we saw the other people's experimental films

AMARILLO'S FILM:
-lighting was 10/10, set up really well and really drastic and dramatic
-i noticed elements of experimental films that we've watched
>like the one film about the lady walking to her house and the key that turns into a knife and stuff
-the bible readings and the various symbols like the 666 and whatever, i don't care much for the christianity and satan symbolism like w/e mate
-probably would have really worked that eeriness if they had taken the approach the shining did and gone with nursery rhymes or a kid's story or something ("all work and no play makes jack a dull boy" and that jazz but not so tryhard)
-editing was decent, flows well
-amarillo's voice makes me uncomfortable
-the way the film was set up to screen had its desired effect i think

MARTIN'S FILM
-interesting idea of using three screens, that's new
-i actually sort of feel like what was on the "main" screen, the middle screen, wasn't very memorable
-it was alisha doing stuff with paint and touching her face
-the message is not immediately (if ever) clear, but that's okay
-i liked the orange/blue contrast with the left and right screens, orange and blue works well

TONY'S FILM
haven't seen it yet

hhehe he eheehe eh

heahaha ahha [A Summary of what happens]

Un Chien Andalou is an experimental film created by Salvador Dali and Luis Brunuel in the 1920s. The film has no plot in the conventional sense of the word, and although it is clear in some "scenes" that there are certain sequences that somewhat progress chronologically, but on the whole it is disjointed and nonsensical. 

A reccurring element that signifies any kind of chronological sequence at all, are the title cards reading "Once Upon A Time", "8 Years Later", "Around 3 in the Morning" and "16 years ago", in that order. 

Although at first it starts off logically and changes to a flashback, meaning that there is still an established idea of the "present". 

HeHeHejeHHE [My Feelings]

It makes no sense to me, but I still feel feelings because that's how a film is supposed to work - to evoke emotions from people through the medium of film. I felt a mixture of disgust at certain "shock horror" shots and scenes, right off the bat in the beginning. The images such as the woman getting her eyeball sliced, the constant repeating of the man's hand with the ants/spiders/insects crawling out of a hole in the center, even what's not considered "shock horror" but simply ridiculous and strange, after acquiring that kind of mindset towards the film as a whole, became eerie and weird. The placement of these things in the film presented as "normal" only went to further skew what I was trying to perceive as "normal" in that universe (similar to how fantasy films have their established worlds as canon and "normal"). It was simply ridiculous and hard to comprehend. 

Feb 11: ha ha ha what no

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

Today, the class was introduced to the newest unit- montage editing. 

The usual presentation included some examples, one of which was the Rocky 4 training montage. This opened the introduction, and we were lead to learn more about the theory of film as an art form and how montage editing solves the "problem" that cinema has, namely being limited to storytelling. Even in documentary form, storytelling is evident, with the use of continuity editing to tell that story in order to evoke thought processes from the viewer. In other, more fictional story based genres of film, the story being told by continuity editing is used to evoke emotions. Montage, as suggested by Sergei Eisenstein, utilizes discontinuous editing to evoke emotions that come from the viewer themself based on the connections our minds make with the sequence of certain images (e.g., a picture of a dead baby and then another picture of a crying person would allow the viewer to piece together that the crying person is reacting to the dead baby). Of course, this is evidently a technique already used in continuous films. However, montage allows juxtaposition to be used and manipulated to its fullest, and to a class of students who are brought up themselves on continuous film, as well as studying continuous editing and film for years, this is all very hard to take in.

We did, though, get to try what is coined as the Kuleshov effect (named after Lev Kuleshov- see notes) in a short exercise today, where we got into groups of three and shot someone acting out an emotion, then acting two completely different scenarios which the person could be reacting to, finally using montage editing to create two different clips telling entirely different stories.

My group, Hannah, Sapphire and I, chose the emotion to be interpreted as either someone who was "crushed", or terrified. The action involved Hannah putting her head in her hands and slinking to the floor. The two scenarios were someone dying, and someone advancing on her intending to attack. In editing, this became very clear (as I suppose it was intended to).

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Today, during the presentation I had to take in the new information and process it. Normally this wouldn't be an issue, but today I had to be a thinker in order to actually understand it properly from the perspective of someone who grew up on more or less the opposite. Even with examples I had to squint and try my hardest to see the idea. This also reflects having to be knowledgeable, as I had to explore indepth concepts such as this. 

I was very confused initially too during the activity and didn't understand it fully until editing it, meaning that I had to be a risk taker and try it with the best of my ability. 

montage introduction (!!!)

WHAT IS A MONTAGE

a single pictorial composition made by juxtaposing or superimposing many different images

WHAT IS MONTAGE EDITING

p[roduction of a rapid succession of images to create an idea

*ROCKY 4 TRAINING MONTAGE*

Montage is "the nerve of cinema... to determine the nature of montage is to solve the specific problem of cinema." -Sergei Eisenstein, 'A Dialectic Approach to Film Form'

THE PROBLEM WITH FILM: never actually reality, even documentary is not 100% reality
Eisenstein talks about montage solving the problem- what continuous editing achieves (creating a story and evoking emotions which are fake) is different from the emotions that are evoked from montage, which is focusing on the art of film

SOVIET MONTAGE THEORY

Lev Kuleshov (1899-1970)- russian filmmaker and theorist
His idea was that the juxtaposition of different images can lead the viewer to reach different conclusions about the action in a film, and conducted an experiment named after him

THE KULESHOV EFFECT
It's not only the acting or content of the scene that can elicit an emotional response
The viewer brings their own emotional response to what they see

SERGEI EISENSTEIN (1898-1948)

believed that editing could be used for more than just showing a scene
felt that the "collision" of shots could be used to manipulate the emotions of the audience and create film metaphors (two shots not just juxtaposed but crashed together)
differed from kuleshov in believing that "each sequential element perceived not next to each other but on top of each other"
his most famous sequence of early montage editing (in soviet montage style) was the sequence The Odessa Steps from Battleship Potemkin
>lots of perspectives meshed into one
>chaos and fear
>Fast editing, fast cutting
>dynamic movement in cutting matches dynamic movement on screen

EISENSTEIN MONTAGE THEORY
discontinuity editing
violations of continuity rules including the 180 degree rule
transitions between shots deliberately obvious, less fluid, non seamless
argued that montage is inherently dialectical (new ideas emerging from conflict)
developed "methods of montage"
1. metric
"october" 1927
editing follows a specific number of frames regardless of what happens to image
simple relationships between images work best
suitable for simple march time montages
danger can overcomplicate emotionally
2. rhythmic
focuses not on the time between shot changes but key movements within the frame (e.g. eye movement)
good for portraying opposing forces

potemkin shows the soldiers coming in always from the left to the right and the revolutionaries right to left
3. tonal
focuses on emotional meaning of the shots, not just manipulating the temporal length of the cuts or its rhythmical characteristics
4. overtonal
"strike" 1925
interplay of metric, rhythmic and tonal characteristics (pace, idea, emotions) to create more complex response
5. intellectual

inroduction of ideas and associations into the edit
conflict juxtaposition of intellectual affects

Jan 23: oh god

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

Seeing as I forgot yesterday to take my hard drive to school, it was today that I got all of it available. I previewed almost all of them (while transferring them to my hard drive) and used the same table that I used in the previous lesson so I could filter the clips more easily. Hannah and the rest of the group continued to cover me for sound effects and some music. 

IB LEARNER PROFILE

I had to be a thinker and extra reflective in order to best review the clips and make post production as much easier as I could, seeing as I know it isn't an easy process. Reflecting on the clips and being a thinker to take apart each aspect of what's usable and what's not- the visuals, the sound, natural lighting, etcetera. 

Jan 21: disaster strikes?!?!?!

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

Earlier this morning, I tried to log and transfer the footage onto my laptop so I could begin the post production editing process, only to be faced with an error message that shook my bleary morning vision, reading

The file type (AVCHD to 1080/720p x) could not be read. 

In class, I immediately went to Mr. Chiang to ask about this problem. I also explained that the "1080" video option was something that had happened during shooting quite early on, and only 73 clips (that had the camera options set as AVCHD) had transferred successfully. As it turns out, during the shoot we had accidentally pressed a button on the camera activating the 1080 option which changes the format from AVCHD, which is Apple ProRes 42 friendly. Because of this, not only did three quarters of our footage have to be converted (which took all of today because we had over 70 GB of footage, and I will be checking in with Mr. Chiang ASAP with my hard drive to collect it) but some of the clips could have their sound distorted and corrupt.

This aside, the group decided to keep our collective chin up and Hannah investigated sound, finding appropriate music and using the script to find sound effects filling in where we didn't (or couldn't) provide. At the same time, I began sifting through what I had already of the clips, and created a table where I could record what was passable, what could only have its video or only its sound used, what wasn't usable at all, etc. and began an assembly edit with what I had.

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Today I definitely had to be an inquirer in order to get the correct information about what happened with our footage, and communicative with Hannah as our roles (editor and sound) are very important in the post production process. This holds true even if a lot of our footage is gone, and we had to think on our feet to come up with the solution of using the script for SFX hunting. 

Jan 18+19: filming filming filming

WHAT HAPPENED OVER THESE TWO DAYS

We filmed each scene as according to plan. A lot of what we got done on Saturday were the scenes in my house, and since the group came in the late afternoon I fear for continuity in the post production- it took so long to shoot some of the shots in the daytime scene (a problem because the windows' blinds were up) that night was falling even while we were still shooting it. I decided, then, that it would be the best idea to change the script a little and get Hannah to switch on the lights (instead of going straight to sweeping weapons into their bag, which was what the original script dictated). That way, the last few shots of the first scene were in the lighting of the room, and with clever camerawork we managed to hide that it was actually nighttime. 

Yesterday, we filmed everything else, including the scenes in the factory and the office as planned. Surprisingly, the more we filmed, the easier into "the groove" we got and we even had time to take a long extended break, finishing earlier than everybody had expected. 

Since we lacked extras, Tony played the background extra in the office and I asked my brother to help play one of Zhang's henchmen. 

IB LEARNER PROFILE

While shooting, we encountered a few problems that we had to be thinkers to solve. On Saturday, for example, I had to think on my feet to fix the continuity daylight/nighttime problem, and quickly before it got darker. It worked well, hopefully, although I still have yet to review all of the footage. 

Surprisingly, we faced no real stand out problems while shooting yesterday and I'm thankful for that. It could also be the fact that we simply found our routine in the process of shooting and got used to it, or it could be that we were shooting for so long we just stopped caring as much about how the results would turn out. One example of this was when we were shooting at the factory, a dance competition was happening at the same time a few stories down and the sound of the music was loud enough to interrupt our shooting. Luckily, with precise, but risk-taking measures, we timed each take correctly so that the music would not interfere too much with the sound. 

Jan 15: let's get down to business

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

The night prior to today's class I had discussed thoroughly with my parents about the sets that we wanted and confirmed them. During class, the first thing I did was gather my group members around and drew up a schedule of the coming weekend. The initial plan was to do what I had done in my first semester's film and shoot over the span of one afternoon and the entire night. However, since almost all of the film was set during the day, this was not ideal in the least. 

After a discussion confirming this with Hannah, I then told the group that shooting would commence over the span of two days, without any overnight shooting. Night scenes would be shot in the late afternoon/evening, which could pass off as night if we covered up windows. The one scene that is outdoors should be shot the moment darkness falls, for maxmimum efficiency.

I also realized that, after reading the updated script for a third time, a rewriting was truly in order and despite thinking as much in the last lesson I only acted on it today. However, given that I'm decently confident in my scriptwriting ability, especially getting it done in a brief span of time, I started rewriting it today. I asked my peers to help me in terms of developing the characters, and I finished the script with 7 pages and Joel having a solidified personality. 

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Today I had to be a thinker and knowledgeable, thinking and planning the script as I write it while calling on my previous knowledge of scriptwriting. 

Jan 13: out of action for one class and i have to become the producer once again no

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

Since for most of the previous class I was busy completing my Criterion A portfolio, I was suddenly faced with Hannah's completed and brief rewritten script. After thoroughly checking over it (noting that a rewriting, at some point, would be necessary for bettering the plot and characters) I realized that to none of us were the settings easily accessible, even after the rewriting. It was during this class that I decided it was time to call my mother to ask her whether we had any of these locations available to us for filming. Luckily, because she knew quite a few people, I was able to secure a factory- a fabrics factory that we would have to pass off as an arms factory- and an empty office block. Photos were shared and I received the approval of the director. 

We also decided on who would play what roles today, finally. Because of previous experiences in the earlier semester as well as a summer camp that I know was straining, Dom had no desire to be a major character that required much acting. It was decided then that he would be "Boss", who is Joel's (our main character) boss. It was also quite helpful that Dom could do quite a convincing voice with professional sounding tones, helpful to our character development that by the way, isn't really present in our current script. Which I'm going to fix at some point, hopefully. 

We also decided that because of Tony's 'speech impediments' (a lisp and an accent that takes away from the idea of a mysterious gritty FBI agent) that Hannah would play the role of Joel, who we then changed to be gender-neutral. Tony agreed to be the antagonist- the Triad terrorist leader Zhang Wei- who had no major speaking roles other than various Cantonese phrases. 

It was concluded that any stock characters would be myself, and any of my family members who would tag along to our shoot, and that while they were in scene acting I would be doing most of the camera, sound and directing work. I'm not complaining, much, either, so hopefully everything should work out. Also, I'm doing production, since I have to organize setting and scheduling which I'll get straight next class as most of this class was casting and straightening the new script. 

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Communication was obviously a key skill required during this class as we had to make sure that everyone was satisfied with their roles. We had to take into account everything, too, most notably the initial "character clashing" with Hannah (gender: female) playing Joel (gender: initially male), but managed to solve this problem by being open minded with the script. This was helpful on Hannah's part, obviously, but we all were a little bit averse to making yet some more changes to the script. I fear that I will have to rewrite the script (as I've mentioned before) as although plotholes have definitely been filled there's still a huge lack of character development. 

Jan 9: crit A- help,,

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

We were supposed to continue planning and probably start production schedules today, but some groups from the previous semester had to screen their films. I took this opportunity to finish my (overdue) Criteria A portfolio and kept working on my storyboard, as shown.

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Today I had to be knowledgeable of how to storyboard, coupled with previous knowledge of how to draw shots. 

Jan 6: oh no what's even going on

WHAT HAPPENED TODAY

So since over our winter break we couldn't do anything- three out of four of our group members were not in town for shooting- we returned and gathered with a dawning deadline before us. 

Without much choice we had to go over the information we had discovered from our last lesson and most of the class was spent trying to rationalize and replace what our director was reluctant to change. A more pertinent issue was our main antagonist (as I mentioned previously in my last reflection) and their ethnicity. Since it was clear a Middle Eastern antagonist simply wasn't politically correct or racially sensitive in this day and age (as well as our concern of finding an actual Middle Eastern person to play this role, willingly), we did some research as a group on the most common types of movie terrorist antagonists. I also looked up statistics of actual terrorists and what was common. 

IB LEARNER PROFILE

Thinking and communicating clearly and efficiently as a group to our director was a big challenge today. Since he was somewhat steadfast in his idea to get a fellow classmate to play his Middle Eastern character (who, by the way, was Indian) the three of us had to try and pose convincing arguments backed by logic and research. I sincerely doubt it should have taken that much trouble, but it did, yet the question and position is still up for debate. I fear for our group.