Thursday 15 March 2012

Design Practice 3: Assignment 3: DePict: Inspiration and Brainstorming: Part Three

Storyboards for my first and favourite treatment: The Letter: Arranging your own death.




Design Practice 3: Assignment 3: DePict: Inspiration and Brainstorming: Part Two

Here is the mood board for my idea the letter, it includes shots from other films, shots I wish to use, colours and textures and the general feeling I want to incorporate into my Mystery/Thriller/Drama piece.


Treatment 1: The Letter: Arranging Your Own Death?

The establishing shot starts with a post delivery vehicle moving down the road.  An unknown deliver man moves down the driveway through a first person perspective in day light, mixed into this shot  is doley shot of a male ages 30-40 sitting face down on an the floor in a dimly lit room with a bluish tint. The fast pace of the alternating shots is brought to an abrupt end when the letter is finally slid in from outside, our character jumps up startled by the noise, revealing his face fully.  

The next shot we see our character moving hastily down the stair from a quirky angle in daylight. he  sorts through the letters, one of the letters is entitled, 'DO NOT OPEN UNTIL TIME OF DEATH'

At this point the mood becomes tense, we move to the kitchen, he sits down at a counter and begin to procrastinate, twiddling the letter in his hands, unable to sit still, the camera keeps cutting away to the title of the letter. He paces up and down the kitchen, finally stopping at the fridge with a serious expression on his face pondering whether or not to open it. He finally gives in and walks off screen, we cut to a shot of a letter opener being grabbed.

The man sits back down at the counter and a rips open the letter,  he tilts the letter upside down and shakes, numerous shreds of paper fall out and float to the counter. We see the numerous pieces of paper closer, he moves the paper aggressively around until he rearranges two pieces by luck, we see that they are in fact the shredded remains of a picture.  

We progress to a sequence of him taping pieces of paper together to try and reveal the picture, the music increases in pace. The music finally settles and we end with him slamming the picture down on the counter, we move to a tilt shot of him slowly lifting the picture to his face with a look of terror, The picture reveals the main character in a suit pointing a gun at the camera, he turns it around and the audience sees the writing 'you should have waited' or ' 'patience is  my worst quality'

We hear a sharp noise and the character quickly looks behind him, it fades to black. The shot reappears from black and we see the man head face down on the counter, a gun is visible in the picture but distorted. We move to a final scene of a either (mailbox, desk, pile of letters) The camera comes into focus to reveal the letter once again.

Treatment 2: The Letter: How Is That Possible?

Same premise until the picture is revealed.
We go to an over the shoulder shot and the image is blurred, he turns it around and the audience sees the writing 'you should have waited' wrote on the back, we hear a sharp noise and the camera cuts away to a mid shot of the character quickly looking behind him, it fades to black. The shot reappears from black and we see a slightly out of focus close shot of the man head face down on the counter, the camera moves in and into focus on the picture which now sits on top of a pool of blood in his hand, we see the picture is in fact the exact scene that has transpired just moments before, the character has seen his own death before it has happened.
This version adds a hint of the paranormal, you could add the (mailbox, desk, pile of letters) scene at the end to add to the eerie phenomenon of the letter. Yet it still question the mentality of the character, had he imagined it?

Treatment 3: The Letter: We Know It Going To Happen.

Same premise until the picture is revealed.  
In this version the audience gets to view the photo of the main characters death before it has actually happened, giving us the eerie realisation that he's witnessed his own death. He turns the picture around to reveal writing and hears a noise like the other two treatments. This treatment could leave out the death scene as we have prior seen it on the photo, leaving it to the audiences imagination. It could end with or without the mail box scene. This treatment has a stronger sense of the supernatural, he could be recalling the memory over and over or simply having a premonition.   

Design Practice 3: Assignment 3: DePict: Inspiration and Brainstorming: Part One




The main central focus for my 90 second film is going to revolve around a letter, the working title is 'The Letter' The piece revolves around the central themes of questing reality, characters mentality, time and general mystery.
Although my differing treatments alter the plot of the film slightly, the general idea is that their is character who receives an mysterious letter, the content of the letter questions the characters reality and the audience is left to decipher  the outcome. 

I have drawn influence from various sources, mainly other existing film. Notable influence include aspects from the film Memento (2000), the idea that a character cannot recall writing a letter to himself and posing for a photo struck me as particularly interesting.



Other influence comes from the film Fight Club (1999) as it deals with distorted reality's and questions the mental stability of the main character throughout, the idea that we see events through the blurred lens of a mental illness and that 'the truth' is somehow revealed to the audience at the climax is a big influence.
Another Small influence Come from The letter in Back to The Future, the one titled 'do not open until 1985', this is an interesting notion to explore, a mysterious letter through time.

Finally the premise of time repeating, a sequence of events occurring over and over has been explored, I felt this could be a thought provoking idea in my piece, the letter is being sent continuously, the event somehow restarts itself, leaving the audience wondering what came first and why it's happening,
the chicken and the egg scenario.  It relates heavily to the plot that surround GroundHog Day (1993)




http://www.depict.org/2009/alice%E2%80%99s-adventures-in-wonderland/

Design Practice 3: Assignment 3: DePict: The Brief.





For this coursework I will produce a short 90 second film for entry into the DepicT film competition, there are no strict guidelines as such as DePict accepts a huge variety of mediums and genres: documentary, horror, animation and many more options are available to select if so desired.

From a first glance at the DePict website I notice that many pieces are simple yet elegant, they strive to display artistic vision rather than complex story lines and effects, a simple yet effective statement is present at the climax of many piece. For example I found 'Fag & Egg', a film that stands alone as artistic vision with little intrinsic meaning, and then there is a little gem entitled 'the Laundrette' that has a sweet simple message of love, mixed in off course with masterfully crafted and well thought out camera shots and lighting.



The Laundrette
http://www.depict.org/2011/the-launderette/?category_request=2011

I believe this brief will be a breath of fresh air as I finally get to experiment with cinematography, creating the magic through interesting lighting and characters rather than Cgi and After Effects. Should be fun

Design Practice 3: Assignment 2: Projeted Visuals: Work Submission




Originally designed to be projected on stage behind a local Nottingham Hip-Hop group. The piece is intended to be a collection of abstract visuals, which harbour no identifiable storyline, plot or characters.

Basically it was meant to deviate from the conventions of the cliché' rap video, e.g. cars, girls. The Key themes are Mirrors, Death, Time, Energy and Anger. The extra two minutes at the end when the song repeats were designed in case the band performs over schedule.

I used a lot of After Effects and filmed most green screen and live footage using the Canon 7D. This work was also assigned by the Nottingham design agency Urban Angle.

Enjoy, Rate and please leave a comment.

Friday 2 March 2012

Context 2: Assignment 2: Portfolio: Work Submission




Here is my completed show reel assignment for 2012 with motion dvd menu integrated, the DVD version is slightly shorter with ducking audio.



Hi my name is Samuel Dobson and I am currently studying multi media at Nottingham Trent University, Although I do have knowledge In both interactive space and 3D animation, my prevailing speciality Is In moving image.

Film has always absorbed me personally, even from an early age.I believe it is the most effective way to express my creativity, entertain people and portray information.

This is my showreel for 2012, it includes various short films, visual effects, photography/photoshop and 3D animation.

www.mediadobson.com

Claim To Fame.

Well kinda, nothing huge but it's worth a mention here, remember my last project? The political advert I made about foul ingredients found in everyday fast foods? Well that very video has been embedded on http://www.fittvo.com. Fit TeleVision is an online service which offers content that helps users find a range of information on daily fitness and fitness products. Maintained to keep up to date on topics and products relevant to users and provides information on a variety of health related topics.


I discovered I was on their site while analysing my monthly youtube view statistics, a large amount of views were being redirected from an external embed on a mysterious site. I browsed through Fittvo's article base and discovered a post entitled: Mechanically Seperated Meat: www.fittvo.com/6174/mechanically-separated-meat/




















Sure enough my video is there at the very bottom, the article shares very similar themes, concepts and view points to my political advert, it's nice to see that the intended meaning I designed, which was: to inform the public to think twice about ingredients found in their food, has been recognised and related to by Fittvo. It makes me happy to think that maybe just two or three people have been inspired by my video after a viewing on this article, makes it all worth while.