Journel

Journel    

 

March 10th – I have finished my proposal for FMP and have been signed off so I can start my FMP.

Week 1 – This week I have decided to go with my original idea, rather than any other. I feel that all my ideas were appealing. I thought about the pro’s and con’s of all my ideas. After thinking carefully about the ideas. I have decided that although not the easiest idea to do my original idea will be the most effective and interesting.

 Concept – My Idea is to create an experimental music video to classical music. I want to base the video around the elements, nature and the weather. I want to use fire, smoke and water in the video, I also will be filming ink in water, which i have take inspiration from Zayn Pillow talk.  I have decided not to use characters in my Fmp as I have decided that this would be a challenge for me and would overall make the video more experimental. This is also the reason I have decided not to involve a narrative storyline.

Research – This week I also began my research in preparation for FMP,  I have been looking into experimental music videos and films, and films that have experimental scenes in them for example The tree of life’s cosmos scene. I have researched very early experimental work and looked at how it has progressed throughout film. I have looked at two experimental music videos these are no surprises – Radio head and ZAYN – pillow talk.

week 2  

Practitioner –  I have started to look at practitioners that interest me for example I have looked at emmanuel lubezki I was initially interested in his work because of The revenant but after researching him further I became more interested in some of his other films, for example Gravity and Birdman. After researching some of his other films and watching them. I became interfered in his style of filming and the way he conducts himself, I researched many of his trade marks and looked into how I can incorporate these into my own filming.

Dione Beebe (Director of photography) is another practitioner that I looked at, I looked at him because of his work with Lana Del Rey in her Shades of cool video he also has done work with Rihanna and Arctic Monkeys.

I researched his trade marks throughout his work this included; colour grading, tints, and over lapping shots.

I also looked at Gordon Willis (The prince of darkness) I found out he is known for his experiments in low lighting, he is successful by pushing film to the limits but retaining just enough detail. Willis is known for his work in the godfather trilogy. However through research I found out that his father got him to work as a gofer on some film productions, later on he worked at a Korean film unit and learnt a lot of knowledge off of David Quaid.

I was really interested to learn about willis’s journey from starting as a gofer to becoming a cinematographer.  I also looked into the close relationship between Willlis and woody allen – Willis has shot 9 films for woody allen.

I have also done a separate blog post looking into Cinematic films and their cinematographers, I have done this because I felt I didn’t have the time to research all the cinematographers individually however they were very important parts of my research and needed to be covered, even if it was briefly.

Earlier in the week when looking at practitioners I found the film “Tree Of Life” Emmanuel Lubezki is  the cinematographer for this film. In particular i looked int o the ‘cosmos scene’ . After researching this scene and watching it I took great inspiration from it because of the way it is filmed.  For example the scene focus’s on nature, the weather and other natural elements. This grabbed my attention because this is what i want to incorporate into my video. I also think that the classical music used was a very good decision by the film makers because the music and the visuals compliment each other so well.

This scene has mad me think about my music choice because I originally felt that I would like to use a popular song my original choice was elbow – One day like this, however after doing research and finding the cosmos scene, I have since reevaluated my choice.

Also after looking at the tree of life I have been interested into incorporating fire into my filming because I feel that it would add a powerful and experimental effect into my video. I am also interested in either filming underwater for filming water. I also think this would add more experimental value onto my film. However I will have to research into these ideas more to see wether it is possible and effective.

After researching and analysing different productions I feel I have learned a lot.

• I have learnt from The revenant that Lubezki only used natural lighting, I feel this is very risky as it could of gone very wrong, However I think it is really effective in the end because The revenant shows a lot of landscapes and scenery throughout its production and i think that if they made the decision to use artificial light, It would’ve looked unrealistic in a way and not as beautiful.  This has made me really think about how to really make my video experimental, I have decided after looking lubezkis work that I will only be using natural light to make my work look both experimental, natural and beautiful.

• I have also learnt that no matter how good you are at filming, Editing will always be your friend, I found that it is very clever that in post production you can completely manipulate your shots into something completely different  through, colour grading, filters and soundtrack.

• I have also learnt that foley sounds are very important, even though I will be putting video to music, I will need to create and source really accurate foley sounds mimicking nature, water and animals particularly birds. I feel layering the between the visuals an the soundtrack will really give my production a 3D effect and bring it all together.

 Week 3 

  

I will be looking into my target audience, I will also be looking at the target audience of some of my practitioners work that I researched last week.

I have researched the target audience for The Lana Del Rey video – Shades of cool, I decided to research this video because I know if you want to look at the target audience for a film it is quite easy and you can look at websites for example, YouGov and BBFC. However I found it increasingly difficult to find the accurate target audience for music videos.

I decided the only way to find the target audience of this music video was to analyse it and figure it  out alone on what I have learnt previously in the year.  I looked at the Demographics to look at different types of target audiences. I feel I came up with a good conclusion about the target audience.

These are the points that I made;

*  There are lots of male gaze shots through the video – This would obviously appeal to men more.

* Conventional car advert, The start of the video shows the male character driving a nice car, This would conventionally appeal to men more.

*’Bond lighting and scenery – This would appeal to men more because of the bond theme.

* Glamorous female character – This could both appeal to both genders because The women will be draw towards her lifestyle and the way she looks, However this could also appeal to men more because they would find her sexually appealing.

*Drinking and smoking are shown in the video this connotes that the video is not aimed at younger viewers.

*Historical references ad vintage/retro appeal show that this may be targeted at the older generation because They would remember/appreciate this more.

I also looked at the target audience for the Revenant, this was a lot easier to do because I used YouGov and BBFC, I looked into the statistics through you Gov and found that more men watch this film compared to men, I Then gave my own opinions on why this was. I also found through you gov that the film appeals to the younger generation more (20 – 30 year olds). I did my own research  to try and find out about the other demographics for example I think this film is targeted at people with historic knowledge because the film is based on a true historical story. I also looked at wether location and marital status to see wether these factors would make a difference to the target audience.

I found looking into the target audience of two other things, helpful because It helped me understand the differences between the target audience for a music video and a film. Also After doing this It enabled me to look at my own target audience.

My target audience

Age – 18 – 30

Gender – Men

Location – Not local people

Income – N/A

Education – N/A

I have put information and my reasoning behind my target audience on my blog. Over all I’m really happy that I took the time to analyse some of my inspirations target audience as it really helped me  gain an understanding off my own target audience.

This week I have also looked into legal and ethical issues, I have found it quite difficult to look into this particular section because my video has no narrative or storyline, so the actual video wouldn’t pose any issues to audience, However I did find that because my whole video is filmed outside That I’d Have to be respectful of the land and places I am filming. Also I would have to look after my crew and get them to the filming location carefully, Also a big issue would be copyright music as the few songs I like for my video are not royalty or Copyright free.

 Week 4  

   

Half term

week 5  After looking into legal and ethical issues last week i decided to look into costs and budgeting, I felt this was really important to take the time to look at because If I didn’t plan ahead and workout my costs then I could run into some trouble when filming.

I started off by looking into the costs of things in ‘my world’  Luckily Exeter college has everything I would need for example; waterproof camera (Go Pro) The only other technical thing I would need is different lenses for my camera, Luckily I am borrowing these from a friend so the cost wont be an issue. The only cost I found would be me paying My friend to drive me and my crew to the filming location. Also my ‘crew’ is just my friends and they’re helping me out for free.

After researching this I researched the cost of my production in the real media industry. I worked out that I would need; waterproof camera, Tripod, Lights, microphones, the location, the crew and the rights to the music.

I researched Exeter Phoenix (A local art gallery that offers equipment hire) I researched their prices and found that for me to hire a waterproof camera it would cost me £100 for two days, This is way to much for my budget and I would probably not even need to spend that much money on y WHOLE production on a small scale. I also found found from their website site that things like a zoom mic would cost £30 pounds for two days and a tripod would be £16.

I would have 2 camera operators helping me and after researching the cost of their wages I found that they would charge £150 – £300 for a day.

Overall what I thought was such a simple concept could cost thousands it was made on a professional level, However on a smaller scale I would spend £100 at the very most.

This week I also decided to look at a few more research points that will and emily had mentioned.

The first Thing I looked at was Early experimental film, I decided to look into this as I felt it would widen my knowledge of experimental film techniques and it would help me when I came to film my own.

I decided to make a blog post about early experimental film and pick a few of my favourites and then write about them. I picked; Rain – Joris Ivens, A movie – Bruce connor, The life and death of 9413 – Robert florey, The sea shell and the clergyman – Germaine Dulac.

When researching these Films I found that a few of them (A movie and The Sea Shell and the Clergyman) are often seen as propaganda film, I found this really interesting as before I couldn’t see how experimental work went into the same category as propaganda. After watching Joris Ivens A movie, I could see How through his use of visuals showing, pin up girls, war, famine and animals it could be seen as propaganda.  I was also Interested to see that this particular film is often showed in museums and galleries because it was such a breakthrough in experimental film and it also is often seen as a cult film.

I was also interested this week in looking at the experimental film Rain, I particularly liked researching this one as it is one of the most famous experimental films out there. I also found useful because of the use of rain in the film, as my work will be centring around, weather, nature and the elements.

This week I also expanded on my Competition work to bring my grade up, originally I had said that one of my competitors would be pillow talk by zayn, but after talking to Emily I realised that It was not the video that was my competition but the Director of the video himself.  This led me on to look at Bouha Kazm, Once researching him I found out that has many well known clients for example zayn, Jay z and Carat agency. I found it interesting to look into his biography and see how far he come, I also found it very helpful to look at his work. I watched many videos that he has filmed and/or directed, This gave me an understanding on how he works, his trademarks and how he follows a brief, Doing this research allowed me to incorporate my knowledge of him into my own work.

Week 6 

  

This week I decided to look into some critical reception about the revenant, I decided to do this because I felt this would bulk up my research a bit. First of all I Looked at reviews from websites such as imdv and rotten tomatoes, I found that the most common review of the film was 5/5 stars. After looking into this and giving a brief into to the blog post, I decided to look at critic reviews. When looking at critic reviews I found that they go into a lot more detail compared to the website review.

The critic reviews go into more detail about how the film is filmed for example, they look at cinematography, directing and sound. Many of the reviews featured on my blog show that they are of good rating, however there are a few that aren’t and when I reseated this I found that it was because the crates felt that the story was unrealistic and over the top. This made me think of my own work and I decided that I need to be really careful finding the right music that goes with my music video because the wrong music would make it look over the top.

After looking into critic reviews I decided to look at Audience reviews, I did this to make sure that I covered all aspects of critical reception, I found that the audience reviews do have a lot of knowledge of the cinematography and of the making of the film. I also felt that these reviews were the most important reviews for someone to look at when deciding wether they want to watch the film or not, because normal people would struggle to understand the media jargon in critic reviews however the website reviews are too basic because they only give  you a star rating. I think that the audience review is the best compromise.

After looking at the reviews I decided to look at why the film is so popular, I felt that doing this would tie up all my critical reception work and give a little more info on to the Revenant.

I really enjoyed doing the critical reception work because it helped overall with my research and potentially brought my grade up.

Week 7

This week I decided to look into my technical requirements or my Fmp; Below are things Ive considered for my technical requirements;

The weather – The weather plays a big factor on the look of my film, I want  to show my locations and the nature in the best possible way and for it to look really appealing. I feel the best way to do this is to film in nice weather (Sun) I feel like this would also look the best with the music I have Picked.

Lighting – I have decided to film in completely natural light, I have decided to this because I feel that it would work well with the visuals used, also because the concept of my film is to show nature and the outdoor scenery. I want it to look really natural so I feel That if I did use artificial light it wouldn’t look right and would possibly ruin the overall look of my video.

I also spent the week looking at editing techniques to use post production these were mainly to look into colour grading and to practice this, I used these techniques to make my footage look as cinematic and beautiful as possible.

Week 8   

 

This week I decided to make sure that I was all ready to film for the next week, this included getting all my equipment ready and briefing my crew on the time date and things that they needed to do.

I briefed dan, Grace and Archie on the footage that I wanted them to get; for example, Archie – I need him to get long flowing Drone shots that have no man made objects or town in.

I need dan to get cinematic shots from Haldon woods, with the tripods to make sure that they’re not shaky. This also applies to Grace as I want her to get the same type of shots as dan. I will also be filming in the same location as Grace, Dan and Archie, I want all my crew to use different types of lenses because I feel That this would make my over all footage more experimental.

Week 9 

  

I took this whole week off to film:

Monday; I got up early to film the sunrise In the woods (Burridge) near my house, I originally wanted to film just the sunrise but when I was up in the woods I founds some really pretty places to film such as the stream, oak trees and the hills. I decided to take advantage of the weather as well, as It was really sunny and this is the type of weather I was aiming to get.

Tuesday; This day was particularly dark and grey and so I decided not to film on This day, So I decided to take the time to record some foley noises. I managed to get noise from the river, the birds and just general Wild life.

Wednesday; Today was the main filming day And I went into Exeter to meet with Dan, Grace and Archie, a me and Grace met in Exeter and then Dan drove us to our location as this was about 15 mins away from Exeter. Once we Got to Halden woods I briefed my crew once more on the type of footage that I wanted them to get. One thing that went wrong with this day is that we were meant to meet Archie at the woods but he failed to turn up and then none of us could get hold of him. This threw a spanner in the works because I had planned the day around using his drone. HoweverThe day was still really successful and I’m Really happy with my footage.

Thursday; Today I went back into Exeter to meet Archie and we Got the Drone footage, It didn’t take us too long to get and i’m Really happy with the outcome that we got because The shots that we got are exactly what I wanted and We didn’t have any technical difficulties.

Friday; I decided to just look at all the footage I collected and begin editing today.

Week 10  

 

This whole week consisted of editing, This is where I made the big decision to go with my original song and use Elbow one day like this, However I decided to cut the middle of the song out and blend all both the beginning and the end together, I decided to this because I felt the song was too long and I also felt the beginning of the song was boring.

Once I started Editing I found it really difficult to cut the shots in time with the music, This made the whole editing process a little longer than I wanted, However Once I got the hang of this it moved along a bit easier. I also decided to use a kaleidoscope/mirror effect on the violin part of the soundtrack. I decided this would make my footage more experimental and would engage the audience more.

I played around a lot with colour grading in Final cut when editing this was to make sure that my footage looked as cinematic and beautiful as possible without looking fake and unrealistic.

Once I had finished Editing I was ready for the rough cut hand in and to show my work infant of people to gain their feedback, I will be doing this next week.

 Week 11  

 

This week I am handing in my rough cut work, to gain feedback so I can see if I need to tweak it.

I handed in my work and showed it infront of 6 people, I had lost of feedback from people and the main comment was that the group really liked my work and thought that it was very good. However I did get some constructive criticism and this was mainly about the length of my work, I had originally cut it down but people thought that it needed to be cut down even more. A few people also felt that the kaleidoscope footage shouldn’t be as spread out as it is because it was ‘jarring’ having smooth cinematic shots and then experiential effects. This meant that I needed to go back to editing, to fix the problem that I had about the length of the song, I fixed this by cutting the length down even more and cutting the song more, I put less of the violin music in and more slow music at the start, I did this because then All of the experimental filters could be put at the end of the music video, This would fix the problem of the jarring footage aswell.

This took me most of the week and When I finished Editing I showed My music video back to the group and they all agreed that I had fixed all the problems and that no more editing needed to be done.

Week 12

  

This is the last week of college and my priority was to do an evaluation, I decided to a blog evaluation because I feel that this would be easier to do and wouldn’t take as much time, Also previously I have only ever done written evaluations and I feel that this is one of the things that lets my overall work down.

I got the points of my evaluation written down, so that when I came to film it would be easy for me.

Once I filmed my evaluation I mopped up any outstanding work on my blog and then I was re4ady to be signed off.