Evaluation
The idea behind our sense of space project was to use light to
show space and isolation. This means we show a variety of different lights in a
variety of different places such as train stations and inside houses. By using
two very contrasting places this gives the project the idea of sense of space. Also
by doing this it shows the difference between isolation and open space. To get
this effect we used a variety of different shots such as long shots and close
ups this also gave a sense of space and it tricks the eye into seeing somewhere
that’s a wide open space look isolated. As a group we were influenced by the
idea of experimental film and I feel this gave us a chance to play about with the
camera for example looking at different lenses and seeing what they could bring
to our project. We also looked at different camera angles to see if we could
get something unusual. We were also influenced by watching a lot of different
films and TV programmes to see if we could find any techniques that we felt
would fit into our film. I personally took a lot of inspiration from Breaking
Bad (2008 - ); Produced by Vince Gilligan) the reason for this being as it uses
a lot of different ways to be experimental.
I want our films to be seen as
something unusual and exciting. I want our audience to have a pleasurable viewing
experience, I want them to be fixated on the screen and to question what is
going on and hope that they can possible take inspiration from something unique
that we have put into our film. I am hoping that this film will be seen as
innovative and original and I feel that this is something that we have done. I
believe that the age range for this piece of work could be of somebody who is
of a really young age or of someone who is in their teens. The reason for this
is I feel that someone who is really young might be excited by the lights and
could find it to be soothing and the reason I feel teenagers might appreciate
this as it could be seen as somewhere to possibly start if the person watching
it was to peruse a career in film. They could view this from an artistic
perspective or they could view it as inspiration as they might feel they could
replicate something similar.
I think this film is strong from an experimental point of view. I
think that the shots are very good at creating sense of space. The contrast
from close to long shots also works well, especially on the lights. The close
ups on the lights give this piece a soft look as they are blurred,
aesthetically this looks really nice. I think the use of the fish eye lens
helps this to be experimental as it gives some of the shots a very unusual
look, for example the shot that goes upwards between the two buildings, gives
the buildings a distorted look creating a weird visual, although visual this is
strong, I feel that the sound could be worked on, I think that it is a good
starting point and it helps the visual move a long, but I still needs tweaking
to get its full potential. The levels are sometimes a bit up and down and this
could possibly be because of the initial recording, this could be worked on by
getting absolute silence and being consistent when recording keeping the microphone
the same distance from the person or object you are recording. Silence can be
achieved by using a soundproof room when recording sound.
The editing of this
piece us strong also as it works well to be experimental, for example it
flashes between images creating something very exciting to watch. By doing this
it entices the audience into taking a closer look. The edit also moves along
really well with the sound which is key for an enjoyable viewing experience,
this makes it easy to watch and helps the flow which fits perfectly with the
idea we were going for. The flow of it is helped by sharp transitions that link
with the sound to create something that feels layered, jumping from one shot to
another. I feel that although this was experimental it could have possibly used
more of a narrative. This would have helped it have more direction and would
have made it easier for the audience to take. If it did have a narrative it
would have had a wider audience and not just people look at it as a piece of
art. If it did have a narrative, the story line could have used the idea of
experimental to create something distorted and new, creating a unusual dimension
that has never been seen before.
The process of this work was to get all our ideas out on the table;
we decided to start by recording sounds. We did this by recording a variety of
random objects to see what sounds they produced. After getting a big collection
of sounds we started listening through and deciding what we thought they
sounded like and talked about what ideas we had that would fit with the sounds.
These sounds inspired us to do stuff with lights. We believed that these sounds
would revolve great around the idea of light and isolation. We then did a rough
storyboard of the kind of shots we wanted to get; this led us to all take
photos around the city look for good locations and to see what kind of shots we
could get. After doing this we decided to plan the shoot as we believed we had
a solid idea, the initial shoot only took a day, but after the initial shoot we
had to get a few pickups as well the felt there were still shots that we
needed. After we got all the shots we needed we began editing a rough cut for
both the visuals and the sound, as we did this everything began coming together
and we knew what we wanted the finished piece to look like. I think that overall in the production stages
everything ran quite smoothly, I feel that we only had initial problems
thinking of the direction that we actually wanted to go with this. We struggled
to think about how we could be experimental and original as it felt that most
experimental films felt the same using a lot of similar techniques. I also
think we had slight problems with soundtrack pro as we were pretty new to this
software and are now only just starting to get to grips with it. From our first
idea to what the finished product looks like I think it has changed quite a lot
during the production process, there are many factors as to why this has
happened and I feel that it was because our idea changed a lot straight away
after we started collecting sounds as this gave us a lot more ideas and we felt
that it put us in a different direction I also believe that when we started to
look at locations this gave us new ideas that we thought would fit in well.
Over the course of this project I have learnt a lot, especially to
do with experimental film. Doing something like this has helped me open my eyes
to a lot of different techniques that I hadn't even thought of using before. This
project has also taught me to play around a lot more as it helps to gain experience
not only with the camera but to develop my skills when trying to get angles
right. When researching for this project I discovered a lot of different videos
that showed many different techniques and I took tips from them and used them
in my own video. Creatively I have learnt a variety of new skills that I will
be able to take into future projects. This project has shown that I get my
ideas out best when im actually doing something, this means me going out to
locations taking pictures and just generally taking in what is around me. I
find that this way and doing mind maps help as even if the ideas I am thinking
of aren't very good, I am still getting everything out on the table so then I can
possibly mould a bad idea into a good one. Specifically I have developed my
skills at generating ideas, I think that this project has helped me to be a lot
more abstract and to think outside of the box, it has helped me to try and come
up with unusual and original ideas that stand out. It has also helped me to
think about various objects that I could use to create something that I wouldn't necessarily think would work. Trial and error is something that has played a
big part in the creative process as I would try loads of different things
whether it is with sound or visuals i would look to see what works and what doesn't work. A new method I have used was using a fisheye lens on the camera.
This is something I had previously not used, but I think it felt right as it
created something very distorted and I feel this fitted the idea that we wanted
to go with. After using the fisheye lens I now feel very confident with using
this lens but it has also made me more confident in trying different types of
lens in the future and I feel this will help me to add different effects into
my shots.
I think as a team this worked very well and believe this to be the
case as it ran so smoothly. I believe there is a number of reasons why such as I
think me and Mike have similar ideas and especially did when it came this
project, when we got the brief we spoke for short period about which way we
wanted to go with it and it went very easy and we agreed about the direction we
wanted to take it, I think equally we are same level when using the cameras and
editing, so when doing camerawork we both took turns to do shots and we felt
that we could trust each other to get the right shots. We also got two separate
cameras out so we could both get some shots and we knew that we could trust
each other as team members to get shots that would be worthy to be in this
film.
I think that I wasn’t as good when it came to editing sound and I feel
that Mike who had previous experience had more of an idea of what he was doing,
but seeing him use Soundtrack Pro this is helped me to understand it a little
bit better, I feel that because he had past experience this helped the project
a lot as the sound was a very important bit and he did well to play around with
it and cause distortion. In the edit Mike took more control of it as he felt he
knew how he wanted it to look and I was happy for him to do so as I had a
similar idea of how I wanted the edit to look, I also gave different ideas in
the editing process so that it was all locked down before we had even began
editing, I think my strengths as a team member is definitely using the camera
to get nice shots and I also believe I can think of good concepts and I feel my
idea of close ups and long shots worked really well for this film and fit the brief
well also, creating a good sense of place. I also feel that I can take other people’s
ideas on board and give them constructive criticism to help develop their idea.
