To create my final film I tried out as many effects as I could on Premiere Pro. One that I particularly liked was the Arithmetic effect. I used this one to duplicate the image of the man and added several layers all positioned slightly differently to create the final clip. One of the other effects that I liked was the Ultra Key. It allowed me to make parts of the footage that I created onto the black leader transparent and then overlay it onto of the images I drew onto the clear leader. Allowing parts of the footage to show through. Once I had made my film I needed to decide what soundtrack I would use. The first one I tried was the sound of the projector but I also wanted to try one with music to see if it would enhance the piece. The music I choose fits nicely with the film and I think works much better than just having the sound of the projector in the background.
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Sound is used in many films to enhance viewer experience. When working directly onto Super 8 film there are two options to how you want to add sound, if any. The first is to scratch or work directly into the optical soundtrack and the other is to add the sound in digitally afterwards.
When working directly onto the optical soundtrack it is important to remember that the sound is 23 frames behind the image so you have to be careful when matching up the sound and images. The only problem with using this method is that it is difficult and time consuming to create sounds to match the imagery that are not just bangs and scratching sounds. This is why many short film are put to music after being created.
Below are some examples of contact printed images:
The symptoms of fear can be mimicked within a film, simply by using a mixture of pacing and semiotics. By using some of the following techniques within my film I hope to accurately portray the idea of fear.
Some of the symptoms of fear include:
We were each given some black leading to experiment with, my aim was to try out as many different techniques as possible to see what outcome each one would give. After creating my film I projected it onto a screen and recorded it, enabling me to look back at what I had done and see which techniques I wanted to bring forward in this project. Below are the results.
The topic that I have decided to base this project on is fears. They can have both a negative and positive impact on peoples lives. Some fears are rational and warn us of dangerous or harmful situations, but others are irrational and make us avoid certain situations even when there is not any real danger. Within my film I wanted to illustrate some of the most common rational fears and hint at how they can have be a positive and negative impact.
After brainstorming some ways in which fears can be both positive and negative I wanted to look into the top fears that people had, below are some illustrations that I made to show what those fears were. The opening credits to the film Se7en make use of scratchboard and was shot on film. Designed by Kyle Cooper in 1995 this sequence was put to the song 'Closer' by Nine Inch Nails, which I feel adds to the eerie feel of the film and further illustrates the idea of representing the killer. Cooper later went on to design the opening credits for Mimic (1997) and Arlington Road (1999), which both have similar effects to that of Se7en. This intro was revolutionary and provided inspiration for many designs that followed it, including the music video for 'Stupid Girl' by the alternative rock band Garbage and the opening credits for U Turn by Oliver Stone.
Len Lye For Color Cry, Lye used fabrics and stencils, drawing inspiration from Man Ray's 'rayogram and 'shadow cast' processes. Then synchronised them to a son by the blues singer Sonny Terry, which Lye likens to the cry of a runaway slave. Although this film was made using mainly fabrics each segment tells its own story while still flowing fluently from one to the next. The use of fabrics as a consistent medium through the film helps to tie it all together, but at the same time each of the different segments within the film makes use of a different fabric, whether that be in the pattern or the material. This allows the telling of a story and together with the abstract music, which at first seems like an unusual choice, makes the film complete. One of his more simplistic but arguably one of his best films is Free Radicals. By simply scratching away at the black leading he was able to create a film that took this medium back to its simplest form, the presence and absence of light. The music that a film is paired with is a choice that can heavily impact the way in which the audience views and interprets the film. Lye's choice to put traditional African music to this film works well both in terms of pace and harmony with the image. Stan Brakhage was a director and cinematographer from the USA and was among the first designers to physically alter the film strip. One of his films, Mothlight, created by gluing dead insects and leaves to the film strip illustrates the experimental nature of film. This film has no narrative and therefore leaves it down to the viewer to interpret the story / message that it is trying to convey. To me the fast paced nature and the flickering image is comparable to the way a moth flutters around a light bulb. Thus allowing the audience to see what life may be like throughout the eyes of a moth.
This project is about film and how it can be directly manipulated to create moving image. The theme that we have been given is positive and negative. Immediately ideas of how things such as colour, light intensity and shape can used to convey this idea. This project allows for so many different avenues of experimentation and is all about pushing the limits.
I began this project by brainstorming all of the possible ways that film can be physically altered to create an image, below are some of the ideas that I came up with. |
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