Having scenes in the first person is very common in films. I think that one of the most famous ones is the scene in Spider Man 3 where Peter Parker 'Thinks He's Cool'. This scene makes his super powers to be made out to be rather idiotic. He is walking down the high street thinking that he looks cool and but instead he is getting getting odd and rather offended looks from every women he passes. This affects the audiences view point because it makes the audience feel as though they are actually that character. I think in this particular scene the audience feels embarrassed to be him because they realise it is ridiculous what he is doing.
I think that in these scenes it gets the audiences heart racing because it feels strange to be in the position where it feels like you are actually involved in the film and not just watching it. The audience is viewing it as though it is them walking down the street. The impact this has is that in first person feels like they are being involved in something that they shouldn't be because it feels a bit intimate. I think it is a bit strange that we feel intimate with the other characters as all they are doing is walking down the street. This type of scene gives us an insight into the character as it feels as though we know more than we should. I think this is interesting because then we feel as though it's no longer about the character in the film, it's about somebody we know. This is the reason why we care so much for this character, it is as though we have a relationship with this character which is why we continue to watch because we have an attachment to them. This is why we want to see what the outcome to them is. I think that this is the way that the director captivates the audience.
Our production was slightly different to what we normally do, this is because for this task we decided to do it as an interview. We decided on doing an interview as we thought that it would be something a little different and fun. The idea was that I would interview my colleague Olivia who would be the celebrity. The way in which the audience would be transported into our heads was through the thoughts of them. This is because the interviewer would be forceful and Olivia thinking 'it's none of your business' while actually smiling and pretending that everything is alright. Without this dialogue I think that the audience would get a more friendlier perspective of her than they actually get. This is the same at the end with me as I say 'that was interesting' which also shows a different and more sarcasticperceptive that the audience wouldn't have gotten without it.
I think that filming in first person is a lot harder than people think because we need to make sure that the perspective is always in the first. The way we did this was through my other colleague Lauren changing between mine and Olivia's perspective to make sure that we got it. I think by changing this it took a very long time but I think that it worked well as we achieved what we wanted to, the first perspective. I think that it is a lot harder purely because you are limited as to what you can see, this is a big reason why our filming took us quite a long time as we had to check that everything was right and nothing looked out of place. I think that when watching it back the audience would get the true feelings of both the interviewer and the interviewee, this is because of the monologue in our heads, this is because without this the audience wouldn't get any inside thought they would just get what we would be saying.
Therefore I think for this particular task it was good to do an interview because the audience does feel involved in the situation. This wouldn't feel as personal in third person because we wouldn't get any actual feelings.
Describe your two filmed shots. What emotions did you try to convey, and if you used an object, explain what significance it had?
The two ideas that I shot were terror and worry. The reason why I used the first emotion terror was because I thought that it would be fun to film, I think that this expression was more fun to shoot than a cheesy smile. I also used it because a lot of people were doing something similar so by using terror it was something that was a little bit different. In my second shot I decided to use worry the reason for this was because I was using my object which was my notebook which I had got given from my friends when I left school I decided to look worried which is ironic because that was kind of how I was feeling when I read it back made it look very serious and real.
How did you approach the editing of this video? Did you have any aims, either creatively, or simply to get to grips with the editing process?
I feel as though I did a very creatively. I measured all of the clips and made sure that all of them lasted at least 10 seconds. This is because in the Drugs video each of the clips also lasted for 10 seconds. The reasons why I wanted it to be similar is because it was a homage to the previous video.
How did you select the clips you ultimately used? Was it favoritism, or did you think about what were the ‘right’ clips to use? Did you use every clip? In all points explain why.
I cut out a lot of the clips and the clips that I did use I used to a certain reason. I wanted to have a mix of serious and cheesy shoots. I think that this was important in order for it not all to be the same. The order of the shoots was important because I had to make sure that there weren't too many cheesy ones after another.
Did you attempt to place the clips into any kind or order, or position them in specific places? Can you give examples of specific decisions you made?
I had to make sure that two of the people same people weren't in a row.an example of this was for their first shot I had Katie and then Lauren and for the second shot it was the same, therefore for their second shot I had to make sure that their shots weren't next to each other. I felt like the clips that I used were the right ones because it made sure that the video had the correct amount of cheese and terror.
Did you attempt to make the video footage ‘work’ with the music? If so, how? Did you edit to the ‘beat’ of the music, or was it looser? Again provide examples?
I don't think that I edited it that well with the music and if I were to do it again then I would make sure that I look through all of the clips to see if there were anymore that would go better and more in time with the music. I think that it was mostly to the beat but not to the beat as much as I could of done it. In the future I think that I would spend more time making sure that it fits not to the beat in order for it to be improved. Having watched someone else’s edit, what are over overall opinions of it? Both positive and/or negative.
My colleague Darren thought that it was good because I was able to catch the different emotion to go well with the music. This is because I used a variety of different emotions and didn't just speak to the same ones throughout.
Highlight a ‘best bit’ that you think was edited particularly well. (Either it was in the right place, or worked well with the music, or simply has ‘impact’.) Explain why you chose this.
The highlight of it that he said was with Seth at the end where he puts his head in his hands to cover his face, he then tips his head down. This shows that it is ending because it's not showing the face like the rest of the video, this shows that this is the end, as it then slows down and dissolves into darkness.
Is there anything you would do differently, if you had edited it? Can you explain your reasons for this? Darren said that he didn't think that there was much to edit but if he were to do it again he would do it so a couple of the shoots go better with the music and move them so that they are more in time. But other than that he said that he wouldn't do anything differently because he liked the way that I edited it.
More Soon also known as London film maker and designer Carl Burgess. He started up the name in 2005 as a way of showing his developments and experiments. Although after a year or so of doing that he included more complete work and focused on creating more finished pieces. His name 'More Soon' is quite acceptable to start with because after he releases his first piece of work which isn't quite finished, it is very obvious that there is more to come from him.
Through his work he combines the digital, hi-tech, and modern world with human emotions and humour. He uses old videos and photography which to everyone else has no use but to him they are important because he loves the idea of transformation and changing them into crazy music videos. Carl has a habitat for collecting archival photos which in the past have got him in quite a bit of trouble. Although very successful not all of his projects have gone to plan as he likes to experiment with different ideas such as flooding a photography studio.
He worked with Kenzo in their Fall 2012 video. Kenzo was born in Japan but moved to Paris in 1964. Kenzo is now a fashion house started in 1970 as Jungle Jap. Throughout this video you can see where his ideas shine through. The ultra high tech and modern emotions are shown throughout. This is the one factor that is seen in all of his work. I think that this is important because he has a constant theme which is used in all of his videos. This work was made with a lot of stock footage which Carl had collected and edited over the years. This way it meant that he was able to use actors without having a budget.I think that one of his most famous works is his Olympic piece this is because of how effect the audio is in it. The audio is very dark and has a low beat Carl likes the sound as it.
'Audio is a really important part of the finished piece it’s like the icing on the cake but I find the process of making music quite challenging so it is always something that I avoid until the rest of the project is done.'
Kap Bambino - Obsess is a very popular music video by More Soon. Kap Bambino is an electronic musical duo from Bordeaux, France. I like the concept of this video because it's very dark and serious. During this video we see a plain background which is either black. The people in the video are making some kind of emotion. They are either using scared, terror or happy emotion. There is either one or a couple of people in the shot. There is a number of different shots for each of the different people. I think that this video is a very simple idea that works really well because of all the different emotions that come together. In this music video everything seems real because it looks as though they are actually feeling their emotions instead of it just being on camera. The reason behind this video was that he wanted it to have 'no buildup, all the best bits straight away.' This shows the type of director that More Soon is because he was going against what is considered the norm in the directing world. The subject of this video was the people - the extras because they were the main focus. He left the actors in their own clothes to make it seem more genuine.
Print Screen's from the video - Obsess.
For Ratatat - Drugs the same music is used as for the Obsess music video, however this time the music video is a lot different. I think that this video has been Americanized the reason I think this is because of the people, they are either all dressed up smart or in suits. This shows that this is America because it's similar to the way they act. The background is white with a smoke effect in the background, the reason for this is to make it seem darker than it originally should be. This video is slightly more 'in your face' than the previous video because it doesn't feel as real because these people are posing for the camera. Also in this video their emotions don't feel as real as their faces look strange and fake as they smile. I think the reason that this is done is because it symbolizes America, they fact that they put on an act and in this case the act of the 'fake smiles'.
Fast Company: The video is funny but at the same time almost painful to watch---was that the original intent?
Carl Burgess: Yeah, I edited it that way on purpose. A lot of my work mainly focuses on one subject and more often than not has some kind of humor.
At first I edited it like you would a normal music video, fast cuts, everything on the beat but I quickly realized that they lost impact when shown in this way. It's the long cuts, the drawn out smiles and the obvious direction that's the interesting bit.
I really enjoyed doing Technicolour Yawn I think that this was because it was something different to what we usually do. Technicolour Yawn is an euphemistic expression for an uncommonly colourful and forceful bout of projectile vomit. We did this by working in groups with one person in the group making it look like they were about to be sick, we had to take footage from their front and side view.
To edit it we had to use Photoshop which to begin with I found quite difficult because before this I had never used Photoshop before. We used a cool function called 'Onion Skinning' which basically gave us the outline of what we did in the previous clip so that we knew we were still doing similar things. I used the paint tool to get different colours and patterns to make it look like 'colourful vomit.' I started off with smaller lines and colours as I wanted to eventually build it up to make sure it looked ok.
The 'Onion Skinning' function.
It took a very long time because one clip of footage worked out to only be about 0.25 seconds therefore we had to spend a few hours to get any sort of 'vomit.' This was hard because we had to work out what we were going to do in each of the clip because they had to be similar but not exactly the same. I found this fun because it was a chance to experiment with Photoshop and try out different things and see if they worked.
I did it in three different parts with it starting off being really small, then getting slightly bigger and finally in the last couple of clips the 'vomit' took up the entire screen. Coming up with different ideas was fun, I had to make sure that the colours were bright so that they could be seen on the screen as Jade has very dark hair and some of the colours would have gone unnoticed against her hair else.
After I edited it on Photoshop I went back onto Premiere Pro and slowed it down, the reason for this was so that it would have lasted longer as it was only about 7 seconds long but I slowed it down by 30% to make sure that it lasted for just over 30 seconds. Also on Premiere Pro I kept the same backing noises that we had the reason I did this was so that the sounds sounded real and not too animated. I think that this worked well and I liked the way in which it turned out.
Lev Kuleshov was a Russian director born on January 1st 1899. He was most famous for his editing technique which is known as the 'Kuleshov effect.' He wasn't the first to use such editing technique as ones such as 'crosscutting' had been used in Hollywood before him. He was the first one that used it in Soviet Russia.
When we began to compare the typically American, typically European, and typically Russian films, we noticed that they were distinctly different from one another in their construction. We noticed that in a particular sequence of a Russian film there were, say, ten to fifteen splices, ten to fifteen different set-ups. In the European film there might be twenty to thirty such set-ups, while in the American film there would be from eighty, sometimes upward to a hundred, separate shots. The American films took first place in eliciting reactions from the audience; European films took second; and the Russian films, third. We became particularly intrigued by this, but in the beginning we did not understand it. - Lev Kuleshov
In this quote Kuleshov states how the Russian films are a lot different from other Europeans ones and American ones. This is because of the way that they are set up to the shot is a lot differently and the process they go through is different.
The original work for the 'Kuleshov effect'
The Kuleshov effect
The effect is a documented part of film-making where by putting a film together, using three different situations but only using one reaction which is the same each time. The audience praised the acting for showing hunger, grief and lust not knowing that the reaction is the exact same each time. The reaction shots were to a dead women, a women on a recliner and a plate of soup; three entirely different situations. By using this editing technique it creates a meaning that the audience wouldn't have thought of before, which is a way of constructing the sentences. This way the audience doesn't realise that their reaction is in their own mind they just think it's down to the actors subtly not realising that they are being affected by the same reaction in the scene. The impact of Kuleshov's work was the audience not understanding that they are being manipulated and tricked as the emotion in the scene is heightened in a number of different ways even though the expression never changes.
All art is emotion, and that the task of the filmmaker is to use the tools of his medium to manipulate the audience’s emotional experience - Alfred Hitchcock
Alfred Hitchcock here states that it is all in the eye of the filmmaker the reason why the audience feels certain emotions is because it is the way the filmmaker plays them to believe or not believe something. Therefore tricking and playing with the audiences emotion.
The expression never changes.
It is questionable whether the Kuleshov effect can actually control other people's feelings. As discussed by psychologists, people will bring their own opinions and emotions to what they see. The audiences will classify and mis-classify certain faces. This is because a neutral face can either look happy or sad with fear either about anger and confusion.
The reactions weren't as diverse as Kuleshov thought they would have been with the audience realising that he was actually in love with the women and he didn't just lust over her. This is because at no times does the actor look bored with the audience as some audiences might need more context to understand the look that the actor is trying to give. The intense emotion that is a given shows no sign of being a negative emotion. Which makes the audience be able to give a more specific emotion once they are aware of the object.
Documentaries take basically unrelated footage and juxtapose it in order to give the viewer the idea the filmmaker wants to convey. They take footage of birds snapping a twig. They take footage of a fawn raising his head. The two shots have nothing to do with each other. They were shot days or years, and miles, apart. And the filmmaker juxtaposes the images to give the viewer the idea of great alertness. The shots have nothing to do with each other. They are not a record of what the protagonist did. They are not a record of how the deer reacted to the bird. They’re basically uninflected images. But they give the viewer the idea of alertness to danger when they are juxtaposed. That’s good filmmaking. - On Directing Film by David Mamet
Again like Hitchcock said, David Mamet says how the film maker does certain things in order to tell the story in the way that they want it to.
One of the most famous examples of the Kuleshov effect
is in the video 'Hitchcock Loves Bikini's'
I think that this editing technique is a really clever one to use which in a way makes the audience think deeply about what they are watching, this is important because then the audience feels as though they are part of the storyline and the actor makes them feel involved. It's also exploiting the audience because they are making them believe that they must act a certain way when they react to the scene. Although this effect worked very well to start with in today's society it's harder to trick the audience now because they know the techniques well and how to deal with it. While during the late 1920's the Kuleshov effect become very popular with directors such as Sergei Eisenstein,Vsevolod Pudovkin and Dziga Vertov which featured in films such as The Battleship Potemkin, October, Mother and The End of St. Petersburg.
Evalution of our Kuleshov Effect
In our film the shots we filmed were of money failing from air, a girl getting punched and a conversation between three of the actors pointing and laughing at the camera. We had an idea for each of the shots that they would have different perceptions. In the money shot we thought that the idea that the audience get would be that they would either think that they were going to steal the money because they desperately needed it or because it was their money. In the punching shot it was the idea that she did something wrong or that she person is a bully. Finally in the gossip shot they were laughing at the actor or the actor just wanted to know what they were laughing at.
The audience reaction to the actor was that in the first shot that the actor was going to steal the money because there was money there that could have just been grabbed. In the second shot the audience reaction was that she was emotionless because she just stood there and made me no reaction while someone was getting punched. In the final shot the audience reaction was that she was too scared to do anything and they saw her as a wimp. In each of these shots she is being perceived as a completely different person even though it's the same shot each time. This is down to the editing of how I made the actor come across in each of the different scenarios.
In film there is a lot of different transitions that can be used. Transitions are important because they make the audience react differently to each of them as they are used as a way of passing time and making it feel like there has been a long time between each of the scenes. Another reason for using film transitions is to convey to the audience of a certain tone or mood. This is essentially important for when it comes to horror movies as they need a certain mood to scare the audience.
The most simple transition is a straight cut which is a where one scene ends and the second scene starts. This transition is important if the scene beforehand is just a filler scene. This type of transition doesn't have much of an effect on the audience because of how simple it is.
A very common transition that is used is the contrast cut where editing a juxtapose of two contrast subjects, for example in the first scene everything is really quiet while in the second scene there is a loud band, this makes for a very intense transition which can sometimes scare the audience, this can only be used through this type of transition and not a gradual transition. The most famous contrast cut is used in The Godfather - The Baptism Murders Scene in this scene the first shot is of the baptism that is taken place where it is all quiet and calm in the next moment the next scene is of the murder shot with loud sounds and bangs using guns.
A match cut is another one which is very common to filmmakers however this has a different reason, this transition is used to hide the transition from the audience this is because the character is covering the camera as they know the cut has happened but they are away of when this happened. Hiding it away from the audience makes them unaware of how it's been done. An example of this is in 'A Space Odyssey' in 2001 where the first shot is of a Gorilla throwing a bone while the second shot is of the bone up in the air.
Finally a fade in/out shot is used either at the start or the end. At the beginning of a film where it cuts to black usually before the title while the fade out occurs before the credits at the end of the scene. The reason why this is used is to highlight that the credits are soon to come. An example of using the fade in is in this opening sequence of 'Six Feet Under.' This is because although they fade to black many times during this sequence they also fade to white, which is something that is really different at unique.
For my version of the Swish blog. I worked with my colleagues Lauren Walke and Olivia Searle. The idea for it was that I would jump and then I would land in different parts of the building. It was quite hard to get the timing right. I think that the timing was the most important thing when it came to this project. The reason for this is because if the timing was off the whole thing would look odd. I think that we kept to a really simple idea that worked effectively because we could edit it to the way we wanted to.
When it came to the editing all we I had to was cut and razor away some of the clips, the clips were all in order so the only thing that I had to do was make sure that the timing was ok. I think this was one of my most successful projects. It was a good idea to use a simple idea. In the background I used the song 'Jump' I used this because I think it would well with the idea of me jumping.
I really liked this project because although it was simple it worked really effectively. I think that if I were going to do it again I would jump in some other places and maybe do it outdoors so it looked like we had gone further than just in the college. I would try and keep some of the original wild track in it next time because I think that a video like this would look better with more original music than a song. Although the song does work well with the purpose of the video.
The Waiting Room is a project in which time has been distorted. This is where time is a ticking time bomb. This is mostly used in live TV or when something big is going to happen, eg. a fight off. The reason for this is because it is tension building as it adds to the drama. In live TV the most common time it is used is on the X Factor when Dermot is about the results of the winner. The tension is build up because of the pause in between him saying 'The winner of X Factor is' and the name of the act. In this pause the camera does a close up on the two acts and their judges and then an extreme wide angle of the audience and the whole stage. This shot is used to show the reaction of everybody in the room. In this part it seems as though it is going on forever because of the tension felt.
Little Mix announced the winner of X Factor 2011.
A lot of television programmes they use time lapse photography more than films. The most common type of television programme this is shown in is DIY programmes such as Grand Designs and DIY SOS this is to show over time how the house gets changed in the space of a one hour show. The time lapse shows the process quickly this way it feels as though real time has been sped up. Unlike when the scenes are slowed down time seems to be taking forever while in this time is going really fast because the scene is been shown over a quick period of time. Although this doesn't create any tension, it just saves the audience from becoming bored too quickly.
The time affects the audience because the tension is building in the scenes that are drawn out and it feels as though the scenes are going on forever even though the scenes only last for a few seconds. While when time speeds up the scenes feel really short.
For this project I worked with my colleagues Katie Patrick, Jade Popham and Jodi Smith.
In our video we had to distort time, the way in which this was done was through conveying an atmosphere in which we had to build tension. The way in which we did it was through creating a story line that people will believe and be able to tell it. The way that this is able to be done is by creating a back story for the character. This is important so that it seems more believable. The actual back story wasn't very hard to create we decided to do something which is used almost every day. She sends a text message and is waiting for a reply however it is the importance of the text message as she has found out she is pregnant, only to find out that the number she has been texting has been cut off.
I think that the music in this video is very important, because at the start the music I decided to use is just one with people's voices talking in the background. I decided to use this because I thought it would show how she is in a everyday environment she is waiting for this text as though it is the most important thing in the world and could potentially change her life while everybody else is going about doing their everyday things. As the video goes on I added a heartbeat over the top, I decided to use a heartbeat because she is anxious and worried therefore the heartbeat shows that she has been waiting a while for this to happen, although in real time it hasn't actually been that long. Then at the end the music speeds up as she receives the text this is to build up the suspense. It is important for this because this is what the video has been building up to therefore it needs to come to some sort of climax.
I think that in films one of the most important aspects is time and therefore I think that by slowing down time the audience gets the same feelings of anxiousness as the actor, this helps the audience to relate to the film.
Practicing Funky Skills
This was our practice over head plan. In this we had to measure out how far each of these would be away from each other. It took quite a long time to work out how far each camera and lights would be away. This was the first time we had to take everything into consideration. In think that this was important to do because in this we realised how much other things directors have to take into consideration.
