The finished track.

Audio:


Due to copy write constrains we decided to employ the help of a friend who produces music, he worked with us during a couple of sessions and through this we were able to ascertain custom made track for our film. We didn't want our work to stand out too much like a music video and as best we could we tried to use the music as a mood enhancer, rather than using it as the inspiration behind the images.


The program being used was ableton live, below are a number of screen shots of the track being created. 
   

The finished track, being exported as a WAV file, ready to be imported to Final Cut Pro.

On location in Grindleford. We really wanted to show off the location by incorporating some movement into the shots, while we didn't have the funds or means to acquire a real steady cam, after a simple google search, George found a way of utilising a tri-pod to achieve a similar effect. While the out come can't compare to that of a real glide cam, I feel we did the best we could with the make-shift equipment we had.  

Shooting in the basement. We incorporated the use of a smoke machine and strobe light in order to achieve the desired effect. This was the second time we tried to film this sequence as first time round the ISO and shutter speed of the Canon 7D resulted in the footage being highly grainy and of low quality. After some quick research we tried again, this time with much better results. 

Our re-invented villain. After the fist disastrous costume, we thought it a better idea to make the whole thing ourselves - a huge improvement to the first attempt. 

This is what greeted us the first time we tried to shoot. With such heavy snow we felt the landscape looked more like a winter wonderland than a place of fear and mystery. Following this short visit we gave up for the second time with plans to return a couple of days later, hopefully giving enough time for a good percentage of the snow to melt.

Three days later, this is what we were left with... 

On the day of the shoot (third time lucky) much of the snow had gone and made working conditions far easier, allowing us to gather what we needed in one afternoon. 

Our first attempt at a costume, clearly some work is needed... After seeing this we gave up for the day, returned to Sheffield and started work on costume #2 

We shot our first sequence in the basement yesterday however when we came to review the footage, we found that due to a mistake in regards to the ISO settings, the footage came out grainy and of low quality. After doing a little research, we believe to have found a solution to the problem and will re film the sequence following filming in the woods today. (9/2/12) 

Today we are going to Grindleford for a location scout. We have heard there are some good woods in the area so plan to make a quick trip ahead of filming in order to minimise standing around, thinking, with an unpaid actor, in the snow. Below are pictures of Grindleford and the surrounding woods.

  

This gives a good idea of the effect we wish to achieve. Using smoke, a strobe, low lighting and playing with the speed of the footage we believe we can produce a similar effect. These scenes will be cut away's from the chase sequence in the woods and act to break up the piece preventing the film from becoming essentially characters running through the forest.

I like the eerie, almost ancient sounding voices in this track. The fact that our figure pulls reference from plague doctors of the 14/15th century, I think the idea of an 'ancient evil' is very relevant. It also in some places sounds like distorted religious chanting, again relevant considering the connotations of ritual the black cloaks triggers.

This contains a lot of the inspiration for our ever developing idea. The cloaked and ambiguous figure shot in low light is one of the key elements of our film.

Shot List: (rough)


Living room shots.


Masks, smoke machine, strobe light, Christmas lights.


'The Horror's' video inspired shots. Abrupt movement, shaking of head, jolting movement, distortion of limbs. Sped up. Shallow focus. Low lighting. Silhouette.


There will include a forest/woodland sequence. Girl running in fear of 'monsters' (use of masks). Chase sequences incl. stumbling, running, close ups of face. Interspersed cut away's of the monsters giving chase. Mid shots of hooded figures. 


Splt screen section, lower half of protagonists body in the natural environment, top half in the dark, low lit, 'strobe room.'    


Make use of super 8 film burns and reel footage as transitions between contrasting shots. 

  

Nice edit style.

We're swaying towards the idea of using masks and costumes to hide our characters and make the film more abstract. While this isn't exactly what we want to produce, I like the contrast between the modern suburbia and the American Indian style girl and feel creating a similar contrasting film would work well along side our current ideas.

Researching Experimental

The following are a selection of films I feel are relevant to the current brief, aside from informing me of the loose conventions of experimental film, most of them have been highlighted because they inspire me in some way. Its music that seems to be the structural starting point from which the films are built around and it is this method that I will be adopting in my own work.

This film was the very first inspirational piece I saw and is similar to what i hope to achieve myself. The main elements that i hope to mimic and explore is the use of careful editing to achieve images to seem to move with the beat of the music track. I love the fact that something so simple, in terms of the original footage, can be turned into something as dynamic and arguably as beautiful as this. The principle draw back to this film however, at least when I apply it my set brief, is that while its interesting to look at for the duration of this particular song, my task of creating a five minuet piece might stretch its ability to entertain and to hold an audience for that length of time. While I would really like to incorporate this style into my experimental film, it would have to feature as an element of the entire piece.

The way in which this film takes something ordinary and alters it through post production into something abstract is another element in which i want to explore. Its possible to film and present anything in such a way that it no longer resembles its original state, the use of macro lens is something I'm planning to experiment with, by magnifying something you instantly get the chance to see a different perspective of it that you wouldn't normally see and by doing so give an audience something fresh. I hope by doing this, along with other methods, the fact that my film will follow no linear pattern or won't repel those who watch it but rather interest and draw them in.        

The use of color is an important factor of this film too, by filming a variety of unnatural light sources and by constantly contrasting the colors and also size of the shapes, the vibrancy and sporadic nature of the music has been nicely captured and portrayed well, something I'll need to think about when making my own film.

Both these videos are from director Chris Cunningham, a guys who's experimental film making is widely renowned as some of the weirdest and most creative. Visually, his films are often quite similar, making use of low lighting and applying heavy coloring alterations in post production. For this reason, along with others, I have chosen to highlight his work as its a style I wish to try and imitate in my film. Since writing about the first example of experimental film, it has been decided by our group that rather than basing the whole project around shape, color and light, a loose narrative thread will guide the audience through the film and ensure a more pleasing finished work. With this in mind, the use of abstract characters, such as in both these Cunningham films is the kind of idea we're leaning towards.

The editing too, especially in 'Flex', is without a doubt tailored to fit the piece of music accompanying the visuals. While we are quite clear we don't want to make a film that feels like a music video, we want to achieve something where the music feels like an integral part of the production, rather than simply layering a track over the top at the very end in an attempt to justify whats on screen. 'Flex' is inspirational as its using the music as diegetic and non-diegetic sound within the world he creates on screen an interesting take on the music video genre. In my own film i would like to experiment with this, perhaps one way in which the music can relate to the visuals, other than editing according to the beat of the track, would be to have the characters react in certain areas of the song, or incorporate certain sounds the song makes in places into an event that happens on screen. An example of this in 'Flex' is when the shaft of light hits the fighting couple, the sound of the music fits perfectly to this and both visually and musically connotes the idea of an alien presence.