Here's the filming arrangements for the next two weeks... you will need to get going doon for the Fly on the Wall day. These are just suggestions so we don't all go to the same thing. Change it if you think fit, or if it proves to be impossible. You want to make a good individual film and the whole thing overall to look good. I will post the rest of the schedule for the semester on the site later today and leave a link here on the message board, so do check back.
TUESDAY - 16/02 - Koyanasqatsi Filming Project
All must watch the much copied/adapted film Koyanasqatsi this week - it is mostly on the web (you tube). That is the look we want, modernized and adapted for our purposes. You do NOT need any sound (it will be cut to music). So don’t worry about that - everything has to be intensely visual - ordinary things viewed from extraordinary angles; at extraordinary speeds (time lapse and slo mo and - the main adaption since Koyanasqatsi is this business of cutting from slo mo to speeded up as in The Matrix. Anyway spot your favourite shots from the Reggio films and go and re-make them. But NO scripting, NO set up shots - everything has to be for reality.
SUNRISE TEAMS
Leanne and Tom - middle of town (before dark and to mid morning + station)
Colin and James - St Catherine’s Hill (before dark - view of town)
Cara and Alice - Motorway Service Station (before dark - get sign)
Matt and Mark- early, another vantage point opposite to St Catherine’s ?
Make arrangements to hand over the shooting kits.
SUNSET TEAMS (from 4pm-ish, get sundown and evening stuff in town)
Ben and Liban - in town (emphasis is going home from work/station)
Rich and Omar - St Catherine’s Hill (maybe go down town for a bit after sunset)
Matt and Mark - Motorway service station (can’t remember from my notes)
Emma and Maxine - vantage point No 2 - view over the town from some high point
You must look at Koyanasqatsi and think how you can get similar shots. Keep the camera very still so we can speed up the shot. Use a tripod obviously. It will be cold and boring to gather the material.
Consent - don’t worry TOO much about consent for this project - get it in the can and we will think about it then. The act of filming is not invasion of privacy (though it could be assault if you get too close - you don’t have to hit them, just worry them for the lowest level of assault - so be careful). For a lot of it we are going to speed up the scene like the classic, classic Grand Central Station scene in Koyanasqati (see it) where you can’t identify people. Unfortunately the beautiful shot of the bored and defensive-looking woman in the car at the traffic lights who rolls up the window when she is being filmed - that’s a money shot - would be more of a problem with consent law now. So for the teams down in town you want to linger on faces, but you will need permission for that - explain you are making a documentary and ask people waiting for a bus for example if they mind you filming them for your student project - but it will be published to as large an audience as we can get on the internet - see what you can get. If the person is looking in to the camera - as in famous slow zoom into the face of the fighter pilot - you have implied consent anyway because they clearly knew they were being filmed and were not objecting.
TUESDAY 23/02 - ‘FLY ON THE WALL’ PROJECT
Please read my notes first on FEATURES WEB about the observational-type feature.
This will have to be done with full, explicit consent. Draw up your own consent letter and get them to sign it. There is more work in setting this up than in the Koyanasqatsi project. But in this case if you can use contacts I don’t mind so much, but there must be NO scripting and NO set ups. This is the ‘observational’ generic feature type. You will be doing the confessional type interview feature-type and other generic feature types with Jacqui Thornton on Thursdays. So this is just the pure observational type. This is the tradition of PICTURE POST magazine in the UK and LIFE magazine in the USA. This tradition has now entirely gone into television as the ‘reality TV’ or ‘fly on the wall’ type - so this is Airport and Driving School and Hotel, etc, etc and maybe even Club Reps. You MUST avoid scripting and ‘TV fakery’ however. The classic is DON’T LOOK BACK anything by DA Pennebakker (watch this on You Tube). DON’T LOOK BACK is the visual styling we want for this project.
You will have dialogue and sound, but it you must not have the interview on camera. You must have them talking naturally to each other; or musing to themselves. This is a strict discipline and we will practice the skill of telling the story in the edit. Please view my webcast on David Hume and the video gallery on David Hume which is on the Winchester Journalism youtube channel - how you can tell a story/ create meaning just with the edit (montage for example). Again the visual styling is DON’T LOOK BACK but also the reality TV shows. There must be NO telling; no voice over. Features = showing / News = telling.
I have allocated the following topics. You can change them if they don’t work out, or think of something better. They are a starting point. You just film them all day as they go about their business.
The starting point is as follows:
Leanne and Tom - Bishop of Winchester
Ben and Liban - Charity Shop
Colin and James - Jevoha’s Witness or maybe
Rich and Omar - Tory candidates
Cara and Alice - Zoo
Matt and Mark - The Police or Army or Sports Centre
Emma and Maxine - Librarians or the Theatre - getting ready for the evening
(a factory or bakery is a good idea as well)
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