I wanted to be really organized with this shoot so I created an equipment list using a table in word. I wrote down all the equipment we had and made a column to check it and a column to specify quantity. I will be using this for future shoots as it gives me a good visual of what I am going to need.
For this shoot in particular I am going to be using the Panasonic as I feel this handles light very well as I have used it in the dark on previous shoots. I am also going to be taking a rode mic for sound incase I needed some atmosphere sounds when it comes to editing. I wanted to bring a Roto Light seeing as we will be filming at dusk as well as daylight and we can make sure the actress is illuminated. Other equipment includes a Fig Rig for movement stability, a Tripod for stationary stability and Hi Vis Jackets to make sure we are safe and visible on location.
For this short film I will need to communicate and liaise with people in order for the project to pull together when filming. This is important as It ranges from casting to land owners and property owners.
I started off with casting which I have mentioned in more detail in another blog post. I made sure that I was in contact with the main applicants that had applied to be part of the project and in particular the main female that I have chosen to be in the film. Due to the nature of the shoot I wanted to make sure she was comfortable with what was expected and what she would need to be doing.
This is very Important to communicate this way so that there will be no surprises or issues on shoot.
I needed to get permissions as I wanted to shoot in Soho London and in a Gentleman's club to get the ideal scenes. I first contacted Red Route Filming who deal with all of filming in London as part of TFL. Unfortunately they did not deal with Soho as it wasn't their direct area so I was then redirected to The City of Westminster borough's email to contact them further.
I then contacted the email for the City of Westminster sending them a similar email to the one I sent before. I made sure it included what we was intending to shoot and where as well as the times and dates. They approved the filming and were happy for us to shoot as we were a small crew and were not putting anything on the floor such as a tripod.
For the Gentleman's Club I wanted it to be local to where I am based so it can cut down on production costs and would be easier for us all to get there. I contacted the managers email telling him what we would be doing as well as when we would be ideally looking to shoot.
I have created a short experiemental video in regards to a brief that was set out. We were told to pick from fear, dispair, joy or hope and create the short film with our chosen Haiku in mind to see what we can do. I chose to do fear with overlaps of dispair as well as relating to my chosen sonnet. The film can be seen below:
Since I felt my sonnet adaptation was going to be quite dark, I wanted the tone to be quite moody as my final film is going to feature a strong empowered woman who is infact overshadowed and frowned upon within society. This is why although its me, you can sense a feeling of power and strongness as well as a dark underlay. I scored the film with some creepy and tense music to make it seem dark as well as used a different editing techniques that would elborate the tone I was aiming towards.
In regards to color grading, I wanted the film to have a striking effect when watching it. I graded all the footage into black and white apart from the scenes where we used red gels as I felt this contrasted nicely with the other footage. I also used effects to speed up and slow down to make it more dramatic.
Experimental film is an unsual genre in film that explores the conventions of cinema and looks at non narrative styles that are not conventional to all other genres of film. This includes a main focus of dance, literature and poetry as the most common themes.
Some examples of experimental films are:
Eraserhead
Un Chien Andalou
Both of these films hit the experimental criteria with eraser head being all shot in black and white with not a lot of dialogue and a very strange plot. Un Chien Andalou is another experimental film but is completely silent and in black and white which involves hardly any plot at all and has a lot of montages.
Today we learnt about what a montage is and how it is incorporated into film and editing. This is where when 2 or more shots are cut together it can portray meaning due to what is being displayed and the pace that is being set. There are 5 different types of montage. These are:
Intellectual Montage: Adding 2 cuts together that are not related at all to create a new third meaning for example a mans face and then a bowl of soup cut together creates the third meaning of hunger.
Tonal Montage: Different tonal scenes that are connected together by a different image or meaning. An example of this could be when someone is about to get a punch to the face and then it cuts to a new image of toast popping up from the toaster.
Metric Montage: This is cut with a certain duration. Each clip has the same amount of time when cut between them like a metronome. So each clip would be cut every 3 seconds for example.
Rhythmic Montage: Cutting with a purpose of what we hear for example the clips may change in contrast to the music or sound effects.
Overtone Montage: This is a combination of A Tonal, Rhythmic and Metric Montage simultaneously. The video will use all of them one after the other to create a varied effect.
I had a go at making my own montage and I decided to experiment with rhythmic and metric making all the clips the same length whilst cutting in time to the drums in the background. You can view this below:
I wanted to cast someone that would have the ability to play my character comfortably and strongly so I looked on the website Mandy.com (originally Casting Call Pro) and posted an advert of what the project is about and what I am looking for in terms of content and character. This is the advert below:
From posted to closing date I received 10 applications altogether to which I then scrolled through each of them and looked at their headshots, relevant experience and their showreels. Not everyone had a showreel so I did email the applicants who didn't and asked to see further work so I could see their acting skills and learn more about them as professional actors. Once going through them all I whittled it down to the best 3 that I liked and produced a short and easy to read casting document for each one. You can view these below:
When Looking at these profiles I could see the plus and minuses of what I thought for each one and I was able to lay them next to each other and compare more easily. After a long and hard decision as well as further communication between them all, I decided to cast Rebecca and emailed her saying I would be happy for her to take the role. She accepted and she will be on shoot with us as the lead actress when we film.
Since I have chosen to do a sonnet by John Clare, I wanted to do some background research on him so I could roughly gadge the original intention of the poem. John Clare was born in the 18th century in 1793. His work mainly spanned across the 19th century and is now one of the most famous poets of this time being re worked in the 20th. He was born near peterborough in England and published his first book of poems in 1820. Being a farm labourer, he was not intending on success but he was quickly praised for the book and several more books were published not far after.
John Struggled with mental health issues including depression and instability as well as increasing his alcohol intake over time creating judgements from society and the community that he lived in. In the last stages of his life he was eventually commited to a lunatic asylum where he remained until he died but still continued writing to help with his emotions which spawned the famous poem "I Am".
Here are a list of poems that he is known for:
- First Love
- I Am
-Summer
-Trespass
-All Nature Has A Feeling
- Autumn
- An Invite to Eternity
I regards to my adaptation I feel I would be tieing into the themes of judgement and where some of his intententions may have been coming from in terms of being disapproved by society with an unstable mindset. Although my key character will be a lap dancer, I feel this could be a modern take of the way he may have been expressing himself.
When researching this project I came across a video that I would love to aim towards. This video is from a short film by the artist Lana Del Rey called Tropico which is partly set in a strip club. You can view the section of it bellow:
Its shot very slow with a dark tone to it in a very cinematic way. I love the effect this gives to the audience making them feel enticed into whats happening. Its also very tense but tasteful at the same time which is something I want to incorporate into my project. The music is almost non existent in the way of melodies and chord progression but has loud rumblings and static soundscapes to build tension and to create the mood of the video. I feel this is a great look and I would love to use this in the strip club scenes. There is also voice over which creates a great pace to what the film is about. I was thinking about putting voice over on top of my film in regards to reading out the sonnet whilst the imagery is going on. This I feel would be effective and would tell the story as if its going on in the protagonists head without revealing too much of what its about.
In terms of editing it is cut very slowly together put keeps a good pace in and out of two locations. I want to do this with inside shots of the strip club as well as walking along the streets so the audience doesn't get bored of it being all very similar. There is also good use of strobe lighting which I will look to incorporate as well as I feel it gives a good dramatic effect.
With colors for my own shoot I wanted to use lots of neutrals like blacks, whites, grey's and beiges for costume etc and contrast it with the scenery of bright and colorful like neon signs and lights. I feel this could work really well showing the class of the character but also reflecting neon and wildness of the setting she is in. It would also look a bit out of place as the two do not match together. I felt with the neon signs I could incorporate something like the video below:
I feel it builds a good atmosphere as well as highlighting good imagery. I like the way its edited with some shots overlapping each other as this gives a really nice effect and has a very experimental feel to it. The tone is very dark and moody which is the style that I'm going for so for my own shoot i would like to film the signs in Soho and do something very similar to this.
I found a different video that I found very inspiring that you can view below:
I love the soundscape that it uses creating tension and atmosphere as I think it really adds to the mystery of what we are looking at as a viewer. The clips cut to the music creating a rhythmic montage which works really well and both the sound and visual work well together. I also love the slow motion in this video. I think it builds the pace really well and creates a more dramatic feel to what we are watching which would look great for my main character. I wouldn't have my actor standing in front of a green screen, instead I would have her walking down the streets of soho with the neon signs effect combined. I also love the way the model holds herself and her expression from 0.35secs as i sense power and confidence which is the look I want my actress to give.
For this unit I wanted to explore the different locations I could possibly use to shoot my Idea. I put together a document which you can see below detailing the 3 ideas; London, Hastings and Kent. I wanted to place imagery with them as well as a highlighted map to show exactly where I am looking to film. Please read through below:
