As part of our course units for year 2, we were given the theme title 'fields and frames.' This was given to us as well as the unit 'dance film.' To extend our knowledge of experimental media and dabble in new forms and pave a direction that could potentially make us our own pioneers in film technology and new digital media.
Here I started to look at a few short films dated back before the 21st century as inspiration and to grapple onto the idea of what experimental film was back in the past and what it could be today.
Although there are a vast array of short films I've discovered perusing the internet, I've only selected a few to show. As the rest, They can be found in the link below that should direct you to Youtube.
By Buster Keaton & Edward F. Cline. The year 1922.
Although a more satire approach to short film it certainly was a forefront for new media in the early 1900s. This is a three part series and the one I've selected is the last of the three. What I like so much about this is its physical and humouristic approach. The early forms of stunt performance and visual effects could also be appreciated in Keaton's work.
LE VOYAGE DAND LA LUNE
By Georges Méliès 1902
Widely known by many and one of my favourites researched so far. Its strong use of effects offers the short film a visual richness in terms of media technology, enhancing the viewer's film experience on fictional based stories.
ALICE IN WONDERLAND
By Lewis Carroll -1903
A classic tale told, in short, is something to marvel.
Our production began by first arranging ourselves into groups of equal amounts. We then proceeded to delegate ourselves to our chosen roles. It gave us the opportunity to pick our strengths and work with them in order to better contribute to the team as a whole. A few amendments had been made when presenting our roles to the tutors in order for people to maximise the most out of the roles and even some had to become part of both groups, to fill out the spaces still available.
I chose to be the head of the sound department in the production as the sound editor and mixer. This, in turn, made me the head of a two-man team with Luca becoming sound editor and grip. Although these roles were ours. Both Luca and I made the decision to spread out the responsibilities of each role helping each other in the tasks that were ahead. This was a smart and effective strategy to our team as this meant that both of us would work to our strengths and exercise them where necessary without the need to pressurise ourselves with tasks, not best suited to us. This made us both an efficient team in the group production.
During the start of the production when it came down to moulding the idea into form for the group video. We arranged many meetings primarily based in the library, to discuss and communicate ideas and develop our thoughts on storyboards and scene by scene layout with the director (Joe) and the producer (Suzanne.) As we proceeded to finalise the idea which was later called 'Push and Pull before Cohesion.' Inspired by Ying and Yan. I then took to discussing the proposed music that would become part of this piece. What would it be like, what genre, would there be foley work, would all sounds be made in post-production and will there be sound needed during the shoot.
As Luca and I had done our research and gathered materials necessary for making the piece, understanding where the idea was going we took to hiring a composer to create a short piece using subtle violins and piano in a slow-paced, discussed with the composer during the meetings we had with him. The good news we had was that the composer was uni based (accessible to the music equipment.) and more than willing to help us out with the group production. The bad news is that we had already done all our tasks sooner than we anticipated. Adding to this, on the day of the shoot we would have very little to do in terms of work.
which then made us suggest foley work to the director as a way of perhaps incorporating sound with more abstract features. Long story cut short, we managed to get the green light go ahead and Luca arranged and booked out the foley room on the days of the shoot.
Despite both Luca and I being well managed in terms of time and scheduling we did face some difficulties as any good team would. The composer had unfortunately stopped communicating with us which then led us to presume they had opted out of the task and so landed the pressure of coming up with an alternative plan B. Eventually after we had resolved the issue, the composer recently got back to us with a piece that unfortunately had little relation to what we intended originally. As good as it was it wasn't the piece we originally set out to create. However, we did manage to provide Foley based sounds that could be altered and fit into the scene that the avid team could incorporate into their cuts of the video. Adding to this we also faced complications with exporting sound from the foley room to the point where some of the sounds itself wouldn't work.
Overall the experience was an eyeopener to what may be expected from us in year three and the future in particular where id see myself working. I know this is only the taster of what to expect in the film industry but to me, it gives me the indication of where I want to be and perhaps where I want to start out. Personally, I don't feel this was too much for me due to good organisation and quick response (which I understand a large part of the ease is down to preparation.) it was relatively easy and I'm quite pleased as a whole that Luca and I worked really well with ease through it, which definitely benefited our work.
Okay, so today we were brought back into the visual effects suites in uni and were reintroduced to Adobe After Effects. It has been a while since I last did a project on After Effects. However, we (the group) managed to get back into the swing of things as we began warming up and refreshing our memories on tools, skills and shortcuts.
The main point of this workshop was to introduce us to the next unit for our term 2 professional toolkit. The brief is as follows;
It is your task to plan and deliver a title sequence for a major film or television series. A title sequence is a delicate balance between text and audiovisual aesthetics. One could argue that the function of a title sequence, as being a sequence of titles, is paramount. However, a title sequence is often a component of the narrative body and form of the film and must flow between scenes or adequately play on the excitement/trepidation of an audience – a gateway into the temporal space generated within that particular narrative construct. The work must fulfil particular aims:
1. The sequence must display a relevance to the program you choose.
2. The sequence must demonstrate an ambitious departure from the original title sequence.
3. You must construct all of the assets.
So, now we were debriefed we began with our first lesson into AE by creating and using text.
This was to show us how to animate text and manipulate and use appropriate font families, in order to create our piece. The final result of that day will be uploaded soon as currently, I am adding music to give it a finishing touch.
Continuing on with my project I am researching further into studio and stage performances for art and contemporary dancing, but also exploring the use of camera angles and space with fewer lighting.
Alexander is a Swedish Dancer and choreographer. He has trained at the Royal Swedish Ballet School and has danced at the Royal Swedish Opera and the Nederlands Dans Theatre. After, he danced for the Cullberg Ballet, where he made his debut as a choreographer there.
Choreographer / Stage Director Alexander Ekman. Pieces from 2012 - 2017. Music Mikael karlsson. Royal Swedish ballet Norwegian National Ballet Dresden Semper oper Ballet Cullberg ballet Joffrey Ballet Hlin Diego Hjalmarsdottir, Clyde Archer
Jarryd James - Do You Remember (Alex Ekman Choreography Version)
his work has been seen worldwide and has been performed by many companies around the world such as the Boston Ballet, Sydney dance theatre, Norwegian National Ballet and many more.
He's been widely known to costume dancers and design sets and even known to create some of his own music.
Ekman offers a fast-paced performance and chooses to construct his pieces based on topics we all can relate to as Ekman says below;
”The most important question I always ask myself before I begin creating a new work is, Why do we need this piece?”
A performance merging dance and biology | Pilobolus
Two Pilobolus dancers perform "Symbiosis." Does it trace the birth of a relationship? Or the co-evolution of symbiotic species?
Pilobolus November 19, 2011, at the Winspear Opera House, Dallas, TX - AT&T Performing Arts Center
Innovative and intriguing, the New York Times says, "Pilobolus is a new form of Pop Dance." Always an audience and family favourite, Pilobolus returns to the TITAS season after a long absence. Highly imaginative and creative, Pilobolus remains one of the world's most beloved "dance illusionist" companies. Internationally recognized for athletic and inventive exploration of artistic collaboration, Pilobolus continues to blaze a path with their jaw-dropping imagery and creative collaboration. The company has received many awards including the Berlin Critic's Prize, the Scotsman Award for performances at the Edinburgh Festival, an Emmy Award for outstanding achievement in cultural programming etc...
Diana Vishneva: Beauty in motion - F.L.O.W part III
Diana Vishneva is a renowned praised Russian ballerina. This three-part piece was choreographed by Moses Pendleton for her. Inspired, by three artists; Picasso, Caravaggio and Erte. Combining their names to create the title called 'Picarte.'
Australian Dance Theatre | Be Your Self
Be Your Self is a unique and fascinating exploration of the human physical body and non-physical mind through the medium of contemporary dance-theatre. Stewart integrates the exactness of science with controlled yet, at times, seemingly unconstrained bodies in full flight. He further expands his creative boldness and choreographic daring in this thought-provoking and intense work.
SYNOPSIS
Garry Stewart’s Be Your Self-reveals the precarious stability of the concept of self as the work steps through the conventions we use to construct a singular and consistent notion of ‘I’. In an analysis of selfhood, Stewart situates the body at the centre of his inquiry. In Be Your Self the Australian Dance Theatre dancers are transformed into erupting, powerful, creative entities projecting a plethora of physical images and impressions set to an unpredictable, cartoonish, electronic score.
The project was to create a soundpiece 30 to 60 sec long and to create two versions, one with narration and the other without based off a piece of text.
The text could be from anywhere. Advertisements, books, poems etc...
My first idea was to create an aquatic underwater scene based off the Greek mythology of Atlantis. As grand o fan idea it sounded I had to put that aside as it was far too much of a challenge to perfect in such a small amount of time and so had to be a little more realistic. The next idea was creating a warm busking fire burning in a large fireplace and the sounds of family cheer and merriment as a lead up to Christmas. As perfect as xmas as this sounded again i had to dismiss this idea as the deadline was way before this. So going back to what I know, I began to revisit some of the previous work I did, in particular my first soundpiece about a painting called 'Dulle Griet'.' This painting in short, is the depiction of a thunderous horde of angry women plundering hell and sacking it of all its treasures.
Dulle Griet by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, 1562.
My intentions, now was to continue this painting in a sort of part two, to my first piece.
This subsequently lead me to the idea of creating a marching army that was hell regrouping just outside the plundered town in the underworld and getting ready to march forth into battle again.
The text used was an extract from a longer piece of text created by me in order to immerse myself in the moment.
Narration Their march shook the ground, Thousands upon thousands did they go, like a swarm of a locusts. Their cries soared high up into the sky thundering a monstrous roar. Clouds and lightening coveted the sky in shadow as the rain fell down, calming the fires that engulfed the lands below. As, the legions proceeded to the front of this war. This fight was only at its dawn. But who would win? No one could tell.
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Research
Overtime I came across various clips from movies that had marching armies and then came across one that was from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, It seemed almost perfect that a fellow sound mixer had overdubbed a scene in which thousands of creatures begin marching out of a castle and onwards to the enemy settlement.
It gave me the idea to use pots and pans and cutlery for the clanging of weapons and further reasearch into other videos gave me more ideas and techniques i could do in pro tools
I now had an idea and inspiration to begin myself off with and so began booking the Foley room out as much as i could to give myself suffcient time to collect all the necessary sounds required to create my piece and finish in Pro tools.
All sounds were made and created by me.
Some of the sounds made were created with the following;
Lightening : paper and tissue ripping and being torn up.
Rain : Rice falling down onto paper
Marching boots on the ground : Soccer boots in a box of rocks and dirt
Clanging of metal armour : my house keys on a metal reading stand used for music
Chanting and roaring: all done by me
Post production
The voices themselves took a bit of time and work and will say it that it was the hardest sounds to get right. Trying to make them sound like a thousand was harder but eventually with enough time in tutorials such as Lynda.com and techhow sites as well as vimeo and youtube i resolved the issue by overdubbing the sounds and then using a reverb and adding an echo to give it that church hall effect.
A lot of the others were enhanced in protools effects and some I had to change the base or or pitch in order for them to sound like the real thing.
I also used garage band in order to help me get the sound of the horns at the beginning and at the end the celestial voices fading off and ending the piece. All sounds were created by me over the digital piano and I also had a casio piano keypad in which I used to create my music for the piece.
The beginning of the piece I began first positioning the sounds in order to make them sound accordingly how I imagined it to be.
This is the what the end piece looked like in pro tools looked like before bouncing the audio onto my hardrive. Unfortunately I wasnt able to return to it to give it a polish off but alas....twas not meant to be.
The entire piece was worked at and completed in approx two days, however due to technical issues during post editing I couldn't complete and finish a clean cut version of my piece. The error was, the software, consistently! kept rejecting my saved projects or would not load up the media required to do the editing on and so personally I was distressed at not being able to polish off my final piece but in all I was proud of the soundscape.
