mdavismajorone2021

[mdavismajorone2021]

Final edit - The Lion and The Lamb

Powerful Gaze - exhibited on monitor on side of projection

Vulnerable Gaze - exhibited on monitor on other side of projection

The Lion and The Lamb - main projection 

[mdavismajorone2021]

Final edit

Whilst editing I’ve run into a number of technical problems which has stolen a lot of time. Mainly, the project won’t open or save. I’m not sure if this is due to the Premiere Pro itself, my hard drive, or Mac, or a combination of all of them but it’s incredibly frustrating and means I have less time to edit. Even after restarting everything, I have a number of minutes to edit as much as I can before an error pops up. I’ll have to export my film incase it completely corrupts.

[mdavismajorone2021]

Pictures taken on my phone from the last test before crit/assessment next week.

Unfortunately the space I plan to use for the crit next week was in use so I used the room next door but this had a lot of spatial noise. However, I do really like the projector and the two monitors. I decided to go with the same size tv’s as it just looks better overall. During the test I realised that shadows would be cast onto the projection if people stood in the middle, which is where I want the audience to view from. Therefore, I had to switch projectors, change aspect ratios of the projection and placed the projector onto a trolley in a corner to allow people to get closer to the work without blocking the projection. 

I synced up all 3 videos and I think the two monitors work well in showing the reactive gaze. 

Equipment used:

 2x monitors

1x projector and trolley

3x media players and looper cables

2/3 extension cables

Keyboard to be able to change settings 

2 speakers and cables

[mdavismajorone2021]

Updated plan for my installation - I will test these and compare the set up for the final time tomorrow.

I now plan to use 2 tv’s instead of 4 to capture this notion of the reactive gaze. One side will be the vulnerable gaze and the other will show the powerful gaze. These will switch accordingly with the visuals in the projection e.g. Vampire has power until they’re in the room.

[mdavismajorone2021]

Guy Maddin’s intertitles.

I found Maddin’s use of text within his film really inspiring for my project - the opening moments of The Forbidden Room are a muddy and melted statement of intent, assailing the viewer with a barrage of old-timey title cards, all badly degraded either physically or digitally, many changing style and typeface mid-credit. Full of half-heard musical overtures and opening notes, this clamourous introduction sets the stage for a chain of seemingly unrelated vignettes based upon silent films both real and imagined. 

Maddin charged production designer Galen Johnson with the behemoth task of creating the hundreds and hundreds of intertitles needed for the film (and eventually its opening and closing title sequences), each one specially designed to reflect the story it was a part of and the information being communicated. The final product is a remarkable pastiche of early title design that would be almost indistinguishable from the real thing if not for Maddin’s distinctive sensibilities.

Maddin's previous intertitles were shot with a Super 8 camera and transparencies on a light box. Gallen had to do this digitally, for a number of reasons so he had to find ways of making completely digital titles feel loose and messy and organic. There were 500 for The Forbidden Room and 3000 or more for Seances. They use intertitles to completely change the narrative of the films.

[mdavismajorone2021]

The Intimacy of Silence

To experience Silence is to experience intimacy—with the world, and with whatever or whomever we are seeing or meeting experientially. Such an intimate silence is very present to what is at hand. Perceiving, thinking, and feeling are available but we feel more alert, more intimate, more present than our ordinary mode of experiencing. This silence is not a spaced-out, trance-like, dimmed or static state of consciousness, but our natural state, totally open to and intimate with the moment as it is.

Silent films that explore intimacy : 

Coeur Fidèle/The Faithful Heart (Jean Epstein, 1923)

The film tells a melodramatic story of thwarted romance, set against a background of the Marseille docks, and experiments with many techniques of camerawork and editing.

About Cœur fidèle, Epstein wrote that his way aim had been to create "a melodrama so stripped of all the conventions ordinarily attached to the genre, so sober, so simple, that it might approach the nobility and excellence of tragedy". The film contrasts impressionist and naturalist aesthetics to tell the story of Marie, a girl forced to renounce the man she loves, Jean, to marry Petit Paul, a man she doesn't love and who mishandles her. At the end, the two lovers are reunited but they are so broken by life that happiness seems to be no longer possible.

In this scene we see Jean and Marie finally free to love each other, though their faces suggest that experience has taken its toll on their lives. Although due to the time period and not intentional, I think the instruments in place of complete silence combined with the black and white emphasises the melodrama.

THE GOLDEN HORNS - Kay van der Aa Kühle (1914)

https://www.stumfilm.dk/en/stumfilm/streaming/film/guldhornene

Using motifs from the classic Adam Oehlenschläger poem, the legend of the Golden Horns is told across four different epochs. The discovery of the first golden horn in 1639, the discovery of the second golden horn in 1734, the theft of the golden horns in 1802, and the saga of the golden horns in contemporary times. Emilie Sannom and Emanuel Gregers star in all four episodes, playing a young couple fighting to be together. 

This film is completely silent and features no intertitles so the focus is on all the action.

HOW TO CREATE INTIMACY VISUALLY (according to Kurosawa) :

- Dependence on closeups

- constant use of deep focus

- low-key photography

- realistic intricacy of detail which is so compelling, real and believable that the result is immediacy - it becomes actual

#Youtube

[mdavismajorone2021]

The Lighthouse - dir: Robert Eggers

2019 ‧ Horror/Drama ‧ 1h 50m

Whilst watching The Lighthouse, I was heavily inspired by the use of lighting.

A lighthouse is a tight, contained space. This links with the visual language used within the film’s cinematography. It’s dark with high contrast, all of the lighting is optimised for black and white.  It feels like the 19th century and it also feels like the 1930s.

When shooting on location, “You have to start using a lot of light. Black and white film is much less sensitive. Shooting on color film you’re working at ISO 400. Alexa’s 800. We were shooting it at 80. You need ten times more light.”

The lenses used are Bausch & Lomb Baltar lenses and are 80 years old. This creates a contrasty and orthochromatic look.

Black and white can mean a lot of things because you get to choose what spectrum you extract your black and white image from. The first photographic materials were sensitive to ultraviolet light and blue light. “If you look at silent films the sky is generally blindingly white. In Hollywood films, they would put on a lot of makeup, that classic silent film look with makeup pancaked on. That’s because the film wasn’t sensitive to red light and everyone looked very weathered and craggy otherwise. I liked that look for this film. I wanted to emphasize texture.”

Stills taken from the film: 

[mdavismajorone2021]

I really like the effect of the old tv’s as you try to find signal. I like the way it distorts, linking to the notion of deconstructing horror. It also reminds me a bit of Dara Birnbaum’s Wonder Woman.

I also like the corner split-screen as it is effective in immersing the audience. However, it is fairly challenging to set up so it’s straight and the same size on both walls.

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Footage to test installation - one interior ie. in room , one exterior ie. castle

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Editing experiments

Split-screen of the same eye.

Split-screen  of opposite sides to create a face - creates more of a connection.

Overlay of Vampire and girl’s face - makes disorientating.

Testing of border in between screens.

Exterior/ Interior Split screen with no border

Triple split screen - Face, Sheep, Exterior - links to deconstruction of a horror to it’s basic components. Begs the question what makes a horror?

[mdavismajorone2021]

Sound experiments

Live music

Over the weekend I took the projector home to test out different materials. During this time I also experimented with sound. In this experiment I tried live music. I used a keyboard and guitar - neither which I am trained to play, but feel more comfortable with the keyboard, and I believe this shows. I responded to the projected visuals with the instruments, which I think is an interesting experiment. I was thinking about performing and improvising whilst I exhibit the film but I’d rather have it already pieced together for the best effect so will probably use a different source of sound to accompany my film.

The concept of using live music links in with silent films. Showings of silent films almost always featured live music starting with the first public projection of movies by the Lumière brothers on December 28, 1895, in Paris. This was furthered in 1896 by the first motion-picture exhibition in the United States at Koster and Bial’s Music Hall in New York City. At this event, Edison set the precedent that all exhibitions should be accompanied by an orchestra. From the beginning, music was recognized as essential, contributing atmosphere, and giving the audience vital emotional cues. 

Musical scores for early silent films were either improvised or compiled of classical or theatrical repertory music. At the height of the silent era, movies were the single largest source of employment for instrumental musicians, at least in the United States. However, the introduction of talkies, coupled with the roughly simultaneous onset of the Great Depression, was devastating for many musicians.

THE POWER OF SOUND IN HORROR

Notes: 

In horror, it about the sounds of the unseen characters - allude presence of someone or something through noise - audience doesn’t know if its really there or not.

• Sound association

#Youtube

[mdavismajorone2021]

Title cards

This test experiments how different title cards would look like, using text from the original Nosferatu whilst I create my own script. I explored Gothic text layered onto a sample border for an authentic gothic look, like from Nosferatu. I then sent out messages on different social media’s such as WhatsApp, Instagram, iMessage and Twitter to see how these would look aesthetically in between a shot.  This was interesting as it brings in modernity in a film that explores so much tradition and borrows from the old. I also experimented with sound, using found sound of someone playing the organ. For the social media  messages, I layered this with notification sound effects from the respective platform. In the last part, I experimented with layering on the notification sounds which is interesting but makes it hard to focus on the text. However, I do believe that the notification sound effects add more dimension to the titles and brings in the element of modernity. The sound effects also link to the notion of sound association. When we hear the notification, we know where it is coming from. Even sometimes the specific social media the notification noise is coming from. This links in with the horror film genre. For example, when we hear certain noises, we understand that tension is being built so we know something is to come, instilling fear in the audience.

For my own title cards I plan to take inspiration from works by Keats and Angela Carter.

#Youtube

[mdavismajorone2021]

“The Lion Fell in Love with the Lamb”

Gender, violence, and Vampires.

Whilst editing my footage, I realised there was a connection with the sheep and the concept of my film. In the narrative, the Vampire is caught drinking the sheeps blood, however the actual sheep themselves have a lot of significance regarding gender, violence and Vampires.

In vampire fiction, this conflict is obvious and inevitable given that one is vampire and one is human. There is a constant struggle between the vampire's desire to kill his romantic interest and his “love” for her. Furthermore, the lines between his desire to kill his romantic interest and his sexual attraction to her are blurred. Although problematic patriarchic themes have been addressed in several forms of popular media, scholars have yet to investigate gender and violence in the gothic genre. However, the article by Renae Franiuk and Samantha Scherr explores these through the case study on ‘Twilight’.

“And so the lion fell in love with the lamb” “What a stupid lamb” “What a sick, masochistic lion”      -Twilight

This quote suggests the patriarchal themes and gender violence within ‘Twilight’. Bella (the human girl) is presented as the lamb - linking to innocence, purity, meekness, and ultimately prey. On the other hand, Edward (the Vampire) is presented as the lion - linking to strength, courage, power, and ultimately a predator. 

[mdavismajorone2021]

Projection tests

I tested current footage and projected it onto different fabrics and materials. Whilst I do like the way the red silk adds colour, I think the image quality is lost and this specific material is hard to pin up without creases and wrinkles.

[mdavismajorone2021]

1:1 Tutorial

Feedback

The kissing framing works well 

The 16mm is fogged/underexposed so needs editing

Next steps

Editing:

Combination, input and output

Layer 16mm and digital or cut from one to another?

How would I want to divide or distort the storyline?

Can I use the foggy/underexposed shots for the narrative - you see less and less as it gets more tense?

Starts with full vision - gets more faint as film goes on?

Think about WHY are some in 16mm and some on Black Magic

Old type face for title cards

Bring modernity in by using social media such as Tweets or WhatsApp Messages - creates a distorted view of horror - makes more spooky 

Characters are from this age so would be good to bring in technology and media of this age too 

Title ideas - stick to social media idea? Or etch out letters of title into wood or metal and drop ‘blood’ (ink, paint or food colouring) so it fills out the letters

Could even share the ‘title sequence’ on Instagram? - but think of WHY I would do this

Sound

Consider doing live music responding to visuals - instrumental ; creates drama and links with old films - benshi etc

Record myself playing piano or layer different instruments that housemates play in response to visuals 

Also try digitally making sounds 

To-do list for next week 

Try at least 2 sound options - live, digitally 

Finish edit with draft footage

Create title cards and add them in

Test installation ideas - projection or using screens?

[mdavismajorone2021]

Installation and space

The Best Space is the Deep Space, 1998 2 Video Projectors, 2 Video Monitors, 4 DVD Players, 4 DVDs, Free Standing wall and Existing Architecture

This links with the idea I had of the projections and the boards. 

If I was in LA, 1997 1 Video monitor, 1 DVD, 1 DVD player Installation view, Castellodi Rivioli, Museo D'Arte Contmporanea, Turin, Italy, 1997 

This would be good if I could exhibit in a castle or an external location that I used within my film.

Pape's Pumpkin, 1994 Two DVD's Two DVD Players, Two Video Monitors Installation view, David Zwirner, New York, NY, 1994

I like the use of the two monitors - able to create patterns or contrasts. 

Pipilotti Rist

Ever is Over All is a video art installation Pipilotti Rist made in 1997 and presented at the 47th Venice Biennale. The installation functions as a video diptych where two projections are being cast on two connecting walls in the gallery. On one side, we see a video of a woman dressed in a blue dress and red shoes carrying a stick that looks like a flower but is actually her weapon of choice. The woman uses this flower to break windows of parked cars while she happily walks down the street in slow motion. The other side of the diptych of this feminist artwork shows colorful video images of nature and flowers.

The use of projectors creates connections between the two images and is immersive for the viewer.