Museum Project (Session 3)

During our third visit to the museum, we began to build our sets, props and characters. We were split into three groups and each group were assigned a set. Then we went off in our groups and began to brainstorm our ideas for the set that we had been given. The group that I had been put in had been assigned the 'Little Brother's Bedroom/Landing', so we thought of various ways in which we could decorate and furnish his bedroom and then started moulding furniture out of plasticine and wood, and making the wallpaper.

Shutter Speed Experiments

Shutter Speed and Frame Rate


Frame Rate = the number of frames captured by the camera per second.

Shutter Speed = Duration of the time each frame is exposed to light.

The standard setting for your shutter speed should be double your frame rate, or as close as possible. For example: 24p at 1/50. 

Frame Rate vs. Shutter Speed from Story & Heart on Vimeo. https://vimeo.com/138261651

1/30 

For these videos, I shot on the standard kit lens (18-55mm). I used a shutter speed of 1/30 on a tripod, which is relatively slow and we can see a fair amount of motion blur when the subjects are moving. 

18-55mm kit lens 1:30 from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

1:30 s from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

1/100

I shot these videos on a 18-55mm standard kit lens. 

18-55mm kit lens 1:100 from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

1:100 from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

Reflection

I think that my videos were relatively effective, although I can definitely room for improvement. The videos were all exposed correctly, however in the videos with the cars as subjects, the tripod is slightly wonky which does not look aesthetically pleasing. 

Studio Lighting/Lighting

Rembrandt

Rembrandt lighting is made up of one light source on one side of the face and a triangle of light on the other side of the face, below the eye called a chiaroscuro. The light source must be at a 45 degree angle to the subject and slightly higher than the subject.

Butterfly

Butterfly lighting was popular in the 1930s with Hollywood movie star portrait photographers. It is characterised by the butterfly shaped shadow below the nose and is produced by placing the light source above the face (between 25 and 70 degrees) and in line with the direction that the face is pointing. 

Edge/Split 

With split lighting, half of the face is lit and the other half is shadow.  It is produced by placing the light source to the right or the left of the face. 

High-Key

High Key is when there is a low amount of contrast and a large light source, often this is natural sunlight.  There are often no shadows or very few shadows and the majority of the tones in the image/video are in the highlight region. 

Low-Key 

Low key lighting is when there is a high amount of contrast and a small light source, which creates predominantly dark tones and a very dramatic looking video/image. 

Use of Shadows

In this video I was experimenting with the use of shadow and light in my images. I used a dark cupboard, and opened the door, allowing a pattern of light to form on the wall. This looked really interesting and effective as we are not able to tell exactly what is creating the pattern on the wall. 

Editing Analysis - Vivre Sa Vie

Find a short scene from your new wave film, question why the editor chose to cut when they did. Annotate your video and put it on your blog.

Health and Safety

Despite the majority of filming taking place on the college site, there are various subjects that means extra safety precautions must be made.

When conducting a shoot, there are many risks and hazards that I need to consider and take into account. I always ensure that there is plenty of space around me and the tripod so that myself and others can move around easily. 

I also ensure that the space around me is tidy and that my tripod is visible to others so as to avoid any trips or falls which could injure people or damage the equipment. 

As well as this, I need to ensure that there aren't any sharp objects lying around and if there are, I must ensure that they are used in a safe manner to avoid any injuries to the crew I am working with and the talents.

When shooting in the photography studio or in a general classroom set up, I always make sure that everyone with me is aware of the wires and cables, and ensure that these cables and wires are spread neatly across the floor and taped down, so as to avoid an trips or falls that could cause injury or damage to the equipment. When the studio lights are not in use, they must be switched off at the wall and then left to cool before being handled again as the bulbs become very hot during use and could burn someone or break when moved. 

Equipment such as cameras, tripods, LED lights etc must be put away in a logical and safe manner so as to ensure that the next person to use them can do so safely and without being injured by any equipment falling from storage. 

Below are some images of my camera set-ups when shooting, demonstrating how to use the camera equipment safely and effectively, without causing any harm to myself or others around me.

Museum Project

The HNC class have teamed up with the Nuneaton Museum and Art Gallery to create an animated video for their new exhibition, with the topic being 'protest'. Today, we had our first session with the museum which was very successful; we learnt a lot about how animation videos are made and brainstormed a lot of ideas in regards to the storyline for the video.

We are hoping to stick to this strict schedule, due to the fact that it is a live brief with a client and therefore, will need to be completed by a certain date in order to fit in with the exhibition itself. 

Below is a photograph of my groups' brainstorm of ideas. We came up with ideas for a video based on feminism because we felt that this topic goes hand-in-hand with the idea of protest - we thought that we could link it to the suffragette movement or women's fight for rights to equal pay etc. After we had been split into groups, we sat down and discussed with the rest of the groups our ideas. Eventually, we agreed on a storyline based around the idea of 'big brother society' and surveillance. I think that this will make for a really interesting story that is relevant to wide variety of people which is what the museum was aiming for, as the people that visit it tend to be from all different backgrounds, races etc. 

Editing Video (About You)

For this video, I was given a piece of music and had to put together a music video made from stock footage and clips I found myself, focusing particularly on cutting and editing in time with the music.

Editing Video from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

Overall, I think that the outcome was successful, although if I had been given more time I would've liked to have finished a video for the entire length of the song. This task showed me that editing is very time-consuming and therefore in future projects I will aim to manage my time more effective. It also enabled me to develop my editing skills when using Adobe Premiere Pro for future projects. I learnt how to layer videos on top of each other and change the opacity, as well as learning how to change the speed/duration of clips. 

French New Wave Film Trailers

Below are the trailers for the three French New Wave films that I am studying by Jean-Luc Godard.

The Male Gaze Theory by Laura Mulvey

I have started looking into different theories that I can apply to my French New Wave research, and having already researched The Male Gaze theory by Laura Mulvey in A2 Media Studies, thought that this would be a good theory to consider. 

As Jonathan Schroeder notes, 'Film has been called an instrument of the male gaze, producing representations of women, the good life, and sexual fantasy from a male point of view' (Schroeder 1998, 208). The concept derives from a seminal article called ‘Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema’ by Laura Mulvey, a feminist film theorist. It was published in 1975 and is one of the most widely cited and anthologized (though certainly not one of the most accessible) articles in the whole of contemporary film theory.

http://visual-memory.co.uk/daniel/Documents/gaze/gaze09.html

Jean Luc Godard (New Waves in Cinema by Sean Martin)

Bibliography for French New Wave Essay

Films/Documentaries

1. Contempt (Le Mepris). 1963. Jean-Luc Godard. France. Les Films Concordia, Rome Paris Films, Compagnia Cinematografica.
2. My Life To Live (Vivre Sa Vie). 1962. Jean-Luc Godard. France. Les Filmes de la Pleiade, Pathe Consortium Cinema. 
3. A woman is a woman (Une femme best une femme). 1961. Jean-Luc Godard. France. Euro International Film, Rome Paris Film.

Books

1. The Male Gaze and Narrative Cinema. 1975. Laura Mulvey.
2.  New Waves in Cinema. 2013. Sean Martin. Kamera Books.

Websites

Vivre Sa Vie - Jean Luc Godard

http://www.newwavefilm.com/french-new-wave-encyclopedia/vivre-sa-vie.shtml

https://www.closeupfilmcentre.com/vertigo_magazine/issue-30-spring-2012-godard-is/jean-luc-godard-vivre-sa-vie/

Brief Introduction for Contextual Studies Essay

Brief Introduction for Contextual Studies Essay

For my contextual studies essay, I am going to be looking at the French New Wave, focusing specifically on three films by Jean-Luc Godard. The three films that I am going to be analysing are Vivre Sa Vie, Contempt and A Woman is a Woman, which were filmed during the 1960s, when the French New Wave was at its peak. I am going to be investigating the social impact of Godard's films, as well as critically analysing the techniques he used.

Aperture Experiments

Wide Angle Lens - f 8.0

60mm Lens - f2.8

Although I think that this video is very effective, I would next time use a tripod as the camera was quite shaky as I was panning. 

18-55mm kit lens - f11

18-55mm kit lens f3.5

A Woman is a Woman - Jean Luc Godard

http://www.moma.org/explore/inside_out/2013/07/30/jean-luc-godards-a-woman-is-a-woman

Contempt - Jean Luc Godard

http://www.carleton.edu/curricular/MEDA/classes/media110/Friesema/contempt.html

Development of Editing Technology

The Development of Editing Technology

The purpose of editing a film is to piece together a sequence of clips to create a film that makes sense and also has an impact on the viewers emotions. The idea of editing is to determine in what order the information is to be received, how the audience is meant to feel about the events and the characters, the pace of the narrative etc.

To begin with, all editing was done in-camera. Each clip was shot in chronological order, therefore one reel of film was played at a time. One of the earliest known edited films was 'The Great Train Robbery' which was written and produced by Edwin S Porter. The film was only 12 minutes in length but includes a wide variety of editing techniques such as jump cuts and cross-cutting. 

The Moviola

The earliest forms of editing were very basic. Laboratory processing of the exposed film negatives was required and then if a film editor wanted to cut a scene, they would have to cut the reel of film over a well of light. This method had to be repeated several times and was very time-consuming. However, in 1924, the moviola was introduce by a man named Iwan Serruier. It was a device that allowed a film editor to view a film whilst editing it simultaneously. 

Film editors could study individual shots in the cutting room so that they could pin-point an appropriate point to cut. The moviola was a vertically-orientated machine where the work prints and magnetic sound tapes were run in a similar way to the thread in a sewing machine. At one point in the process, each frame on the print would pass through a lens and the image would get viewed on the machine's viewing screen. A special chalk-like pen could then be used on each frame to mark on what the editor intended to do - whether he wanted to cut or splice the frame.

The Moviola was adopted by many huge names in the film industry, such as Universal Studios, Warner Brothers and Charles Chaplain Studios. Even today, famous director Stephen Spielberg instructed that the film editor he employed for his film Munich, Michael Kahn, use the moviola machine to edit. 

Modern Editing











References:

• Timrohamro.com,. "Moviola: The First Movie Editing Machine". N.p., 2016. Web. 6 Jan. 2016.
•  Itchyfish.com,. "Old School Film Editing Machines: Moviola And Steenbeck - Itchy Fish". N.p., 2010. Web. 6 Jan. 2016. 

References:

1 - http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Criticism-Ideology/Editing-THE-DEVELOPMENT-OF-EDITING.html
2-http://www.infoplease.com/cig/movies-flicks-film/fade-brief-history-editing.html

The Conversation - 4 Hour Film Challenge

The conversation from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

This is a response to a brief given to us to complete a short film within 4 hours. I worked as part of a 5 person team, primarily working with the camera. Overall, I think that the video was successful and I'm very pleased with it as we managed to complete the entire video along with the editing in just over four hours. We allocated jobs out to each member of the group and everyone cooperated with each other easily and we also incorporated numerous shot types and camera movements. We effectively used various pieces of equipment, such as a tripod, two cameras and several lenses (18-55mm and 60mm). 

Shot using the 60mm lens on a Canon EOS 600D

Shot Types and Camera Angles

 Close Up

 Long Shot

 Mid-Shot

 Two-Shot, 180 degree rule

 Dutch Angle, Long Shot

Establishing Shot


Despite the fact that I think that the video was successful, I am aware of the improvements that could be made. 
For example, at around 2:08, the shot is very over exposed. This is because the aperture needed to be lower, as did the ISO (too much light was being allowed through the lens).

In the first scene, the ISO is extremely high (ISO 6400 I believe) and this resulted in a very grainy video. To resolve this issue in future I would use a higher f-stop.

Jean-Luc Godard

The director I have chosen to focus on and investigate the work of is Jean-Luc Godard.

The three texts I am going to study are:

A woman is a woman (1961)

With A Woman Is a Woman (Une femme est une femme), compulsively innovative director Jean-Luc Godard presents “a neorealist musical—that is, a contradiction in terms.” Featuring French superstars Anna Karina, Jean-Paul Belmondo, and Jean-Claude Brialy at their peak of popularity, A Woman Is a Woman is a sly, playful tribute to—and interrogation of—the American musical comedy, showcasing Godard’s signature wit and intellectual acumen. The film tells the story of exotic dancer Angéla (Karina) as she attempts to have a child with her unwilling lover Émile (Brialy). In the process, she finds herself torn between him and his best friend Alfred (Belmondo). A dizzying compendium of color, humor, and the music of renowned composer Michel Legrand, A Woman Is a Woman finds the young Godard at his warmest and most accessible, reveling in and scrutinizing the mechanics of his great obsession: the cinema.

Vivre sa vie (1962)

Vivre sa vie was a turning point for Jean-Luc Godard and remains one of his most dynamic films, combining brilliant visual design with a tragic character study. The lovely Anna Karina, Godard’s greatest muse, plays Nana, a young Parisian who aspires to be an actress but instead ends up a prostitute, her downward spiral depicted in a series of discrete tableaux of daydreams and dances. Featuring some of Karina and Godard’s most iconic moments—from her movie theater vigil with The Passion of Joan of Arc to her seductive pool-hall strut—Vivre sa vie is a landmark of the French New Wave that still surprises at every turn.

Contempt (1963)

Jean-Luc Godard’s subversive foray into commercial filmmaking is a star-studded Cinemascope epic. Contempt (Le Mépris) stars Michel Piccoli as a screenwriter torn between the demands of a proud European director (played by legendary director Fritz Lang), a crude and arrogant American producer (Jack Palance), and his disillusioned wife, Camille (Brigitte Bardot), as he attempts to doctor the script for a new film version of The Odyssey. The Criterion Collection is proud to present this brilliant study of marital breakdown, artistic compromise, and the cinematic process in a new special edition.

https://www.criterion.com/explore/12-jean-luc-godard