Hey! So just to say I have began a new blog for my second year as a Media Production student, why not take a peek?
https://grantsnaithyr2blog.wordpress.com
UNITED STATES – CIRCA 1950s: Woman with surprised look. (Photo by George Marks/Retrofile/Getty Images)
Here is the first video that I have produced from my time in Istanbul. With this video I set out to show the city of Istanbul, the only city where the Western world meets the Eastern world. I show the city and its people in a culturally fascinating city of history. Not all of my footage was available to me for this project so I will likely return to update this video at some point. Feedback is welcomed and encouraged.
Come the end of the year I am travelling to a country that ever since I was a young boy I have wanted to visit, New Zealand! Come September the 1st I will begin my extremely long flight across the world to reach the lands of Middle Earth, the birth of the bungee jump and the most naturally beautiful country in the world. I’ll be travelling over with my dad and meeting up with my Uncle, who calls this piece of heaven home, whilst over in New Zealand and I fully intend to have a camera to hand for every second of it.
Whilst I will be filming and taking pictures of absolutely everything and anything to brag about upon my return I feel its important to at least go out there with an idea or two or what footage I will need to be able to cobble together some interesting pieces for my showreel. So during this blog post I’m going to outline a number of options as a sort of check list to myself for the big trip to make sure I capture enough footage to edit with. Later on i’ll be doing an additional post regarding equipment and technical preparation for the journey.
Travel Blog
My aim is to post a short recap blog of each day as I travel around, these will probably be devoid of pictures depending on how much time I find to post these and whether I get chance to sort through the images. This is obviously dependant upon whether I have access to wifi during the trip which is unlikely at times whilst we are on the road.
Maori Culture
I would like to produce a short film of roughly 3 – 4 minutes length focusing on the Maori Culture coupled with imagery of the raw beauty of New Zealand. I would be looking for a piece of music, if possible as under layer to a traditional Maori chant, that has that raw primal feel to it. Images id be looking to capture for this would include Maori performances, mountains with rolling clouds (perhaps in time-lapse style) and a still lake shoreline at sunrise. The reason I want to complete this project is simply because the Maori culture is so fascinating to me as I know so little about its ideals and teachings. On the minute mark the video below there is a beautiful shot of a sunrise bathing a lake, that and a few other shots throughout this video give an idea for the sort of shots I will be looking for.
Father & Son Road-Trip
I have a lot of respect for all of my family and friends as without them I could not be me and so it of course means a lot to me to be joined on this journey by my father. This project is perhaps more of a personal endeavour than a CV bolstering video, but never the less I will still strive to shoot and edit this to a professional standard. For this project I would probably rely mostly or even solely on Go Pro footage shot. I will then edit this to a currently undecided song so that in me and my father can look back at it years later and remember the good times. I have seen some truly brilliant examples of Road-Trip shorts on YouTube but for my this USA Road-Trip really stood out. It is careful not to use clips that last longer than 15 seconds, preventing the audience from getting bored and its edits match the tempo of the music.
Documentary
Though I never imagined myself finding much pleasure in documentary filmmaking, I did rather enjoy the process during my first year at university so I have come up with two ideas for short documentaries that I could shoot whilst out in New Zealand. The first is “Kiwi”, a short documentary that explores what it means to be a Kiwi and what the natives think of their way of living compared to that of the rest of the world. Id be looking to interview locals from different walks of life as to what they think makes New Zealand the greatest country in the world. My second idea for a documentary, that I am for now entitling “Soldier”, would be about my Uncle and his stories from his time in the army which he has written a book about (providing he’s up for it!). He is currently in talks with industry professionals who are working on a script for a film based on his life stories.
Networking
Lets not forget one of the most important aspects of being a student filmmaker, networking. In this industry it is vital to build up strong network systems across the world with other industry professionals. Though it is often overlooked, New Zealand has a rich history of Filmmaking and Television and I am hopeful of building up some networks whilst in the country. For my third year of study I am currently exploring the options of studying or working a year abroad and would like to gage how feasible it would be to do so in New Zealand during this trip. My Uncle is hoping to introduce me to the guy writing his script who has had work within the TV industry of New Zealand and I am also scheduling a visit to the WETA Workshop where various props and effects are built for big feature films where I am hoping to talk to them about the feasibility of internship, apprenticeships or shadowing sometime during my third year.
As you can tell I am immensely excited to be achieving what for me has been a life long ambition at the end of this year and have so many plans and dreams for this trip that no doubt some of it won’t happen, but that doesn’t stop me giving it my all. And if for some strange reason you haven’t already decided you want to go to New Zealand some day, take a look at this insanely good video!
Whilst i’ve been hard at work editing my short film ‘A Game of Bluffs’ I’ve also been busy promoting the film ahead of its release via social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Whilst some people have been putting up trailers to their films I decided to promote mine via still images as I did not want to give away too much about my film or give an impression of the finished style. Just like my film, I’ve chosen to centre the promotion on the characters using the tag line “Four Guys, One Poker Game, but who’s playing a Game of Bluffs?”
Researching into Film Editing:
Who? – directors&editors of film noir
What? – what did they make films about? What are their key films?
Where? – Where were they based? Where did they make their work?
When? – What years were they active?
Why? – What are the conditions that enabled the above to happen?
How? – How did they work? Were there barriers to overcome?
What Else? – What else is happening in film at that time?
Soviet Montage – 1920 – 1930 Sergei Eisenstein, Vsevikd Oydovkin, Lev Kuleshov, Dziga Vertov. These movement occurred during the post events of Russian Revolution in the political and economic upheaval. The first film school in the world opened in Moscow 1919. They were interested in the theory and study of film in particular Hollywood. Battleship Potemkin, Sergei Eisenstein (1925)
Alfred Hitchcock – 1921 – 1976 experimented widely with editing technique assembly / mosaic editing influenced by the Russian montage movement. He used a combination of images to create meaning. He found that using the juxtaposition of images in various sizes creates an impressionistic view of the story. He evidences this in the below video as he discusses the shower murder scene from Psycho. Looking back into history shows the remerging of past experimentations such as the most recent Birdman film was shot to appear like a continuous shot which was done by Hitchcock in his film Rope.
Italian Neo-Realism – 1944 – 1952 these films relied on untrained actors and locations as they were found and shot these with what equipment they could find, this was largely due to the after effect of the second world war making film creation a real challenge. Its interesting to take a look at the film Terminal Station (1953), a film which has two edits, one created by the Neo-Realism school of editing and the other by an American Hollywood school of edit . “The only great problem of cinema seems to be more and more, with each film, when and why to start a shot and when and why to end it.” – Jean-Luc Godard
French New Wave (Nouvelle Vague) – 1958 – 1964 Born from post war France critical film theory partly a practical response and antidote to the bloated hollywood epics of the time injecting a sense of immediacy and urgency. They challenged the long established rules and notions of cinematic style, themes and narratives to create a sense of realism. Les Quatre Cents Coups and Breathless are two films that fit into this film movement.
Interesting editing techniques are evidence all the way throughout history of filmmaking such at Match Cuts (2001 A Space Odyssey), Match Action (Raid: Redemption), Match on Reaction (Jaws) and Intercutting (Inception)
Other key differences between editors and directors are their length in shots, as evidenced in the below table contrasting six well known directors against one another and their average shot length. This shows the manner in which edits have altered over the years and could also be an indicator to what form of films are being produced in the modern era.
The Rule of Six:
1) Emotions
2) Story
3) Rhythm
4) Eye Trace
5)Two-Dimensional Plane of Screen
6) Three-Dimensional Space of Action
Over the last few weeks I have been developing a script for a short film and it has finally come time to bring it to life. My film “A Game of Bluffs” is a short film noir style piece being developed as part of a university module. It is being filmed in and around the Midlands for little to no budget. Below is a list of things that we are looking for:
If you think you can help with any of the following or you are interested in learning more about “A Game of Bluffs” then please feel free to email me at Snaithius@hotmail.com or comment below.
Film Noir (literally translating to ‘Black Cinema or Film) was a term first used by French film critics (Most notably by Nino Frank in 1946 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nino_Frank) who had noticed the reoccurring trend of dark and downbeat looks and themes that were of many American crime and detective films being released in French theatres following the war. Such films as The Maltese Falcon (1941), Murder, My Sweet (1944), Double Indemnity (1944), The Woman in the Window (1944) and Laura (1944).
A large number of films were reflecting the results of tensions and insecurities of the time period, and counter-balanced the optimism of Hollywood’s musicals and comedies. Fear, mistrust, bleakness, loss of innocence, despair and paranoia are all readily featured in noir, reflecting the chilly Cold War when the threat of nuclear annihilation hangs over the head of America.
Classic film noir began its development during and after World War II, taking advantage of the post-war ambience and pessimism. It was a style of Black and White film that first evolved in the early 1940’s and became prominent in the post-war era, and lasted well into the classic ‘Golden Age’ until about the 1960’s marked by the ‘last’ film of the classic film noir era, Orson Welles’ Touch of Evil (1958).
Strictly speaking, film noir is not a genre, but rather the mood, style, point-of-view, or tone of a film. It is also important to realise that ‘film noir’ usually refers to a distinct historical period of film history – the decade of film-making after World War II, similar to the German Expressionism or the French New Wave periods. However, it was labeled as such only after the classic period – early noir film-makers didn’t even use the film designation, and were not conscious that their films would be labeled noirs.
Very often, a film noir story was developed around a cynical, hard-hearted, disillusioned male character who would encounter a beautiful but promiscuous, amoral, double-dealing and seductive femme fatale. She would use her feminine wiles and come-hither sexuality to manipulate him into becoming the fall guy – often following a murder. After a betrayal or double-cross, she was frequently destroyed as well, often at the cost of the hero’s life. As women during the war period were given new-found independence and better job-earning power in the homeland during the war, they would suffer — on the screen — in these films of the 40s.
In addition to the stylised visuals of a Film Noir, there are numerous other key elements found within films of this movement that whilst not all present in every film of this nature, are often regarded as signature moments. This video by Matt Fox exposes some key elements of Film Noir, present and past, and compares them against one another creating an interesting look at how the same element can be used time and time again but in different ways to keep it interesting whilst sticking to the tried and true language of Film Noir.
Whilst looking at Film Noir I stumbled across this amazing piece entitled “Dans l’ombre” or “In the Shadow”by Fabrice Mathieu. It bears a lot of the signature elements featured in Film Noir but takes an interesting twist on it by telling it via shadows giving it an almost supernatural feel. It was a really interesting watch as it made me consider the boundaries of Film Noir and how one could push the elements in different directions to create new and interesting films.
“Nothing is original. Steal from anywhere that resonates with inspiration or fuels your imagination. Devour old films, new films, music, books, paintings, photographs, poems, dreams, random conversations, architecture, bridges, street signs, tress, clouds, bodies of water, light and shadows… Authenticity is invaluable’ originality is nonexistent” – Jim Jarmusch
For our 162MC project we had to write a script and then film it following the conventions of a specific film movement, below is a list of some film movements that we could explore when making our film.
Film Movements:
American New Wave (1968 – 1977) example: Easy Rider (1969)
Soviet Intellectual Montage (1920 – 1930) example: Strike (1925)
Dogme 95 (1995 – 2005) example: Festen (1998)
French New Wave (1958 – 1968) example: Breathless (1960)
Italian Neo Realism (1944 – 1952) example: Bicycle Thieves (1948)
American No Wave Film (1976 – 1985) example: Stranger Than Paradise (1984) Surrealist Cinema (1920- Onwards) example: Un Chien Andalou (1929)
Hong Kong Cinema (1978 – 1995) example: Chungking Express (1994)
Slow Cinema example: Stalker (1979)
One thing that really excites me about film is the art of portraying a narrative through the visual medium. Now this can be done in the traditional ‘real life’ appearance as many films do, and do so successfully, however its those daring enough to try something different that really stick in the mind. Here are a few interesting visuals:
Okay, so this one isn’t from a film, but its gameplay appears not too dissimilar so use your imaginations a bit. This trailer is for a platform game being released sometime this year called Ori and the Blind Forest by Moon Studios, a worldwide collaboration of designers and programmers who have been working on the game for the past four years. Whats interesting about this visual is the strong contrast of lighting and stark colours that create a real luscious appearance to the characters and settings.
The two above clips are from Sin City and The Spirit, both are what could be called dark-comic book adaptations, each portraying a deprived city in need of a hero but instead offered up a down on your luck guy for a ‘hero’. Both films make use of dark visuals and in some cases black and white to create a gritty feel to the film almost like a film noir style. Both also make play on strong key colours throughout the story like the red of blood and the yellow of skin, things that are either odd to the story or that they want to draw attention to. In some senses this drowns out the scene and causes our eyes to focus on this colour, a powerful technique when used correctly.
This amazing film shot and directed by Terrence Malick called The Tree of Life tackles the difficult question of the meaning of life and creation. It does this in a really interesting self reflection of the main character, looking back upon his life. Throughout Terrence Malick utilises some truly inspiring lighting to influence the mood of scenes, and though this is not uncommon in mainstream film visuals, Terrence takes this to a new level with an in-depth understanding of the influence these visuals have over others. The film also features a beautiful sequence where it depicts the creation of the universe that again plays with the lighting almost like a beautiful dance, it is truly majestic and one of my favourite scenes from any movie.
I finished work on my first script for my short film “A Game of Bluffs” (working title). I would appreciate any constructive criticisms as I will be completing a second draft next week to continue developing it. Please leave a comment in the comments below or feel free to fill out a report form and email it to me at Snaithius@hotmail.com, thank you.
The Journey Begins 