For our second meeting, we looked at the possible ways in which we could make the interview footage we receive more interesting to the person watching the film. Shahid suggested a brilliant idea which was that we should have the person standing in front of a Greenscreen taking about their experiences and whilst this is happening, we can have the donated footage we receive from the person behind them (Footage of them at home, with friends, when they were younger etc) to make our film more visually pleasing. We were then assigned different things to do, for example Shahid was required to produce the storyboard and I was required to do the risk assessment.

I then looked into Greenscreening a bit more, and even though i'm not the editor, I decided to look how to properly light a Greenscreen and generally watched tutorials on the setup and keying editing process.

http://www.videocopilot.net/tutorial/basic_color_keying/: VideoCopilot tutorial I watched

A YouTube video tutorial I watched on how to light a Green Screen.

For my photography idea, I looked at the work of a website called 'Disposablememoryproject.org.'. The project was looking for at the physical side of memories such as photo prints, which for me is one of the best ways of keeping memories. I recently visited my nan and we sat down together with a box of hundreds of old photos, from the early 40s to the present day. My nan, now 90, can still to this day look at each photo and reminisce in what happened that day. I found this interesting as I to could do the same with the photo's from when I was born, to the present day, however some memories for me were fragmented and forgotten and I had to be reminded of certain aspects. I found this useful in thinking about my idea a little bit more and the direction I want to go in

Idea 1: I thought about having 5 found photo's of myself from when I was born to the present day, and as the photo becomes newer, the picture becomes slightly less blurred, to suggest that I have forgotten parts of my early childhood. The first photo will be quite blurred and the last will not be blurred at all. 

Idea 2: My second idea would be to use the idea of developed photo's and take a picture of someone, and remove the head and replace that with an image of significance, for example moving away from home or your first christmas and so forth. Each photo could be of a different person and their memory. The memory itself must be quite clear in the photo I chose to replace their head with, otherwise it will get confusing for the person viewing the piece. This idea is similar to the concept I spoke about in a previous post, where people memories are written down on cards and put in front of them, to hide their identity (video below). In addition to this, I got inspiration from a photo I found of someone's head being cleverly replaced with a globe. The photo itself is from a set of humorous photo's taken by an artist called Andy Vible, who replaced the head with various items (http://www.mymodernmet.com/profiles/blogs/andy-vible-headless-human-sculptures) 

During the meeting I had with my group, we discussed the idea further and looked at creative ways we could approach the film. I chose Lauren's idea because I felt the idea had potential and there was a great suggestion of making an interesting soundtrack for the film, made up of the footage we record ourselves. The film itself is looking into the transformation from moving away from home, to coming to uni. When Lauren pitched the idea, I was initially interested in the concept and even though it seemed quite personal to Lauren, I felt as if it could apply to all students, including myself, who moved away from home, whether it be a mile or hundreds of miles.

During my first tutorial with Leah, I got feedback that helped me think more about my idea of music and memory and it got me thinking about previous films we've watched. It reminded me of a rave video we watched that I found really interesting. It then got me thinking about raves and the sort of memories people have at them. However, instead of looking at the larger raves, I want to look at the more independent, 'underground' raves. Illegal raves are also another interesting topic.

I pictured the film starting with glitchy footage of someone dancing at a rave, and distant, muffled audio matching the footage. I know people who've been to raves and talked about how they forgot half of it because they were intoxicated. I also discovered the use of drugs at raves also, from various forums (shown below).

A great way of getting research for this, will be to ask some of my friends who regularly go to raves. I feel I will get interesting results because they will each have different memories of their experiences at raves. Depending on the feedback I get, I may go about basing the film around one person's memories.

I want to interview different people who are regular's at raves and talk about any memories they have. I will include the interview footage as a voice-over, as I want to focus more on the visuals. I also looked at glitch effects, and found them interesting and I would definitely like to incorporate them in my film. It also emphasizes the idea that memories can be forgotten and 'glitch' in time. I feel it will be interesting as some peoples memories of the events that happened will be blurred and fragmented perhaps due to being intoxicated, which I can then portray on my film.


                                                                 (The effect at the start)

I found an interesting blog about raves and the memories people share at them. Looking at this, it has perhaps given me the idea to re-enact those memories that the different people have.

During today's lesson with Joe, we were introduced to the recording studio. This has three rooms. The booth where you record. The middle space which you can also record in and finally the editing room where you record and edit the sound you record. During the session we looked at how to create foley sounds. The task given to us was to create foley sound to dub over the Pixar intro (shown below)



 We took it in turns to recording sound in the booth, and getting used to Pro Tools and putting the sound clips together. I found the process quite fun and interesting and its made me think more about my sound project and how I will go about using the sound recording room to record foley sound.

Idea:

The idea behind this is to do with how people use their time and how the slightest change can make a big difference to what happens in your life. The idea is quite personal to me as I find that I am either early to something, or late. I regularly think about how I wish I could go back in time and change certain things. This inspired me to think of an idea where the same concept was happening in each screen, but because of time and the big effect it has on us, each screen pans out slightly different. Being punctual comes with organising your time correctly, which is why I want one screen to have the person being lazy and late, one screen where the person is organised and on time, and the other where the person is early because they have allowed themselves more than enough time to get everything done.

I want to create a simple, yet informative sequence of a man preparing to meet his girlfriend. The three screens will begin with a shot of a man sleeping in bed (Medium shot, still). In the background of each shot will be a clock. The clock in the background of the first screen shows 7:00am. The clock in the background of the middle screen shows 7:30am. The clock in the background of the third screen shows 8:00am.

Research:

The idea itself was quite personal to myself and mainly from moments in my life where these kind of things have occurred (being late, on time, early), however I read an interesting debate on ‘Debate.org’ that discussed the saying ‘If you’re early, you’re on time, if you’re on time, you’re late’. It talks about the capability of the phrase and really talks in detail about time and how ‘planning’ to be on time, doesn’t necessarily mean you will definitely be on time, which happens to me a lot. This is why I want to incorporate that idea in my film, that if you do not set yourself enough time to do something, and you do not prioritise your time, then there can be big consequences.

For inspiration, I looked into the idea of time management. I watched a video called ‘How to 
manage your time better’ by ‘Watchwellcast’ on YouTube. I found this video interesting in informing me of the ways in which you can spend your time and waste time. I found this interesting and it allowed me to think about ways in which time can affect events in your life.

Films such as ‘Shaun of the Dead’ for instance gave me ideas as to how I’d go about showing the importance of time management. The scene where Shaun forgets to book the table for their meal out is an interesting scene that shows the importance of time management and how forgetting to do one thing can effect everything. This I found interesting, which made me want to create the 3 screen film where one thing in each screen makes a different conclusion.  

Detailed Description/Shot breakdown:

First Screen (Early):

. 0:00-0:02: The man turns over, looks at the clock and goes back to sleep.

. 0:03-0:06: The man is asleep once again. The clock in the background quickly goes to ‘7:25 Am’.

. 0:07-0:19: The man wakes up, stretches, sprays on deodorant, slowly puts his clothes on and walks out of the room.

. 0:20-:0:26: Cuts to bathroom: The man slowly brushes his teeth, washes his face, plays with his hair and leaves the room.

. 0:27-0:37: Cuts to kitchen: The man is sitting down eating toast and reading a newspaper. He finishes his toast, picks up the flowers on the table and walks towards the door to leave. He realises he forgot the chocolates and walks back in and picks them up

. 0:38-0:42:  Cuts to Bus stop: Medium shot of him waiting patiently at the bus stop. He looks at his watch. He looks puzzled at his watch but shrugs.  

. 0:43-0:48: Cuts to interior bus shot. He looks happily at his phone and looks out the window.

. 0:49-0:54:  Cuts to a long shot of him getting off the bus. He walks up towards his girlfriend, kisses her and gives her the flowers and chocolates. She looks shocked and happy at the gesture. He smiles and looks down at his watch.

. 0:55-1:00: Close up of his watch. The watch says 8:00am

END.

Second Screen (On Time):  

.0:00-0:06: The man is sleeping in bed.

. 0:07-0:19: The man wakes up, stretches, sprays on deodorant, slowly puts his clothes on and walks out of the room.

. 0:20-:0:26: Cuts to Bathroom: Medium shot looking at the man slowly brush his teeth. He then washes his face, looks at himself in the mirror and leaves the room.  

. 0:27-0:34: Cuts to kitchen. Medium shot in front of him. He is sitting down eating toast and reading a newspaper. He finishes his toast, picks up the flowers on the table and walks towards the door to leave. He leaves the chocolates on the table.

. 0:35-0:42:  Cuts to Bus stop: Medium shot of him waiting patiently at the bus stop. He looks at his watch and looks back up.

. 0:43-0:48: Cuts to interior bus shot. He looks happily at his phone and looks out the window.

. 0:49-0:54:  Cuts to a long shot of him getting off the bus. He walks up towards his girlfriend, kisses her and gives her the flowers. She looks shocked and happy at the gesture. He smiles and looks down at his watch.

. 0:55-1:00: A POV shot of him looking down at his watch. The watch says 8:00am

END.

Third Screen (Late):

. 0:00-0:05- The man wakes up, stretches, looks at the clock and suddenly looks distressed because he is late.

. 0:06- 0:16:  The man frantically puts his clothes on and rushes past the camera, out of the door.

0:17-0:23:  Cuts to Bathroom: Medium shot looking at the man. He brushes his teeth, splashes water in his face then quickly walks out the room.

0:24-0:30:  Cuts to kitchen. Medium shot in front of him eating. He eats a slice of toast, leaving crumbs everywhere and proceeds to quickly walk out of the room. He forgets to pick the flowers up on the desk.

0:31- 0:36: Cuts to bus stop. Medium close up in front of the man sitting down at the bus stop looking worried waiting for the bus to come. He looks worryingly at his watch.

0:37-0:42: Cuts to interior bus shot. Medium close up in front of the man still looking worried and checking his phone.

0:43-0:50: Cuts to a long shot across the street from the bus. The bus drives away and we see him walk a short distance towards his girlfriend, who looks annoyed. As he walks up to her he looks apologetic, however she storms off in a temper.

0:51-0:54:  Cuts to a close up of his face. He appears upset and rubs his hand on his face. He looks down at his watch.

0:55-1:00: A POV shot of him looking down at his watch. It says 8:30am.

END.

Short Storyboard: 

Locations Used:

The locations themselves will not be too difficult to film in because the majority of them will be filmed at my house. The exterior shots, for instance the Bus stop shot and the meeting of the man and woman will be filmed in Farnham (Alma Lane, opposite my house for the bus shot and just opposite The Marlborough Head Pub for the meeting of the two).

Production Dates:

All scenes will be filmed on the morning/afternoon of Friday the 7^th. If weather conditions are bad then filming will take place the following day.

Editing will take place on the designated times given to us.

Equipment list:

Camera- Canon EOS 600D with a Tamron AF 17-50mm lens.

Tripod- Hama Star 63 

Shooting Risk Assessment:

Main Idea

For my main idea I've decidedly look at the relationship between music and memories and how difference prices of music can trigger certain emotions and memories. I feel I could do this by interviewing different people of different ages and asking what songs perhaps make them feel nostalgic. Another way I could approach this is by finding out a song that is special to someone for a specific reason and surprise them by playing the song and film their emotional response.I looked at the term 'Echoic Memory' which id never heard before, which is a component of sensory memory, which allows us to remember certain sounds/snippets of audio for a short term period. I feel as if sound is such an important integral part of our lives, and without it we wouldn't really have memories. What im thinking of doing perhaps is to muffle the sound in parts of the film to perhaps confuse the person watching, or I will muffle the sound played to them and see if the interviewee can still recognise the song. 

The concept of this idea was originally from an article I read about a documentary that showed people with dementia or Alzheimer's. An interesting quote found on the article by the creator of the film, said that: 

'Music can help dementia or Alzheimer's sufferers "wake up" their memories'

I found this fascinating, however the idea itself has already been done and I felt it would be difficult to approach it that way, thus the idea of interview footage to do with how of that triggers memories/emotions.

During the film, you see footage of the look on the people's faces. Some smile whilst others may sing along or dance, which I find really interesting as it goes to show how important music is, in reference to memory. 

                        A still from the film 'Alive Inside: A Story of Music & Memory'.

The challenge would be extending the film between 5-10 minutes, however some reactions may vary in length and if I can interview a variation of people then I feel I can get interesting results. Another challenge I face is making the film experimental and different. I thought of perhaps re-enacting these memories however the memories themselves might be too difficult to re-enact. 

For my Re-Enactment video, I decided to look into the Horse Meat Scandal, and make a parody video of it. This is how the film came out:




Generally I am pleased with the result, and I was happy to hear positive feedback from Leah. Generally, I would've preferred to make it a bit longer and perhaps try to make it a bit more humorous.

During this lesson with Joe, we were shown the different sound equipment available at the university and we were given a detailed description of how to use each piece of equipment. We were given the task of going around Farnham in pair's and recording any kind of sound we wanted. Me and lauren decided to go to the local park and record the sounds that surrounded it such as puddle splashing sounds, creaking swings sounds and so forth.

On our way back we came across a busker so decided to record the sound of him playing from different positions, to vary the sound levels. Joe seemed to like the sound, however there was a slight wind problem, which was also apparent with a lot of other people's work. The exersise was good as it allowed me to get used to the sound equipment and learn about positioning the microphone and taking into consideration other factors, such as heavy wind. Generally I found the recorders easy to use and found that they gave excellent sounding results. These are the sounds me and Lauren recorded.

During this lesson we were introduced to Joe, who will be teaching us about Experimental Sound. We were also given our project brief. We were each given a piece of photography that will require us to create our own sounds that fit the style of the image. The sound itself has to be between 1-2 minutes. 

I was given a piece called 'Untitled' by Anish Kapoor. 

When I first saw the photo I found it interesting and wanted to explore it more. I google'd the image and found a website that showed the photo from several different angles. Also, I had never heard of Anish Kapoor, but from looking at him on the internet, I found that he has done multiple large-scale sculptors and is considered one of the greatest sculptors of all time. 

The website it was posted on informed me a little bit more about how the piece was created and a personal view of Anish' work.  

'A: Marsyas, Anish Kapoor’s sculpture for the Turbine Hall, comprises three steel rings joined together by a single span of PVC membrane. Two are positioned vertically, at each end of the space, while a third is suspended parallel with the bridge. Seemingly wedged into place, the geometry generated by these three rigid steel structures determines the sculpture’s overall form, a shift from vertical to horizontal and back to vertical again.(The unilever series: Anish kapoor,2002). It's quite interesting to see his work. Some of his works are large, but not this big. Same as other works, the color is bright, and contrast with green mountain. Red and Green are contrast colour, which make the space as an interesting feeling.'

When I first saw the image, I thought of using some sort of horn sound effect that would be quite distorted and distant due to its size, however I feel it would be interesting to include perhaps echo'y footsteps, to hear what it would sound like to step inside this large sculpture.