They say that art should come from a place of emotion and by the looks of this, that place was the stomach and the emotion was hangry.
Ode To Grub Evaluation
This is going to be different from my other evaluations as there isn't much to say about this film. I don't like this piece at all and as I made it I'm in a position to say that. I was so tired and frustrated of the realisation that my previous ideas were viable (See Research). It got to the point where I just felt like I had to hand something in. It shouldn't be like that. The motivation needs to be there to actually create something or there is no point in making anything. But of course, this is uni course and how you are feeling or the level of motivation you have doesn't matter as long as a piece of work is handed in. Well, this is that piece. This work is remarkably short and just as remarkably insignificant.
Film
An issue with just filming two people sorting out their Chinese order is what to have for audio. Yes, having diegetic sounds might have worked but it might not have been that interesting. The occasional belly rumble along with the indistinct chatter would not have been the best recommendation of metaphorical wine to pair with this steak. So if a diegetic audio track is off the table then what should I do?
I went down the route that every normal person would and started looking at old soundbites to try and inspire me. For some reason I had found a Ronald Reagan speech sampled within a song that, along with seeing a speech by him be the platform that the film 20th Century Women (2016) jumped off from, stuck with me.
This is not my love letter to Ronald Reagan. The part that I liked the most about the sample is this weird sense of nostalgia. Not necessarily nostalgia for the 'good times' but more like nostalgia to 'a time' if you get what I mean. I liked the aesthetic this type of sound creates for the listener. This research was done in post production and that's why it's here and not in the research tab.
As I'm always trying to make the intro's consistent by all being simple yet different. I had used what I just talked about the aesthetic that I was looking for in my audio as a rudder for my search for audio. For some reason I settled on the scene from the original Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory (Willy Wonka & The Chocolate Factory, 1971) where it was announced that a golden ticket had been found. Apart from the style of sound that appealed to me, I don't have some sort of deep meaning as to why I chose it.
An issue with being trying to be creative is that everything's copyrighted. I could've asked Warner Bros if I was able to use a 6 second audio clip from a film that was released 49 years ago but I felt like they were going to be a bit slow on the reply and as you might've gathered, this whole film was made in a rush. Ross wanted a film and I was prepared to break copyright laws to give him what he wanted. If I had more time I could've waited 62 years for the film's copyright to be expired (The director, Mel Stuart, died in 2012 and the law says 70 years after the death)
One thing that I didn't have an issue getting copyright for was the music that was played throughout. I had to go all the way to my dad to ask him if I could use the song 'Tamper Evident' as he was in the band that created the song Madnomad (Madnomad, 2006). I had asked him if I was able to use the song and he replied with 'Usual fees apply, send to my Swiss bank account'. This was one less thing I had to worry about people asking, if I've broken copyright laws. Well yes but not with this specific song. I have talked about copyright in more detail here.
I didn't want the vocals in the song as they didn't fit in with what I was going for. So I cut them out and was left with several audio clips which need a way of being glued together. This is where niche anti-drug PSA's came in. Why? Apart from that they all had that type of voice I was looking for, I thought it would be funny to feature them to contrast society's change in attitude over time and also with how attitudes now are still way out of date. My thought process was that these PSA's would act as facade to make it seem that the backing track is one, cohesive song. I bet it fooled you, you probably didn't realise that there should be vocals in the actual song anyway. I feel that the audio to this film is it's only redeeming quality. Everything works well together and I'm really happy with how it turned out and even though I didn't really know what I was going for, it ended up being what I was going for.
Something that I haven't talked about is the visual side to the this film. The reason that I left it this late into the evaluation is that there isn't much to talk about. There's no motivation behind the shots or the movement which makes me incredibly disappointed in myself. I should've made something better and actually make something that I feel happy with. Like I joked about in the beginning about art should come from a place of emotion and you should make something that you want to and shouldn't really be motivated by deadlines. The footage, especially the wider shots, were poorly lit as I had not planned well for this film. Looking back I should've not cared about the deadline and focused on trying to make the film that I wanted to make.
I feel like this is an attitude that I need to employ. Once this course has run it's *ahem* course, I'd much rather have a portfolio filled with films that I am happy about rather good grades. These two aren't mutually exclusive but I'd rather have freedom with my films over what the briefs try and dictate what you make. This is a smooth transition to the elephant in the room.
The length. It's 56 seconds long. When the brief asked for a film under 5 minutes and you look at these 56 seconds I have to offer, you probably think I'm taking the piss. I'm not, I just can't imagine anyone want to watch people set up their Chinese takeaway for any longer than a minute. So in reality I did this for the audience's sanity.
If I were to do this brief again, I one hundred percent would not have made the same thing. I feel like I wouldn't even something even similar to what I actually made. I would have made a conversation piece. This meant I could further expand on my experience with script writing. I would've made something that I could feel happiness towards and not this weird empty feeling that I could have made something better.
To conclude, this film was a missed opportunity to make something actually good, even the areas which I thought were done well they are just that, areas. This film did not meet the requirements that were set by the brief. So as a whole I could've done better. This might feel like a scathing review against myself, because maybe it is. But that's only for my own sake. Criticism is there to be learnt from and I will learn from it. Because if I don't learn then I've just spent all this evaluation being mean to myself which wouldn't make sense.
Bibliography
-20th Century Women. 2016. Directed by Mike Mills [Film]. A24 -Hucci. 2019. Vision Slowed (ft. Dom Sebastian). Hucci. Vision Slowed. HUCCI RECORDS WORLDWIDE -Madnomad. 2006. Tamper Evident. Madnomad. Tamper-evident. Bristol: Sugar Shack Records -Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. 1971. Directed by Mel Stuart [Film]. Paramount Pictures