Video-in-the-field: Single Channel Production

Thursday, March 2, 2017

RTD 365 PROJECT 2 Fall 2018

NARRATIVE HOMAGE SCENE - based on INFLUENCES- homage to a director
OCTOBER 31

HOMAGE: special honor or respect shown publicly.

Select a director, a film or some cinematographer whose work inspires you. It can also be a cinematographer. Identify some of this person’s filmmaking strategies by doing research about their work and them. You will boil down one or two characteristics of their work and produce a short work that imitates or quotes this director or artist.

STEPS:

Research: Research the work of the director/creative. Look at several works. You don’t have to watch whole films but read about him or her in serious journals or blogs (there are many online).

By next week, Oct 3, you should know who the artist you will be using is and one or two strategies they use their work. See below for ideas.

Presentation: Write a short research paper about the artist’s work and prepare a presentation that includes 1 or 2 short clips (under 2 minutes). Write about the director’s work and the approach you are interested in Follow with a short description (treatment-pitch) of the work you will create. Paper should be 1 to 2 pages and include references.

Plan your production: Using what you have learned from looking at this director's work, plan, light and shoot a scene = approximately 1 minute - that copies something they do. This can be a short scene or it can be a fragment - eg. a small element of what could be a larger project. Create a storyboard and shot list before you produce. I will set meetings with you to go over your production plans.

Collaborations can do longer pieces- but everyone must do some filming.
Your project will involve scripting, lighting, staging.

You must have excellent lighting for this one.

CHOICES: You can choose a sound designer or cinematographer. It can be from television or cinema. Many directors overlap in projects. Watch one or two films or clips.

Think about any of the below filmic elements when developing your ideas.

- These are also called

--> * mis-en-scene: Character, staging, Shadow, form, light, color, style *
- a lighting style, use of shadow and light
- a particular use of focus or lens effects
- a particular kind of movement, space, representation of time or temporality
- the use of color, scenery
- a particular way of staging a shot, framing or directing a conversation
- ways of using sound, soundtrack, rhythm, sound effects and/or silence
- a style of editing, the use of simple effects (accessible to our class)
- use of transitions, cuts, repetition and visual rhythm
- storytelling, plot, character choice- how is the character directed??

You will need to talk and write about the elements you decide to work with.

BEGIN TODAY --

DUE: March 9 Introduce us to the director you will make an homage of in class

Read a serious article. Push yourself beyond your comfort zone in terms of research- use the library! An online publication about contemporary directors is called “Senses of Cinema” or any link from this site. Search for your director.

If you are unsure, storyboard a scene from the director’s existing work, a useful exercise

READINGS to help you out.

This is an article about working up ideas from. Her description of her working process might help you. She outlines professional practices for working for a client, although her work is limited to animation and storyboarding

-->

DUE: March 23- PRESENTATION, short paper and production concept

· Presentation:

Show no more than 2 minutes of footage
what elements of the artist’s work that are valuable to you
don’t select a director whose work consists of effects you can’t do- no fight scenes, explosions or aerial or crane work
TALK about any or all of these elements: Framing, use of color, acting, direction of characters and staging (where they are placed in relation to scene and camera lens), development of character, use or dialogue or silence, location, sets, effects, story.

· Short paper:

write about I page about your director's style and turn this in with references (at least 2 other articles) at the end.
Add a short pitch and descriptive treatment for your project

Productions begin March 23 after class.

DUE: March 30 all this information should be ready and you are in production

· Production plan

shot list

· • storyboard

· crew list

· • location

· • lighting and camera rental order

· • script if pertinent

April 6: rough cuts

April 13: Final cuts (deadline to be extended if necessary)

By screening on April 13: turn in a production book that will include
pre-production material- 300 word introduction to director, your lists, drawings, storyboards, location images/photos, scripts, costume and lighting ideas, cast, crew, music citations, anything you want to be paid for

TIPS

· don’t choose a complex project with complex scenery or a large cast

· No MICHAEL BEY.

· Remember a good scene does not always need dialogue

· You are not compelled to edit, but you should if this is essential to your idea.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

PUBLIC SERVICE PODCAST- some examples

The PSA is our second project because they are short and carry direct, unambiguous messages. Essentially the PSA is Public Service Advertising- not only an announcement.
You can also make a piece that is informational in other ways- for example that shows us something or explains something that the public should know.

An example of this kind is "The Story of Stuff" (see below)

BROTHER EARTH with Boots Riley and Josh Healey

Here is a nice black and white psa about .... living..

watch this first.

Bullying

"I want to be.." campaign for recycling

this is about student debt. Follow the argument they make. How does the soundtrack communicate with different layers?

About depression. Another PSA that uses music effectively.

- too long for a psa - but effective beginning. Just watch the first minute. This is about depression.

we're all in this together

This one is smart

STudent PSA on WATER use

LOcal food movement.

This has great shots, but how does it exclude certain communities?
is the music effective or monotonous?

Gotta love this! Promotion of the internet by students made in 1995.

PSA's was Matthew Cooke's series on "How to"are videos that inform and entertain. They range from 2-7 minutes.
Take a look at one or two of these. YOu can go to Cooke's website for more.

This a comedy skit from Saturday Night Live that is constructed like a PSA. It is okay to make a satiric project as long as there is an argument made for a public concern. In this case, it is a concern to everyone if parents drive terribly.

This "Brain on Drugs" series was infamously imitated for years. Here is a little about it from Wikipedia: "The PSA, titled "Frying Pan" (a.k.a. "Fried Egg" and "Any Questions?"), was conceived by art directors Scot Fletcher and Rick Bell, copywriter Larre Johnson and creative director Paul Keye at Los Angeles-based agency Keye/Donna/Pearlstein. It was directed by Joe Pytka through his own Venice-based production company Pytka Productions and produced by agency producer Harvey Greenberg, Pytka executive producer Jane McCann and Pytka producer John Turney. Anthony Marinelli scored the shorter versions.[1][2]" The ad was chosen by TV Guide as a top ad.

Here it is:

Following that ad, on the Youtube mix, there might be a bunch of anti-marijuana ads from the 60s. They are also interesting to watch.

This ad was created for the University of Minnesota and later retracted after people complained about it. Who is your PSA for?

A TIME magazine feature about what they think are the best PSA's ever.
LINKED HERE

ADS about texting while driving. These are extremely graphic.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0LCmStIw9E

PSAs are created to elevate emotional response but they also contain information. Here is the kind of information that is useful to a PSA. From an article about water in California. LINKED HERE

This PSA - DUMB WAYS TO DIE- uses sarcasm in a subtle way to get people to understand it is a bad idea to play around train tracks.
check it out:

This is a great article:

How to Create the Perfect Public Service Announcement

Whether you have a cause of your own or you are an educator, PSAs create a forum for learners to actively participate in a project that will allow them to become stewards of and advocates for social change.

BY JACLYN BELL / MARCH 2, 2010
LINKED HERE

Thursday, February 2, 2017

short video about different lens effects

Thursday, January 19, 2017

Appropriation videos

Here are some general examples of films using appropriated footage that concentrate on form within the frame. Or they incorporate formal strategies or rules in their construction.

These films have an array of approaches. I encourage you to shoot your own footage if you are able to and think about how you could combine fresh video with old material to create a dialogue.
Keep checking back on this site for more inspirations.

Here is the TIME TRAVELING assignment again linked HERE

HERE is a site with more about appropriation and fair use law.

Science Friction by Stan Vanderbeek

Mirror World by Abigail Child
Mirror World (follow the link) uses all appropriated footage, combined through layering and mirroring, as the title suggests.

Student work: RTD 365A: This meditation on place combines fresh and found footage

Golden Digest by Animal Charm combines several different sources of video into a strange portrait of an animal.

Student of RTD 365A Found Footage project on the theme of work

Student of RTD 365A Found Footage project on the theme of work

Student of RTD 365A Found Footage project on the theme of the future

Student of RTD 365A New Footage montage/story on the theme of self and place

(George Bush) Don't Like Black People, Franklin Lopez
taking off from Kanye West's statement on television

Student work rtd 365a -Experimental, expressionistic short story about suicide intervention

Student work rtd 365a expressionistic short story shot in mostly closeups. Acceptable first project interpretation

Wonder Woman by Dara Birnbaum

awesomely weird film!! follow the link!
Bagger 288- an enormous killing machine by Rather Good (linked)

Student of RTD 365A This project experiments with light and dark scenes to communicate the producer's passion for rugby

This film used footage from the news and science fiction movies to tell another story about the Iraq War. Who tells the story about the past? How would you remake it?
Phil Patiris Iraq Campaign

Here is an experimental film that concentrates on shape vectors.

Ballet Mechanique by Ferdinand Leger, 1924

To Hug you and Squeeze you is by Wago Kreider
by Wago Kreider (02:21)

Woody Allen's Zelig
This uses documentary style - combining new interviews that supposedly construct a story out of found footage.

Fallout from Paul Turano on Vimeo.
These are more creative in their choices of "footage" Yes You may use still images...

The Body Besieged, 2009 by Kelly Sears
This uses still shots like the other work below of Fichter, but gives nice ideas for dividing and using the space inside the frame.
Follow the link to The Body Besieged, 2009 from Kelly Sears on Vimeo.

Walking on Water from celeste fichter on Vimeo.

Here is an impressionistic study of PLACE personalized that incorporates different kinds of footage and uses homemade music.

Jem Cohen: We Have An Anchor from EMPAC @ Rensselaer on Vimeo.

This film plays simply with the shape vector - matching the location of the circles in this old art film with the form of a circus performer.