Short Film & Video Production

By Richard Davis

Module Title: Short Film & Video Production Module Number: 202 AAD Module Lecturer: Claire Lapworth

IDENTITY - A Short Film UNDERPINNING RESEARCH The difference between Hollywood, Art and Avant-garde cinemas. Since mans early beginnings, people have told stories, they serve to pass on information and ideas to future generations. Films are about telling stories, where as once people would sit around a camp fire, we now huddle around a TV set or pack ourselves into our local cinema. But over the thousands of years our story telling techniques have advanced, and in the past 100 years, with the progression of technology, these story telling techniques have changed immensely. When we look at narrative, it is usually constructed as a series of events, connected through cause and effect logic, that lead to a conclusion. Films will use appropriate images and sounds to tell a story, and this allows it to be understood by a wide range of cultures. Over time a set of storytelling rules has been established, and Hollywood films stick to these rules, but art cinema breaks these rules. This is a reaction to the Hollywood system, its art reacting against art. We are presented with one system of storytelling and another system is borne out of it. Hollywood film tend to be big commercial ventures with large budgets and well known actors, because they need to make money to cover the large costs of making such a film, they need to appeal to a broad audience. Art cinema is often lower budget, much less commercial; it distinguishes itself from main stream cinema by being different, often only shown in art galleries or film clubs. Even though Hollywood and Art cinema are different they have heavily influenced each other over the years, and still do. It appears that art cinema takes the common conventions found in Hollywood cinema and plays with them, and in turn art Hollywood borrows conventions from art cinema, as their work is reflected back with a new twist. We can see this overlapping in the film Memento directed by Christopher Nolan (2000). This is a Hollywood production, a large budget, big names, but the audience in presented with an unexpected narrative structure. A typical narrative story would be presented to us in chronological order. The audience would expect to see events occur in order as the character experiences them. If we look at the film Jaws directed by Stephen Spielberg (1975) the events of the film are presented in order, one event leads to the next, which fits with our expectations. We have a beginning and a clear end, cause and effect logic being present throughout. If we look at David Lynchs INLAND EMPIRE (2006) we find seemingly unrelated scenes, rabbits on a stage, cut to a woman on a film set. The narrative is totally disjointed, we dont know whether the events are in the past or present or if they are even real. This manipulation of the narrative serves to present us with information in a different way, the stories meaning and out response to the story is manipulated.

Hollywood films are about entertainment and the stories tend to be about a character and their journey. The story is presented in a manner that is easy to understand, but this is not as simple as it sounds, many sophisticated techniques are employed to make the story seamless, to keep the audience focused and absorbed, in the story and character. Hollywoods film heroes have a definite goal, the main character needs to achieve something, and by overcoming many hurdles they close the story and the audience is left satisfied. Because of this, the characters direct the story and the narrative provides a clear delineation of what the hero is like and what it is they want. Examples include director John G. Avildsens Rocky (1976) where a small time boxer strives to become a heavyweight champion. The story is straightforward; we understand the characters motivation and his goal. In the highest grossing film of all time, James Camerons Avatar (2009) a disabled man travels to another world and falls in love. The story does deal with a virtual reality simulator, an Avatar, but with societys current level of technological knowledge, this is easy for us to understand and comprehend. Steven Spielbergs Jurassic Park (1993) in the beginning of the film the narrative is explained to us, extinct dinosaurs have been cloned and live free on an island, if this were not explained at the start of the film it would have been a very different story. For instance, lets just say a character stumble across a T-Rex in a forest, if you had no prior knowledge of this, it could be a very scary scene, but in Jurassic Park, we know whats coming, (even the name gives it away) so the excitement is in the anticipation of seeing the dinosaurs, its not scary, its thrilling. Art and Avant-garde film do not follow the same rules; they are not concerned with providing pure entertainment, yes they often still tell a story but they are not governed by the narrative strategy of cause and effect logic. Often the story elements are jarring and confusing. Here we find flashback, forward leaps in time, esoteric shots, dream sequences, visual representations, image metaphors, and a fragmented structure and much more. Hollywood cinema also uses these elements and its easy to see how they have borrowed from the art film to great effect in adding new layers and depth to main stream stories. The art film is often motivated by ideas and themes, whereas in Hollywood film its all about character, in the art film large amounts of screen time can be devoted to setting and the establishing of the visual representations of ideas. The stories hero may also have undesirable traits, he may be mad or losing his grip on reality, where as in Hollywood film the hero is usually a character people admire in Art film the hero maybe someone we are repulsed by, they might be psychotic and are often unbalanced. Art cinema often shocks, because it plays with our Hollywood film expectations, it catches us unawares and shatters our preconceived notions of character and story. I would say Art cinema tries to represent reality in a more realistic manner, this may sound crazy but we know our experience of life is not a series of connected events leading to a definitive goal, it happens often at random, we are presented with new challenges that take our lives in different directions and we often feel like we have no control at all. So Art cinema is an expression of real life. Lars von Triers Dogville (2003) is the story of a woman on the run from the mob. The story in this

film is held up above everything else, as Von Trier stripped away the set. He is playing with our expectations, the whole story is filmed on a sound stage with no props or set, we are forced to pay attention to the story and it also reminds us of a film's artificiality. Naked Lunch - David Cronenberg (1991) is the story of a man addicted to a bug killer substance. The story plays out like a paranoid fantasy, with a talking typewriter and a choppy, incoherent narrative. Darren Aronofskys wonderful film Pi (1998) is the tale of a paranoid mathematicians search for a specific number that will unlock the secrets of the universe. In this film the main character is very weird, it is almost impossible for us to sympathise with him, or form any connection to him. There are provocative metaphors hidden throughout the movie and many of the framing techniques add to the stories disturbing quality. Art and Avant-garde cinema often intentionally breaks with tradition; they experiment with cinematic techniques, manipulate narrative conventions, and endeavour to externalize subjective experience. On the other hand Hollywood cinema can be defined in opposition to the avant-garde as it adheres to narrative conventions and established techniques in an attempt to produce widely accepted films. Its clear Hollywood, Art and Avant-garde films are made for many different reasons, Art films appear to be produced for the artist and Hollywood films appear to be produced for the audience, but all are made out of a deep seeded interest in filmmaking.

CAPTURING A REPRESENTATION OF IDENTITY. To me identity is a very intangible thing. My Buddhist beliefs let me see things in a very different way, and identity, the I, the self, is not something that exists from its own side. This can be a little confusing at first but I will try to explain. Nothing inherently exists, if I ask where is your body? you may point to your chest, but your chest is not your body, its your chest, you may say, well, all the parts of your body, your arms, legs, head etc. all make up your body, but no one part of the body, is the body. It does not exist. This applies to everything. Your arm, where is it? If we look for the arm, we dont find the arm but a collection of parts, skin, bone, hair etc., but none of these things are the arm, and if we delve into each of these parts, again we find more parts, atoms, electrons, quarks, the list goes on. We are simply Ideas and abstract concepts, and at the base level, the unified field, one. So when looking to capture an image of identity, I first thought about surface image, the image we all see, the I projected. This for me is a personal project and I want to represent parts of the projected me, the me that everybody sees. The way I thought about this to show the most defining aspects of me, through someone elses eyes. For instance, if I asked my friends to describe me to someone else, what would they say? When people look at me, what do they see, if they talk to me what might be their mental notes on me and what Im about. As I read this it all sounds quite confusing but on the surface I think most people could boil me down to a few key subjects Richard he likes film, he likes reading books, he is into Buddhism and meditation, he likes tattoos and he plays the drums. It seems cold to simplify someone this way, but I feel we all see each other like this on some level; its how we connect with others. My idea is to capture these facets of me on film, I want it to look very cool, almost over stylised and for good reason. This is a representation of the surface me, it is shallow and this view does lack depth, so the stylised shots will complement this visual expression. I want the audience to recognise the aspects of a person at surface level, to know that when we look at each other all we have is our own mental pictures that we imprint on one another and hopefully when recognising this we can see how flawed this ways of thinking can be. After showing this outward expression of a person, in this case, me, I want to pull down the veil and delve in to the metaphysical world. To represent this is extremely difficult as its an intangible world of everything and nothing. But immediately one colour sprang to mind, Gold. On a previous project I captured moving inks in liquid and this gave me beautiful abstract images, my idea is to create a similar affect for this project, but using gold. Already I have it in mind to capture moving gold, in slow motion then played through a kaleidoscope, its very abstract and devastatingly beautiful, this, I hope, will go some way to represent the internal bliss that we all carry inside. As I have said this is a very personal thing and not everybody will have experienced the peace and love in side all of us, but I have touched it and its very hard to explain, but I enjoy the challenge of trying to represent this with images.

Gold had always been a colour and metal of significance, the book The Philosophers Stone is a story of alchemy and the secret knowledge of how to turn any base metal into gold, and It was all a metaphor for self transformation. Gold has always has a power and a connection with the sacred, one director, Darren Aronofsky, also saw this. In his film The Fountain (2006) his representation of enlightenment is the best I have ever seen. I remember reading an interview with Darren Aronofsky talking about the creation of the visuals for the transformation scenes and how they tried to create the gold with CGI and it just didnt look right. In the end they used real gold on the shoot, pouring it and shaping it because nothing else had that magic look, nothing could substitute the look of real gold, and if you look at the final piece, most people would have to agree, its breathtaking. With this in mind I want to create a similar look, on a much smaller budget.

So in short my idea is to show the surface level of myself, represented with images of the ideas people associate with me, and the other part of the short is to show the internal me, represented with gold streaming light and radiance (a very metaphysical representation). IDENTITY Rabbit Head I was lucky on this project, an idea came to be straight away, maybe because of the solid foundation I have gained through my learning, and maybe because of the subject matter, probably both, Rabbit Head was quickly born. When looking at short films, we often find a single idea being represented, love, hate, anger, loss etc. and also with a short time frame the story has to be told quickly and efficiently, but with my short, its different. Rabbit Head will have no real narrative, the nature of the story

is a mental one, its about ideas, and this will impact the style and form of my short. The images will not tell a narrative story, it will be images and ideas cut together, this representing how the surface ideas of us all are kept together in another persons mind. When we think of our friends we dont often think of them as a narrative or being in a narrative, we have concepts and images of them at different times and places, this is how I will structure my short film. On the inside world of the mind the images will be fluid and graceful. The idea is that people come away with a visual representation of the two worlds that exist, the external and the internal, and how we all carry the same well of peace and love inside us all, yes we all have different exteriors, but these too are just other peoples mental images of us. We are all defined my many things but inside we are all one. The name of the short is Rabbit Head, the main character has a white rabbits head mask on throughout. The mask represents the mask we all wear, out outer self or the projection of ourselves. Its also a nod to Alice in wonderland; we are the rabbit down the hole, living in a wonderland. CODES AND CONVENTIONS CONVENTIONS As with one of my previous projects, the moving poem, this to me is more of an expressionist piece of work, here I intend to use images to get across an idea, not really tell a story. Here there is no story arc, this isnt about a characters struggle and movements, its simple a visual representation or projection of ideas. When looking to compare it to other work in a similar vein, I found I couldnt look at films in their entirety, but parts of film and their presentation of ideas. Im looking for a dream like quality, below are some of the films and their scenes that will, and have, inspired me on this project: Michael Haneke - Le Temps Du Loup (2003)

Horses going wild in a thunder storm. A young boy stands naked in front of a fire. Both these scenes convey meaning without words.

David Lynch - Lost Highway (1997)

David Lynch uses light, space, composition, focus and effects to create meaning. Justin Kurzel - Snowtown (2011)

Here Kurzel uses costume and character appearance to great effect. We can see the admiration in the young mans face as he looks to his peer. Other inspiring directors include: Darren Aronofsky, Gaspar No, Ben Wheatley, Stanley Kubrick and Pedro Almodvar. Many of their films dive head first into the field of semiotics, and are concerned with the interpretation of signs, metaphors and analogies. Its hard to say exactly how their work has, and will, inspire me, but again its the feeling I get from these movies and their scenes. Because my film is a short film the created meanings wont be as fully formed as I dont have 2 hours to flesh out the story, so the symbolism is a lot simpler, but I still hope to capture the representation of an idea. To me many of these films represent an aphorism presented in a visual language. For example the term Love is eternal a director will try and visualize these words, like its the overriding theme of the film.

CODES I want to use a mix of simple compositions, allowing people to explore the scenes, static shots and tracking shots to convey meaning. I feel sweeping tracking shots will add to the dream like quality. Framing will play an important role to show an audience, on a visual level, that they are not in the real world, well not unreal, but put them in an other place. David Lynchs background in fine art has carried through to film and he composes his shots very meticulously. In his films we find fluid camera movements and lots of static shots. His camera movements reflect the tone of the film. EDITING The dream quality of my short film will be reflected in the editing, really its the composition of the story that dictates this because Im using seemingly unrelated scenes thrown together, but in reality they are carefully constructed because they represent aspects of me and how people see me. Thinking about how people see one another from their own side, I find they see them as a collection of memory images and sound bites, so the editing and story will reflect this. I will jump from location to location and I intend to use jump cuts to imitate a persons memory, in our mind we dont have slow fades or dissolves, our mind jumps from place to place. The edit may disrupt the usual flow that we are used to in film, but I hope this will add more depth and meaning to the short. SOUND I intend to have sound travel between scenes, sound bridges, creating sounds that run from one scene and continue in the next. This sound will link the images and act like a bridge between worlds. I want the sound to move us through the film, this will be mostly music and soundscapes I create myself. One part of the film I may use a recognised artists song, juxtapose it against the rest of the sound in the film, hopefully it will seem out of place, weird almost, this just adds another layer to the films meaning and representation of self. I may well end up using all diegetic sound, sound captured on the day of recording, this could also create a nice jarring effect as one scene jumps to another, Ill have to wait to see what the quality of sound I can get is like. One idea I have is to pinpoint once particular sound I capture on location and raise that exclusively, one sound that drowns out the others, then when going inside the mind, have all sound cease, and slowly bring in a one note hum, as a representation on Om the sound of the unified field (the base line of existence). I always feel the most appropriate sounds will come to me once I have a rough cut of the film.

RABBIT HEAD script outline A line of people stand hand in hand. Tracking shot from behind them, we dont see their faces ever. The shot drops down we track past the holding hands. We peek over the shoulders and move to A shot of a guy meditating in an urban environment with a white rabbit mask on. Tracking shot The rabbit head man in an empty cinema watching seven samurai. He sits in the middle, the light from the screen highlights his face. A tracking shot through a tattoo shop. The man behind the counter has a mask on, he points towards the tattoo area. The sound of the guns get really loud, then it jumps to a close up as the camera rounds the corner. A close up of a needle going into skin. Slow pan out revels a tattooist tattooing a man, they both have masks on, in fact all of them have masks on. Tracking shot in a library, like ghost busters. From a distance we see rabbit head reading a book, he slowly turns to look at the camera and says shurrrr. Or could do it at Bens house next to large book shelf. Shot of him sitting in front of a projector, the image behind in gold patters or maybe use different colours or film footage.. The camera pan in on his face, he slowly removes the mask and the camera going right up to his eye, and in to his eye, we now enter the inside. Inside his mind is golden swirls. I will create this effect using water and gold leaf combined with running gold liquid. The above is all subject to change as this is just a rough outline, I often find ideas swoop in out of nowhere as Im working on the project.

SCRIPT FADE IN: 1 EXT. STREET - NIGHT Two people stand side by side; we can only see their hands, which slowly hold. The camera tracks up to the couples faces then move in and past them. CUT TO A shot of a guy meditating in an urban environment with a white rabbit mask on. Tracking shot across him. 2 INT. CINEMA - NIGHT The rabbit head man in an empty cinema watching seven samurai. He sits in the middle, the light from the screen highlights his face. 3 INT. TATTOO SHOP - DAY A tracking shot through a tattoo shop. The man behind the counter has a mask on, he points towards the tattoo area. The sound of the guns get really loud, then it jumps to a close up as the camera rounds the corner. A close up of a needle going into skin. Slow pan out revels a tattooist tattooing a man, they both have masks on, in fact all of them have masks on. 4 INT. LIBRARY - DAY Tracking shot in a library, like ghost busters. From a distance we see rabbit head reading a book, he slowly turns the pages. 5 INT. HOUSE - DAY Rabbit head sits at a drum kit. He drums along to NWA. Straight level static shot. 6 INT. HOUSE - NIGHT Shot of Rabbit head sitting in front of a projector, the image behind in gold patters or maybe use different colours or film footage.. The camera pans in on his face, he slowly removes the mask and the camera going right up to his eye, and in to his eye, we now enter the inside. Inside his mind is golden swirls. I will create this effect using water and gold leaf combined with running gold liquid. The End "RABBIT HEAD"

MOOD BOARD + STORY BOARDS + CAMERA SETUPS PRODUCTION PLAN + DIARY Scene Actor 1 Lots of extras Couples two at a time. Location EXT. STREET NIGHT Wednesday 30th after script review I changed this scene. It was going to be large line of people, but now Im going to use couples holding hands, partly because this will fit with my idea better and partly because its hard to get a lot of couples together in one place at the same time. This way I can break the filming down into chunks. Taking camera to Bristol for weekend, hope to film some there. This was changed; i had the idea to shoot my family, alone in close up tracking shots. Filmed on Sunday 24th. Very happy with the look of the shots, fit in nicely with my original idea. INT. CINEMA NIGHT Tue 22nd Visited Cinema, spoke to Assistant manager. Been in phone contact with Assistant manager, very happy to help, really positive. Also talked about screening short films there, which they will do. Wed 30th Spoke to Assistant manager, She will contact me when she finds out what morning is best for them for me to film. Props Rabbit mask - lights Notes track This scene maybe repeated with different couples and added in before each Rabbit scene. used slider and one red/orange light

Richard Davis + 2 crew

Rabbit mask Track - lights DVD Samurai film.

Contacted 31st Jan filming on Tuesday 5th at 9:30 Laura Assistant manager Mark Projectionist. Filming complete, on Tuesday 5Th no problems, slightly uneven floor. Image quality good. INT. TATTOO SHOP - DAY Wed 16th contacted Aaron at tattoo shop. Tuesday 29th Jan, filmed in the tattoo shop. Was their approximately 1 hours. All staff were very happy to appear in video, had great time filming, all very accommodating. Covered more shots that i needed, had idea to film some piercings being done, which i may go in a film at a later date, Cara, the piercer, would be happy to help.

Richard Davis + 1 crew

All masks + vest

track + macro lens

Richard + INT. LIBRARY - DAY Rabbit mask 1 crew Have been in email contact with Library. Monday 4th Jan, filming in Library. Go to back door just after 9:00 and ask for Claire James. Filming to take about 15 minutes. The Library opens at 9:30, need to be finished for then, should be easy as it only one shot. Filming went ok, because of very limited time, shots were rushed and not really happy with them. In future if i dont have the time, i wont shoot full stop.

Track

Richard

INT. HOUSE - DAY Thursday 21st. Filmed at my house. Slight issues recording sound and playing drums whilst trying to listen at same time, but was over come.

Drum kit

Richard + INT. HOUSE - NIGHT I crew Recorded on my own. Made looping video in premiere pro, streamed this to the projector. Used my camera slider to record the eye zoom in. Used a lace tied to the slider mount to pull the camera towards me. INT. MIND gold swirls Ordered Gold from ebay, its coming from America, it should arrive in time for me to film it. Gold arrived 31st jan. Wed 20th Set up to record gold. This did not turn out how i had imagined. The gold was far to light to sink in water so i came up with a very complex (and dangerous) way of shooting moving gold (see photos). Still the end effect was poor, so i did some magic in after effects (see below)

Rabbit mask Projector

Marco lens (never used, had done same shot before)

Bottle, gold leaf

Marco lens, fan, white tack, luck

Date

Pre-Production Notes Contact Library: Emailed Office, have visited. Clothing shop: Contacted manager, sorted, film one evening. Contact Abi White.

Tattoo shop: Contact Aaron Belcher. Happy to help, will let me know when he has a free half hour to do filming. Filming now complete 29th jan. Cinema: Visited cinema, happy to help. Will contact general manager Tom on 01789 415 214 to arrange filming, will be in morning around 10 before they open. Scout other locations: Urban environment with street lamp possible, maybe a multi story car park. Inside a house my flat with the projector. PROPS Gold leaf (from ebay) Fine Collectible 24K Gold Leaf Flakes 3.17 from U.S. Follow focus ring Ebay uk from U.S. 4.50 Assorted Masks: 50

Assemble edit - See video files Rough cut - See video files

Affects test

I used After Effects to create the visual gold pattern at the end of the film, which represents the inside of the mind, and the subconscious. In after effect I used freeze frame on one part of my video which had great light.

I then added CC Kaleida, CC Glass and CC Light Burst 2.5 to the image, setting the speed and rotation of the clip. This affect was very processor hungry, so I did some tests with lower resolution footage first (right). Im very happy with the end result, I wanted to capture this think of affect in camera, but its a little too hard to do so.

Photos

Here are some production photos from when I was filming the gold. The first set up did not work because the gold was to light to sink. The second did not work because I could not get the gold to turn smoothly, and the final (dangerous) set up worked well. A pot of gold, tacked to a fan which I took apart and changed the motor speed. The camera was on a jib arm over the gold, with a macro lens. Unfortunately none of these techniques gave me what I wanted.

Mood Board

Story Boards

Camera Set-up diagrams

Final 5 minute film See video files.