different building for the toilet aren’t corrected until Katherine, emotional after running almost an hour in the rain with paper work, complains to the man in charge of the building. Although he makes moves to change this, he wouldn’t have done so if Mary hadn’t proved her intelligence earlier on.
Hidden Figures (2016)
Screenshot Analysis;
The black and white mise en scene could suggest Katherine’s gain of respect as the black section is larger than the dim white section. This implies her dominance throughout the sequence, but continues to show that segregation is still prominent despite not being relevant to this scene/room.
In this scene Katherine defies her usual dress code, this time wearing something more muted and understated than her normal bright statement pieces. However she still wears her bright red nail varnish and matching lipstick. The colour code of this bright red could imply her confidence and headstrong nature and refers to the ‘gem sparkling in the centre of the room’ imagery the director used earlier in this sequence (see above). Due to the directors choice to put Katherine in a more understated outfit in this scene, we as the audience as well as the men around the meeting table are shown how her intelligence can make her standout and shine. This is also the first scene where we see Katherine’s dress code matching those around her, perhaps illustrating that she is beginning to take her own place in the job position she has worked to get.
The handing over of the chalk is somewhat reminiscent of ‘handing over the torch’ and since this man is in charge (sat at the head of the table) we can assume that he’s giving Katherine the authority she needs to prove herself worthy of a place in the room. Unfortunately this does also comply to the white saviour trope.
Individually or in pairs, design a short film (minimum 90 seconds) that includes the principles of montage editing. Your film must be inspired by the theme of TIME in some way. You may work in any genre that you choose.
Screenshots from my montage sequence
I wanted my sequence to be inspired by the movement of time and the inevitability that you will have to move with it no matter how you try to move against it. This project was a good chance to learn the basics of Premiere especially speeding up/down clips however I feel that more thought could’ve gone into making and taking a more meaningful collection of clips. I also struggled with making the shots look good, quality and lighting wise, as I knew very little about the settings on my Samsung digital camera. My take away from this project was that I needed to go into more detail in the idea development phase in order to create a piece I was happy with.
German expressionist filmmakers used visual distortion and hyper-expressive performance to show inner turmoils, fears and desires of that era. German Expressionism reflects the inner conflicts of its 1920s German audience by giving their woes an inescapably external presence.
‘A nurse works tirelessly to keep her family afloat after her husband loses his job. She also maintains a turbulent bond with a teenage daughter who is just like her: loving, strong-willed and deeply opinionated.’
Religion, Change, Relationships - Does the film do it well?
Ladybird struggles with the feeling of being trapped by religion. Although the typical ‘religious school is a terrible prison’ trope is used, it doesn’t feel as though ladybird has a negative relationship with her religion; whereas in most coming of age films, religion is seen as something inescapable and entirely negative to the growth of the main character. In ladybird, its seen more as a temporary block in her path that she doesn’t need to ‘escape’, just move past for now. This also links to change within the film; although ladybird feels she needs something more to her life outside her hometown the change overall makes her miss what she left behind -- something entirely unheard of in coming of age films. The idea that you don't need to change your life completely to feel fulfilled is a very refreshing take for a coming of age film. It highlights the idea that you should love what you've got and who you are before unconditionally before its too late. This is seen through ladybirds interactions with her mum; their ‘turbulent’ relationship is a focus throughout the film and even though they both seem endlessly annoyed by each other in the end we know they’re still both there for one another.
A look at the advertisement for Lady Bird - Colour code, font, non-verbal, placement:
Lady Bird (2017)
The choice of font: Very reminiscent of historical religious texts; linking to our main characters relationship with faith ‘hanging over her head’. The fact that it’s her chosen name suggests that religion will always be an integral part of her character even if she chooses to move past the teachings.
Colour: Red is used in both the title and her hair colour- often red (in film) is used to signify intense emotion or emotional trauma. The fact that her hair is red implies this character is often ruled by her emotions and headstrong.
Iconography: The cross - Out of focus in the background compared to our main character in the foreground - expresses her relationship with religion. Being Catholic isn’t at the front of her mind but it still plays a role in her life - again it’s shown to be (quite literally) hanging over her head.
Background: Her school peers are in the background out of focus and positioned low in the frame. They’re framed the the colour contrast of the wall implying a later tension between her and them, which we can assume is important for the growth of the main character.
‘Your task is to invent a story set within the photo that features your object - the rest is up to you. Ensure your photo acts as the location and your object acts as a plot point.’
