To conclude the previous post, I believe I'm supposed to comment on how, in my opinion, I think the movie creation period went. And let me tell you - I certainly think it went. I had great fun working with the cast and crew of the team, and a lot of learning working basically on my own with the help of an ever shrinking cast and crew on Wally's Peaks.
So, let's talk about my role on set of each film, in order. My very first role was as the sound recordist for "A Stolen Mind". This was relatively easy as there was no need to use the boom mic, meaning I mostly got to stand around making sure everything was just working well, which is a very good role to have, and I was able to perform the duty of this very well because of how little this role was necessary in the production of the film. There was one small scene in which the boom mic was used and, while I don't know if it will be used in the final film, it was definitely my shining moment that I feel really emphasised my close bond to the role of sound recordist. In general, I'd say the role didn't present any exciting opportunities, but I never thought it was the job I wanted to do anyway, which works out perfectly fine for all intents and purposes within any possible future.
Next, I was working on "Exposure" as the assistant director, a role that was definitely more prominent in the work leading up to the movie than the actual movie. Leading up to the movie it was my responsibility to help with paperwork, doing fun activities like risk assessments and discussing with the director about certain aspects of the movie production. I don't feel like I handled this too well because of how well the director himself had handled it, causing my role in this part to be obsolete, allowing me to use the time to focus on paperwork for Wally's Peaks that ultimately did not end up getting used. During shooting, the role was limited to interacting with the director and making sure everything was in place to allow shooting to begin, and interacting primarily with the cast in making sure their jobs were being performed to the highest standard, which I can say I definitely did my best to accomodate the position and all of it's needs, and whether it was suitable to the standards of the rest of the group is up to them, but I feel I personally performed the task well enough to be recognised for the role and be seen as useful enough to the group.
In "No Good Deed Done" I was set to be the production co-ordinator, interacting with the cast and crew to make sure they're personally okay. For me, this is a bit awkward as I'm not the most confident of people in general, but I gave it a go, and I feel it went well, as the actors were small and the crew I was mostly comfortable with, allowing me to be in a position where I could just chat to them, make sure things were okay and carry the occasional thing or do the odd task to make sure people were just totally focused on the movie, which I feel that they were for the parts I was there for, and while I like to imagine that they were a trainwreck without me, the reality is that the role was more of just an ease of mind role for the other crew members giving me yet another pretty simple but somewhat important role to perform, to allow me to sit on the side lines and be somewhat of a moral support role, or that's at least what I tell myself to make the role seem more important. Overall, I once again believe that I performed the role well and worked good with the team, and I personally enjoyed working on all three of these movies every day we were out filming.
The last week of filming was spent working on Wally's Peaks, my own creation of a script detailing the life of a washed up celebrity drug addict trying to find himself, full of nonsensical and absurd jokes, in which I was directing. I had a lovely cast except for difficulties with one member that I, thankfully, only needed for one day (I think it was more of a problem on that specific day, but it definitely caused minor issues in confidence for how the next day would go). Working as a director was a lot more strenuous and difficult than any other role, I feel, and especially working with such a small team at times made it very difficult and stressful to cope, but I was able to pull through and rise to the occasion, completing the movie (albeit a little late due to issues arising) to a standard I am extremely happy with. I am glad to have been involved making the movie and am glad to have had the assistance of all the cast and crew who helped me, as the movie was a very enjoyable one to make and I had a lot of fun creating it, which I feel is the most important thing in being in the industry - enjoying it.
Those are my personal views on the production period of our short movies for college, overall saying that I, personally, think I did a good job performing my roles, and everyone around me did such a good job at theirs to make it easy to complete everything to a fantastic standard with everything going incredibly well for all of us.
Wednesday 20 April 2016
Production Diary
07/03/2016 - A Stolen Mind
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The first day of filming for our group was a roaring success, in which not only did we finish early, it was completed to an excellent quality with all the clips being used later in the editing stage by the team without any issues present. The cast and crew got along great both on and off set and the recorded footage ended up looking great.
08/03/2016 - A Stolen Mind
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The second shoot day was spent recording more scenes for A Stolen Mind, this time finishing up the majority of the scenes on college grounds. The day once again went very well, shooting scenes with several extras who were all very attentive and well organised, allowing the scenes to once again be done on time or perhaps even early, and with everybody once again getting along well. Unfortunately, I am unable to find any pictures of either of these two lovely first days, so I have no proof of this, but if I find any pictures I'll post them below.
09/03/2016 - Exposure
Director: Kane Smith
Director of Photography: Matty Dickens
Assistant Director: Rhys Collins
Production Coordinator: Rebecca Symmonds
Sound Recordist: Chloe Handley
The third day we started filming the other two films in our group, starting with Exposure, which began by tying somebody to a chair and having someone get tackled outside a door. Everybody managed to scrape away with no injuries. The next scene involved two people being tied to a chair and somebody getting tackled WITH a chair. Despite a lot of noise and awkward filming conditions, everybody managed to not laugh during the take and the footage ended up good. Unfortunately, we had gone until pretty late and the group had to resign a few scenes for recalls, which I was unable to attend due to working on a different movie, but the cast and crew got on very well once again and the problems we had were largely related to time and the difficulty of being tied to a chair.
09/03/2016 - No Good Deed Done
Director: Matty Dickens
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Chloe Handley
Production Coordinator: Rhys Collins
Sound Recordist: Rebecca Symmonds
Later in the day, we had gained access to a public toilet (or bathroom, whichever suits you best) in which we had to record a scene in which the director of this film was pretending to be punched by one of the actors. Overall, this was a disaster. While the actors were fine for the most part, the problems arose from time constraints and the fact that this was done so late at night that effort was at an all time low. From my understanding this was finished in pick-ups, but on this particular day it was a huge mess.
14/03/2016 - No Good Deed Done
Director: Matty Dickens
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Chloe Handley
Production Coordinator: Rhys Collins
Sound Recordist: Rebecca Symmonds
This time around No Good Deed Done was a lot better, with us getting a large majority of what we had planned completed, enabling us to put the worries of the previous disaster behind us. While not everything was completed, it was completed well enough and to a professional enough standard with the help of the actors working so well that they were able to salvage it during recalls, and I was able to take a lovely photo.
15/03/2016 - A Stolen Mind
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The final day of A Stolen Mind and the first film finished, once again going extremely well in comparison to the other two movies. While, from my understanding, there were a few small issues with one actors body language in the shots, it went very smoothly and is definitely able to be worked with, finishing the movie off with a resounding success and a pleasing outlook from the cast and crew on how the final product will look, ending the day with a lovely takeout.
Later this day we went to the set of another movie, The Incident, and hung around on set, which generally left me with a tired feeling. We recorded a small part of Wally's Peaks that isn't overly worth mentioning but went well enough despite the long hours of waiting before we were able to start it.
17/03/2016 - Exposure
Director: Kane Smith
Director of Photography: Matty Dickens
Assistant Director: Rhys Collins
Production Coordinator: Rebecca Symmonds
Sound Recordist: Chloe Handley
The last day I worked with the regular team we were stood outside a lovely smelling pizza restaurant recording two lads talking in a car. This went by pretty quickly and despite some awkward conversation pieces being started by the crew, there were, once again, next to no concerns that I could think of that would stop me from saying this was anything but a successful day and I enjoyed working with this crew.
21/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Chloe Handley, Kane Smith, Matty Dickens
My first day as director of my masterpiece, and overall it went... okay. The actor for Wally was great, Odlaw was great, the guy dressed as a dog was great. Everything was good and fun and just felt fun and natural... Except for one very miserable actor who was spreading a lot of negative vibes the whole day. While we were able to get everything done we had planned, it left me concerned for how the rest of the movie would go.
22/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Chloe Handley, Honey Ryan
On the second day of Wally's Peaks, we were met with a lot more success. Despite an initial panic and sudden change of plans due to an actor deciding to drop out (the one who was miserable the day before) a recast and a change of plans was able to salvage the film and begin us with capturing the rest of the footage featuring Odlaw, and then to capture the mirror scene inside a bedroom. The day went extremely well overall and was a lot of fun.
23/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Honey Ryan, Ben Siddle
On this day we once again had initial problems getting started, having to work around missing props that ended up not being used due to me forgetting about a scene, but when it came down to working on it, everything meshed well. We finished off the scenes featuring the dog and we were able to successfully complete the majority of scenes on the famous peaks themselves, with everybody working well together and everyone being generally happy with the progress.
24/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Honey Ryan
My ever shortening crew and I were once again faced with difficulty getting started, but we recorded the scenes very quickly and were, for once, able to actually finish on-time, allowing us a well deserved break that the cast and crew were both very much thankful for.
14/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
We did nothing on this day due to a mix-up in time schedule from the actor, which caused some grief but was overall forgiven due to being an honest mistake.
15/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
It rained on this day and we once again accomplished next to nothing.
18/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
We finally were able to wrap up the film due to the excellent weather on this day, and we and the one member of the crew needed at this point (Wally himself) were thankful to never have to approach the peaks again. We got along well with the actor for Wally (Joseph Dowie, check him out if he ever gets famous) and would love to work with him again, due to how incredible he was at listening and working efficientally, effectively and to a professional standard.
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The first day of filming for our group was a roaring success, in which not only did we finish early, it was completed to an excellent quality with all the clips being used later in the editing stage by the team without any issues present. The cast and crew got along great both on and off set and the recorded footage ended up looking great.
08/03/2016 - A Stolen Mind
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The second shoot day was spent recording more scenes for A Stolen Mind, this time finishing up the majority of the scenes on college grounds. The day once again went very well, shooting scenes with several extras who were all very attentive and well organised, allowing the scenes to once again be done on time or perhaps even early, and with everybody once again getting along well. Unfortunately, I am unable to find any pictures of either of these two lovely first days, so I have no proof of this, but if I find any pictures I'll post them below.
09/03/2016 - Exposure
Director: Kane Smith
Director of Photography: Matty Dickens
Assistant Director: Rhys Collins
Production Coordinator: Rebecca Symmonds
Sound Recordist: Chloe Handley
The third day we started filming the other two films in our group, starting with Exposure, which began by tying somebody to a chair and having someone get tackled outside a door. Everybody managed to scrape away with no injuries. The next scene involved two people being tied to a chair and somebody getting tackled WITH a chair. Despite a lot of noise and awkward filming conditions, everybody managed to not laugh during the take and the footage ended up good. Unfortunately, we had gone until pretty late and the group had to resign a few scenes for recalls, which I was unable to attend due to working on a different movie, but the cast and crew got on very well once again and the problems we had were largely related to time and the difficulty of being tied to a chair.
09/03/2016 - No Good Deed Done
Director: Matty Dickens
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Chloe Handley
Production Coordinator: Rhys Collins
Sound Recordist: Rebecca Symmonds
Later in the day, we had gained access to a public toilet (or bathroom, whichever suits you best) in which we had to record a scene in which the director of this film was pretending to be punched by one of the actors. Overall, this was a disaster. While the actors were fine for the most part, the problems arose from time constraints and the fact that this was done so late at night that effort was at an all time low. From my understanding this was finished in pick-ups, but on this particular day it was a huge mess.
14/03/2016 - No Good Deed Done
Director: Matty Dickens
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Chloe Handley
Production Coordinator: Rhys Collins
Sound Recordist: Rebecca Symmonds
This time around No Good Deed Done was a lot better, with us getting a large majority of what we had planned completed, enabling us to put the worries of the previous disaster behind us. While not everything was completed, it was completed well enough and to a professional enough standard with the help of the actors working so well that they were able to salvage it during recalls, and I was able to take a lovely photo.
15/03/2016 - A Stolen Mind
Director: Chloe Handley
Director of Photography: Kane Smith
Assistant Director: Rebecca Symmonds
Production Coordinator: Matthew Taylor
Sound Recordist: Rhys Collins
The final day of A Stolen Mind and the first film finished, once again going extremely well in comparison to the other two movies. While, from my understanding, there were a few small issues with one actors body language in the shots, it went very smoothly and is definitely able to be worked with, finishing the movie off with a resounding success and a pleasing outlook from the cast and crew on how the final product will look, ending the day with a lovely takeout.
Later this day we went to the set of another movie, The Incident, and hung around on set, which generally left me with a tired feeling. We recorded a small part of Wally's Peaks that isn't overly worth mentioning but went well enough despite the long hours of waiting before we were able to start it.
17/03/2016 - Exposure
Director: Kane Smith
Director of Photography: Matty Dickens
Assistant Director: Rhys Collins
Production Coordinator: Rebecca Symmonds
Sound Recordist: Chloe Handley
The last day I worked with the regular team we were stood outside a lovely smelling pizza restaurant recording two lads talking in a car. This went by pretty quickly and despite some awkward conversation pieces being started by the crew, there were, once again, next to no concerns that I could think of that would stop me from saying this was anything but a successful day and I enjoyed working with this crew.
21/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Chloe Handley, Kane Smith, Matty Dickens
My first day as director of my masterpiece, and overall it went... okay. The actor for Wally was great, Odlaw was great, the guy dressed as a dog was great. Everything was good and fun and just felt fun and natural... Except for one very miserable actor who was spreading a lot of negative vibes the whole day. While we were able to get everything done we had planned, it left me concerned for how the rest of the movie would go.
22/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Chloe Handley, Honey Ryan
On the second day of Wally's Peaks, we were met with a lot more success. Despite an initial panic and sudden change of plans due to an actor deciding to drop out (the one who was miserable the day before) a recast and a change of plans was able to salvage the film and begin us with capturing the rest of the footage featuring Odlaw, and then to capture the mirror scene inside a bedroom. The day went extremely well overall and was a lot of fun.
23/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Honey Ryan, Ben Siddle
On this day we once again had initial problems getting started, having to work around missing props that ended up not being used due to me forgetting about a scene, but when it came down to working on it, everything meshed well. We finished off the scenes featuring the dog and we were able to successfully complete the majority of scenes on the famous peaks themselves, with everybody working well together and everyone being generally happy with the progress.
24/03/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor, Honey Ryan
My ever shortening crew and I were once again faced with difficulty getting started, but we recorded the scenes very quickly and were, for once, able to actually finish on-time, allowing us a well deserved break that the cast and crew were both very much thankful for.
14/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
We did nothing on this day due to a mix-up in time schedule from the actor, which caused some grief but was overall forgiven due to being an honest mistake.
15/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
It rained on this day and we once again accomplished next to nothing.
18/04/2016 - Wally's Peaks
Director: Rhys Collins
Crew: Matthew Taylor
We finally were able to wrap up the film due to the excellent weather on this day, and we and the one member of the crew needed at this point (Wally himself) were thankful to never have to approach the peaks again. We got along well with the actor for Wally (Joseph Dowie, check him out if he ever gets famous) and would love to work with him again, due to how incredible he was at listening and working efficientally, effectively and to a professional standard.
Tuesday 12 April 2016
Unit 26: Film Studies - Part 1, Task 1 - Auteur Theory and Narrative Analysis
In film, there are many theories about structure, style and story that have been created on how to categorise the industry into certain sects. One such theory created was the idea that there are different auteur's - a signature by a director to mark their work - that can be used to identify a movie.
For example, if you watched the following video:
And then this video:
You may notice some similarities. For example, you may note the use of bold, stand-out colours that catch your eye in both the videos, constantly attracting the attention. There is also a lot of use of symmetry throughout, especially noticable in the second clip in which he uses the symmetrical telephone in the symmetrical diner.
The reasons for these similarities is, in case you didn't read the titles of the videos you were watching, because they were made by the same director, Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson is known for his stylistic and artistic choices in set and costume design and use of symmetry to make a more pleasing and satisfying image. One of his more famous movies is "The Grand Budapest Hotel", a movie that is very much worth watching, and features similar styles to what is seen in these prior examples, but with the use of colours that aren't yellow thrown in there, as well as being a full length movie.
Wes Anderson has other interesting points of his auteur. Notice how the characters behave and act, throughout both the short film and throughout the Grand Budapest Hotel. Not only do they tend to stick towards the centre of the frame for symmetry, but they all appear to display this sort of upper class atmosphere to them, they try to maintain a posture showing their position and power throughout the film no matter what situation they get into. Think about the Grand Budapest Hotel, the concierge character (played by Ralph Fiennes) almost always manages to maintain this posture of being calm and collected no matter what unusual or crazy situations they end up in.
He also has a tendency to stick to actors. For example, he tends to use Owen Wilson in a lot of his films as a lead or at least background character. While not seen in the short movies above, he can be seen towards the end of Grand Budapest Hotel and during a large number of Wes Anderson's earlier works. Wes Anderson is also known for his love of Bill Murray, which is more than understandable.
The other most notable thing of Wes Anderson is his use of a long, complicated and choreographed tracking shot that will follow the action on screen for several minutes at a time, such as this clip from Grand Budapest Hotel below where, as you can see, the camera does not change shot for a large majority of this sequence, where people walk past them. You'll also notice that they stay in centre frame and that Ralph Fiennes remains calm and collected amongst all the crazy antics surrounding them. There is, however, an absence of Owen Wilson or Bill Murray in this scene.
Other auteurs include people like Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock as well as some arguable examples in people like JJ Abrams and Michael Bay.
Another interesting point in the film industry is the narrative behind the movie. As someone who is very much interested in the writing aspect of a film, I find it interesting to see plot broken down. For example, without going too in detail about the idea so that nobody steals it - I had the idea about developing a plot based around a simple premise, one in which a model becomes blind, and I turned that idea around to make a larger plot based around people with positive and negative abilities (if you ever see this idea on TV it means I've made it, hi) - seeing a plot broken down in a simple way can be very enjoyable to see the creative process stem into a larger product.
The idea behind a base narrative is based on at least three steps:
At first, everything starts out fairly standard and normal, nothing too unusual or out of the ordinary. (Equillibrium)
Then, everything becomes out of order, something is different that the plot is focused around, in which things are centred and in which things need to be resolved. (Disequillibrium - A lack of Equillibrium)
Finally, everything is returned to a state of normality, but with differences based around the plot that had transpired. (Equillibrium - Returned Equillibrium)
This theory was created by Tzvetan Todorov, known as "Todorov's Narrative Theory".
Consider the film Die Hard 3, at first everything is fairly standard, Bruce Willis is a standard cop in New York, when a terrorist attack begins and he and Samuel L. Jackson have to stop the robbery of the National Treasury, and at the end they are both now friends, and Bruce Willis is back to being a cop (otherwise Die Hard 4 would not exist, which would have been a better ending).
This is the basic structure of a narrative. There are exceptions, such as Pulp Fiction, where, if viewed in order of events happening, the film would start with Jules and Vincent going to the apartment to find Marvin, and then going to Jimmy's house after their unfortunate accident, getting cleaned up, going to the diner where Jules stops them from getting robbed, visiting Marcellus, and then Vincent taking Mia on a night out. After this, Butch's story starts, where he flees from the boxing match he wins and attempts to leave town, killing Vincent and being chased down by Marcellus before killing Zed in the basement. Even broken down chronologically like this, the film has no specific start, middle and end. It has Jules' story and Butch's story (once again, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) which seem to take place during two halves of the story, only connected by Vincent and Marcellus, and while the two stories do have a definitive start, middle and end, the rules are very different by the end of their stories, with Jules going off to travel the world and Butch going off to live somewhere else, which are very different to their start of working with Marcellus. Viewed as it is, the film even less follows this narrative, with the only possible way it does being that it both starts and finishes with the couple in the diner trying to rob it, overall being a very non-linear film which shows that the general theory doesn't need to be applied at all times.
Usually there are more steps involved, but as a general rule, this is how a plot is typically broken down into stages, with starting drama to then resolving it at the end of the plotline, and it is something I intend to bring into the plot revolving around this blind girl.
Other narrative theories include the theory by Vladimir Propp, who proposes the following list of characters are relevant to a plot:
That is how Auteur Theory and Narratives work in films, how they are applied and how they could help you and (more importantly) me make a work of art, even better.
For example, if you watched the following video:
And then this video:
You may notice some similarities. For example, you may note the use of bold, stand-out colours that catch your eye in both the videos, constantly attracting the attention. There is also a lot of use of symmetry throughout, especially noticable in the second clip in which he uses the symmetrical telephone in the symmetrical diner.
The reasons for these similarities is, in case you didn't read the titles of the videos you were watching, because they were made by the same director, Wes Anderson. Wes Anderson is known for his stylistic and artistic choices in set and costume design and use of symmetry to make a more pleasing and satisfying image. One of his more famous movies is "The Grand Budapest Hotel", a movie that is very much worth watching, and features similar styles to what is seen in these prior examples, but with the use of colours that aren't yellow thrown in there, as well as being a full length movie.
Wes Anderson has other interesting points of his auteur. Notice how the characters behave and act, throughout both the short film and throughout the Grand Budapest Hotel. Not only do they tend to stick towards the centre of the frame for symmetry, but they all appear to display this sort of upper class atmosphere to them, they try to maintain a posture showing their position and power throughout the film no matter what situation they get into. Think about the Grand Budapest Hotel, the concierge character (played by Ralph Fiennes) almost always manages to maintain this posture of being calm and collected no matter what unusual or crazy situations they end up in.
He also has a tendency to stick to actors. For example, he tends to use Owen Wilson in a lot of his films as a lead or at least background character. While not seen in the short movies above, he can be seen towards the end of Grand Budapest Hotel and during a large number of Wes Anderson's earlier works. Wes Anderson is also known for his love of Bill Murray, which is more than understandable.
The other most notable thing of Wes Anderson is his use of a long, complicated and choreographed tracking shot that will follow the action on screen for several minutes at a time, such as this clip from Grand Budapest Hotel below where, as you can see, the camera does not change shot for a large majority of this sequence, where people walk past them. You'll also notice that they stay in centre frame and that Ralph Fiennes remains calm and collected amongst all the crazy antics surrounding them. There is, however, an absence of Owen Wilson or Bill Murray in this scene.
Other auteurs include people like Quentin Tarantino and Alfred Hitchcock as well as some arguable examples in people like JJ Abrams and Michael Bay.
Another interesting point in the film industry is the narrative behind the movie. As someone who is very much interested in the writing aspect of a film, I find it interesting to see plot broken down. For example, without going too in detail about the idea so that nobody steals it - I had the idea about developing a plot based around a simple premise, one in which a model becomes blind, and I turned that idea around to make a larger plot based around people with positive and negative abilities (if you ever see this idea on TV it means I've made it, hi) - seeing a plot broken down in a simple way can be very enjoyable to see the creative process stem into a larger product.
The idea behind a base narrative is based on at least three steps:
At first, everything starts out fairly standard and normal, nothing too unusual or out of the ordinary. (Equillibrium)
Then, everything becomes out of order, something is different that the plot is focused around, in which things are centred and in which things need to be resolved. (Disequillibrium - A lack of Equillibrium)
Finally, everything is returned to a state of normality, but with differences based around the plot that had transpired. (Equillibrium - Returned Equillibrium)
This theory was created by Tzvetan Todorov, known as "Todorov's Narrative Theory".
Consider the film Die Hard 3, at first everything is fairly standard, Bruce Willis is a standard cop in New York, when a terrorist attack begins and he and Samuel L. Jackson have to stop the robbery of the National Treasury, and at the end they are both now friends, and Bruce Willis is back to being a cop (otherwise Die Hard 4 would not exist, which would have been a better ending).
This is the basic structure of a narrative. There are exceptions, such as Pulp Fiction, where, if viewed in order of events happening, the film would start with Jules and Vincent going to the apartment to find Marvin, and then going to Jimmy's house after their unfortunate accident, getting cleaned up, going to the diner where Jules stops them from getting robbed, visiting Marcellus, and then Vincent taking Mia on a night out. After this, Butch's story starts, where he flees from the boxing match he wins and attempts to leave town, killing Vincent and being chased down by Marcellus before killing Zed in the basement. Even broken down chronologically like this, the film has no specific start, middle and end. It has Jules' story and Butch's story (once again, Bruce Willis and Samuel L. Jackson) which seem to take place during two halves of the story, only connected by Vincent and Marcellus, and while the two stories do have a definitive start, middle and end, the rules are very different by the end of their stories, with Jules going off to travel the world and Butch going off to live somewhere else, which are very different to their start of working with Marcellus. Viewed as it is, the film even less follows this narrative, with the only possible way it does being that it both starts and finishes with the couple in the diner trying to rob it, overall being a very non-linear film which shows that the general theory doesn't need to be applied at all times.
Usually there are more steps involved, but as a general rule, this is how a plot is typically broken down into stages, with starting drama to then resolving it at the end of the plotline, and it is something I intend to bring into the plot revolving around this blind girl.
Other narrative theories include the theory by Vladimir Propp, who proposes the following list of characters are relevant to a plot:
- The villain (struggles against the hero)
- The donor (prepares the hero or gives the hero some magical object)
- The (magical) helper (helps the hero in the quest)
- The princess (person the hero marries, often sought for during the narrative)
- The false hero (perceived as good character in beginning but emerges as evil)
- The dispatcher (character who makes the lack known and sends the hero off)
- The hero [AKA victim/seeker/paladin/winner, reacts to the donor, usually marries the princess
That is how Auteur Theory and Narratives work in films, how they are applied and how they could help you and (more importantly) me make a work of art, even better.
Thanks for reading.
Monday 11 April 2016
What I learned from "FutureLearn"
As part of our college assignment to create short movies we were tasked with signing up to an online course on a website called "FutureLearn" and documenting our findings here on this blog that I've been updating so regularly recently. The course provided insight to the film industry and roles, jobs and methods of success to advance and hone your skills to turn you into the best filmmaker it could, and throughout my time with it I feel that it helped clear up an understanding of some things that may be unfamiliar for somebody wanting to enter this industry, such as a student going to college in Britain, for example.
Personally, I found that the site gave a vast understanding of all the necessary information to advance a career in the industry, such as ideas on how to move up the ladder from lower jobs to higher jobs, by doing what is necessary for your role in a production, what is asked of you, and, should the opportunity arise, more than is necessary to make you stand out. The industry is largely about standing out and taking opportunities, so by being the runner that makes the coffee with the grated gold in it to meet the director's extremelyhigh and unusual standards, he'll take notice of you, and you may end up with a powerful friend that can help you move from being a runner to having a more desirable job. These little things can all build up into making you a more prominent and popular figure on set that is seen as reliable, hard working and useful, and will get you into the right places.
There's other insight onto things that may be confusing to a newcomer. For example, many people find certain roles that pop up in credits to be very odd. We all know the job of the actors, the directors and the cameramen, but sometimes the large number of producers, designers and cat whisperers on set can really dilute the understanding of the industry. The course thankfully clears up any confusions with a run down on what each role does, telling you exactly the types of designers there are who may work on make-up, props and costume, or the producers that work on different aspects of management and distribution of products. Regrettably, it does not provide any insight into the role of the cat whisperer.
For this I would say that FutureLearn served it's purpose in teaching me about the industry, and that as well as being entirely necessary to pass my course which I would very much appreciate, may also prove entirely necessary later in life.
And, to clear things up, this is not an advert for FutureLearn, I wouldn't recommend using it because they haven't paid me to say so, I'm just detailing my experiences with it, and what it could potentially provide for the people out there who read this.
Personally, I found that the site gave a vast understanding of all the necessary information to advance a career in the industry, such as ideas on how to move up the ladder from lower jobs to higher jobs, by doing what is necessary for your role in a production, what is asked of you, and, should the opportunity arise, more than is necessary to make you stand out. The industry is largely about standing out and taking opportunities, so by being the runner that makes the coffee with the grated gold in it to meet the director's extremelyhigh and unusual standards, he'll take notice of you, and you may end up with a powerful friend that can help you move from being a runner to having a more desirable job. These little things can all build up into making you a more prominent and popular figure on set that is seen as reliable, hard working and useful, and will get you into the right places.
There's other insight onto things that may be confusing to a newcomer. For example, many people find certain roles that pop up in credits to be very odd. We all know the job of the actors, the directors and the cameramen, but sometimes the large number of producers, designers and cat whisperers on set can really dilute the understanding of the industry. The course thankfully clears up any confusions with a run down on what each role does, telling you exactly the types of designers there are who may work on make-up, props and costume, or the producers that work on different aspects of management and distribution of products. Regrettably, it does not provide any insight into the role of the cat whisperer.
For this I would say that FutureLearn served it's purpose in teaching me about the industry, and that as well as being entirely necessary to pass my course which I would very much appreciate, may also prove entirely necessary later in life.
And, to clear things up, this is not an advert for FutureLearn, I wouldn't recommend using it because they haven't paid me to say so, I'm just detailing my experiences with it, and what it could potentially provide for the people out there who read this.
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