Dark Imaginations

Shadowplay from Flat-e on Vimeo.


Music by Ultre

 

A collaborative parnership of two film makers and visual artists Robin McNicholas, Matt Bateman and Rob Slater. Flat-E created a very Dark short film financed by Screen Yorkshire, Yorkshire Forward & UK Film Council.

Within this short a fairground lures children into a magical surrounding that soon turns itself into a monstrous environment, much like a lot of the dark fairy tales we hear of the past. The Cinematography is very Noir like, with its chiaroscuro lighting, capturing the faces spotlighted within the darkness.

The music by Ultre compliments the twisted, circus like quality perfectly. The video is quite a disturbing one overall, when we move into into the more violent section. I think it my be going on to ideas of displaced violence, where parents try to protect there children with the violent world around them with fantasy, although we see this displaced violence trying to invade that protection.

I think that the video piece has a lot of great stylistic features and art direction, it really builds into a magical atmosphere that gets shattered half way though. I wasn't sure that the music during the change into the violent atmosphere was as effective as the beginning.

Im quite keen on the way its shown this idea of displaced violence. most of all though since its quite a conceptual piece, I was interested in its stylistic elements such as the Noir like Lighting, the circus/ alchemical themed art direction which is something Ive been interested a lot in from Terry Gilliam's films and also the fantastical deranged music by Ultre is a great inspiration. i will carry on exploring these elements to develop into the film.


Other Links: BBC Film Network, Behance Network

Experienced: Darren Almond - The Principle of Moments

Venue: White Cube, London, Until Oct 2nd (Free)

'Anthropocene: The Prelude'

On the 21st of September I witnessed work by Darren Almond within the contemporary, White Cube gallery.  Darren Almond had created two pieces for the gallery; one, a time based weather incurred photographic collection of the same shot, shaped into tiny squares across the top floor. The second was a fantastic 3 screen installation of archival styled footage of the Artic breaking apart. The two front screens were in motion with one moving up and the other inverted. The screen at the back was mainly a static image showing extreme weather conditions.

The Installation was accompanied by a haunting sound scape by composer Max Ritcher. The soundscape is what struck me first before I even laid my eyes on the visuals, its quality was very atmospheric, foreboding and quite Lynchian. With the visuals and sound together, I felt as though I was being sucked into and enveloped within the Artic's dark, solitary atmosphere.

In relation to the Film, the installation's and stylization and atmosphere of the Artic is something I could take on for the beginning animation. Although I find that this is something that takes time to engulf yourself with the atmosphere, it would be hard with the short film to achieve a similar atmosphere in the short amount of time I have, although Max Ritcher's sound design could also be inspiring throughout the film.




Original Source: White Cube, Time Out London
Image Source Studio-International

Final Major Project Short Film: 'Graces Fall'

At the beginning of my third year in University im acquired to do sufficient research for my final major project. For this FMP I want to place down a lot of my electronic secondary research  within this blog. I decided to put this in blog form as I can take advantage of:

- Labeling; to keep every stage organised within paticular subjects.
- Comments; so that people can view the posts and comment to understand other peoples views. Anyone working on the film can understand he thought process behind it.
-  Video; Its difficult to put up electronic research such as a video within a sketch book, this is the best place to put up high quality video's.
- Editing; the ability to go back and edit any posts.