Problems

Last night my colour grading render was cut short when my computer informed me i had completely ran out on room on it.......

Nice

Masking in Motion

After about a week of none-stop problem solving or attempted problem solving i think i have finally got my head round masking in Motion. Building up these layers and masking them off is not the easiest thing to do and it's certainly not the fastest flowing technique. I bought some RAM for my computer before i started this project and these clips still slow it down when i'm working on them. God knows what it'd have been like if i hadn't of bought any......

Anyway, this is me doing my moody magician thing........

Green Screen Progress

This is how far i've got with this whole green screen malarky. I've come to realise that the lighting was the best for the green screen as the left hand side is more lit than the right hand side. This makes for a lot of shadows and completely messes up the keying in Motion.

My first attempts looked shocking, quite frankly. The movement from the cards and the shadows that they cast when moving through the air caused a lot of problems. So this morning i sat through the whole scene, going through it frame by frame and taking out the movement of the cards leaving the cards appearing on the table. So the footage you see below is from stop motion, if you can't tell.

So, this is how far i've got with it. I think it looks awful and it's going no-where near the final edit at this stage. However, maybe putting it back into Final Cut and putting a filter on it or something, i don't know.....

Once again, if anybody reading this knows anything let me know. Infact, i should start by asking is anyone reading this full stop.

Excited & Flustrated in equal measures

Today, i went into the TV studio to film some tiny little bits of ideas that i've had over the last week having looked at my rough final edit. I needed something else. So i filmed some cards stuff infront of a green screen and then some close up stuff on a green table. I threw cards down onto the green table so that every cm of the shot was covered with cards by the end of it in the hope i could key out the green table and replace it with some of the live magic footage. Once the full shot was covered with cards i could reverse the footage to show a new shot underneath. On paper this sounds very do-able but in practice, or more specifically in motion, this is not the case.

These are the stills.....





And this is the best i can come up with at the moment......



On the plus side, i've spent the last three or four days trying to master masking in Motion. I'd say i've been semi-successful. It is very hard and time consuming though.



Updatate: This is how far i have got with it.... there are still a few green spots i can see.

DVD Printing

These websites might be of use to anyone making a DVD. They print an image onto a CD then post it to you to burn. Looks better than one being printed off a printer.

www.DuplicationCentre.co.uk

www.mediacopy.co.uk

ps: £70 for 50 DVD's from duplication centre.......

Chasing the Sun

Having thought about filming after two hours staring at the sun on Thursday, i got down to outside the playhouse only for it to start raining. I turned round to see the biggest rain cloud behind me. I wasn't do the same today so when i awoke to sunshine coming through my window i quickly ran round to outside the Playhouse, Broadway and Pitcher& Piano to film some stuff outside in the sunshine. About an hour after getting home it started to rain. April showers, eh ?

Look at the sun.......

They might even have to be taken down in brightness!

Flat

At present my DVD is feeling and looking very flat. It's pretty linear at the moment of magic, interview, ident. Just feels a bit boring to me. So have a camera for this weekend and, weather permitting, i shall be filming some footage in and around my locations to try and add a little more dimention. I've got a lot of ideas floating round of what to do, i just need some sunshine!!

ps: the more and more i look at this edit, the less and less happy i am with it. It goes nowhere and really needs sproosing up. I'm thinking about re-editing it in location by location with a nice little location ident before each section.

New Trailer & End of Filming

This post should mark the end of my filming schedule. I have stuck to it and probably for the first time in my life have kept on top of a schedule i set myself. I am happy with the footage (i should do there is a LOT of it). Seven different nights. Four different locations. Some unusable footage. Some absolute gold (like spending 20 minutes on Wednesday evening trying to hit the lens with a card..... it does look the bollocks though). Now it's my job to go through all of it and find the best stuff. Hopefully, should have a rough edit of the final version by Monday, leaving next week for possible pick up shots of anything i feel is missing. I have a few ideas in mind but want to see after the rough edit just what might be needed......

In my hours today spent searching through the footage i thought it would be nice to make this little trailer. There was one point i thought i'd lost the whole thing. Which would have been rather upsetting. But as you can see now, i did not. So here it is.....

Enjoy !!

Pitcher & Piano and Broadway Shoots

Yesterday i filmed in the Pitcher & Piano and The Broadway. Got some good footage. There were a few problems, Like the lighting in both locations being so strong the boom pole shadow is visable a few times. Is this a problem do you think ? it doesn't look too good but then again, this is street magic and it is quite 'raw'. Am i right ? is anybody listening ? no ? didn't think so......



Other than that, pretty good day's work. I feel sorry for Tom and Ridgely watching the same tripe over the over..... Filming in the library for moody ident shots tomorrow and have decided to want some footage from outside the locations for the masking intros.

Three weeks left.

Shit laugh.

On the plus side, maybe not this take, but this is the trick i am going to open the DVD with.....

Rough Edit

So tonight i put together the first rough edit of illusions of grandeur and i hit twenty minutes easily. I watched each set (five in total) and jotted down each trick i done and scored myself with a percentage. A few got 100% and are without a doubt going to be on the final edit. This was 20 minutes without the majority of the interview (maybe people would rather me shut up and just carry on with the magic !) or the ident shots. So for the first time i'm really thinking about the length of the main piece. I can always stick extra footage i don't want to bin on the special features i suppose. But pace is going to be very important in the edit and i'm just wondering if i should just edit the footage in the loose order i do them live.

If i could have two more nights like The Playhouse in The Malt Cross and Pitcher Piano i will be laughing......

Ident Shots

Also, Danny suggested using this place, Bromley House Library, for my ident shots. Which i think would work really well...... Don't know how it would look with the interview location but i could always film the interview again.

Playhouse. Success !

So with two trips to Muse and one to Broadway and no footage i was happy using in the final piece we hit the Playhouse last night. I was starting to panic that the film wasn't turning out how i'd pictured it but i'm ecstatic to say last night was a rip roaring success ! Brilliantly lit, great camera work, great people out enjoying themselves on a Saturday night. I think i got five strong 15 minute scenes from last night. Stills of which are below, the first two scenes can be tweeked in Apple Colour later on, and maybe take some of the harsh light from the three men scene but it looks good. Infact, it looks better than good. Roll on the rough edit......

The only problem is my barnet is out of control.......

Filming & DVD Sleeve....

So after the absolute madness that is renting equipment this week i had a minor set back which has put me back two days but i've got a camera ready and waiting for me tomorrow so i can film at the Broadway tomorrow lunch time. This means i've got the camera all weekend, so i'm gonna try and blitz out a lot of the magic footage. Anyway, after not being able to get my hands on a camera on wednesday it gave me a few days to knock these up. A few rough drafts for my DVD sleeve. I look like faaaar too moody on the front page but as Andy Love said this morning, it's not who you are it's what you're trying to say, and in the hit and miss world of magic you've got to pull this sort of nonsense. There are two ways to go when posing for magician photographs, wacky or moody. I am firmly in the moody camp and would rather sell my soul than look like this tit.........



So these are my moody sleeve drafts, with the working title "illusions of grandeur". If anyone even looks at this thing then let me know what you think.......

Click to make bigger......

Sleeve One :




Sleeve Two :



Sleeve Three :


Sleeve Four :

Today was a good day.....

Well, today was a good day. First i went to Broadway cinema about the possibility of filming in there one day this week. I spoke to the arts director who was more than happy to help and let me film and she also suggested screening in the Broadway when it's finished, which would be immense ! Thankyou very much Broadway......



Then i went down to the Playhouse and asked about using one of their stages, the woman on the stage door told me to put it in writing, so i went away and wrote a letter explaining my intentions, printed if off, went back down to find a new woman on the stage door reception who told me there would be no way because there are sets on the stage at all times and they're running until June sometime. Thankyou very much the first woman on reception !

That was a waste of an hour. You have no idea what it feels like to print out a letter, put it in an envelope, then ask someone to put it in the bin for you before it's even been opened ! It's great i can tell you that.....

But the trip wasn't completely wasted as i managed to lift my gloomy head to notice the Playhouse bar ! went in there and spoke to the manager who was, once again, more than happy to let me film. That's three locations confirmed with a possible fourth waiting in the wings.

I wish it was summer so i could just film people outside. But i don't think Derren Brown himself could get people to stand in this freezing cold and watch magic !!

Hopefully, i should have a real good understanding of what i'm working with by this time next week......

Apple Colour

This week we went out filming again but i have spent most of my time trying to tweek the footage..... It's really quite hard to get it looking really good. I've been in talks with the Broadway who might be letting me film in there some time next week. I really want to get all the filming done so i can step back and really look what i've got and start putting it together for the final cut. Might have an intense week next week and get a good percentage of it done.

Anyway, this is my progress so far on apple colour. The footage still looks a bit washed out and if the rest is done in HD this sort of footage could look really cheap. I don't think this is at an acceptable standard but this is the compressed version for youtube, the HD version does look a lot better. Also i've completely ballsed up the compression. If anyone knows how to use Apple Colour well any tips would be a god-send ! I'm still only in the very early stages of using it.....

Interview & Photoshop.....

I was looking at my itunes the other day and noticed this little mirrored album sleeve sort of thing so i spent an hour last night trying to copy it..... i duplicated the layer, flipped it horizontally, distored it slightly then dragged one of the corners down. Finally, i used the black to white gradient tool and dragged from the middle to the far corner..... I think it looks alright but i could probably improve it.



Now this on the other hand is more important. This is the interview for my client DVD. YES i am aware the microphone is in shot ! this was due to a) forgetting the pistol grip and b) a certain Oli N. no, thats' too obvious errr o. Nodwell, not noticing ! clown ! shouldn't be too hard to get rid off..... This is the last bit of the interview. Obviously not going to use this, just wanted to show people the location. The interview went quite well i thought. Tom asked me questions and then we done 15 minutes easily so i decided to do it again but this time i would know where i was going with my answers and cut out a lot of the nonsense i spoke the 1st time round. Although i didn't iron out all out it.....



i'm not so rude or arrogant in the real interview part.....

ps : i've just played about with some filters to try and get this footage looking better. I've added some soft edges to hide the microphone and i've also added the desaturate filter while playing around with the contrast and brightness...... Early doors yet but i think it looks so much better already....

Third Artifact......

With my previous artifacts I felt I have concentrated on the first part of my question and neglected the second part somewhat. How the relationship between reality and narrative effect the audience’s understanding of the art form, I feel I have gained some knowledge on the subject with my previous artifacts but I wanted to use this artifact to explore how important the value of narrativity is in the representation of reality.

I decided to write two short stories, both very different from one another. I would leave the stories by starting a sentence and leaving a …….. for the participator to complete. For example, the first story finishes with “straightens his tie and steps into…..” as the second story ends “David turns around and….” These prompt the participants to dive straight into the story instead of thinking of a whole new sentence to carry the narrative on with.


The first story is a dream-like narrative, which jumps from both first person story telling to third person story telling. Giving the participants free-reign to continue with the narrative in any way they saw fit. The first paragraph is from the third person, describing the location and sights whereas the second paragraph I jumped to the first person and described emotions, feels and a “reality check” as the character looks at the clock. Within the borderless world I was sure to put details of a house and a dead father, in order for there to be some connection with the character.
The second story is about a man in the toilets of a restaurant as he composes himself before asking his girlfriend to marry him. The narrative in very linear and is set in one location. I used a lot of inner-monologue and flash back-story telling. There is lots of speech in this narrative with conversations between the characters.

The results show that when offered a reality in which anything can take place, 80% of the participants chose to take the story back to reality by referencing details of the narrative from previous chapters and placing the character back in a familiar place (home/bed…etc…). With the second story 90% continued the narrative in the reality in which was set.

These results add even more fuel to the theory that the value of narrativity is important in the representation of reality. If we look back over the last three artifacts now, in a short summary :

1.) The participants arranged the film stills in the correct order and the results show they had a better understanding of the narrative the further from reality it was based. The realistic narratives scored poorly and the fantasy narratives scored the best.

So from these results i wanted to test if the understanding of narrative would continue in moving images. So i made the obvious progression to films......

2.) The films, Malcolm and Barabara, Downfall & eXistenZ, showed a steady increase in the understanding of the narrative as the representation of reality decreases. A fair understanding of the narrative was present throughout but eXistenZ scored the highest and the audience were keen on expanding on their answers and using much more imagination in the questionnaire.

So from these results i wanted to test the audience's imagination and see what representation of reality they would come up with themselves when given the brief story with hints of narrative.

3.) And as shown above the results were that 80% of the participants chose to pull the narrative back from a boarderless reality and 90% chose to continue with the linear narrative presented to them.

Location Sorted.....

After a week or two of trying to bag this i've just got off the phone with the Royal Centre who have agreed to let me film the interview section of the DVD in their dressing room. They're dressing rooms are nice and look like this......



minus the girls....

Messing around with Colour

This is my first attempt on apple colour. I'm not gonna call it 'color' on general principle. This is very early doors, all i did was play about with the shadows, mid-tones and highlights. It's not at an acceptable standard yet but hopefully if i get to grips with the FX panel i can change the contrast and grain and all sorts..... i need to learn it very quickly though.

Motion & Colour

This week i've been trying to get my head around motion and colour.....

i wish i lived in the matrix where i could just ask for the knowledge of something and have it five seconds later.......

pain in the arse !

Magic Trailer

This is the trailer for my magic DVD. I could only use the footage shot in the hall from Muse Bar on this because i haven't got Apple Colour on my machine yet. I've ordered some more RAM for it which should be arriving it any minute now and when that happens we are ready to roll ! The audio is through a clip mic on my lapel but in the real shoot we'll be using a boom mic as well, would have used a boom mic in this shoot but FORGOT the pole ! so..... pretty useless. The boom mic, not me.....

Didn't know what to write on the titles and only wanted to tease so here it is......

Once again, the brilliant Amon Tobin provides the soundtrack.....

Listen to the man have to explain that it's only magic and it's not spirits about 30 seconds in !! i liked that woman..... she says she was "terrified" of me.

Enjoy.....

Second Artifact Evaluation

For this artifact I screened three films, each varying in their portrayal of reality and asked the audience to complete a short questionnaire about the film. My reasoning behind running this artifact was to see how much of the narrative the audience understood when presented with different portrayals of what is “real”.

I researched into the design of questionnaires and found that open-ended questions were best used to gather a precise judgement of each individual response and closed questions were used in summarising the answers in order to produce an overall viewpoint of your audience. It was important that the audience didn't have any options they could use just to skip the question if they didn't know the answer. It was important to not give them any encouragement or clues and really test how much of the narrative they understood.

The first film was a documentary called Malcolm and Barbara – Love’s Farewell. The documentary followed a couple through their struggle with Alzheimer’s. My results show that the audience got confused with dates and the time scale of the filming. They were, however, very emotionally attached to the characters within the film and believed there was a clear boundary between director and characters. This is quite an interesting result as they felt a clear boundary between the real people and the production team. In the plot questions section they audience scored 7/15.

The next film was Downfall about the last days of Hitler. I chose this film because it is a piece of history that everyone familiar with on some basic level. I wanted to explore how the audience would respond to a very real piece of history in a film context. The film is in German so is subtitled which the audience all agreed made the narrative seem realistic. The score was 8/15 the plot questions. All of the audience agreed they felt like they were watching a piece of history.

The third film was eXistenZ. A film that toys with the ideas of reality throughout. In this questionnaire the audience explained their answers in great detail and were much more inclined to elaborate on their ideas. The audience scored 9/15 on the plot questions showing a steady rise in their understanding of the narrative the looser it is based in reality.

In conclusion, it seems that the audience is much more willing to accept a reality that is placed in front of them rather than try and follow a narrative which is set in a version of reality they are familiar with. With the Malcolm and Barbara documentary the audience felt emotional attachment to the characters. Does the representation of reality effect the audience's emotional attachment to the narrative ? Interestingly though, this was the film they remembered least about the narrative. The next film on the list of Downfall. The film was very 'real' in it's stark portrayal of the last days of Hitler, like the audience, i felt i was watching a real piece of history when viewing the film for the first time. And even more interestingly the narrative which was understood the most, is the one based in a completely implausible world of several layers of reality portrayed within. The audience were willing to expand on their answers in much more detail than the previous films and even spoke of the symbolism throughout the film.

Leading on the results obtained in my first artifact it seems that the audience is much more comfortable in a narrative based in a foreign version of reality. Is this audience escapism at it's very based ? does an audience interpret narrative in a different based on the representation of reality ? Only time will tell.......

First Shoot.....

Well, last night Tom, Oli and myself went to Muse Bar armed to the teeth with a HD camera, Sennheiser clip radio mic and Marantz flash audio recorder to........

a) test what the lights looked like when shot
b) test different exposures in the lights
c) test the audio
d) have some cheeky beers (a cocktail called an 'Old Fashioned' comes highly recommended)

the results were interesting and it is brilliant to look back at what works and what doesn't so when we do the real shoot everything can go to plan. Some plus points from the night were that an amazing amount of people really don't mind being recorded and are actually quite up for it. I also get to watch me performing magic for the first time, this is very interesting as i can see what is good and what need improving. Another GREAT plus from the evening is that after testing some exposures it looked like i'd have to turn the gain right the way up so that the film was quite grainy but you could see what was going on. It was either that or use a 1.6 iris and turn the gain off and compromise the lighting so that the audience might not see exactly what was going on. However ! today, with a little tweeking in Apple Colour i can add some light to the good quality footage making it look pretty good. I'll upload the footage tomorrow, i'm also in the process of making a trailer which should be up tomorrow or Monday. I used a clip mic for the audio and found out that it's really sensitive. I thought it would be the exact opposite so clipped it high on my collar, right in front of my throat. This made my voice sound so loud on the audio track i think i'm gonna have to move it down on my top and use a boom pole as well. I also need to pay attention to the camera when i'm doing it, on the footage i pay little or no attention to the camera what-so-ever, i don't wait for the camera i just race on which makes for zooms and camera movement that sort of looses the narrative of the trick. Next time i will be paying very close attention to it and as Tom suggested "treat it as a person watching the trick". Stupid that i didn't in the first place but that was the whole reason for the night. See what worked and improve what didn't. The night proved to be quite useful in terms of networking as well as i spoke to a few people who suggested locations who they thought would be really up for letting me film in there. I'm going to approach these places on Monday.

So, all in all, very good night. Enjoyable and valuable. Roll on the real shoot ! I must get my hair cut.......

Client

Yesterday, Oli, Tom and myself went into the studio and filmed me messing around with a pack of cards on 2500th of a second shutter speed. I wanted to just see what it looked like. I think some of it looks pretty good, i'm currently thinking about what to do for the ident shots on the actual shoot.

No effort was made to hire lights or no thought was put into what i was doing. This was merely an experiment done in a spare hour.

The bit where i've cut when i hit the lens is QUALITY........ if i do say so myself.

Now if i could only stop pulling that David Brent face......

Proposal and Shoot......

So my proposal was handed in today..... This can be found here. Today i shot the test footage as well. The location looks awful but it was only pissin' around with the camera on 2500th of a second shutter speed. I'm just about to have a look at the footage now and see where i go from there......

Radiohead

I recently watched Scotch Mist by Radiohead (amazing ! i suggest everyone watches it) and saw this video at the end of it.....



this has inspired me to get a HD camera tomorrow and mess about with slowing footage rrrright down for my ident shots in the client project. Simple idea but i think it looks really good...... We'll see. Hopefully, i should be doing it tomorrow and have the results on here tomorrow night.

Documentary Proposal

I am planning my client project proposal following the guide set out by Michael Rabiger in his book 'Directing the Documentary'.



He sets the following guide lines for a documentary proposal.

1. Film statement
Formally declares that the producer is making a proposal and suggests a working title. It briefly indicates the length, defines the subject matter and audience. (Short paragraph of two to three lines).

2. Background and need
Briefly reviews information necessary to acquaint the proposal audience to the subject, lets the reader see why the topic is interesting and why such a film is needed. (This could be two to six paragraphs).

3. Approach, form and style
This explains how the producer will carry out the idea. Where is the drama? Where is the conflict? Where are the emotions and character development? This is the section for the producer to indicate structure. This is potentially risky without full-blown research or “casting”. Nonetheless, it is the most important element in explaining how the producer works. This is not the place to indicate huge amounts of research. Research is needed, in fact extensive research might be needed but research is not a film. The producer at this stage is helping the reader visualize the film. (Two to six paragraphs).

4. Shooting schedule
Basically a time-line. This is actually an optional item that may be included when a specific event is impending; however, most funders want to know when production will start and when the film will be completed. (One to two line paragraph).

5. Budget
Budgets at the proposal stage are simple and in outline form. The producer should be familiar with the funding source in order to assure the budget is appropriate for the source.

6. Audience, distribution and marketing
A filmmaker must know her audience before a film can find distribution. This part of the proposal is a little tricky, particularly for personal documentaries and for those filmmakers who primarily make films for themselves. The proposal reader wants to know how the film will get to your defined audience. If the project is commercial, the reader will want to know how funding will be recouped. In some proposals this element is optional. (two to eight paragraphs).

7. Filmmaker’s bio and letters of support
This can and should include key players. Bios should be brief. These can be included as attachments.

8. Additional elements
Attachments that would be helpful in explaining or illustrating any of the above elements.

Location, Location, Location

Tonight i provisionally booked a location to record some of my client project. With the weather being pretty cold recently i have decided to approach some bars to see if they would kindly let me film in there. I think i'm gonna head up there next week to shoot some test footage and then if it's cool, get going the following week or if not, talk about the possibilities of setting up a lighting corner or something.....

Tom Oliver's Artifact.....

Seems like all the smart people are getting other people to do their artifacts for them !!! Tom Oliver wants a group of people each to write a script for him to make into a film with various people over the internet..... I am participating and this is the brief he set.......

The story idea is as follows. Sarah is a 26 year old single woman. She keeps an online video blog. She has recently turned her attention to the online world for comfort and to look for companionship. She chats to various people from all over the world, however she has never met any of these people in the "real world". She has recently been talking to someone online called Chris. Things were going OK to start with, until Chris starts to act obsessive and intense. What is the story behind the mysterious character of Chris? Do the two characters ever meet in real life? Is there more to them than meets the eye?

The overall style of the film will be a psychological thriller.

The script must feature at least two characters, Sarah and Chris.

and this is my first scene for his film.......

SCENE ONE :

IT'S EARLY MORNING. AROUND 9.30AM. SARAH IS AWAY FROM HER COMPUTER MAKING A CUP OF TEA. HER COMPUTER IS MAKING SPORADIC ALERT NOISES. SARAH LEAVES THE TEA AND GOES BACK TO THE COMPUTER THE SCREEN READS....

Chris1984 says :
no ?
do u think ?
k ?
helloooooooo ?
alone again ?

SARAH LAUGHS AND STARTS TO TYPE....

Sarah_08 says :
i'm still ere u fool. You can get so demanding sometimes.
Chris1984 says :
ohh so u r ere den ? i fort u'd left me
Sarah_08 says :
making a cup of t. Wat wur u sayin ?
Chris1984 says :
i wuz sayin dat i've got 2 much space ere. But it feels gud 2 ave my own place.
Sarah_08 says :
yeah, i wuz like that @ 1st.
Chris1984 says :
u got ur own place ? where'd u live ?
Sarah_08 says :
yeah, got my own place
Chris1984 says :
really ? where ?
Sarah_08 says :
it wuz scary 2 start wit but now i'm fine.
Chris1984 says :
yeah, i'm alone. Need some company.
Sarah_08 says :
don't we all

THERE IS A KNOCK AT THE DOOR WHICH MAKES SARAH JUMP

Chris1984:
knock knock

SARAH STARES AT THE WORDS.

THE DOOR KNOCKS AGAIN

Chris1984 :
knock knock Sarah

THE LETTERBOX KNOCKS. SARAH WALKS SLOWLY TOWARD THE DOOR TIGHTENING HER DRESSING GOWN AS SHE GOES.

SARAH : Who is it ?

VOICE : Royal Mail Miss !

SARAH LOOKS THROUGH THE SPY-HOLE. A MAN DRESSED IN ROYAL MAIL UNIFORM STANDS IN THE CORRIDOR WITH AN ARMFUL OF OTHER MAIL.

SARAH OPENS THE DOOR.

MAILMAN : ohhh i'm sorry, did i wake you !? Sign here.

SARAH SIGNS. SHUTS THE DOOR AND RETURNS TO HER COMPUTER TO READ.....

Chris1984 says :
knock knock ?
Sarah ?
knock knock ?
who's there you say ?
Sarah !
Sarah who you say ?
Sarah reason you're not laughing !?
...... Sarah ? hello ? cup of tea again ?
look i know it's pretty lame up come on ?!

SARAH SITS DOWN A BIT FLUSTERED

Sarah_08 says :
Sorry Chris, mail man. Jessssus, that's so stupid. Anyway, gotta go, i'm late. Speak 2 u 2nite ?
Chris1984 says :
definitely !

END OF SCENE ONE

Don't know if you wanted some little fake suspense or anything early on ? anyway, those are my two cents.

ps : i attempted "internet speak" and it's prrrrrrrrrrrrrrobably the most annoying thing in the world so forgive the inconsistancy of my script. From now on just imagine it's in internet speak...... it won't be though.

The REAL First Artifact

Well well, a whole month since my last post. I thought i was staying on top of this.....

After a lot of thinking and discussions about my first artifact i decided to scrap the idea of showing surrealist films and asking the audience to come up with a narrative as, as many of you might know, there IS no narrative to the surrealist films i was planning on showing. So there would nothing to compare the answers to.

I decided not to scrap the film idea completely but time constraints made me change my last artifact. Instead i made ten stills from five different films and asked five volunteers to arrange the stills in the order that they think they were originally in. With this artifact I aimed to test an audience’s understanding of narrative when each is based in their own version of reality or what it is to be real. Each film being set in a different version of reality or portraying different aspects of what is real. The films were Alphaville, Mulholland Drive, Labyrinth, A Cock & Bull Story and Princess Mononoke. Each film’s representation of reality differs from actors talking directly to the audience ‘out of character’ (A Cock and Bull Story) to the audience having to comprehend alternative dimensions (Mulholland Drive) to magical, fairytale worlds (Labyrinth & Princess Mononoke).

It was imperative to the experiment that the audience member had not seen the films before, therefore a handful of occasions a 5th and 6th participant was asked to take part instead of the original five. The participant was brought into a room with a computer. On the screen were ten still images in a random order. The participant was then asked to arrange the stills into the order that they thought told the original narrative. Upon completion they were then asked to type a short evaluation of the narrative they had created.

The film viewing artifact is now in full swing and i have already shown my first film. David Cronenberg's eXistenZ. A film, released the same year as The Matrix (not the best time to release a sci-fi film about reality) which challenges the audience's understanding of reality and leaves them asking questions as to what was real throughout the film. My second film will be a documentary called Malcom and Barbara - Love's Farewell which is a documentary about a man with Alzheimers and the struggle of the both parties as Malcom condition worsens and Barbara tries to cope with looking after him day and night. (Although to be honest, i really don't want to watch this again and it's heartbreaking !!) The film after that will be Downfall. A film about Hitler's final days. My final film will be A Cock and Bull Story. A film based upon Laurence Sterne's novel 'The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentlemen' which was referenced in my essay.

i'll be in touch......