I originally wanted to make a more experimental film, this was going to be harder to do due to the restrictions put in place by the brief. So for the 'having the idea' stage I completely disregarded what the brief was saying so I could focus on generating as many ideas as possible.
At the same time that I was trying to have ideas for this project, I was also working on the mood reels for my residential pitch. This is when I had noticed something in premiere.
The image created in the lumetri scopes (you can see on the left side) is a very interesting one. I felt that altering the source image (on the right, in this example it's a shot from Where The Wild Things Are (2009) you could create even more unique visuals. The direction I had started going with this film is more down the route of an 'instillation' rather than a conventional film. It wouldn't have a 'start', it would be more like it would be played on repeat and the audience would come and go whenever. This means that the audience themselves could decide what the story is depending on how they interpret what they see. I feel like this would contribute to the style that I was going for. If I wasn't going for a conventional film, then people won't see it a conventional way.
To carry this whole thing out I would have to experiment a lot with different footage and, as the colour grade directly influences the Lumetri Scopes, I can alter the grade on the source footage. As I knew almost nothing about the Lumetri Scope (apart from that it is made up of the colours from the footage) I had to find out how to 'control' the waves. What follows is the tests I had done to experiment with how each part of editing can influence how the waves look in the Lumetri Scope, I'll also write some brief notes about each part;
Exposure Low/High
Altering the exposure had a great influence over the image created. Especially with the high exposure, you can see that the waves on the scope separate due to the character being completely in shadow while there still being in colour in the background. This means that if I film a 'character' in shadow, once I start editing it, I can make them stand out in the Lumetri Scope.
Contrast Low/High
Exposure only really affected how much the waves are focused. With the low exposure merging the waves together more.
Highlights Low/High
Highlights pretty much have the same effect when I change the contrast.
Shadows Low/High
Again, not much difference from the previous two.
Whites Low/High
Surprise, surprise still no major difference. However, it hasn't been in vain. I am now aware what to change to move the waves to where I want them. This means I have more control over the final piece.
Blacks Low/High
After the previous tests, I wasn't expecting much. This test actually showed me something that I hadn't seen before. Once you moved the slider past the 0 mark into positives numbers then the bottom line gradually rose the higher you went.
Saturation Low/High
As expected the low saturation took out the colour away from the waves, which makes sense as the Lumetri Scope is affected by the colours from the footage.
Hopefully, from looking through the above you can see what I had learnt along the way. I had decided to experiment with the same footage so I could standardise the all the tests. It meant I could confidently confirm that what I was changing with the image was directly influencing the control I had over the waves.
For some reason I had thought if I turned pictures into sound, it would be a pretty interesting layer to add to the film. I also did this to get over the issue of copyright with music. I didn't want to use royalty free music as Heath Ledger's Joker said 'If you're good at something, never do it for free' (Dark Knight, The, 2008). So I thought pictures CAN be copyrighted but can the sound that comes from them fall under the same copyright?
The first thing a person would think of after I just explained that I wanted to turn pictures into music is 'Why?', the second thing a person would think is 'How?'. This is where the website pixelsynth comes in. A website that I had discovered.
Pixelsynth (Jack, 2016) allows you to import images, this image is turned into black and white and depending on where the white is, it will represent a different note. When you press play, a bar travels across the image and when it passes over white that note is played. It's hard to put it into words so if you click on 'pixelsynth' in the paragraph before this one, I've linked the website so you can play around to your hearts content. If you decide that you don't want to have fun then I'll go through the process that I went through.
Naturally the first picture I converted is of myself.
Turns into this ->
I found that this picture is too 'busy' and ended up sounding like audio epileptic attack. For it to work, I had to find a much simpler image.
This also happened to be the time I realised that I couldn't fully carry out this project. I didn't have enough time to hand this for when it was originally wanted. All my attention had gone over to Long Distance Groove Buddies so it felt like I was way more motivated for that project over this one. If I didn't focus on LDGB, I would be letting a lot of people rather than on this one where I'm only letting myself down, which out of the two, is much easier to deal with. I had to move on to an idea that wouldn't require so much time experimenting with visuals and audio. I also felt like I had to completely get rid
Ambient Man Noises
My next idea was to make a way more conventional film. The brief had asked for a conversation piece so that's what I was going to do. I wanted to make it about a conversation I could imagine myself having with someone else. I also didn't want it to be about something that is mundane. I had settled on the idea of having two people discuss a film they had watched the night before but they seem to remember the whole film differently and the catch being that they had ended up watching two different films.
As I was running out of time, I didn't have time to do any research apart from watching the film Swingers (1996). Which is amazing and feels like one big conversation piece.
This is my favourite scene from the whole film as it feels undeniably genuine. They all talk/act very similar (Vince Vaughn and Jon Favreau handshake at 0:24) so it feels like they are friends but they all have unique mannerism and feelings (such as Vince Vaughns character attitude towards Wayne Gretzky). It builds a world up that feels like it will go on after the film and has already being going on for some time. This is something I wanted from my own film. Apart from the general research I had done watching the film the only thing that directly influenced me to make this particular film was a single shot from Tyler, The Creators music video for 'A BOY IS A GUN' (Tyler, The Creator, 2019)
Something about this framing was exactly how I wanted the film to start. Just swap the elephant shrubbery in the background with a car and Tyler (in the foreground) with the main actor. Thus, Ambient Man Noises (Two dudes talking about not much) was born.
This whole process of script writing was alright. I also remembered that it lasted long for what it is, as at the same time as the script writing for this was going on I had the Long Distance Groove Buddies script that also needed to be done. Like previously mentioned, I'd rather let myself down then other people, so this project took a back seat and I would do little bits every now and then when I had the time. Obviously, the fact that there is a link to the script I wrote above this paragraph shows that I did manage to get it done. As the script was just dialogue, I was going to be tested. When I write scripts and I'm on dialogue, I will talk to myself as the characters to see how it flows. This causes issues when the characters are very similar as they just end up being two Charlie's. This is an issue as one is too much already.
But even after what I have just said, I felt that I had written the characters to have just a difference enough that even though you won't see them. You'll be aware it's clearly two different people talking. This will make it appear more natural.
I had got Josh Clark to agree to help me with the recording of the audio. As it was such a time constraint I would have used people that weren't me and Josh but it had to be this way.
*Between this bit and the previous paragraph, I would have put the audio recording from when me and Josh went in to record the audio in the musical department. But just like
The Breakdown in Ideas and Myself
Wow, Charlie. That's two very different, but solid film ideas you've got there. What happened? Well I didn't do them.
Bibliography
-Olivia Jack. (2016) pixelsynth. Available at : https://ojack.github.io/PIXELSYNTH/ -Swingers. 1996. Directed by Doug Liman [Film]. Miramax Films -The Dark Knight. 2008. Directed by Christopher Nolan [Film]. Warner Bros -Tyler, The Creator (2019) A BOY IS A GUN*. Available at : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9JQDPjpfiGw -Where The Wild Things Are. 2009. Directed by Spike Jonze [Film]. Warner Bros