What next?

During Easter holidays....

•Hire Actors (and extras)

•Sort out a crew

•Confirm Locations

•Write up script

•Check list on equipment needed (lights, camera equipment, sound)

•Risk assessment on locations/studio

•Keep researching; Harmony Korine, Nicolas Winding Refn… keep writing about other films

•Experiment with morph location technique

GoPro Hero2 Tests

When I was shooting the skate scene for Loco promotional video around Hyde Park, we attempted to stick a GoPro Hero2 onto the skateboard. I wrapped it up in sellotape... a couple of times... but it still managed to fall off everytime

I used the widest possible angle with 1080p 30 frames per second. 1080p is only available with 30fps, and i thought if we were doing tricks then possibly going down a notch to 720p and doubling the fps to 60 then i'd get better quality footage of slowing it down. I was actually very happy with the quality, this is the first time i've seen a GoPro in action and could really see the benefits.

After the GoPro fell off a couple of times I packed it up because it was a friend's and I didn't want to break it. He has, however, lent me the tiny camera to take skiing with me this Easter so I can get some POV footage of my main character experiencing a ski trip whilst dreaming!

Filth (2013) Jon S. Baird

Bruce Robertson is currently a Detective Sergeant based in Edinburgh, aiming to get a promotion to Detective Inspector. However, his state of mind slowly disappears away from reality as he becomes manipulative and a bully towards his work colleagues. Robertson spends half his time on drugs or alcohol fulfilling sexual fantasies. He gets assigned to the case of a murdered Japanese student and at the same time suffers a series of sever hallucinations, for which he takes medication for bipolar disorder. A series of events that includes his wife leaving him for another man with their child is partially to blame for the decline of Robertson. In order to keep her close to him, he reveals that he dresses up in her clothes.

After Robertson indulges in his lowest point of his career, getting beaten up by the gang that killed the Japanese student, Robertson manages to throw the leader out of the window and kills him, which ultimately gets him demoted. This all ends up too much for  Robertson leaving him no choice but to hang himself, with seconds until his last breathe, he gets a knock on the door from a woman with a child.

Stanley Kubrick's work is evident within Filth. Not just because it's visuals and characters are weird and wonderful at the same time, but also because of some of the environments. Kubrick's fascinating set designs and high key practical lighting can be seen throughout. It could also be linked with his sexual gratification. 

Dr.  Rossi is the resemblance of Mr Deltoid in A Clockwork Orange with his mannerisms and total weirdness.

I don't want to label my character with an illness, but each film i have looked at the character has some sort of problem. Pi - Max looked into the sun for too long when he was a kid, Ed Norton in Fight Club suffers from insomnia, and Robertson in Filth has had a tough history with his wife and kid thats triggered his bipolar. 

Behind the Camera: Testing my skills

I have worked on a variety of collaborative projects over the last 6 weeks to aid my camera and directing skills. All these shoots have helped prepare me for organising, producing, directing, planning and work as a team. These are all extremely essential skills that will benefit my extended practice film.

1)

In February I went to meet a student in London named Jenya, she studies fashion styling and is studying in the area. This was to be my first fashion shoot. Jenya had seen a post of mine on Facebook asking for actors, so she had got in contact with me to ask if i would be interested in collaborating in a fashion shoot video that specifically is for one of her styling briefs. I tested out 1 Arri 650w light in a room at uni as a 3/4 backlight at uni on a fake model with bounce light coming from a (dirty) white wall. I practiced opening and closing the barn doors to flag off spilled light. I also experimented with a Kino light as a quarter light, which acted as the key light, directly 180 degrees opposite the Arri light. The kino light was a lot less intense and could be dimmed creating a soft fill light whilst the Arri light produced a 3 dimensional strong rim light.

arri 650w 3/4 backlight

arri 650w 3/4 backlight and kino 1/4 key light

Moodboard - Jenya sent me images of other fashion photographers lighting that had been used in other shoots.

The images below were screen shots of part of my footage. I was filming with a Canon 5D mark iii f/4 24-105mm lens. I was without a shoulder mount so i hand held the camera for most of the shoot, i also used a tripod for some shots. The locations were in various rooms in one house in west London. The sun was almost down by the time i started shooting so artificial light was important. The bottom two images were shot in the same room where i had used one soft light inbetween the piano and door and one of the arri 650w in the opposite corner in the room, so just infront of the chair in the 3rd picture down. I had to have the light facing the white wall towards the ceiling to reduce the with a hand made scrim just in front to reduce the light intensity.

I feel overall i created a softly lit smooth aesthetic that didn't take any of the emphasis off the garments. I learned quickly on the job about having to make use of all angles that included underneith a glass roof, on top of cupboards from above, behind objects such as pianos and unique shapes such as carved out cabinet doors. For this shoot, a kino light would have created a more pleasant mood a long with a f/1.8 and a colder colored white balance.

watch here....

https://vimeo.com/88782782 password is chiswick

2)

I had been recommended for a photography student at Leeds college of art called Jessie Leong who wanted to do a fashion shoot for her project called challenging orientalism. She was collaborating with a fashion student called Sonia Sohal who was doing the styling. This was just a week after my first one so i was willing to improve on what i had just learnt. It was at a location at a Chinese restaurant called Maxi's Leeds.

Jessie had taken the equipment from Uni and i bought a long a f/1.8 lens but not my own lighting. Jessie was the photographer so she had bought a soft light and a flash light. After liaising with Jessie, we discussed that we would include the flashed of her camera, not because she wanted a 'making of' video, but an extra bit of material to add to her final project. There was no narrative but i was allowed to experiment however i wanted which gave me a lot of creative control. All of the camera work was handheld without a shoulder mount or a tripod. I sometimes leaned the camera onto a table or a chair to keep it still.

During the editing process, we went through a lot of different music, but after looking through the shots together we decided much of the footage show cased part of my Darren Aronofsky influence with a lot of the angles used and the colors. The type we were talking about using for the track had to enhance the title of challenging orientalism, but it still felt very much like an oriental shoot because of the location. Jessie and I discussed to further push this challenge, and the track we chose in the end really enforced the boundaries with the epic sounds of Massive Attack - Angles.

watch here.......

https://vimeo.com/89134169

3)

A friend of mine (Efriam Carlebach) and I had met up in the summer to create a short film about a poker player. He studies English at Oxford University  Our influence of the story was based on a theorist called Walter Benjamin who wrote a book called The Arcade Project. Part of the story was about a Hungarian poker player who gambles millions in the 19th century. He always kept calm and plays elegantly with his hand in his jacket pocket to hide his emotions, this information eventually got revealed by his servant he was digging his hands into his chest so badly that he was bleeding and have blood in his fingers.

We had arranged locations in Leeds due to accessibility to equipment from Leeds college of art. 3 locations would be used in total, the poker scene itself at the Belgrame music gall, a scene where Alex, the main character has an anxiety episode, and the third venue would be the entrance to the poker scene venue where i filmed at Hyde Park Picture House. It has an underground, edgy sort of look to the side of the building which suited the theme of the film in my mind.

In total there was 12 of us that worked on this project. Myself, Effi Carlebach - script writer/director, Effis girlfriend Tilly - Executive producer/bar tender, Tom Stephens - Sound operator/Grip, Jess henderson - Make up artist, 4 actors: main poker player - Alex Main, 3 other poker players - Yoav Raphael, Luke Fowler and Josh Isaacs (none of them are actors, Alex came up from London) and finally two actresses - Ines Oliviera and Alice Boulton-Breeze.

It was shot over two days, Sat & Sun 1-2nd March. Saturday would be filmed at the Belgrave and Picture House whilst the Sunday was the bathroom scene shot in Headingley. I excelled in a variety of different skills with this project. I scouted for locations, some were better than others. I recruited all the actors and actresses, i created the props such as the poker table. I sorted cabs/lifts to arrange 11 of us to get to and home from the Belgrave music hall. I had to provide alcoholic beverages, glasses and cigarettes, as well as cards and poker chips for props. I had to buy and replace a new light bulb in the bathroom location at my friends house along with arranging to get to and from the location.

The room I was using in the Belgrave was a mess so we took time cleaning it up and re arranging part of the room removing a lot of the furniture. I set up 3 arri 650w lights, two directly behind of the bar to the left and right. One appearing just outside the window of the room. Whilst the third light was pointing towards the direction of the table but not too much that it looked unrealistic. I switched on as much of the practical lighting in the room as possible, there were lamps scattered around which helped create the mood. The over head lighting was quite dark and very reddish which still added a more sombre atmosphere. It wasn't possible to get any footage with the 24-105mm f/4 lens i could only shoot with the 24mm f/1.8, which i got used to pretty quickly as i think it was the first time i've used a fixed lens.

I tested my camera skills using a track and dolly for shouts around the table (the positioning of the over head lights and the table meant i couldn't have the track going around the whole table which would have been more effective) and shoulder mount. I was very thankful i had collaborated with Efriam because he was directing which meant i could concentrate on the camera angles and what i was capturing whilst he was directing the actors and actresses. We were able to get more out of the acting and performances as well as the shots.

Due to a lack of time after taking so long to set up and a palaver with one of the managers, we had to rush a tiny bit, which was annoying because i'd wished afterwards that i had got more close ups and more action shots of the poker game itself.

We all went out in the night to celebrate, which made filming the bathroom scene on Sunday very difficult. We all overslept, which meant Effi couldn't stay long during filming because of his coach back down to Oxford. This made my job a little more difficult because i had to direct Alex and explain to him what me and Effi wanted whilst also concentrating on capturing the shot. I replaced the broken light with a working one, but it wasn't as bright as i was expecting. Nor was it a cold color temperature that i was expecting either. I was caught up in being stubborn with not wanting to open the curtains either because of the day light, i didn't take a proper minute to analyse the situation, and that the footage is too dark. I wanted various zooms and different exaggerated angled shots to convey expression that i couldnt show with the f1.8 fixed zoom lens, so i had to use the f/4 24-105mm which left my images looking very dark. I will have to correct this in post production.

The opening shots that was filmed outside the picture house I'd used the street lights. There was a light by the door that the f/1.8 lens picked out enough of the light to not have to used anything artificial. The car's headlights added enough light to the frame but not too much to distract the identical shape of Alex's body and the front bumper of another car.

I have made a rough cut of the opening sequence with a link below.....

https://vimeo.com/89790473

password is opening



4)

I was asked by a Graphic Design student at Leeds college of art to help film their competition brief for D&AD. She, Greta Madline, was creating an installation in a studio in Bradford and the competition was about her. She had two engineers who were creating obstacles out of cardboard and wood for a knock on effect installation. Part of it had already been filmed before i joined the guys at the studio, so i just carried on from where the previous cameraman had left off.

The task was a completely new challenge to me. I had to help portray a cheated system into a long effect without letting the change of camera shots be a distraction to the installation. We used string to help the parts move without getting our hands in the way of the shots. Before i had started, Greta had painted the walls white and many of her objects turquoise because thats her favourite colour.  I spent two weekends in Bradford helping set and up and film. It was good because the team of us all believed in the project and it was exciting to capture the next object see how it would turn out.

5)

A friend of mind on Vis Com at Leeds college of art works for an event company called Loco where he does the visuals at night clubs and house parties. He recommended me to them when they asked for a videographer to shoot their promotional video. I met with the manager and we discussed what ideas he had in mind and how i could film it. He had a friend that fitted the character of the story and he met us as well. The idea of for a character to wake up in bed after a night out all hungover, get up and dress into a suit and make his way over to a houseparty, and essentially will kick off the house party once he brings a 'gift'. The story is to give an insight to the viewer that Loco are more than just an event that throw nights out that will lead onto other stories within Loco.

The shoot lasted 3 separate days for 3 different locations. I was given the role of being as creative as i wanted. I met with the actor at the house party (sober) to discuss what we were going to film and how. It was difficult conditions with the house party being so dark and no streetlights apart from a camp fire, whilst on the inside, it was extremely packed and sweaty which steamed up the lens. I was shooting from 1-7am and surprisingly so the time went quickly. However, I don't think i'd be up for doing a house party again, i felt very much on my own, even though i was following the actor around trying to film him.

The story itself starts with this character in bed with a girl, so the following week we went to his bedroom and filmed him waking up with a girl in his bed. The audience isn't to know whether it was from the night before, or it's a teaser for the night to come. He gets up, dresses into the suit he was wearing the night before, and picks up a drum symbol because that was the gift for the houseparty. Flashes of the house party will pop up as the actor walks around his room picking up his clothes.

I was directing the whole scene and was able to pick up confidence by asking the actor to express himself in certain ways and if i wasn't happy with a shot or action, i would openly say. We were able to build an understanding which really helped both his performance and mine. I didn't have any of my own lighting, so i had to improvise. I turned the lights on in his bedroom, and when we were by his front door, the room was dark because of the position of the sun being behind his house. I cheated by opening the door to allow more daylight in.

A third day of shooting consisted of a driver driving us around to film the actor on his skateboard making his way to a friends house to drop off the symbol, which he will later pick up at the house party. Luckily the day was sunny so we managed to get driven round to many locations around Hyde Park and really experiment. We used a GoPro camera on the skateboard but it kept falling off, so we decided to pack that up because we didn't want to break it. Because of the good amount of sun i was able to use f/4 24-105mm lens and it was outside so i didn't need to use my own lighting.

6)

Jessie Leong, who i worked on my second fashion shoot with, asked me to film another fashion project with her and Sonia as she liked the style of our first film we did together. Jessie is still challenging orientalism but using different models and different locations. This time, the locations aren't so oriental, however, the make up is oriental stylized. Once i get editing, we have already discussed using an oriental track over this film to bring back the orientalism.

We filmed at a Library on Commercial street in Town, Leeds, and we also filmed a Mix Karaoke in Leeds to. The library was bright enough not to use lighting. Even though Jessie wanted to use me because she liked my style last time, I wanted to incorporate a change of style slightly with tripod shots. Jessie had a symmetrical image in mind with the venue, so I attempted a Wes Anderson type of cinematic style. The Mix Karaoke venue was a lot darker but with really interesting colored neon lighting that could only be picked up by a f/1.8 lens 50mm, and even tho it was fixed zoom, fairly narrow, I had to attempt to keep my distance even in smaller rooms. Unlike the first shoot i did for Jessie where i used only handheld shots, I took advantage of the tripod this time round to capture a smoother image.

A Beautiful Mind (2001) Ron Howard

John Nash attends Princeton University on a scholarship for maths, it doesn't take him long to realise he is better with numbers then with people. When pressured to develop an idea for his thesis he begins to struggle and it isn't until he gets cruelly rejected by a girl that he gets inspired and comes up with an idea for mathematical economics.

Nash meets his future wife whilst teaching five years after finishing at Princeton. He runs into a mysterious department of defence agent during a visit to Princeton and is invited to a secret US department of defence facility in the Pentagon to crack encryption enemy codes. He becomes increasingly paranoid and behaves erratically after believing that Russians are after him.

Alicia, his wife who is so desperate to help him, informs a psychiatric hospital and he gets sent to a facility where he confirms his belief that the Soviets were trying to extract information. After more psychiatric treatment it's revealed that a good friend of his named Charles that he shared a room with at Princton, as well as the Russians and the agents, were all a delusion.

Nash's behaviour and relationship with Alicia changes negatively after taking medicine to help his condition but he stops after his intellectual capacity drops. After realising that Charles' niece, who is also made up, never gets old. He accepts that these people are part of his hallucinations.

Many years later, Nash has learned to ignore his hallucinations and earns the privilege to teach again where is goes on to win the Nobel Memorial Price in Economics for his revolutionary work on game theory. As Alicia and Nash leave the building, Charles, his niece and the mysterious department of defence agent are all standing there.

I was surprised to find out that Nash's friend Charles was his imaginary friend. It made sense afterwards once it was revealed but i was quite upset. Throughout the whole film i was spurring Nash on hoping he would recover from his hallucinations. I was expecting him to be okay, there was a few different moment that I was expecting him to get over his illness but he didn't ever fully recover and he went on to win a nobel prize.

What i will take from this film is the real friendship he had with Charles. Even though Charles wasn't real, I want my character to have a close friend that he can rely on and be there for. So if he is real or not to the audience, he will be real for my character and real for the story.

American Psycho (2000) Mary Harron

Patrick Bateman is one of the executives at a top New York investment at his fathers firm. Throughout the film he shows signs of OCD, his apartment if very neat and clean and he takes extra good care of his body. Bateman doesn't like many people especially not his co-workers, he gets provoked and angered when his colleague produces a better looking business card when he takes out on a homeless man on his way home. Throughout the day and in front of people he knows, he hides his alternate psychopath ego, but as he struggles to keep in his emotions he lets slip some of his fantasies to certain peoples faces.

Bateman knows he's not all there, he claims there is no 'real me' and that he simply isn't there which doesn't seem to faze him. Infact, he enjoys his fantasies. The ending is left open for the audience to guess whether the murdering sprees he went on were actually real or just his dreams.

The ending messed with my head a little bit, i was left too confused. The ending was too open, i wanted to believe he was a serial killer but the scene where he went on his rampage, killed a woman after threatening a cat and then killed a security officer and police men i thought maybe it was taken a bit too far that he hadn't been caught.

I feel as though this film will help inspire me to portray part of my character for my extended practice. Patrick Bateman is a psychopath and my character isn't, however, I want the audience to question whether his dreams are infact his reality and left almost dazed and confused.

Fight Club (1999) David Fincher

Ed Norton plays the main role and narrator in Fight Club; he suffers from insomnia whilst living alone in an extremely mundane and boring life. His only excitement is ordering new items from Ikea to decorate his house with that gets set on fire. It is quite a dark film both in terms of the story and the visuals with many low key lit scenes based in New York. He meets Marla, another depressed character, at a number of support groups but they agree to go to different groups in order not to bump into eachother after they sleep together. Further forward into the film and it appears Marla has slept with both the narrator and his new friend that have been living together, Tyler. He turns his life around as his and Tyler’s friendship becomes more intense and they set up their own underground Fight Club. All good things come to an end and things take a turn for the worst when the narrator’s insomnia leaves him feel delusional which throws him out of touch with reality. 

I chose this film to research because of the main character’s disillusioned imagination. David Fincher doesn’t allow the audience to know that Tyler is a figment of the narrator’s imagination until Ed Norton starts questioning people he hangs around with about Tyler, who then in turn and respond by saying he is Tyler. 

The idea that I have for my character for my Extended Practice is that my character gets lost in his imagination. My character’s imagination doesn't lead to dangerous scenarios where he invents a project mayhem without realising or has an imaginary friend, only that he wishes/dreams he was somewhere else.

The reason my character dreams of being elsewhere is because he is unhappy with his reality. I don’t plan on my film being as dark as Fight Club and my character will be more in touch with reality.

American Beauty (1999) Sam Mendes

Kevin Spacey plays a depressed suburban father that's suffering from a mid life crises named Lester. Lester struggles with his dead end job whilst his resentful wife, Carolyn, is a real estate agent that is trying to get into bed with her rival businessman. His daughter Jane rebels him and hates life in general but finds life in her new next door neighbor that spends his time staring into and film their household.

Lester's life turns around when he watches Jane's cheer leading performance and notices another cheerleader, Angela. Lester becomes fascinated by Angela, experiences lust and dreams of her. He finds an inner confidence within himself to quit his job, get into shape and enjoy life again after Angela visits Jane at Lester's household. The lives of Lester's family and neighbour take a turn for the worse when Jane's new boyfriend's homophobic dad finds videos of what he belives to be his son and  Lester on his camera.

In the scene above, Lester and Carolyn are watching their daughter, Jayne, perform her cheerleading dance. This is the first time Lester sees Angela and the reality of the situation turns into Lester's dream. The change of lighting and removal of all the dances and audience apart from Lester, as well as the change of music make it severally obvious that this is going on in his head.

The change of these two worlds is what i will be portraying in my extended piece of practice. My character's train of thought will be to drift off in situations when he clearly is thinking of something else, something that he would rather.

Darren Aronofsky Pi (1998) & Requiem for a dream (2000)

Darren Aronofsky is known for his unique cinematic style and story telling that depicts addiction which psychologically ruins the human character, both mentally and physically. His stories that involve his main characters that usually end up having negative spiral left me, as the viewer, quite horrified and scared. As we experience Both Pi and Requiem for a dream (as well as The Wrestler, Black Swan and The Fountain) through the eyes of the main character, the viewer is lead down a distressing path which i can't turn away but i can only explain as both beautiful and devastating.

Aronofsky is so consistent with his storytelling but is always pushing the boundaries and in my own opinion i believe this has made him an auteur in his own right. Some of his techniques include his use of extremely close up razor sharp cuts and sound effects keep you gripped to the screen.

Pi starts off with Max explaining the reason for his suffering of terrible migraines, due to the fact that he starred into the sun for too long when he was a kid. He is a mathematical genius that is wanted by various people to help solve math codes when his only interest lies in searching for the pattern for pi. The longer his search goes on and the more he is pestered by these people, the more intense his headaches become and eventually drives him into insanity.

Requiem sees the story of a mother and son whose lives run parallel within the film. The mother, a lonely old woman, attempts to lose weight to fit into a red dress after a prank phone call claimed she wins a chance to be on TV. She gets hold of pills that are supposed to help her lose weight that she gets hooked on. Her son, a cocaine and heroin addict, buys in bulk between his friend and girlfriend to sell on and make money. But after both mother and son surpass the peak of losing weight and earning enough money, they end up taking their addictions too far which leads to a downward spiral.

His characters tend to suffer from loneliness, desperation and obsession that take the viewer on a distressed journey with the characters themselves. Neither character in Requiem or Pi are able to overcome their obsessions. Max, in Pi, suffers from extreme headaches. Aronofsky successfully shows Max's compelling experience with a scoring soundtrack and sound effects, a long with quick close ups of specific objects shaking such as the locks on his door, the door knob and the door itself. A similar situation is portrayed in Requiem when Sara, the mother, has become so indulged into her TV and trying to lose weight, that her fridge starts to move and shutter forward when she thinks about food and scares the life out of her. It eventually gets completely out of hand that she inprisons herself in her house and relies on her imagination on being on the TV. Both characters suffer from fear of failure that they are blind to see how badly their state of mind becomes.

My idea for my character in the extended practice module is that he will become obsessed with his imagination. He dreams of being else where and believes in the grass being greener on the other side. Darren Aronofsky's characters are extremely obsessed and self observed that don't think about others, which i'd like to take certain aspects from, but i don't intend on creating an extremely dark aspect.

The Secret Life Of Walter Mitty (2013) Ben Stiller

Ben Stiller stars in his directed movie The Secret Life of Walter Mitty. His character is very lonely that clearly lacks confidence and common knowledge. The colors of the environment are cold, grey and dull which match his life style and interests. Mitty tends to day dream a lot and imagine scenarios that aren't happening. In the sequence of pictures below, Walter Mitty walks into work and stars at a woman who the audience believe greets him, we feel the awkwardness of the situation as a girl comes from behind to answer (Cheryl's) question. Both women look at Walter very strangely. Further into the scene, we get lost into Walter's dream of him imagining himself speaking to this woman, Cheryl. The moment breaks up when the camera shows a wide shot of Walter still in his own imagination and senior staff are standing there laughing at him.

We notice Walter starts zoning out and we are warned by this when the camera focuses on him on a close up and the background very slowly zooms out, almost like the famous Alfred Hitchcock zoom shot. Suddenly the camera focuses on Cheryl who walks away from her friend and the environment morphs into the snowy mountains.

For my FMP, my characters imagination is similar to Walters due to the fact he allows himself to day dream and imagine he is somewhere else. I want the environment of his reality and imagination to intertwine with eachother so we feel the escape of his reality.

Fear and loathing in las vegas (1991) terry gillam

Fear and loathing is basically one big trip of a film about a journalist (Johnny Depp) and his lawyer (Benicio Del Toro). They travel to Vegas and consume every drug under the sun. Gilliam allows the viewer to experience these trips with the characters with his huge color palette, wacky visuals, delirious sounds and uncanny music with extreme erratic cinematic techniques that allows us to be immersed by the whole experience. It was a film that made me feel like i was on drugs that just got more and more weird as the film went on... which i wasn't complaining about. The extreme low angle shots, intense colored lighting and circus acts provided a mind blowing experience.

During the scene of the first hotel they visit in Las Vages, as Depp walks through a big crowd of people he can hear some conversations clearer than others, the intense flashing lights and mirrored pillars made me feel disorientated. To add to this, the floor patterns were moving like snakes and the receptionist's face was morphing and eventually turned into a dinosaur.

I was able to connect with their trippy journey and ride along with them in a sense. The aim of my extended practice is for the audience to connect and feel what my character is going through. To do this, i need to be able to have a gripping story, and if that fails then i need stunning visuals. Gilliam may not have the most compelling story going on to the wider audience but he has mastered the effects here.

Being John Malkovic (1997) Spike Jonze

Craig is unhappy with life, hes very misrable and has no money and can't find a job in the indusrty that he loves, a puppeteer. He is happiest most when he is a puppeteer because he can be somebody else rather than himself. He finds a job and meets a woman that eventually he and his wife both fall in love with. One day at work, Craig stumbles across a secret doorway and discovers that it's a portal that leads into the head of movie star John Malkovic. After a few 15 minute experiences of entering Malkovic's brain, Craig uses his puppeteer knowledge to change the way Malkovic acts and his mannerisms become that of Craig's. Craig's fantasies of the female colleague he falls in love with become very surreal. She falls for Craig but only when he is John Malkovic.

I am reminded of Terry Gilliam's Brazil because of the protagonist's actions. Both lead male characters in Brazil and Being John Malkovic decide to ignore everything that goes on around them in their lives and instead tempt fate for a woman. In Craig's case during Malkovic, he ditches his wife for a woman he met at work that he instantly fell in love with. Ironically it was his wife that drove him to find a job.

When Craig enters Malkovic's mind, he is able to see through Malkovic's eyes but still think as Craig. He learns how to control Malkovic's body.

I enjoyed the concept of the film, by using a secret door way as a portal to somebody elses mind, but the idea is a little too far fetched for my final major project. I want the fantasy and wild imagination of my character to be a place where he wants to be, rather then placed into another body. The vignette appearing when the audience is placed at a POV of Malkovic gives more emphasis on the rollercoaster emotional experience of being John Malkovic

Volunteering at Hyde Park Picture House

I have been volunteering at the Picture House in Hyde Park Leeds since early 2014. I stand behind the kiosk and serve customers drinks and food. It's unpaid but i'm allowed to watch films for free which gives me an excuse to go to the cinema. I'm lucky as it is just down the road from my uni home, which allows me the privilege of working within the film industry. I am a keen film watcher that is easily influenced in my own film making on  how a story is told through its camerawork. Each cinematographer and director have their own techniques and I feel by watching as many films as possible i can gain new ideas.

My aim for volunteering at the Picture House is to learn another aspect of filmmaking. The aftermath of making a film is a topic i have little experience/knowledge of so by being around a cinema more often i can see how the non production side of things work. The Picture House is one of three independant cinemas in England that still uses an old school film projector, as well as two digital projectors.

Music video director: Wayne Isham

Will Smith's music video for Welcome to Miami was directed and shot by Wayne Isham. He uses a type of morph editing technique for that interchanges Will from location to location in a 3 dimensional way. Isham has used this techniques in other music videos of his such as Metallica - I disappear, Bon Jovi - It's my life, Nsync - Pop

The 4 images below are from the opening shots of Will Smith - Miami. In this scenario here, Wayne Isham zooms into the action with each shot, creating a morph technique to look as if the camera has sped up and quickly jumped from one position to another. Picture 3 to picture 4 is a jump from an exterior shot to an interior shot which really baffled my mind, but the quick tempo of the motion blur made it almost seem natural in a deluded kind of way.

This time in Bon Jovi - Its my life, Wayne has zoomed out from the subject to make it seem that the camera quickly zooms out from his face, to front stage of a concert, to further behind the crowd, and then onto a Bon Jovi fan's computer screen. The same morphing technique allows me to believe its a quick camera movement.