Project reflection

To say this project has been an experience is an understatement. We started out as amateur filmmakers with no interest in either the film industry or the process of it all. Yet today we now know how to shoot, direct, produce and edit a film. We can use industry standard applications and have a film that is our own in every sense of the word. From our sketchy Barbie film, attempting to recreate Dior’s Jadore advert, to our own polished, slightly creepy film, we have achieved a lot, worked so so hard and in the end, are really proud of it all.
We originally looked at William Tempest’s work and found it so bold, sharp and inspiring that we decided to use his collections literally with the intention to recreate our favourite and the most domineering pieces for our own film. We then went on to brainstorm the collections and the messages they gave and feelings they aroused. We found an undercurrent, a thin yet strong thread that seemed to link through every collection. This was Tempest’s use of sharp structured dresses, usually in black that seemed to metamorph and have a body of their own through obtruding panels, oversized shoulders and beautiful origami folds inspired by architecture.
We then looked at the mood that we were given, raw. With Tempest’s work in mind, we brainstormed again and reflected on Raw as degenerate, rough, stripped down, bare, unnatural, disturbing, exposed and harsh, to name a few. Considering both our designer and our mood, we agreed on a dark, uncomfortable film that nodded to productions by Gareth Pugh, The Ring and The Shining. We wanted a slick, quick, fashion film that focused on the styling but also emitted a disturbing and chilly atmosphere. We looked at camera angles and techniques to give the film a clever edge and planned our outfits down to a tee. The locations were chosen with the mood in mind and consisted of a gritty railway archway, a never-ending alleyway and an almost sterile, bare room. All the details combined to exhibit themes of exposure, entrapment and slight obsession. The idea was to make the audience feel uncomfortable and creeped out.
We made our effect, flashing lights, personal by creating it ourselves. We experimented and found a really eerie effect when we filmed on a Mac and took photos in the dark using digital cameras that omitted red and blue hues. We showed this effect in our week 6 presentations yet it didn’t seem to connect with our tutors in the same way that it did with us. We went back and tried again, working harder to ensure the film was excellent and the best that we could produce. Everything that we did throughout the making of this film was trial and error. We experimented with everything until we found the right angle/location/makeup effect. We were quite spontaneous and I really think this helped to keep the film honest and sharp. The editing stages were the hardest. We taught ourselves how to use final cut pro and took it in turns. We had so many beautiful shots that we had to surrender, as they simply did not fit in with the film or its overall theme. This was quite heartbreaking as it was hard giving up the bits we really loved. We were very fortunate with our music and found a perfect piece to synchronize with our film. We originally had our music made for us and although it was brilliant, in the end it just didn't work. The new audio is ghastly and frightening- perfect.
Overall we have built on criticism and persevered with our original ideas. It has been really good and has improved our confidence when tutors have enjoyed our work and noticed the hard work we put in. Both Emma and myself are really proud of our film and there is nothing we would change or add. We are our worst critics and have scrutinised every last detail to make this film translate our ideas visually and effectively.

The press release in word format

Compelling and intelligent, Turmoil is a short film exhibiting the severe yet sophisticated nature of William Tempest's designs.

Through its stylization, the film portrays the dark glamour subtly lacing each collection, whilst the loose narrative addresses powerful emotions of entrapment and obsession, keeping the audience transfixed. Created for William Tempest by innovative filmmakers Emma Harris and Grace Brennan, Turmoil is a disturbingly beautiful work of cinematic art and design.

We invite you to the screening of this unique collaboration on the 22nd April 2010 at 5pm, UCA Rochester

For more information please contact:

Grace Brennan
07746453628/gbrennan@ucreative.ac.uk

Emma Harris
07827563211/eharris5@ucreative.ac.uk

Monday29th March

Today we added credits and an opening title to our film. We had a bit of a bubble when we first got into uni as our film kept saying it lost media or something to do with not being able to place files, so we had to render everything about fifty times. The film was playing fine but it still said it had lost media and we were so worried so we asked a technician to help us. He was really great and reassured us, although  strange, the file loss shindig was just the computer being mildly bored. We cracked on with the credits and used clips of our model holding the fuzzing television as the opening image. We managed to insert our text (definition of turmoil) into the television and added a fade to ensure the film began smoothly. We then added simple, quick credits at the end of the film after adding a fade. We directed, filmed, produced and edited the film so apart from ourselves, all we had to put in the credits was our model/actress. We wanted it quick, snappy and clean, so the credits are just white font on a black background- no scrolling of fussy effects.
Then we pursued our press release. Normally both Emma and myself are extremely capable writers and have always had success in both journalism and press releases, so we thought this would be excellent. No. It was awful. We were so stressed out from our film nearly being lost (we had to save it three times and render it more times than the pope says amen) that we had moody writers block. Maybe its a case of leaving things to the last minute, but we have never (don’t want to sound big headed!!but..) never had problems or made a bad press release so this was all the more disheartening. We stared at that computer screen for over and hour and I think I nearly shed a tear - it was horrendous. The problem we had was that we wanted to keep the press release short, snappy, slick and to the point, just like our film. We didn’t want to dribble on about how amazing Tempest is and where he went to school, we just wanted to define the connection/inspiration and leave the rest to the imagination (with the aid of clever adjectives and very cool phrases). Our final result probably isn’t as bad as I’m making out but we did laugh our pants off when we got home and read the line that insisted: innovative film makers Emma Harris and Grace Brennan. blowing our own trumpets or what. Well we wet our pants laughing because we sounded so cocky and confident- lets hope our marks support this rather audacious quip, otherwise we will look like complete idiots!! Here’s the badboy in all its glory, sorry its not the right way up, I still havent mastered that skill yet:

We also wanted to make a one-off press pack alongside our press release to add an exclusiveness to our film and it's promotion. Inside a little black box we are going to put:

• Press release tied in black ribbon
• Humbugs (black and white striped mints)
• 'William Tempest' black, laced gloves
• flutter eyelashes as seen in our film

Should be a fab addition.

Friday 26th March

Today was overall a success and I’m starting to feel really proud of the work that we have achieved. We showed our final cut to Geraldine and Olle who both loved it and were successfully creeped out by it. We were so happy and relieved and it was great to see that the tutors realised the work, time and effort put into the films, which makes it all the more worthwhile. Olle suggested that we cut a few scenes that dragged on a little to make them more sharp and jolty, a bit more like the movement seen in The Ring. He also helped us to adjust the colouration and finish of the film to give it less of an amateur look and more of a polished, professional visual. We found a great compromise in the brightness and saturation that highlighted the pureness of the white scene whilst also defining the hollow black in the railway bridge scene. We are really happy with the final look and will touch up the monochrome/alleyway scene on Monday.
Originally, we had our music made for us. It was a dark, echoing beat that was haunting and at the time, perfect for our film. However, as we processed the clips and sequenced them together, we realised that the music may not be as fitting anymore and that sound effects would create a more successful outcome. It was so hard to stray away from the music because it had a unique attachment to our film and had seemed so right at the time, but we had to think about what was better overall and searched some sound clips instead. Whilst browsing sound effects such as loud fuzzing and high-pitched interference, we stumbled across a clip on YouTube that used an edit from an audio composed by Pauline Oliveros. The audio was creepy and slightly extra-terrestrial using the kind of effects that we had been probing for. We searched its original format and it found Oliveros’ work and albums online. The original was beyond perfect for our film and had a really creepy buildup to it, which seemed so ideal for us. We bought the music (‘Bye Bye Butterfly’) and imported it into our film. We then cut it down so that the music and its particular feel matched the visuals that it was paired with. We managed to cut it so that when our model made snappy movements, the music followed it and synchronized with her actions. The audio was also cut so that as the drama in the visual built up so did the sound. So at the beginning, the tranquil yet slightly unnerving scene is paired with a fine, high pitched, prolonged note with itchings of interference when the model touched the television. When the scene moves to the alleyway the music picks up and reflects the panicking, rushing feet. Then the all-black outfit scene gathers the drama and peaks, with the music becoming more theatrical and urgent. The final white scene is completely silent without audio, and the closing scene with the empty bed carries the high-pitched hum as before. We were slightly creeped out by how well the music fitted the film when we had finally finished cutting it! Below is the edit that we found on YouTube, the version taht we are using is slightly more creepy and less alien-ish:



Today we also discussed the press release for our film. We are using the image of our model holding the fuzzing television in her arms as the main layout, with the writing in the TV. We will type the final up on Monday and print it professionally.
We also fiddled about with the credits but found it quite tricky to get exactly what we wanted. We tried to use the image of the television fuzzing and being held by two hands, and attempted to put the title inside the screen. This was super tricky so we will attempt it again on Monday. If we still have trouble we will use a simpler layout.
Finally, we decided on the name of our film today. We really didn’t want to give it a title as we didn’t want to make it cheesy/un-creepy/amateur. As a result we used a definition instead. We brainstormed different words that described our film and looked up their definitions. When we tried ‘turmoil’ we found a perfect match:

We will use this exact layout and wording at the beginning of our film to introduce it and set the scene.

Thursday 25th March

Today we carried on with our edit. I managed to import the clips that had the flashing lights effects in them and cut them down to the best parts. I showed Emma the clips that I had cut and we discussed where they should go. We combined different clips to prolong the flashing and make it overall more effective. We then placed each section between the location/scene changes to break it all up and define the progression of the film. Here are the points where we have placed the flashing lights clips:


1. At the end of the first white scene, as we zoom into the television fuzzing, the clips rapidly flash across the screen. We then link back to the fuzzing to give the impression that the interference is caused by this dark and disturbing image. Cut to new scene (alleyway)

2. As the alleyway scene ends and the all-black outfit scene opens, the flashing lights are played again and break up the two locations.

3. When the all-black outfit scene finishes and we pan into the model's hand, the flashing lights are played again to signal the next scene change and we cut to the white room/opening scene location again.

Tomorrow: sound/music
                   final cutting
                   adjust colouration/give professional finish
                   press release ideas
                  

Wednesday 24th March

Today we more or less completed editing our film. We managed to cut all of our clips onto the timeline and we are really happy with the outcome. We watched it a few times over to make sure we scrutinised every part and ended up deleting a few sections that weren’t necessary. Tomorrow we will sort out a few effects that we wanted to include but we need assistance with. These include the clips with our effect, flashing lights. We will also sort out audio tomorrow but when we went through the clips again, the background noise in the monochrome/alleyway shots was quite effective and we might end up using this in the final edit.

Tuesday 23rd March

Today was a short day as both Emma and myself weren’t very well. We went into uni in the morning and started to work on the black outfit/railway archways footage. We tried out some kaleidoscope effects that looked great when we were editing, but after watching the film through, we thought that they were a bit rubbish and didn’t fit in well with the overall look/feel. We finished editing half of the scene, incorporating crawling shots and also intense hand shots. As I mentioned before we weren’t very well so went home in the afternoon. Tomorrow were getting up early and aim to finish the black scene and also complete the final scenes, which will be using footage from the white clips.
A small problem is that our film is quite short as we are speeding up a lot of our footage. So far it is only a minute long but hopefully we can stretch it a bit whilst still making it look great overall with the scenes we have yet to import and edit.
We need help with incorporating footage that we created with flashing lights and mirrored images so will ask Olle for help on Thursday and let him see the overall film so far and give us some feedback.

Monday 22nd March

Today Emma finished editing the white scene and I worked on the monochrome clips. Emma did some great editing with our model under the bed and also stroking the television and clutching it in her arms. In the afternoon, I organized all of the alleyway footage and edited it. I sped up a lot of the walking and made a nice transition from agitated, sped up clips to still, creepy shots that glued together to give a Ring-styled finish. I’m really starting to get used to Final Cut Pro and have picked up a few tricks to help the film look it’s best, which is improving my confidence with using the program. So far we have finished editing the opening white scene and also the alleyway scene. Tomorrow we will work on the black scene and then the closing scenes.

Friday 19th March

Today we cracked on with editing our film. We had tutorials with both Geraldine and Olle so we collected our best shots/bits that explained our concept and ideas well. We were really nervous as we didn’t receive a completely positive amount of feedback from our previous presentation, but discussed our shoot together and felt quite confident with the footage we had captured so far. First up, Geraldine. So nervous. But…extremely positive feedback, hurrah! Geraldine loved our footage and gave us the response that we wanted ‘eugh that’s so creepy’. YES. LOVE IT. Infact everyone who saw it thought that it was super creepy and uncomfortable which was exactly boom boom what we were hoping to achieve. We explained the editing process that we wanted to carry out and Geraldine supported us all the way which gave us so much confidence. When Olle came around, we showed him footage from ‘The Ring’, which used distorted editing that we wanted to incorporate. He helped us re-create the movement and also gave us positive feedback. We managed to edit half of the white scene after sorting all of the footage into location folders.

Problemo uno

Whilst downloading and converting all of our clips, I may have accidently, completley deleted the standstill alleyway shots which was awful because now all we have to work with our Emma's close-ups which are really good but are not full length. My fault. Entirely. So annoying. And a bit sad..

Shoot day reflection

So we completed our filming last week and thankfully it all went pretty smoothly. We decided to film our white scene first to guarantee the right kind of sun exposure/natural light. We completely cleared out our friend’s bedroom and made it creepy and sterile by covering the floor in white sheets and removing the mattress from the bed, leaving just the skeletal frame. This gave the room quite an eerie feel that was reminiscent of a mental ward or isolation cell- perfect. We got our model ready and the white dress (by Lauren Christensen, 2nd year fashion design) was absolutely gorgeous. It was ideal for our shoot as it was innocent yet powerful with geometric hemlines and obtruding panels- extremely similar to William Tempest’s work. We got our model to twitch and stare into the camera a lot; we also got her to not only sit and lie on top of the bed frame, but also underneath it to enforce the idea of entrapment with no escape.  We also got her to stare into a television, which was fuzzing, tracing her outline that was reflected in it. This gave a really creepy and disturbing effect that looked great on film. Emma did some freestyle shooting to get great angles and I used the tripod to get steady shots and close ups. We focused on short clips of our model in different positions rather than long, documentary shots. This scene was aimed to capture a more innocent side of our demented model, whilst also creating an unnatural mood with her body language and snappy looks towards the camera.

The set for the white scene

The second scene focused on a more empowering entrapment with rapid, frantic shots of our model trying to escape the scene around her. The outfit was a billowing black maxi dress with exaggerated shoulders, created using lots of black organza and a few rolled up t-shirts. This was extremely reminiscent of Tempest’s consistent array of sculpted, sweeping black dresses seen throughout all of his collections. We darkened the sockets of our model’s eyes and gave her some black, lacy gloves to wear, as we wanted to do a lot of hand shots. The location was the archways under Rochester railway bridge. It was perfectly rustic with sprouts of marsh and decaying, crumbling bricks. This scene captured a lot of distorted positions and quick hand movements. We managed to get some stunning beauty shots and used our space really well, making our model crawl, arch her back and lean in towards the walls. This scene was a bit less innocent and much darker. We wanted to capture a more demented, unnatural side to our model, making her appear less like a human and more like an unworldly creature.

Second location, Rochester railway bridge

Shooting in second location, black outfit

The final location was a long, steep alleyway with bricked walls and sprouts of marsh, which pushed the confined/trapped ideology of our film. We used a monochrome outfit extremely coherent to Tempest’s A/W 08 collection, which consisted of a Victoriana white shirt and tapered, black trousers with huge, draping bows. It looked extremely effective with our model’s long black wig and haunting complexion. I set up my camera on the tripod and kept it stationary at the bottom of the alleyway to capture the entire length. Emma freestyled again to get close-ups and detailed shots. This was a simple part of the shoot that entailed our model to walk in a distorted way down the alleyway, from left to right. We had close ups of her (bare) feet and hands running along the wall. At the end of the alleyway we got her to crouch down and reach both sides of the walls with her arms to make her appear to be trying to break free, escape. The idea was to speed this scene up quite a lot to recreate the effect used in The Ring (unnatural, jutting movement).

Shooting in third location, alleyway, monochrome outfit

When we finished we went home and re-created the footage that we had test shot (mirrored images flashing) before, directing our model to slowly edge towards the camera.

All in all, I was extremely happy with our shooting. The styling and makeup looked amazing and the locations fitted in with our idea really well. Our model was extremely patient and we had no trouble shooting or with the locations/cameras. The footage looked great when we played it back and we were happy and proud of what had been achieved.

thats a wrap, time for tea

And so it begins...

Today, after actually physically astonishingly (yes I found it hard to believe it myself the shock made my mouth dry and my legs collapse beneath me) we managed to BOOK a bloody camera. Ah yes, see I put that in capitals for dramatic effect. We booked cams. Then waited quite a few hours waiting to actually retrieve them. But the point is we obtained cams and spent a good part of the day brainstorming and finalising our shoot, which was of course punctuated with trips to Tony Lorenzo for a bit of grub. (Note- Emma was not impressed with Tony’s lack of attention to salad filling and we did have a bit of a showdown with some refugee diet cokes and too much onion garnish).
We were unable to secure a studio slot (we didn’t book one due to all the camera/model crisis and thought it would be better to bide our time) but being the geniuses that we are, we always had a back up plan. So plan B. It is not derogative it is just as good as plan A, it was simply just not numero uno. We are shooting in three locations:

1.    White bedroom
A totally blanked out bedroom with a bed frame (no mattress) shoved up against the wall. Very cramped; TV in the corner fuzzing; model lying on the bed staring at the screen wearing Lauren Christensen’s creative cut dress. This is to be reminiscent of a mental-ward room and is the opening and closing location.

2.    Alleyway
This is a brilliant alleyway near where we live that is grimy and marshy with glass smashed on the floor. It is narrow and long, with a bit of an upwards slope to it. This is the location that feature the shots that are cut so the model gets closer to the screen (The Ring inspiration). Monochrome outfit.


3.    Railway Bridge
This is a dark, damp archway that is bricked and desolate. It will feature close ups and haunting movement, possible a blurring so that the model’s image is overlapped to create a dizzy aesthetic. Black outfit.

We are also including a few little extra ideas that are inspired by the Jay Z video that we looked at. We want to use black treacle and drip it down the models face, cutting back and forth so that each time, the syrup consumes more of her face until it is completely covered- then we will cut.

Filming starts tomorrow- really excited!!!

Presentation Reflection- No offense taken if you cant be fussed to read this partially essay style mumble

I thought it would be a good idea to reflect on Thursday and talk about comments, thoughts etc.

We went into the presentation feeling pretty confident.

We were proud of the rough trials we had done to illustrate our use of our prescribed effect and had made plenty of mood boards to illustrate our ideas.

The mock/trial clip was simply a demonstration of our interpretation and dealing of the effect that was given to us (flashing lights), and how we had incorporated it into our idea. The clip was majority in blackness due to the camera's slow re-loading, but the darkness was not the point of the clip. It was infact the visuals i.e.- the red hue and then the bright blue flash, that lit the model up that were the key focus and that were the frames that we wanted to use in our final spot. The presentation was projected up onto a white board in a naturally lit room, so the visual was not strong which made it horrendously hard to actually see what was happening on screen. I completely understand that but on the Mac it looked perfect, a classmate also picked up on this as she watched it off the monitor, rather than the projection board. The light did not work in our favour and we had comments that although true (too much black...no offense but yes that was the point we arnt using the black this is a TRIAL) they were not necessarily fair. I hate to be a moaner but we worked pretty hard using limited resources and whilst I thought the result was quite remarkable considering, our lecturers simply stated (as soon as the clip finished) ‘No. Not for me.’ Totally fair enough if you can follow a bold statement with constructive advice. But this was not done. Another favourite was ‘No one cares how hard it was…I don’t like it its not my thing’. Fab. Again- nothing to work with. There was no ’ok honestly I don’t like it but here’s what you can do to improve it/what you would be encouraged to do at a pitching…’

We made sure to really explain our concept and development but still it seemed that our tutors could not comprehend our work or even the simple fact that due to limited resources we had created an EXPERIMENT rather than a film. Dennis did try to lighten our spirits, pointing out that the presentation was good and if we worked as hard as we have, and even harder, we could nail it.

I don’t want to repeat what Emma has put onto her own blog but I find it truly infuriating and frustrating that we are paying so SO much money for no cameras, bad attitudes, lack of studio slots and generally not enough thorough tuition.

 James has been pretty darn good this term. I have really enjoyed his lectures they have been both technical and philosophical and personally, they have opened my mind a little. James always goes on about how we are useless and un-motivated but I buy fashion mags, I read blogs, I do work experience, I have dressed fashion shows- and yet at uni there is nothing to push us or heighten any kind of fashion excitement. Sorry to blog on (you have probably stopped reading this by now, I will not take offense) but I seriously have questioned my time spent here. On Thursday we were given opinions rather than advice. Not great for two fashion students who have never created/directed/produced film in any way shape or form. Hands up, I was so p*ssed off that I didnt go back to uni for the other presentations in the afternoon, which I understand was unfair on the other students (who actually got a worse battering than us) but I simply could not stay in that room after the rudeness and un-motivating comments that had proceeded. Sorry.

Mr Tempest being a babe and helping those less fortunate

This is William Tempest's offerings for Sports Relief, as worn by Kate Moss. The designer created this dress out of recycled mosquito nets to highlight the importance of the shields that cost just £5. Tempest commented: "I hope the campaign will help to raise awareness about Malaria and how it can be prevented just by using such a simple net. The nets themselves were easy to work with as a fabric, I wanted to layer them into panels to create a geometric effect which is in keeping with my style. Kate looks beautiful in the dress and I hope its auction will help to raise lots of money for such an important issue."
Mossy added: "The dress incorpororates recycled malaria nets and is absolutely gorgeous, I loved wearing it and it's a great way to raise awareness."
Fab. I think its a wonderful contribution that looks brilliant. Moss' helping hand was a nice touch also.

moodyBs

For the presentation on Thursday we made quite a few mood boards to help translate our ideas and make them more accessible and understandable. I made the styling and hair/makeup boards whilst Em did the overall mood and film inspiration moodies. Here are the badboys, sorry a few are the wrong way around, I couldnt work out how to rotate them;

On to the next one....

 Emma and myself were watching TV the other day and saw this video for Jay Z's new song 'On to the Next One', which is a stylistic, sleek music promo combining clever editing and symbolic images, resulting in a visually stunning monochrome vid. Below are some stills that we really liked and think are quite do-able for our own spot;

This frame featured a series of black cables stretching across the screen, which were being waved to create a soundwave-style effect.

This was a moving shot of liquid vibrating on a speaker creating a violent ripple and splashing effect.

I really love this frame. It is a shot that orrigionally showed just the upper half of a face, but as the promo progressed, it centred on her lips. Towards the end of the video, the lips appear to bleed voluntarilly, dripping down her chin.

This is a really simple yet clever effect. The frame is a mirrored image of floating smoke, shot in negative, producing this ghostly almost x-rayed visual.

This frame has been syncronized with the song; so as the music features a heavy bass thud, we cut to this image and the man opens his eyes. Simple yet effective.

Great openings

'28 Days Later', Danny Boyle, 2003
(please ignore the Ad at the beginning!)

Focusing on London town, this opening scene cuts from location to location, ingeniously capturing the loneliness and emptiness of the normally bustling city. This is probably the one scene from the hit film that people remember the most due to its effectiveness and ability to create a huge impact on the audience. It is unsettling and quite unnerving seeing London from this prospective. It encourages the omen that bad things are soon to happen and sets the scene for a dark and disturbing tale.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwXyX5b43W0

'I Am Legend', Francis Lawrence, 2007

(Watch up until 0.50 min)

This clip was extremely hard to get hard of and the above link would not let me embed so please have a look. This yet again sets a lonely and deserted scene whilst also instilling an inkling of dread and up-and-coming havoc. There is something about this clip, maybe it is through its silence and stillness, which is alarming and perturbing. It should create a sense of calm but ultimately does the opposite; it is almost too quiet. These predictions are correct as the story unfolds into a horrendous series of events encircling zombies/infected humans. 

These types of scenes would be brilliant to help to introduce and open our film. I visualise the camera capturing a deserted street, then a deserted house, deserted hallway and living room; then i see the camera pausing and focusing on a television that then flicks on by itself. From here our spot will follow, making it unclear whether the visual is real or simply just a TV clip. 

Clip we showed at our presentation on Thursday

Untitled from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.

This is the edited clip that we showed to Dennis and Geraldine at our presentation on Thursday. We showed this rough experimentation to illustrate the ways in which we intend to incorporate flashing lights into our film. Obviously this is not the finished film and is simply just a demonstration of a single technique that we aim to feature only a handful of times to help flit between scenes and locations. There is a lot of black as the camera took a while to reload, but the parts of the clip that we want to feature are the sections where the model's face is illuminated with a warm red hue, then lit up intensely with a shocking blue that exaggerates the bold makeup and adds a creepy effect to the overall look.

Test Shooting

So last week we were unable to take out a camera as I mentioned before. Instead of doing nothing but moaning, over the weekend Emma and myself enlisted our housemate Lauren as our cut guinea pig. She loved it. We tried out different make-up looks, dressed her up and filmed a few effects.

Makeup

We did a different style of makeup on each side of Loz's face in order to compare and see which was more effective and appropriate. We started with giving her a pale, ghostly base, which created a hollow glow rather than chalky dust. We then created a sallow look in her cheeks by shading in the hallows with a light grey powder and then dusting the cheekbones with a pearly shimmer.

On the right-hand side of Lauren’s face, we focused on strong eyebrows. We used mascara to backcomb her brows to create a messy, zig-saw look. We extended them with liner and exaggerated the front part of the brow by the bridge of her nose. We then added powder to create a moody yet distinguished look. The result was slightly Robert Pattison-esq but teamed with long, wild hair, it had potential to look deranged but still ‘fashion-y’ enough to incorporate into our spot.

The other half of the face had a focus on dark, ghoul-like eyes influenced mainly by Gareth Pugh. Firstly we lined both the upper and lower lids. We then filled in the socket with powder and outlined with liquid black to create a thicker-than-Winehouse flick, which was also extended and thickened. We then shaded the side of her nose with grey powder to encircle the eyes with a mist of black and tinted her brow with grey and a small etching of black near the nose. The result was a sinister look that I really liked.

Styling 

As this was only a mock shoot, we didn’t fuss too much over the styling. Loz wore a billowing, crinkled black maxi dress with a laced shawl around her shoulders and some black mesh in her hair.


Shooting

We practiced a mirroring effect that recreated the creepy scene from The Shining. By chance, as we turned the lights off, Emma clicked the camera, causing it to flash and take a photo. I was still filming and the effect was brilliant on-screen. The flash created a red hue, which exploded into a fuzzy, strobe light-esq burst of light that looked like a fuzzing television. We recorded the effect consecutively and asked Lauren to get closer to the camera every time the flash had subsided. The result was a creepy, distorted clip that managed to incorporate all of our prescribed and chosen elements such as flashing lights and mirroring. I roughly edited the piece, getting rid of our nattering and placed our unique track (created by Chazza) over the top. The result was really good considering it was all homemade.

Below is us experimenting, I will upload the final clip after the presentations tomorrow.

Untitled from Grace Brennan on Vimeo.

The Shining

 

 I’ve mentioned The Shining before in a previous post so wont go into much detail about it's murderous, psychological-mind-creeper plot. Brilliant film though. This scene really appeals to me through its editing and general atmosphere. The scene uses actual twins, but ultimately borrows from a mirroring technique that we plan to use in our spot. The idea of duplication, especially of the human person, is a creepy thing that many aren’t comfortable with. It is raw and unnatural and doesn’t settle right in our minds. I also like the cutting from alive twins to bloody, murdered twins. It sends shivers down my spine and does it's job brilliantly at scaring the pants off the audience. The truly horrific, disturbing image confronts you forcefully and is unnerving and simply horrible. A simple but amazingly effective scene.

The Ring

'The Ring' is the 2002 blockbuster horror film directed by Gore Verbiniski. The film is based on cursed videotape that promises death (via telephone- very efficient) to the viewer within seven days of watching it. This film is of great inspiration to us via Samara’s (the evil character) image and the way in which her scenes are cut. There is a lot of 'jumping' forward in the film when Samara is on screen, making her appear to get closer within the blink of an eye, causing great horror and fright. Her appearance is part heroin chic, part mental home escapee, fallen down a damp well with yellow fingernails that have a habit of falling off constantly. Fab. We especially like when she climbs out of various objects such as televisions and wells- the way in which she does so is painful and quite horrific. The climbing/crawling scenes are cut and sped up, creating a jaunty, quick sequence. It appears that the bones in her arms are twisted and she crawls along the floor in such an animalistic way. It really accentuates the inhumane qualities about her, she is unearthly and unnatural. We want to incorporate her disturbing movement into our film and will definitely be imitating the editing of her scenes when she is cut and jilted ahead. Here are some examples:

Samara crawling

The movement is cut and 'jumped', making her appear closer to the screen quicker

Samara climbing out of the well

Her movement is cut and quickened, making her appear more deranged and inhumane

More 'mazing make-up

Here are more make-up inspiration ideas for both dark eyes and sharp cheekbones.

Dark, bold eyes at Lanvin A/W 2010

I also like the sharp, boldly cut fringe that frames the face.

Tsumori Chisato A/W 2010

Brown lined eyes teamed with high clouds of blusher at the tip of the cheekbones create an ethereal, high impact look that accentuates the cheeks and facial structure.

Ridiculous

So yet again we paid a trip to the shop today to loan out a camera and yet again NONE were available!!!

What is the point how on earth are we supposed to test shoot or even film without the use of the camera I thought that promotion had cameras specially reserved as this is a major project that goes towards our final degree??????????

Apparently cameras aren't available until monday which has hindered our work yet again. We have got a mirroring trial already but thats about it to show on Thursday for our presentation which is really disappointing. We were planning to film parts of our spot on friday but cant do this now due to lack of resources.
Sorry to rant but I find this so un-professional and truly unfair.

In a nutshell..

After looking through my posts, I noticed that I haven’t actually detailed the specifics of our spot- silly really!
Basically we will be shooting half in the studio and half on location. The idea is to flit between locations in time to our music, which features consecutive beats that will act as the catalyst for angle and scene changes. The studio shots will use both black and white backgrounds. In these shots our model will be swaying, rotating and making sharp movements, all of which will be speeded up, slowed down and mirrored in post-production. Hopefully, we will be able to incorporate a strobe light effect when we use the black background to create a flashing lights effect; it will also be an occasion to flit to and from locations and scenes within a blink of the eye. The studio will be a clean-cut, smooth part of the film, but the location frames will be gritty and grungy. We aim to shoot these locations in a marshy alleyway by our house or a grimey, dark, bricked archway under the railway. In these scenes I don’t visualize us using our model. I see the camera getting closer and closer zooming periodically in to the empty space, and at the end, the camera will snap to a close-up of the archway with the model now in shot. The music for our shoot is currently being edited to create more of a build up with a quickening pace and advancing, dramatic mood. The spot hasn’t necessarily got a narrative, just simply a build up with a dramatic end. It is a sequence of deranged, metamorphic movement broken down into post-production scenes of flashing lights, mirroring and slow motion. The incorporation of William Tempest is via the styling, which is dark and modern-gothic with sharp, geometric tailoring and streams of black fabric. Our make-up is focused on hallow cheeks and emphasizes dramatic eyebrows. The hairstyling is simply long, loose and dark.
I will put up the storyboard as soon as the scanner starts working again!!

Victor and Rolf A/W '10

Sweeping black eyes again, great influence for our spot make-up.

PLEASURE PRINCIPLE AT SHOWROOM ROMEO, Paris

These are images from Pleasure Principle's collection, showing at Showroom Romeo in Paris. The label is a 'subversive, and casual bondage' line created by Diva Pittala and Adrian Cowen in 2002. It has a unisex nature to it and it 'consists of unique jersey pieces, reworked vintage (sometimes embroidered or overdied), and transformable pieces that can be worn in many ways.'

These images use great smoke effects which are quite haunting. powerful and reflective. They are very strong and idealistic for our own spot.

Pleasure Principle

http://www.pleasureprinciple.org/

Please please check out the website that I have posted above. It contains videos that cannot be uploaded or removed.
Pleasure Principle's web page shows three videos that all use effects that we want to incorporate into our own spot. The main spots that got my attention were the second and third. The second shows a model rotating on the spot in the dark. Only a sole light in the top centre of the screen is alight and as the model rotates, it captures glimpses of her dress and also her face, which is done up with glitter and metallic paint. This creates a spooky glimpse that is veiling and mysterious. 

The third spot features a pitch-black studio, which lights up periodically when a strobe light is flashed in an irregular rhythm. The light reveals shots of a model wearing tops that she poses in and then one-by-one, takes off. The way in which the strobe light is used, makes it look like the girl is struggling and literally tugging at the tops, when in fact she is simply just taking them off. This is due to the time lapse which the strobe creates.

Both of the clips only show glimpses of what’s really in front of the camera, which is an unusual but effective way to achieve interest in both the spot and the styling.

Spot 2: Singular spotlight captures only a minute part of the outfit and make-up

Spot 3: Strobe light reveals only segments of the clip to give the illusion of disturbia

Music to our ears....

'

'Chazza', as I have newly named Charlie Harris;

Our pied piper, our music man (respectively)

Many of the films that we have looked at use music that is reworked from scary films and creepy sound effects, achieving gritty yet polished pieces that create a rhythm by which the films follow. Each turn of music influences the scene that unfolds in the spot to create atmosphere and drama build-up. In the various spots that inspired us, the music acted as a storyboard and it appeared that the film followed the music; it was not just simply background filler. It was therefore hard to find a unique piece of music that could ‘direct’ our film.

So we collected all of our inspiration and clips of music that were roughly along the lines of what we wanted, and gave them to Emma’s brother. He is a musician and agreed to help us create a unique, personal sound that wasn’t just a download from the Internet. It was a collaboration that would help not only us, but Charlie also, showcasing his music producing skills. Today we received the music clip and were really impressed by it. It captures the mood of our film perfectly and helps us to envision everything a bit more clearly. We’ve been putting off drawing up a storyboard until this music was finished, as we want to use it as a piece of ‘direction’. Our concept is not with narrative, it is created through an array of sequences drawn together creating drama-building scenes that are more spontaneous, free and un-choreographed. The music IS our storyboard. Listening to the music created stills in my head of the film and I cant wait to get the ideas down on paper.

Emma's converting the file into a music clip so as soon as shes done, Ill load it up onto here.

These are pics of Chazza, nothing to do with the blog, just for my own personal entertainment through these stressful times. Item A is Chazza having a laugh in a moustache. ItemB features Chazza chillin with a tinnie. Great man.

Troubleshooting...LITERALLY

On friday me and Emma went to get a video cam out to test shoot. We wanted to try out a few mirroring techniques, screen splitting and angle adjusting. We also wanted to test light on the camera.

HOWEVER

No cams were available to loan out which has hindered us as we wanted to do this over the weekend ready for next week. Super annoying, has held us back a bit now also so getting a bit worried and really hoping there will be cams available when we need to shoot. Surely fashion promotion has priority over equiptment at the moment???????????

Rick Owens A/W 10

Another great idea for dark, creepy makeup at Rock Owen's a/w 2010 show:

 

 

Ellie Goulding

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Navl4fYI-Zk


Unfortunately there is no embedding code for Ellie's Under the Sheets music promo so the link above will have to be suffice until the code becomes available. I have chosen to post this video due to the gorgeous editting throughout. Ellie is hazilly doubled throughout and I also like her take on the flashing lights effect.
Below are stills that capture the camera effects that have inspired me;

 

(0.52 min)

This is an effect that is repeated throughout the vid. Ellie is shot singing the same part of the song but is standing/looks different as it is two different frames vaguely merged onto one screen. The addition of light spotting gives the scene a magical feel.

(0.56 min)

The light spotting mist across the screen gives the scene, again, a more magical feel. In action, this scene is a blur of warm, flashing lights. A really nice take on the filming technique that lights up the whole screen.

 

(1.13 min)

Again, Ellie's scenes are merged vaguely into one, this time with a more close-up shot of her face which is a more emotion fuelled shot and reflects the part of the song well.

 

(2.43 min)

At this point in the promo, Ellie's image is duplicated and slightly overlaps. It reminds me of Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody video slightly, not sure why- maybe it's the way that the images are lined up??

(2.57 min)

Towards the climax/end of the promo. An image of Ellie drumming gold dust is combined with a high saturated light spotting shot which altogether creates a beautiful burst of lisght and energy. Flashing lights inspiration anyone?!

l.o.v.e it

Here are more videos that we have been looking at that use effects such as mirroring, flashing lights and merging screens:

 

Antichrist

Antichrist is the 2009 film by Lars Von Trier. The movie is a disturbing and violent masterpiece that is beautifully shot and excellently executed. It received many awards at the Cannes festival but caused a lot of controversy due to its extremely violent and graphically sexual nature. The story is based solely on two characters, a man and his wife, whose child has recently died. The wife suffers extreme depression and grief and her therapist husband decides to enrol her as his patient. The couple retreat to the depths of the wife’s fear, Eden forest. Here, nature becomes evil and manifests itself on the couple and their sanity. They begin to loose grip of their mental stability and horror emits.
The key is in the strong visuals, which make the unspoken more powerful and provocative than words and action alone. I took particular interest into this film due to its brilliant postproduction techniques, more precisely its use of slow motion, which was shot with a Phantom V4 in 1,000 frames per second. The result was a hauntingly still visual where the only movement was that of the female actress whose walking was slowed down, making it appear ghostly and supernatural. Obviously its going to be impossible to get hold of the particular high end camera to shoot similar slow motioned scenes, but I really want to consider this effect and finish for our own film. Above is the main section of the film where the slow motion technique is most effective and important. However, these type of sequences are played constantly throughout the entire reel, so I have uploaded the film's official trailer which captures more of these scenes, just not to the lengthy extent of the previous clip posted.

slo-mo inspiration-al

I came acros this clip randomly on youtube and really liked the simple concept behind it. I really think that this is an image that we could feature in our own film. I like the slowed down violent shaking of the coloured pompoms and think that if we changed the colour scheme to monochrome it would look FAB. It could be similar to the smoke frames used in our inspirational video and we could cut to it throughout.