Testing Ideas | Development

To bring some of my ideas to life, and also to give me a little bit of an idea as to what some of my shots may look like in terms of composition and colour, I decided to test some of the shots.

I adjusted the colours, as this is something I want to do to the final footage, and also I experimented with the pace of the cuts, as I may decide to have the video at a fast pace.

Doing this test will help me when it comes to editing, as I can look back and see what effects I used to create a certain look.

Montage Practise | Workshop

After the workshop with Mike Rymer, we had a further workshop to give us practise on creating a montage. We were to work in a group, create a 3-5 minute montage, the theme of the video could either be despair, hope, joy or fear, and we had to edit the footage individually to create 4 different outcomes.

Planning

When getting into groups, we decided to get into our groups from before so myself, Nisserin, Ida and Josh worked together. We decided to pick the theme hope for our video, and came up with the idea that Josh was going to run for president so the video would contain him getting ready to do his campaign speech. We created a shot list and a short script for the speech.
 However, when it came to the filming day, we were told that the montage shouldn't have a narrative which meant that we had to adjust our original idea. We talked as a group and decided to stick to the original shot list and got rid of some of the shots that we didn't think were needed. We would then edit the footage in a way that doesn't show a narrative, but instead shows a montage.

Filming

When filming the shots, we used the jib for the last shot as a type of 'hero' shot. We also then used a mixture of close-ups and mid-shots within our camera work, while filming both inside and outside to create a variation of locations. To create a quick pace we used a mixture of quick pans which were then cut quickly within the editing.

Editing

We had filmed a shot where Josh makes a tick list and ticks all of things off the list, this shot was what I wanted to structure my video with so I made sure to interpret that throughout the whole video. I also wanted to make it quick paced, so I made sure to make the cuts quick and make sure the sound design created an impact. Then to create the symbol of hope, I decided to add an image of a dove and make it move so it lands on Josh's shoulder at the end. I did this to emphasise the hope theme as I felt it wasn't quite clear within my video, although the music chose does help.

My feedback was positive, although I was told that the theme of hope wasn't quite there but the montage aspect of the video was well presented. 

Depression | Research

Before filming my video, and going any further with the planning, I decided to do some research on the topic of depression as that theme will run throughout my whole video.

I already have a fair amount of knowledge on depression, but to further expand my knowledge I did some research into it. When seeing someone that has depression, from the outside, it can seem like that person is just sad and they can be very misunderstood. From the inside, it's a very dark illness that can change your life emotionally, physically and especially mentally.

Depression is a low mood that lasts for a long time, but in its mildest form, it can mean just being in low spirits. It won't always stop you from living a normal life and doing normal everyday things, but it makes things harder and makes you feel worthless and unneeded.
However, depression can be life-threatening as it can make someone feel suicidal and feel like giving up with living.

For someone that has experienced something similar to depression, I know that it can affect quite a lot in your life, but there isn't just one form of depression. The different types of depression are:

• Seasonal affective disorder (SAD)
• depression that usually occurs in winter.
• Dysthymia
• continuous mild depression that can last for a year or two, or maybe even longer.
• Prenatal depression
• this occurs during pregnancy.
• Postnatal depression
• This occurs after becoming a parent.

Many people that have depression can also have anxiety as well, and the feelings that surround a depressed on a usually daily basis is unhappiness and hopelessness. Depressed people tend to lose interest in things they enjoy doing and feel very tearful a lot of the time. 

Depression can be triggered from a variety of different things. It can either be a history thing were some others in the family have suffered from depression, or it can be from traumatic experiences or life changing events. 

With this knowledge, I can make sure I portray depression in a way that will show what it's like from the inside rather than the out. Also it will help me when creating the visuals and talking to the actress about her character.

http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/depression/Pages/Introduction.aspx

http://www.mind.org.uk/information-support/types-of-mental-health-problems/depression/#.WEmq3HecbUo

Adaptation | Research

This unit is all about adapting someone else's work, and putting our interpretation on it through video. I decided to do some research on adaptation's to help me understand a little bit more about them, and to help me throughout this project.

The definition of adaptation is

1. "the act of adapting."

 2. "the state of being adapted; adjustment."

 3. "something produced by adapting: an adaptation of a play for television."

Literary theorist Linda Hutcheon describes adapting as

"the desire to transfer a story from one medium or one genre to another" (Hutcheon, 2006:39)

A film adaptation is the transformation of turning written work into a film a TV series, usually shown in different parts. The director is usually the one who influences the adaption as they interpret the story in their own style.
Sergei Eisenstein, a Russian filmmaker and theorist, has suggested that novels actually contain written notes of visual filmmaking techniques like fades and other transitions and editing techniques. It has also been argued that there are many similarities in the storytelling method of both a film and a book.

However, there are differences between a film adaptation and the original text. The film will inevitably be shorter and may not contain every detail and scene that is written in the book. This is due to the length of the novel, and the fact that the audience won't want to watch a film that is longer than roughy 2 hours. A TV series adaptation will be closer to the story, as it will be split up into different parts meaning the whole story can be shown and told if the director wants it to be.

There have been a range of different reactions and opinions of certain adaptations from novel to screen, some being praised and others not. However, this reaction will be done to the type of audience the book and possibly the cast and crew have. The 'loyal' fans of the book may find the screen version not to their liking due to their loyalty to the original novel. However, fans of the director and or the cast may prefer the film due to their liking of the people on screen or the person who adapted it.

When relating this research to my poem, I need to make sure that I interpret the poem to my liking, but also take into consideration what the real meaning and story behind the poem is.

www.dictionary.com/browse/adaptation.com
Hutcheon, L. (2006) Hutcheon page stage. [online] At: http://www.canadianshakespeares.ca/essays/hutcheon_page_stage.pdf (Accessed on 28 November 2016)
(Hutcheon, 2006)

Idea Feedback | Development

As a class, we all sat together and talked about our ideas in order to get some feedback and possibly some helpful suggestions on how to make it better. 

When talking about my montage idea, the feedback was positive and people seemed to like my visual and sound design ideas. They also liked the fact that I want to portray depression as how it is for the depressed person, rather than how people from the outside see it. 

Some suggestions that were made was having a shot of the character with two different types of faces, to show the difference between how the person feels on the inside to how they look on the inside.

Overall, the feedback was positive and I'm really happy with the suggestions that were made, and I will definitely try and use them within my ideas.

DSLR Practise | Workshop

To prepare us for the filming of our fiction adaptation, we had a camera workshop to gives us more practise with the DSLR Cameras and to experiment with pieces of equipment we have access too. This workshop was run by Mike Rymer: a filmmaker who's worked in TV and film and has released his debut short film "SICK" that has broken the silence on mental health.

http://mikerymer.info/biog/

Within the workshop, Mike talked about the different type of camera movements and how important they are in telling a story. The camera movements that were mentioned were:

• Tracking
• Panning
• Crab: camera moves from left to right
• Jib: camera moves up and down
• Track/Dolly: camera moved backwards and forwards
• ContraZoom: camera tracks in and zooms out at the same time

We were shown many different examples of these camera movements and as a class we experimented with trailing out these different movements. This showed us that something like the ContraZoom is actually quite difficult to perfect, but with practise it's quite doable.

After the presentation, we split up into groups of 4 and began to experiment with the pieces of equipment that we have access too, like the jib, the camera track and the fig rig.

My group started with the camera track and tried to recreate some of the Wes Anderson tracking shots. These were fun to do, and although the outcome wasn't the best, we were able to trial this movement out and experiment with different ways to make it work.

We then moved onto the jib and created a revealing shot. We had two people sitting down in front of the camera, and another person stood on the other side of the room. The jib comes up and reveals the person on the other side of the room, while the two people spot her and run towards her. This shot worked really well, and we all thought the jib made the shot look effective.

Overall, this workshop was really useful to have and has helped me feel confident enough to use these pieces of equipment within my own work. 

Inspiration | Research

When coming up with visual ideas for some of the lines in the poem, there were a few pictures I had previously seen, and scenes in TV series that I had watched, that gave me some inspiration.

"Fighting the darkness for a moment of peace"

For this line in the poem, I had an image of a candle either being lit or already lit against a black background. To help me bring this image to life I researched that type of composition online and found a picture that replicated my idea.

The lit candle will portray the symbol of hope, while the darkness of the background will follow the line of the poem. To create this scene I will light a candle and set it in front of a black background. To present the difference between darkness and peace, I will shoot the candle being blown out, and in the editing process I will experiment with the reverse effect, so the candle being blown out will be shown in reverse order.

"To see the flames within your own"

For this line in the poem, I have a few different ideas depending on which one works the best. My first idea was a distorted flame from either a candle or a fire pit, and my second idea was the characters face blending with flames. When researching similar images to this idea I found a photo that gave me another idea that I might like to try.

This is a double exposure effect that makes the flames fit inside the outline of the model. I really liked this effect and thought it would be a nice effect to try out, however if it doesn't fit in with the rest of my imagery, which will be quite simple, then I will have to decide whether to go with my first idea or stick with this one.

"And we put on a song to dance to"

For this line in the poem, I wanted to show music playing but instead of using an actual instrument I wanted to add an vintage type of effect with a record player. When researching into record player photography, in order to make the visual effect, I found an image that helped me.

Although the colour won't be the same, the image will be slightly similar. The character will be in my visual, so I will start off with this composition of the record player playing the music, then there will be a focus pull from the player to the character.
I find this line quite emotional and almost makes me think of a memory being thought about, so I want to make this shot impactful and quite emotional for the viewer, and I think this visual will create this.

"To be Black, to be a woman,"

"To be poor and told your whole life" 

 "Things that make you compose a list"

"Of a million ways to kill yourself"

For these four lines in the poem, I wanted to replicate a scene from the TV series 'One Tree Hill'. In Season 6 one of the main characters gets attacked while closing her store, and there is a scene a few episodes afterwards, where she looks in the mirror and words are surrounding her on the mirror.

The image I thought about was very similar to this, however on the mirror, the shapes circling areas of her face and body won't be replicated. Although, similar to this, I will have words on the mirror in red lipstick.

The words that will be on the mirror for my visual are 'black', 'woman', 'poor' and 'kill yourself'.
There is another scene in 'One Tree Hill' that is very similar to this one, but instead of lipstick on the mirror, it's a projection of a piece of paper.

This scene is from Season 4, episode 13, and the words covering the actress are insults to herself, which is similar to my idea.




Then when thinking about the colour of the visuals for my video, I wanted a very de-saturated look, similar to these images.

The reasoning for the decision of de-saturated images, is due to the tone I want to create. The poem is about depression, and I have used that as my main theme for the video. I feel like having the colour de-saturated would create a depressing tone and will help towards showing the characters emotions.