Our documentary overall went relatively successfully, although there were some minor issues along the way, that required us to take some creative liberties.
For example, the opening scene of our documentary is a reflexive moment where we walk into the reception and pretend to ask the direction to the interview. This was faked, but it helps us to set up the film correctly, to make sure the people around act in the way we want them to. It can be argued that this takes away from the idea of representing 'truth' in the documentary, but I would say to be honest that because the overall message is not really impacted by this minor change at it is only done for viewing convenience, it doesn't really create an issue for the main themes. This idea of the creative treatment of actuality is also interesting, as I feel like we did try to stick to this idea of actuality as much as possible when really talking to people, but of course, we did stray into the subjective sometimes, particularly with some of the editing, for example moving from Olden's claims that Christianity is becoming more prevalent to editing showing people saying they are not religious. We clearly express some form of opinion there, trying to contradict her statements, possibly purely for controversy. The emotional aspect of the documentary, or the pathos technique, is not really utilised particularly well enough. Modes of documentary being particularly effective for this are performative and reflexive, as this is one of the most underused modes in the documentary. Emotional manipulation is something we try and move away from in the documentary in general. While we may be subjective sometimes, I wouldn't say we really try and pull at any emotions, mostly relying on logos to deliver our points. I think the interview technique may be where some emotion comes out but this is limited. Overall, our documentary went kinda well, but there were definitely some manipulative decisions we made that question whether our documentary is really representing the 'truth'. However, I think we expressed our message relatively successfully, despite some issues throughout.
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The overall creation of the documentary has started with a few issues. The general limitations around schooling or education had some issues in term of what sort of idea we really wanted to explore without being too critical of the school as a whole. We explored other ideas such as the social groups within the year in students, but one of the issues we realised would certainly limit us there is getting interviews with students who maybe unwilling to appear on camera.
Although we have not proceeded with the concept of social groups throughout the students, we will still need to interview students for our current idea and if they wish to remain anonymous, we will need to blur their face, which we will be able to do in the editing process. Our current idea is to explore the presentation of religious values within our school, especially in terms of religious education and assemblies. Exploring people's views on religious values being taught would be very valuable to exploring the issue as a whole. As well as this, we are very interested in going into the idea of the conflict between teaching religion and religious values which often have very traditional, conservative roots and promoting modern, far more progressive values, such as the inclusion and acceptance of the LGBT community and how perhaps these religious concepts can deal with this. However, we as filmmakers need to make sure we are not overly critical, presenting a balanced view of both the school's intention in promoting these issues, but also exploring the inherent issues within the religious texts being presented. We want to remain as objective as possible if we can, to try and refrain from pushing our own ideology onto the film (which should be possible considering the spread of our own personal views as directors - relatively varied in terms of religious positioning). The film will have challenges further down the line but we have begun to confront and solve the problems we have faced thus far. 'Thoughts that Burn' – Surrealist Film Evaluation
In Thoughts that Burn, we attempted many different ideas in terms of the content and the themes in order to use the Surrealist genre to the fullest extent. In some ways, our film does follow some of the general conventions of many of the surrealist films we researched, but our film does do some things that take a different route to many of these films, whether that be a positive or negative thing. One thing we wanted to make sure we could do when making the film was the lack of an easily observable narrative in the film. To do this, when planning out the film, we tried to come up with concepts first, rather than the overall message of the piece. We felt that what sticks in people's minds when watching a surrealist film is particular images (for example the cutting of the eye in Un Chien Andalou) rather than a definitive narrative. Like many surrealist films do, we wanted it to be the job of the spectator to create their own interpretation rather than making one definitive one, so we made sure to prioritise elements of the film rather than creating a specific message. In terms of technical aspects, our initial aim was also to fulfil the usual conventions of many surrealist films such as L'Age D'or which would often use quite fast cuts to continue this feeling of discomfort originally created by this images. Our finished product didn't necessarily contain the fast cuts we were going for. In fact, over time, we decided to challenge some of the conventions by making some shots intentionally last a longer time period, slightly due to change up the style a little bit, but also to create some discomfort for the spectator (as the increased length is quite unconventional). While the quick cuts can also have the same effect, we wanted to try something different and so, in the filming and editing process, we made this decision, making the film feel a bit slower but hopefully still keeping that disconcerting feeling. The music and sound of the film also fits into the usual surrealist style, with the usage of white noise similar to that of Lynch's Eraserhead as well as emulating the style of silent surrealist films like Un Chien Andalou (as well as emphasising that odd reaction from the spectators – they come to expect a sound effect). From various audience research and our own opinions, the scenes most conventional in terms of the surrealist scene are the blender scene and the moment with the elephant. The former, uses quicker editing, as well as the presence of gore and violence which can be found in plenty of surrealist films (particularly from my own research in Lynch's The Alphabet and L'Age D'or) to create both a shocking scene for the spectator (a reaction which seems to have come through in most spectator reactions to the film) as well as something that fits into and shows influence from past surrealist works. The latter uses the idea of seemingly random imagery to not only disconcert the audience but also work as a cornerstone for interpretations if the spectator wishes. The idea of some form of animal being used to surprise the audience was always planned from the beginning but the choice of the elephant stemmed from our own personal ideas of the film being about memory. The ideal cut of the film made sure the elephant was incorporated into the environment rather than stock footage to allow for that jarring switch between the familiar and the foreign found in many surrealist films such as Microwaveable and Fresh Guacamole. However, as mentioned before, we definitely took some different direction from each of these films. The cinematographic style is definitely slightly more modern, using far more long shots than in earlier surrealist films. This decision came partly due to the practicality of shots and the lack of experience of Harry Veale, the lead actor in the film but also as we still wanted this sense of distance created for the spectator from the protagonist. We still wanted them to feel alienated in the presence of him as a character, and we tried to make this separation of character and audience increase as the film went on, using more long shots. The switch to greyscale towards the final shots of the film slightly contributes to this but also creates this feeling of discomfort and the unknown that many surrealist films also contain. Another of the primary differences here is that we did have a narrative structure in mind when creating this film. There was a planned chronology to each of the scenes in the film and there is a sense of a cause-and-effect to each of the actions that take place. While there is the presence of flashbacks, these still do follow a clear sense of chronology, which can be seen as different to some films such as Un Chien Andalou or The Alphabet, neither of which have a clear sense of chronology or cause-and-effect and any examples of causation do not generally make much sense, unlike in our film. This could be seen as a failure of the film in terms of its surrealist style but it can also be shown again as a conflict between the familiar and the foreign, combining the normal human idea of memory with the shocking, violent imagery that is not usually found in life. In terms of this, our film is definitely more edging towards the more modern development of the surrealist style, having more in common with Lynch's works than Bunuel's in terms of the usage of the images and their place within the real world and really showing the conflict between the real and the unreal throughout our film. In some ways, our film strictly follows the idea of the surrealist style with its seemingly unrelated and random images that seek to confuse and unsettle the spectators but also the film challenges at points, applying a more modern conventional chronology and evidence of cause-and-effect which likens it more to traditional narrative structures. Our film was planned with many different ideas in mind to meet an overall vision and in many ways, we were successful, but in some ways, there are elements throughout our film that do not fit that overall vision. In terms of the successes of the film in meeting our original overall vision, the overall narrative of the film was certainly achieved with each scene playing out (in terms of its events) exactly as we planned. Throughout the filming and editing process, there was little need to change the events of the film for location reasons or practicality reasons. The usage of a carefully planned screenplay did help this to go through, as well as working out shooting locations far in advance of the actual filming days. As well as this, in terms of the film's aim as a surrealist film, the film has seemed to cause shocked reactions from some spectators, most noticeably in the blender sequence. While planning the film, there was an initial dilemma in terms of creating a scene that would be interpretable and not just gratuitous violence, yet would shock the audience. The final choices made in the film did create some mild shocked responses from the audience so in that sense the atmosphere of the film certainly came through successfully. On a more technical level, the cinematography of the film was certainly very successful, with certain shots such as the longer shots on the road, creating a very deep depth of field, which worked marvellously along with the environment as well as creating an unsettling feeling, almost showing an exposure to the world that the protagonist has at this point as well as emphasising the loneliness and gravity of his situation. Overall, the way we used the environment and the mis-en-scene around us alongside the cinematography to help create a certain tonal atmosphere to the film was extremely successful in the final product. The final concept that certainly went very succesfully throughout the film is the editing in terms of duration choices, the overall pace and the overall fluid nature of the more technical aspects. While in two of the three cuts, there are certainly issues with the technical editing, but on the final cut screened, the editing was extremely well done which improved the feeling of the film as well as emphasising the aspect of the surreal. While there were certainly many successes throughout the development of the film both technically and narratively, there were also some things that did not go as planned. One such unsuccessful element of the overall development of the film was a lack of very deep planning. While there was some done in order to get the overall concept and narrative of the film off the ground, the technicalities of each scene were certainly not planned out to the same extent. Due to this lack of planning, there are some continuity issues throughout shots, as many ideas were slightly improvised in terms of the practicality of it. This means that the experience created by the film is slightly reduced, taking the spectator out of the film. Another aspect that we didn't think went particularly successfully was our casting process and actors eventually chosen. A more thorough casting process (perhaps involving a proper audition process) would have certainly helped with this. One example of these issues showed with the acting in the classroom scene in which the actor playing the bully character didn't particularly come across with the attitude we were going for (appearing angry rather than mocking, which was not particularly the intended tone). In hindsight, some roles could have been swapped around and performances directed a bit more closely to ensure the characters appeared slightly believable. Personally, there were also issues in terms of the actual extent to which the film fell under the surrealist style. While we certainly used some aspects such as the random imagery and the shocking, violent sequences, the film certainly could have done more technically with the idea to add to this base work. The job of making someone feel genuinely uncomfortable while watching the film was certainly a difficult one and we certainly did not succeed in that area. The film could have done with more explicitly surrealist sequences in order to meet this criteria. Finally, one of the other primary issues personally with the film is the chosen music which doesn't really feel to flow that well with the edit, creating an unintended sense of jarring transitions between each parts in the score. The score fades away in the wake of some of the imagery, which is a shame as it feels like the score can really contribute to that aforementioned feeling of shock that can be felt through the surrealist style. The construction in the representation of social groups in our film could give some interesting ideas. Firstly, we have the scene in the classroom, which brings in a few ideas of the education system. The idea here in the planning stage was to make sure the protagonist is only remembering negative memories in his life, forgetting all about any of the positives. The setting of the classroom was used to help do this. School is meant to be a place for education in a secure and friendly environment, but in our film, this is presented at a complete contrast, with the bully character verbally and physically harassing the protagonist, with no clear sign of education or teaching taking place in the scene. Through this, we wanted to highlight both the negative aspects of school life that can and do take place to many but also to show this contrast: school is meant to be a positive place but the protagonist purely imagines it as a place where the verbal abuse from his parents continues, creating this nightmare as the spectator is taken through these corrupted memories. Linking to this, the presentation of parents in the film is again very negative but, yet again, this is deliberate, creating a contrast between the traditional role of parenthood and the way our protagonist saw his own childhood. We wanted this particular sequence in the film to take place as his parents are going through some form of marital issues, eventually leading to divorce. However, the protagonist does not remember the previous times when his parents were caring and did perform their roles, but instead, only the negative. As his life flashes through his eyes, he only remembers the miseries of life, and we wanted to structure the portrayal of these strong memories of childhood and heavily corrupt them to help this. Apart from this, however, there was very little consideration in terms of precise social group representations, instead, we wanted to really focus on our protagonist and his personal memory of institutions and traditionally happy childhood figures and strongly corrupt this to show the corruption in perception his own mind is also doing. In terms of the audience feedback, we received some responses that were quite interesting. Most people agreed that the film was successful in its aim to be surrealist and as a film overall with every person asked giving the film at least a four out of five. The scenes which seemed to garner the most positive feedback was the blender idea as well as the elephant which both confused and shocked spectators and certainly has the most surrealist film to it. Some elements of the cinematography, particularly that on the road, received praise from most audience feedback, as well as the editing techniques that were used. Despite our reservations, the performances of all the cast got very positive feedback for the most part. Some people did take note of some of the more amateur elements of Harry's performance but that was to be expected with such a lack of experience. From most people's feedback, we also discovered and reinforced our own ideas in a surrealist film of the images being more important than a complete and perfect narrative as those scenes are far more striking to the spectators. Some spectators did argue that the film didn't have a point to it that it was trying to make and this is possibly fair – perhaps some form of point could have been highlighted at the end with some grand image to sum it up (as with L'Age D'Or's final scene's scathing attack on Christianity), just to illustrate to the spectators something we want to say about the themes of the film. As well as this, some people argued that some scenes came across as relatively misjudged in terms of tone, and this again, could be to do with some of the lack of exact planning that took place and the ideas that were improvised during filming certainly do not land as well. Therefore, overall from our audience feedback, I have garnered an increased sense of the importance of exact planning as well as perhaps improved casting of the film. However, the necessity for strong images that will stay in the audience's mind is also something that I should continue to do in future films, creating something that will really resonate with a spectator. In the process of making this film, I also learnt a lot about the production process, in terms of planning, writing, filming and editing a film such as this. The absolute necessity for detailed planning was illustrated to me, as I feel the film could have been improved with a complete storyboard and a more accurate shot list in order to help with not just the continuity errors but also just the overall flow of the film: it should feel meticulously planned and choreographed in terms of the blocking of the characters in terms of their movement throughout a shot as well as the transition into the next shot being far more carefully considered than we perhaps did. As well as this, the importance of auditions for casting also showed itself to be incredibly important. Once we had started filming, it would have been a struggle to change actors, and it does feel like some of our casting was a little misjudged, with some performances not coming off the way we wanted them to. During the planning stage, we also really ignored a distinct style to add to our film that can be found in many other surrealist short films such as Fresh Guacamole or The Alphabet. I didn't really feel like our film felt that different and I found an increased importance in terms of developing our own style instead of just filming and coming up with shot ideas as we went along. In terms of the time constraints of filming, we did struggle a little bit, having to come back for another few hours than we had planned and this was for numerous reasons: partly due to an incorrect estimation of how busy the filming location would be and the number of takes each shot would take. However, we finished editing quickly and efficiently and our planning stage also didn't take too long. I've learnt not to underestimate how long it will take to film a certain scene as complications are always likely to get in the way so in future I will plan for much longer than I necessarily think I need on face value just to make sure I will have time to get things done. From the film production, I learnt a lot about time management, increased planning and the creation of a distinct style to my films. The previous film I created in a group was The Appointment and I feel I have certainly progressed since then. Firstly, in that film, I was the actor in it and that did restrict the amount of direction I could put into the film but in this, with an cast brought in, it gave me much more scope to be able to direct the film to fit the style I was going for as well as really getting the correct performances out of the actors. Secondly, this film, despite some of its flaws in the planning stage, was planned out far more than The Appointment, which only had a few brief and simple images to help guide the shots we were using. The editing process of that film was also exceedingly messy, with every person involved in the production having a different style they wanted to push (which can of course be an issue when co-directing a film). However, in this film, I felt like as a group we did have a set style and vision with the film and I think it did certainly show in the screenings. In terms of technical competence, I think I have massively progressed from The Appointment, as in that film, shots were relatively uninspired and the editing was extremely basic. However, as a group, we have certainly progressed in that area, trying to bring in more interesting and varied shot types as well as using our editing ability to the best we can (however, I do believe I can progress in terms of my own personal editing ability). Finally, I have certainly progressed in terms of the research and planning that goes into making a film as well as writing my first screenplay to make sure that we knew the exact narrative direction we wanted the film to go. The writing of the screenplay made the film seem far more coherent than The Appointment possibly did and also helped greatly in terms of directing performance, which I also found I had greatly progressed in. The making of this film has greatly increased by ability as a director, screenwriter and editor, and I believe I can use these skills in the making of more films in the future. Development of the finished film is going well. Using the screenplay as a base idea, we have formulated a rough structure for the film. However, we are sure that some of these shots will be changed on set if we find some issue with the location, time to get things ready or just on-set ideas that we want to put into place. However, we currently have a good base idea of how we are going to film this and how we will composite the shots. The shot list can be found below.
We have now wrote a screenplay for the film, which brings together all of the ideas and highlights our vision for the film. The screenplay took us about two hours to write, using all of our collaborative ideas to create one coherent theme. We will now work on translating this onto a shot list so we can begin filming. The finished screenplay can be found below.
Progress has definitely been made now in terms of what we want to achieve with this film. We wanted to make the film a little more surrealist so we added in various ideas when planning to try and get something that would fit in with the message we are trying to convey with the film as well as confusing and jarring the audience and making the film just feel more Surrealist.
The overall plan is to combine these ideas of exploration of memory with a sort of reflections of a dying man. Our protagonist is looking back at perhaps the negative memories of his life and the spectator is meant to feel perhaps horrified or shocked by this but in our current draft, we see the protagonist trying to cling on to these negative memories and we could perhaps talk about how even these horrific memories of childhood are precious to us as human beings and they shape who we are as people. Without them, we are left hollow shells of ourselves (as will hopefully be presented in the film). To match these themes and ideas, we have come up with a working title, inspired by a line from the lesser-known Oscar Wilde poem Desespoir, which is Thoughts that Burn. We think this title would perhaps draw in an audience interested in surrealism but also perhaps sum up our film in a few words, the regret and despair of loss of memory and perhaps a desire to reconnect with lost thoughts. So, overall, the film is going quite well with the planning, with a good, solid basic idea set up and we hope we can build on this with a good screenplay and storyboard/shot list. Halloween Night is a short surrealist film made by student Dylan Henderson. The film shows a boy seemingly trying out masks for Halloween in front of a mirror when his 'reflection' comes to life, and seemingly wants to mirror everything he does. This film is definitely flawed and has some certain examples that I need to try and avoid doing to make sure my surrealist film is slightly more surrealist. Firstly, the film does have some slight positives. The concept has that idea of the realistic scenario being turned into something slightly unexpected but I would argue the technical delivery of this dilutes it and stops it from being so successful. The themes explored could also be quite interesting, with possible ideas such as duality, societal expectations and even possibly the influence of music. However, the film really has some fundamental flaws. Firstly, the film does seem to fall into some really set cliches, mostly the 'twist' ending at the end after he wakes up, with it seemingly being a dream, but the reflection is still there. This twist felt so ridiculous to the film and almost went entirely against the point of surrealism, to go against convention but this really didn't feel like an unconventional idea and fell towards the tropes of many modern horror films. The film itself also didn't really have that dreamlike element you look for in surrealist films. It shows him waking up from a dream, however it doesn't really have that lack of structure or cause and effect. From the point of view of this established universe, the events that occur in the film do make some form of sense narratively (with many actions being explained in some very clunky dialogue). While the film tries to play with that idea of the dream, it certainly does not succeed. Overall, there are more lessons to be learnt on what not to do than what to do from this film. The film falls to conventions, something that surrealist films should never really do and just feels technically quite weak also. In my film, I will try to follow less conventions and also focus more on that idea of the dreamlike. As well as this, there will be no spoken dialogue (although I may use intertitles) in my film as I feel like it takes you out of the surrealist film, especially with the usage of white noise-like sound in the background. Themes of the film could be interesting to explore in mine, but I would hope to take a look at them much more successfully than this film did. The planning process of the film is going relatively well. We have the basic premise down, and have some smaller ideas going around that will bring up our points of the fleeting nature of memories and perhaps the idea memories can be distorted in how we remember them down the line. Currently, we've been exploring how we can use the events in these memories to show ideas about these perceptions. We want to possibly utilise some POV shots to show the difference between this reality and the 'fiction' of his mind.
One problem we are facing is making the film surrealist 'enough'. We don't want to make the point too obvious, but at the same time we don't want to make just a selection of unrelated images that doesn't really have any point. It's a difficult challenge though to make these ideas coherent in some way. So, overall, the planning stage is going relatively well in terms of the base ideas, but we need to plan how these will be filmed and make sure more ideas are added to make a film with substance but still some that fits with the surrealist style. The film's planning is going relatively well so far. Our current plan is to shape the film around the protagonist's memories of certain stages in their life. We want to explore how memories can be deceitful and not exactly how you remember - however, we want to keep this relatively masked to ensure it still keeps that Surrealist element. This point should not be too obvious otherwise that does feel like it's defeating the whole point really.
We want to film in various areas, hopefully utilizing some areas around the school but perhaps also filming in our houses if needs be. We want to show the various important locations throughout our protagonist's lives, showing their stages of life, using various editing techniques to almost transport our main character through these various stages of life. The blending of memories will also be used to create some relevant but seemingly random imagery. It creates absurd images, but if the spectator can apply an interpretation to it, the film can make some sense. We will need a few cast members. We've got someone to play the protagonist but we want to get some sort of 'bully-like' character perhaps to represent the more violent or negative memories of his life. We haven't found someone to play this part yet, but we're hoping to get someone before we start filming. So overall the film is going quite well. It still needs some work in terms of a structure to the absurdity to ensure that the point is successfully put forward but this can be sorted out in the coming days. The Alphabet is a 1968 short film directed by American filmmaker David Lynch. The film recounts the alphabet and then shows a girl having these put into her head. Blood then comes from her mouth and the film ends there. Alphabet utilizes both live action and animation, again perhaps to create that idea of the real vs the foreign (especially considering the idea of the childish nature of learning the alphabet with the very graphic and violent imagery later on in the film), and and uses high-key lighting to create a fearful, spooky atmosphere. The film builds tension using the real, by having the girl in the bed recite the alphabet in an almost demonic way. Lynch said he based on his niece 'having a bad dream one night and was reciting the alphabet in a tormented way'. When this is used in the film, it creates an almost horror-like atmosphere which certainly disconcerts the spectator. The long shot of the girl in the bed at the bottom right hand corner of the screen with giant letters appearing is a particularly haunting one, with the girl almost being possessed, changing into lots of different positions. These edits are quick, adding to the weird and demon-like aspect to this. The final smile to the camera adds to the overall terror of the film. The narrative of the film has been speculated as showing an expression of a fear of learning, perhaps shown by the odd positions her body seems to take as the alphabet is recited. Some meaning behind the film, perhaps some form of fear helps to create a somewhat relatable nature to it. While these fears are not ours, we also have our own fears that may be similar in theme. Therefore, overall, I want to take the ideas of potential fears and perhaps explore them too. Something relatively plausible that an audience can relate to but still be jarring in some way. I would also quite like to incorporate some form of mild blood into the film, not necessarily just for gratuitous violence but to add to the shock value that many other Surrealist films also have. |
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