A portrayal of elegance involving the drug use: white lighting showing in a close-up a display of only the needle and the drug objects, GLAMOUR, TEMPTATION slow-motion ritual of loading and shooting, dynamic and attractive image + VISUAL IMPACT crude scene. Sharp and slow music, provocative, very sharp, distorted (minor chords, harmonic minor scale) Feel: SEX, DRUGS, EDGY MUSIC.
No narrative built up at first sight, but then they are connected.
Angles: Dutch angle on the druggie's house, ankward shot in where he is cut in half on the left frame but his missing half is seen on the mirror. Low angle.
Close-ups on the drugs: Importance on them over their trivial car conversation
Costumes portray the characters (Lance's costume), and mise-en-scene: the set shows the hippie-like ambience of the house, conveying the sense of Vincent's addiction. Outcasts of society, piercing conversation. CONVENTION OF CRIME GENRE. (See the Dutch shot)
Editing showing both Vincent's pleasure face by close-up with the elegance of the drugs, also in close-ups. The Vincent's driving shots are shaded, portraying
CONNECTION/CONTEXT: "Madman" heroin which Mia shoots as cocaine after, overdosing and causing trouble in the plot.
Contrast in use of shots: Mid-shots showing Vincent and Lance in a trivial conversation, but Extreme Close-ups when showing the druggie preparing the drug.
SUBVERSION OF CRIME GENRE CONVENTIONS: Lance's place, a rather normal, mundane house, a typical environment, ahowing a more real scene.
-Not an exotic place: daylight, normal house, druggie relaxed and on bath robe.
-Vincent is not glorified, talks about someone ruining his car, and in an ankward moment talking about Lnace's wife.
-Relaxed, real-like ambience, no tension created on storyline, no conventional danger and dark-mood
-No heroism or morality (or inmorality) pronouncement showed, as the studios pastly asked for
-In the whole movie, not a single cop is shown, no law, only the "bad" side of the law is shown
CONVENTIONAL FEATURES: -Drug use, sex talk
Production Journal: Post Processing
Deadlines seem to be far too near but systematic and efficient work solves the problem, although work is tough and time consuming: I have been involved in the transcribing of interviews from video to paper, which I have now selected and grouped toghether according to their content, for example:
-Sensations which people feel about the insecure situation
-General opinions about the situation
-Probable causes for this dilemma?
I have transcribed the quotes which seemed to be able to have a greater impact on the audience, although some of them may well not be used in the final cut.
I have also been creating a general storyline, which, together with the sequence of quotes and the transcription of those, will be finished for tomorrow, in order for our editor, Honorio, to be able to work efficiently according to a plan.
After the presentation of the rough cut, I am going to be heavily involved in creating english subtitles for the quotes
Although the deadline for this rough cut (next thursday) is very near, efficient and organised work can deal with it properly and meet the task, we will be relying on our own organisation now.
-Sensations which people feel about the insecure situation
-General opinions about the situation
-Probable causes for this dilemma?
I have transcribed the quotes which seemed to be able to have a greater impact on the audience, although some of them may well not be used in the final cut.
I have also been creating a general storyline, which, together with the sequence of quotes and the transcription of those, will be finished for tomorrow, in order for our editor, Honorio, to be able to work efficiently according to a plan.
After the presentation of the rough cut, I am going to be heavily involved in creating english subtitles for the quotes
Although the deadline for this rough cut (next thursday) is very near, efficient and organised work can deal with it properly and meet the task, we will be relying on our own organisation now.
Production Journal
I have been, as a scripwriter, translating all of the lines I think could be used in the final project from the interviews. I focused on the impacting and catchy lines, also managing to pick some which could be used together with similar ones from other interviews.
An example of this is the answer to their feelings, to which many of them answer with "fear" or "helpless"
An example of this is the answer to their feelings, to which many of them answer with "fear" or "helpless"
PRODUCTION JOURNALS - becoming more analytical
Watch the student film, "Treehouse". Initial comments as to its strengths/weaknesses?
The film quality was remarkable, including the election of music, sonic and visual purity, editing artifacts. The storyline wasn´t ideally attractive and the project was far ambitious, but the filming was excellently done. Maybe, a couple more of shots, as establishing ones, could have been used.
Read the commentary extract from the director's production journal. To what extent does it meet the guidelines above?
The journal gives some evidence of the work done, including graphics and stills, but there are areas unexplored, as the inclusion of the storyboards, which is not analysed. All production stages are commented on, including the meaning of the election for some costumes, music, characters, etc.
For US: We should become far more specific, including graphic displays, examples, and analysis of meaning.
The film quality was remarkable, including the election of music, sonic and visual purity, editing artifacts. The storyline wasn´t ideally attractive and the project was far ambitious, but the filming was excellently done. Maybe, a couple more of shots, as establishing ones, could have been used.
Read the commentary extract from the director's production journal. To what extent does it meet the guidelines above?
The journal gives some evidence of the work done, including graphics and stills, but there are areas unexplored, as the inclusion of the storyboards, which is not analysed. All production stages are commented on, including the meaning of the election for some costumes, music, characters, etc.
For US: We should become far more specific, including graphic displays, examples, and analysis of meaning.
Production Journal: End of Filming
These 2 days (Monday 22nd and Tuesday 23rd of August) have been of intensive filming, rough, first hand editing, and lots of technological managing.
With 3 cameras at our disposal, and a tripod, shots were made, including interviews to subjects, furtherly analized in the "data log," establishing shots spending a great amount of time and memory capacity, and the most simple, but not easy or trivial at all, close-ups of security cameras.
Weather was very helpful (no rain), except for the extreme cold.
Some difficulties were found, especially when encountering frequent low-batteries and needs to quickly recharge. Also, the memory of the cameras in hand did go out in some ocassions, so we had to download our footage several times into the laptop. Our first intentions of recording audio separate from video were unsuccesful, as our equipment wasn't prepared enough. An establishing shot of aproximately 40 minutes long which was prepared to be fast-forwarded, has been probably lost between the first-hand download to the laptop.
But, we were able to film over 10 interviews, over 4 long, establishing shots, several close-ups. Also, we thoroughly researched over which b-roll footage we were going to use and decided a final list of videos. Obviously, the majority of our tries to interview random people were a failure, but several hours of work ended up in us having many of them, and many quotes to choose from.
Some plans had to be changed (for example, due to the discovery of a great establishing view from Ramiro's balcony, we didn't have to travel through the city to capture that specific shot), but we followed more or less our shot list, our location list, and we strictly worked according to our roles. I filmed the shots, being the cameraman, and also prepared them, as the mis-en-scene. Now, I will be the one encharged of transcribing the interviews and deciding on the punch quotes to be used, also creating subtitles and the script.
With 3 cameras at our disposal, and a tripod, shots were made, including interviews to subjects, furtherly analized in the "data log," establishing shots spending a great amount of time and memory capacity, and the most simple, but not easy or trivial at all, close-ups of security cameras.
Weather was very helpful (no rain), except for the extreme cold.
Some difficulties were found, especially when encountering frequent low-batteries and needs to quickly recharge. Also, the memory of the cameras in hand did go out in some ocassions, so we had to download our footage several times into the laptop. Our first intentions of recording audio separate from video were unsuccesful, as our equipment wasn't prepared enough. An establishing shot of aproximately 40 minutes long which was prepared to be fast-forwarded, has been probably lost between the first-hand download to the laptop.
But, we were able to film over 10 interviews, over 4 long, establishing shots, several close-ups. Also, we thoroughly researched over which b-roll footage we were going to use and decided a final list of videos. Obviously, the majority of our tries to interview random people were a failure, but several hours of work ended up in us having many of them, and many quotes to choose from.
Some plans had to be changed (for example, due to the discovery of a great establishing view from Ramiro's balcony, we didn't have to travel through the city to capture that specific shot), but we followed more or less our shot list, our location list, and we strictly worked according to our roles. I filmed the shots, being the cameraman, and also prepared them, as the mis-en-scene. Now, I will be the one encharged of transcribing the interviews and deciding on the punch quotes to be used, also creating subtitles and the script.
Production Journal: First Filming Day
Today is our first filming day. At 5 pm the group is going to come together at a designed place, and shooting will start. Further information will be given afterwards, hopefully, we will learn how to achieve better footage tomorrow!
Interview Analysis
After watching footage from Super Size Me (Spurlock, 2004)
1) What techniques are used to introduce the audience to the interview subject(s)?
2) Is it necessary to hear a question being asked before the interviewee's response on film? Why/why not?
3) Shots - what camera positions and angles tend to be used? Why do you think these choices are made?
4) Movement - what do you notice about the movement of camera during interview filming?
5) What can you say about the positioning of the interview subject within the shot (ie. where are they looking and why?)
6) How long are the subjects' responses to questions? How much information/opinion do they give?
7) What research do you think Spurlock did BEFORE interviewing the subjects here? Be as detailed as possible.
1) Voice-over can be used to introduce a new subject, or audio in general. This can be accompanied by visual footage. Thye audio can be edited to fit with the entry of the new subject
2) No, it's not necessary if the question is absolutely implicit or if the subject answers with full syntax. Although sometimes, the question can be shown, in order to convey different effects (e.g.: when he asks the lawyer about his motivation for being in that trial, the Q is used as "agressive")
3) Level-angle shots are used, in order to give a balanced, non-distractive image to the audience
4) There is no movement involved, as the image is intented not to de disruptive for the viewer, for him/her to concentrate on the content of the interview
5) Subject usually focuses his view outside of the framing, as if watching a third, non-shown subject. This gives the audience the feeling of being in an interactive, conversational situation, in where the artificial camera is not acknowledged.
6) These are short and concise: editing is carefully done to only show the important and relevant content of them
7) A huge amount of research was done, as he investigated on the backgrounds of the subjects, their important data, their past, and all which was concerning each of the interviewees.
1) What techniques are used to introduce the audience to the interview subject(s)?
2) Is it necessary to hear a question being asked before the interviewee's response on film? Why/why not?
3) Shots - what camera positions and angles tend to be used? Why do you think these choices are made?
4) Movement - what do you notice about the movement of camera during interview filming?
5) What can you say about the positioning of the interview subject within the shot (ie. where are they looking and why?)
6) How long are the subjects' responses to questions? How much information/opinion do they give?
7) What research do you think Spurlock did BEFORE interviewing the subjects here? Be as detailed as possible.
1) Voice-over can be used to introduce a new subject, or audio in general. This can be accompanied by visual footage. Thye audio can be edited to fit with the entry of the new subject
2) No, it's not necessary if the question is absolutely implicit or if the subject answers with full syntax. Although sometimes, the question can be shown, in order to convey different effects (e.g.: when he asks the lawyer about his motivation for being in that trial, the Q is used as "agressive")
3) Level-angle shots are used, in order to give a balanced, non-distractive image to the audience
4) There is no movement involved, as the image is intented not to de disruptive for the viewer, for him/her to concentrate on the content of the interview
5) Subject usually focuses his view outside of the framing, as if watching a third, non-shown subject. This gives the audience the feeling of being in an interactive, conversational situation, in where the artificial camera is not acknowledged.
6) These are short and concise: editing is carefully done to only show the important and relevant content of them
7) A huge amount of research was done, as he investigated on the backgrounds of the subjects, their important data, their past, and all which was concerning each of the interviewees.
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