American Horror Story - Drama

American Horror Story is an American anthology horror series created by Brad Falchuk and Ryan Murphy. Each series is a miniseries with a new storyline, characters and theme. They consist of between 12 and 14 episodes with a beginning, middle and end. The series has had a number of directors including Bradley Buecker, David Semel and Michael Uppendahl. Each series is set at one main location such as a house or an institute where the characters will often come and go. The cast are also featured in all series with Jessica Lange, Evan Peters and Sarah Paulson all returning with new roles for each series. I have watched 4 series out of 5 and find it to be very dark and tense but incredibly gripping and exciting. I like the use of new themes for each series which is quite rare as most series tend to follow a similar storyline with the same characters. However, I think the concept of completely changing everything makes it almost like a long film. As a horror, it is a very successful drama as it uses very creepy locations and characters that will make the audience feel very nervous and on edge. As an existing drama, it is something I very much enjoy watching myself and would be interested to work on. Horror isn't a genre I have looked into very much in my own work as I think it must be incredibly challenging to make a piece genuinely scary but am keen to give it a go in future projects. 

David Fincher - Director

David Fincher is an American film director and producer. However, he has also worked in television. Widely known, he has been nominated several times for academy awards for the films 'The Curious Case of Benjamin Button' and 'The Social Network' gaining him recognition as a successful film director. His other projects include 'Fight Club', 'Seven' and more recently 'Gone Girl'. Having seen several of his films including many of those titles, I decided to look at him as part of my research. Fincher began to love making films from a very young age, making movies with an 8mm camera. As he worked his way into the industry he worked for several production companies including 'Industrial Light' and 'Magic. One thing I have noticed from his films is the use of quite a dark color scheme, often choosing black as the most accentuated color. This gives his films a dark edge which is then usually combined with a color overlay often reflecting the tone of the film. For example in Fight Club, you can see tones of black and blue frequently throughout which is symbolizing the bruising the participants of the club are enduring. In 'Girl with the Dragon Tattoo' the colors used are also quite blue toned whic
h compliments the icy, cold setting of the film. Another technique he often uses in his films is that he will cleverly use shadowing to conceal or partly conceal a characters face so that we don't know who they are. This creates quite a dynamic appearance and allows the audience to be shown small hints to later events without revealing them straight away therefore keeping the audience on their feet. The use of color and lighting will be important in the scene I have chosen because I will be including some hard lighting in order to create some tension in the scene and give the impression of a spot light on the suspects. I haven't explored color tones very much in previous work so that is something I will be looking into for my scene to heighten the tension or set the mood of the scene.

Location/Recces - Drama

When deciding on the location for my drama piece, I looked at where the scene takes place in the original drama. The interrogation scene in Broadchurch that I am looking at takes place at a police station as it is an official meeting between the investigators - D.I Alec Hardy and D.S Ellie Miller and the suspects - Nigel Carter and Susan Wright. In a real life situation, this sort of meeting would only take place at a police station because what the suspects say needs to be recorded or written down so that it can be used as evidence in the trial. When it came to choosing a location, I decided to keep it the same as it is in the original series to give it a more realistic and authentic feel to it. As the scene is an interrogation where the investigators are trying to retrieve information about the case from the suspects, I wanted the location to evoke a sense of heightened tension in the scene so that the audience can feel a sense of pressure that the suspects would be feeling in the moment which would then translate onto the audience so that they in turn feel under pressure. I also want the location to reflect quite a clinical and plain environment because what the characters are saying in the scene is quite gripping and serious, therefore I would like that to be the center focus of the scene rather than the audience being distracted by a busy background. When it came to choosing a suitable location for filming, I decided to find an office space. I think that one of the small lecture theaters at Maidstone Studios would be ideal for an office space. All of the theaters are newly built and very plain looking with white walls and plenty of desks. I am planning on setting up a few tables in the center of the room and filming each interrogation in the same place. In the original series, the meetings are happening at exactly the same time with Miller and Hardy meeting halfway through the scene to discuss what they have found. I have decided to cut this section as I did not think it was important enough for the scene and would take out about 30 seconds. As police offices should all be relatively the same, I thought that using two different offices didn't seem necessary, especially as the location isn't hugely important in the scene.

Jake Cauty - Self Portrait/Experimental Film

When researching some self portraits by other artists,  I wanted to look at some video references that could inspire my own work. I found an experimental film which is titled 'Self Portrait'. I think I would like my portrait to have quite an experimental, edgy feel to it so that I can express myself in a visual way. I was particularly drawn to this film because it was black and white. After watching it I realised it had quite a Film Noir feel as well because of the high level of contrast and mysterious feel. The film has some ambient music in the background which has quite an eery quality to it and makes the video seem quite aged, therefore reflecting the Film Noir aspect. The dialogue is delivered as a voice over which is over the top of the music creating a nice dynamic. For the brief we are not allowed to include dialogue which makes it more difficult as words are a great way to express yourself. In this video, the artist was explaining some difficulties he struggles with in life, using some quite violent imagery. With the imagery alone, this would be quite confusing for the audience as we wouldn't know what it was representing. However, with the dialogue it is much easier to interpret. The artist is featured in the video often with some interesting angles and shots. I think this is a good way of conveying emotion as well as the idea of a self portrait. In my video, I will not be including people as much. Using people in this way also gives the piece a Film Noir impression because of the heavy shadowing and contrast.

Visual Research - Portrait

When finding visual research for my self portrait video, I decided to look at some Film Noir inspired photography. I am planning on using a black and white colour scheme for my video therefore I thought that some of this imagery would give me some ideas for my own work. All of the images are black and white but they have a very extreme high contrast quality to them which is created through hard lighting. There is a strong sense of highlight and shadow which increases the intensity of the image. They all have quite a mysterious and crime like appearance as the people featuring in some of the images are quite often hidden in the shadows with their identity hidden from the audience. I would like to include people in my video but am not quite sure who I will include or how obvious I will make them to the audience as I have thought of asking some close family/friends to film their own sections, therefore their part in it would be very subtle. Some Film Noir photography is not always of people. Often it will show a landscape, usually an industrial, city like location. I think that my video will include several landscapes, however, I am naturally more drawn to naturalistic and scenic locations such as the woods or the beach, therefore I am more likely to film these.

I think that I will not include the same level of contrast and intensity in my imagery as I don't want to copy the style of Film Noir. I will just think about some of the locations I use and how the lighting will effect the level of shadowing and highlights. The photography all has quite an aged feel to it which reflects the time period, however, the footage in my video should reflect the current time which is fitting as it should be a representation of our place in the world and how we see it.  

Drama Pre-production/Initial Ideas

For the drama scene, we have been given the task to look at how the original director interpreted the scene and adapt this using our own directorial vision as to how we would direct the scene. I have watched the scene several times and liked the way the Director - James Strong, directed it, often using lots of close ups and over the shoulder shots to show emotion on the face of the person speaking at the time. I have decided to use quite a few similar shots as I think they work well. However, there are a few cutaways between conversations towards the end of the scene which I have decided to show using a split screen. This will show each conversation happening at the same time so that it will seem like a conversation between Nigel and Susan when in fact they are having separate conversations with Miller and Hardy. I think this will give the scene more of a seamless appearance, allowing the characters to offer their opinions one after the other. In terms of lighting and colour, I would like to explore different options to express my own creative vision for the scene. We had a lighting workshop yesterday where we learnt how to set up some hard lighting for filming. This is a very important aspect which is always carefully considered when shooting an interior scene. As my scene is an interrogation, I think that lighting could be crucial for setting the mood and atmosphere as I would like it to increase tension so that the suspects look under pressure. In terms of colour scheme, this is something I would like to look at but is something I would use in the editing process with Adobe Premiere. Colours can be used to express moods and tones so this is an aspects I would definitely like to look further into to make the scene expressive.

Lighting Workshop

For the first lighting workshop, we were introduced to some of the equipment at the studios, including a full description of the lights we would be using and the safety requirements when using them. We worked in groups of four, I worked with Nisserin, Becca and Laura. We took turns taking on different roles including the director, the gaffer and the model. This allowed each of us to experiment with the light management and work as part of a team. We learnt that lighting is an incredibly important aspect of any piece as it can convey the mood and impression of it therefore setting the tone for the audience. Using several tools including black wrap and gel wraps, this can alter the colouring of the lighting which is often used to convey a certain emotion. Before using the camera to film, we changed the white balance so that the colour tone was correct and we could work with it from then on. Looking at different aperture settings and the shutter speed, this can alter the exposure on the subject. As we were working with a person with them being the focus, altering the the exposure can make the lighting softer so that you can still see the details of the face. When I was directing the lighting, I experimented with the position of the lights, seeing what it looks like with only a back light or with side lighting as well. Using the camera, I then altered the aperture to eliminate too much exposure on one side of the face. When looking at the lighting, I've noticed it's quite intense as the lights are 700W and incredibly powerful. The scene I am going to film for the drama piece is an interrogation scene in a police station between two investigators and two suspects. Lighting is not only a good way of conveying mood but can also show dominance from one character which has made me think about how I should use lighting in the scene. When I think about interrogations, I think about the idea of having a spot light over someone to increase the pressure. Although, i think that would look quite drastic and obvious, when experimenting with lighting, I would like to explore this idea for my scene and make it more subtle to just give a hint towards that.

Mood Board - Portrait

When developing ideas for the self portrait piece, I decided to document some of the aspects I am thinking of including. Rather than choosing to tell a continuous story, I think I would like the video to be a montage of unrelated clips that all demonstrate something significant. However, to make the portrait have an unusual edge to it, I would like to make some of the clips not so obvious as to what they are showing. I have come up with an idea to include people who are important to me, however, rather than showing them on camera, I want to give the camera to them and ask them to film something that interests them. This wouldn't be clear to the audience as to what it was showing but I would know what those clips represented. One of the first aspects I thought about was the colour scheme. When thinking about colours I like to look at or wear as clothing, I tend to lean towards a mono colour palette of black, grey and white. Therefore I am going to think about using a greyscale colour scheme. This is something I can experiment with in the editing process. For this video, we must include ourselves in some way. I think I would like to use my eyes and just have a subtle hint of me in the video rather than appearing in it completely. This then lead me onto thinking about including make up in some way. When I get up in the morning, doing my make up is something that gets me ready for the day and makes me feel like I am ready and complete. Therefore I have come up with the idea of filming my eyes bare and documenting the process of putting makeup on them until they look finished. I think I will increase the speed of this to fit the time frame and have this section as something that will continue through to the end amongst other clips, with the last clip being the finished eyes. I also thought about some hobbies and interests I have including photography so I would like to find some interesting locations to film including a route I take on a daily walk as it is visually appealing and something I undertake each day. I would also like to show my interest in reading and watching films in some way, maybe replacing the lack of dialogue with quotes on the screen.

Group Portrait

For the first day back in the studios after Christmas, we were given the task to explore the idea of a self portrait as a group. This was to get us thinking about own self portrait project and spark some ideas for that. I worked in a group with Ellen, Laura, Imogen and Sammi. We had a discussion before filming, exploring some ideas and decided to base our video on how we start the day at Uni. As the course is something we all have in common, this concept allowed us to have a theme that we could all relate to. Imogen starts her day with a coffee and a cigarette, therefore we filmed her making her way downstairs and outside to do this. Ellen and I said that we both start the day with the food so this is what we decided to film. In order to eliminate any dialogue we decided to take inspiration from some of Charlie Chaplin's silent films where the actions were the focus of the pieces. In order to replicate this, we made the actions quite dramatic and emphasised as well as speeding up all of the footage to give it more of a handheld appearance. To complete the silent film likeness, we added a black and white colour scheme and chose an instrumental piece of music in the style of Charlie Chaplin. Considering the limited time we had to construct an idea, film and edit it, I am pleased with the final outcome. I think that working in a group is really helpful and an important part of the learning process as it allows you to listen to ideas from other people and see them put into practise, therefore widening your own knowledge for personal pieces of work.