Trip to Edale

Had a scout to Edale to see if I could find some interesting locations. Instead of story-boarding, I like to take photos or shoot seconds of footage if I find a shot that I might like. I took these as I thought they would make great shots and revisited them for the shoot.

Edale research

As I had absolutely no idea where Edale was, I decided to research it on Youtube, Flickr, Google Maps and such to see what/where it was and what sort of film we could make there. It looks to be a very calm and desolate place. As the project was 'Portrait of Place' we decided to try and do exactly that, create a portrait. Like a photography portrait I wanted to capture the essence of the subject, and from what it looks like it appears the essence of the Peak District is its peace and tranquility. Hopefully we can capture it in an artistic way. This is an example of some of the photographs I found on Flickr.

"Gasman" - Lynne Ramsay

Gasman is a short film by Lynne Ramsay. It starts with a series of smooth or still quite uncomfortable close ups of the father ('Da') and the children. Da is smoking a cigarette and the young girl is getting her shoes and dress on whereas the young boy is pouring sugar onto his toy car, suggesting he has little interest in going wherever the others are going. We don't see a discernible face until the young girl has successfully put on her dress, leading me to think that she is the main character of this story. The family are mostly shot as close-ups or medium close-ups and none appear in the frame together. This gave me the impression that they may be quite a detached or broken family.

Something I found very interesting was that 'Ma' is not focused on at all. There are two occasions were we almost see her, her face is shadowed when she shuts the front door and in the window her face is obscured by reflections and then faded out. As we are not shown or introduced to Ma at all we assume she is not vital to the story's' narrative. When Da and the children are walking along the old train lines it is the first time any of the characters are shot together, excluding the long shot of them on the street. They are centrally framed and surrounded by a vignette in a very conventional medium long shot. This is extremely contrasting with the close ups at home where they seem detached, they are shown in a very picturesque way as a close family.

They meet with a woman who we learn is a former lover of Da and the mother of two of his children. The shot of Da touching the woman's hair is romanticised by the close-up and use of slo-mo, suggesting he still holds feelings for this woman. The 'new' children appear less well off than the first two, the new girl is wearing her school uniform, the contrast in wealth is made apparent when she tells the old girl she likes her dress.

The party scene was shot in quite a realist way, the use of handheld camera was often shaky and didn't focus on anything in particular in parts. It was very immersive as it was almost as if we were behind the camera at the party observing. The old girl starts a fight with the other as she's sat on her Daddy's knee. As they are walking home and Da picks them both up at the same time I think that the old girl finally understands that these are also Da's children. When she picks up the rock to throw at the other girl she knows that this is her sister and the dropping of the rock is her accepting this.

I saw this a couple of years ago, fell in love with this song, it's called 'It's Alright' by Bang Gang.

Reminded myself of it after my last post. Another beautiful looking skate video. I think I'm gonna set up my camera at Devonshire Green skatepark and try and make something like this. I don't have $25,000 for a RED camera, but I'll see what I can do with my 550d

Saw this last night and was absolutely blown away. Everything about it looks so clean and relaxed. I loved the shot of the birds scattering, and the section in the pool. I've never seen editing in a skate video done like that before. Not a lot of people think to shoot skateboarding in such a way, most tend to overlook the importance of visuals.

Got one of my 35mm films developed. It's a multi-storey car park in Scunthorpe. I think I'd just been to see The Adjustment Bureau, and it was terrible. At least I got this picture

This was my first time using effects with Adobe Premier, I used some scrap footage from a photography trip and tried to make it into quite an interesting and engaging short piece. Although it has no narrative and is only one shot I feel that the bizarre feel of it combined with the particular piece of music creates quite a bizarre and ambiguous atmosphere.
The music is 'Snake Oil' by Trophy Scars

'Fixed' is a short film I made last summer. I wanted to make something quite unnerving and unconventional. I decided to use many jump cuts to try and get the viewer out of their comfort zone and into the mind of this person. This was my first real attempt at film with my Canon 550d, I had to compensate the low lighting with a high ISO and this significantly decreased the quality of the image. Despite this, I think the gritty poor quality of it gives it even more of an unnerving feel. I was very pleased with the end result.

Listener - Wooden Heart

I am often inspired by a range of art, but mostly photography and film.
Listener are a 'talk-music' band from the United States. They are Dan Smith and Christin Nelson.

This is the first band in a while that have really inspired me, not only musically but how I think about things. Dan Smith's lyrics are almost always short stories that almost play visually in my head. I can just imagine these stories as short films or scenarios and find huge amount of inspiration in them. Aside from their music I think that Dan Smith's ideas and take on life is something I find really amazing.I would love the opportunity to meet these two and see them people play live.

"Christmas With Dad" - Conor Mccormack

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IdlWPLYH7MM

This documentary gives us an insight into 23 year old AJ's life at home. AJ lives in a council flat with his partner and seven children (biological father to to of them), and one yet to be born. The film was extremely effective in terms of provoking an emotional reaction. I genuinely empathised with AJ and his situation. I found some of the imagery particularly shocking, especially the shot of the toddler that was chewing on an empty cigarette pack. Not just the imagery but the stories that AJ told. The fact that his son was on drugs at age 15 and his uneasy upbringing both affected me. To think that nothing would have been scripted and supposedly no shots were planned made all of this a lot more hard-hitting.

This film changed the way I think about documentary as a whole. The shots and cinematography were not well constructed or very nice looking at all, but I think it works perfectly. The focus is entirely on AJ and his family and how real this situation is, and it's filmed almost in a 'home movie' kind of scenario. It makes no attempt to glamourise anything about itself and I think this is what makes it such a powerful film.

Had some film developed at the weekend.

Some of my favourite shots from this film.
Shot on expired 35mm Kodak Max 400 expired in 2006 with a Canon T70.
This is my first ever SLR film. I'm very pleased with the outcome. I'm getting used to how to compose shots and how to get the correct exposure in different light. I really think these skills can be applied to my film-making and cinematography.

Woke up and saw this bird chilling on a roof over the road. Was obviously too tired and shot in JPEG rather than RAW, and had the ISO cranked up. Still, I like it. Used an old Canon FD 300mm lens with an adaptor for my 550d.