Bordwell's Discussion of Experimental Film

After reading Bordwell's discussion of experimental film, I am more aware of the forms that can be found - such as abstract and associational.

Firstly, Bordwell discusses abstract form, a form that focuses more on the pictorial qualities of a film than the narrative, it is the highlighting of colour, shapes, sizes and movements that can be found in images.

'Ballet Mechanique' is one example that Bordwell discusses in depth with regard to abstract form, this provides a detailed look at segments of the film (supported by pictures) that illustrate the use of abstract form structure. Bordwell splits the film into segments - the first segment, he suggests, establishes that rhythm, shape, direction of movement and texture will be the focus of the film. This is based particular shots that he comments on, such as the rhythms that are present in the opening shot of a woman on a swing, the shape of the round hat, the direction of the movement of the shiny ball and the texture of the vertical bottles, amongst other examples.

Continuing in this fashion, Bordwell explains each segment of 'Ballet Mechanique's structure, meaning that by the end of the commentary, I can begin to understand the themes and variations approach to the piece.

He also discusses the associational form, images and sounds that are juxtaposed to create an association between them, even if they images are not obviously connected, the grouping of the images should create the association. He uses 'A Movie' which Bordwell splits into four segments compared to 'Ballet Mechanique's eight. Connor makes his film out of "found-footage" to show the destruction of civilisation, however, in the first segment, Connor makes use of the opening titles to destroy suspension in disbelief and remind the audience they are watching 'A Movie'. The second segment is full of this 'scavenged' footage as Bordwell labels it, which begins to establish a movement and directionality as the link between the footage before it changes to a more shock orientated editing style. Connor's music choice, editing style and movement in the frame are discussed as building a 'manic energy'.

Again, throughout the segments different associations are identified and Bordwell discusses repetition and variation within 'A Movie'. He suggests that the repetitions form motifs that can be indicative of an overall pattern throughout the film and these guide the audience's thoughts. He closes that simply juxtaposing imagery and sound can arouse an audience's emotion or influence their thoughts.

The discussion in this chapter has lead me to conclude that an experimental film can be organised with a specific set of rules in mind or improvised but that each film is an expression of the filmmaker.

Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

Initially, I wasn't too keen to go see this remake. I've read the books, I've seen the Swedish version and I didn't particularly think a remake would improve the quality of the film. In fact, I usually make a point of not seeing the remakes of foreign films for the sake of putting them into English (I still haven't seen Let the Right One In's English remake!).

However, I got talked into seeing it and I was pleasantly surprised by how closely the film stuck to the book and improved on the previous film. Stopping the cast from watching the Swedish film may have had something to do with the difference in acting style but the actual artistic vision of the film and the pacing was different too. Firstly, the pacing of the film, closely matched the book and so immediately it gained my respect. I remember the Swedish film felt a lot longer than it was or needed to be to convey the action but this film held my attention from the first and it never felt a chore to watch it, despite covering some difficult subject matter.

I particularly liked the sound design as Blomkvist was approaching Hedestad. The images were accompanied by a kind of tinkling sound, as if he was entering a new phase of being, something that would be like a fantasy and consume him perhaps. The sound was almost like chimes, and I definitely want to try to use this sort of sound in a future project.

The casting was spot on, Lisbeth Salander (Rooney Mara) was a more emotive Salander than in the Swedish film, meaning relationships were clearer whilst still maintaining the wild and slightly anti-social feel that keeps her character close to the book. Mikael Blomkvist (Daniel Craig) was a little wooden in comparison to Mara, yet I don't feel that it damaged the overall feel of the film. The interactions with the cat were just as I'd read them and I think it was at these points that his characterisation was strongest as you got more out of the performance.

Visually, the film was very dark and this seemed to enhance the mystery of the film. I specifically remember one section whilst Lisbeth is struggling with her guardian who is trying to chloroform her, where the camera is slowly tracking backwards, the door shuts and the sound becomes a muffled struggling, as if you are there. It then shows her struggling to breathe again but we return to the outside once more and the next time we're in the room with her, she is tied to the bed. This is a new way of approaching a scene with a blackout because instead of just following the conventional struggle then blackout then awakening, we are almost in the situation with Lisbeth and see how vulnerable she is by hearing how muffled the struggle is from the outside. It also allows time for the blackout without blacking out the screen and in this way is a far more innovative approach.

Overall, I think the film is more successful as a book adaptation and stylistically than the Swedish film. Although I went into the cinema thinking it was an unnecessary remake, I came out thinking that the improvement was so vast that it was definitely justified.

Hello Again

Hello Again - by Sam Nuttman is a short film that I find quite eerie. I love the sound and the voice is crisp so the attention is really focused to it. The shots are striking and the camera movement sets the whole piece off.

The above shot is powerful and is the most poignant part of the short film for me, I like how the scarves slowly build up on her journey and are revealed to her in this final shot. Overall, the cinematography helps build the tension through it's aesthetic and the monologue is delivered in an almost clinical way, which combined with the colour tones in the images creates a cold feel.

The only thing, which I think perhaps took away from the film, was the thunderclaps that can be heard accompanied by the lightning in the forest on her way back. I think removing those would have made the piece seem more eerie - it doesn't seem to fit because of how the sound is recorded. It sounds very much like a sound effect, which makes the viewer loose their suspension in disbelief, if only for a second.

However, the tone, pacing, dialogue and aesthetics all make for a very intriguing piece that I think is well rounded. If I take one thing from this, it will be that dialogue does not have to make any sense within the piece as if a narration. It can be something to incite questions from the viewer and to make them want to think about the film.

Feedback from the presentation

After presenting our project yesterday, I am quite pleased with the feedback we got. We recognised the faults that we had within the piece which the tutors picked up on and we got an interesting discussion in relation to the monotone internal dialogue from the group.

The piece was greeted with some laughter at the comical narration and I was pleased that our intent to create comic effect through the narrator was successful. We also wanted to create a build up of action and then a relief at the end when the window is opened and the cleaner smokes. The tutors commented that we'd made good use of building the atmosphere and then creating a relief which I was particularly pleased about.

Our panning worked out quite well but we think it was a little lost due to using speakers to present and not headphones - which would heighten the effect. Overall, I'm happy with the end result and I think our presentation went well.

Final Assembly

Here we've put together the tracks as they are in the final assembly, there are some changes to volume that can be seen here. The use of layering to put our piece together was invaluable, it helped to create the crescendo of activity that we had wanted to put in and also meant that the sounds we needed to create an office didn't all have to be merged into one recording, giving us more room to change aspects of the office scape, for example, having a phone come in a second sooner than we'd planned.

Volume Adjustment

Here we were adjusting the volume of the individual clips after our tutorial proved the levels became too loud with the layering of multiple clips. We've adjusted it manually so that the volume will rise and fall as it needs to in order to keep this sequence a busy build up but without being too loud. Another great use of manual volume adjustment is to accentuate one sound over another - which we did want to do with some clips, such as the crisp packet to give the sense of annoyance that comes with just one small action when you're working in an office, even as a cleaner but of course for different reasons.

Panning

These screen grabs are an example of the panning that we added to our piece, we included this on not only the clips where she would be walking past the noise and so it would go from her left to right ear, but also on the noises that she was making, such as sweeping from left to center and then right to center to give a sense of movement and action around the cleaner and bring her presence more into focus.

Typing Error

The above is a screen shot of making the typing error sound effect. We used layers to create the sound effect and just carefully lined up the error noise with each tap of the key. This took a little longer than we first suspected because of making sure the gaps were all consistent and that we had covered every keyboard tap. Once we were happy, we exported this so that it made it into one sound and is therefore easier to edit into place on the final assembly.

Editing

Since our rough cut tutorial, we've done some rerecording and have put together a fine cut of our piece. I'm quite happy with the outcome, I feel that we've acted on Esther's advice a lot and that it's turned out very well. The only thing that I'm a little uncertain about, even now, is the sound levels. As a result of them being way too high and peaking, we've adjusted them but I'm a little concerned we may have over-corrected and it may be too quiet now! It's probably just that I've been listening to it for so long I've lost the concept of volume but the meters are looking good so I think the piece will be fine.

Some screen grabs of editing will follow soon!

Feedback from our Second Tutorial

Today we had our second tutorial with Esther and I was pleased with the feedback and direction she gave us. A positive that she noted was the panning in our piece, she said that this was good and that we needed to add more of this in the overall track. Unfortunately, the levels were a bit too loud when she was listening to the piece and I could see them peaking which I hadn't noticed during the rough edit so we'll need to fix that.

Something we all agreed on as a definite change was the voice of the cleaner. We were already unhappy with the recordings but Esther's input cemented the idea to rerecord in our plans. The voice was too much for the piece and I agree that maybe by rerecording we can get a lot more out of the overall work. For one thing, Hannah and I have decided to record the voice in a more monotonous tone to indicate an internal voice rather than the more emotive dialogue we'd gotten to begin with.

Esther suggested we should separate the cleaner and the workers more, that they were too integrated at present. I think that with more panning and sorting out our levels, once we've reintroduced the new voice recordings that this will be a lot clearer between where she is in relation to them. The panning to create the sense of her movement through the space should also help a lot in creating those boundaries.

Flying In Tokyo

Another song that I can't stop listening to and seems like I always have this on repeat at the moment is Flying In Tokyo by Magnetic Man. Using tonal sounds to begin the track and then strings accompaniment, manages to somehow evoke a sense of the oriental despite not really having any of the characteristic sounds one would associate with oriental music. It is also something that I like to imagine rain whilst listening to - the tone of the music just makes the image much more vivid. Sometimes I just like to observe passers by when I listen to it and for some reason, whenever I listen to this track, I seem to notice the little things that are in every day life we mostly overlook and to me they seem more beautiful than ever.

Air Freshener

Recording some sounds that you expect to make an obvious sound of what they are and then wondering what the sound is when you're listening back to it!
That happened with a recording of air freshener being sprayed, it's so difficult to tell what it is, we probably won't get to use it in our final piece but it's an interesting sound to add to my sound library.

Islands

Islands by The XX

This song builds from an instrumental, to one voice, to the other and finally to two joint voices. I find that, even though it's quite upbeat, the nature of the voices make the track quite relaxing. The melody of the joint voices is so aurally pleasing that I find myself listening to this track repeatedly, as if I can't get it out of my head.