Experimental Film - Making a Short Film

We were given the task to make a short film that lasts between 1 - 2 minutes and had to be on the topic of 'time'. Originally, I didn't have a clue what to make my film about as I was trying to think what could be interesting enough to gain the viewers attention in the small space of only 1 minute. I eventually decided on the idea of time travel. I decided the way I wanted to approach it was to be along the lines of chance and not knowing which way through time you would go. Because of this I chose to make the story of the film about the chances of flipping a coin and how probability is completely random. My main aim towards this film was to personally focus on trying out different camera angles as I want to get better with how I frame my shots.
The general Idea for the film was to have a man who is in a rush runs up to his kitchen to flip a coin. We don't know why he is in a rush but we go with it. He flips the coin and it lands on heads and we go into his head and come out in a empty beetroot field. This is to show that with just a simple flip of a coin, you could end up in paradise and that it is all chance. We go back into his head and are back in the kitchen where the man likes what just happened to him so he flips the coin again and it lands on tails, we go back into his head again but nothing happens. The man is confused and keeps flipping the coin, constantly getting tails and nothing happens. He then flips the coin out of his reach and the coin rolls under the fridge, never to be seen again. I wanted this to symbolise how you should appreciate where life takes you and not always want something better or essentially gamble away what you have to get something better. I hope this was showed by us seeing the man enjoy what the heads side of the coin gave him, being in a lovely surrounding which he was happy with but deciding to try and get something better by flipping the coin again, not getting what he wanted and eventually losing it all in the end.

Portraits Part 2 - Initial Idea

In this unit, we have been told that we are allowed to manipulate our images opposed to our previous portrait project where we was only allowed to use the raw file. At first I struggled to think of an idea that I could pursue. After a short while I began to develop an idea about nature and nurture and how the people who are around us most seem to affect our personalities, dress sense and outlook on life. My original plan was to choose my closest friends at university and select what I think is the most outstanding and interesting feature on them appearance wise and put all of the features on one person through the use of Photoshop. For example, I could use Alice's ear as she has a lot of piercings in it whereas a lot of people don't, making her prominent feature her ear. The same could be used for Jacob's goatee or tattoo's, each are very well known features of what makes Jacob who he is. I liked this idea until another similar idea was suggested to me which was to do a series of self portraits trying to dress as my closest friends and try to make myself look as much like them as possible to symbolise how they have each had an impact on my personality, shaping me to be the type of person I am today. I feel like this idea could work very well especially as luckily I have friends who have their own very distinct dress sense which would show a substantial difference in each portrait picture taken.

Experimental Film - Video Idea: 'Porcelain' (Synopsis)

Since beginning this unit, I have began to think of some ideas that I think would make very interesting films. One of these ideas is an experimental film which I have named 'Porcelain'. When thinking about this idea I wanted to try and make something which I have never tried before, because of this I have chosen the approach of the film to be touching and upsetting as this type of genre is something that I have never attempted before and I feel that there are many ways I can approach it. A song will be playing throughout the video called 'Porcelain', hence the title. I chose this song because I feel that the tempo and the soft voices of the man and woman singing fits the feel that I want for the film perfectly and also how there is a reoccurring line in the song which sings "My brain is porcelain" which I think fits the message of the film extremely well as it suggests the main character isn't mentally stable. The idea for this video is quite complex; it starts with a man laying awake in bed with his blonde wife who is asleep. The man gets up and drives to a large building and enters a small room that is completely white and blank except for a tv screen, a cable and a chair. The man sits in the chair and plugs the cable into the back of his neck, making the pupils of his eyes turn grey and lifeless (this will be done by using contact lenses). The mans memories and feelings are then displayed on the monitor and as he tries to tune the tv, various different images are shown rapidly, some normal, some oddly disturbing; this will be included to show the sensitiveness of his brain and emotions. When he tunes the tv to his desired memory, it is of him and his past lover (who is brunette), dancing slowly together. The shots will cut back to the mans face every so often to show his reactions to certain memories being shown, focusing on his expressions, breathing and overall body language (e.g. twitching, sweating, fidgeting etc). The man tunes the television again to see another memory but slips and horrific scenes of horror films, riots, war and other inhumanly things are played loudly, startling the man (and hopefully the viewer). He finally tunes the television for the last time and the monitor shows a grave of his wife, making the story clear to the viewer that his one true love has actually previously died and so he sneaks off most nights from his current wife to relive his happiest memories with his past lover. The man unplugs himself from the television and drives back to his current wife. He gets back into bed, stares at the ceiling and the film ends. 

Experimental Film - Introduction

To start off this project, we began looking at various experimental films that past students had created. The one that stood out most for me was one called 'Lost and Found'. In this particular film, the students wanted to use items found in Farnham that were not wanted or needed by anyone. An example of this is how the students ended up asking various charity shops if they were allowed to go through their bins to find things that they felt were interesting enough to use. The actual execution of how they showed the items was what I liked most about the film. They made it so that there was a glass screen and it was as though you were sat looking from underneath looking upwards. They would then proceed to put the things that they found on the glass screen which would then be followed with some aged footage of what corresponds to the item; an example of this is when they put leaves down on the glass screen, they would then show footage of some tree's or bushes to show that that is where the chosen item came from.