First Film Shoot.

Today we enjoyed our first shoot of our surrealist film, there were things we came across and things we all learnt through using lights and being in a small space. Also having to think carefully about how all the footage would come together, or bit we needed to film when we came to edit it together.

Below are some notes on how I found the first filming experience and problems which arised...click on it to make it bigger!

Title Sequences?

How did the surrealists do it?
Seeing as the deadline is just under two weeks, been thinking about how are credits or title sequence will look when put onto dvd, I took a look at the title sequence for 'Un Chien Andalou'. It seems to be done in an abstract style, with old typography and almost collage like shapes, mostly the triangle is used.

Treatment Re-draft.

We've got together and looked at the treatment and first storyboard that we did, form the time we have left to film, edit and finish everything we went through how we would and could have done things, with the time left we adapted the treatment:

TREATMENT 2.

A delirious pilot is trying to make sense of what he sees before him after falling from his plane.

His vision blurs and his breathing becomes gradually heavier. Beams of light stream past him as he tumbles toward the ground.

His vision kaleidoscopes as he sees past events from his life. A woman on a beach, it is his mother. He calls to her, but she does not hear. His childhood, sand, holidays and happiness flash before him, he sees contentment.

He regains conciousness to find himself looking and trying to make sense of a woman’s torso, he is attracted to her and wishes to touch her but is unable to see her face.

He is pulled back violently as a force draws him away from the woman. He feels alone.

He finds himself in a dark enclosure, it is cold and he hears the sound of dogs barking.

He looks up and a dog surrounds him, he is scared despite how harmless the dog looks, he throws liver to the dog which he finds in his pocket.

His vision blurs, the dog duplicates and he is aware of memories from his past again. As if a book or cupboard is being opened he is flooded with these memories, all to fast to comprehend.

His mind takes him back to the beach and standing there is a young girl, much like the girl resounding in his dreams. He is unable to figure out how many of these girls there are.

He passes out.

More Film Research...

Battleship Potemkin - Bronenosets Potyomkin 1925

The film is composed of five episodes, if we had more time, this could be a good idea in making tiny episodes, especially if we were wanting to film dream sequences, it would separate the dreams well.

Eisenstein wrote the film as a revolutionary propaganda film but also used it to test his therioes of montage. Also used to experiment with the effect of film editing on audiences.

'Meshes of The Afternoon'

I was particularly taken with this film, although the length made it hard to watch! I think it's just brilliant how eerie it is, dis-jointed and how it confuses and amuses you. This is important and something I want to communicate to the audience.

The piece itself, made in 1943, is a short experimental film directed by wife and husband team, Maya Deren and Alexander Hammid. The films narrative is circular and repeats a number of psychologically symbolic images, one of which is as key falling. In our film we want to do some sort of thing where you show a 'literal' image of something instead of filming it. For example, for a cyclops just showing one eye, this carries the confused surrealist theme through.

Through creative editing, distinct camera angles, and slow motion, the surrealist film depicts a world in which it is more and more difficult to catch reality.

Understanding Lights!

We explored a little bit with lights and got to grips with how to use them effectively inside. My group went into the lecture theatre and played out a devil/angel themed act. The lights were set up to show the devil in a evil light and the angel in white light. There was lots to consider, especially as there were stairs to contend with, we struggled to fix the lights on certain people.

The film, entitled 'Devil Wins' which is very short, won't upload, but showed a good use of lights and camera angles, as the devil and angel are up higher than the actual person at the bottom, this was a struggle, but was fun to work out how to achieve the right lighting.