Psychoanalysis Film Evaluation

Final Psychoanalysis Film from Frankie Smith on Vimeo.

Introduction

After much research about the three psychoanalysis film theories by Lacan, Mulvey and Freud, I was given a brief to create my own psychoanalysis film that explores one or more of the theories. I chose to focus on Lacan and his theory of 'lack' because I felt that I understood the idea behind it more than the others. I aimed to show this theory through various techniques, camera movements and angles, shot types and through editing. 

My film is a short documentary that follows the obsession of a young man, Jordan, who is obsessed with the 1971 Volkswagen Beetle that he has been restoring since he was 14 years old. 



Planning

Before making my psychoanalytical film, I conducted some research on three different psychoanalysis film theories from Freud, Lacan and Mulvey. This enabled me to understand the meanings behind films in more depth and the theories that some filmmakers use when creating a film. I viewed several texts including Grizzly Man by Werner Herzog, Married To The Eiffel Tower by Agnieszka Piotrowska, Black Swan by Darren Aronofsky and Vertigo by Alfred Hitchcock. These films gave me an insight into how producers and filmmakers get across their psychoanalytical messages through different ways and means like camera angles, lighting etc.

What Went Well

I portrayed Lacan's theory effectively throughout the film, particularly through the mies-en-scene. All of the shots that you see are filmed in Jordan's car, in his garage or in his bedroom - emphasising the fact that he lives in 'small world' that revolves entirely around his beetle. This is very similar to the way that Herzog constructs Grizzly Man, as he likely has footage of Timothy Treadwell in other locations than in the park with the bears, such as in his home or at school, however he deliberately chose to use footage that really puts emphasis on his obsession with the bears and with nature and being outside. 
In the interview sequences Jordan talks about how he works at a company that sells VW parts, he spends most of his time preparing for car shows, his brother and dad have bought beetles as well and about how he takes pride in cleaning and making adjustments to his car. All of this really echoes the fact that he lives and breathes for this car - but nothing he does to it is enough to fill the lack that he feels and therefore he continues to make adjustments and changes to it and it becomes an endless cycle. 
I used various technical elements to portray Lacan's theory also, including using a shallow depth of field, experimenting with shot types, camera angles and camera movements. 

I experimented a bit with sound, ensuring that the audio transitions between the non-diegetic music and the interview audio was smooth (adjusting the volume of the music whilst Jordan is speaking). I think that the narrative audio recording was particularly good as I recorded it in the studio, meaning that it was of the highest sound quality. 
I also used a variety of different shot types and camera movements (pans, static shots, low angles, tilts etc) which made the film look more interesting and aesthetically pleasing. My use of hand-held camera movement made for a more authentic looking documentary, as many of the documentaries that I watched incorporated some hand held camera movement and my interview set up went quite well, as I made use of additional LED lights, tripods and audio equipment like microphones to attempt to get the most high quality footage that I could.

Improvements

Looking back on my final psychoanalysis film, I can see that there are definite improvements to be made. The main thing I noticed is the audio - some of the audio was recorded using the Zoom H1 microphone which sounds crisp and clear, however, I didn't manage to record all of the audio I wanted to with the external microphone so some of it was recorded in-camera, which sounds quite fuzzy and echoey. If I were to re-shoot, I would definitely ensure that I record all audio with the Zoom H1 mic, or even a boom mic, just so that I know it is of the highest quality. Another improvement I would make is in regards to the lighting - in the future I plan to film at the same time of day in each shoot as some of the footage that I took later on in the day is quite underexposed.
I also intend to consider more carefully how to use the LED lights when setting up and interview, as I am not satisfied with the outcome of the interview lighting. As I filmed these interview clips on two different days, the lighting looks different in each clip and in some, the fact that I have used additional lighting is too obvious and it is a little over exposed and bright. 

Effective Judgements

I made countless decisions throughout the filming process, as many unexpected problems occurred. For example, before filming, I didn't think to film at the same time of day on each individual shoot as the lighting would be different at different times of day. To combat this problem I made the decision to film in the morning, rather than in the late afternoon or evening on each shoot because this is when the natural ambient lighting was best. 

Another problem I faced was that I found it very difficult to match up the audio I recorded on the microphone to the footage I filmed on the camera, so unfortunately I had to use a lot of footage that had the audio recorded in-camera which meant that the audio wasn't the best quality however it saved a lot of time that I could spend putting the overall video together. I did however use the better quality audio over the top of other footage of the car, rather than over the interview footage, almost like a voice over which was very effective. 


Health and Safety


Throughout the filming process, I carried out various steps to ensure the safety of myself and the individuals who appeared in my film. These steps included: ensuring that there were no wires or cables laying around for people to trip over and injure themselves or damage the equipment, making sure that the microphones, cameras and lights were screwed onto the tripods correctly so that they did not fall off and ensuring that when the equipment was not in use it was put away safely and correctly and out of the way of anyone who could trip over it or damage it.

Promotional Video Treatment

Working Title

Hellcats Tattoo Parlour

Genre

The genre of the video will be promotional video, focusing particularly on promotional video to sell a product/company.

Duration

We aim to create two videos – a full-length video which will have a duration of between two and five minutes, and a shorter version for social media platforms such as twitter and instagram which should last around fifteen seconds.

Target Audience

As the product we are promoting (tattoos) is age restricted and only people who are eighteen years old and over are legally allowed to get them, our target audience will be adults. The video will not be directed at a specific gender, although it may appeal to males more as the staff at Hellcats Tattoo Parlour are all male, and therefore the studio is a very male orientated environment.

Outline

The general outline for the full-length promotional video goes as follows. It will start with a relatively long establishing shot of the tattoo parlour, giving the audience a good idea of where it is, what it looks like, what kind of vibe it gives off etc. The company logo will be clearly visible which will reinforce the brand identity and ensure that the audience know their logo enough that it is recognisable for the future.

We will then include shots of the interior of the tattoo parlour. There will be close-up shots of typical iconography found in tattoo studios (skateboards, guns, roses, skulls etc.) and the décor of the parlour, which will again give the audience a feel for the kind of establishment we are promoting. The tattoo artists’ work will be clearly visible on the wall so that the audience can see what their work looks like, and we will include shots of the artists drawing up ideas, designs and sketches. We also plan to include some shots of the artists interacting with customers so that audiences can see that although stereotypically, tattoo parlours are not seen as the most welcoming of places, the staff at this establishment are very friendly – this will encourage them to choose to visit this tattoo parlour above any others.

We also plan to include customer testimonials, set up almost like an interview where customers talk about their experience at Hellcats.

Visual Elements

Lighting: The majority of the lighting will be high key ambient lighting from the lights in the shop, as there will be plenty of light in there, however, we may also take a few LED lights just in case.

Camera movements: There will be a variety of camera movements – we will include panning shots, tilts, static camera work, zooms etc.

Audio Elements

We plan to use music over the video. After thinking about the genre of music, we have decided to use music from the pop-punk genre as we feel that this best suits and reinforces the brand identity of Hellcats. It will be fast-paced and loud.

As there may be customer testimonials included or shot interviews with staff or customers, we will have to record audio on site too.

Rationale

We chose this particular idea for our promotional video as we both really love tattoos and want to lessen the stigma that goes along with them. We want to promote this tattoo parlour in such a way that makes people think that tattoos are an art form.

Primary and Secondary Research

In regards to research, we have watched various promotional videos for other tattoo parlours around the world in order to get an idea of what kind of shots to include, what conventions are typical in this kind of video etc.

We also looked at various tattoo studio’s website and images so that we could compile some ideas together in the form of visual mood boards. These are very useful as we can use them for inspiration for shot types, colour schemes, angles, shot content etc.

Requirements and Resources

The crew for this project includes just Beth, and myself and we will be responsible for the lighting, sound and video.

The equipment we will need includes:

·      Canon EOS 5D Mark II

·      Canon EOS 700D

·      60mm lens

·      Wide angle lens

·      Boom Mic

·      Tripods

·      LED Lights

Constraints and Contingency

Problems we may encounter are: we may arrive on a shoot hoping to film some customer testimonials or shots of a customer getting tattooed and find that the particular customers on that day may not be comfortable with having their likeness used for the video. If this occurs, then we may have to consider filming another aspect of the video on that particular day, such as the shots of the interior.  Another problem we may face is lack of space; we would have to resolve this issue by either bringing less equipment with us at a time or by taking it in turns to film etc.

Travelling with equipment on the train may be quite difficult as there are only two of us and there is a lot of equipment

Legal and Ethical Considerations

Legal and ethical factors that we need to consider include:

Copyright infringements - we need to be careful when using any music as most songs have copyright laws attached meaning that if we used them without permission, we could get into a lot of trouble legally.

Release forms - we need to ensure that anyone in the film sign release forms to give us permission to use their likeness in our video. 

Budget

We aim to spend very little money on our promotional video. The only money we plan to spend will be our train fares to and from Hinckley which should be around £6.50 each time. 
We hope to find royalty free music for the video, meaning that we will not have to pay to use any songs or music. 

Storyboard and Shot List

Below is a rough storyboard that Beth and I have made in order to give us an idea of the kind of shot types, camera angles and camera movements that we would like to utilise in our own promotional videos. 






Below is a list of the shots that we plan to get for our promotional video.

• Establishing Shot (with logo)
• Close Ups of Iconography, people etc

Location Scouting

Transport

As the tattoo parlour we are going to be working with is over five miles away, Beth and I carried out some research on how to get there. We found that using the train would probably be more cost effective and less time consuming than getting a taxi or bus, as we do not drive, and below are the times and prices of the train.

 

 

Gantt Chart and Planning

To organise and plan our project, Beth and I used teamgantt.com to create a gantt chart which enabled us to schedule our project in an effective way. This method of planning is extremely useful as both of us are able to change the chart, update our progress etc. We can assign tasks to each other and update each other on the progress of these tasks simply by adding information to the online gantt chart. For example: I have been assigned the task of creating the shot list, whilst Beth is in charge of client feedback and communication - we can notify each other of how we are getting on by changing the progress percentage. 

In week one, we intend to complete most of our planning tasks. This includes, mood boards and inspiration, storyboard, client communication, transport arrangements and scheduling. 

Inspiration and Moodboards

To get some inspiration for our own promotional video, Beth and I created some mood boards - a collection of our visual influences. I created a mood board with a muted colour theme, whereas Beth took her mood board in a more colourful direction - this gave us an idea of what colour palettes are common in tattoo parlours and meant we could think about the lighting and composition of our video. 

We also decided that before we created our own tattoo shop promotional video, it would be a good idea to look at existing promotional videos for tattoo shops around the world. This could give us plenty of ideas for shot types, camera movements, angles etc as well as for the content of the video itself. Below are some of the videos we found that we enjoyed watching and thought we could use for inspiration.

We noticed that there were certain conventions of a tattoo parlour promotional video, and therefore aim to incorporate these conventions into our own promotional video.

• Long establishing shot at the beginning
• Shots of the artists drawing up designs / tattooing people
• Iconography - skulls, roses, guns, skateboards
• Shots of the art on the walls

Promotional Video Planning

Business Objective

The aim of the promotional video is to encourage people to visit the tattoo shop and get a tattoo there and also to showcase the talent of the tattoo artists that work there. 


Audience

The audience for the promotional video is people over the age of eighteen, as this is the legal age at which you can get a tattoo. The video will not be directed at a specific gender, as tattoos can be done on a male or female, however, the tattoo artists are all male at Hellcats and therefore this may attract a more male audience because of the iconography in the video and the decor of the studio. 

Message

The message behind the video is to encourage people who maybe want to get a tattoo, but are unsure of where to go, where is a 'cool' place to go, where the artists are friendly etc. 



Distribution

Hellcats (the tattoo studio) have their own Facebook page, youtube channel and Instagram page, so they may decide to upload the video on these platforms for their potential customers to see. 

Concept

The general concept behind the video is 

Narration Script

Jordan Hale is an average eighteen year old with a slightly less average obsession. Jordan is his obsessed with his car.



His obsession with classic Volkswagen Beetles started when he happened to pick up a copy of Volskworld magazine whilst on a long car journey with his dad. The obsession spiralled out of control when he went to a volkswagen car show later that year and soon ended up with a Beetle of his own.