Glasgow Film Festival

Yesterday we went to the Glasgow Film Festival to view "The Key Of Yellow", a film in which was created in the studio that I worked on.  I have to say that watching one of my films on the 'big screen' really is quite surreal, and I feel that could drive me forward to having more films shown at film festivals.  
http://www.glasgowfilm.org/festival/gff_information

Collaboration Evidence

Hope; Fear; Desire Evidence from Daniel Earnshaw on Vimeo.

The video above shows me collaborating with another student.  Prior to this experiment I had worked on an experimental film called Colour Blind.  The achieve the aesthetic I was aiming for I underwent the same strategies that I used to achieve my last piece.

Hope Superimpose

Tomorrow I hope to carry on shooting my film.  I plan to shoot some out of focus lights, a cross on a chain swinging, then an extreme close up of somebody kissing the cross.  When the person is kissing the cross I plan on panning the camera from right to left.  I then hope to superimpose the footage over the top of each other.

Hope; Fear; Desire screenshots

I decided that I would edit the footage that I shot yesterday.  The first image is suppose to represent hope.  I want to to add some more footage to the first shot.  I have had an idea to shoot some lights out of focus and superimpose them over the top of the shoot that I had already.

The second image represents fear.  I plan to add various effects to the footage to create something that could portray a Francis Bacon portrait.

I have added a few colour correction effects to the image below.  This has created an image that looks quite fearful and lonley.  This is an image that I could possibly use to portray fear as well.

The image below is along the lines of what I want to superimpose over the top of my footage.

Shooting my Hope; Fear; Desire film

Today I had a very productive day shooting my footage for my Hope; Fear; Desire film. Prior to the shoot I did produce a shot list and story board, but as my film only has one shot in it at the moment this wasn't challenging. I had done some planning to how I wanted the studio to be lit and I decided that I would use white light and red light. The white light would represent hope and desire, whilst the red light would portray fear. Although I had originally planned to use a green filter to poetry desire I decided that I would use white light, therefor enabling me to experiment in edit by adding different colour correction filters. I plan to edit tomorrow, and from there I will decide if I will add any more footage to superimpose over the top. I'm going to do some more research into Francis Bacon, and also Man Ray, who's films I feel could be influential on my film.

Superimpose

I am interested in superimposing several pieces of film over the top of each other for my Hope; Fear; Desire film.
I'm going to take my original idea of shooting a wide shot of somebody looking into the camera, and I will distort the image and light the shoot so that the colours represent the emotion that I am aiming to portray.

For hope I plan to superimpose footage of a lit candle.

I dont plan on superimposing anything with the footage for fear becuase I want to add effects to the image and disort the piece so that I looks as if it could be a Francis Bacon portrait.

For desire I have had an idea of superimposing money falling to represent a desire for wealth.

Final Idea

I've been doing a lot of planning for my Hope; Fear; Desire film I think that I have come up with my final idea that I will take into production.

Francis Bacon is an artist that I have been looking at, and I want to be able to portray his portraits into film.  Originally I had the idea of just doing this for fear, as I found that his images did look quite dark and fearful, but after thinking through I've had an idea that I can portray all three themes of the film this way.  What will identify the theme of the film I feel will be the colours used.  Colour can convey different emotions, for example, red can suggest danger and blood, wheras blue can suggest calmness and faith.  I want to use different colours to the convey the different emotions being shown in the film.

Firstly, I want to look at the different colours avaibale to convey hope.  When I think of hope I instantly think of relegion and how candles are lit to show respect and hope.  This gives of a white and an off-yellow colour which I feel could symbolise hope.  When thinking about relegion I also get drawn towards the fact that heaven is shown as a bright place with white and yellow used often to portray the scene.  This also contributes the fact that I feel white and yellow will convey hope. 

A few years ago I went to an exhibition at the TATE called "Peace and Freedom" showcasing Pablo Picasso's work.  The image below shows the "Peace Dove".  I feel that peace and hope are quite relevant to each other.

Fear is quite easy to portry as a colour, dark colours suggest unease, pain, and evil.  Dark colours and a distorted image I feel with quite easily portray fear.  Also I intend to include a piece of audio of the the top which will also portray fear.  Distroted and uncortable sounds will hopefully help convey fear.

I feel that desire will be quite difficult to potray with colour.  The obvious colour to use is green.  Green can represent envy, "Green with Envy".  Not only that, it can represent money and wealth, which I feel is where I can use it.  People desire to be wealthy, so the green can portray a need for money.





Red is a very strong color. It is a noticeable color that is often used on caution and warning signs. It is often associated with stop or "beware". It’s a hot color that evokes a powerful emotion of passion, lust, sex, energy, blood and war. Red is a good color to use for accents that need to take notice over other colors. Red is often used in flags for nations, as it is a symbol of pride and strength. It is also a sporty color that many car manufactures choose to showcase their signature vehicles.

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Orange is a combination of Red and Yellow. It is also a bright and warm color. It represents fire, the sun, fun, warmth and tropical images. It is considered a fun light color that has appetizing qualities to it. Orange increases oxygen supply to the brain and stimulates mental activity. It is highly accepted among young people. As a citrus color, orange is associated with healthy food and stimulates appetite. Any design relating to the tropics, something fun, easy going and youthful should incorporate some type of orange into the design. A darker, richer shade of orange can be associated with autumn.

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Yellow is the brightest color to the human eye. It represents youth, fun, happiness, sunshine and other light playful feelings. It is a cheerful energetic color. Yellow is often used for children’s toys and clothes. Yellow is often hard to read when placed on a white background so designers must be careful when using yellow, that it isn't’t too difficult to read or notice. Though yellow is a bright cheerful color, as it starts to darken it, however, quickly becomes a dirty and unpleasant color. Yellow can also be associated with being scared and, cowards. The term "yellow belly" is proof of that.

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Green is the color of nature and health. It represents growth, nature, money, fertility and safety. Green is a relaxing color that is easy on the eye and has a healing power to it. It is often used to represent anything having to do with health. Many pharmaceutical and nutritional companies use green in their logos and material to advertise safe natural products. Dark green is commonly associated with the military, money, finance, and banking. However it can also be associated with being new or inexperienced as being green or a "green horn". Green is becoming a very popular color in design for web sites.

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Blue is a cool calming color that shows creativity and intelligence. It is a popular color among large corporations, hospitals and airlines. It is a color of loyalty, strength, wisdom and trust. Blue has a calming effect on the psyche. Blue is the color of the sky and the sea and is often used to represent those images. Blue is a color that generally looks good in almost any shade and is a popular color among males. Blue is not a good color when used for food as there are few blue foods found in nature and it suppresses the appetite.

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Purple combines the stability of blue and the energy of red. Throughout history purple has been associated with royalty, nobility and prestige. It symbolizes mystery, magic, power and luxury. Purple is often used to portray rich powerful kings, leaders, wizards and magicians. Purple combined with gold can be flashy and portray wealth and extravagance. Light purple and pink is good for a feminine design and is a popular color among teenage girls. Bright purple along with yellow is commonly used in promoting children's products. It gives the appearance of something that is fun and easy to do.

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Black is often a color used to portray something evil, depressing, scary or even death in western civilization. It has negative imagery with it at times such as "black mail" "black list" "black hole" etc. Black is also a very powerful color that also portrays one of class elegance and wealth. Classy clothing is designed in black from the "power suit" to the "sexy black dress" to formal "black-tie attire". Black combined with other colors can have a very strong statement. Black is a color that can fit into almost every design to add contrast, type, and make the other colors stand out more.

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White is often associated with being pure, clean, fresh and good. The color of a fresh snowstorm brings up images of a peaceful and pure winter scene. White is a common background for Webster's as it is easy to read black or dark text on it. When used with a design using lots of negative space it gives a very clean look to it. White is also used lots for charities and non-profit organizations to denote something good and positive. Hollywood often portrays their characters in white as being good; the white horse, the cowboy with the white hat, the white wizard etc. White usually is associated with being pure and almost heavenly. White is associated with hospitals, doctors, and heaven.

http://www.digitalskratch.com/color-psychology.php



Hope; Fear: Desire Storyboard

There is only going to be one shot in this film.  A wide profile shot for one person.  I feel that the shot will capture all facial emotions, and some body emotions, which is key to my film.  Also because I am going to light the shot I want the whole face in so that the colour can represent the emotions that I am aiming to portray.

Experimental Video Synopsis

In preparation for University interview I decided that I would write a short Synopsis for my Experimental film.

Imagine being struck in the face with light.  You close your eyes.  What do you see?  An array of vibrant colours contained within a blind space.

After looking at various different directors and artists, such as; Len Lye, Jackson Pollock and Brion Gysin I created a piece of experimental video exploring organic, abstract colours and mark making using non-digital strategies.  In order to achieve this I returned to starting points that were perhaps similar to Len Lye, for example; inks, water, dyes, light and camera.

  

Without even watching the film I think that a majority of an audience would understand what they film would look like aestetically.  People who have an understand of the artists and filmmakers would definallty understand my film synopsis, and could possibly great a mental image of how my film would look.

Desire

Out of hope, fear and desire I have been struggling most with coming up with an idea for desire.  The two ideas that I have for hope and fear both relate, and I want to try and link desire to the two other themes.

I have had a brief idea that needs developing.  The desire is to get rid out something that the character loves but is quite dark and needs to be forgotton.  The idea was that the character would through the cross away.  Obviously this is just a simple I idea that definatly needs developing.  This is my plan for the next couple of days to develop my idea into something more complicated and achievable.  I hope to have a tutorial with my tutors tomorrow to discuss my current ideas.

Francis Bacon

I've been thinking about my idea for the fear aspect of my film, and I have been doubting to whether it is possible or not.  So therefor I have decided that I am to think of something else base my fear on.  I was looking at artists was inspiration and I came across Francis Bacon.  Francis Bacon is a name that I have been aware of but I've never really looked and apprecitated his work before.

I really took an interest into his portrait paintings as I feel that they portray loneliness, suffering and pain, which I feel could be a huge influence on my current work.



What I like about the paintings is that every portrait has it's own narrative, and tells a completely different story to the others, which a recurring theme of pain, loneliness and suffering.

This is something that I am interested in recreating for a different medium.  I could have a close up shot of somebody in a dark studio, and I could distort their image in after effects. 



The images above are Andy Warhol's screentests.  This is something that I plan on doing, but I will use various effects to create something that represents fear.

Hope Shot List

I have planned out a simple shot list that I can possibly use for the shot.  By no means does this mean that the shot list is finished yet.

1^st Shot- Back of the church in the aisle and out of focus.  This shot will be out of focus so that the audience are not fully aware of the location.  During this shot writing will fade in saying ‘Hope’ this will represent the beginning of the first chapter of the film.

2^nd Shot- I will get a few establishing shot so that the audience can establish where the film is being set.  The shots will be edited together like a montage.  A few ideas that I have are of:

1.    Stain glass windows

2.    Pews

3.    Shot down the aisle

4.    Crosses

These shots are obviously of things that will quickly allow the audience to know that we are in a church.

3^rd Shot- I want the audience to establish that there is a character involved.  I want the character to sit on the left hand side of the church.  The shot I want will pull between focuses of the end of a pew, to a long shot of a character sat down on a pew, looking straight ahead.

4^th- The next shot will be from behind the character with the back of their head in focus and the front of the church will be out of focus.

5^th- This shot will be an extreme close up of the characters mouth, this will show them biting their lips to convey nerves.

6^th- Again like the previous shot I want to portray nerves, this time an extreme close up of characters hand fidgeting.  The character will also have something in their hands which is unknown to the audience at this moment in time.

7^th- I want to include a close up shot of the characters face showing emotions.  The character’s facial expressions will be will be again be showing nerves.  The character will then tilt their head down to look at their hands.

8^th- As the character puts their head down I will cut to the next shot, a medium shot from side on which will show that the character is looking at the hands, the hands will also be in shot.  If possible I would like to use a track to show variety with my shots.

9^th- From the front of the church, using a track I will track from left to right, the character will be in focus and the shot will be long and wide.

10^th- Similar to the 6^th shot, but this time the character will open his hands and a necklace will be in his hand, this necklace will have a cross.  Then character will then push the necklace around their hand with one of their fingers, then pick it up with the other hand.

11^th- They will then bring the necklace up and look at it in front of them, this shot will be behind the character.  If possible I like to pull focus from a cross at the front of the church and the cross in their hand.  They will then bring the cross towards their face.

12^th- The final shot of this scene will be similar to the 7^th shot.  The close up will show the character bringing the cross towards then before they kiss it.  When the character is kissing the cross they will close their eyes and the shot will fade to black.

Collaboration

Today I collaborated with another student to create a piece of work.  The student that I collaborated with is interested in animation and had an idea of combining a piece of Len Lye inspired film with their animation.  Obviously I have already created a film like this before, so therefor I could have taken the footage that I had and used it again, but I decided that I could experiment more with different materials, colours and lighting to see if I could achieve something more creative.

Whereas I only used food colouring on my last experimentation I decided that I wanted to use different types of materials.  I still had some food colouring left from last time so I did use it but not as frequently as last time.  I used materials such as; powdered paint, cooking oil, ink, and washing up liquid.

Before we started recording we set up the studio and lit the container that we would be using.  We decided that yellow would be a neutral colour to the light the container.  We dropped oil into the water first so that it would separate from the water and float on the top.  When the powdered paint was thrown onto the water the colours also didn't mix with the oil either, which created aesthetically pleasing patterns and surreal shapes on the water.  We then added washing up liquid as it reacted with the oil and colours forcing them to move away from the liquid.  The washing up liquid also created bubbles on the water which was an added bonus.  We continued to add materials to the water and mix them around.

As we were setting up the studio I decided to take a few images for evidence, but then I had a thought, why not film us doing it?  I set up the camera so that they were all focusing on the container and asked another student to vision mix the piece to show how we went about what we did.  It was a great idea because it is not always easy to tell how something was done from looking at images.

Tomorrow I hope to upload the footage onto the computer and edit the piece which I probably take a few days to do so.

Violence on Meditation Homage

Violence on Meditation Homage from Daniel Earnshaw on Vimeo.

A couple of months ago I was involved in a shoot, paying homage to Maya Deren's Violence on Meditation.  The video above is my individual edit of the shoot.

Firstly, I decided that I wanted to change the colour of the film to black and white.  This is because Maya Deren's film was in black and white due to the technology of the time.  I wanted to replicate this, so that was my decision to change the colour to black and white.

When editing this piece I did two different sequences, the first sequence followed one of the men, instead of all of them, I thought this replicated Maya Deren's film more than than the second sequence, so I decided that on the second I would follow all the characters, showing all the individual performances and the group ones too.  I wanted the film to be similar to Maya Deren's, but not exactly the same, so I decided that this would make a difference and put my own touch to the film.

I feel that the audio could have been improved, as it is low in places, and I feel that I could have included some form of music in the piece, but I didn't want to make the piece look to much of a music video.  That was my decision not to include and music in the film.

Permission to Shoot

Today I went to Blackburn Cathedral in hope that I would find out whether I am able to shoot or not.  I went to the cathedral but unfortunately I was told that the person I had to speak to was unavailable, so I plan to go back tomorrow to ask.  If I am unable to shoot in Blackburn Cathedral then I will think of another location to use.

I have also been thinking about being able to use candles in the studio, I asked my tutor today to whether he thought it would be fusible and he was unsure, so I am going to make it my priority to find out tomorrow.  If I can't shoot in the studio then I have a few possible solutions.  Firstly, I can shoot on location, or I can either use fairy lights, but I will require lights that fade off instead of turning straight off.

Francois And The Atlas Mountains Session

On Tuesday we had another client in the study for a multi-camera studio session.  Francois and the Atlas Mountains are a 5 piece band signed to Domino Records.  Before the band came in I had a listen to what genre of music the band played, as well as researching their discography.  As there was an interview planned I decided that the research could help contribute to the final interview questions.  The first obvious thing that I wanted to research was where the band are from, as from looking at the name it gave an indication that the band might not be English.  I found out that they were made up of several Nationalities; French, English and Scottish.  I wanted to find out how the recent album was recieved in each of the different countries that they were from, so I put forward the question.


As I am intrested in cinematograhpy I wanted to help out with the lighting, and I also wanted have a role behind one of the cameras.  I decided that I would work behind camera three, on the left hand side of the studio.  As I have gained a lot of experience I didnt really struggle and I enjoyed the production.  I think that the more experience that I gain, the more confident I will feel, and this will hopefully show off in the work, which will allow me to challenge myslef for more difficult shots.

Glasgow Film Festival

Today I found out some great news that a piece of work that I had been involved in was being shown at the Glasgow Film festival.  The piece of work that is being shown is the Silver Apples multi-camera studio shoot that was done last year.  My role in the production was using tracking camera but I also had the opportunity to work one of the three HD studio cameras, as well as contributing towards the studio lay-out and lighting.

Hearing this news really did make me think about the amazing opportunities that we have with the resources available at Blackburn College.

Editing Mark Gardener Shoot

Today I decided that I would edit the footage filmed at The Grand of Mark Gardener, that we filmed last year.  The plan was to individually edit each part of the footage that we got, such as; acoustic performance, interview and live performance using footage from both cameras that we took to The Grand.  This also gave me the opportunity to view the footage for the first time and reflect on what could have been better, and what couldn't have.

Firstly, I think that the static establishing shots were extremely well done.  These shots obviously set the scene and allowed us to use the shot for safety as the other camera, which was roaming, had footage that could not have been used because the camera was either out of focus or the shots were shaking.  This was probably done to the fact that the camera wasn't placed on a try-pod, which I feel would have made the production look more professional, but at the same time I felt that the roaming camera gives the feel of an intermit venue and behind part of an audience.  I used both cameras whilst editing to vary the different shots being used, and faded in and out of each pieces of film.

I managed to get most of the footage edited into individual parts, which means that all that is left is to put the sections into the finished sequence which I plan to do tomorrow, then I will add the mastered audio, recorded over the mixing board to the profile so that it is complete.

Overall, I feel that today has been a productive day.  Not only have a nearly finished a piece of film that has been waiting to be be finished, but I have also learnt some new skills such as syncing up two different pieces of footage so that there are not continuity errors, and so that it runs through smoothly.

Mark Gardener Screen Shots

I've been taking some screen shots of today's work that I have been doing.

The shot above is an example of a cross fade between two different clips.

This image shows how I did the cross fade.

Several cross fades.

This is the sequence that I had  been working on.  The image on the left showing a preview of an unedited piece of footage, and the image on the right shows the profile.

One of the shot included.

This image and piece of sequence shows how the film is coming together.