School of Art and Design 2013/14
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MA:
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Learning
Agreement
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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.
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).
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