Collage (Edit Three) and Where to From Here

Edit Three

Unfortunately due to continuous technical failures I was unable to make this film as long as I wanted.  I therefore have much that I want to achieve with the next phase of editing.

 Title and Credit Sequences

I spent a lot of time photoshopping the font for the title sequence as the feedback from the class was that it needed to be more original and this font was not available for download so I had to adapt it.  I like the screwed up paper imagery because it contributes to the scrapbook/collage aesthetic of the whole film.  I also think it stands out more and is more memorable now.  I chose the chalkduster font for the rest of the writing because to me it appeared school-like and had a hand-drawn feel which again complimented the aesthetic of the film and contributes to the metaphor of multiple layers of meaning and multiple layers to people and to life itself.  The names of the interviewees appear quite quickly initially as I wanted them to contribute to a sense of chaos before the rip away transition.  I chose to include a tea/coffee stain and child's drawing to contrast between adulthood and childhood and contrasting worldviews.  I thought these images were symbolic of the different perspectives.  I decided to make some of the fonts black to add to the sense of chaos at the beginning.  The title sequence builds up into a mes of layered voices and then cuts to silence as the title appears.  I used silence intentionally here to provide the viewer a thinking break to prepare for what might come next.  

The end credits again utilise the child's drawing imagery and includes some visual and audio material from Oliver.  I wanted to end with Oliver because his perspective on the world is so simple yet complex.  He captures the mystery of life with certainty when talking about magic and tinkerbell.  I also thought it was funny to have him explaining how hard life is at the age of 3 after all the heavy discussion from the adults.  The illustration helps bring the film back to an innocence and concludes with someone who is still developing their view of the world, which is reflective of the how I want the viewers to feel.

Imagery

 I tried to incorporate a lot of metaphor into the imagery where I could.  I tried to always have the images layered and leaving traces behind.  Creating the imagery for the torn cardboard was completely new to me and more involved than it initially seemed which presented a bit of a challenge for me.  Also the limitations of Finalcut in editing the shape of objects, and the malfunctioning of the after effects programme created added difficulties.  Initially, although the faces are laid out side by side and the voices are still audible I wanted to bring the images forward and backward through opacity - this also helped control the intended focal point which I think will be less overwhelming for the audience.  I also wanted the traces that remained on the frame outer to be subtle and to not be too obvious when they change - so that after a while you realise there is something there but it hasn't distracted you from the main focus of the film.  I used after effects to create moving points of light in the landscape to convey the existence and exchange of energy that the subjects discuss.  

I followed the discussion of a 'higher power' with Oliver talking about Superman - he is simultaneously talking about the existence of a higher power and his own identity which was a good bridge to transition into ideas around identity.  Ideally I would like to make all of these segments more fleshed out with more depth and subtlety of images, so this may be a task for the next phase.  I transitioned with Oliver flying across the screen as Superman because it seemed a light, fun and innocent way to move from a focus on him back to more serious material.

The discussion around water and identity utilises an image of a hand print underwater.  Here I again used after effects in a way that I wasn't familiar.  I am very happy with the end result.  The hand print of course representing identity which exists under the veil of language.  

I used the repeated picture of Bev that goes from colour to black and white and slightly decreases in time to convey the shattering nature of questioning ones own identity and to reflect the questioning of 'who' that appears above so frequently in relation to whats being said.  

I wanted to focus on the eyes in this segment because to me the eyes are the most expressionate and emotionally revealing feature of someone - the windows to the soul if you will.  I put Bev in black and white to play with the idea of distance while discussing intimacy.

The final rip away happens mid sentence after Natalie says "I guess humanity is-" to show how humanity can be ripped away at any moment, life can be ripped away, existence and even the changeable nature of our own perceptions.  It conveys a fragility and the temporary nature of ideas and the world.  This then transitions into Oliver talking about how its all just too hard which is amusing because he is so young and is mimicking adults which seemed a poignant place to leave the audience to think.

Where to From Here

1. Lessen the talking heads - add multiple perspectives like Hockney, animations and more graphic elements concerning whats being talked about
    
2. Make it much longer with more interesting variation in images
    
3. Play with other kinds of transitions - putting pieces of paper on like paper mache
    
4. Make the ending smoother, and more logically connected?
    
5. Make the depth more obvious so that the layers are more pronounced
    
6. Experiment and take more risks - have more examples of failures to learn from and build upon

Inspirations and Research

'Doubled Up' by Samantha Moore

I saw this film as part of SMST306 The Documentary Screen this semester and was immediately inspired by its abstraction and use of animation and repition.  I liked that the depth of meaning took a while to be revealed.  Although I would like to incorporate more of this style into my own work, I am aware that others in the class really didn't enjoy watching this and as my assignment should appeal to students I chose not to go to this level of abstraction yet.  The layers of meaning and imagery really appeal to me though.

'Ryan' by Chris Landreth

We were shown this film as part of SMST318 Animation Studies last semester and this was only the second abstract animated documentary I had seen up until then.  Again the layers of meaning in the animation and the metaphors really appealed to me.  I liked the active and busy screen that makes you unsure what, where and when you should be looking at.  Although this film has ethical issues around representation, the idea that someones character can be shown more through animation than reality is really interesting.

'Waking Life' by Richard Linklater

This is the first animated documentary I ever saw.  I saw it several years ago and have always wanted to create something as fluid with as much depth.  The rotoscoping technique fascinates me and eventually I would like to experiment with other forms of animating over the top of reality.  However for this assignment it was made clear through class feedback that this was not an aesthetic or idea that appealed to most as they found the animation distracting and overwhelming.  The ideas within this film - lucid dreaming and existentialism were going to be topics for this film until my relevant subjects pulled out and I had to reshuffle what the theme of my film would be.

'Mum' by Adelheid Roosen 

This clip inspired me because of the theatrical and unconventional style.  The idea that a documentary could be filmed in this way helped me to think outside the box and inspired me to want to take more risks.  Unfortunately due to technological problems and time restraints I was not able to experiment as much as I would have liked so this may be an area I try to push in the next stage of this assignment.

'Invisible Empire' by Jason Bermas

This film was interesting for its use of framing.  This film made me try to think of interesting alternative ways to try to frame.

'Kymatica' by Ben Stewart

I found the imagery of this film really interesting because it is clear that a lot of after effects have been used.  The effects help to bring the material to life somewhat but also create an interesting sense of distance which is made more interesting when reflected in the dialogue - matters of depth presented in a distanced manner.

This video also demonstrated what I should be careful to avoid as it is laden with effects but they all occur on a similar plane of space and in darkness.  I want my images to be more layered to reflect the depth of the topic.

'Life in a Day' directed by Kevin Macdonald and produced by Ridley Scott 

This film inspired me greatly because it takes the perspectives and lives of people from all over the world and meshes them together to form the fabric of humanity.  I also wanted to create some kind of snapshot of life and people - obviously on a much smaller scale.  Originally I was going to include a variety of perspectives that clashed and complimented but in the end I found more interest in the subtlety of difference of beliefs in the people around me in my life.  It fascinated me how people could be so individual with very specific and unique views on the world, yet have a layer of common understanding and respect for how their views differed.  This film has been shot by different people all over the world and as such has a very artistic and ecclectic style which I found charming.  I would like to include more variety of imagery and perspective in the next phase.

 David Hockney
Originally I wanted to interview people and have their faces appear like this as a collage of images rather than one simple talking head.  This might be an idea that I explore in the next phase

Collage Tutorials and Project Failures

After Effects Tutorials

This is a template I used for the imagery as Carl talks about the relationship of the self to water.  I used an image of a hand to represent the self instead of the text and tiled background in this video

This is the tutorial that helped me create the imagery for the frame for most of my film.  By adding more layers I made the process much more complicated and pushed the boundary of what I learned in this tutorial

This is the page turn tutorial that helped me with the ripped paper imagery http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXDp1349ulQ

Project Failures

With this image I tried to overlay a leaf texture to Oliver's face to try to show half nature half nurture but it ended up looking awful.  The pink would have been chroma keyed out in final cut but was just a guide for the frame.

Most of my failures were technical - things kept crashing and not exporting, or taking over 21 hours to export from after effects.  Due to these failures I have been unable to export constructive failures and add them to this blog.  I did have many struggles with the cardboard effect and getting the peel away right.  It was also difficult to overlay images and create depth because the after effects programme kept malfunctioning - this meant that often I ended up with square images in my wavey frame.  

I also stuggled with the amount of interview material that I had collected - I had hours of footage that took me some time to distill down to 15 minutes worth of usable snippets.  This was an interesting process in itself - trying to distill the important meanings and soundbites to get the full impact of what is being said and trying to compliment segments together so they have some sort of flow.   I really want to make this film much longer and include all the interesting material I have but I ran out of time for this second assignment so look forward to making the next version much longer.

Originally I wanted to animate what was being talked about and steer away from too many talking heads segments but due to time factors I had no choice but to go with what I could.  I would like to attempt more graphically interesting work in the next segment.

The ending was a bit abrupt for me - mainly due to lack of time and wanting to make it much longer.  It doesnt flow with the same level of complexity in imagery or subtlety.

Assignment 2 - First and Second Edits

This is the first edit of the title sequence for my film called Collage

This is the second edit I created where the audio in the multiple frame sequences has been made less confusing and slightly more distinguishable

Assignment 1

These are the five transitions I have created:

Blink Transition
Unfortunately I was unable to pull this off as effectively as I was hoping.  I think I need more practice trying to synch it up and match the colours etc.  It would also have benefited to have had more background in the shots but the lens that I has was unable to go from extreme close up to include the background.  I think a blinking effect could be quite effective in certain circumstances - such as if a character has memory loss and they blink and are suddenly somewhere different and have no idea how they got there.

Book Swipe with sound bridge
I think this is the best transition I have made, though it could probably do with being a bit longer and the sound bridge suggests more magical things could happen.  I think this would be quite good in fantasy films where the story comes to life.

Zoom Out
This is an interesting technique that can mislead the auidence if there is something quite engaging and dramatic and then suddenly we are pulled back into another environment and atmosphere and we see it playing on the screen. It would probably have been better to have filmed something quite dramatic rather than peaceful that we could pull away from.

Multiframe 1
This sequence was based on the experiences of a woman with a mental illness who lives on our street.  She lives partly in her memories of past love (the eyes), her emotions (conveyed through the distorted arm reaching out), and snippets of her present that are entangled.  The somewhat unpredictable nature of the scenes fall away to reveal the room that she rarely leaves (this is not her actual house).

Multiframe 2
This sequence is supposed to suggest a confusing mixture of emotions, so that we are drawn into the characters different worlds and sides to herself.  It probably would have been better to have this go on for longer with more changes to really convey this.

These are the five transitions I have found that I consider to be effective:

Frida: First 10 Seconds of Clip
The first 10 seconds of this clip are really interesting for how they make a painting come alive.  This technique is used a lot in this film and is a really interesting way of changing scenes.  It also incorporates her art which is very fitting - the art literally tells the story of her life.  This technique is used often as an emotional bridge between scenes - this is particularly evident in a scene where Frida is picturing her husbands fall from American favour and sees him tumble as an ape into her bathwater - her feet begin as a painting but then the painting becomes real and we see her lying there deep in thought.  There aren't many clips from this film online, so I have chosen this example as an illustration of the others that occur in the film.

The Princess and the Warrior: First 10 seconds of clip, and again at 1.37 onwards

I think this transition, of following down the shell, suggests we are entering her world and a mysterious somewhat secret world that only she would normally have access to.  As a viewer it pulls you along for the ride and into the story.

Trainspotting: Relevant clip is at 1.10 to 1.20
I think this transition really conveys the characters escapism through drugs, he seems disconnected with the world and lost in his own.  This transition has interesting symmetry and leaves you feeling a bit tense about what is going to happen to his head.

Being John Malkovich: Relevant clip is at 1.06 to 1.09
This transition is very quick but its disorientating nature fits really well with the themes of the film.  The transition reflects the storyline in that people go into a room that is actually a portal into someones head, so it makes sense that the transitions reflect the portal effect.

The Guardian Three little pigs: Relevant clips is at 0.07 to 0.14
 This subtle transition is hardly noticed the first time you watch it because it really pulls you into the event and you forget how you even got there, it is a variation of the television zoom I attempted but obviously to a much higher standard.  I hope to practice using after effects more so that I can pull these off more convincingly.

These are the two title sequences I have created:

Touched (Midas)
 I made numerous variations of this sequence, many with extremely involved after effects graphics, but they did not look right with the largely realistic style of filming so in the end I chose not to include them.  Also when I overused the graphics it made the sequence look a bit tacky - probably due to the clash of aesthetics.  I learned a lot from this sequence but think I would like to experiment more with eyes and trying to get the colour to match the iris.  It is quite difficult in a video when someones eyes are moving, and I had tried key framing it, though think with a prolonged clip it is noticable that the match isn't perfect.  I had focussed on the graphics and images so much in this sequence that I didn't explore transitions as thoroughly as I had hoped.  I intend to spend a lot more time just experimenting and trying new things in that regard.  Unfortunately the computer I was on crashed a few times, and was functioning very slowly so it was hard to see how the video flowed when I was editing it because it often froze on one image. 

Touched (Vanish)
I experimented with water effects in this transition.  Originally I tried keyframing the eraser feature to make the person slowly disappear, but then I discovered the transition effect of CC glass wipe and found that this created the exact effect I was after.  I would like to learn how to have more control on the movements of the effects and think that with practice I will be able to really push my boundaries with 3D imagery.
Unfortunately I had a bit of a creativity block at the start of this paper and found myself struggling to come up with ideas, and only in the last 4 days did I really come up with the ideas for these transitions so I wish I had had more time to play around with the images.  I had tried experimenting with images from the internet before but without a purpose I found I had a lack of inspiration to experiment and ended up wasting a lot of time achieving very little.  I look forward to free flowing ideas and inspiration from here on out.

Interesting Title Sequences

The first task we were given in this paper was to find opening sequences we think are worthwhile. These are the ones that have resonated with me.

Mad Men Opening Credits:
The silhouette effect is stylish and fits the tone of the show.  The black and white falling through a world of coloured broken images gives a hint to the types of characters we might see - dark, disconnected, out of place.  And the scene hints at the era and the kind of world that the show takes place in.  The falling implies danger and a fall from grace.

Breaking Bad:
Immediately we know that this show has something to do with chemistry.  I think this sequence utilises multiple screens well to convey character.  These scenes are short and busy so nothing is given away too much but we are shown a range of images that are often confusing and conflicting.  There are dramatic shots such  as guns and drugs, but also tender shots of pregnancy and family which play with your expectations as an audience member.  The names appear as part of the table and are so subtle that you barely notice them.  The type of font seems somehow dirty, and gritty, whilst combined with the chemistry symbols which hints at what the show is about.  The music is also dark and somehow dirty, with its drawn out string sounds - this also helps to set the tone of the show.

The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo:
This sequence is very dark and quite thrilling.  The music is intense, and so are the images - we are thrown into a world of black but are never able to linger very long on the images.  The liquid seems thick, like oil, and moves in a sinister manner.  The images are quite abrupt and violent, and sometimes slow and sexy.  There is a sensuality that pulls you in, like a masochistic indulgence.  Initially it feels like quite an assault on the senses, but one critique I will make is that it does seem to go on for a while so the imagery loses much of its power after a while as you adjust to what you're seeing.

Amelie opening sequence:

I find these shots interesting because they are quirky.  They capture an innocence and matter of fact perspective on the world that resonates with me.  The voice over also reminds me of an old fashioned storyteller with emphasis and french flair.

The colour is unusually strong at points, and the old style film effect and soft piano at the end totally pull me into this world of self indulgence.  I like the unusual lighting and odd angles of the shots, they are a refreshing change from conventional Hollywood techniques.  I like the gentle and simple nature of this starting - it is not trying too hard to impress with graphics, and you don't feel bombarded by too much action.

Goldeneye opening credits:

I am a bit of a fan of the James Bond opening credits in general - they are often like works of art that celebrate the female form in a very tacky retro style.  The music and imagery is always stylish and sexy, but at the same time utterly ridiculous and cheesy.  They are often full of fluid motion - from the women but also the imagery of smoke, fire, oil and water.

The World is Not Enough is another great title sequence.  I like the psychedelic nature of the imagery.