the last documentary i watched..

A Crude Awakening

a crude awakening by dan das mann and karen cusolito

A great story. It does what it says on the tin. This is one of the documentaries that makes me want to go and move to the country side, own a farm and become completely self sufficient. An idealistic future. But what this documentary highlights is that we are now running out of oil but this is happening as its demand is increase, and this is a problem. Due to the current way of life that we in the west are now so accustomed to and enjoy, everything is linked to oil. The production of all we own is down to oil and our economy and even our politics, are linked with it; it is oil that makes the world go around, not money. Thus, the ever decreasing supply leads to desperate and generally pretty bad decisions. War and tar sands to name but two. However, the film then moves to discuss the possible replacements; bio fuels, nuclear power  and solar power are a focus, but as one interviewee comments, if using solar energy 'to generate the same amount of power we now use in fossil fuel, you would have to cover a land area roughly half the size of the state of California'.

The films content is good and it has  a good mix of interviews, graphics, cartoons and archive footage. The interviewees obtained are impressive  - CEOs, top oil advisors to many companies such Exxon and advisors to the Bush administration (the film was made in 2006) - making the message have a far greater weighting. I think my main problem with the film is its editing; it is clunky and continually goes to a blank screen between many of the clips, for a reason I can not gather as it just stops the whole things flowing smoothly. But, inspite of the this, its made me want to get my house in the country, so I guess its done something right.

Of Time and the City

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this. From what I had heard, Of Time and the City and was a black and white film about Liverpool narrated by the film’s director, Terence Davies. I thought it would be dull, like a bad lecturer giving you a bad lecture. However, it was not this.

Of Time and the City is in fact a beautiful and poetic film. The choice of footage, paired with Davies choice of music and his deep, theatrical voice, make this film unique. It is poetic. It is nostalgic. It is funny. It is despairing.

Davies comments not only on what he sees as failures in Liverpool, but the rest of the Britain too. He scathes the monarchy and the riches that it receives amongst the backdrop of a ration ridden post war Britain. He critiques (biut not this word) the governments and councils for their ‘solution’ to this; council housing. He comments how they expected something wonderful and beautiful bu instead where given the concrete monstraties that can be found across the country. It is almost as if he feels let down. He is so fond of his hometown and childhood that he feels that to take away from the beauty of the place – being both Liverpool and Britain – is heartbreaking. The soul and flare that he once knew has died out. And all that is left are memories. 

documentary

A new brief; to make a 5 minute documentary, based on an article, set in Liverpool.

Sound Editing

Editing sound has been really fun. We are using a mixture of atmos tracks as well as some composed stuff.

This is Grace doing her thing..


















The sound really enhances our film, so I'm well chuffed. We are trying to strike a good balance.. it was originally our intention to be a lot more experimental with the sound but now we are in edit and composing mode, it doesn't look like that will work.  Doing so detracts far too much from the footage itself and makes the whole thing feel very busy.

Paper room

By far the funnest day of 2012 so far. 

Edit

Editing has began!

All is going well so far, and with a week to go before submission, I'm confident that we will be able to produce a finished film that we are happy with. We have formed our basic structure;

forest-light art animation-paper room

and are now trying to put it all together in a way that actually works. The forest section is now all roughly put together and as it stands is pretty conventional. This was an issue at first considering that we are trying to make an experimental film. However, we think that actually, starting conventionally then moving to gradually less and less 'normal' stuff could work; it could mislead the audience and give our latter footage more momentum and impact. Another idea we had was to create a much more experiential soundtrack for this first third. Current thinking is that each third will have a different backing track. 

The main issue I think we now face is putting all our footage together in a way that works well and does the ideas justice. Each individual scene I think will be good but moving between them is the key to making it a film... we don't want it to end up like Inglorious Basterds... 

We also had a tutorial today in which we received good feedback, but as mentioned, the transition between scenes has to be really good. And, more importantly, so does the end. 

This is something that, if I am honest, we haven't given too much thought. We intended to end with the female character waking up, but this does seem rather conventional. As we know, 'it was all a dream' isn't exactly the most original storyline. So this weekend is going to be spent thinking up the best ending to a movie ever. 

More Nighttime Light Inspiration

Bruce Munro

Bruce Munro makes lights. He makes such good lights that he has been asked to do a number of light installations at places such as the Eden Project and the V & A, more than once.

His installation at the Eden Project, called Field of Light, is really quite spectacular. It looks so alien yet so natural, which is why I think I find it so appealing. The lights fit into the environment so well that it is as if they are a new species of plant, a wonderful natural phenomenon, like glow worms.

Thomas Albdorf
TVC#001

Stalker

One of the sections in our film is based in the woods. Our main character wonders through aimlessly, the context is unclear. One of the reasons for choosing this environment was, first and for most because the scenery is very beautiful and it makes for a great setting for a dreamy sequence. Another reason is based on the idea that, without sounding too 'new worldly',  the woods can have an 'energy'. I think it is the fact that being in a very natural, peaceful place can be really refreshing.. but these ideas are connected with those in Tarkovsky's Stalker, in which the protagonist, the stalker, has a connection with 'the zone' and feels like this overground forest is the only place that he can be truly content. In the film, also, there is the notion that this environment is alive and moves and reacts to human presence instantly. The room that is the central intention of the journey the three men take also has a dream like quality to it. When the approach, there is the scene in which we see 'the writer' has a monologue in a room filled with sand. This bizarre, out of context sequence is something we are going to try and replicate in our own experimental film. 

sound log, peaks

Sound Log – Peak District 30/1/12

219 – fierce water

220 – gentle water

221 – even gentler

222 - georgie kicking water

223 – discussing x

224 – microphone stereo stream

225 – ‘oh hello’

226 – x

227 – x

228 – stereo forest

229 – mono forest

230 – mono forest crow miss

231 – ‘’  ‘’

232 – ‘’  ‘’

233 – stereo walkers

234 – mono

235 – stereo shoes

236 – stereo

237 – shoes stereo

238  - mono shoes

239 – mono walking

240 – stereo trees/birds

241 – mono x

242 – stereo pool

243 – stereo pan/par (not too sure what it says…)

244 – ‘’ ‘’

245 – stereo shuffling

246 – stereo par/pan

247 – hard waterfall

248 – soft pool stream

249 – general pool

Soundtrack Inspiration