Flash Workshop

TTL - Fits all Cameras

Hammerhead Flash

MZ 70 - Nikon - Dedicated flash
-knows camera settings
-Auto expose
DSLR - Fill Flash - Shutter priority
- ISO set not Auto 1/60
Go for 400ISO

Film fill flash works differently

Flash on camera - turn off flash - Shutter priority 1/60 as close in number to focal
ISO 400
White Balance - Auto, Can be done later

Turn on Flash - mode TTL - Exposure compensation on 0

F2.8 - 1/60 under exposed with no flash - hot spot with flash in centre of image --balanced =quality of flash

- Point Flash up and back straight
- Flash turned to side + reflector
- Large reflector

Flash facing away - blips bounces off walls and illuminates

- Closer the flash to lens the more red eye in images

- Best to have flash bounce off something
- Stand in corner of a room for flash to bounce

Despite my notes not really making a whole lot of sense after reading through them I did find the workshop to be useful in helping to know how to illuminate my images in a way to make them cinematic, this helped as I had not known how to use my flash properly. From this I will take what I have learned and use it in my work.

The Black Dahila | Film

The black Dahlia is a film based in the 1940's with the genre of film noir, or neo-noir as they call the newer more updated versions of film noir,  these tend to be in a slightly desaturated colour, rather than the traditional Black and White, L.A. Confidential followed this same style too, which is where I got the inspiration from to create my images in the desaturated style. The Black Dahlia was written by James Ellroy who also wrote L.A. Confidential. The film is based around the true murder of Elizabeth Short nicknamed The Black Dahlia, for her unsolved death, this is just on of the films/book adaptation of the unknown events of the woman's killing.

The main character played by Josh Harnett opens to movie with a narrative voice over, this is again similar to L.A. Confidential, I am a fan of how this style of telling a story or just to inform the story more with a narrative to introduce the characters and the general story is a nice way to engage the viewer into the story, and is something I would like to experiment with my digital piece as I feel it would definitely inform my story in a positive way.

The story also follows the story of two ambitious cops who are tackling the case, and along the way encounter troubles with former crooks who are released from prison or either somehow involved with the new case, there are damsels which need saving added into the mix too, which all just adds to the noir style of film which is what I particularly like about it, I find this style of filming is very inspirational and is my reasoning for wanting to create work from this.

What I have taken from watching this film and also L.A. Confidential is that I would like to experiment with my images in both Black and White and in a desaturated colour, to see which would work best for my film piece. I like the noir style of images with just them being slightly desaturated with an almost sepia tint to them I think it works beautifully and fits well to the dark style of the story line. So from watching these I will be experimenting to see what style images work best to inform my work.

L.A. Confidential | Film

For my research one of the films I was advised to watch was L.A. Confidential, it wasn't something I had seen before although I knew it had some similarity to what I wanted to do. I found the DVD in the library and was able to watch it to gain some inspiration for my work and the style I want to create. I took down notes whilst watching the film of anything I thought might be useful to me:

Opening Scene:

• Narration / Voice over - Description of the time the film is set in 'Hollywood' 'Glamour' 
• Brooklyn accent to voice over
• Typewriter style introduction

Frequent Names : Noticed in other films of similar era:

• Micky Cohen
• Johnny
• Bud
• Jack / Jacky / Jacky boy

Genre Styling: Typical for Noirs

• Femme Fatale
• Drugs
• Prostitutes
• Corrupt Cops
• " Organised Crime"
• Cover ups
• Photographers
• Journalists

Slang Used :

• Ruckus
• Homicide
• Nick names for Cops
• "On the QT" (Quiet)

Throughout the film the narration carried on through, with this there was also the sound of a typewriter typing up a story as the narrator who was speaking was telling the story of what was happening at key points of the film as well as typing a story for the magazine he writes  as his character in the film (hope that makes sense) this only stopped (from the key parts) when the character was killed off throughout the film, this I thought was quite a nice touch whether it was the idea I do not know but it is something I noticed whilst watching.  

Narration or a voice over, however you want to look at it is something I want to experiment with for my digital piece I feel a voice over in this style would work really well for what I have created or want to create, however rather than doing it from the point of view as a journalist I would like to do this as a Detective looking in on the story or the detective in the story to almost guide the audience through the story whilst watching. 

As you can see in the image above in some of the opening credits the film introduces some of the key characters in the film by the use of a typewriter style font which I think works quite nicely, I feel this works well with the motion image but I'm not sure it would work so well with my still photographs however it might be something I can experiment with later when it comes to putting together my work. 

Overall I feel this film has helped my work, the narration and the dialogue throughout the film has helped me to make decisions on what I would like to come from my digital piece, given that it is to be taken in film stills style watching this style of film really helps to figure out the style of images I want to create and the way I can later edit my work to fit this genre specifically.

Home Videoing #2

(LATE POST)

As I had experimented with the personal factor of moving house and the changes this had inflicted on my family I took it upon myself to document this whilst home for a few days. I did this as I wasn't sure whether I wanted to change my idea and the direction of my work, After doing this I very much preferred the work I had originally began to create, I don't feel this work is a waste of time in any way as it gave me the opportunity to experiment with film and a form of documentary work which is personal to me and may wish to carry on privately. In order for me to be able to upload this video I had to put it onto YouTube which I didn't really want to do as it's quite a private matter, but for some reason I wasn't able to do it any other way.

This was supposed to be a piece of work which consisted of a series of Videos with image inserts of my house changing and perhaps the distance between certain family members and myself, I didn't feel I was ready to create this work yet and It isn't something I want to have as public information, it is for that reason I will not follow it through for my narrative unit. However this did give me an opportunity to play around with different means of presentation and ways of recording a narrative which for me I think made me realise also that making a film using a film camera isn't something I'm quite ready for yet and hopefully will learn over the summer as I want to have experience in this too.

This is the first of many videos I took whilst being at home, this one is just of me explaining what I will be doing for the next few days and going into small detail of what happened and why I'm doing what I am. I did find the microphone on my camera doesn't work very well at picking up sound so if this is something I want to try again I will use some sound recording equipment to up the quality.
It took me quite a lot of courage to be able to do this as what happened hit the family quite hard, I was really annoyed about uploading this video as I wasn't able to actually upload it without first up loading it to YouTube which I really didn't want to do soooo after the review this will 100% be coming down!

In reflection of doing these videos I feel they've worked well in creating a documentation of how I felt during a certain time in my life, it is something very personal to me and the work I could create from this would work well as a narrative, however this isn't something I want to be publicly known as I have said before it is something private which I would like to carry on in my own time, I have taken many videos from my last trip to my childhood some but it does take about 3 hours to upload to YouTube and is very time consuming for what I'm doing and as this isn't something I want to pursue for this unit it doesn't seem worth it to upload like 30 videos of me moaning about my feelings.

However despite this, this has given me the opportunity to play around with filming and experiment with change through out my work as well as using videoing as a different medium to taking photographs, my aim is to combine both video and film which is something again would have fitted well but it not what I will do right now.

Home Videoing

I had to go home last week quite unexpectedly as I wasn't sure quite when this was happening it was a bit of a surprise, so due to this I had to cancel the shoot I had planned for that week which would have given me more time to experiment with my photos and creative a stronger series of images and final digital piece, I did re arrange my shoot but that will be explained later.

As we need to explore different style of Narrative I took it upon myself to photograph my house as it was being emptied in stages as well as videoing the process and also videoing myself talking about what is happening and it has effected me. This is a particularly private piece for me as it is something I feel strongly about.
In the end of this process I want to either create a video with image inserts or a series of short videos of me documenting this particular change in my life, this is something I would like to work on outside of my Narrative unit but I found this fit rather well with the brief and what it is I have been researching. This idea of mine is similar in the style of work as

In some of the videos I created when I went home I reflect on memories from the home I lived in I also speak about the changes and how it has effected me since last summer, as the move was happening there and then I also speak about how I'm feeling about the changing happening around me with things that are not so familiar to me.
For some reason I am unable to upload the videos at the moment so at a later date I will post the videos, as I said I managed to photograph the house, here are some of the images of the rooms being empty.

Flash Testing Experiments

The other day before I was able to shoot I thought I would try and practice with my compact digital flash on my camera as I want to create a cinematic atmosphere within my photographs to fit in with the Film Noir style, I will be shooting in colour and editing in post production as I feel shooting in this way works better for me and the overall finish of the photos before and after editing are higher in quality.

The first shot of this image was highly over exposed, this was because I had the camera on the wrong settings. I altered the camera to shutter priority and adjusted the flash thus. this image was taken in complete darkness as you can see from the window it is dark outside and I had no lights on in the hallway, this image is still slightly over exposed but in comparison to others it works well.

This image like above is a shot of the bedroom I will hopefully be shooting in for my film (with some tweaking of furniture) I took this image again in darkness with no lights on to receive the desired effect, again it took some shooting to get the right image to be light appropriately, however this is not the style lighting I am hoping to be using for the final shoot.

After much fiddling with the equipment I found a way to use my wireless sync equipment for my camera and flash and was able to experiment with the placement of the flash strategically placed around the room, for this image I placed the flash under the blanket facing up towards the pillows as you can see from the directional lighting, despite the lighting being very much at the background of the image I still think this image works well as the outer edge of the image is darker than the back of the room giving a slightly more atmospheric appearance to the image, if I had a subject in the image where the 'glow' of the light is I feel this would work as a strong image.

In my screenplay the description of the 'apartment' I'm shooting in is covered with dark shadows up the walls making the rooms dark in contrast, this is something I needed to experiment with before the night of my shoot with my actors so that I don't waste time and I know exactly what I'm doing to create my images how I see them when I think about how I see them looking like when its complete. I like this image as I feel the flash works well to create harsh shadows thrown up the walls which is what I want for my images, despite a lot of darkness being in the centre of the image (on the bed) I still think this is a successful image giving a lot of atmosphere to the room and is something I am pleased with the outcome.

This image is the same as the coloured one above however for this image I altered it to be in black and white and added a sepia filter to make the image look slightly older with a rustic feel to it. I feel this works quite well with the theme of work I want to create being mostly based in the 1940s where colour film was only just being experimented with. With the rest of my images I will experiment with the same if not other similar techniques to see which works better and is more appealing to the eye.
Doing this helped me to work out what style of lighting I would like to experiment with for my work for this reason I found it very useful.

Chris Marker | La Jetee

Chris Marker created a film/sequence comprising entirely of photographs with this he used a voice over to tell the story of the post nuclear war experiment in time travel, the video is 28 minutes long which personally I find to be quite a long piece of film considering it is more or less all still photographs. I find the film to be quite moving and sad, the tone of voice used helps to give depth and feeling to the men and women who are featured in the film, not only this but the music which accompanies the film is also that of a sad nature which really cuts deep for me personally as it really does add more to the emotion of the images being shown to us in a slow manner. 

This video in particular uses a flashback narrative strategy this is shown in a way that uses photographs to bring the viewer back to a time in which they are trying to reach at the same time as the man undergoing the experiment is experiencing it. The video helps to document the experiment and what happened during this time as well as the man's own experiences. The narration over the top helps to glide the story along with the added help of visual imagery moving at a pace which is sufficient with the story.

This work is similar to the style of work I would like to produce. After my tutorial with Ellen Nolan I decided to look at creating film still images to work in a sequence similar to this rather than creating a film in the short time which I have before the mid review, So as far as this research is concerned I feel this fits very well with my work as this is also working as a linear narrative with the imagery within the story as well as focusing on flashbacks. A flashback isn't something I would like to create in my work personally as I don't feel at the moment as my work is in depth enough with the story to incorporate this, However the aspect of using a voice over is something I would very much like to experiment with within this unit.

Video Sourse: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yqMEc0oe4yc

Shoot Locations | Part One

After having the screenplay for my work written I needed to find locations to shoot which would fit well with the story that has been created, some aspects of my student house would work well so I took some images of it to show which aspects of the story would fit with the particular location.

This is the main hallway in my house, within the screenplay the main actor walks into the hallway of the apartment with the doors closed apart from the one directly in front of him, this location may work well as this is the doorway into my kitchen which corresponds to the action in the story, the stairs on the left hand side pose a slight problem as there wouldn't be stairs in a 1940's apartment let alone today as well, as time is short on producing this part of the work it will suffice for now until I am able to get access to somewhere else. Using the same door the second image would demonstrate the door being 'slightly ajar' with light pouring through the crack as it is open. 

As Jack enters the kitchen I want to include as shot of the kitchen, as this is directly at the back of the house I wanted to use my kitchen and attempt to make it appear older than it is, this will be the only shot of the kitchen before I use close ups of props to tell the narrative. 

As for the rest of the locations I would like to shoot I wasn't able to get access right away to shoot and some of the places are not 100% decided on just yet. I'm planning on having the images in black and white originally shot in colour so I am able to adjust saturation and make them have the atmosphere I am looking for. I do feel that time is particularly short for what I am hoping to create but I'm hoping to have something for the formative assessment which I can later work on at a later date. 

John Smith | 'The girl chewing gum'

John Smith created a film titled 'The girl chewing gum'  in 1976 in which a film is being made on  a corner of a busy street, with a voice-over seemingly dictating what will be happening in the duration of the film. Throughout the film the directions slowly become more evident that they are slightly absurd, it soon becomes clear from watching the video through that the 'director' is the one who is fictional and he is only describing the events that are taking place in front of him, Smith says that in this form of video he is playing words against the picture rather than the other way around in your usual filming style whilst also using the chance of something happening against the order. the voice-over is sharp and direct not allowing us to realise how this film has been constructed until the scenarios become slightly witty and laughable.

This is one of my favourite video pieces as I find it to be done incredibly well considering this is all been done down to chance using visuals to direct a scene however using words against the picture, the first time I watched this video I found it to be quite confusing as I wasn't quite sure how it was created or what exactly was going on in the video, as the film develops your able to see and make an understanding of what the director is doing and what he is challenging. As the video/director is gradually annotating events happening as they do it is using a linear format as there are no flashbacks just a continuous story in time, however as their is also the element of a voice over dictating the events this is showing a dual narrative being used as their are two elements telling the story, the film and the voice over.

I very much like the idea of using a voice over and it is something that I may look into further in use with my own work, for the narrative I am wishing to tell I feel it would fit in quite well with telling my story in perhaps a dual narrative structure.