Evaluation: Task 1

The concept behind BAD INFINITUM / POETRY IN MOTION was to represent Hell as it is described in Dante Alighieri's poem Inferno. I was inspired by the way in which the poetry had been adapted by famed Renaissance artist Sandro Botticelli, who painted La carte de l'enfer based on Dante's poetic descriptions. I sought to recreate this in my own work; where Botticelli moved poetry onto the canvas, I aimed to interpret Dante's work through film. This idea, oddly enough, struck me when hearing the song Poetry In Motion on a television advert, which is where half of the title originates. The other half is a play on the Latin phrase "Ad infinitum", meaning "forever". The creative process began with a sound piece, which was intended as a sonic journey through the 'nine circles of Hell' that Dante describes in his poem. I wanted to craft nine sections that contained very diverse elements and embraced the challenge of unifying them into a single coherent sound piece. Aside from Dante and Botticelli, I also drew inspiration from experimental filmmakers. For example, I was particularly inspired by the way in which Stan Brakhage used colour in his 1987 Dante Quartet to represent the various stages of the afterlife as described in the Divine Comedy. I was also inspired by the way in which Zbigniew Rybcynzski's Tango (1980) grew and evolved over the duration of the film, and knew that this was a concept I wished to explore in my own work. To a lesser degree, I was also influenced by Fernand Léger's 1923 experimental film Ballet Mécanique, as I appreciated the effectiveness of extreme close ups - however, my focus was more on representing my subject as an anonymous 'anyone', as opposed to the more distorting direction Léger seems to have taken. Drawing on these inspirations, I aimed to represent each circle of Hell with an onscreen circular frame, each of which would show extreme close-ups of the sin associated with that circle, whilst growing and changing the longer it was shown. I would hope that BAD INFINITUM / POETRY IN MOTION is capable of evoking strong feelings of discomfort and a sense of being punished within its audiences, as this was my primary aim within the project. It is targeted to nobody in particular; I intentionally anonymised the star of my film to reflect the fact he could be anyone as we have all sinned. However, audiences who are unaware of Dante, Botticelli and their impact on art may not fully understand my piece. 

I feel that the strongest point of BAD INFINITUM / POETRY IN MOTION is the way in which it has been edited. The circular frames that grow and layer over each other are unique and interesting, which probably makes the film more enjoyable to watch as it is unusual and captures the attention of the audience. They are also effective at representing the artistic concept of the piece by displaying a new circle for each of the "nine circles of Hell" represented in the soundtrack. As images are displayed within the circles, they are initially twisted and distorted. This gradually becomes less potent and results in an effect that is somewhat dynamic, as the image visibly shifts on-screen and slowly reveals the nature of its subject. I feel this is effective as it presents the audience with enigma and invites them to guess what might be being shown, maintaining their interest and making the piece less tedious to watch. I feel this is also supported by the structuralist nature of the film, as the nine twenty-second segments are of an appropriate length: a new image is presented just before the section feels like it has lasted too long. I also made an effort to disrupt the structure half way through in order to surprise audiences and subvert their expectations. I feel that the cinematography is interesting and practical for the project. The extreme close-ups work well in that they take the focus of the piece away from the character and place it upon his actions, which relates to my point regarding anonymity that I made earlier. On a more practical level, this kind of shot is effective when used in unison with the circles as it fills the space more comfortably than a wider shot. The shots are well-focussed for the most part and benefit from an effective use of depth-of-field. However, some shots, such as the counting of money, are not focussed as well as others; if I had the opportunity to make the work again I would ensure that the shots were focussed at a continuously good standard. I was also dissatisfied with the realism of the wound, or rather the lack thereof. If I was reshooting these scenes I would source a skilled make-up artist to create this effect instead of doing it myself. In contrast to the relatively metaphoric and somewhat minimalistic imagery, the soundtrack I created for the piece was very chaotic and literal. I felt that I had a good range of well-recorded sounds and that I captured the setting well, and the segmented nature fit my structuralist approach. However, some elements did get a little repetitive - particularly the burp and knife sections - and if I were to recreate this piece, I would work on creating a more natural rhythm.

The process of creating my piece was quite a stressful one. Due to my partner leaving the course without notice, I found myself a week away from the deadline with no sound recorded. I was presented with two options: I could find another group to join, or I could attempt to complete the project alone. Whilst joining another group would have been considerably easier, I wanted to have a significant input in whatever piece I created, and I knew that so far into the project most pieces would already be nearing completion. With this in mind, I opted to continue alone. Over the next four days, I managed to record the wide range of sounds I needed and edited them into a somewhat crude three-minute sound piece. I did briefly encounter an issue with Pro Tools which stopped me from playing my piece, but this was resolved by changing my Input/Output settings. After receiving critique from my class, I worked on the sound piece based on the feedback I had gotten. This version of the sound piece was a far cry from the rigid structuralist approach I had previously envisioned, but the same concept and sounds remained at its core and I feel that all the changes that were made were improvements. Creating my film went considerably more smoothly. I had been planning the visuals of my piece since the start of my project and had a very clear idea of what I wanted to achieve. As I had found myself working alone, it became very easy to plan ahead - but I appreciate that this may have been a different story altogether had I been working with others as intended. I created a visual diagram to show Debbie my intentions and took in her feedback, and then tested my ability to edit the footage according to my plan. This experimentation was very useful as it gave me the confidence that I would be able to realise my vision with the right footage. When trying to shoot some elements of my piece, I was inconvenienced by the weather and a family emergency that lead to me being unable to film everything I needed; what's more, the footage I had caught was not suitable for what I wanted to achieve. Because of this, I opted instead to use coloured light to represent feelings and emotions. This required the use of a lot of effects which slowed down the playback of my film during editing, making it very hard to see the changes I was making. It also lead to the colours being much more saturated than I had intended. This was no issue, however, as after receiving feedback during a presentation I opted to replace the colours with tones, and so this issue was resolved. I feel that ultimately, both the sound piece and the film were not exactly how I had initially envisioned them, but this is due to creative development and improvements based on feedback, rather than technical incompetence. 

As my partner left the course, I was left to work independently: I was responsible for every aspect of the project. Whilst I would have preferred to work collaboratively as was intended, I feel that working independently proved to be much easier than working in a group, as there were no disagreements or issues with scheduling. Whilst this did prove beneficial for this project, I feel I have missed out on a valuable opportunity to work collaboratively and improve my teamwork skills: it is important to remember that, whilst there are some drawbacks to teamwork, there are also many positives. A key example of this, and the most relevant to my project, is the availability of a second opinion. As my ideas are often quite complex, I feel that I was at a disadvantage in the absence of someone to tell me what 'worked', and often found myself consulting my peers for advice. In the short time that my partner and I did collaborate before her departure, I feel I managed to learn a valuable lesson about compromise. 'Hell' was never a thematic route that I initially wanted to pursue, however Kayleigh was determined this was the right path. Despite my concerns over its potential to be cliche, I decided to take on the ambitious challenge of creating something unique from her somewhat stale idea. I did this as I wanted both members of the team to be 'on-board' with the project, instead of me dragging along a reluctant partner who was disinterested in my own initial concept. Despite the events that followed, I continued with the theme of Hell and created a unique and interesting piece: proving to me that I should welcome and not dismiss the ideas of others when working collaboratively. 

I feel that undertaking this project has taught me various skills that will be very useful in the future. Through the difficulty presented by my partner leaving the course, I learned to take the initiative in future when working in collaboration with others. Had I taken my concerns about her absence to my tutor earlier, I would have been able to work around the issue much sooner and this would have given me a greater amount of time to prepare and create a piece alone. I also learned that planning and preparation are key to capturing a certain vision. For example, using checklists allowed me to ensure I had the resources to capture all the sounds I needed beforehand, and I was also able to keep track of which sounds I had recorded. By testing the editing capabilities of both myself and my software in advance, I was given confidence and security that executing my vision would be possible in the space of time that I had. Editing the footage itself also taught me a range of skills. As I had only used Adobe Premiere for simple films before, I had little knowledge of its capabilities. The experimental nature of this project allowed me to explore the various tools and effects it has to offer. I also learned about how to animate these effects using keyframes, and all of these skills will be applicable when editing future projects. Creatively, I discovered that making changes to my work based on feedback was not damaging to my artistic integrity. Previously, I saw the opinions of others as diluting my vision, but now I see that accepting criticism allows me to improve my work and explore its effect on the audience in greater detail. Personally, I feel this is the most valuable lesson I have learned during this project and I am confident that my work will continue to improve with this mindset. 

Development: Task 1 Film

Following my critical presentation, I have spent the last few days reviewing my feedback and trying to improve my piece and move it to a place where I am satisfied with what I have created. This has been quite difficult, as I faced a brief period of a few days where I simply could not come up with any ideas. This frustrated me to no end, which only made the situation worse. I decided to stop worrying about it and focus on other projects for a few days, and when I returned to my piece and reviewed my feedback, I felt refreshed and motivated to continue. Soon enough, I began to piece together the elements that had previously avoided me and my final piece began to take shape. Below is a list of changes I have made to my piece since my critical presentation.

I changed the circles, replacing the garish colours with tonal reds. Using a smokey texture on Adobe Photoshop, I made nine versions of the same image - each one with a higher saturation value than its predecessor. I imported these into Adobe Premiere and replaced the film burn tracks I had created before. Using the keyframe animation technique in unison with the Rotation tool, I animated these images so that they would rotate in the opposite direction as the "Twirl" effect I added to my footage. This created an interesting dynamic between the two; it was as though the two were battling, creating a very tense effect. I am very pleased with the way this has turned out - it is much more Hellish and I would even go as far as to say that it is better than my original idea. I would prefer if the images were footage of smoke instead of still image, but I feel the effect works well nonetheless. 

I removed the painting, which I feel improves the piece substantially as it was not conducive to the minimalistic and abstract nature of my film. However, this left me without a rhythmic disruption, and so this was my next step in the development process.

I disrupted the structure of the piece, which I hope will subvert the expectations of the audience. I first had to choose a suitable place for the disruption to occur. I chose one minute 50, as I feel that when the audience reaches the half-way point of my film they will have adjusted to its rhythm, and so by 1.50 the disruption will be especially effective. Choosing what the disruption would actually be was relatively difficult, however as soon as I had chosen a time it became clear. The 'middle finger' shot was one that I had not been entirely satisfied with, as it had not been framed very nicely. After taking on feedback and experimenting with removing the frame, I decided that I definitely preferred this shot without the frame. However, I did not want to just cut away the frame smoothly and instantly, and this detracted from the chaotic nature of the piece and seemed a little lazy. As such, I made the frame flicker in and out of existence before holding in its absence, and then swiftly re-introduced it before the next cycle began. I feel that this is very effective as it is a frontal shot, and when the image is held it seems as though the gesture is directed to the audience themselves. I feel that this will be a shocking image to disrupt the structure with that will evoke negative feelings within the audience, which is cohesive to my theme of Hell. 

I added a sense of climax, which I feel gives the ending of the piece more significant. To do this, I spend up the rotation of the circles using keyframe animation, meaning that each circle spun slightly faster than the last. This is a subtle effect that becomes obvious towards the end, as all of the circles are spinning at different speeds, creating a Hellish, vortex-like effect that I feel is very effective. To end the piece, I removed the last shot of the back wound as I felt this slowed the ending down, and faded the circles out in time with the soundtrack. I also added an animated blur to this transition so that it was softer and more ethereal. I am very satisfied with the result, however I do feel that the last circle spins a little too quickly - yet, I increased the speed by the same amount each time, and to divert from this would be to break the rules I have set myself as a structuralist. 

I added titles and credits, as requested in the brief. As my film was exactly three minutes long, this addition has taken my piece over the allowed time. However, Debbie assured us in our class that titles and credits would not contribute to the time when the pieces were being marked.

A screen grab showing the developments I made in Adobe Premiere Pro

After making these improvements, I feel that I have truly developed my piece into a version that is the closest to my original vision. I feel that the changes from that idea that I have made, such as substituting the close-ups of environmental shots, have been entirely beneficial and have avoided making a piece that was too literal. I feel that, whilst there are some elements that I would ideally change given the resources, I have reached a point where I am relatively satisfied with my work. I have achieved this by continuing to develop my work and introduce new ideas based on the feedback I have received and my own judgement. I feel confident to present my work to my class and lecturers in an assessed presentation on Thursday, December 19th. 

Feedback: Task 1 Film

Today I presented my film to Debbie and my peers in an informal environment. I was a lot more confident about sharing my work this time around as I felt that my sound piece had improved substantially and, despite not being pleased with my film in its current form, I was very eager to receive feedback on it in order to make the necessary improvements. Whilst working on this piece I have become very passionate about it and I feel a need to do the concept justice.

This time around, my peers were unfortunately a lot less vocal than when I had first showcased my work. This was somewhat disheartening at first, however Debbie had some solid advice to give and when I finished my presentation I realised that I had received a lot of written feedback. Whilst it is good to sometimes hear what your audience has to say right after viewing your work, written feedback is often the most articulate and has the benefit of being documented for future use. As before, I compiled all of the post-its I received and placed them on my wall for reviewing when working on my piece. Below is a selection of points raised about my piece that I feel are valid, accompanied by a strategy for implementing these improvements before the deadline. 

"The pace is too slow/consistent/repetitive"

The main critique my classmates had to offer is that my piece was too constant in its pace. Whilst I was aiming for a purely structuralist film in which I broke none of my rules, I appreciate that the audience needs to be engaged by the piece. As such, I plan on adding some form of rhythmic disruption to the structure; briefly removing the circles was a suggestion made on more than one occasion, and so I shall explore this. However, if I do not feel that my work has been improved by this implementation, I shall not include it as I feel it would do more damage than good. 

"The colours are too bright"

My classmates agreed with me that the colours were too bright, being described as "neon" and "candy", which are not words usually connotative of Hell. Whilst I did not intend for them to become so garish, something went wrong during the editing and the result has put me off using colours altogether. It was suggested by Debbie that I try for something more tonal, which I had already considered and I am interesting in experimenting with. It was also suggested that I use more of a matte finish instead of the shining, flickering and pulsating lights. I agree with this wholeheartedly - mainly because this element made it impossible to choose one colour for each circle, as they were constantly shifting in their brightness and contrast. 

"The painting does not work"

Whilst I had been unsure whether the introduction of Botticelli's La carte d'enfer was a bad idea, or whether the way in which it had been sped up during rendering made it seem so, it became apparent after sharing my work with my class that it did not 'work'. I have no qualms removing this as it was never part of my original vision - it was introduced as a means of engaging and subverting the expectations of the audience. Now, with my intent to explore other ways of disrupting the pace, this element is no longer necessary, and it shall be removed. 

"The visuals do not reach a climax"

Another point that was mentioned was that, whilst my soundtrack has a very definitely climax at its end, my film piece just 'ended'. As a result, I shall explore ways in which I can bring a more climatic ending to the piece. This may only be subtle, as my film is minimalistic, but it could make a big difference.

As well as this criticism, my peers also provided me with elements of my piece that they enjoyed and thought I had done well. Positive feedback on my piece includes:

• The piece was very creative and unique
• The circular frames were interesting 
• The piece engages the audience as it constantly changes
• The concept was thorough and well developed
• The footage was well-shot and represented the sins well
• The piece was very emotive and had strong images and sounds

Using this positive feedback, I can identify which elements of my film resonated with my audience. This will allow me to build upon and emphasise them in the future, or to ensure that I do not change an aspect of the film that is well-received. The amount of positive criticism I received was refreshing and gave me the confidence and motivation I need to continue with my work. 

Project: Editing for Task 1 Film

Today I edited my Task 1 Film. I used Adobe Premiere Pro, as this is my editing suite of preference and I am familiar with how it works. However, it was also important to use this software as I had used it for my editing tests earlier in the project, and knew that it was capable of producing what I wanted and how to achieve it. 

As my film is quite minimalistic, the editing process was relatively simple - however it was also extremely tedious. I used the masking and key-framing technique that I learned when developing my idea to animate the footage, as well as applying a decreasing distortion effect. I feel this part of the editing process went very well and the results are effective and captured my vision successfully.

However, the colour element of my piece - each colour representing a different sin - did not go well. I created the colour lights by layering the film burn effect in Adobe Premiere Pro, and applying a colour corrector to achieve the hue and saturation I desired. Paired with the Track Matte Masks, key-framing and all the other effects I was using, this made Premiere Pro run slowly, making it very hard to see what I was editing and changing. This effected my piece negatively, as the colours were a lot more saturated than I was lead to believe. I also revealed Botticelli's painting as discussed with Debbie, but when I had exported it this was a lot faster than I intended.

A screen grab showing my editing in Adobe Premiere Pro

Overall, I am not happy with the piece - specifically the use of colour and the Botticelli painting. I hope that in my crits session tomorrow I will receive ample feedback in order to improve my piece and do my concept justice.

Project: Filming for Task 1 Film

Today, I filmed the footage required to create my film. I shot on my Canon 600D DSLR as I prefer this piece of kit to the cameras offered by the university, such as the XF100. The Canon 600D also tends to have a smoother, more silky image quality than that of the XF100, which I have found has a tendency to become somewhat grainy after editing. The Canon 600D was also chosen for its focus ability, as I knew I wanted to use a shallow depth of field for these shots and I felt this was more achievable with a Canon 600D. I lit the shots with a Sony HVL-LBP light. I knew I needed to use studio lighting as it was important to me that the shots had a certain warmth to them, but it was necessary to choose the HVL-LBP as I was filming in one of my flat's bathrooms - grim, yet essential as they are pitch black with no windows - and the Sony HVL-LBP is battery powered, negating the need for plugs. 

Some preparation was required. We went into the city before the shoot to buy two masks, some scar wax, fake blood, foundation and a burger from McDonalds. I used the scar wax, foundation and fake blood to create a wound on the back of my actor: a literal metaphor for being "stabbed in the back", which is the image I chose to represent treachery. My actor then posed shirtless as I directed his actions to him, allowing us to quickly and efficiently capture the footage I needed.

Sculpting the base of the wound using scar wax before concealing

On reflection, I am unhappy with the shot of money being counted as it is not focussed as nicely as other shots - however, the lighting has since been returned to the workshop and I am unable to recreate this shot. I have learned to ensure my shots remain in focus in the future. 

A list of shots caught is as follows:

• A cautious-looking eye, representing the first circle of Hell: limbo.
• A man kissing a mask, representing the second circle of Hell: lust.
• A man eating a burger, representing the third circle of Hell: gluttony.
• A hand counting money, representing the fourth circle of Hell: greed.
• A hand showing a middle finger, representing the fifth circle of Hell: wrath.
• A man praying, representing the sixth circle of Hell: heresy.
• A man being strangled, representing the seventh circle of Hell: violence.
• A man wearing a mask, representing the eighth circle of Hell: fraud.
• A back with a knife wound, representing the ninth circle of Hell: treachery. 

Development: Task 1 Film

Today I experimented with the editing techniques I wish to employ in my experimental film that will accompany my audio-only project. I have had the concept of the visuals for a long time; these ideas were conceived synchronously with my Audio-Only project. I knew I wanted to represent the nine 'circles' of Hell by using circular masks, and layering them to communicate the idea of going 'deeper' into Hell. This also worked to reflect the evolving nature of my sound piece, as the visuals change and grow as time progresses.

Despite being aware of my artistic intent, I was uncertain as to whether I would be able to technically execute them in the short space of time that I had. I was also unsure if the idea was viable for the project; whilst it made sense in my head, I have no partner for this project and thus lacked a second opinion. For this reason, I decided to create a visual diagram of my concept using images taken from the internet, and show this to Debbie in my tutorial.

The diagram that I presented to Debbie, made in Adobe Photoshop.

After Debbie had seen what I intended to create, she seemed very keen and enthusiastic about the idea . She did suggest, however, that showing both the sin and the environmental shots may make the film too literal, and suggested I look at a more abstract route. As a result, I decided I would not use the environmental shots of stone, water, blood etc as these would be the most difficult to capture effectively. I intend to replace these with abstract shots of colours relating to that layer of Hell. 

Debbie warned me that the project was ambitious in terms of editing and to ensure I was properly prepared. As I was already unsure if I would be able to realise my concept, I took this advice on wholeheartedly and decided to experiment with the technique.

I used pieces of scrap footage left over from my Production Skills module project, as I have not yet filmed the footage I will use for this project. The focus was not on the content of the film, but rather was placed on the way in which it was edited: an experiment to ensure I was capable of realising my vision. I created a simple circular mask in Adobe Photoshop and imported this into Adobe Premiere, my editing software of choice as I own a copy of it personally, allowing me to edit on-the-go. I am also familiar with this software, and as it shares similar functionalities with Final Cut Pro, I decided to stick with what I knew. Using the 'Track matte key' feature, I began to apply masks to the footage I imported, using the circle I created in Adobe Photoshop as a reference. I then began to animate each shot through the use of keyframes, so that they grew in unison and by even amounts. 

I then repeated the process on the second set of shots, but also added a distorting effect through use of the Twist tool. Again using keyframes, I animated this effect so that it became less potent the longer it was used, eventually resulting in an undistorted image before the next shot is shown. I then split this footage into one-second mini clips (a very tedious process) and deleted each alternate clip, resulting in a switching back and forth of images. I opted only to do four of the 'circles' as doing all nine seemed excessive for an experiment, which only served to test functionality and capability. The finished experiment can be viewed below. 

My experiment to test the functionality and possibility of my concept.

I sent this experiment to Debbie and asked for her opinions. She liked the technique and its effect, and offered me some criticisms as to how I could improve it:

"The circle could be bigger"

A very fair point that I had already considered myself. I had given myself additional space as I was unsure as to how much the piece would grow and wanted to ensure I had ample space. I was also unsure as to how many circles I would use in my example. I intend to use a larger circle in my final piece.

"The shots are too rapid"
This point is also very valid. I was initially attracted to and satisfied with the idea of each shot only being shown for a second, however after reading Debbie's criticism I realised that it did feel a little rushed and, as a consequence, quite amateur. To rectify this, each shot will last for two seconds in my final piece. This should make it feel less repetitive as well as making the editing process less tedious.

"The rhythm is too uniform"
Whilst I understand Debbie's reasoning in that this contributes to the piece feeling quite predictable, I feel that the consistent rhythm of my piece is one of the key structural qualities and I intend to retain this element in my final piece. If, after my presentation, my peers also feel that the piece would benefit from a more diverse rhythm, I may reconsider this choice.

"It becomes too predictable"
Perhaps as a justification for maintaining the uniformed rhythm, Debbie suggested that I think of a way to break up the monotony of the piece. Whilst I was keen for it to reflect the 'torturous' nature of Hell by making the audience endure something repetitive and monotonous, I also acknowledged the need for their attention to be maintained and for their expectations to be challenged in order to make a piece I could consider to be successful. I suggested that, halfway through the piece, I begin to reveal Botticelli's Inferno gradually, replacing the black background entirely by the end of the piece. Debbie was interested in this idea and so I will include it in my piece for presentation, however I should think of alternatives to switch it for should my audience dislike it.

Overall, I am both pleased and comforted with the knowledge that I can realise my concept using my preferred software, and I am excited to create my final piece.