Creative
Media Practice Project End of Semester
2000-word
Individual Self-Evaluation
Joshua Walker - 23034155
Explain the concept for your work, try to outline your idea
clearly and concisely and indicate where your influences and inspirations for
this piece have come from? Consider the intended audience for your work and
consider how you would like the project to be received; is there a particular
age group or background for example that the work is aimed at?
Initially,
the group planned to create a bathroom 'sense of place' to represent
someone's gruelling process of waking up and getting ready in the morning
before their daily routine. We recorded bathroom sounds, for example, a tap
running, a toilet flush, a shaver and the shower. We also recorded a person
awakening which involved them hearing their alarm and getting out of bed.
After our first audio only 'crits', we decided
to change our idea. The idea was too literal and the sequence was predictable.
We developed idea towards a more abstract film. From our initial idea we
gained experience from recording and editing sounds and used some of the
sounds in our final idea. After research and planning we finalised our idea to
represent a dream with a point of view theme making the audience feel like
they were inside a nightmare. The theme we intended to create could be
interpreted differently depending on the audience’s life experiences and
background.
The film begins with a still image
sequence, representing a journey on a coach. The film suddenly changes mood
when the character submerges into a dream. Loud guitar distortions and
instrument related sounds transform the tranquillity of the coach journey
into a vibrant confusion of sounds. The visual becomes distorted with dark
colour tints and visual effects which represents a sense of the unknown.
Although a character is never shown, we
intended to represent an emotion through the dream which the audience can
relate to. The backstory of the film is about music, alcohol and a typical adolescent
lifestyle. The blurred and dark images represent how recollections of a dream
are usually blurred.
The theme of the film carries a large music
influence. The majority of sounds used in the dream are mainly from a guitar
and other instruments found in a music studio. The imagery represents the
theme of a music studio with guitar strings, amplifiers, input volume dials
and speakers. They are accompanied with cans of alcohol and cigarettes. This indicates
a darker side of the hinted protagonist's life.
Throughout the dream we intended to
represent different emotions. The audio mainly represents nostalgia and
confusion. Towards the end of the dream, the audio becomes more distorted,
faster paced and louder. This shows that towards the end of the dream the
character is becoming more confused, irritated and annoyed. The images become
more surreal, distorted and more abstract.
Our main inspiration for this piece was
Chris Marker’s ‘La Jetee’. We thought the use of still imagery in La Jetee
expressed meaning in a way moving images could not. The audience has to use
their imagination much more when looking at the still images. Because of La
Jetee’s abstract storyline and still imagery, it can be interpreted
differently. We intended our film to create this same effect, because we felt
it would give the film meaning and a further depth which cannot be created
from more realistic films. Initially, we were going to use still imagery
throughout the entirety of the film. However, to emphasise the difference
between reality and the dream stage, we used moving imagery in the dream
stage, and still images in the beginning and ending coach sequences.
The inspiration behind the music element of
the film was for many reasons. Firstly, including instrument related sounds
made our audio only surreal and alternative. I am in a band. I utilised the
resource that I had access to instruments and a quiet music studio which I
could record the sounds with minimal interference.
The film is related towards anyone who is
interested in abstract films and the representing elements of the unknown; in
this case dreams. The target audience would be working class with an age
range would potentially be late teens to young adults.
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Give
a detailed critical analysis of the finished piece of work for this project,
try to consider your work as a member of an audience and recognise what has
worked well and what has not been as successful in your project. Try to be
objective and weigh up the pros and cons focusing on the positive outcomes as
well as the areas that have room for improvement. Reflect on what you would change if you could make the
work again?
I am fairly pleased with the overall
project. Our initial bathroom idea represented the sense of place too literally.
We developed this idea to embrace a more abstract structure and developed on
the dream where we could express more meaning. In the dream we took more
risks and experimented more with production and post. This journey from our
initial idea was stressful at times because we had to completely re-think our
approach. Once we determined the dream aspect ideas productively developed.
Our main intention was to create
a mental and physical space. I feel that we accomplished this by clearly
defining the different sections of the film. The physical imagery and audio
sequences are clear, normal and realistic; representing sanity and normality.
The transition between the two voids is easily distinguishable. We were quite
ambitious to recreate a dream but created meaning at the same time.
The audio created a great
foundation to develop visual and accompanied the imagery well.
We layered composited images in
the dream which is distorted and blurred which makes the audience unclear of
the images shown, but creates a depth of meaning at the same time. This is
the effect we intended to achieve. Whether the audience can identify the
dream images really doesn’t matter. As long as they interpret the images and
meaning to suit their life experiences and background culture the film will
create an effect.
The main success is the audio.
The group spent more time planning, recording and editing the audio only. We
intended to create a finalised audio piece before we started planning and
recording the visual. However, this became problematic. Our final film was shortened
down to maintain pace. But we didn't have enough time to correctly edit the
audio to match the final transition to the still images. In hindsight, the audio
transition would have been more appropriately edited. In the submersion to
the dream I used several effects which made the transition flow naturally.
I decreased the low pass frequency with the 7-band EQ. I decreased
the volume of the coach atmos and increased the reverb which gave the dream
sound abstract.
We intended not to give away
too much from the visual and try to show our ideas through the audio which is
why we heavily distorted the images. In hindsight, the images are slightly
too dark and too distorted which can make the film too abstract at some
points. Tyrese was the visual editor of this task and our different creative
minds sometimes clashed. I requested him to make the images slightly brighter
so that they could be more identifiable, but he preferred the images more
distorted and did not change the effect. However, we included some shots
which didn’t have the dark distortion which created the greatest effect of
the film.
The shots below show an input volume metre flashes on
the screen which shocks the audience because of its orange luminous glow
contrasted with the dark blue distortion of the rest of the film.
We included a close-up of a person
face. We added a negative colour filter which contrasts between the darker
images.
The audio created a surreal effect from a different use of settings
in the editing. We designed the songs to sound like they are distant thoughts
in the memory. We did this by panning them. We featured repetition for key
sounds and visuals in the film which created confusion.
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I concentrated more on the sound design and the sound editing
for the dream. Whilst, Tyrese focused on the coach sequences and edited the
visual.
Until the beginning of this course I had no previous experience editing
sound. However, with ProTools tutorials and online research, I became familiar
with the editing software which definitely improved the soundtrack.
I recorded the dream sounds on a Zoom H4N recorder. Most of the
sounds within the soundtrack are created primarily from a guitar and other
instruments. This proved hard when designing the sounds, because I tried to
make the sounds conflict and noticeably different sounding, but yet to flow
fluently when over layered together.
In pre-production we planned which sounds were to be recorded. Bcause
we had little experience recording sounds, we didn’t know to what extent the
quality of the sound would be recorded. To resolve this we recorded sounds at
two different mic levels. A high and slightly lower mic level setting. We used
the best quality sound. We embraced a run-and-gun approach when recording the
audio. We made an initial plan of important sounds to record, but also
creatively came up with different suggestions and recorded more than planned
on the day of shoot. I found from our first idea that it was helpful if you
over record a range of different sounds. In the editing stage to give more
leverage in post.
We created a basic shot list and storyboarded specific visual
shots. For example, the empty alcohol cans and the cigarette ash tray. The
filled ash tray represents that he is in that certain place often because of
the amount of cigarette filters in the tray, and the large number of alcohol
cans represent for some reason he is trying to dampen his emotions.
The coach stills were planned, however, we knew the type of shot
we needed so we didn’t story board or shot list, other than knowing we had to
capture some bright shots to represent the daytime and darker shots in the
final sequence to represent that while the character has had the dream time
has moved forward. We also creatively used a run-and-gun approach when
filming the rest of the shots.
In hindsight, we should have carefully planned the shots, but
due to time complications from changing our idea we had to capture the
footage immediately to leave us more time for editing. I filmed the shots in
the dream with a Canon XF100 camera.
The production for the audio and visual went better than
planned. We made creative decisions on the day of shoot and recorded/filmed
more shots and sounds than intended. This was valuable learning because we
thought we had hit a wall and ran out of ideas. When we started production,
we developed productive ideas which motivated production.
In post-production we experienced no real problems.
The abstract approach to the film allowed us to be creative as possible
without a storyline to create and a narrative to follow. The moving images
included a lot of filters and effects, which we initially intended.
In our final edit, we shortened the film to increase the pace. Perhaps
we could have finished the film at the end of the dream sequence without
going back to reality. But I like the distinction represented between the real
and surreal environments.
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Reflect on how
you worked as part of a team. Did all members contribute equally? What are your
strengths and weaknesses when it comes to teamwork? How can you improve your
teamwork skills?
Communication between the team was good. However, our creative
differences sometimes hindered our progression. We contributed equally as a
group, I created/edited the sound and Tyrese edited the visual. It was
challenging to create sound then add the visual. However, they work really
well together.
In hindsight we could have responded better to each other’s critics,
but we were so immersed with our own work we didn't want to change anything. However,
it seemed that we agreed to develop on any external criticisms.
My biggest concern is the lack of moving images we had to use,
however the ones we used work well. Also, a problem is the final transition
from the dream to the still sequence looks too digitised compared to the rest
of the piece. And the audio transition is not completed to a good enough
standard, which lets the film down.
I would further address the still image sequences. I would
decrease the pace of the cuts to represent someone falling asleep easing the
transition to better effect. Instead the still images are used in the final
film to create a sense of reality. I believe we achieved great juxtaposition between
the slow cut still images and the inter-layered moving images which creates a
fine difference between the physical and mental state.
Overall, I am quite happy with our progression and finished
product. I think we achieved our goal of creating an abstract film. And with
the stress from re developing our idea at a late stage. From starting
production with a poor idea, I have learnt that a good foundation idea is key.
Once the idea is established, the creative development of the idea will flourish.
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