Aesthetics Blog

This is Daniel Iskander's blog for his Aesthetics class at Uni (Whoever that is).

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

The Last (Assessment 3)

I set out to make a short film that blurred the lines between reality and fiction, but after the all of the tests, I had realised that wasn’t what this short film wanted to be. Instead I realised after constructing some of the tests, that the experiment was in fact the construction of narrative, and how I was able to create either a coherent narrative, or sequence of events out of footage that was not partially related.

Whether or not I did manage to construct a coherent narrative/sequence of events, I did learn a lot form this project, as it forced me out of my comfort zone. Looking back at my first blog post, I was determined to write a script for this project, as I typically like to be organised for projects like this, and go in with a plan. However, due to the subject matter and nature of the idea, it was advised (by my tutor), that I approach this short film from a more improvised and almost ‘construct as you go’ approach. This allowed me to experiment with framing and filming on the go (although there were instances where I failed to do this properly) and allowed me and my actors/friends to play around and improvise, direct and create fabricated situations on the spot.

As a result of this, it occurred to me, that despite wanting to explore the blurred lines between what is real and what isn’t within the film, this became more of a potential outcome, and goal to strive to, rather than the experiment in itself. It then occurred to me that the experiment (which did aim to reach that goal) was within the construction of the narrative itself. I noticed that through the manipulation of the narrative, I was able to begin to blur those lines.

One of the ways that I discovered through my tests is that I could do construct the narrative, and hence dictate the lines between what is real and what wasn’t, was through the editing. By putting things that were seemingly unrelated together, putting things that are unrelated that are seemingly related together or simply cutting at opportune/inopportune times to get different results. I was able control what was seen and what wasn’t and create a narrative whereby the rules were dictated by my construction of it. Another thing I used as a tool to dictate the narrative was the voice over narrations. After some of the tests, however, I decided that the narrations noticeably controlled the story rather than supporting the pieces that were there. As a result I decided that for my final project I would write narrations that added to the humour and flow (and allowed for smoother transitions), rather than taking a tone that would suggest an authoritative power.

Whilst my success in both my experiment and achieving my goal could be argued both ways, regardless of the result, I can with confidence say that I am both happy with the end result, and that this project forced me to learn different ways I could approach narrative and story construction in the future.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Random babblings of the ‘Just a Couple Friends’ video, and some thoughts to organise (Damn that’s a long title)

Ok, so full disclosure, this was much harder than I thought it would be. Not just the final edit, but the whole process (although both were quite difficult). I had to organise bits, let people improvise freely, shoot and frame on the fly, and somehow take all that footage and create something cohesive. Thankfully I was told I could do up to 7 minuets for my assignment, seeing as I had over an hours worth of footage all up, and at least 40 minutes of that was usable. That meant I needed to decide what was funny enough, what parts linked together well, and what parts fit the themes and goals I set from the beginning. Hopefully this doesn't come across as me complaining, because despite how difficult this project was to assemble, I did enjoy parts to the process, and I’m pretty damn happy with the end result.

At the end of the day, this assignment challenged me in an interesting way, it made me go against my own nature more, and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I don’t like not having some plan going in, but with this, seeing as the whole premise is that it’s improvised, I couldn't have a plan going in aside from a few ideas for some bits. On top of that, I haven’t had too much experience behind the camera, so using my phone, and having to frame people as I went was difficult. As is probably obvious in the cut, there where a couple of times my finger crept into the shot, and there where times where I wasn’t filming people’s faces (unintentionally).

That said, it feel like it fit the aesthetic as it was unclear if that was done intentionally or not, adding to the original aim. I set out to do a vlog style aesthetic, where you are unsure of what is real and what is planned. While I think the subject matter did that to some extent, with having Stephanie as a real person amongst the actors, parts where we talk about doing bits, and how the whole thing was cut, I think ultimately the visual aesthetic is what makes it work. I think this is because the phone camera and audio quality make it seem a lot more authentic (despite all the audio leveling I did), making it seem that through all the bits and over the top characters, I was still there behind the camera, not knowing what I was doing. I even tried experimenting with the narrations, trying to be sarcastic or over the top, and having a few that seemed more like genuine reactions.

In relation to the experiment, despite having about 5 different days worth of footage, and as I mentioned above, a lot of usable footage, it became a story of looking for aspects to link/move the ‘narrative’ along. Fortunately, the narrations, served as a device to link parts of the ‘story’ in the past, however, I decided not to rely on them as heavily. Instead, they may have made good transitions, and set up/made some joke, but ultimately I’d like to think that the construction of the piece could tell the ‘story’ (again I’m not sure I can quite call it a story as much as a sequence of events) with out the aid of the narrations. I’m not entirely sure that this experiment was successful, but I have been re-assured by friends and family, that there is some semblance of a story/narrative structure. Regardless of weather or not they where lying in order to not hurt my feelings, I do think that it has assisted in my own development of script writing, and narrative development. I now understand the power of improve adding to scenes, and that as long as you have the right pieces, you could probably make a narrative out of almost anything.

Regardless of all this, at the end of the day, I didn’t lose any friends over this, despite how I depicted them, so I’d call that a win.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

My Aesthetics assessment 1 final(ish) version.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Statement of Intent (Update)

Although the original statement of intent focused on the idea of making fictional character self aware, and using test footage as inspiration for a written script. Ultimately, however, after taking some of the footage and playing around with it through editing, I’ve realized that this is not what I want this project to be.

While I still intend to make an absurd style video in the style of a vlog, and distort the lines between what is real and what is not, I noticed that I was able to do that through a mix of improvised scenes or bits that are edited in a way that tells a story that is different from what is actually happening. I also noticed that because of the vlog and improvised aesthetic, this project became a lot less about what I could write, and a lot more about what I could direct and edit. I was learning to frame shots on the go (even if I failed at times), and construct somewhat coherent stories or sequences just by the way it was edited.

Ultimately, it became clear to me that the tests I was conducting was that of narrative and it’s construction. This came about by me realising that no matter what improvised footage I gathered, I still wanted to make some sort of story that seemed at least somewhat coherent. And as a result, the test then became more about the narrative form rather than just the lines between reality and fiction.

Eventually (I say that as if this isn’t due in 2 weeks), what I’m going to do is construct a 5-7min short film that is an amalgamation of all the footage I have gotten so far (as well as some new footage) to construct a coherent story or flow of sequences. Because most of us are playing fictionalized versions of ourselves, it’ll be hard to tell what is real, and what isn’t, and through the editing, I might be able to further twist that (like I did in the friends video making Matt seem like a creep because what he said was out of context).

I have also decided to inject some forms of reality through having Stephanie ‘play’ the role of a real person among the characters, and to some extent have myself be on the boarder between a real person witnessing these events, and a character that is going along with the bits and improve.

The End?

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

The ideas and implications (I mean implementations, damn it).

Because this idea revolves around improve, and what I can piece together from the random footage that I am able to get, I’ve decided not to write a script. Rather, I’ve decided write down a list of situations, bits, and things we could do (with perhaps some explanation of how I can make it work) to get some interesting/good footage to work with for the final piece (picture below).

The main issue I’m finding with these ideas is that I’ll probably end up with quite a lot of footage, and to be able to cut it all down to just three minutes, may be very difficult. In the past tests, I struggled to cut 10-15 mins worth of footage into something coherent at three minutes, but maybe I’ll just decide that coherency ins’t particularly important, and maybe I decide to cut out the voice-over to allow more footage to make the cut.

Regardless, it seems that’s what I need to figure out in the next few tests as I gather some footage and decide what is worth keeping, and what I should cut.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Maple Syrup 3 (Friends)

So this video was made up entirely by extra footage from last week’s shoot. What I was attempting to do with this, was to experiment with the editing process, in a direct response to my own criticism of the last two week’s videos. 

The idea was to use footage that I had, but hadn’t used, and to see if there was a way to tell some form of a story with it by a mix of editing and narration. I ended on a theme of friendship, but I’m not sure if that was particularly obvious, although, to some extent that’s what all of these videos are about.

In regards to playing around with the line between film and reality, although I don’t quite think I’m there yet, I do think I’m getting closer. There are a couple of parts in this video that represented real life (like Jonty asking what workshop we were attending), and some elements of the fake (basically everything Matt did in any of the videos ever). That particular scene is a good starting point, because we had a real person asking a real question, which was met with a character responding in a less than real way, making you question if the whole part was scripted or not (and it wasn’t).

Moving forward, I want to capitalise on this. I want to try and inject a few real people among the characters that some of us are playing, and seeing how they interact. Perhaps this is one of the ways that I may be able to eventually reach my goal of blurring reality and film together.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Maple Syrup 3 (Friends). As per Usual, I’ll add the statement separately, however, I’ll attempt to have it up today if possible.This was a bunch of spare footage from last week’s shoot that I was trying to make into some form of coherent story via editing.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Sweet Oak 5 (Definitely not a rip-off)

Although this weeks edit/shoot did not end out as well as I would have liked, I'm slowly realising that this is one of the advantages to these experiments. It gives me a chance to see what works with what I'm trying to do, and what doesn't. That being said, I do think that there were some funny moments, but I'm not sure if I was actually able to blur those lines between reality and the film that well.

This week, my goal was to use intertextuality (of the Sugar Pine 7 videos) in order to blur that line, and honestly it didn't quite work. I was doing this by both acknowledging and ignoring the fact that I am blatantly ripping off the style of the Sugar Pine 7 videos, and hoping that in the confusion you wouldn't be able to tell what was real, and what wasn't. The end result however, was just me and the group going too over the top, making it a little too obvious that it wasn't real.

I do have to address the somewhat sloppy editing job that I did. Although I could argue that I'm not an editor, I think the right thing for me to say here, is that I go from shooting on the Thursday, and have to have an edit done and uploaded by the Friday. Perhaps, what I may do for the next couple of videos (particularly with stuvac coming up), is to shoot a week before I need to upload to give me more time to edit (which I may or may not do with some of my spare footage from this week’s shoot). Despite the excuse, I do think that the transitions, narrations and endings could be smoother. Although these are rush jobs, I will try and take that care in constructing the final film.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Sweet Oak 5 (definitely not a rip-off). As per last week, I’ll write u a proper statement in a day or two. In a nutshell, I was playing around intertextuality, by making a bunch of sugar pine 7 reference (which has inspired the style of these videos). Eventually I want to find my voice in these videos, and while I don’t think I’m there yet, I’m slowly getting there.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Sugar Pine Rip-off and a day in the life (Blog)

First off, sorry this is slightly late (he typed knowing that no one noticed/cared, and by pointing it out he’s only done himself a disservice). Just in case you somehow can’t see the previous post, I’ve linked the video below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tJZbNjhk_XQ&feature=youtu.be

Anyway, so, what did I do with it this week? Basically in a nutshell, I did nothing special, and just pulled my camera-phone (look at my 1990′s lingo) out and started recording my friends (kinda with their permission, I mean they didn’t object...*). This resulted in an interesting mix of footage that spanned from natural conversation, super amped versions of ourselves that were over preforming for the camera and somewhat ‘planed’ shots.

Why did I do this? Well honestly, mostly because it’s funny, partly because it forces me to break my personal rule of not living life behind a camera (I like to live in the moment, not to re-live events past), but mostly because it allowed me to play around with character, voice, narrative construction, and world construction of this concept. Essentially, I was able to direct (to a limited extent) my friends and I into a direction where we could find the type of characters we would play, while still exploring this world we are building.

Something interesting about this video to me, is despite not being a confident editor in the past (I’m working to get better), I was able to string together 2 separate days worth of footage, and weave a fictional story around it that made some amount of sense. 

Although this video very much explored the real aspect of my manifesto, I think the next step is to explore the fictional side a little bit better.

*This was a gag, I did in fact ask their permission whenever they were filmed either before or after the shot.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

My Sugar Pine 7 rip-off. Honestly though this is me experimenting with improve, character and lines between reality and fiction. I will talk about this further in a later blog post.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Blog 3 (Week 4) Statement of Intent and a Fictional Person

The intention of this project is to use modernist ideas (particularly absurdism and surrealism) to explore the lines between reality and fiction within a film. This project is essentially setting out to prove that by subverting typical narrative, film and character conventions, you can play around with the construction, destruction and overall fabric of a fictional world in interesting and often reality blurring ways.

 The main convection that this project is looking to subvert is that characters often don’t know that they are fictional. My aim is to play around with the idea of a character finding out they are not a real person, and maybe exploring some of the repercussions that it may cause in this semi-fictional world. It was advised by my tutor (not sure why I said it like that, I’m pretty sure she is the only one reading this blog) that I consider using improve as a tool, and as a way to explore these concepts. Rather than scripting something out to act, which would usually be my impulse, I am going to try building my scripts off these little experiments once I learn to better understand my character.

 That being said (and based on the fact that I’m going to be playing this character myself) I think the first task would be to try and build the character. I think a good starting point would be to explore a fictional version of myself that is over the top and perhaps tries too hard. But this will probably be my first experiment, the construction of the character, and getting to know him.

 Practically, I want the final project to be constructed in a vlog style video (which will be scripted) as that is a genre that is meant to be set in reality. Because of this, it might make it easier to blur these lines between reality and fiction, whereby the audience may not be able to tell for sure where the film starts and where reality does.

 As a reference point, I am taking a lot of inspiration from a Youtube series called Alternative lifestyle, by a channel called ‘Sugar Pine 7’. Generally this series plays with this concept in a similar way, whereby as an audience, it’s hard to tell what is scripted, what’s improved, and what is actually real. In this particular episode, there was a point (at 0:57-1:26) where these lines between what is real and what isn’t, is particularly put into question. On one hand, you have the creator of the channel (Steven Suptic) acting very serious, and actually addressing fan reactions and questions about how real this series is. On the other hand however, you have James and Cib (the other 2 people in this scene) deep in character improvising based on what is happening.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1i8OZz9KSt4

Anyway, I could probably analyse this for a while, but instead I’ll be working on my character and how I can blur these lines. I’ll probably have a small screen test or some aspect of the character uploaded by Friday.

[thelazy-assedconqueror]

Blog 2 (Week 3)- Blurred Lines, and Double Vision.

Ok, so here’s my idea:

I want to experiment with the ideas of reality in film, and question where reality starts, and where film ends. I’ve been quite interested in Modernism for a few years now (particularly Surrealism and Absurdism), and how these art forms are able subvert typical conventions and do something different. This is exactly what I want to do here.

The experiment I want to conduct in a nutshell, is weather I can blur the lines between film and reality by subverting typical conventions of the medium. I want to particularly experiment with character and narrative conventions, and how subverting them may result in an Absurd/Surreal piece of work.

Because this is very much an idea that revolves around concepts more than techniques (particularly as it focuses on narrative forms) many of these entries will predominantly focus on the construction of the script that will be used to shoot.

I am currently working on both a script and a treatment, but at the moment what I know almost for cretin, is that the conventions that I want to subvert include (but are not limited to):

-Characters don’t tend to address the audience directly (I know fourth wall breaks have been popularized lately, but typically, this has been a convention for many decades in film).

-Characters don’t tend to know/find out that they are fictional

-Stories tend to follow a conventional three act structure with a beginning middle and end (in that order)

-Stories have a purpose

-’Mistakes’ such as boom mics falling into shot don’t end up in the final cut, or happen intentionally.

-Characters do not tend to meet the crew (as they don’t really exist).

I hope this is enough of a starting point that I can make this short film, because I’m excited to finally play around with modernist concepts on screen.