Overall I am really pleased with the way in which the film came out. I feel that the Fields and Frames classes really taught me to push the boundaries of film and come up with something completely new and out of my comfort zone. Being someone who isn't very technologically skilled, I found it interesting to experiment more in premiere with visual effects and also experimenting with the camera through techniques such as Pixillation. I thoroughly enjoyed the Film Scratching workshop and was happy with the way in which the scratching came out. I feel its interesting to look back at the history of Film and technology and see where it all started in comparison to today, where everything has become so technological and advanced to the point where we forget about the roots of Film and technology.

I felt proud of the way in which I had set up my two screens in G03 and it looked the way I wanted it to. What I found particularly difficult was getting both screens to play in sync due to the older screen playing from the first frame and the other screen playing from the moment I paused it at the very beginning. To get over this difficultly next time, I will create a small count down at the beginning to allow time to pause both and get them correctly in sync. From the comments I recieved from Rosie, Kathleen and Vicky, I understood where I could have gone with the piece to improve it. The difficulties I had with the sound of the second screen was reflected in the comments I recieved. To improve the piece I would make my own soundscape or use just pholy sounds to make it seem more realistic rather than forcing a certain mood of nostalgic which the music I chose gave. To improve my second screen further, which was the screen which received the most critical feedback, I would include a more visually interesting look, which I gave to my first screen through the use of scratching and colour (shown below).

My Two-Screen installation. 

Still from the first screen of my film. 

If I was to make any further improvements to the film, I would've recorded more voice over sounds and other footage of a bigger variety of people. In addition to this I would've made sure I had a rough edit done before I went to my tutorials to get a more developed feedback from Vicky, Rosie and Owen.

Problems I found during the making of my film was that I lost some footage that I feel would have improved the piece. For example, I lost several videos I made in the film cutting rooms, however it wasn't until after my film was made and timings were set did I find the film scratchings I created. This taught me to back up all of my files onto an external hard drive so I don't lose any footage next time and to double check all of the folders on my computer in case it shows up.

I also enjoyed seeing other groups works, for example Lauren, Mollie, Laura and Katherine's shoot was interesting to be a part of (Even if I was just Caterer!). It was interesting to get pointers for timings of my shoot, as their group organised the day well with what will be shot within a certain time frame.

Once I got all the footage I needed, I went into Premiere and began organising my files (As shown below).

Screen 1

I began by importing all of the old footage I'm going to edit (Train Arriving and Screen Tests replication). Im beginning the film with a old film countdown, which is made easily in Premiere by selecting New > Universal Counting Leader. This additionally adds the sound bleeps for each number.

I then put all the film marking overlays over the footage I filmed, and made each clip black and white. I then imported my film scratching I made in the Fields and Frames Film Workshop we had with Vicky. I overlaid this over the footage I filmed and set it as 'Overlay' and changed the opacity to a lower percentage. 

Found film texture overlay. 

Film Scratching over my own footage. 

For my first screen I lastly added a noise video effect to make the footage fade to noise gradually and stay that way on the screen until the second screen finishes. To make sure this is accurate and both screens work in alliance, I timed each screen to the exact second, so that the films both run fluidly. 

For the sound on this screen, I used a Parametric EQ to increase the higher frequencies, as typically this is what old voice recordings consisted of, lacking in lower frequencies. I depicted sentences from the voice over recordings I did of several people which I felt spoke the best about the development of film and technology. 

Adobe Audition Screenshot.

I lastly imported my recordings of scratching to add over my film to make the sound seem older and more interesting to listen to. 

Screen 2

For my second screen, being the television which is more modern and up to date, I decided to use a pause screen rather that old television static, due to the technological advancement of technology, being that we can now pause whenever we please, whereas before it was impossible to do so. I began with a pause screen which will then go to a cursor moving and clicking the play button. This will then begin the film. Previously I had already exported all of my Pixillation work, which meant I could simply import the work into my timeline, along with the PhotoBooth recordings. Similarly, I depicted parts of the voice recordings I did which I felt best described new technology and the way in which film has changed. I did not change the audio for this screen, as this is the screen where everything is of widescreen resolution, HD and clear, in comparison to the other screen, which is of standard definition and lower video and sound quality. I decided to include a humorous ending of peoples reaction to PhotoBooth, being a new visual technology. I finally added the pause button being pressed again to end the film. 

Screenshot of the final frame of the film. 

During my tutorial with Rosie and Owen, I was given some really useful advice as to how I should go about structuring my film and the elements in which I should include. After showing Owen what I had made so far, he suggested getting a more varied opinion, not just students. In addition to this, he thought it would be interesting to play more with the multi-screen idea, as it will make the person watching more intrigued with what is going on. From this feedback, I decided to go home and film additional pixillation and voice over work of my Grandmother and my Dad. Some examples of the work I did are below:

 




I also filmed their reaction to new technology, in particular PhotoBooth for Mac, which allows you to manipulate yourself using a variety of effects such as stretching and morphing.

Going home allowed me to have a larger variety of footage to work with and also opened up my film to other audiences, rather than before where it was mostly student-orientated.

Before the easter break, I booked out a sound studio out and recorded additional voice over because I had already recorded most of my voice over audio before the easter break using a microphone from the university. The two different recordings will be edited to make sure the continuity of the sound is not all over the place. I also recorded Pholy sound to add over my voice over track such as old sound crackles for my first screen. I feel this came out really well and I will definitely be using it in my film.

After my tutorial with Vicky I thought about my idea more over a part of easter and began filming the pixillation parts of my film during this time. The pixillation parts will be displayed on one screen along with newer technology/film based works I intend to make. The older works will be displayed on another screen. I decided to look into early film works and replicate them in my film. These were works by the Lumiere Brothers and Andy Warhol.



This film was interesting to research about, as at the time it scared the audience as they believed a train was coming at them through the screen. This early example of film is crucial when researching into my idea more, being that I want to discuss the development of film and technology over the past century. I hope to replicate this film by filming a train coming into a station in Farnham.

 

This piece was interesting in thinking more about the deeper meaning of film, making an audience unaware of the situation the person was in, until they looked into the film further and realised its true definition. Once again I hope to replicate Warhol's work in making my subject feel awkward, as if they are being watched.

 

For the more technically advanced side of my film, I looked back at Norman McLaren's 'Neighbours', an interesting example of the pixillation technique where a subject is used and made to do different movements such as hover or slide across the floor. The multiple images taken combined and sped up allows for a real-time looking effect, allowing you to experiment and make something visually interesting. I have filmed my Pixillation shots and I feel they have come out the way I wanted them to. Here is an example of my Pixillation work:


I'm very happy with the way in which the Pixillation work came out and I am hopeful the footage will come together well with the voice-over recordings and other visual elements.

During my tutorial with Vicky, we brainstormed ideas and thought about what I wanted to talk about in my piece further and she suggested the theme of using old technology and film styles in an innovative way, which really interests me as someone who has seen technology and film over my lifetime progress and change. She suggested more of Dryden Goodwin's work and an artist called Stan Vanderbeek.

I watched the piece 'Science friction' and enjoyed the cut and paste style animation within, which creatively brought out the message of the piece. I like this idea of bringing out the message of a piece creatively, which made me think about the different visual techniques I would like to include, being Pixillation, color manipulation and simple visual effects used though basic softwares of computers such as Photobooth. He explains the piece as: 

"The technological explosion of this last half-century, and the implied future are overwhelming, man is running the machines of his own invention... while the machine that is man... runs the risk of running wild"


After the tutorial I thought more about my project and what I will be filming. My piece will include:

. Visual effects such as pixillation, colour change, film scratching/film marks, change in resolution. 

. Voice-over dialogue of peoples opinions on the advancement of film, comparing old/new film, movement from celluloid to digital, advances in animatics/3D and so on. 

My list of questions include: 

"Opinions on actual film compared to digitalisation Do you think old film is dead? How film has progressed technically and visually? Opinions on anyone being able to create visual effects from home? Has this affected the industry? What are your opinions of using older films today and making them innovative and new?"

I did a brief test from home using a pair of shoes and the techniques suggested online and in an animation book called 'The Animation Book- A complete guide to animated filmmaking.....' suggesting I take into consideration lighting and movements behind my subject such as wind blowing trees etc.  I was also shown how to create the Pixillation process through a tutorial on YouTube.

'The Animation Book' by Kit Laybourne. 

YouTube Tutorial on the Pixillation technique

Short test 

I feel the test was interesting, however for my next test I will make a longer piece, possibly with a subject and try to make them slide across the floor, move in a circle and possibly float also, to make it visually look more interesting than just a sideward movement. I want to use this filming method in my final piece and hope to get some interesting footage over this weekend in preparation for shooting next week.

After my presentation of my idea I decided to look into different film styles. Because I see a lot of interesting effects in music videos, I came across a music video for a band called Marmozets. I found the video visually really fascinating, incorporating several stylistic elements such as 'Bullet Time' or 'Time slice' effect, where time freezes and the camera moves, usually 180 or 360 degrees. The video also manipulates film by having scratch-like effect's, which looks very interesting. In addition to this the director uses a lot of rig's. such as a straight rig for the normal speed panning shots and 180 degree rig's for the time slice effect. I really like this effect, and how it captured each of the members facial expressions. The use of colour correction is also interesting and the use of light-writing at times, which I have experimented with previously. The video below discusses how the visuals were achieved.

When developing my idea, I tend to think more about how an idea can be technically achieved, however I struggle to think of a deeper meaning to my work. To further develop my idea I decided to think about themes I could look at. Because I want to scratch out faces, it would be suitable to aim my project around the theme of identity, however I would like to make it more developed than just the idea of identity.

One idea I have is to look at the idea of gender. One of my housemates called Emma is gay, and recently came out as being gender-fluid, which is something I wasn't too familiar with. She now prefers to be referred to as 'Alex'. after having a chat to her about her sexuality and what her take on being gender-fluid is, It made me think about how I could set up my scene, for example have one or two characters and scratch out there faces as they move forward towards the camera or just in different locations, however you have to guess which character Is male, and which character is female. This  could be quite interesting as it also looks upon the idea of stereotyping, and how people jump to conclusions depending on what you look like. 

Technically, I am going to work with a film camera and work on the steenbeck machine to achieve the scratching look I want. I was also thinking about looking into Pixellation as its quite a visually interesting animatic technique. I recently took out the book 'The animation book : a complete guide to animated filmmaking by Kit Laybourne', which gives handy technical tips on how to do Pixellation and stop frame animation.

My idea needs further developing and there is slight difficulty finding scratching example work, however i'm happy with the theme that I have chosen and will further develop my idea by researching into gender-related film work. 

Tutorial with Vicky

During the tutorial I had with Vicky, I discussed the brief idea I had, which is to look into film scratching and manipulating an image on film. Taking this into consideration, Vicky took me into the film editing room where we can watch, edit and cut our film. I was briefly shown how to use the Steenbeck editing machine, which is used for film pieces.

Steenbeck machine.

Vicky then showed me an example of a film that uses the film scratching technique, in particular over faces which I found really visually interesting. The film, Irma Vep, is a remake of 'Les Vampires'. its a behind the scenes look of this process, using visual elements such as film scratching appear at different times during the film. The scratching is used predominantly for the visual effect side of the film. I feel this is an interesting alternative to the use of motion graphics or CGI. I read an interesting review of the film which states "It seems to function as a cinematic state of affairs, examining the functions and motivations behind the movies we see.". This is interesting because the film makes you think more about why certain elements are used, for example film manipulation such as scratching and the deeper meaning within a film. The film itself is of a low budget and shot in a short amount of time, which gives the film a rougher, more visually experimental look, which I liked about it. 

Screenshot from Irma Vep 

Trailer for Irma Vep

Tutorial with Rosie

During my brief tutorial I had with Rosie, I was told that the idea I wanted to center my piece around, which is manipulating film is an interesting but challenging idea to pursue. Rosie was helpful in giving me advice to go away and think more about the concept behind my idea and what I'm trying to say to the audience. She also contacted David Cooper, who enrolled us to the 'Samurai Blade' and 'Sony EX3' to hopefully induct me into using the film camera available at the university, so I can progress with making my film. I'm quite inexperienced with film camera's, so I'm pleased that Rosie got in contact with David. The next step to take is think of a narrative for my piece or think deeper about what message i'm trying to convey within my work. 

During this lesson we looked at several different approaches we could take for the Fields and Frames project. One being stop-frame animation. Vicky set up a bottle on a table, started the recording and stopped after a few seconds. She did this several times then previewed the footage on Premiere. This was an interesting approach to stop-frame animation as i'm used to taking stills rather than video. The result was interesting as the water moved strangely across the screen because the water was moving at a different rate to the movement of the bottle.

Vicky then discussed 'Expanded/Perspectives' and gave us some examples of this:

'16mm loops- Scratch, Perforate, paint

Projectors share the same space as the audience

Audience encouraged participating in the making of a film

Body as a resource- mimic/build a tripod or a rig

Holding tools and technologies

Physical positions and viewing perspectives ‘upside down’'

We then looked at 'Reflexivity' and some example work that plays with the concept of Reflexivity, which is the concept of making the audience aware of what's going on behind the camera.

During this piece, you viewer can see the presence of the camera person, with someone waving across the screen as if they were the shutter on a camera, replicating the movement. 

We then looked at duration. A quote by Peter Gadal stated that 'There is a durational equivalence between shooting time and viewing time’ meaning there is equal duration between the shooting time of something and the time that it takes to view something.

We then looked at 'Pixilation', which is a is a stop motion technique where people, frame by frame, repeatedly posing while one or more frame is taken and changing pose slightly before the next frame or frames, thus resulting in a 'Glide' effect. 
   

Neighbours by Normal Mclaren is a good example as it uses comedic elements to interest the viewer, with a strange narrative about a battle to get a flower between two men. This was visually interesting at the time as this was seen as a real experimentation with time and stop-frame animation. 

We were shown a film called 'Girl From Moush', which was an interesting piece formed around the an english-speaking woman discussing what its like in her home country, Armenia, however she has never been there. Images appear of building's, churches , people, art etc. The audio includes Armenian music and her voice dubbed over experimental visuals, such as colour correction and flickering imagery. I like this piece for its visual experimentation and the manipulation of film. The film appears to be pulled through a projector, giving it the gittery visual effect. 


We looked at the physical materiality of a film strip. We named the parts of the film to recap from when we last used film and spoke about the components. The components of film consist of the celluloid (the chemicals which make up the image), the sprockets (Holes punched into the film so it can play through a projector), then frames (the part of the film where the image lies), optical sound (the strip on a piece a film that contains the sound within the film) and the chemicals on top of the film which is related to the visuals of the film. We lastly looked at the materiality of digital film, which relates to the pixels and the coding of a video. 

The fields and frames unit allows us to be imaginative and experimental with ideas that we come up with. To help me think about ways in which I could approach the brief and experiment within the field of film, I decided to book out from the library 'Bodysong', a documentary about human life from birth to adult life, covering serious issues such as poverty and war. The film was directed and produced by Simon Pummel, known for his video work for Queen's 'Made in Heaven' there last album as a full band. Jonny Greenwood produced the original score for the film based around the experimental theme of the film. Jonny Greenwood also collaborated with Simon Pummell on the soundtrack for the film 'There Will Be Blood', which received critical acclaim.

Artwork for the Score by Jonny Greenwood

Still from the film

The film was based around humankind, our lifespan and the events that take place during this time. This was done however by using hundreds of pieces of archive footage of moving image from the past 100 years. Described as an 'Epic vision of love, sex, violence and death, bodysong is the story of an archetypal human life told through archive footage from across the world and spanning 100 years of cinema', I believe Simon Pummel created this piece of work to show the positives and negatives of human life, and the development of humanity over the past century. I thoroughly enjoyed the artistic visuals and hypnotic sequences which made me personally feel like I was in a trance at certain times. Most of the film was silent, dubbed over with a brilliant, progressive, experimental score by Jonny Greenwood, known for his work with the popular British band, Radiohead.  I felt as if the narrative of the film was produced from the soundtrack, going from a simplistic, calming orchestral score to a manic, fast-tempo'd experimental sound during the parts of the film that were negative towards society, such as the elements of war and sex. My favourite track from the film was 'Moon Trills' as I love the simplicity and repetitiveness of the piece, and being a fan of Radiohead's music, it much reminds me of some of Radiohead's softer, more orchestral songs.

Still from the film

The piece plays with the number of screens, changing frequently to a split screen experience, predominantly at times that contrast science and technology with human life, for example the image above, contrasting a projection of a part of the human body, with an ill looking figure displayed on the right. The split-screen experience may be something to look into when it comes to developing my idea and thinking about how I would display my work. The film also begins with an image of a pregnant woman in the bath splashing water on her chest. The ending also does this, fading the image to black. I feel that this mainly refers to the start of a human life, reminding all the positives and negatives in our society begin span down from the simple birth of a life. The ending states 'In this film every shot has a story, find them at bodysong.com' which I find interesting as it allows me to look further into the film after the viewing experience is over, making it not only a visual piece, but also an interactive piece, allowing the viewing to partake in the works, which is something I would like to follow with my work.

Stills from the DVD menu for 'Bodysong'