Self Evaluation

I attended all the sessions bar two due to illness. Due to the nature of the module I felt that more would be gained by attending as many workshops as possible. I think in some workshops I could have attempted more. Particularly, in the visual effects workshops, I didn’t do a lot of experimentation with the software. I think if I had, I would have been able to get a better understanding of the software itself but also be more confident in using independently. As it stands, I feel that I would struggle to use After Effects and Mia. In the workshops in the workstation, I’m quite pleased with how things turned out. In the time given. I think Alice and I planned our time well in making all the different elements for the scenes. I think the only thing that didn’t work well is the small liquid latex wound that we made for the actor. I think that we spend so much time trying to work on the fake arm and hand that this had to be made at the last minute. As a lot my time during the workshops was spent making special effects, I didn’t have a lot of involvement with the actual set build and set design. I think that I could have been more proactive in helping out here, when extra hands were needed.

 

For me, the main section of the piece that did not work was the part with the bleeding walls down the corridor. I think that main reason for this is how the blood was dispensed on the other side of the walls. Initially, I thought that drilling small holes and then syringing blood through would work, however, now it is easy to see why it didn’t. The blood fell too cleanly in a line, which ultimately led it to be fairly un-creepy. I think one of the ways of achieving an effect of blood seeping, or flowing, from the walls, would be to create a guttering system behind and on the top of the wall. I imagine a piece of guttering secured to the entire length of the flat and then filled with blood. Perhaps one of the problems with our version was a fairly small supply of blood. Then, upon cue, the guttering would be lifted and turned over to the other side of the wall, thus allowing all the blood to fall down the sides. I think a large volume of blood, falling all at once, would create more of a dramatic effect.

I think on of the most successful parts of the film is the scene inside the bedroom. I think this is in part due to the set design. I think that it looks really convincing and fits the ‘uncanny’ brief without going too over board or looking cheesy. The opening scene in which the actor ‘rises’ from the bed I think does work, as does the section in which the book falls upon mini Paul and bleeds. I also think that the scene with the chopping of the hand is really effective. I am really pleased with how that turned out and it is probably the part of the project that I am most proud of.

Throughout the workshops I learnt a number of different techniques. The first thing was how to set up and manipulate the set in the Workstation. The main thing I think I learnt, was relating to special effects. Throughout many of the workshops, I had to create fake body parts. I really enjoyed doing this and I think the techniques I learnt will be transferable and useful for future projects. When creating with the fake arm, we spent some time experimenting with the liquid latex, testing its durability and how long it took to try. Overall, I think the fake hand was successful; when it came to shooting the scene, I thought it was very effective. However, I think that the fake arm was less so. Though the actual blood and puss coming out looked ok, the arm itself did not look that great. I think that its shape was a bit too rigid. We also had an issue with the colour, and the acrylic paint drying with a shine. Compared to the actors arm too, it did not look similar. To improve on this, I think that we should have moulded the arm with the actor present and try to match the paint more closely with his specific skin tone. We perhaps could of taken pictures to refer too, for when the actor wasn’t available. Also, we could have tried to add more texture to the arm, and added arm hair, using either real hair or hair from a brush or broom.

Similar problems to this occurred with the miniature wound that we made to go on to the actors arm. This difference in skin tone was too obvious and I think made the whole think look gimmicky. We also had a problem with securing the wound to the actors arm. I think that we should have researched this in advance as we ended up using plasters to tack down the edges. This would have been okay for an extreme close up, however a Mid/CU may have been preferred.

For the group project, as I was involved with a lot of the special effects, I did some research into prosthetics. This was predominantly to give me an idea of what people were creating and on what kind of budget. I think this was mainly useful in giving me a good understanding of what we would be able to achieve with our available resources.

For my personal projects I looked at a wide range of inspiration. For the first proposal, the project idea arose after looking at the work of Francis Bacon. I think the rest of the idea grew from there as this was my only real piece of research for this particular assignment. I am quite happy with the proposal though and I think that as Bacon’s work is so vivid and visual, it was enough to for fill this brief.

The final personal proposal was a much harder to develop. I think that this was because of how open it was, it was harder to find a starting point. With the first proposal, having ‘uncanny’ as a starting point immediately led me to think of Francis Bacon. Therefore, beginning the final proposal was much harder. Due to the word limit I decided from the start that I would not attempt to write a scene from a feature film but focus on something much smaller. Music has always been very influential for me so I think that the idea for a music video arose from this.

The work of the Japanese artist, Li Hongbo, is something that I came across a long time ago. I think the nature of work was so unusual that it really stuck with me. I really liked how his work looks at first some simple and normal yet then turns into something completely different and very unusual. I think I was attracted to this idea that something can appear to be one way but then turns out to be another.

As Hongbo’s work is so visual and original I thought that I would be interesting to apply his idea to moving objects. I do dancing outside of university, so the idea of using dancers came to me quite quickly. The most challenging aspect of the proposal was coming up with further elements to distort within the scene. I envisaged the scene taking place on a busy road so I brainstormed what one might see on a typical side street lined with cafes and shops. The idea of flower shop was appealing to me because, firstly, it is a very visual and colourful element to add. Secondly, I thought that you could really play with the form and shape of different flowers. This, I think could create quite a nice ‘bridge’ sequence from the rest of the piece.

I think that the success of my proposal relies heavily on choreography. I think to achieve a good piece, the movements would have to be very carefully considered and designed to make the most of the body movement. I also think that the piece as a whole needs to be choreographed to ensure that each element and movement complements the other. The central piece of the music video will be the movement and contortion of the dancers and their bodies. I think that this would be made possible by using after effects and some very sophisticated editing.

For the smaller scale pieces in the film, I would like to attempt to recreate Li Hongbo’s technique, and use hundreds of layers of paper stuck together. The movement could be made on screen by the structures being built around an electronic rod that moved by controls. Alternatively, I think that you add pieces of fishing wire to the object (for example, a flower petal) and then pull this, creating the effect of free movement. I think that this would be particularly effective if done on a small scale, much like many of the set pieces on fantasy feature films.

I think that I have learnt a lot during the module. Before taking it, I had very little knowledge of set design and special effects. I have already been to put some of the techniques I have learnt into practice, which was great. I think I would have struggles creating fake blood and wounds before this. I think that I still could improve on my ability and knowledge in visual effects, as here I think a lot of what I can do is very basic. I think that the main way to achieve this would be if I spent a lot of time using the software and practising the techniques we were shown as well as experimenting with new ones. This is particularly relevant in relation to my proposal. As music videos are an area I am really interested in, I think that I need to really improve my post production knowledge.

As for the presentation, I think I could have done a lot better. I am really unhappy with how it went, and I think that this was heavily down to nerves and my dislike of speaking in front of others. I am glad that I did it though as I think that it is really good practice to stand in front of people and share your own ideas; in time I think it can really help you to be more confident in your own ideas. This is what I will take most from the experience; to have an idea and have the guts to run with it. The best presentations were by people who did this.

The proposal itself I think still needs further work. I struggled with conveying the idea across through words and I think this is really clear. The vision in my head is not what appears on the page. In part, this probably because of the idea itself and the fact that it is so heavily based around music, but I think that I should have made better use of grammar to give the proposal a rhythm when you read it.

Overall, I am happy with how I did in the workshops and the special effects work that I produced. However, I think that I needed to do a lot more outside of the classes both in terms of the homework and set and as further research for my own projects.