Final Major Project

INSPIRATION

The City of Lost Children (1995)

One of my favourite film maker's Jean - Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro film about a scientist in a surrealist society, who kidnaps children to steal their dreams, hoping that they slow his ageing process.

A scene from the movie

Point Of View shot

Delicatessen (1991)

Delicatessen is a 1991 French film, directed by Jean-Pierre Jounet and Marc Caro, starring Dominique Pinon and Karin Viard. It is set in an apartment building in a post-apocalyptic France of an ambiguous time period. The story focuses on the tenants of the building and their desperate bids to survive. Among these characters is the newly arrived Louison, who arrives to replace a tenant whose reason for departure is initially unclear. The butcher, Clapet, is the leader of the group who strives to keep control and balance in the apartment building.

It is largely a character-based film, with much of the interest being gained from each tenant's own particular idiosyncrasies and their relationship to each other.

This movie is set in a grotesque fantasy alternative world, which nevertheless has some resemblances to the France of the Forties. It is a run-down place where meat is in such short supply that surreptitious cannibalism takes place, and grain has replaced money as currency. 

Incredible Title Sequence of this movie leads to a movie with the same style and 'look'. 

Title sequence from the movie

A scene from the movie

Circus artist

Ansel Adams

Ansel Easton Adams was an American photographer and environmentalist. Adams founded the Group f/64 along with fellow photographers Willard Van Dyke and Edward Weston.

Group f/64

Group f/64 was a group of seven 20th-century San Francisco photographers who shared a common photographic style characterised by sharp-focused and carefully framed images seen through a particularly Western (U.S.) viewpoint. In part, they formed in opposition to the Pictorialist photographic style that had dominated much of the early 20th century, but moreover they wanted to promote a new Modernist aesthetic that was based on precisely exposed images of natural forms and found objects. 

Group f/64 made ordinary objects extraordinary

Derek Jarman

Painter, filmmaker, set designer, diarist, poet, gardener, activist - Jarman's work across many areas and media was distinguished by its continual innovation and sense of daring. 

official website of Derek Jarman's work

http://www.jarman2014.org/

The Last of England

It is a poetic, rather than realistic, depiction of what Jarman felt was the loss of traditional English culture in the 1980's. 

Jarman wrote a book to accompany the film, which deals more explicitly with the relationship he had with his father, who was a Lancaster bomber pilot in the Second World War. Jarman used the impact of his father's despair, depression and violence on his own artistic vision. The depression that his father suffered is attributed to the high number of fatalities that bomber crews experienced and the carpet-bombing of civilians. The film is also a means to explore his vision of the dissolution of traditional (pre-war) English life.

Tilda Swinton in 'The Last of England'

An article about Derek Jarman's exhibition you can find on The Guardian website.
http://www.theguardian.com/film/2014/jan/24/celebrating-derek-jarman-20-years-death

Derek Jarman Caravaggio (1998) available on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N_TAZbRwxY8

A scene from Caravaggio (1998)

Brief Encounter

Brief Encounter is a 1945 British film directed by David Lean about British suburban life, centering on Laura, a married woman with children whose conventional life becomes increasingly complicated because of a chance meeting at a train station with a stranger, Alec. They inadvertently but quickly progress to an emotional love affair, which brings about unexpected consequences. The film stars Celia Johnson, Trevor Hovard, Stanley Holloway and Joyce Carey. The screenplay is by Noel Covard, based on his 1936 one-act play Still Life.

A key moment in the story

Creative making

We came up with an idea of burning sock, which symbolise the bad memories. And then we merged our videos together and made an video installation with sound of burn.

Alice's video

Christine's video

Greta's video

Mine video

A room where we prepared video installation

Initial idea was to project it on the box, but then we thought why not to occupy the whole room. 

Playing around with projector when it's on.

This little project was incredible experience of how to display your video. Now I know that you MUST DISPLAY IN A DARK ROOM otherwise you barely can see anything.

CONTROLLING IDEA

Love is like drugs, takes over your brains.
Love is obsession and you can burn from it.
Love is passion, but can be and just fashion.
From love to hate just one step.

Obsession

What is it?

Obsession:
Compulsive preoccupation with a fixed idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.
A persistent preoccupation, idea or feeling.
The act of obsessing or the state of being obsessed.
The state of being obsessed.
The domination of ones thoughts or feelings by a persistent idea, image, desire, etc.

Ideas

How much obsession can change your life?

What do you obsessed about?
people
collecting something
food
music
films
work
excitement
sex
hobby
art
time
animals
sport
weight

I want to explore more about cats obsession.

Scenarios

Cat obsession

A man obsessed about cats.
He has a cat.
He takes lots of pictures of cats
He thinks like cat.
He acts like cat.
He becomes a cat.

Story change: being human - becoming animal.

Title for my film is ''A Furry Affair''

A Furry Affair

This is a story about a lonely man who is looking for love. Girls are not attractive to him so one day he goes to a pet shop and gets a gorgeous and sexy cat. That's when story starts... He gets this cat and becomes a friend with her. One day this cat scratched him and he becomes obsessed about cats. He falls in love with this cat and gets jealous. Jealousy gets stronger and stronger. But where can it lead him to?

Key elements:
Character - a single lonely man.
Time - a week
Place - London city.
Genre - black comedy

Reference based on
American werewolf in London

POV (obsessed werewolf)

Protagonist (main character) got bitten by an animal (werewolf) and that's how he became obsessed (infected)

Main character knows that he becomes an animal and he wants to stop it by killing himself

Full moon is the time for obsession.

My project

Today I found Cat cafe in London.
I might use this cat cafe as one of shooting locations.
Video is available on YouTube:
First Cat Cafe in London

I done a bit of research of how cats act.
cats acting

more of cats acting

I find out that cats can feel guilty for any reason
guilty cats

I also checked how other filmmakers filming the scenes with cats.
Check this out:
cats in film

Quick STORYBOARD

Filming animals

Animals in Filming

filming with animals tips and tricks

Video on Youtube:
a problem with filming cats

I also found a video filmed by cats:
first movie filmed by cats
The trick for this video is they attached a gopro camera to cat body (POV).

Actually, I might use this idea (Point Of View) for my short film.
Also I read about Golden hour in Photography and I thought is it possible to use it in my film.

Golden hour (Photography)

In photography, the golden hour (sometimes known as magic hour, especially in cinematography) is a period shortly after sunrise or before sunset during which daylight is redder  and softer compared to when the Sun is higher in the sky.

The colour temperature varies by time of day 

The examples of golden hour 

By Zack Ahern

know when to shoot

Also there are plenty tips of how to Create Amazing Photos During the Golden Hour  posted by Stephen Hockman.

To check when is golden hour you can do it here.

I just found this amazing web page of inspirational photographers. Recommend it to have a look. 

I would like to use this photography rule for my film in opening scene (tilt shot of outside the house).

Lets see how it will be...

Opposite to Golden hour is Blue hour.

Blue Hour 

(Photography)

The blue hour is the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light. Photographers call it sweet light.

If you want to know when exactly is going to be blue hour you can check it here.

PRODUCTION 

Yesterday was my first shooting day.

Result: 84 takes.

Today is my second and last day of shooting.

Result: 64 takes.

There are some photos from shooting day 2

I was filming with Canon EOS 6D

Set in golden hour

Props for sound recording 

Most of the time I was using a dolly

movie star

Now it's time for the post production 

POST PRODUCTION

 

That's the footage which I am going to use for my film.

Footage from shooting day 1

Footage from shooting day 2

Also I recorded separate sounds for my film. 

Files from sound recorder

Mixed and mastered sound files

Sound files from free sound website.

All those files above I used in Post production (Adobe Premier Pro CC).

Screen shot from editing process

Color grading

FINAL MAJOR PROJECT

Self-Evaluation

 I visited Tate Modern and Somerset House, got all information, which I needed for my FMP. Also I did some research on the internet, used some resources in the library and my own book collection and of course I watched loads of films. I had some difficulties with ideas development, but finally I made it and came up with an idea of obsession as the result of the power of thinking. My story is about a man getting obsessed about neighbour’s cat and finally becoming a cat. Tutors warned me about working with animals that it is very difficult, but I challenged myself and made a film with an animal included.

I had two days of shooting just in case if something could be missing or go wrong and it was. After first day I realized that some scenes and sound effects was missing so I did another shooting day. Also, I chose location, props, cast of two characters, planed and organised my shooting days. However, location I kept very simple. All action is in one house where cat lives. I did not want to confuse the audience with many places and tutors agreed with this idea. Also, I did some experiment with lighting (used Golden hour, natural and artificial lighting, light reflectors), cameras (Go Pro and Canon EOS 6D), carefully chose compositions (the rule of thirds, balanced/unbalanced) and used different angles and shots (POV, long, medium long, close up). I was dealing with a cat as one of my characters in a story and I found it very challenging. The cat owner’s help was very useful as he helped me to manage cat’s moves.

I used Adobe Premier Pro CC for editing and did some drafts to test video and sound quality. First of all, I putted all video files together to see the flow of narrative and did lots of cutting. As tutors told me, I left just key scenes in my story.

Secondly, I added sound for my film. Also I needed to do more sound recording, as some bits was missing or incorrect.

The last but not least, I done some colour grading. I added some contrast and changed some colours.

Finally, I did sound mixing to match sound levels. Also with my tutor’s help I did sound mastering. It is very important for sound quality when it’s playing. The last job was to export final piece to MP4 format.

I think my FMP was successful. I had an amazing experience of how all film process works from an idea to final screening. Also I tried to apply everything what I learned so far over this course: Digital Photography (shot composition, angles), Sound design (sound recording, mixing and mastering), Animation (transitions between the scenes) and Film (narrative, editing). This experience is very valuable for my future, as I want to study Digital Film Production.

My FMP video you can find on Vimeo here.

or on YouTube here.

ChANGE

CONNECTING WITH YOUR STORY

• Unflinching honesty: '' this value matters to me and thus to others; that doesn't.''
• Pursuit of truth.
• YOU / what you know / your life experience: ''what do you care?''
• Your emotional response: what you feel, not what you're suppose to feel.
• The big changes you've seen: emotional + intellectual process (you need both).

VALUE - CHARGE INTERCHARGE

McKee ''Story''

story values are the universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive.

EXAMPLES

• VALUES (Love, life, friendship, company, protection, family, togetherness, freedom, peace of mind, etc.)

• These values are manifested in ''material'' values such as marriage/divorce, going to the event together, uncovering a crime, etc. But you need to understand and inner value within the material to be able to assess it's true worth in the story.
• Avoid superficial or non-essential values (to the character).

VALUE - CHARGE INTERCHARGE AND ARC

• Story structure

+ to -
- to +

MY PROJECT

Change project was one of the most emotional for me as I was shooting my homeland and my family.
Took some snaps when I was there, but the main part is my project.

Vilnius

Family

Early spring

Brainstorm

Change:

• your personality
• your life
• your feelings
• the world 
• the people
• the rules

Important values - love, friendship

Changes is - to + or + to -.

We live in the world shaped by stories. Narrative helps define what is normal and what is illegitimate , as well as the limits of what is politically possible. All power relations have such a narrative component.

That is what makes a story powerful is not necessarily facts, but how the story creates meaning in the hearts and minds of the listeners. 

The currency of story is not truth, but meaning.

Metaphor of life: all kids have to have their homes and discover their own life, themself, their goals and ambitions.

Narrative film describing how ONE major story value's charge turns into it's opposite.

Meaning: a revolution in values from positive to negative or negative to positive with or without irony - a value swing at maximum charge that's absolute and irreversible. The meaning of that charge moves the heart of the audience.

Progression build by moving dynamically between the positive and negative charges of the values at stake in the story.

Storyboard

1. Daughter and mother living in poor country.

2. Daughter is 25 and she need to move from family and earn her own money.

3. But in her country there is no jobs and economic situation is very bad.

4. She is sad that she needs to leave her family and the whole country.

5. She works in a factory with a hope to get a better job.

My final outcomes can find on Youtube:

http://youtu.be/HW23FCdSwLw

http://youtu.be/HW23FCdSwLw

Freedom & Liberty

By its very nature, film is an extremely valuable way of introducing and discussing topics in philosophy.

What does it mean freedom for me?

• be able to create what you want
• be able to do what you want
• when you're not scared about other people's opinions
• freedom of choice as I had this freedom all my life

Symbols of freedom
shoes
smile
camera
energy for life
imagination

BRAINSTORM

Freedom & Liberty

• be independent
• freedom of choice
• freedom of speech
• breaking frames of your thinking
• imagination
• travelling
• a joy of life
• imagination
• creativity

Micro cosmos resonate macro cosmos.
Details create the feelings/emotions.
Provide questions and don't give the answers.

Initial idea

Freedom of choice

1. A man finished his boring job in the office. (negative)
2. He is waiting the train to go back home.
3. But suddenly he decides to have a fresh air in the park after stressful day at work and jumps into the train which goes to opposite direction.
4. He explores our beautiful nature which calms him down.
5. After nature exploring evening he is in the train station waiting for a train back home.
6. But is he is going to take this train or explore more adventures in the park? (positive)

The End


STORYBOARD

Final outcomes you can found on YouTube:

http://youtu.be/77IZrea2kgQ

Story Telling

McKee

1. Thou shalt respect thine audience

2. Thou shalt research

The writer and the art of story.
The story problem - the decline of story in contemporary cinema, theatre, prose.

3. Thou shalt dramatize thine exposition

The structure spectrum - beat, scene, sequence, act, story.
Mapping the story universe: Archplot, Miniplot, Antiplot.

4. Thou shalt layer a subtext under every text

The war on cliches.
Genre - limitations and inspirations.

5. Thou shalt create complex characters rather than merely complicated story

Character - the great debate.
Meaning - how stories mean: premise ideal, counter idea, controlling creation.

6. Thou shalt use neither false mystery nor cheap surprise

The substance of story - shaping the source of story energy and creation.

7. Thou shalt not use deus ex machina to get thine ending

A writer's method - the creative process from inspiration to final draft.

8. Thou shalt not make life easy for thine protagonist

9. Thou shalt take thine story into the depth and breadth of human experience.

10. Thou shalt not sleep with anyone who has more problem than you

Key Questions

1. What event starts my story so the crisis and climax must occur?

2. What is the relationship between the inciting incident and the crisis/climax of this story?

3. Do the inciting incident and the way in which it occurs make the crisis/climax eventually necessary?

4. The inciting incident occurs and creates branching probability. Given this, do you feel the ending you've designed absolutely must occur?

5. What events starts the story so that the protagonist must go into the action? Even if the action is saying, "I'm not going into action, " the protagonist must react to that inciting incident.

6. What does my protagonist want that comes out of this inciting incident? What drives the protagonist on? What goal must the protagonist accomplish? What has he/she failed to accomplish?

7. What position does the character meet? What are the sources of antagonism?

From what level of reality? Always try to create three dimensional stories in which conflict is coming from ALL THREE LEVELS OF REALITY. (Intrapersonal, interpersonal and extrapersonal)

8. Is the opposition equal to if not greater than the protagonist? The protagonist cannot be up against forces that he can easily handle and overwhelm. Do these forces really test him/her as a human being? Do these forces become so powerful and cumulative in their power that they are severely testing the deepest human qualities in this person?

9. As we move toward the ending, do we become more deeply involved? Not staying the same, not losing interest, but more deeply involved.

10. Have we grown to identify with and/or like the protagonist?

11. As we near the ending, do we feel an exhilaration/acceleration of action and reaction?

12. Does the action in the crisis/climax fully express my root idea WITHOUT the aid of dialogue?

13. Every movie is about one idea. How does each scene in the film bring out an aspect of that one idea, positively or negatively?

14. What is the worst possible thing that could happen to my character? How could that turn out to be the best possible thing? Or vice versa.

on Youtube: Adaptation
recommended movie to watch "the kiss of the spiderwoman"
strangers - short film shows that we all are human beings.
Spike Jonze film "How they get there"
"Birthday girl" meant to be comedy thriller (twisted genres) but did not go well.

Story?

No Conflict - No Story

Story elements
Character
situation
event
genre/plot

Genre?
action
thriller
comedy
drama
love story
adventure
horror

Seven basic plots
Voyage and Return
Rebirth
Comedy
Tragedy
Overcoming the Monster
Rags to Riches (slough millionaire)
Quest

Situation?
place
world
life                      of a Character

Character?
Personal motivation
Decisions that drives events

Events = CHANGE

Story Events = Meaningful CHANGE in the life of the Character

Story Values

"... are the universal qualities of human experience that may shift from positive to negative, or negative to positive.

Action/Reaction increase tension.

Title Sequence

A title sequence's main function is to impart information to the viewer.

• title
• who's in it
• who made it

A title sequence's secondary function is to set the TONE and PREPARE the viewer for what they are about to experience.

A title sequence should be in keeping with the film it precedes, it should not seek to overshadow or upstage it.

Things to consider:

• legibility
• fit for purpose
• emotional response - creates a feeling 
• pace (speed)

Onscreen Layout

Hierarchy

A typographic hierarchy expresses an organisational system for content, emphasizing some data and diminishing others. A hierarchy helps readers see a text, knowing where to enter and exit and how to pick and choose among its offerings. 

Each level of the hierarchy should be:

• signaled by one or more cues
• applied consistently across a body of text.

A cue can be:

• spatial (indent, line spacing, placement on page)
• graphic (size, style, color of typeface)

Infinite variations are possible.

Typeface - In typography, a typeface (also known as font family) is a set of one or more fonts each composed of glyph s that share common design features. Each of a typeface has a specific weight. style, condensation, width, slant, italicization, ornamentation, and designer or foundry (and formely size, in metal fonts).

Saul Bass

This is example of Saul Bass title Sequence for a movie ''The man with golden arms''1955.

The key to designing and producing an effective title sequence is to fully understand the film.

Ask yourself:

• what is the movie about?
• what is it really about?

Read between the lines, what is the underlying theme, is there a subtext. What emotional response does the director require from the audience? 

Stephen Frankfurt ''To kill a Mockingbird'' 1962.

As you can see in Dr. Strangelove title Sequence by Pablo Ferro a font style is the same.

Persepolis title sequence is a reference to the historic city of Persepolis.

Here you can watch a video.

http://www.titledesignproject.com/2009/01/persepolis/

Kyle Cooper

Also there is very good example of title sequence by Kyle Cooper in Se7en 1995 movie.

Maurice Binder

Completely done by Maurice Binder who designed the original gun/shot title sequence that became the signature opening montage for James Bond movies.

Pat Gavin

Title Design - Pat Gavin's Title Sequence.

Tomato

http://www.titledesignproject.com/2013/12/basic-instinct-2-title-sequence-by-tomato/

http://www.tomato.co.uk/

MY PROJECT

Titles set the scene, often reflecting the genre, nature of theme of a film or television programme. In film they play an integral part in leading the audience into the idea or intention of the film. In television they often provide factual information, but it is important that they set a tone so that an expectation is put in place. 

I need to make at least 6 recordings, or still digital images, from television or videos of examples of good and bad titles. Also I need to choose a good range of examples to discuss for presentation. I can use video, still photographs and/or AV (Audio tape and slide show). Consider the differing styles, genres and subjects applied to television and film.

I need to produce at least FOUR original Title sequences from existing films and tv programmes: either one or two from Television Drama or News/Current Affairs, and the other two or three from Spaghetti Westerns, Bollywood or Thriller.

I can only choose one from each genre. Re-search into the genres, brainstormed ideas and storyboard. My produced sequences must be no longer than 30 seconds. I may use music or sound, but it must be of your own making or reinterpretation and not pre-recorded.


My Final Projects you can find on YouTube:
Blue Velvet by David Lynch Spaghetti Western "Once Upon Time in the West

http://youtu.be/ufcgf311YaE

Spaghetti Western "Once Upon Time in the West

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2gTyRb37DhM&feature=youtu.be

Friday Crits

Spaghetti Western

What could be improved?

·         Sound

·         Elements of humour

·         Shoot more details (Medium, long shot)

Character is very good.

I want to see more of his act.

Blue velvet

Video fits the genre and the movie

Entering pace was good

Sound played big role

This title sequence works very well for this movie

the moon shot was great