Sunday 27 October 2013
Sheffield United- Crowd Signing
Experimental Project- Chris Watson
Our first assignment evolves around this
word “experimental” and consists of four different elements. Research blog, a 3
minute audio piece, a 3-minute visual piece and a self-assessment sheet. For
the start of the research I started to look at different experimental artist. One
name kept on popping up, a local artist called Chris Watson.
Chris Watson is one of the worlds leading
sound artist who specialise in capturing wildlife, he has work with the likes
of David Attenborough capturing some of the worlds best wildlife sounds. The
clarity and detail that can be heard in his work is amazing. You can hear the
smallest detail and don’t need any video footage to visualize what is
happening.
Inside The Circle Of Fire is a sound
exhibition by Chris Watson playing at The Museum of Sheffield and is his most
ambitious work. Taking over a year to record his signature sounds it captures
the city of Sheffield in its purest form. Among the sounds are the tranquil
sound of birds nesting, the roaring sound of Forgemasters furriest and the
immersive sound of Hillsborough and Bramall Lane.
What I loved about this exhibition is the
sense of atmosphere when walked in the room the hairs on back of my neck stood
up. Each recording has its own different unique atmosphere, which was brilliant
I found myself sat there just immersed by the sound. Having little visuals really
enhanced the experience as you had to picture and imagine were you where. I found the whole experience quite amazing as I
never really paid that much attention to the sound around me.
At this point I have very little idea and
direction for this project but I really like this idea of creating an
atmosphere and the different feeling you get from different atmospheres.
Thursday 24 October 2013
Sound Workshop
Todays workshop was all about sound, we
where taught how to use the equipment and the different microphones which where
available from connect 2. After the tutorial we then had the chance to experiment
with the microphones and the other equipment. In a controlled environment it was much easier
to pick up certain sounds, while outside it was a little more difficult as
there is a lot of background noise.
Editing Workshop
We where given a video of two guys having a
conversation. The footage was shot from two different camera angles and we then
had to make a small edit switching between the different camera compositions. I
found this a little trick, as a lot of the footage didn’t match up. The people
shooting only had the one camera but filmed the scene twice from different came
angles this meant that a lot of the footage didn’t match up and the actors
sometime said different lines. However I still managed to put together a small
edit which worked quite well in the end!
Wednesday 23 October 2013
Camera Workshop
Last week we was given the chance to
experiment and get to grips with the
cameras that we would be shooting on this semester and through out the year,
the cannon XF100.
We was given a tutorial on how to use the
camera but also how to adapt the setting to fit the environment. There where four
key settings we had to change and to adapt. Shutter speed, gain or ISO, iris or
aperture and white balance. As a amateur photography I was quite familiar with
some of the terms and how there affected the shot.
1) When shooting in the UK the shutter speed always has to be at 1/50 or you’ll get interference black lines that run horizontal across the screen. This interference may not be noticeable until you get to the edit where it might be too late.
2) It’s always best to shoot at zero or as close to zero as possible to reduce the amount of noise or gain in the shot.
3) Aperture is all about measuring
light, the lower the aperture the more light the shot is exposed to. You are
best hanging this when out filming as condition and lightening are constantly
changing.
4) Changing the white balance helps you get a much more true colour contrast. its hard to get the colour contrast right sometimes as the pre recoded settings might not do the shot any justice. We got taught to hold a piece of white paper in front of the camera then record our own setting to get the white balance perfect.
4) Changing the white balance helps you get a much more true colour contrast. its hard to get the colour contrast right sometimes as the pre recoded settings might not do the shot any justice. We got taught to hold a piece of white paper in front of the camera then record our own setting to get the white balance perfect.
After our tutorial
we was then asked to work in pairs to create a short 45 second video which we
then stitched together using final cut pro. Our video consisted of three 15 seconds clips of sheffield.
Wednesday 16 October 2013
Love Me or Leave Me Alone
Love Me or Leave Me Alone
Love
Me Or Leave Me Alone is a short film directed by Duane Hopkins, it has won over 30 international awards including the
Gold Hugo from Chicago and Best British Short film at the Edinburgh film
festival. The short film follows two teenagers Steven, played by Jay Firkins
and Jessica, played by Zoe Rietti. Who try to deal with the emotions of being
in love.
I felt that it was a touching film with good
but stripped down scrip, the minimal dialogue works really well as it helps you
appreciate how good the young actors are. The minimal dialogue also allows the
actors to convey they emotion through body language and facial expressions the
director captured this emotion by using many close ups and mid shots. The most
memorable has to be this one at the very start of the film. Just from this
shopshot we can see so the different emotions in Steven face.
Another way the director as tried to convey
the emotion of a young relationship is by enhancing the sound of the couple
breathing. To me this adds to the tension of the film but also makes the whole
viewing experience, for me, a little uncomfortable. To be honest this isn’t
really a bad thing as this short film isnt your typical love story as the
director is trying to show the difficulties of a young relationship
The movie is short but quite intense and
often left the audience guessing especially the car scene. Lots of cars drive
past but when the one pulls up my heart drops as I was expecting the worst for
Jessica. The camera focus on the wind mirror reflection as we see Steven try to
catch the car, this shot is very quick and only last a couple of seconds, for
me this shot need to be a lot longer as it would have made the scene much more intense. this scene was quite misleading as it gives
the impression that the cars are going to play a much a majour role.
Overall this film isn’t perfect film as it is quite misleading
with the overloud traffic noises and the
way Jessica is holding her belly giving the impression that’s shes pregnant. For
me the ending was very rushed as we don’t know who the letters to but also what
happens to Steven. Despite this it is a
great little snapshot of a typical teenage relationship - passionate, rocky,
bewildering and soul
destroying.
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