Re-cyles

We have been contacted back from a guy called Chris who is part of a company called 'Re-cyles' who work with bike restorations. He sounds really enthusiastic about being part of the documentary which is really good as he should give us quite a lot of good stuff. The story of 'Re-cycles' is interesting as when they started off they were doing really well and had an actual studio in the basement of a student union and had quite a lot of customers coming in to get the bike fixed or even learn how to fix it. However the student union got renovated and they had to move out without any notice which left them with the only option to work in one of the directors of the company's shed. After working there for a while they moved to a yard where they had a bit of a bigger shed to use as a workshop where they have worked for about a year now. All of them volunteer for it as well which I think shows how passionate they are about bikes and wanting to help people.

Group Meeting

Earlier today my group had our first group meeting where we discussed different ideas that we had researched on what to do a documentary about in Liverpool. We had to be in a group of 6 and my group includes Heather Hall, Ryan Goff, Elliot Carroll-Dunn, Jake Thompson and Olivier Chevalley. We spent a couple hours in the library making a list of possible and interesting companies around Liverpool that we can make a 5 minute documentary on. We came up with quite a long list of ideas that had companies we could try and contact if we felt that we could really make a interesting documentary out of their company. We also discussed job roles in this meeting and have decided that I will take on the role of sound editor, Heather is Editor, Ryan is Producer, Olivier is Director, Jake is camera operator and Elliot will be the sound recordist. 

Experimental Film 2000 Word Evaluation

The projects for this semesters Creative Media Practice Project module was to create a 3 minute audio piece and visuals to go with the sound as part of the experimental project. I worked in a pair with Hannah Grencis and together we planned out ideas we thought that would work well with the theme ‘Sense of Place’ and decided on using the concept of memory to achieve this. After changing parts of the idea and concept a few times we decided on keeping our original concept of memory. The name of our project is ‘Fragments’ as the film shows ‘fragments’ of the memory of a person’s life .The overall idea of the audio only piece was to record sounds that would remind people of certain aspects of their life e.g. childhood, adolescence and achievements in a person’s adult life. The visual side of the project we filmed for this sound piece tell the story of the sound, using images that remind you of the sounds you hear from the audio piece e.g. a birthday cake when hearing people sing happy birthday and work desks when you hear the sound of an office environment. The concept of the experimental film is that you are seeing these memories from the view of an old person who is trying to remember certain parts of their life but the memories start to go fuzzy because of the old age. The idea was partly influenced by people who suffer from dementia and how in the early stages of this it must feel to start losing your memory. One of the ways we tried to show this by using voiceover and repeating the words ‘I don’t know’ towards the end and ending the film with ‘it’s just gone’ to show all the memories this person has lost. This film could be targeted at any age as it shows sounds and images from childhood all the way through to elderly life. However I think that this film could be interesting to people who suffer from dementia or memory loss as they would understand it and understand certain aspects we put into the film e.g. the out of focus shots to show the memory is starting to fade. I would like this project to be received in a positive way as the audience could be seeing and hearing these memories of a person’s life that could remind them of something similar in their life that could make them happy and nostalgic, however towards the end of the film it could be received in quite an emotional way because of all the memories this old women has lost.

One of the strengths of the film is that we were able to film and record sound of a child for the childhood memories as we received permission of the child’s parents and her sister was with us during the filming process. This helped the film to seem more real to the audience as they are able to hear a child’s voice playing and singing and we have access to children’s toys for the experimental film. This was instead of trying to recreate these memories using an adult or having difficulties trying to find an alternative way to record this first minute of the film and sound piece. The feeling of nostalgia would not have been the same for the audience. Another strength of the film is our decision to use out of focus shots for the majority of the shots used to show that the memories are slowly starting to fade. I think this is a strength as I don’t think the film would have made sense to have every shot clear and in focus in a film that is about your memory starting to deteriorate. The use of the focus pulls and shots that are just fully out of focus show the fading of the memory and the attempt to try and remember them. For our film we used one of our peers Heather to record the voiceover for this film, which is an aspect of the film that hasn’t been as successful. Both Hannah and I originally wanted the voiceover to only be included over a few shots for each stage of this person’s life. However after watching the full film back on the mock-presentations the both of us and the rest of our peers, who were giving us feedback, realised that the voiceover does not work in some parts of the film. Certain parts of the voiceover were irrelevant to the imagery, even though it worked for the ending with her saying ‘it’s just gone’ and the screen fading to black. I don’t think it helped that we used a young person for this voiceover either as it didn’t work with the emotions we wanted the audience to feel. If I could start this project again I would try to get an adult or elderly person to record the voiceover to make the film seem more real and effective to the audience. Another weakness of ‘Fragements’ is that I don’t think we focused on the adult and elderly life as much as we did about this person’s childhood. When writing lists of what memories to choose and what sounds and images went well with these there was more to look at and to do for childhood memories especially since we were able to film and record a friends sister. If I could change something about the film I would think about more things you would expect to have as a memory in your adult and elderly life and any achievements most adults make and try and record those for the film.

I think that the end result of the project is very different to how Hannah and I had planned in out at the beginning of the semester. We originally planned to have a ‘life flashing before your eyes’ concept and to use memory to show different stages of someone’s life from childhood  up until this point in their adult life. Then we had to idea of using windows as if you were looking into someone’s memories and life. After finding out we could get some frames from Lee we decided to change the original idea and instead film ‘fragments’ of someone’s life using this frames as though you’re looking through a window or snapshot of someone’s life who was losing their memory. Both the sounds and visuals are different to how I originally imagined the final piece to look as we have focused a lot more on childhood and the sounds have drastically changed from when we had our first sound crit. At first we had a lot of traffic sounds and just a few of everyday sounds e.g. kettle boiling and keys unlocking a door. Even though it was just a demo both myself and Hannah were not happy with the sounds we recorded and that’s when we decided to go for more distinct sounds of people’s memory and use a clock ticking underneath all over sounds all the way through instead of traffic noises as it’s a much more calming sound. One issue we faced was when we were trying to film with the frames it was difficult to get it to look right in the shots. We had to direct each other in order for the frame to be in the middle of the shot with the image of what we wanted to focus on in the middle of the frame, without getting any other part of either me or Hannah in shot apart from our hands holding the frame. Because of this difficulty and the frame being too big for some of the images we wanted to capture within the frame we made the decision to only use the frame on certain shots where the frame would be able to fit perfectly around the main point of the image. After watching the edit I wasn’t sure whether the frames worked as well as we thought with them only being a few of the shots and whether they would need to be in every shot or not included at all. However after the mock-presentation the feedback we received was positive about the frame shots as they are a unique touch to the film, which was helpful to hear as it reassured me that I wouldn’t need to re-shoot some shots to fill in for the frames.

I was the sound recorder during this project then when it came to the edit I also edited the audio together. I had never used a zoom before starting this course but I was able to catch on quickly and felt confident enough with it to make it my main role. As sound recorder I had the responsibility of making sure the sounds were recorded properly and clearly with as little background noise as possible, and I feel like I have learned how to achieve this from this project. I had also never used Pro Tools as a software for editing audio before but I was familiar with the basics of sound editing. In previous projects I have edited quite a lot so I wanted to try something new and learn how to edit the audio. I caught onto the basics of Pro Tools quickly and managed to create a sound edit with multiple layers with smooth transitions and correct audio levels. I feel like I have learned a lot from using this software and have gained a lot of technical skills from this role. I was new to the idea of experimental film and at the beginning of the semester I wasn’t sure if I would be able to achieve the goal of making one successfully. However after watching many experimental films in lessons and understanding what one is I think that mine and Hannah’s film has worked well as we have experimented with different and unique ideas for example the frames being used to show a snapshot of someone’s memory.

I think that Hannah and I worked well as a team as we communicated well when discussing ideas for both the audio piece and experimental film and throughout the filming for both of these. We always kept in contact about any new ideas or changes both one of us wanted to make and as a team figured out how to about these changes. I feel like we both contributed to the work equally especially when it came to the edit as I edited the audio and Hannah edited the film but we gave each other help when it was needed. Both of us had input on what to include in the film and done our own research into it for example when deciding on different memories for each stage of a person’s life and what sound and image can go with that we each wrote separate lists then decided on what would work well. I would say that one of my strengths in teamwork is that I am open to criticism if something doesn’t work I am willing to discuss it with my team and figure out how to fix it or come up with something might work better.  

Artist Influence - John Baldessari

While filming the shots using the frame we began to discuss whether our hands should be in the shot while we were holding the frame or not. To try and help decide we thought it would be best to take shots where you could see hands holding the frame, and then shoot it again where you couldn't see hands holding the frame. After still being unsure about which looked best we decided to research how other film makers of experimental film or artists have achieved a similar concept.

After some researching Hannah came across an artist called John Baldessari who uses his hands as the frame across a lot of his artwork. This is something unique that I had not seen so consistent in someone's art work before and really liked the idea of making our film unique in that way. We had a look in the library for a book full of his art work and came across many images of him using his hands including this one

This is a screenshot from our film and our approach to showing your hands in the shot

Audio editing progress for 'Fragments'

After filming all the shots and recording all the sounds Hannah and I wanted for this project including some extra shots through windows with different emotions attached to them e.g. rain for sadness, just in case we didn't have enough to cover the sound piece we have made a rough edit of the film for the mock presentation. Since Pro Tools is a new software for me I had to get used to the basics of the programme before creating a good sound piece we were both happy with, and will go back to to add in or change anything we receive feedback on tomorrow (12/12/13). I had to think about how to edit it together using sounds that were relevant to each memory and sounded good layered together to create a more interesting sound piece.

After getting used to Pro Tools editing the sounds together became much easier and enjoyable and I managed to create a piece lasting exactly 3 minutes that I believe fits in with our concept and especially with deciding to include voice over sounds like a memory of a persons life. Here is a screen grab of the finished audio edit. 

Adding voiceover to audio piece

Both Hannah and I have felt like the audio piece needed something extra to help the audience better understand what our concept it, and feel more emotion. We thought that the best way to do this would be to include a voice over into the sound piece. Instead of putting a voiceover over the whole of the audio track we have decided to just stick with a few key words and phrases that will make sense to the specific section of the film. We have decided it's best to use a more happy and upbeat voiceover for the beginning when this person is remembering there childhood, but as they grow older the voiceover starts to get quite sad and she will say things like 'I dunno' and 'it's just gone' to show the loss of her memory.

Childhood voiceover

Elderly voiceover

Experimental Sound Development - 'Fragments'

Over the past week Hannah and myself have been further developing the concept of the sound project and have decided on a name for the project. We have called it 'Fragments' because of changing the concept back to memories instead of 'a life flashing before your eyes' idea, where we will show 'fragments' of someone's memory. We have also begun filming which has proved to be more difficult that we originally thought because of thinking of locations that could have a meaning and relate to a memory we could record sound from. The two of us have been coming up with different locations that could work with this and on Sunday (01/12/13) we shot two successful shots in Norfolk Park that we will be using for our experimental video. There was then the challenge of using the frame in the shot we have been given off Lee to use as a window into the memory and both Hannah and myself struggled at first to decide how it was best to have the frame in shot. After discussing this with Lee and reviewing what we shot that day we all decided that the shots looked better with our hands in the shot holding the frame instead of trying to hide them. We have made plans to film more over the weekend and have came up with more memories where locations will work with the sound we want to record. A storyboard has also been started to help decide how we should open our film.