BASC0062-24-25 class blog

While brainstorming an idea for this week was quite difficult: should I add subtitles to a movie or song? Add background footage and subtitle a pre-existing poem? Create a new poem for this assignment? In the end, after scrolling through tiktok, I settled for something entirely different; a critique on consumerism.

With the rise of social media, I’ve noticed a startling amount of hidden and disclosed ads (it seems that no matter where you scroll, someone or some company will be selling you a product).

I took inspiration from George Orwell’s 1984 – throughout the novel ‘Big Brother’ is always watching, and cryptic and contradictory messages are distributed to the people, and I wanted to emulate the way in which the messages are written: choppy syntax with mirrored form. This is most emulated towards the end (19 seconds onward), wherein the sentence stem remains the same while the last word changes. I also, however, took phrases utilized specifically on TikTok,  though they have diffused into younger generation’s zeitgeist’s, such as ‘Girl Math’, to emphasize how modern language/slang is utilized to perpetuate such behaviours.

 

I wanted the colours to be restricted to a simplified colour palette: white for contrast, green for greed, and red for power. I found the complimentary colours (as red and green are on opposite sides of the colour wheel) to be visually stimulating in a way that ensured the audience’s attention remained fixed rather than letting their minds wander.

In the future I’d possibly include background video, though I would be concerned about that drawing the audience’s attention away from the text, which is the main focus of the video. Overall, I’m extremely happy with this assignment, and there isn’t much I would change at the moment.

 

This week I’ve decided to do an audio reflection, which can be found below:

During this week we were tasked with shortening down stick footage films to a concise 3 minutes. I tried to make a coherence out of the film Royal road, inserting the motif of the commander staring at the screen which creates a sense of discomfort.

I think the challenge came with choosing important sections of the film an creating a new narrative. This allowed for us to be more creative with the limited material we had in front of us.

https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/119573

colours of absence 

After pairing up with each other, me and Serena started off by brainstorming ideas and contemplating which theme to choose. Deciding on “home,” we put together a mood board of how we want the film to look like and we created a sample storyboard, on which we expanded quite a lot on as we developed the idea into the main figure’s room becoming her mind space. Our discussions helped us come to a consensus on how our film should come along. Following this, we created a shot list laying out our specific ideas and we started filming.

“colours of absence” explores the contrast between what a home looks like to others from the outside as to how it might actually feel like to a person. The idea of a family and home are inherently considered warm and happy; however, that might not be the case for everyone. We took this as our initial idea and intended to depict an image that would reflect how a person might also feel loneliness and discomfort in their home. We aimed for a rather dark lighting which would convey the main figure’s turmoil, as well as replicate an image of “the mind.” Our film also encompasses colour theory – with the use of complementary colours we intended to express her conflicting feelings which contrast with what people see of her from the outside.

For cinematography, we used a mix of stationary and shaky shots with the intention of expressing a contrast between the stable-looking life on the outside and chaotic reality. For instance, the spilled coffee was intentionally shot with hand-held camera to communicate the falling apart of the home, when we used stable shots in the library to express how “normal” her life looks from the outside.

Towards the end, I got the idea to use a blurry shot and film a family together, which I intended to express the “blurry,” assumptive image society has of people from the outside. Following this I had the idea to only use lighting only on the main figure to put a spotlight on her isolation. We also aimed to use some symbolism with the coffee cup we particularly used a single, white/basic coffee cup which is cold (not steaming) to express her loneliness. In the end of the movie, we used a steaming cup to fog the camera lens, which implies that she might be building a new family that radiates warmth: an optimistic ending.

During our editing sessions we focused mainly on transitions, fade-ins and outs, and speed. We intended to utilize editing to express the scenes in which she is in her room like her mind-space, which is muddled, confusing, hallucinating. With low-shutter speed and layering, I think we successfully managed to create this sort of image.

Lastly, for sound design we mainly stuck to the concept of creating a contrast. Hence why we used a bit of silence and ambient sound together. We also tried to mumble the audio for the scene where the family is sat together.

Overall, I am rather proud of our work. I think our use of colour and editing was most successful as they really deliver our main idea. Though, I think we could have added more complexity to sound. We had a few ideas on using the piano to make a score, however our time management hindered us, and we couldn’t do it, which I regret a lot. I think if there were a next time, I would definitely take the time to delve deeper into audio work.

 

Working with Text

– A little bit of play working with subtitles and text alongside found footage and music by Joji – ‘Die For you’

 

FILM: https://mediacentral.ucl.ac.uk/Play/119541

For my assessment I went with finding myself in London however I feel like the overall theme tapped into identity and finding yourself as well. When first starting this project, I became interested in the technique to duplicate oneself in one frame. Although I didn’t manage to attempt that in the final film the idea of having two versions of myself remained and sparked the idea of having a conversation between a younger version of myself and me now, reflecting on my achievements and growth as a person. I started the process by editing together my own music using SYML’s ‘I Wanted to Leave’ and Lana Del Ray’s ‘Paris, Texas’. The former holds a lot of sentimental value to me as it was something I revisited in hard times and the latter poetically reflects the heart linking themes of healing, self-acceptance and introspection, I took it as a song about finding oneself as I have had to do with my relocation to London.

With editing the two songs I wished to keep most of the instrumental as it invokes a sense of stillness. It’s neither happy or sad and personally makes me feel almost nostalgic. This peaceful void is what I wanted to explore as I feel very mature and feel a need to mould myself based on the expectations one has for me now particularly as an adult and a student at UCL, but I also miss the chaos and nonchalance of childhood and yearn for the mindset I used to have sort of negated of responsibility.

One of the main effects I used was child-like drawings across the entire film. It was my way of representing my younger self in a play like manner. I also physically showcased her I an orange hoodie as the colour orange can be associated with youthfulness and warmth. There is this constant contrast between warm comforting tones and sharp cold ones representing the dichotomy that a young adult experiences as they try to navigate the world. The drawings also help create the illusion that I’m having a conversation with younger me, as she cannot talk, she is expressed through post its and other scribbles as it was very common when I was younger to write in multiple diaries and decorate them.

For the editing style, although not intentional, I feel resembles that of a YouTube blog. I wish I used more wide shots, but I feel that would come if I had a tripod available, since most of the shots were filmed on my phone. Though will the use of closer shots I kept a sense of intimacy with the audience that brings them into my world and possibility makes it easier for them to share a similar sentiment to me in this film. I think despite the lack of equipment I managed to keep the viewing experience interesting and tried a few other angles to keep interest as I realise there is no dialogue or action that would have a viewer connected

The two main editing aspects I tried to assimilate from the module was the use of text and voiceover. To situate the idea that I’m almost omnipresent and pertain more knowledge due to having experienced more in life. Overall, I’m happy with the film but feel there is definitely a few things I could approve on, but my goal and the feeling I wished to evoke succeeded so I’m happy.