reality tv

this is another 90 second film i came across on the depict.org site which i thought was really clever in its simplicty. its called reality tv

can be found here:

http://www.depict.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Depict.woa/wa/representation?object=5806

http://www.depict.org/cgi-bin/WebObjects/Depict.woa/wa/representation?object=5806

click link above to watch 'Dermo Suchaesta (Shit Happens)'


With the imminent arrival of the 90 second narrative I’ve looked for some films which I don’t want to claim inspire me because in a rather arrogant way I prefer to take full credit for my ideas, I’m merely interested by watching short films. I don’t know if everyone is the same way as me when it comes to preference, but I am very picky, I crave the simplicity and subtlety of pieces which have a massively powerful effect in a very clever way, not so much through production value but through concept and undertones. Resting easy in the knowledge that I don’t have to sweat too soon about the piece because of my rather cheeky ability to come up with something fucking awesome which evolves as the days roll by into a better and better piece of work, like for example the narrative we did in the first year, admittedly, my presentation which I did to Deb at the beginning of the work was terrible, the idea was sketchy, I hadn’t fully appreciated the fact that it would be hard to shoot and the idea wasn’t explained clearly enough, it was like, I knew that I had an idea, but firstly I didn’t know how to explain it to anyone else because I wasn’t 100% sure what it was myself, and secondly I had no clue how I was going to convey it on film. As the weeks went by and I hit particular problems, things were changed and it just all fell into place, I had clear direction and it turned out, the simpler I made the piece, the better it became, this does not bother me because I can be told that my presentation was rubbish until the cows come home and as narrow-minded as it seems to say it, I don’t care. In my opinion I think don’t judge me on that, who gets things right the first time, every time? No one. It’s the passion that’s put into the final piece which should be paramount. But that’s not what I’m writing about, went off on a bit of a tangent there. I watched a film in last weeks Monday lecture which I thought was hilarious, it was a piece about a Russian soldier who was trying to desert the second world war and he treads on a land mine, which he, after much deliberation attempts to escape from by replacing his foot with a bag of rocks; he gets away, only to tread immediately on another mine, sans-bag of rocks, which remains on the other mine, cleverly entitled, ‘shit happens’ this piece is a prime example of what I favour in a short narrative film, it involved one actor, one scene and very simple audio to accompany them, despite some very detailed and carefully thought out shot compositions, this piece could have been filmed in a day, two days maximum. It is the idea that I appreciate so much, the overwhelming feeling of satisfaction that the filmmaker must have gotten when he had the idea ‘in the bag’ if you will, I know the feeling, when you finally whittle the original idea down to make something more streamlined and sleek which leaves the first drafts and concepts looking like utter tripe, and its this feeling which is as rewarding as the reaction you get from an audience as they watch it for the first time and sit back and think, ‘Jesus, that was really clever.’ There isn’t many films which impress me as much as this one did, but if what you’re after is for me to tell you my inspirations and motivations for films I make, the wit and utter genius involved into making something 90 seconds long, this intriguing, would be them.

Just another manic Monday

After watching a selection of work from the stills excercise and taking some quick notes describing first impressions, composition of the piece and what I thought of the pace I have come to a general conclusion about the quality of some of the pieces. There were a few that stood out, but I will admit that it takes something quite unique to make me sit up and take real notice. There was certainly a pattern that emerged from reading back my notes, especially the first impressions of the pieces becuase I personally considor these most important, and you only ever get one first impression of anything. It seemed that alot of the pieces made me think, that was incredibly abstract and equally as hard to understand the plot, certainly on some occasions I think people tend to try and be overlly confusing and illusive about their plot to try and make something seem really different and abstract, but sometimes dont realise the boundries between something that makes you think, and soemthing that is just plain odd. Another strong opinion that i noticed was the pattern of monotonous, very common storylines, which as far as I could tell, didnt really follow the guidelines of the task. It became apparent that some people had possibly lost sight of the main task which was to produce a piece which conveyed 'illusion or a flash back or forward'. This didnt really seem to apply to some which appeared to just tell any story or any daily routine, if the pieces im thinking of did genuinely apply this criteria then i struggled to see it. One thing i noticed about the majority of the pieces was that the music, consistently, was chosen very well, an example was the acid trip video which used music that was, for want of a better word, quite trippy. Definately with most of the pieces the music set the pace and the mood for alot of the pieces so much, a good example of this was right at the begining of the seminar, we watched a piece with a guy walking and some shots of an empty desolate garden, without any sound due to technical problems. I immediately imagined the sound track to include piano, against a synthesised beat, i imagined it very hip hop, which for me would have kept the whole piece very urban and very dark, when listened to later on with the sound it turned out to be some kind of heavy metal track which changed the pace, and the entire way i imagined the story. It was to me, very confusing with both bits of music but each time in its own very different way. I enjoyed watching the pieces today, there were a few which really impressed me, that people had come up with such a solid story line that was very easy to make it look good. a few of the others i feel could have had more depth.