Finn Barmer: January 2014

Smoke and Mirrors, Evaluation of a short film by Finn Barmer Good vs Evil For this assignment we were given a choice of subjects to make a short film about and we had to use one of 4 themes: - Good Vs Evil. - Triumph Over Adversity. - Death as a Part of Life. - Man/Woman Vs Nature. I chose Good vs Evil. Initially I was thinking of doing a zombie type film, and did a lot of research in to this, looking at many old and new zombie type films to try to work out my story. I researched some older black and white films and looked at what had been scary 50 years ago and what is scary now. This occupied a lot of my time as I am aware that with my short film I wanted to create a real atmosphere and at the same time it is only short, and also I am aware of my own limitations. I looked at the films Blade and was trying to create something along similar lines, then I re thought my ideas after looking at this type of film and rethought my ideas. I thought about how I could hint at something scary without actually showing it this seems to make things more atmospheric nowadays as special effects are so good and so well known, the “edge” is somehow often lost. I also looked at soundtracks, it seemed like most films of this type use classical type music to add to the atmosphere. I looked at many films and listened to many soundtracks. I had decided on a soundtrack for my film, with no vocals, as I felt that this detracted from the musicality of the sound track and I wanted people to feel the music not think about what may or may not be being said. I liked the soundtracks to some of the earlier avant garde films, really eerie, for example the film “un chien andalou” made in the 1920s. I decided that I would use a forest or woods as my setting for this film, as I liked the shadows and reflections in the woods and somehow footage of running through trees adds an element of fear always and of course is much used in many films and series – the Danish series “the killing” for one, Blair witch project, etc. I did a first storyboard based on the idea of a guy meeting his friends in a forest late at night for a hunting trip, when he gets there he starts to realise that something has gone terribly wrong. I managed to get a gopro camera over xmas and shot some experimental footage at dusk in a woods using my brothers as bodies dashing through the trees to see how I could achieve what I wanted. I was aware that the camera angles were going to play a huge part in my film especially in the wooded setting, I wanted to re create a bit of a swirling effect with someone being lost and confused, I was thinking of Saul Bass and his titles for vertigo and some of the Bond movies. This was much more difficult than I had at first thought, and I did not manage to get my footage to match my expectations at all. Plus I also realised that as part of my brief was to use special effects, that this idea would not work as really I had come to the conclusion that to get the effect I wanted there were not going to be many special effects. So I went back to the drawing board. I saw an advert for The Guardian which was about looking at things from different angles and how a different perspective can tell a completely different story. This inspired me. I thought about perceptions and new footage and objectivity and how we all tend to “judge a book by its cover” whether we want to or not. So I created another storyboard using as a base a story told from different angles, the real story becoming clearer with each one. Depending on the point of view. As it turned out it was actually useful to have gone through the preproduction stage already with my first idea, I was much clearer about what I wanted to shoot and the aim of my film. This was a much more realistic project for me, and I knew when I shot it what the effects I wanted to add would be, so the execution of the production stage was much more efficient. It was important that the pace was fast, given that I had a story to tell three ways in just one minute, so I did a lot of planning of the shoot sequence and I thought about and planned the camera angles carefully. I wanted it to be clear that this was the same scene from different points of view if you like, so the scenes had to be the same but different, I was also aware of what effects I would be adding after I had done my filming. When I had set up the scene and got my friend to be the main character I filmed it all and was pleased with what I had done. I did an initial edit in goPro Studios before moving to the after effects . I used the Trapcode suite for the main special effects for the ending. I was really pleased with the special effects that I used, and I feel that one of the main positive elements for me in doing this assignment is the use of effects. However, now that I am more confident with after effects I feel that I would have shot things differently if I had been aware of the range available to me and the things I could have done that I simply had not thought of. I am pleased with the end result and I think the addition of the flames in the first flame shot is good and makes the viewer think differently about the person they had thought was a house burglar. And then in the final scene where you realise that this has been a set up – the third and final twist, I am really pleased with how the effect tells the story, I didn’t need to show someone being burnt to death to show that this was the outcome, I liked very much the mixture of the flames with the graphic interpretation on the final scene. I still had to get a suitable sound track however, so I again looked at different tracks and types of music, and realised that what I had thought of using – i.e. a classical type instrumental sound track would be hard to achieve and just didn’t hit the right note. I realised I needed something more urban, so initially I planned on using a DNB soundtrack, a instrumental, beat heavy club track. This gave the feeling of urgency, the feeling of something building up to a conclusion. But it wasn't quite what I needed, and as it is a short film, I wanted the sound track to be spot on, sounds with motion. I decide to record my own sound track beatboxing along to my final cut and that way, though very time consuming; I was able to ensure that the sound matched the actions really well. I used Audacity to create the soundtrack, and then after effects to add the sound to the film, thought this technology is familiar to me, it was a really useful exercise, and I am pleased I was able to get an urgent, mood building soundtrack to my film, I feel that this is a really important part of it. Overall this has bee a really good exercise for me to do, though it was frustrating doing a whole lot of pre production work on a film I ended up not doing, overall this enabled me to focus better on my final idea and to in fact plan it better. As ever I wish I had given myself more time. I feel that I have learnt a great deal about after effects and how to use effects in them, which is great, but what I would have done differently is to do more research into different available special effects at the post production stage as I feel I was a b t limited by my own preconceptions about what I could do in this field, and I could have broadened this if I had looked more into the After Effects programme initially. However I am pleased with my final piece and feel I have met the brief successfully.