New Wave Film Planning: "Beer Goggles"

Making Effective Judgements 

Originally, plans were made to travel to different urban areas to shoot footage that could potntially make it into my New Wave Film. The first destination was in Manchester where I planned to shoot footage of built up streets which would incorporate nicely into my film concept. The concept being a drunk individual wandering the streets trying to find his way home whilst questioning his concept of reality as he starts to see bizarre images and creatures along the way. Therefore some establishing shots in this built up metropolis would have worked very well. In the film I wanted the character to be portrayed as 'lost' in a sense, and the complex layout of Manchester made it much easier to convey.

However It was then decided that we would visit the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester. It was in here where I figured i could get some fairly abstract shots of different art pieces and settings which would match the tone I was looking for. The idea was to transpose this footage onto the footage that I was yet to shoot of my actor portraying the drunk person walking home. This was to make the film seem more surreal. I decided on establishing the tone of the film as surreal after watching example films of the Czech New Wave which I have been studying for this unit.

Research and Influence: 

Whilst researching the Czechoslovakian new wave, I viewed 3 example films which really stood out to me and made a massive impact on how i perceive Cinema. There films were "Dasies" 'Valerie and her week of wonders" and "Morgiana" I took inspiration from all three of these films and decided to take elements that are present in each of these films and incorporate them into my own New Wave film. The idea of magic realism which was inspired by "Valerie" was planned to make an appearance in the final film. This related to the creatures that the character of my film was going to witness during his journey home. I was in need of shots of bizarre creatures and contemplated modelling my own and shooting them to appear larger than they actually are. However an area in Birmingham next to the Custard Factory in Digbeth presented presented large sculptures that I was able to include. These included a large lion's head as well as a giant tree man.

                                           

Witworth Art Gallery 

In regards to inspiration from Daisies, the different colour filters to express different emotions is the aspect that influenced my film. I used different digital effects in post production in order to produce the desired effect. I took inspiration from "Morgiana" in regards to the shot types, for example the introducing shot which was captured from the point of view of the dog. This emulates the shot in which the cat "morgiana" enters the room and jumps up onto  chair next to one of the sisters.

Methods/Techniques 

I ensured that the shots were filmed handheld in order to give it a disorientated feel which reflects the current state of the main character. This was also the only way to ensure it was possible to capture the majority of the shots effectively as well as practically, for example the point of view of the dog. I encountered issues with exposure whilst shooting, more namely the white-balance caused the shot to present an orange tint to the image due to the lack of lighting. Any other setting resulting in underexposure. Therefore I came to a compromise in which I added coloured filters to reflect the mood of the scene as well as distracting away from the poor white-balance effect. The colour filters were also influenced by the colour filters used in Daises in which they appeared fro time to time. This effect also gives the film a much more surrealist feel. I ended up shooting the film chronologically in just one day giving the single actor a very loose idea of what he is required to do. This was in hope that he appeared even more lost and disorientated. I contemplated on both the actor as well as the camera person to get drunk together before shooting to give it that genuine performance as well as off -putting disorientating and frustrating camera movement and angles. I also ensured that influences from new wave cinema would be identifiable in both the filming and editing process.


The result of all this can be seen in my final video entitled "Beer Goggles". I included many jump cuts in the final edit of the film as the takes could be seen as a little over-stretched which had the potential to bore the audience and become uninteresting. Luckily this suited the tone as well as the context of the film as it it gave it a more disorientating feel. Jump cuts were also used in the majority of the films I studied in this unit, most notably "Daises" (1966) in which the film would seem almost careless with the amount of sudden scene transitions without any explanation
or clearly apparent reason. This technique is also one of the main reasons that Daises appeared to have a very loose narrative structure. One that I wanted to replicate in this film. There is no existing diegetic sound within the film as I wanted to completely remove as many senses from the audience as I possibly could in order to emulate the condition of the key character of the film. I chose a song that felt very slurry and slow sounding to fit in with the context of the film.

Updated Design Brief 

I encountered many problems during the production of this film. As mentioned before I chose to film some footage at various art museums. These shots included very vague locations and meanings which would have not only added to the films ascetic but would have also given it more of a theatrical feel. However I simply ran out of time when editing the film and therefore could not incorporate this into my footage. However I did take it upon myself to edit a very short draft including some of these clips. in this draft, the images make no cohesive sense however it was simply a playground for experimentation with ideas that could have potentially made it into the film. The aforementioned concept of the main character witnessing strange creatures as he stumbles home drunk was also scrapped as the footage I took of the "creatures" was incoherent with the setting of the film, for example the shots of the creatures were filmed during the day whereas the shots of the character walking home were shot at night, which obviously meant the shots contained completely different levels of exposure and would not have worked as a whole.

Challenges I Faced 

I had a serious problem with exposure during the shooting of this film. I completely incorrectly calibrated the white balance during some of the shots which gave the film a horrible orangey look to them. This was also due to the fact I didn't bring an LED  light which would have massively helped with the exposure of the shot. However I found a solution within the colour grading/correcting tool during the editing process. I attempted to manipulate the i age to remove the orange tone from the hot however this did not completely satisfy. The image still unnatural and too heavily edited. Then I came to another solution which included using different coloured filters for certain shots so the orange looking shots wouldn't look out of place. The different coloured filters were inspired from Daisies which contained many different shots with many different colour filters, which can be seen in the image posted above. Therefore i emulated this technique.

Sigmund Freud: Case Study - The Id, Ego and Superego

The Id, Ego and Superego

Sigmund Freud conceived a theory which entailed that the human psyche (personality) has more than one aspect to it. He then saw it as made up of three parts, titled "The ID, Ego and Superego" and suggested these three parts develop individually at different stages of our life.

                                                                    

"The Id"

The Id consists of the primitive and instinctive aspect of the human psyche. Anything inherited or biological regarding to the persons personality such as the sex instinct as well as the instinct to become violent/aggressive towards someone who poses as a dangerous threat. It is the impulsive side to us that responds immediately and directly to the stimulus experienced. For example the personality of a new born child consists of all Id and develops a super ego and an ego later on in life.

The id allows us to feel pleasure when the natural impulse is fulfilled. However if it is not fulfilled then you are to experience pain or discomfort. The Id abides by the pleasure principle which entails fulfilling a desire immediately after feeling the urge regardless of the outcome or consequence.

"The Ego" 

The ego acts as the balancing point between the Id and the superego. It develops to act as a restrainer of the Id so that you aren't susceptible to the impulses that envelop from the Id. To put in other words, the ego is the voice of reason.
The ego works on the "reality principle" which means it often satisfies the impulses of the Id whilst simultaneously compromising/postponing this urge based on social norms. Like the id the ego seeks pleasure and avoids pain however the ego contemplates a realistic view of how this pleasure would be obtained.
The ego is weak in comparison to the id, which means although the ego is not in complete control, it is able to point the Id in the right direction of where it wants to go.
The ego maintains to concept of right and wrong. As long as the pleasure is achieved and no harm has been done to it during the process then the ego credits this as a success.

"The SuperEgo"

The SuperEgo incorporates morals and social values into the thinking process. These are the morals that we learn from our parents during childhood. The superego develops around the ages of 3-5 years old, during the phallic stage of psychosexual development.
The superego is more of a perfectionist than the ego. It attempts to make sure the ego abides to the more moralistic goals rather than simply the realistic ones. Like the ego, it controls the Id's impulses to maintain a certain standard. This includes restricting sex and aggression.
The superego consists of two parts, the "conscience" and "the ideal self". The conscience can make the ego feel bad by giving in to the demands of the Id. The superego supplies the feelings of guilt if this were to occur. The ideal-self is the imaginary image of how you are supposed to be, or how you are expected top behave within society.
behaviour which doesn't meet the standard of the idea self will be punished by the super ego through guilt. On the other hand, the superego also rewards, if behaviour reaches the standards of the ideal self, by making you feel proud.
If the ideal self is of too high a standard then then it is much more difficult to achieve the standards set and therefore will always represent failure.
The ideal self and conscience are largely determined during adolescence as well as through parental values you learn whilst growing up.

New wave Film Planning: "Beer Goggles"

Pre-Shoot: 
I wanted to very much intend for the film to look like a very rough piece of work however presenting a different array of shot types and still maintaining a high standard.



Shooting: 

As mentioned in my previous planning post, I wanted to include elements of the natural world such as unworldly creatures and magic realism. Therefore whilst I was in certain areas of Manchester and Birmingham, i shot footage of bizarre sculptures which represented the creatures i wished to integrate into the narrative of the film.

Editing: 
It became evident during the editing process that due to practicality reasons, I was unable to use the footage shot in Birmingham and Manchester. This was because the footage at those locations was shot during the day, and the film was finally decided to be shot a night as it fit the narrative of the film much better. I attempted to manipulate the footage to make it appear as if it was shot during the night however this effect was not convincing enough and looked very out of place to the rest of the film. I then decided to use items and statues around the location of the actual shoot, in Nuneaton town centre and have the main character react to ordinary items as if they are from other world to compensate for the missing of the original concept. If i had more time to shoot I would have defiantly reshot the originally intended footage as I wanted to reflect on the Czech New Wave movement which I have been studying, as much as possible. I did however emulate the Czech new wave further in the editing process,for example I used different coloured filters for certain individual shots which resembled the technique used in certain scenes of "Daisies" (1966)

Czech New Wave Video Essay