Crash Essay

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/384904/movie_comparisoncontrast_crash_and.html?cat=40

oo revision

worktarawork - aims andcontext cover sheet

WORK TARA WORK
Aims & Context cover sheet


For our creative project; Myself, Tara Costello, Callum Jackson and George Elfwood plan to create a short film three minutes in length. I plan to take on the role of director, and my main tasks will to shoot our footage and help in the construction of the mise-en-scene. The lighting shall be ambient to keep the setting looking as naturalistic as possible; this will be paired with a messy mise-en-scene within a school classroom. This working environment within a classroom will be captured on film throughout Work Tara Work, anchoring the narrative and allowing the audience to develop an understanding of the characters intentions and her school background.

My role within our project will be to direct and film the majority of our footage. I will make sure that my camera work is concise and sufficient in capturing the mindset of our protagonist Tara. Overall I hope to film at least ten minutes of footage, repeating various scenes all from different angles to allow a lot of fast paced editing in post-production which shall add to its (sometimes) fast paced style. Work Tara Work will not be a specific genre piece, but we envisage it to be a modernistic outlook of school life and “geeks” in school who work hard; challenging the stereotype that all geeks are kids in glasses who do nothing but work all day.

In a stylistic sense; Work Tara work will be an intimate piece of film focusing upon one person, yet it will still be fast paced at times to anchor her work-crazy mindset. To capture this I plan to use a variety of shots whilst filming: close ups of her expressions and gestures to anchor her “workaholic” mind frame, panning shots of the room to help establish the mise-en-scene for the audience, and various point of view shots to allow the audience to see from Tara’s perspective. A tripod will be used for shots such as the establishing shot, but the rest will be hand held to allow it to become more realistic; allowing the audience to feel like they’re with Tara in the room watching her. I also plan to improvise for a short while once we’ve finished the bulk of filming, which I hope will add an element of spontaneity to Work Tara work.

Our aim is for our short film to appeal to a young, “modern” demographic, we hope to have added in a non-diegetic mainstream electro soundtrack to our piece which would add to its appeal to a youth audience. Also through use of camera work I will establish that Tara is a student in school studying/working hard on her sketchbooks; hopefully this will also help Work Tara Work cater for a youth audience.

reflective analysis mhmmm

Reflective Analysis - Work Tara Work.

For the FM1 creative project, myself, Tara Costello, Callum Jackson and George Woolford decided to work together to create a short film. After planning and preparation we came up with the idea for “Work Tara Work” - a short film based upon a girl who has the impulse to do nothing but work within her sketchbook. (the name was inspired by Run Lola Run) We wanted to make the protagonist somewhat hyperbolic with her work, yet we strived to make the mundane task of “work” seem more fun, or worthwhile as a workaholic would see it.

My role within the group was to film the majority of the footage and help motivate the group along the way.(director). On our first filming date we all set up the mise-en-scene within an art classroom; making the table messy and full of items which someone who was working within a sketchbook would use. Items such as: pencils, scalpels, pencil shavings, drink, cut up magazines and glue. We wanted to emphasize her constant desire for work, as that was what our narrative framework was to be built upon. As camera man I decided to film the opening of the film, which is just Tara flipping through her book, numerous times from different angles to allow fast paced editing and experimentation during post production between different shots. Flipping through 6 pages within one shot would have been boring, whereas cuts between them from different angles paired with music adds life to the film. Also we decided at the start to have the title of the film integrated into the film instead of adding it in during post production, so we wrote “Work Tara Work” on the front of her book and I filmed this as our opening shot.

To introduce the mise-en-scene I filmed two tracking shots panning from left to right, which showed the room and environment which Tara was working in. These work as they establish the mise-en-scene for the audience and from this we gather that she is a student studying what seems to be art work in an art class room: developing the audiences understanding of the short film and its narrative.

We decided as a group to add the notion of repetition within the film, focusing on her constant use of masking tape. So I filmed her pulling and ripping masking tape from various angles to allow them to be edited into faster sequences in post-production. Which adds a faster pace to our film at times and breaks the mundane stereotype of “work” that some people may hold; work can be fun or exhilarating depending upon your individual perspective or mindset. Further on in the filming process I filmed various angles of Tara slicing paper on a guillotine, once again this was so that during post-production this could be edited at different intervals when she was cutting pieces of paper; our film relies heavily upon it’s pieces of fast paced editing and I feel I made this possible due to my determination to capture as much footage from different angles to allow for various possibilities during editing.

I also decided to film various point-of-view shots to allow the audience to see from Tara’s perspective; one shot in particular where she seeks and grabs a roll of masking tape works particularly well. Mainly because the way the camera moves follows her arm movements clutching for masking tape and allows the audience to view the mise-en-scene as Tara would; allowing us an insight into her frantic workaholic mindset.

I feel I as if my role as director was carried out successfully. Overall we had filmed over twelve minutes of varied footage which we felt we could successfully piece together to create a successful short film. In retrospect I don’t feel like we should have done anything differently; we worked as a team, each with our own roles and places throughout the making of our film and now I feel our efforts have been made worthwhile. Our film is of high quality edited in Final Cut Pro, and filmed on broadcast cameras which I feel added to the professionalism of our creative piece and made it as stylistically rich as it is. Given the chance again all I would have done differently was not underestimate the endless possibilities of editing and how the editing in a creative piece can either make it successful, or fail abysmally.