The Seven Deadly Sins - Moving Photography

Editing

2009-05-18T04:51:00.000-07:00

The last film i produced mainly focused on the edit and cut, in relationship to the narrative. However because i concentrated too much on this, it ended up being over edited and the shots were way too short. Editing is another extremely important process of film production, and can mean the difference between a long and boring piece to an interesting, exciting production.

I have quickly looked into the theory of editing and the processes that some editors go through. I found an interesting article into the psychology and process of editing at this site:

http://pov.imv.au.dk/Issue_06/section_1/artc2A.html

It explains how, based on the cut of the film alongside the timing and continuity of the narrative, the audience tend to create the story in there own heads. This of course depends on the moments they are exposed to the visuals and sound - timing is the most important thing here. Walter Murch's theory is, that to stop the film disconnecting and showing in fragments, it is necessary to let the "spectator become the co narrator". This will allow continuity of film, as the audience is constantly perceiving and assuming the story line as it progresses. An experiment was created involving a stereoscope, which separated the view of each eye. In each view, there were two different women. On looking through the stereoscope, the brain will automatically piece together the two images to create one, and assume the form of what the two should look like. This woman that they imagined would be picked by them as the most beautiful of the three images.

Tests

2009-05-13T12:52:00.000-07:00

Post Production Colour

2009-05-12T04:26:00.000-07:00

"COLOUR IS A POWER WHICH DIRECTLY INFLUENCES THE SOUL. COLOUR IS THE KEYBOARD, THE EYES, THE HAMMER, THE SOUL IS THE PIANO WITH MANY STRINGS. THE ARTIST IS THE HAND WHICH PLACES, TOUCHING ONE KEY OR ANOTHER TO CAUSE VIBRATION IN THE SOUL. IT IS THEREFORE EVIDENT THAT COLOUR HARMONY MUST REST ONLY ON A CORRESPONDING VIBRATION IN THE HUMAN SOUL." - W. Kandinksy - 'Concerning the Spiritual in Art' - The Art of Looking Sideways

I have captured some footage, however am not entirely happy with the overall colour of the image. The lighting was too bright and parts of the image burns out on the screen, which I will correct once I begin to edit. Because colour is a major issue in this project, I have researched into colour correction and modification, and what makes colour look good on screen.

My lighting skills have improved greatly, from the tests and photographs I took of each character, however there were still some obvious exposure and lighting problems on set. I want to enhance the specific colours of each sin, as this is what i want to stand out most. Because I am more interested in the response of the audience to the visual and sound link, I am relying on good colour to completely change the perception of the mood, alongside the sound.

Initial Storyboards

2009-05-05T03:44:00.000-07:00

The Seven Deadly Sins

2009-04-22T09:18:00.000-07:00

Every person has the capability to sin, have sinned already, and will naturally sin throughout life. The Seven Deadly sins has such strong visual and metaphorical concepts, exploring human psychosis and is heavily associated with religion. Each element of the Sins has a powerful existence within society, whether religion is involved or not.

The aim of this project is to create a visually powerful and experimental film, mainly through use of colour and sound. I find psychology of film extremely interesting – the relationship between sound and image has such a strong hold over the mind. Movement has a massive effect on people, and finding the right link between visuals and noise can create any kind of atmosphere and evoke any feeling that the director wishes to inflict.

The film I want to make must detach itself and the audience from reality, and focus completely on the cinematography aspects. I want to play with movement, and produce visuals that people will not see in every day life. However, I do want to keep it very simple, using a different character to play each sin. The sound will have a huge role in creating the kind of strange feeling I want to portray, and makes up 50% of the final production.

I will begin with 7 photo shoots of each character, and base the storyboard around these images. The film will literally be moving photographs - the footage should be as close to the photographs as possible.

The Seven Contrary Virtues

- HUMILITY
- KINDNESS
- ABSTINENCE
- CHASTITY
- PATIENCE
- LIBERALITY
- DILIGENCE

The contrary virtues were derived from the Psychomachia ("Battle for the Soul") a poem written by Prudentuis (c.410). Practicing these virtues is alleged to protect one against temptation toward the Seven Deadly Sins. Humility against pride, kindness against envy, abstinence against gluttony, chastity against lust, patience against anger, liberality against greed and diligence against sloth.

Soundscapes and Sound Design

2009-04-16T05:49:00.000-07:00

Soundscape
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

A soundscape is a sound or combination of sounds that forms or arises from an immersive environment. The study of soundscape is the subject of acoustic ecology. The idea of soundscape refers to both the natural acoustic environment, consisting of natural sounds, including animal vocalizations and, for instance, the sounds of weather and other natural elements; and environmental sounds created by humans, through musical composition, sound design, and other ordinary human activities including conversation, work, and sounds of mechanical origin resulting from use of industrial technology. The disruption of these acoustic environments results in noise pollution.

The term "soundscape" can also refer to an audio recording or performance of sounds that create the sensation of experiencing a particular acoustic environment, or compositions created using the "found sounds" of an acoustic environment, either exclusively or in conjunction with musical performances

Check out..

http://www.myspace.com/toyorch
- Modified Toy Orchestra
www.warmcircuit.com

The Modified Toy Orchestra re invents children's toys into new instruments, by taking them apart and creating new connections within the circuits. This produces a mass of interesting and new sounds, which they combine into strange musical arrangements. Contact through myspace.

Aphex Twin

Venetian Snare

Buckethead

PHOTOGRAPHY:GREED

2009-04-15T06:23:00.001-07:00

PRODUCTION SCHEDULE!

2009-03-27T01:49:00.000-07:00

Week ending 27th MARCH
- Still need 2 sets of photos
- Create story boards out of the photos you have

3RD APRIL

- Complete photos, begin to experiment with illustation over image, make photos move, animate over top. eg punishments of sins snakes etc.
- Shoot test shower envy scene
- Begin to shoot each film
- Print photos to mount

10TH APRIL

- Continue shooting (spend 2-3 weeks getting all shots), refer to photo story boards, obscure by Dir En Grey. Spend about half - a full day on each film shoot, so can get any other shots needed once done.
- Begin to edit, complete some tests

17TH APRIL

- More footage
- Editing

24TH APRIL

- Editing from here

PHOTOGRAPHY:ENVY

2009-03-27T01:40:00.001-07:00

PLAN FOR FIRST FILMING!!

2009-03-23T07:40:00.000-07:00

Greed... with Emma and Jamie...

Keep referring to "Obscure" video by Dir En Grey.

Shots:
Shaking head (to be sped up in post)
Playing with slime, close up shot of it falling over hands, putting it on doll.
Running on face?
Cut from serious, evil close up of face, to laughing, back to serious
Fishnets over face
Playing with jewellery
Monopoly money?
Writing on arms, greed, phrases associated.
Film space and then Emma in the space, so later, fade out emma as if she is dissapearing, into an illustration.

Sloth...Simon...

Lying flat on back, eyes closed, wide shot
Cut to eyes, which are sewn together

TO ADD LATER - animation/illustration of snakes, footage? NEED projection onto back wall.

Wrath... Sheetal...

Project fire burning in the background
Writing wrath onto arm
Putting a light to the doll, throwing it

Envy... Mel and klee?

Pouring water onto doll, then shaking, as if cold.(studio)
Bandana over face, so can only see eyes.
Close up of water coming from shower, slowed rightttt down. Film it falling through air, hitting klee/mels face, standing in corner of shower, freezing. Green food colouring on bottom of feet, green running down skin, as if envy is seeping out. Film it going down the plug so can be reversed and play with speed.
In shower soaked? Make up running down face, word envy

Gluttony...Ben

Lying on back surrounded by bottles.
Staggering up, grabbing another bottle.
film dropping the bottle, slow speed when hits floor.
Close up of lighting a fag, rolling a j, lines

Lust... Bethan

Side close shot of putting heels on whilst sitting down. fades out, camera slowley moving upwards following path of body.
Attatching suspenders to stockings
Smudging lipstick across face
Stroking arms, writing on self
(double check punishments for lust and wrath)

Vanity...Dru

PHOTOGRAPHY:WRATH

2009-03-19T08:32:00.000-07:00

PHOTOGRAPHY:LUST

2009-03-19T08:11:00.000-07:00

PHOTOGRAPHY:VANITY

2009-03-19T08:08:00.000-07:00

DEVELOPMENT

2009-03-12T15:19:00.000-07:00

Visually represent the punishments of each Sin with dolls-

PRIDE:Broken on the wheel

ENVY:Put in freezing water

ANGER:Disembered alive

SLOTH:Thrown in snake pits

GREED:Put in cauldrons of boiling oil

GLUTTONY:Forced to eat rats, snakes and toads

LUST:Smothered in fire and brimstone

RESEARCH...look at...

2009-03-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

http://www.deadlysins.com/sins/

BILL VIOLA
http://www.billviola.com/

Acceptance, 2008
Black-and-white High-Definition video on plasma display mounted on wall

The Crossing, 1996
Video/sound installation

JANE AND LOUISE WILSON

Star City, 2000
Four-channel video installation with sound, 00:08:36

PARIS, TEXAS

DON'T LOOK NOW

PSYCHOLOGY OF FILM AND VISUAL TECHNIQUES

SEVEN

DANIEL ASKILL

PETER GREENAWAY

DERICK JARMAN

PHOTOGRAPHY:LOCATION2

2009-03-12T14:18:00.000-07:00

LIGHTING

2009-03-12T14:15:00.000-07:00

Lighting will be extremely important in this work. I want to highlight the features and expressions of the characters, to exaggerate emotion, yet use shadow to bring in a darker sentiment. The lighting workshop was very helpful as I have never really experimented with light before, so this gave me ideas which I tested with each of my models. I chose to use gels across the lamps, and flooded the studio with the colour of each specific sin. Using fast shutter speeds, low aperture, and a high ISO, I achieved what I wanted, and placed reflectors in the background which picked up the colour and outlined the form. When I start capturing the movement, I want to play more with depth of field, picking up a lot of detail but blurring the background.

Correlated Colour Temperature and Gel Nomenclature

Because I have never really experimented with controlling a light source and creating my own light, I have briefly researched into lighting to give me a better understanding of the subject. The image a camera sees or a screen shows will be very different to how it appears in real life. This is where light temperature, correction gels, white balance and filters come in. To simplify, the colour of a white light source depends on the correlated colour temperature, or CCT. The higher the CCT, the bluer the light will appear. A tungsten light of 3200K will appear less blue than sunlight at 5600K.

Two commonly used colour correction gels are CTB (colour temperature blue) and CTO (colour temperature orange). Using a CTB gel will change the light given from a 3200K tungsten light to a 'daylight' colour. A CTO gel will do the opposite. Obviously there is no specific daylight colour as daylight will vary depending on many different factors - time of day, pollution, location etc, so gels differ from manufacturer to manufacturer. Fluorescent lights generally appear very green, and gels can be used to to remove the greenness. These gels are called minus green. Plus green gels will obviously modify light into a green colour, which I plan to use when I begin to shoot 'envy'. Gels come in various strengths and are indicated by fractions eg. 3/4, 1/2 and so on.

PHOTOGRAPHY:LOCATION

2009-03-12T11:45:00.001-07:00

PHOTOGRAPHY:GLUTTONY

2009-03-12T11:23:00.000-07:00

Sound in Films

2008-10-23T16:58:00.000-07:00

Frank Miller’s “Sin City”

The whole use of sound and image in Sin City works really well. It is filmed with the use of green screen, so there is no limitation to the imagery that can be created. Most of it is black and white, apart from certain colours which will evoke different emotions and feeling, such as red, which can represent blood, anger, lust etc, and will hint at what the character is feeling, what will happen, or emphasize a particular scene.

The sound in the opening scene works particularly well. It begins with an establishing sound, before the image even comes up. This initially gives the audience a sense of the place and surroundings, without even seeing anything. A faint police siren can be heard, along with other ambient traffic noises, horns, and car engines. The sound perspective suggests that these are far away, and are non-diagetic sounds as you cannot see where the noise is coming from. You automatically assume that the setting is a busy city, late at night.

Very subtle music cuts in as soon as the image appears. This music runs through the whole scene, fading slightly as the narrator talks. It is immediately suggestive of American style gangsters, and as the footsteps of the first character cut in, it puts you on edge, especially as the footsteps are louder than what you’d expect it to be. This makes you feel closer to the action, as if you are there too. You know something bad will probably happen - hearing footsteps at night is commonly associated with anxiety and apprehension.

As the character walks towards the edge of the balcony you see the traffic and busy city below. This is where the narrator begins to talk – the second character, more non-diagetic sound. We assume the narration is what the second character is thinking, and he appears behind the woman. There is strong emphasis of sound as the man offers the woman a cigarette – the image zooms into the packet. You can clearly hear the cigarette being taken, something you wouldn’t usually focus on. This is strong attention to detail, which would imply that is what the whole film will be about. The same emphasis is used as he offers her a light. There is a strong, obvious sound as he opens the lighter; the sound of the flame in the breeze is much audible than what would be expected. Everything is so clear, even the sound of his jacket as he moves.

It begins to quietly thunder in the distance, and rains. The sound of the rain is heard before it can be seen – more clues that something bad is about to happen. After more soft narration that overrides any other noise, you hear a quick, sharp gun shot, as the woman gets killed. You can’t see the gun or who shoots her, until the guy lifts the gun up next to her head. The sound engineering would imply he shot her whether you saw the gun or not.

As the camera zooms out from this scene and pictures the rest of the city, the music changes dramatically into a heavy, deep bass line, as the titles begin to appear. The music was quite eerie up to this point – it stays eerie, but becomes much more dominant.

Planning

2008-10-23T16:28:00.000-07:00

SOUNDS TO RECORD AND EXPERIMENT WITH

Brainstorm of sounds to create a dark atmosphere, and build up emotion.

- People shouting
- Lighter
- Weather
- Fire
- Rain
- Wind
- Thunder
- Twigs breaking
- Footsteps
- Knives
- Screaming
- Ticking clock
- Alarms
- Heavy breathing
- Music, instruments
- Industrial sounds, building work
- Whistling
- Nursery rhymes
- Heart beat
- Traffic
- Doors slamming
- Whispering
- Children laughing, speaking
- Footsteps
- Glass smashing

The Ring

Initial Photography

2008-10-23T12:24:00.000-07:00

Initial Research

2008-10-23T04:02:00.001-07:00

A few videos I've collected...the kind of style and texture I want to achieve in my work.

Slipknot - Vermillion

Rihanna - Disturbia

A Clockwork Orange - Stanley Kubrick

Negotiated Project

2008-10-23T02:29:00.000-07:00

AIM

In my next project, i want to explore ways of using colour to enhance an image. My last project was black and white, where i focused mainly on the construction and detail of the image. I still want to develop my cinematography skills, but focus more on colour, and adaption of colour. I also want to explore how lighting can affect the atmosphere of a piece, as i am not particularly familiar with lighting techniques. As well as this, i want to incorporate illustration and still photography into the film, and create a mixed media piece.

I still want to play with creating a weird, twisted kind of atmosphere, with sound being extremely important. I want there to be a strong narrative, but more abstract than my last film. I'd like to experiment with producing an installation.

How does different music and sound techniques affect the atmosphere and impression of a film? Collect and experiment with various sounds/music, and compare the effect they have on counter imagery.
Experiement with cinematography - does the image influence the sound or does the sound influence the image? Focus more on form, shape, and movement rather than colour. Colour will distract attention from the construction of the piece.
How will the film progress, and how will you show the progression of time? Shoot the film in three sections, include a narrative into the abstract imagery. Test various ways of showing and altering movement on programs such as Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premier.

LEARNING OUTCOMES

Improve lighting and technical skills. Adobe After Effects workshops, lighting, camera etc.
Continue to build on cinematography skills, although this time with heavy use of colour.