Experimenting with simple and thoughtful themes

NozL

NozL

Member
Rather than me having to re-word all the spiel again, I'll just paste below what I've written on Vimeo :)

Hello.

I usually do music production and run a couple of record labels with a good friend of mine, but I've wanted to get into filmaking and visual stories/short films for a very long time, so I've decided to start experimenting with stories/themes which interest me.

Please forgive me for the poor quality camera. I want to practice different things before I decide to get a decent quality camera and 35mm lens etc. This is my first practice :) I hope you like it.

I want to know that I can create something out of relatively nothing before I put more of my valuable and very scarce free time into filmaking!

Thanks for watching. :)

http://vimeo.com/2048651
 
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As a theme and single shot it works very well. The empty space around the head, the colours, the look of the image, it works well with the music.

My only beef is that it was too long and not a lot happened.
 
Cheers for the replies guys.

My only beef is that it was too long and not a lot happened.
Click to expand...
My reasons...... :)

Too long... If it had been shorter it wouldn't have quite had the longer... almost lethargic feel to it to reflect the mood. When you ponder, it tends to be for a while, as opposed to short snappy thoughts. The words are memories for me, which are supposed to reflect the almost motionless posture. Contrasting some of these reasons (and many others I could waffle on about) provoke thought.

Not a lot happened... I think my favourite Directors are Gus Van Sant and Shane Meadows. I love how refreshing it is to watch, say Elephant where the camera follows the characters without much going on around them. He does it in Paranoid Park, and in Last days, there'll be a picture of the bush shot for 30 seconds then Kurt will walk by. It leaves you and your creative mind to try and work out for itself why these things are happening and the stories behind them. Therefore, if you have enough ingredients, you're mind does the mixing. I think it's a great break from the norm. :) I love ambient electronica tracks as soundtracks too!

Again, this is only my first attempt, but I have a lot of ideas, it's just trying to convey them using my limited film production knowledge, but I'll get there eventually I hope!:)

Thanks for watching... much appreciated.
 
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Interesting reasons. Just going to respond to help you out.

To be honest there's a certain amount of attention one can keep when viewing a shot. It all depends on context. It's usually good for something to develop. Heck we were watching several experimental films today in class and the main comment that everyone agreed on was that something needed to develop, or else after a time your mind just wanders. In a film where we simply see a man standing in front of a wall for a long period of time to convey a mood, well that mood can easily be conveyed in a shorter amount of time.

I haven't seen Paranoid Park, but you mention that it focuses on a bush for 30 seconds to allow you to recap what has just happened. Well they had a reason for doing it, it gave you something. You're just establishing a mood, it doesn't take very long to set a mood.

Anyways, just my opinion.
 
Cool thanks for your input Jon. That's why I've posted the practice film to get peoples' opinions to help me learn so thanks for yours.

Even with music I do, I quite like developing ideas which shouldn't "technically" be correct or seen as the to-do thing, so if reasons or shots become a bit left- field it's because I'm trying to get 'different' things to work.

I didn't want to have multitudes of shots going on because I liked the fact that with whatever was going on with the story words, or the sideways foolery, sitting in a different position, that it would always go back to the same plain representation there is of me, as me. So the longer it goes on (like in time throughout my years), it is still me y' know, with whatever is happening around me.

Yeah, it's in Last Days Gus filmed the bush thing and similar things like it. But you see in a lot of his work, he likes to follow the characters for quite a while, as they're just doing something as simple as walking. It's great.

I loved Gerry. Although I know folk that hate it.

Thanks again for your input man.
 
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