Thomas Johnstone - Project Research: May 2014

Explain the concept for your work, try to outline your idea clearly and concisely and indicate where your influences and inspirations for this piece have come from? Consider the intended audience for your work and consider how you would like the project to be received; is there a particular age group or background for example that the work is aimed at?

The documentary was based concerned with finding out the people of Liverpool’s feelings towards the docks, the river and the sea. We aimed to create a poetic piece that would evoke memories for the older generation of Liverpudlians and would remind people how Liverpool was built. We took a lot of influence from Of Time And The City (Terrence Davies, 2008) this film showed the history of Liverpool by using a lot of archive footage and old style music to create a really moving piece of film that evoked memories. We took the archive and music influence from this film but we were to base our film on the current people of Liverpool’s knowledge of their history. We also took influence from Steel Homes (Eva Weber, 2009) this film evokes emotion by matching up people’s thoughts on their storage units that hold so many memories and beautifully crafted cinematography. The film is a very poetic piece that doesn’t give information rather than showing people feelings towards the subject. This is what we want to do with our documentary. Our documentary is aimed at an older generation amongst Liverpool, however I think that the younger generation would also be interested in their history.

Our Drama is a short film that deals with the effects of loss and the early stages of Alzheimer’s disease. We didn’t want to create an overly obvious film about the physical and mental effects on the person suffering the disease; more we wanted to make a film that dealt with the effects on relationships and family. We wanted to have a slow paced opening and ending to the film with an increasingly fast paced middle section. The middle section would deal subtly with the physical and mental side of the disease allowing the audience to make up their own mind. We took inspiration from Amour (Michael Haneke, 2012) Amour follows an old couple as the wife gets dementia, her husband has to deal with her and their marriage is tested. I watched Emmanuelle Riva’s performance in the film to help me direct our actress. We also took inspiration from Up (Pete Docter, Bob Peterson, 2009) which follows an old man who has lost his wife and decided to go on a journey, seeing as though our film has to be about a journey we took note of the way in which the old man acts on his own, in quite an aggressive way towards other, we used this aggressiveness in our script. We don’t particularly have an age range for the film, I feel that it is more appropriate for those who have family or friends suffering with dementia, although I feel it is appropriate for others to watch to learn or to work out what is going on.

Give a detailed critical analysis of the finished piece of work for this project, try to consider your work as a member of an audience and recognise what has worked well and what has not been as successful in your project. Try to be objective and weigh up the pros and cons focusing on the positive outcomes as well as the areas that have room for improvement. Reflect on what you would change if you could make the work again?

The finished documentary ‘Undercurrents’ was not very successful. The opening was the most successful part of the film. The opening evokes emotion by holding a long take of Liverpool slowly becoming further away as the camera is on a boat, along with a very minimalist piano cover of Ferry ‘Cross The Mersey. After this the film seems to be a ‘mish-mash’ of different ideas without one particular direction. One section of the film includes an interview with a man about his feelings towards Liverpool, One section includes a man singing the song Ferry ‘Cross The Mersey and one section shows lots of archive footage. Another massive problem with the film is that for whatever reason, after shooting, all of the sound files were not backed up and we had to use in-camera sounds, which were terrible and hardly usable. I feel that overall, the organisation of roles and script for the film were very poor which lead to a very poor film. If I were to make the work again, I would push myself for the role of director more as the group without my knowing dropped me as director. I would direct the film in a focussed direction (which I had planned before I was dropped) rather than 3 or 4 semi-directions.

The Drama film ‘Perdre La Boule’ I feel was very successful. Perdre La Boule uses a well timed and filmed long take throughout the first scene which allows the audience to be introduced to the characters without using close ups. I feel that the film successfully creates a journey in Eve’s head to self-acceptance of her illness rather than blaming her daughter. I feel like the middle section of the film is the weakest as we weren’t allowed longer time for the overall film. The section attempts to build pace without it being overly obvious, however with only around one and a half minutes to build this pace and successfully address the narrative, the pace wasn’t built as steadily as I would have liked. However, in this scene tension is created with the use of a harmonica sound that comes in and out of the mix. I feel that my job of director was successful. I met up with Olivier (Producer) and Ryan (Cinematographer) before the script was finished and we discussed shot for the scenes and I feel like I directed well on shoots, the shots that we had all decided on. As well as these shots, I directed other shots that had not been planned as to increase coverage for the film. Overall I think that the film was successful in dealing with how people deal with dementia and loss.

Describe the process of making the work and your individual contribution. Did things work out differently from the way you had visualised them at the planning stage? What production issues did you encounter that caused problems during the creative process?

I feel that my contribution to the Documentary was stumped as my role was changed without my knowing a few days before the shoot, and I was only informed five minutes before the shoot. I had already made all of my directing plans however; my role was changed to Cinematographer. Luckily I had brought my own camera along for personal reasons. I was no prepared to be recording all of the footage. However, after this I did the best I could and I feel like I did a good job of recording the footape to a high standard. I filmed a lot of ‘cutaways’ without direction which I feel would have made the film a more focussed piece as they all had similar looks to them, however not many of these shots were used in the final edit. Things worked out very differently to how I had imagined them in the planning stage, as I had planned an idea that would focus on childhood stories from the older generation of Liverpool. It did not work out like this in the final piece, it was a very un-focussed film. We encountered many issues during production. Firstly the whole role mix up was a mess. After filming, our editor and our producer had big differences that were seemingly egotistic and we lost all of our sound recordings. These all hindered the turn out of the film in negative ways.

The process of making Perdre La Boule was very enjoyable. I feel that, as a team we worked very well together and we were very organised. Everyone knew what they had to do in their specific roles and everyone was available to help other people with their role if help was needed. I feel like I did a good job of directing the film. As I had helped Oliver write the script I had a good idea of how I wanted the film to look before we had started planning shots properly. On the days of the shoots, I directed the shots efficiently and I also directed extra shots so that we had extra coverage. I feel that the film looked as I thought it would during planning stage; this is down to everyone’s hard work and understanding of the original concept. We had a couple of issues with actors during the production process, we struggled to find an elderly actress and when we did, after a number of postponements, she dropped out of the film altogether which left us with limited options. We eventually found a younger actress and altered the script. Although it worked out well in the end, I feel that the film would have been more successful if we had secured an older actress.

It is important to write in detail about what you have learnt during the project both technically and creatively. Outline specific skills you have developed because of making the work and new methods or approaches you have experimented with.

I learnt a lot both technically and creatively during the documentary making process. I learnt that it is essential to back up files, although I had done this with my files, another person’s mistake hindered the making of the film. Another thing I learnt is that there needs to be sound communication within a group for a production to be successful. I learnt that, an idea needs to be focussed and planned thoroughly before shooting. I also feel like I learnt a fair bit about filming on a DSLR camera as I was forced into using one last minute.

I feel like I learnt a lot during the process of making Perdre La Boule as well. I took the mistakes that had been made during the production of the documentary and learnt from them and corrected them throughout the production of Perdre La Boule. From the start we all contributed to the idea and the story, this is a good thing to do as I feel it allows everyone to feel involved even if their role isn’t key until the day of shooting. I also learnt that sticking to roles is very important and leads to success of films. I learnt that actors can be very difficult to work with and that they need to be secured as early as possible, how it happened we didn’t suffer too much from this but we could have easily suffered. As Ryan has quite a bit of experience with Cinematography, we used lots of equipment that I had no experience with, such as a crane, a slider and a steady cam. I learnt a lot watching him use these as they all have their different uses and times that they need to be used. Overall, the most important thing that I learnt is that good communication and group organisation is the key to making a good film.

Reflect on how you worked as part of a team. Did all members contribute equally? What are your strengths and weaknesses when it comes to teamwork? How can you improve your teamwork skills?

I don’t think that the group worked well as a team during the documentary production. I don’t think all members contributed equally. I felt that our director didn’t direct a single thing. I felt that I had to make my complete mind up about all of the shots that I was to record with no help or direction. I felt that during the postproduction, the group were not working together at all, our producer took the editing into his own hands as our editor wasn’t being efficient enough. I feel that I am good at telling people what to do and taking their ideas into consideration and I am good at being told what to do in a team. However, I was not able to direct the group and I don’t feel like I was told what do with the cinematography at all. I think that my weakness when it comes to teamwork is not being able to voice my troubles when I feel like I am not being included. I can improve my teamwork skills by concentrating on the mistakes that have been made during this process and making sure that they don’t go wrong in the next production.

I think that I worked well as part of a team during the production of Perdre La Boule. As director, I was able to have a mark on the film but also take other peoples ideas into consideration. I feel that everyone contributed equally to this film, everyone contributed to the original idea and everyone performed well within their roles. Everybody included their own ideas into the film and I feel that it was a group success. I think my main strengths during this production was my organisation side of the film, although there were lots of complications concerning actors, we were able to work things out. I also feel that I was very organised when it came to shooting, I knew what we had to film, where and when and I was able to tell people what they had to do. My main weakness during this process was not fully understanding the processes that Ryan, our cinematographer undertook when filming, had I asked him advice on using his camera, I feel like I would be more confident using DSLR camera to film with in future. Overall I think that the teamwork in this production was very strong and organised.

SHOT NUMBER	SCENE	ACT	LOCATION	TYPE AND DESCRIPTION OF SHOT
1	1 & 2	1	Int House	Long shot, long take, with slide through door. Shows action of scene 1 and scene 2
2,3,4,5,6	2	1	Int House	Close ups. Household items that would mean a lot to the character e.g. painting, watch, photograph.
7	2	1	Int House	Close up. Photograph of Pip is slammed onto the sofa in anger.
8	2	1	Ext House	Close up. A marble is sat on the doorstep in the foreground as Eve walks out of frame in the background to the right.
9	3	1	Ext Park	Long shot. Eve is walking in the centre of the frame on a large path in a large park.
10	3	1	Ext Park	Mid shot, in front of character. Eve is walking on the path.
11	3	1	Ext Park	Following Mid to Long shot - Steadycam. Eve stumbles/ runs up a grassy hill in the park.
12	3	1	Ext Park	Long shot. Eve walks through an archway on top of the hill.
13	3	1	Ext Park	Close up. Camera close on Eve's face as she turns right down the path.
14,15,16,17	3	1	Ext Park	When we get to the park we will experiment with other ways in which we can show Eve walking in a confused state.
18,19,20,21	3	1	Ext Park	Close ups. Different marbles are being picked up by an anonymous hand in different parts of the park.
22	4	1	Ext Cemetery	Mid shot with slow slide. Eve is looking down at a grave. Camera behind the grave.
23	4	1	Ext Cemetery	Mid shot on a crane. Pip enters the frame and gives Pip the marbles. The crane lifts as the 2 hold hands. Camera behind the characters.
24	4	1	Ext Cemetery	Close up. Pip hands the marbles to Eve and they hold hands.
25	4	1	Ext Cemetery	Close up. The pair hold hands. Camera behind the characters.

Thomas Johnstone - Project Research

Friday, 9 May 2014

Trouble filming

Self Evaluation

Perdre La Boule Rough Edit

Editing process

Shot List