Drama research begins!

Its not all practical so here is a little bit of my research for my upcoming drama project.

The first big thing to research is the whole backwards thing, because that is a big big thing to attempt. I have been looking into it and I haven't found that many films that use it without it being a narrative jump backwards in time. Some things I have found that use it, a lot, are music videos, while researching I found this page specifically http://www.urlesque.com/2010/09/21/backwards-music-videos/. It shows 10 videos (although a few of the links no longer work) that use the reverse film technique. From watching these I get the general impression that the effect is often used to achieve interesting visual effects. This is at odds with our film, we have not yet discussed the visual advantages of reversing the film, our use is purely narrative. We want the audience to be confused as to what has happened and why, at first demonising our protagonist until all is revealed and we can begin to empathise. I think this has a few positives, firstly the emotions we are trying to portray, anger and jealousy, are universal but negative and when it results in violence that act by itself out of context is awful, we want to show that some awful things have context. I also think that this way round the narrative will make the audience empathise with Tom, who gets beaten, whether he knows about Jenny's boyfriend or not is unknown and so it is possible our experience is in line with Tom's, he gets beaten up and then the reasoning is explained.

Anyway back to the music video's from http://www.urlesque.com/2010/09/21/backwards-music-videos/ They show some interesting visuals and I am going to pass them onto Joe to look at from a camera perspective so he can get a few ideas of things to add in. I would personally love to put a Strike (Eisenstein 1925) reference of a backwards step into a puddle, just because I'm a fan, also its an interesting visual. All I could find anywhere else was the use of backwards time for a cheap special effect, obviously this isn't very helpful. I will continue to look for some better examples within films.

A few things to start research on are blood recipes, backwards editing and general drama research. In that vein I am currently reading "Poetics" by Aristotle translated by S.H. Butcher for my Narrative and Time module however the narrative elements of the document apply to drama or as Aristotle would have called it Tragedy. I also want to look at some "stalking scenes" to see how in a short time we can get the situation across in interesting and emotive ways.

Finally I had a good idea to frame the story today, as the situation seems a little extreme, if Dean was planning to propose it would explain the extreme situation. That could nicely be tied to the narrative end/ actuall start of the piece when he is washing his hands as there could be a ring of blood around his ring finger, washed off by water, a symbolic end to the relationship. Its something I will bring up on monday along with storyboarding and location hunting.


Filmography
1. Strike (1925) Eisenstein S., Soviet Union, Goskino

Websites
1. Top 10 Backwards Music Videos of All Time by Newman J., Date accessed: 05/02/13. URL http://www.urlesque.com/2010/09/21/backwards-music-videos/

2. Poetics by Aristotle Translated by S.H. Butcher. Date Accessed: 05/02/13 URL http://classics.mit.edu/Aristotle/poetics.html

Uni work, DRAMA! The idea, the group and the beginning!

Our lesson this week began with a recap of characters that we have observed over the week and developed into fictional characters with fictional backgrounds and futures. There were some great observations within the group, the narratives built around them were really inspirational. I now never think I will struggle for an idea for drama, all I have to do is watch what is around me and create something around it, there is a lot of material for inspiration out there!

I had a lot of ideas for my own, a 19year old student type who bought a box of paracetamol and some teabags. In my mind he was suffering from a hang over and this was his cure, from this I developed a character who perpetually got drunk to keep up a reputation. The story I had planned would reach a conclusion as his teabags run out, a final push that makes him snap and smash his teacup to the ground in anger. After this the story would end, who knows if he changed or not. I had a lot of cool visual ideas for it too and am still excited about it but as a personal project as we have something other planned for our 2 minute project.

Speaking of that project we built our groups this week, unfortunately many of the people I wanted to work with were already in full groups however I ended up with a few guys I have worked with before and a few I haven't. Our group is Producer: Robin Booker, Director: Jordan Deakin, Art Director: Christi Elkins, Camera: Joe Butterworth, Edit: Amy Jackson, Sound: Joel Danby-Irons. I have worked with Joe and Jordan before and I am sure they would agree that both of those project could have been better managed so I thought to save that problem in this project I would take on the production role myself to ensure we got things done efficiently, professionally and on time. In that vein I have jumped right in and made a schedule

04/02	06/02 or 09/02 Me, Joe + Jordan practice shoot. Proof of concept. Location Scouting
11/02	11/02 After lesson, casting 16/02 and 17/02 Shooting Start of Editing
18/02	18/02 Show Annie Rushes
25/02	26/02,27/02,02/03,03/03 Finish Shooting + Editing as we work
04/03	04/03 Present semi finished film to Annie 07/03 Picture locked
11/03	13/03 Hand in.

Obviously there is a lot of wiggle room and I have scheduled shooting early but hopefully this means any major disasters can be worked around. If nothing goes wrong then we will have loads of time to play with and ensure we get stuff right. I uploaded this to the facebook group I created for us and am posting lots of things on there to get our group started.

Jordan has already put a brief synopsis up for his idea, we discussed it in the lesson and would like to try it so here is the basic synopsis:
Working title: A Short Story in Brutality

Film Genre: Drama

Length: 2 minutes

Target Audience: 15+

Synopsis: Dean, a young man has grown suspicious of his girlfriend, Jenny, and fears that she is cheating on him. After walking her to the train station he hangs around to see if his doubts are true. He stalks her as she as she meets her lover, Tom, and follows them back to his apartment. After waiting outside for what seems an eternity for Dean he finally enters Tom’s home where his suspicions are confirmed. He savagely beats Tom in a fit of rage and frustration while Jenny can do no more than sit and watch in horror. After the attack Dean calmly steps up and begins washing the blood off his hands in the sink as if cleaning away his guilt.

Visual Style: this film is like no her dramas of its kind as the whole story is told in reverse, and we see Deans story unfold backwards. As the sound is non-sync then this is possible. The overall tone of the score should be atmospheric. The film will be converted to black and white in post production in a nod to classic film noir productions.

I quite like the idea and something he hasn't included that I am excited about is running the sound in order so that the sound and visuals run in opposite. However its a pretty scary and "out there" concept this is why I have planned an early practice shoot, we can use undressed and basic sets and actors to do a kind of "proof of concept" edit to settle my nerves and make sure that it makes some sense. That is scheduled for shooting this weekend, the camera and audio equipment is booked. I think we are going to use my house undressed and a few of my friends for the practice shoot but we will also be looking at the practicalities of the locations we do use and identifying what we actually want.

After our practice shoot, assuming everything goes okay, I will give the footage to Amy to do a quick reverse edit and we will discuss the project in better detail before casting on monday. Here we will nail down storyboards and a script for the start of shooting on the 16th just 9 short days away. I am being as active as possible in my research and will post my finding soon!

This lesson we also looked at a few films, specifically we watched films that create emotion through techniques other than sync sound. All of these were interesting especially when looking at small character actions that convey emotions. The visual ways you can show emotion will be important for us as without the sound from the same scene playing it will be difficult for us to convey the correct emotions. I have to talk to the director and sound guy about the timings for the film. As it is three scenes it would make sense if the First scene had the thirds audio. The audio will run in reverse chronology however for this to work well we will have to make the first and third scene the same length. Details to be sorted on monday along with a full script.

CBT! All New X Men 7, New Avengers 3, Iron Man 6

All New X Men 7

Not a bad issue but just more of the same, the whole comic was just one scene, and it was reiterations of things we already know. Clearly this title is content to stay where it is despite the "revolution" X men comics are currently promising. Not only that but Mystique was an idiot in this issue, I hope to god she was just being manipulative cus all the stuff about respect for xavier and Scott is just rubbish. We also got no further on the identities of Mystiques team mates or how she came back after Messiah Complex. The art was ok but there was little opportunity for there to be any amazing art, however Mystique did change forms a silly number of times. The one thing I liked about the issue was the safety deposit box.... thats it.
7/10

New Avengers 3

Wow! This blew me the hell away, whilst there wasn't a lot of action, and a lot of text, IT WAS Stunning! Really the way the whole thing is playing out is just epic, a perfectly crafted story, well paced, ominous, dark and well considered New Avengers #3 is my pick of the week, AWESOME!
9/10

Iron Man 6

The start to the God Killer arc has been long awaited, and was ever so slightly anti climactic. I think this probably has to do with both my extensive reading of Gillen interviews and the title, only he is surprised that the Phoenix is the god he has "killed". (A concept I have a little trouble with because he didnt kill it really.) Other than that this issue has the same charm and charming character. I love the way this comic works although it would have been nice to have a comic between 5 and 6, I feel as though I missed something. One thing is for sure though, Tony is in deep deep trouble now, lets see what happens!
7.5/10

I know I havent reviewed much this week, I didnt read Avengers 5 or Superior Spiderman, let me know if im missing out. I read X factor but I can only say what I usually say about it and 3 comics is a good number :P I will post about XF when something serious happens, or its a slow week or its... different, till then assume 8/10

Weekly Me News 03/02/2013

So I have been struggling to keep up with blog posts recently, this is partly because of the amount of uni work I have and partly because I do blogs for uni therefore something I enjoy has become a big part of work, a good thing but it kinda means all my blogging efforts are taken up by uni and I dont want to do blogs for everyone else :/ So to solve this a little I'm going to start doing weekly posts on sunday to sum up everything I have done, or remember doing, in the week including the things I have watched,played, listened to, read and the work I have been doing for uni!

I began University at Sheffield Hallam again this week doing all the courses I want, Narrative and Time,  Cinematography and Drama, so that should be fun..
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Hehe
All my lectures were good, Im pretty intrigued by the narrative and time module and read "In the River of Consciousness" which talks about how sight and memory and consciousness can be split into discreet moments. Its mad stuff and delves into philosophy and neuroscience in ever more confusing theories but its a really interesting topic so I well up for the module this year! Drama was pretty basic, just inductions and stuff and cinematography was cancelled so we just read the briefs. For cinematography this week I have to start looking at and analysing colour in film and take a shot of St Pauls Tower in sheff.

I have played a lot of Halo 4 this week, I am working towards my KD ratio with a passion and loving the weekly spartan ops missions. I am filled with rage by war games even though I play it constantly, I hate boltshots, rocket launchers, sniper rifles, active camo and everyone...


I have been listening to.... not a lot, mostly the soundtracks to Cougar Town and Scrubs, god I love those shows and they have such good tunes! Check my bobolinthegobolin youtube if you want to see what I have been favouriting exactly. I watched a few Kubrick movies this week, The Shining and Clockwork Orange, both films I have studied and seen in the past, mad shit.... but amazing visually and interesting forms of storytelling. I wrote up a few notes as usual so I can turn it into work for my uni blogs (1 for cinematography and one for Drama). I  love both the films for different reasons, thinking of watching a few off Kubricks other films, I have seen 2001 and Full Metal Jacket but I am a little scared to watch Eyes Wide Shut.... I also caught up on Arrow this week which is a pretty good show however the recent episode with the fire guy... one of my friends hit the nail on the head when he said the character is a cross between Nolans Joker and Scarecrow... it was a little silly but oh well, gotta try these things.

So yeah a good week in general, I waited for my new camrea to be delivered to no avail, mon or tues hopefully :P

CBT! Superior Spiderman #2, Avengers #4.

Superior Spiderman #2

I was one of the supporters of the status quo shift and of Dan Slott's development of Doc Ock into Peter Parker, but this... is a joke. The only way to enjoy this comic is as though its a "what if" or a phase everyone can forget about, the comic has lost all seriousness, it is a joke, Slott has thought of a few things he thinks would be funny, such as ock "enjoying" memories of Peter and MJ, it has turned the comic into a poor meta about comicbook heroes' faults, which could be a good idea but its execution is poor and so is the comic. Unfortunately I don't think the artwork is any saving grace, its too busy and further crowded by pointless overbearing speech bubbles. So obviously overall this comic is a bag of Doc Ock's wank, it also levers Carly into figuring out the whole Doc is Peter thing which will most likely resolve itself within the year.
5/10

Avengers #4

This issue was ALL about Hyperion... not a bad thing as I had no clue who he was before today... Despite its simplicity this was a nice introduction to the character whilst mopping up a little of the fallout from the first set of villains, its a smart way for the comic to develop, a little down time till the next big bang. Hyperion seems a little like Sentry to me but that depends on where he goes from here, hopefully not the same way but the ominous undertones of his character were hammered into the audience in this issue, its clear hes gonna have some issues. I also think that after AIM taking a bit of a backseat in the past they are EVERYWHERE now! But thats no problem, they are a pretty classy evil organisation by anyone's standards and they're still not spread as thinly as Wolverine. Art wise I was excited to see a Kubert as always but felt a little let down, most of the pencils were just a little off, the panelling on the other hand was sweet, rightfully reminiscent of the 90's but I think in general Adam Kubert's art suits battles and action more than recon, the best art in the book for sure were the Hyperion sections. Pretty standard but a nice intro to Hyperion and a nice cool off from #1-3. I look forward to learning more about the team and seeing more missions in the future.
7.5/10

I would like to point out that I know I am highly critical of a lot of what I read but I have to pick at the little things because in general comics are amazing. I expect them to be high quality, a 7/10 for a comic is like a 9/10 for a... something ordinary. :)

CBT! Avengers 3, Uncanny Avengers 3, Uncanny X Force 1, Young Avengers 1.

Avengers #3

The conclusion of the first Avengers arc is upon us and it brings with it tantalising teasers and typical problems, well written, again, Hickman's story comes to a clear and tidy end. As always a really enjoyable book and as always I have a few problems with it, firstly the first few pages of exposition are more recap than anything else and feel like they could have been more minimal. My other big problem is something I come across a lot in comics, Ms Universe or Equilibrium or whoever she is, is so powerful the rest of the Avengers are redundant, another appearance of this is Sentry however they fixed that by making him crazy... Anyway I realised when reading this how little I knew about a lot of the Avengers so it would be nice for a few of the next comics to solidify the line up and introduce the characters a little more. The SPOILER "one is life, the other is death" teaser is one to get excited about but again it feels very much like Hickman's uncanny x force. END OF SPOILER
A nice end to a decent introductory arc without too many dark questions or challenging material, just a decent read with some new epic team ups!
8/10

Uncanny Avengers #3

Things are finally kicking off in Uncanny Avengers, after two issues of setup its time for a battle between the Uncanny Avengers, the Red Skull's S Men and the crazed mutant hating american public. For an epic sounding comic for me #3 lacked pace, I felt the comic was too wordy, for an action climax the words slowed it down too much, I wanted to "watch" the battle unfold but the script took me out of the moment. The art was also a little off, I am starting to dislike lack of shading, pencil lines and "dirt" so for me this week I was a little disappointed, also the story itself was a little basic, the lack of planning or complexity in Red Skulls work puts me off a little. I really want this title to be good but so far I am not satisfied. As with the last few, an ok comic but nothing near as special as I expected.
6.5/10

Uncanny X Force #1

I was in no way looking forward to Punk Storm, Bishop, Puck or really any of Uncanny X force, especially after Cable and the X Force being amazing and me losing faith in Uncanny X force in the mid 20's. Fortunately the new writer and artist have produced something surprisingly good! The artwork was really nice, the clubish colours and thin pencils look really cool and fit the style of the comic, for someone who hates punk storm I quite liked it. Psylock's character seems to be going in circles a little but other than that the comics storyilne was decent, I like the idea of it being Puck's team, its a little unusual but all together the comic is written well enough that it seems both plausible and cool. I wasn't planning on this being a regular pick up for me but now I am very tempted!
8/10

Young Avengers #1

Wow! It was crazy as expected, the team of Phonogram injecting witty emotional realism into the Young Avengers whilst shaking up the relationships and the line up. I enjoyed this issue immensely, and one of the main reasons is the stunning art work, the mixture of stylistic and exciting battles with plain 8box pages instantly set the tone of the page, their juxtaposition increase their effect and the artwork and colouring within the panels is clean, smooth, expressive and brilliant! Onto the writing, the speech and narration itself was all natural and emotive, Loki always provokes a laugh and the quite scenes between Hulkling and Wiccan were really heartwarming, Gillen wasted no time in getting to the emotional heart of the book. As for the overall story, the team isn't quite "assembled" yet but I can imagine the cliffhanger of the book will be the force that brings them together, and what a crazy cliffhanger it is. Again I absolutely loved this book, each individual page offered something new and exciting or heart warming and all elements of the artwork perfectly translated the emotion of the comic. An awesome first issue, can't wait for more!
9/10

Into the Abyss (2011 Werner Herzog)

Into the Abyss is the chilling story of a triple homicide committed by two young boys one sentenced to death and the other life in prison. The horror of this story is clear, director Wrner Herzog mixes unsettling archive footage of the murder scenes with a large range of interviews exploring the victims, their families, the crimes, the criminals and their families and ultimately the people who deal with corporal punishment, the issue that lies at the heart of the film.

The film begins as a clear argument against capital punishment, a priest retells stories and process' he goes through when an inmate is given the lethal injection, he holds their ankle, reads them their rights, and prays for them. With all of his faith he says "I cannot stop that process, I wish I could", one would expect the documentary to continue in this way, and then to further its point justify the crimes of an inmate on death row and put him on an almost heroic pedestal, Herzog doesn't. Instead Herzog uses real crime footage of the bodies and harrowing recalls of the moment the families discovered what had happened, in a large number of segments Herzog explores every facet of the crimes.

The film is largely participatory, as is Herzog's style, he constantly and visibly pushes people into an emotional response creating a really heartfelt piece of cinema that touches the whole audience. The ethics of this participatory documentary, in Herzog's pushing, for example one of the culprits says he cant explain how he felt, to which Herzog responds "try, try to explain it". Pushing people in this way is clearly crossing a boundary into a level of manipulation that heightens drama and gets the emotional responses Herzog is looking for. I think the only thing that saves Herzog's approach from being incredibly insensitive is that he leaves in his own probing, he doesn't display the "pushed" answers as natural therefore exposing his probing to the audience for their judgement. The biggest problem with this is that it works against the emotional connection the audience gain from their recounts of lost family members. Herzog uses these characters in part as witnesses but mainly to give the audience an emotional connection and "activate" (Nichols 2001) the audience, making them actively think about their own family members.

Into the Abyss is a good example of a documentary which splits the line between being about a subject and telling a story. Clearly the crimes committed and the way they have effected everyone involved is the main story of the documentary however almost every scene is laced with a point for or against, although usually against, capital punishment. Whilst these points may seem hidden by tears and emotion and the middle of the film villifies the clear villains further for their crimes Herzog ensures the argument is not forgotten and tays the most poingient thing in the film. He does this by framing the whole narrative with "expert" witnesses arguing against capital punishment in the "Prologue" and "Protocall of Death" sections. Despite the clear argument against capital punishment the film makes Heerzog is careful to include some other opinions however briefly.

It is clear throughout Into the Abyss that Herzog has done his best to show all of the damage that the crimes caused in a fair and emotive way. He shows the culprits not as evil but as people who have made a mistake working towards his argument against capital punishment. He goes some way to trying to explain why it could have happened, in a cultural way, and works his hardest to show what the people involved have learned. Overall Into the Abyss is a look into all facets of life after murder from all angles and perspectives presenting all as victims in some way. Throughout all of these messages the theme of anti capital punishment rings through compiling a compelling argument through its heavily constructed representations of good and evil people throughout and after the hardest of times.

Bibliography
1. Into the Abyss (2011), Herzog W, USA, UK, Germany,  Creative Differences Productions

2. Nichols. (2001). Why are ethical issues central to documentary film making . In: Introduction to documentary. usa: Indiana University Press. p1-19.

3. Nichols B. (2001). How do documentaries differ from other types of film. In: Introduction to documentary. usa: Indiana University Press. p20-41.