Evaluative Report; Red Roses

Despite the number of obstacles and dilemmas that my partner and I encountered during the course of our creative project assignment, I’m satisfied with our final product. I feel that the approach we took for the theme of ‘sense of space’ is one that not many would’ve thought of and is something that has the potential to be a unique and experimental piece of work. Although we encountered a few problems with Protools, I definitely feel that our audio piece was our strong point as we were able to really experiment with our recordings and were able to successfully render them to give a haunting and eerie ambience. I do however feel that we could improve on cinematography and footage. 

With the project theme in mind, I firstly suggested that we draw inspiration and ideas from the story of Alice in Wonderland, to which my partner Fatima confidently agreed on. After thorough research and several spider diagrams and shot list ideas, we were able to successfully draw influences and ideas from the themes and motifs present in the story and felt that it had potential to be visually captivating and memorable. With our thought-our and in-depth planning, we were able to record and edit our sound easily and smoothly with only a few problems involving Protools due to our unfamiliarity with the software. We also had problems where audio files would go missing and glitches with the delay and reverb plug-ins made it difficult to work with. Although this had been frustrating, I do feel that my past experiences with sound editing were able to help me a lot with how we were able to shape and create a certain tone and ambience to the final audio piece.The filming process however was rather challenging, as setting out to Grindleford with heavy equipment whilst battling the harsh weather and racing against the clock had made our final product different from what we had initially planned. 

I’ve come to realise the cruciality of communication when it comes to planning and giving ideas as well as the extent of organisation skills required during pre-production planning. Back-up plans are needed if an actor fails to cooperate and this set back has made me realise the importance of time management and planning. Although Fatima and I made detailed plans and arrangements at the beginning, it was surprising how one set back was able to effect our final product as a whole. We were able to counter the problem quickly, although the solution resulted in being one person short of recording the footage and having the shots not being as we visually depicted. After many hours of familiarising myself with the softwares, I can confidently say that my editing skills on Avid and Protools have improved drastically and significantly. Editing our footage was a long and challenging process, as our experimental film required strange and bizarre transitions and tools such as colour correction and slow-motion editing. 

Due to our similar personalities, I feel that Fatima and I were able to work productively and efficiently despite the obstacles and dilemmas we faced. With Fatima being more experienced with camera and recording and me with my previous experiences working with sound editing, we were able to establish our roles quickly and stick to them as well as contributing and helping one another when needed, making it an equal contribution of teamwork. We were able to comfortably communicate and bounce ideas off each other naturally. 

Red Roses; Final Film

REDROSESFINAL from Tammy Intrasena on Vimeo.

Red Roses; Final Audio

Experimental film; Red Roses Images

This powerpoint explains our initial ideas, pinpointing the tone, mood and atmosphere that we wished to reflect on our experimental film.

We found the recurring themes in Alice in Wonderland to be the following:

Mystery
Death
Curiosity
Nonsense
Identity
Childhood innocence
Dreams
Imagination
Mental Illness


Our idea is to have a female protagonist wondering aimlessly and absently around Wonderland (Grindleford) as she hears haunting and eerie noises and voices around her- implying that she's in fact mentally ill and hallucinating.

With these themes in mind, we picked out a few images that we thought would help illustrate the atmosphere and content of our experimental film.

Experimental Audio; Recording Red Roses

Looking at the themes and motifs from Alice in Wonderland as inspiration, we were able to create and record a number of different sound recordings with equipment from everyday life, ambience and vocals, the aim of which was to make the simplest, most ordinary objects sound morbid and eerie in post-production editing.

After setting out to record outdoor ambience at the Peace Garden and luckily coming across a choir, we knew that we also wanted to record some vocals, the initial idea being that we have a voice calling out for Alice and adding excessive reverb and delay to create a haunting ambience. During the recording however, we came up with having a humming of the melody Red Roses from Alice in Wonderland that we can then pitch shift and time stretch on Protools.

We used the Zoom H4N and the Audio Technica to record all of our audio tracks. Here is a list of what we hoped to record.

Alice in Wonderland; Extracts

Here are a few extracts from Sparknotes that we found interesting and inspiring.

"Death as a Constant and Underlying Menace

Alice continually finds herself in situations in which she risks death, and while these threats never materialize, they suggest that death lurks just behind the ridiculous events of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland as a present and possible outcome. Death appears in Chapter 1, when the narrator mentions that Alice would say nothing of falling off of her own house, since it would likely kill her. Alice takes risks that could possibly kill her, but she never considers death as a possible outcome. Over time, she starts to realize that her experiences in Wonderland are far more threatening than they appear to be. As the Queen screams “Off with its head!” she understands that Wonderland may not merely be a ridiculous realm where expectations are repeatedly frustrated. Death may be a real threat, and Alice starts to understand that the risks she faces may not be ridiculous and absurd after all"

"Dream

Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland takes place in Alice’s dream, so that the characters and phenomena of the real world mix with elements of Alice’s unconscious state. The dream motif explains the abundance of nonsensical and disparate events in the story. As in a dream, the narrative follows the dreamer as she encounters various episodes in which she attempts to interpret her experiences in relationship to herself and her world. Though Alice’s experiences lend themselves to meaningful observations, they resist a singular and coherent interpretation."


"Subversion

Alice quickly discovers during her travels that the only reliable aspect of Wonderland that she can count on is that it will frustrate her expectations and challenge her understanding of the natural order of the world. In Wonderland, Alice finds that her lessons no longer mean what she thought, as she botches her multiplication tables and incorrectly recites poems she had memorized while in Wonderland. Even Alice’s physical dimensions become warped as she grows and shrinks erratically throughout the story. Wonderland frustrates Alice’s desires to fit her experiences in a logical framework where she can make sense of the relationship between cause and effect."

Experimental Audio; Planning

For the experimental audio, my partner Fatima and I firstly met up to brain storm ideas as well as think about equipment and schedules, discussing locations and ideas we had for the theme of sense of space. As a student who has experience with sound feels comfortable about audio editing, I had a clear idea of how we'd be able to edit the audio in post-production. We almost immediately came up with the theme Alice in Wonderland. After further research on the topic, we knew that it was an idea of which would allow us to be able to really experiment with a number of different sounds as well as explore an eerie and haunting ambience through different editing techniques and manipulation.

Alice in Wonderland has some very deep and dark themes and motifs as a story. To further research into this concept, we each went away to do our own research in order to come up with a number of different ideas and appraoches we can make towards not only the audio piece but also the tone and visuals we'd like to achieve for the experimental film. 

One website I found to be beneficial was this: http://www.alice-in-wonderland.net/ for general knowledge on the book, but more importantly http://www.sparknotes.com/lit/alice/themes.html discusses the themes, motifs and symbols apparent within the story; most of which are dark concepts involving childhood innocence, death and drugs. 

Audio Analysis; Meat Factory Ear Worms

Meat Factory Ear Worms— Audio Analysis

The main elements of this audio piece is the voice over of the narrator, the machinery noises of the factory and the music. The repetition of the same lyrics and how the narrator repeats the phases reflects this idea of ‘Ear worms’, a term used to describe when a song is stuck in your head. 

This audio piece has a purpose of telling a story of this man—the narrator—whom used to work on the killing lines of a meat factory around Ireland and states to have been ‘plagued by a few ear worms’ in his life time. Now he is reminiscing those days, and those songs he once heard during his days in the factory now represent a certain period of his lifetime. I feel that this audio piece portrays that rather well and does it in a very interesting and entertaining way that makes it so that we as the audience are really drawn to what’s happening in the background with the machinery and the song lyrics. 

It’s a rather strange but also unique story told through nothing but simple audio composition and combines two rather different things. A meat factory where they kill animals is almost juxtaposed to the upbeat, lively music that the narrator is singing along to. 

Experimental Film Analysis; Ballet Mécanique

Ballet Mécanique is a great example of experimental film in abstract form. It is one of the earliest experimental films to have ever been made and, as explained in Bordwell and Thompsons Film Art, it's a classic example of how mundane objects can be transformed when their abstract qualities are used as the basis for a films form. 

At first glance, the film may seem random, nothing more than a bombardment of random objects and a woman edited in different ways, but delving further into it’s construction and themes, Ballet Mécanique actually has many complex motifs and hidden meanings. From the title, we can only think that the film would be based on ballet as a form of dance and I was very surprised, albeit confused by the way Ballet Méchanique was presented. It puts emphasis on seemingly random objects such as horse collars, hats, faces and more in strange edits and almost kaleidoscope-like imagery. Immediately, we’re confused, but also intrigued. 

It’s only after viewing it a few more times that I realise the mechanical vibe of the footage and movement. The rhythm and stylisation of the film is indeed very experimental, but it also has meaning and theme. The woman is portrayed as the machinery, whereas the other moving images seem to dance along the screen, ironic to how ballet and ballerinas are supposed to be graceful and elegant, the womans facial expressions and movements are almost robotic. Ballet Méchanque, again quoting Bordwell and Thompson, ‘uses of film techniques to stress the geometric qualities of ordinary things’ and I personally find it fascinating and enjoyable. 

Short Film Analysis; Salaryman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VRJ5OAtR5E

Shot in Tokyo, Japan; Salaryman is a 6 minute short film that tells a modern tale of the day-to-day life of a Japanese working man and his extremely tedious and repetitive life style. 

This theme of a cyclic and mundane lifestyle is very well implied through the narrative of the short film as well as the dreary settings and simplistic shots and editing that is used. It very much represents the life of every working man, which is able to give the short film a sense of realism and practicality. Despite that our main protagonist—Shiode—is suffering from short term memory loss, it can be argued that his life wouldn’t have been much different with or without his condition. 

Knight could’ve done research on Japan for him to be able to understand it’s culture, and it’s very strong and different work ethnic, especially in Tokyo. He could’ve also looked into the condition of short term memory loss, and it’s effects on people’s state of mind. 

I felt that the use of voice over was interesting, and the monotonous voice of the character itself was able to set a certain tone throughout the film, Knight could’ve used this technique in order for the audience to understand the concept and possibly to be able to relate and understand the character more. It also adds an interesting effect on an otherwise repetitive and dry narrative. 

It was an enjoyable watch, despite its repetitiveness, and I appreciated it's artistic yet realistic take on the every day life of a working man.