Shooting another scene recreation!!

For the last project of craft skills, we were tasked with shooting a scene recreation perfectly matching a scene we decided to do.

We went though lots of different ideas from Monty Python to Blackkklans man but we decided to go with a scene from Good Will Hunting, where Will is being spoken to by Sean on a bench in a park.

The scene is very simple (or so we thought) only consisting of 3 shots, 2 being close ups and one being a long shot. However, what we came to learn is that the camera slowly moves on Sean moving from left to right slowly showing Will in the shot. Originally this would have been done with a track but due to us not having access we decided to use a slider which will push the camera along between two tripods.

We decided to practice before we shot which was extremely useful to do, during this time we worked out the best position for the tripods, focal lengths for the camera and more importantly the timing for each rotation of a crank to allow us to work out how fast things needed to be done. It worked out each full crank is 23 seconds and then we worked out where the camera needed to be position wise hand how many cranks it takes.

All of this was important so when it came to shoot everything would go to plan.

Then it rained like no other day.

We got it shot with the loss of fingers and toes but the end result looks good and will be up on youtube soon.

Link to scene https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEIQSbul9Os

Roma (2018)

Roma is one of the most successful films in 2018 winning multiple awards. Winning 4 Baftas and 3 Oscars and being nominated for much more. It's story is simple, following a maid going about her life for a year in mexico. During this year her employers go through a lot of trouble ultimately trying to find themselves as well as Cleo (The maid) who gets pregnant and has the struggles of what that brings with it.

The thing that stood out for me was the great use of wide shots and one take shots where we would get a nice shot of an area. The reason this is important is because the film is trying to show what general life is like and the wide shots establish that Cleo is just another cog in the system. For example, we get an establishing shot a Mexican village, where a bus pulls up and Cleo steps off. This establishes where we are and what Cleo's plan of action is in the village when asks where to go. Instead of the camera cutting however it stays static waiting for Cleo to move right of the screen. This helps convey to the audience that she isn't necessarily the most important part of the film, but it's the attempt to capture life.

Another that really stuck out was the lack of any soundtracks. All the music that's presented is done through diegetic items such as radios and TVs and the piece is better off for it. Just like life, without music the audience can't predict what's going to happen. There's a scene where Cleo is threaten at gun pointing at her and without the music it creates suspense not knowing if she'll be shot or not.

I think its the focus on realism and lack of a genre that managed to encapsulate the audience. The best way I've heard it from the person I was watching it with was. "Its a film about a mundane life, who managed to discover more about herself as well as them around her in a year." It just goes a long way to show that a film about a life can be interesting if presented well.

May I Please Enter

Another piece by Alan Resnick, this time being a tv show about a man entering a house after finding it. It feels very much like a show where a host will show case a house but where it differs at first is that Alan is instead intruding trying to force his way in. Obviously this is creepy but it the piece does a 180 and instead of Alan being the weird one it becomes the two owners of the house.

The first sign that this piece will be weird is when Alan knocks on the door, we get a nice beat transition between doors, but when it comes to the current door the audience is left with a lingering shot of Alan knocking with each hit sounding like it's hitting an empty void. Then Alan rings the door bell where is finger goes through pushing the button all the way back and falling into a big mess on the floor.

From here out it's relatively normal having a small montage of Alan looking around the house, until it ends where one of the owners shows him a pair of lungs on the floor, breathing in and out. The piece does this a fair bit having a normal home with something random being placed in without any context and the characters acting like it's normal. And it's that which gives this piece a really good scare factor. We don't get any context and no resolve to what's presented making it an even more creeper experience. Sometimes that best way to creep the audience out is to show something so unexpected they don't know how process it. I've seen this with a few people and each one had a similar action going from creeped out to forgetting about it during the times where the piece is normal again to straight up weirded out by the bizarre actions. This is a good way to keep the audience engaged because it keeps them focused on the screen

Link to the piece: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgxSIFcTvLo

The Celebration (1998)

The Celebration is a film about a rich family coming together to celebrate a 60 year old man's birthday, however one of his son's decided their going to reveal his darkest secret which is that He raped him and his Sister when they were both younger.

This film is considered one of the greatest Danish Dogme films of that genre. Danish Dogme is a form of film making that was using during the 95 to 05 where the brother of Dogme set out a set of rules to follow.

• Shooting must be done on location. 
• Props and sets must not be brought in (if a particular prop is necessary for the story, a location must be chosen where this prop is to be found).
•  The sound must never be produced apart from the images or vice versa. (Music must not be used unless it occurs where the scene is being shot.)
•  The camera must be hand-held. Any movement or immobility attainable in the hand is permitted. The film must be in colour. 
• Special lighting is not acceptable. (If there is too little light for exposure the scene must be cut or a single lamp be attached to the camera.) 
• Optical work and filters are forbidden. 
• The film must not contain superficial action. (Murders, weapons, etc. must not occur.) 
• Temporal and geographical alienation are forbidden. (That is to say that the film takes place here and now.) 
• Genre movies are not acceptable. 
• The film format must be Academy 35 mm. 
• The director must not be credited

In the celebration it uses the majority of these with the it's greatest achievement being that it's one of  the best handheld film made. It really goes a long way to see what you can shoot with such little equipment and how you can make it feel very action packed by having a shaky camera or cutting to another shot very quickly. It also breaks the 180 degree rule often which adds to the action of the scene showing how chaotic it can be.

Comedy Crib Mirrors

These shorts were created by one of my favorite content creators called Wham City Comedy. The shorts are a vlog style take on the life in a cult which is all about cleanliness. This is a piece that is used to make you feel like something behind the scene is going on an they manage to achieve this well with the style they used in their videos.

Like stated before the piece feels like a vlog that would be found on a youtube channel with the characters talking to the camera in order to create that friendly bond with the audience. And with this we get the sense that these people are giving us a glimpse into their life but it also becomes apparent that the film makers want the audience to pick up on something by using an edit that consists of an exaggerated zoom and tracking of that object. And this persist through the rest of the series.

The videos carry on going and slowly progress worse and worse showing that something is wrong with the characters as their eyes become redder and redder and their faces become pale. With this being gradual it draws an audience in to wonder what will happen next.

Another thing to mention is the static break up during episode 5 which to an audience makes it seem like Curtis is going insane however through the static you can see that something is infecting them, and this then causes the audience to go back a review the other clips to see if they can piece anything together.

This is an effect way to post a film because for the audience it's a quick form of story telling that feels relaxed. It also is a good way of showing how the character life without breaking the forth wall and then potentially allows an audience participation.

I quite enjoy these as they are their to make you look deeper into the piece and if you randomly came across it I could imagine people would be creeped out.

Here's a link to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLmu6JBK17BzjH0HBjhdUXc2IfrCRQGhcD

Sex Survey Results

Well this is definitely a interesting video that gets the cogs turning, but it's not for the vaint of heart ot anyone who doesn't like gore.

It needs a little bit of explanation before we start, the film creators behind this film since 2008 have been using Garfield to show how unfunny it is. For years people have stated how Garfield is a funny news strip where people say 'you have to imagine the cat saying those things, imagine it's real'. So they did just that.

Skip to 2017 and the film makers put a phone number out their so people would call up to leave their number sexual encounters. And in February of that year a 4:40:51 second piece was created.
And for that 4 hours and 44 minutes the audience is shown the same knock-knock joke consisting of a character sitting reading a news paper, they hear someone knocking at the door. The character approaches and says "Who's there?" with the door opening revealing a mannequin  reading one of the answers from the survey. Door closes and the cycle repeats with a newspaper showing it as a 3 panel comic strip then repeating the process all over again.

This is trying to tell the audience how the same style of jokes are repeated for Garfield and that they have never been funny and by repeating it they will never get better. Of course there are some that are funny but there's only around 10 minutes that can be considered funny.


But at 4:33:58 something else happens, Jon opens the door to see himself. Jon outside tell the Jon inside he's had 2 sexual encounters, He looks back at himself in disgust before smiling and then telling himself "Jon Arbuckle, 0" Closing the door, but instead of going back to the newspaper we're stuck on the other side of the door with the other Jon. The piece here visually changes to something more fitting for a film. The whole house changes to become more realistic showing a real cat staring out of the window. With Jon looking more like his creator, Jim Davis. From the next shots it becomes clear that the character is left unamused and is baffled in what he's seen. We are greeted with a shot of Jim staring into the cat's eyes almost ashamed, but also creating a difference between the two, which is then backed up by the subtle voice over of Jim in an interview he's conducted about how him and Garfield are very different.
In the next few shots, what we see is Jim's distance between himself and reality. The streets are empty and he looks visually drained, he comes across two mannequins that leave him a briefcase. He opens it finding a decaying cat. Personally I believe this is representation him saying that Garfield will never grow out of fashion and will always be around after he's dead due to his "funniest" with the film makers directly showing that it's very much the opposite.

The film takes another shift with it cutting to a desert with Jim navigating up a slop to come across a nude tribal man wearing the same colours as Garfield. Eventually the Tribal man attacks Jim but becoming more like a demon on his shoulders. All of the shots here make it feel empty, but in a good way. It makes the audience feel like nothing is more important but these two characters and they achieve this by mostly using wide or long shots to show the characters and their positions.
John turns to worms and the scene transitions. The scene for me represents how Garfield has and will take over Jim's legacy with the worms representing Jim's death and Garfield looking over his death.

If things we're weird enough then it gets even weirder from here. We cut to a close up of a school girl screaming sitting on the toilet, already the shot make the audience feel too claustrophobic but then we go damn right disgusting as we see the girl give birth into the toilet bowl. She talks in a foreign language, which roughly translates to about her giving birth to a bad thing and asking for forgiveness before leaving. The last shot is the baby covered in blood, utility cord and all sitting in the toilet while a ginger cat is circling it.

Lovely thing to be watching on a Sunday right?

People have been lead to believe that this symbolizes that Jon Arbuckle will never die leaving a bad legacy behind, something that is damaging to Jim and is considers a grave sin.

Things like this I really enjoy, not because of the blood and gore, but because it's something that's really creative and visually weird. I like conventional films too but it's pieces like this that are able to spark a community to talk for hours about one subject pondering what it all means.

Here's a link. (Please if you don't want to be come extremely creeped out or don't like things like gore, don't watch. I'm lowkey regretting watching this)
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KgmoMO66uPg

I WILL DIE IF I CANNOT BE FAMOUS

This short film is about a man who recalls his story about wanting to become famous, talking about his friends and the aims that he and them want to achieve.

The film itself is a montage of the friends doing various activities. It make them feel like their free doing whatever they want cutting to them being themselves and preforming for the camera to show their best versions. But the narration has a darker undertone with the Marcus the main character talking about how he feels during each situation. It almost feels like everything we see are a visual representation of what the characters want where as the audio is what the characters have, and this contrast is effective because it makes you second question what the characters all think about each other.

Sure the audience sees all of the friends spending all the time they have with eachother, enjoying themselves at the park, however the Marcus' reflection paints a different feeling where the characters a simply using each other for their own benefit.

Film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGMWaMJBDzY