January 2010
28 posts
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BBC - Film Network - Films - Surprise →
The film equivalent of a haiku. This is a hard hitting, beautifully-crafted, visceral film. I love the way the story unfolds in one shot but gradually, slowly, like peeling the layers of an onion back. And the art direction and cinematography decisions support the narrative perfectly.
It contrasts with Rearview that I commented on below. How to tell a story in one take.
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The Apologist | Raindance TV →
I didn’t buy this at all. The guy is insincere for sure but how sincere do you want to be when you’re pushing through a crowd of strangers. He isn’t rude for saying sorry a lot he’s rude for being pushy and inconsiderate. Then I’m expected to believe that, even though there’s clearly a rocket up his arse, he’s going to stop and pass the time of day with a...
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BBC - Film Network - Films - Rearview →
Have to applaud the daring of shooting all in one take. It’s visceral and urgent. A real test of acting and organization. It’s a shame that a good idea is let down by the telegraphed ending. As soon as he utters the words, “Are you sure?” it’s so obvious how this is going to end.
Another example of hand held camera work. I found myself wondering if it was the...
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BBC - Film Network - Films - Four Tet - A Joy →
I like the twist at the end of this idea. It works well because, again, there are only two characters and the story is just about the struggle between them. The pace is the key to this - emphasising the chase with fast cutting and montage. This allows the film maker to cram a lot of action into a short time scale.
I like the scary bear costume, it reinforces the audience’s expectation about...
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BBC - Film Network - Films - Slap →
This short tells a dramatic story in a single episode. The sound and the flashback set the scene and the rest of the action indicates the outcome of one incident. The audience is left to ponder the details of the relationship between the two characters. The end leaves a sense of ambiguity. It’s a very open ended story and a lot of reliance is put on coded responses from the viewer about...
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BBC - Film Network - Films - Capoeira Painting →
This is a documentary film of an art event/installation recording the movement of the capoeira discipline in paint. There’s no real narrative to this, it’s just the essence of the event set to the rhythms of brazilian capoeira music. Its shot in a fly-on-the-wall documentary format without art direction and a degree of spontaneity that reflects the dance style and the nature of the...
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http://www.alacron.com/camera/machine-vision-camera... →
Detailed info on the Motionpro x3 high speed cam.
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...teach a new dog old tricks...
Directing an animal is not something to be undertaken lightly as the caveat about animals and children spells out. Karnie is a youngster with boundless energy and an appetite for play so I was delighted to find he has an amiable temperament and that his owner is great at keeping him under control. Nevertheless we knew we were going to struggle to get him do something spectacular to order, never...
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Control of the camera
Continuing with the high speed shoot of the husky cross Karnie. Now that the lighting was as good as we could expect in the circumstances we had to figure out how to make the best use of the equipment and subject.
The camera shoots at an adjustable frame rate in a modifiable frame up to 1280 resolution. It captures a series of frames and saves them to its 4gb memory. This memory continually...
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Lighting for high speed
Working with Karnie the husky puppy was really good fun and helped cement my knowledge of the high speed x3 camera. Here I’m going to break down everything I’ve learned about using it.
Previous experimentation with the x3 has shown that the main problem with getting the very high frame rates is that of lighting. The problem is that when you want to capture something at 1000 fps the...
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Freelance advice, podcasts, events, jobs, training... →
This could be a very useful resource for anyone looking at working for themselves. How to manage the admin side must be a concern, especially those who are contemplating a creative career. Weighing up the possibilities and pitfalls of going freelance.
I want to make an informed decision on whether to work for myself or someone else. And, who knows, maybe working for myself is something I could...
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triangle pattern on ASCIImeo →
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Influences
I’ve set up a writing workshop on Sunday with Jon and Irene. I’m going to take some ideas about the characters I’ve been working on and some key scenes and see if a brainstorm with them will throw out any good directions for the story or dialogue. I found myself writing my dissertation yesterday and finding that everything I was reading about acting and performance was inspiring...
YouTube Dives Into Movie Rentals, Offering Five... →
Another way to make money out of shorts?
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Producer for hire
It’s been suggested that I ought to be looking for other people’s work to crew/produce. The impression I get is that it’s only worth doing this if the end product is gong to be worthy of my own showreel. Talked to Rob and Tom this afternoon and it looks like they may be looking for somebody to take that role.
Got a call today from Haydn. He’s looking for some help with...
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Script development
Thinking about my short film idea I attended the networking event aimed at crew for shorts and low budget features. I had it in mind to seek out writers and look at collaborating on future projects and maybe interest one in working on the current idea. In the end, as I’ve noted elsewhere, I got more out of the contacts I already have and Jon emerged as a real opportunity to work with....
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Socialising
Attended a networking event aimed at crew and production personnel for shorts and low budget features last night. It was organised by Screen Yorkshire and took place at a venue in Leeds city centre. I’d been to a network opportunity with James last year at Bradford Film Fest so I had a general idea what it would be like and I had a plan that I wanted to try and meet writers who might be...
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Collaboration
I want to take a moment to reflect on my two co-conspirators who I am planning to give support to over the next few months. We are working separately but I see no reason to cut off our noses and ignore what the others are doing. At this stage there probably isn’t much to comment on but there are some ideas flying around and I may as well keep tabs on them here.
Mark says he is planning a...
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Day One
I had a tutorial with Anna today which was really useful in highlighting where i am at the moment with the major project so I’m going to reflect on that in this post. So far it has been decided that this is a solo project. We came away from the torture and neighbour sequences with the feeling that we had let ourselves down in pre-production a little bit. That boiled down to the sort of...