Experimental Films: Just The Little Things
Recently a group of fellow filmmakers and I have started working together in a small production company. Going by the name of Magpie Media we have taken the plunge into working together as a dedicated team.
So together we partook in an exercise to create shoot and edit a short experiential film in six hours. However, first, we needed to come up with an idea get us started.
After an hour of just talking about themes and different things that could we generate an idea from, I suggested we go give the Gallery of Modern Art a visit to look a the experiential films and art pieces that are on display. We agreed to use visual stimuli would be the best way to engage ourselves in the practice. We eventually did find an art piece that gave us a solid base for an idea.
Anthony Mcall’s manipulations of light were the key spark to helping us generate an idea for the experimental film. It was clear we wanted to lights to be the strength of telling of our film. With the art having multiple perspectives an individual can view it, we wanted that to be our theme. We also wanted to take the meaning of colour (i.e red for anger) and make that a key feature. With this basic idea in mind, we went to our Lecturer to help develop the film further.
This lead to the next piece of experimental work that inspired the team. David Lynch’s Alphabet gave us the mood we wanted to strive for, creepy and disturbing, yet still, have a deeper meaning behind it. Lynch’s work played a lot with disturbing sounds, which became the final key component to helping develop the idea. We took the theme of mental illness in the form of Hyperosmia (the exaggeration of senses) and our inspirations to create ‘The Little Things”.
With the theme selected we set out to into the pre-production. This was, of course, standard procedure for us, create a script, shot list, source our actor and build the set. As a side note, this was the first time I have help direct in the building of a set from scratch with no supervision, and the team was quite proud of the outcome.
With the set built we began production the next day.
The key component of creating this film was to shoot it and edit it within six hours. Though I feel as though we were able to apply ourselves efficiently to this time limit, due to us all having a strong vision of what we wanted and what needed to be done. However shooting within in this time limit was also the most difficult. Though we had done a large amount of pre-production, it still took us a while to set up the lights in an efficient manner. Because of the time limit, we were not able to fine tune our lighting to the amount we would have liked, and had to settle for the way it looked. (Which was fine for most of the shots as we needed bland basic lighting.) This time constraint also meant we were continuously moving meaning we rarely did any safety shots which is extremely risky. There were some continuity errors that slipped through, and some coverage issues which impacted the effectiveness of the film in the edit suite. I also discovered that due to the lack of time, we were not able to be as fully creative as we would have liked to be in some areas. So it is clear that working under this time limit was the most difficult part of the project. However, I feel as though it also added a nice challenge to the experience that I do appreciate.
After working on this film I have found something quite unexpected happens. I was someone who stated he did not like art or experimental cinema because I saw it as an excuse just to do random acts put it together and call it a film. Now I understand that experimental cinema is more than that, and there is an art to it. As people who just put no effort it and just call it art for an excuse really have no place in this film form as much as I though. Experimental cinema is thought through and crafted with extreme effort and care, even more than some more main stream oriented films. I appreciate the hard work that goes into these films now and sees that there is delicate planning to create a deeper meaning that is personal for the creator. This project has born a brand new respect and appreciation for art and experimental cinema.
There are few things I have learned from this experience that I wish to start to implement into my own work. For example, I wish to take a more out of the box approach to the work I do. Instead of always sticking to the same conventions of trying to recreate mainstream cinema, I will now attempt to bring forth a more personal and creative approach to my practice. Even putting small experimental influenced components/scenes in a more mainstreamed aligned project will show personal creative flair. This will help distinguish me from the mainstream and creating a more memorable appeal. Especially with a lot of other aspiring filmmakers in the same position as I am, try to mimic mainstream cinema which creates a sea of similar content. Stepping out of this mindset and bringing a level of individuality and personality will even make the overall product more meaningful to me and hopefully to the audience. I feel as though this project has also invigorated a new side passion in creating these experimental films, as already my team and I wish to make another one where we improve on the previous mistakes and learn even more about this form of film.
After our first completion of the project and reviewing what we had created, I definitely believe there are some steps to be taken into proving the quality. Changing the pace was a key thing, creating a more sense of ramping up to something bigger, with faster cuts and more exaggerated sounds. This would in-turn help with the issue with the narrative we were going for, is that there is not really an ending, which impacts on the film. By increasing the exaggeration with each repeat of the day to the point where is the ending is extremely confronting will extremely help make a larger payoff, and adding small tweaks here and there could also help. Also, some cinematography could also have been changed to further improve the overall project. Lighting was off in some situations and some shots could have been more creative. Post wise things could also have tightened up, and a bit more sound syncing was required in areas. All in all, I still believe the video was a success and I am quite happy to have had this experience.
Overall I really enjoyed the experience of making this film. Through all the stages of production, I found it challenging yet satisfying to create this concept and see it through. I have grown a new appreciation for this film form, and will defiantly begin to integrate it into my own work. However, there is always room for improvement and reflecting on the first draft our editor wants to rework some area. This project has also made our group eager to do it all again because it was just that great of an experience.
