workshop of Roger

Last Friday, Roger had separated us into 2 groups of four people, our group's topic is talking about the different culture in different countries. Jayne is the director of us and she booked a studio to shoot because she want the picture in a studio-style. So when we were shooting, she put the red-head into pictures. At the beginning I felt a bit strange, but the light of the picture is OK. Roger said that the white screen is not clean enough and there is some dirty handprint on it. In the evening, my teammate Lee came to my house to shoot a series of shots about Chinese culture, actually just the picture of I was cooking. And now I am editing.

Learning agreement

School of Art and Design                                                                             2013/14

MA:	Learning Agreement

Name:

Ye Yuan

Course:

MA in Film Practice

Date:

26/11/2013

What is your subject of study?

My subject is learning about making the flashback and flash forward in films. Flashback is a technique in post-production as well as an interjected scene that takes the narrative back in time from the current point the story has reached. For example, in the film Citizen Kane (1941), the story then revisits Kane’s life in a series of nonlinear flashbacks that could be confusing, but the facts needed to understand it are presented in the exposition (Block, 2008). In films, using flashbacost-production. k is to alert the audiences that the action shown is from the past. A crawl is a longer expositional statement about the upcoming story (Block, 2008). Flashforward is an interjected scene that takes the narrative forward in time from the current point of the story in literature, film, television and other media. The flashforward is unthinkable in the classical narrative cinema, which seeks to retard the ending, emphasize communicativeness, and play down self-consciousness (Bordwell, 1985). So I am thinking about making research on the mental activities of characters in films, because many temporal disruptions are interesting and can bring audiences to many different backgrounds.

What is your research question?

How to use flashback or flash forward to display what actors or actresses are thinking by pictures?

Research aim(s):

1. Understanding of narrative and how flashbacks or flash-forwards are used to display different background informations to audiences in theories.

2. Having knowledge of effects in flashbacks and flash-forwards in films.

3. Understanding how to make flashbacks or flash-forwards in films.

4. Finding case studies about flashback or flash-forward in films

Research objectives(s):

What are the specific tangible project objectives?

Note: these are separate to what you personally need to learn in terms of skills and knowledge, see learning objectives below.

1.         Read more books and find out more about the kinds of flashbacks and flash-forwards in films.

2.         Watch more films which are contained flashbacks or flash-forwards.

3.         Learn from the case studies which are founded, try to understand why directors use flashbacks or flash-forwards here and the effects of them.

4.         Try to imitate what I learned from case studies and make films.

Rationale

·         What is the wider context of your project?

                     

Using flashbacks or flash-forwards to display character's mental activity can extend more spheres in films. One of the spheres is about narrative and stories structures in films. Things like flashbacks and flash-forwards bring audiences temporal disruption as well as take audiences to another point from the current one. These will affect the stories' development and narrative structure. Such as the narrative structure in television, the narratives present a special case compared with other narrative structures (Porter, et al., 2002). So, narrative theory can assist us to understand the intricacies of structure in narrative fiction. Most of the narratives structure follow a main line of events, actually, the story is the chronological succession that things will be happened or erupted in the end as the accumulation of the the successions. The narrative structure in documentaries are different from the television, there are two kinds of documentary narratives, one is classical, another is Postclassical. These two have in common is the mixing of documentary modes, in each, expository (voice-over), observational (handheld, silent), and interactive (talking head) formal devicess are combined in a short span of screen time, but in each, no cinematic punctuation marks the transition from on mode to another (Cagle, 2012). As for flashbacks or flash-forwards, it can be extended to documentaries as mentioned before, biography films as well, but also drama films. Flashback describes more past events which are relevant to nowadays; flash-forwards describes implications to some future events. Typically in films, flashback often functions to provide backstory in support of a main story line, being presented either as a continuous sequence or as a series of scenes showing only the crux of the backstory (Bae & Young, 2008).

·         How does the project relate to your previous experience/practice?

This project is related to my previous final practice in my BA learning. I have made a micro feature film in my final year, the film is talked about a couple's life. I used some flashbacks and flash-forwards to describe the main characters' psychological activities, I used flashbacks to describe the girl who was memorizing their happy and sweet life before they broke up. And flash-forwards were used to foresee some worse things which will be happened to the couple after their quarreling. These flashbacks and flash-forwards have many effects in my film, for example, some audiences showed empathy after seeing the flashbacks because these are similar to their experiences.

              

·         How does it relate to relevant current practices, debates and theory?

Flashbacks or flash-forwards are better used in displaying the characters’ mental activities, giving different backgrounds to audiences, memorizing the earlier events before the current and etc. As for flashbacks, which are said as functions to provide backstory in support of a main story line (Bae & Young, 2008). Like “Citizen Kane (1941)”, a biography film which is talking about Charles Kane’s whole life. The films used a lot of flashbacks to talk about his road of setting up the newspaper offices. When Kane’s colleagues memorizing the earlier events and thinking about them in current, the shot are changed to the picture of what they were doing in the time of the colleagues remembered immediately. It used flashbacks in order to support the main story line. Flashback is a narrative device that present story events out of temporal order, it describes some past events related to the present, typically in film media, flashback often functions to provide backstory in support of a main story line, being presented either as a continuous sequence or as a series of scenes showing only the crux of the backstory (Bae & Young, 2008). For example, flashback can depict a character’s recall of his or her own past events. As for flash-forward, it can present a character’s imaginations of possible outcomes.

·         Why is the intended research significant? (So what?)

Flashbacks or flash-forwards are always used in films. Some feature films and biography films always use flashbacks to recall some memory of earlier events from current period time. And using flashbacks can display what the characters are currently thinking or recalling about. As for flash-forwards, some sci-fi may use them to forecast the possible events will be happened in future. In my opinion, the research is meaningful in films because nearly every film uses flashbacks or flash-forwards, many things can be worked out from the research.

·         How does this project relate to your plans for the future?

I will make some films in future with flashbacks or flash-forwards. It can help me to describe character’s mental activities. Moreover, the main story line can be backed by flashbacks and flash-forwards.

Methodology

·         Outline the research, creative and intellectual methods you will employ to develop your research project.

1.         Use positivism and interpretvism to make the research and comparison in displaying character’s mental activities with flashbacks or flash-forwards in films. I will find out and understanding the theory of how flashbacks or flash-forwards are used to display different background information to audiences.

2.         Watch different styles of films and make deeper analysis on them, then find out the effect of using flashbacks or flash-forwards in films.

3.         Find out some case studies about films with flashbacks or flash-forwards as the first step said, and I will search in a wide range that I can get more suggestions and find out many questions. Furthermore, I will solve and work out the questions on the network or by reading in libraries then do the practices with more theories.

4.         Try to make films with flashbacks or flash-forwards to achieve better to display more different backgrounds to audiences and what the characters are thinking about.

5.         Gather more suggestions from more audiences, then try my best to improve my skills and solve more problems in my films and make them as the best.

·         Identify ethical considerations where appropriate.

If I want to shoot a film, the thing that I need to get is the permission. Some of the areas like government buildings and some private working areas don’t allow others to take photos and shoot videos in it. In addition, I should get the permission a few days before shooting a film and make great preparation on how to arrange timetables. As for the equipment, I should prepare for them and try to use them the proficient the better before shooting. And the batteries should be fully recharged so as to prevent from low battery status when shooting.

Learning objectives

·         Link to your personal skills audit and development plan; identify the skills that you will develop and knowledge that you need to acquire. Match the objectives against the MA programme learning outcomes.

1.         To learn and explore how flashbacks or flash-forwards work in films

2.         To understand how flashbacks or flash-forwards are used to display different background informations to audiences.

3.         To imitate some methods of films when using flashbacks or flash-forwards in shooting my own films, and make deep comprehension in these methods then shoot in my own styles.

4.         To learn how to use different digital cameras like Nikon D90 and how to use the post-production softwares like Adobe Premiere Pro, Adobe Audition or Final Cut Pro.

Submissions (practical and/or written work)

·         Describe your intended body of work, including your reflective journal and the summative critical review

I will make research on how flashbacks and flash-forwards work on films, and understanding the theories of how flashbacks or flash-forwards display different backgrounds and give more information to audiences. And finish my project of how to display mental activities in films with flashbacks or flash-forwards. As for my reflective journals, I write comments of films nearly every day and make some learning notes on it.

My reflective journal URL: http://yuan0329a.blogspot.co.uk

·         Specify the audience and communication context for your project.

The audiences may prefer the biography or feature films, and we can communicate and learn together as a group in reality or online.

·         Describe how you intend to evaluate/ test project outcomes with your audience.

I will show the films to my audiences and make the explanations to them, and let them understand my outcomes of my project. And I will acquire the suggestions, questions and problems from my audiences then I should try my best to answer the questions from my audiences, solve the problems and learn from the suggestions from them.

Resource implications

·         List what resources are required within or outside of the University

Digital Cameras, Computers, Studios, Tripods, Recording devices, Monitors, Rails and Arms.

·         Identify other organisations or individuals involved that you will rely upon and describe what role they will have

I consider that some actors and actress are needed, and I will find some proper scenes for shooting.

References

Cite material using the Harvard System referenced in the previous sections.

John W., 2006, Film Director of Photography. Cited in Chris J., Genevieve J., 2006, London: The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook, pp.260-261.

Welsh, J 2011, 'Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema by Todd Berliner', Journal of American Culture, 34, 3, pp.204, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

Porter, M, Larson, D, Harthcock, A,& Nellis, K 2002, 'Re(de)fining Narrative Events: Examining Television Narrative Structure', Journal of Popular Film & Television, 30, 1, pp. 23, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

CAGLE, C 2012, 'Postclassical Nonfiction: Narration in the Contemporary Documentary', Cinema Journal, 52, 1, pp. 45-65, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

Bae, B & Young, M, 2008, A Use of Flashback and Foreshadowing for Surprise Arousal in Narrative Using a Plan-Based Approach. USA: Interactive Storytelling, pp.156-167.

Movies:

Welles, O., 1941, ‘Citizen Kane’.

Bibliography

Cite essential background or contextual material using the Harvard System of referencing

Farn,E., Chen,L., and Liou,J., 2003, A new slow-motion replay extractor for soccer game videos. Taiwan: International Journal of Pattern Recognition and Articial Intelligence.17(8), pp.1467-1481.

John W., 2006, Film Director of Photography. Cited in Chris J., Genevieve J., 2006, London: The Guerilla Film Makers Handbook, pp.260-261.

Welsh, J 2011, 'Hollywood Incoherent: Narration in Seventies Cinema by Todd Berliner', Journal of American Culture, 34, 3, pp.204, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

Porter, M, Larson, D, Harthcock, A,& Nellis, K 2002, 'Re(de)fining Narrative Events: Examining Television Narrative Structure', Journal of Popular Film & Television, 30, 1, pp. 23, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

CAGLE, C 2012, 'Postclassical Nonfiction: Narration in the Contemporary Documentary', Cinema Journal, 52, 1, pp. 45-65, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 27 November 2013.

Bae, B & Young, M, 2008, A Use of Flashback and Foreshadowing for Surprise Arousal in Narrative Using a Plan-Based Approach. USA: Interactive Storytelling, pp.156-167.

Street, S 1996, 'Citizen Kane', History Today, 46, 3, p. 48, Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost, viewed 30 November 2013.

Movies:

Greengrass, P., 2013, ‘Captain Philips’.

Daniels, L., 2013, ‘the Butler’.

Chou, J., 2013, ‘the Rooftop’.

Black, S., 2013, ‘Iron Man 3’.

Håfström, M., 2013, ‘Escape Plan’.

Knight, S., 2013, ‘Hummingbird’.

 

Timetable

·         Outline your plan of action; give dates of developmental milestones linked to the PGC / PGD / MA stages; include personal tutorials and your vacations.

·         Identify a programme of events in which you intend to participate: lectures, exhibitions, tutorials, seminars, workshops, research visits, interviews, searches, on-line activities, etc.

Week 22 Write a short film screenplay. Write some journals of my work. Shoot a film

Week 23 Edit the short film and prepare the assessment(presentation)

Week 24-Week28 Read some books and see more films, then do some research on post-production skills and psychology theory.

Week 29-Week 32 I will choose some good films and try to understand how flashbacks or flash-forwards display different backgrounds in films.

Week 33-Week 34 Write two different type screenplays.  Explore what different skills we need to use in different type scripts.

Week 35 Choose one screenplay I wrote and film it.

Week 36 Edit the second short film.

Week 37-39 Do some shooting practice, explore how to present character’s emotion through flashbacks or flash-forwards.

Week 40-41 Read some books about shooting and editing. Watch some films and do research on shooting.

Week 42-45 Do some analysis work about other post-production skills.

Week 46 Write some screenplays to practice film skills learn from other directors.

Week 47-50 Cooperate with other directors to shoot my screenplays. Do shoot and edit film work. Write my summary document and prepare the last assessment. Deadline for the final assessment preparation.

Week 51 Assessment Week

Agreed as a viable programme of study

Signature of student:                                 Date:   

Signature supervisor:                           Date:

Include this document within your submission at the end of each stage (PGC / PGD / MA).

Interviewing my classmate (many days ago)

Many days ago, this was a homework from Deborah's class. It's a practicing of interviewing others with different depth of field.

Comments of Tiny Times 1.0

Tonight I have seen the Chinese drama film which named Tiny Times (First Edition). The film is mainly talking about four girls who were known each other from high school to the age they were working. They had experienced many things like quarrelling with boyfriends or break up.

In my opinion, the story is not clear enough in the film, but the scenes are magnificent and the lens are better used. At last, the slow-motion lens are used in the four ladies which are carrying the clothes for fashion show are running without high heels on the viaduct bridge. These slow-motion lens are what I want to make research on.

Comments of Citizen Kane

Yesterday I saw a film, which named Citizen Kane, is a documentary film that recorded a man's public life and private life. Kane had set up a newspaper office which was controlled the whole news industries in America. From the beginning, he just had the old building to work, after his hard working, he set up many branches of his company. He had married for twice but both were broken up. The film uses many flash-backs that introducing his life. At the beginning, the lens were given to the death of Kane, then the story was developed from the memories of Kane's colleagues and friends. When they talked about some glories of Kane, the lens were switched to what Kane were doing at that time or how he achieve his achievement.

At the beginning of the film, the lens is a big signpost that writing No Trespassing. And the end of film it also appeared. It shows that everything was happened inside the signpost and we went out of the wire at last.

Detailed shot analysis of Citizen Kane in first 10 mins

At the beginning of film, it stopped in a big sign of no passing for seconds and pan up to barbed wire in a very slow speed. Then dissolved into another barbed wire, after that, it dissolved again into a cage with two monkeys.

Dissolved into water which is the mirror of the castles. It may giving the background to audiences.

Dissolved again into a scene that the lamp of the room closed suddenly, it may showing us the horror atmosphere.

Then cut to a scene which is looked like snowing outside the window, then a man appeared, the glass ball fell to the ground from his hand and broken. Then he said a word.

A lady come into the room and walked out of the camera, then changed to a close shot that the lady moving the man’s hand together and cover his face by the white duvet. The camera was panning to the direction that followed the duvet. The picture remained some space from the lady’s head to the right side. Then dip to black.

News on the March appeared, the film used words in white to introduce the basic info first, then dissolved many castles and buildings together so as to introducing the background of the year. And many establishing shots used in introducing the legends.

Using full shot to introduce the people were relaxing themselves on the loungers. Long shot to the desert and full shot to the worker’s working area and the what they were doing.

Using the medium shot to introduce the people were working on the street, factories, boats, etc.

Using the full shot to shoot the animals inside the wire, using the medium shot to shoot the elephant which was lifting up.

Giving a full shot to the big ground with pools, trees and people.

Changing the shots directly in introducing the pharaoh after a lot of dissolves then ended at a pond which was used as a mirror to shoot the inverted image of the buildings.

Using the full shot to shoot the castle that the people raising the cart out of the door. It seems like the giant funeral. Then changed directly to a close-up shot of the man’s portrait.

Then zoom out to the newspaper and stopped for seconds. And exchanged a lot of foreign newspaper with the same context, it may show that the news was widely spreaded to the world.

Introducing the beginning of setting up the company by shooting the old building in medium shot. Then changed to an animation that the signal was sending from points that means the newspaper was widely spreaded and controlled the whole America.

Changing the shots quickly that introducing the stages and process of Kane setting up the company.

Then gave a shot to the castle in full shot and changed into an indoor scene that many people having meeting together in medium shot then full shot.

Then changed to a man who is surrounded by others is reading a letter with nervous on his face in medium shot.

Shots changed to a long shot which is shooting the square with a lot of people attending the giant funeral.

The shot was panning from people to the man who was announcing. Than gave the close-up shot on the man.

Then inserted some shots about Kane was announcing about his words from full shot to mid shot.

The shots of cemetery, burning Karn’s name, etc. so as to introducing the background of the Karn’s era.

When talking about the newspaper, the shot was given to the factory was producing the amount of newspaper with moving shot.

From the black, the words told us it is the time to introduce the private life of Karn. Then changed directly to his wedding, he was walking with a bride, shooted in medium shot.

I was interviewed by classmates in Deborah's class

I was interviewed by one of my classmates, a beautiful girl from British. And one of them was holding the microphone for me, others were controlling the digital camera which was manufactured by Panasonic and adjusting the picture that where they can put me into the picture. After a short interview, we found some problems in it, the interviewer could ask more detailed questions from what the interviewee answered and might paraphrase the questions when the interviewee misunderstand. As for the camera, we should put the interviewee into a diagonal side from direction the interviewee looking that giving more spaces to another side that the interviewee looking to.

Comment of the Butler

Last Friday I have seen this film (the Butler) in Broadway Cinema, the film has talked about a black man, whose name is Eugene Allen, had served for the White House for about 34 years. His son fought for the right of black race in America, he hoped that the right of black race is the same as the white. Experienced many failures such as sending into prison for many times, drove from his family, he finally succeed and won the right for black races. The timeline of the film has been well designed, it shows us that the son of butler had endured for a long time and he resisted then he succeed.

Story 2 on Nov 10, 2013

A girl, who is in her twenties, walked out of her flat slowly, with a bag and a large portfolio. She is not very tall but with a slim body, and she wore red glasses on her big-round face. After locking the door, she began to go downstairs quickly. Meanwhile, she wrapped up all her things into her bag and tried to make them into order. Then she walked over a lawn in a hurry, but she stopped her pace suddenly because she found that there were two squirrels chasing each other. She seemed like wanting to get close to them but afraid of disturbing them. Suddenly the squirrels climbed up to the tree so she took out her mobile phone and opened the camera quickly then shot videos for them. It seems that she likes squirrels very much. However, a few seconds passed, the squirrels hid themselves into leaves and branches. She couldn’t find them any more and felt worried and exhausted, then she walked round the tree and tried to find them out. She had found them for about one minute or two but failed, It seemed there was no way to find them that she began to carry on her way again. But she looked back to the tree many times when walking because she still want to see the squirrels clearly again. After that she crossed to the main road and walked quickly again and looked around the road which is safe or not. Then she went upstairs and entered the library.

 

Story 1 on Nov 7, 2013

An old man, who was found near the Old Market Square, was selling newspapers around the fountain; he seemed very tired because he called loudly to others to buy his newspapers. But just a few people buy his newspapers, so he walked around the whole square from here to there. It was useful that he walked farther and more people bought his newspapers, so just about 10 or 15 minutes he sold all his newspapers out. After that he was looked so relax and leisure, then he walked around slowly and entered into a shop. He went through the shop but bought nothing, just taking everything and having a look leisurely. Later, he went into a cafe bar and sat down tiredly.

Comments of Escape Plan

Today I saw the Escape Plan by laptop computer. Although I couldn't feel the threatening sound in cinema, but I learned something like the effects of cutting lens to the films, how post-production makers using lens to describe the emotion of characters and so on.

In 48min 37sec, Stallone saw around and felt alert because he found that the guard was paying attention on him. So the post-production maker used the lens in close shot which described Stallone was seeking around (Picture 1), and then connected by the lens in full shot which showed us that the guard with gun was paying attention on Stallone (Picture 2).

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In 54min 30sec, these lens was shot by video-photographer from close-shot to full-shot to big long-shot. Stallone climbed the ladder then went out of the prison area, but he found that he was on the boat, the lens showed that he felt helpless and he didn't know what he can do (Video 3).

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In 68min 37sec, when Arnold Schwarzenegger talking with Stallone, the shot was focused on Schwarzenegger's face clearly. But when he was seeing the man who was mentioned by Stallone, the shot was focused on the man and made Schwarzenegger's face blurred (Picture 4 and 5). This was connected to the class which was given by Deborah, she told us to shoot a short interviewing video with blurring.

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