black friday

I had a swag of assessment due today, one piece of which will have to be handed in on Monday. Joy.

We've begun visualising for our Lenny exercises, which is proving to be somewhat interesting. There are so many different ways to go about this, but somehow I can picture all of ours looking the same if you know what I mean. To be honest I think everyone's starting to become too wrapped up in their individual projects to really put a lot of constructive thought into making Lenny a success... but it'll be good nonetheless to go through the mini-motions of a production project in order to fine tune ourselves for the real deal.

I'm tempted to suggest we rip off the Hitchcockian idea of introducing our two characters via their shoes. Anyone who's seen Strangers on A Train will know what I'm talking about (Bruno/Guy are contrasted via the sorts of shoes they are wearing and the direction in which they are walking, as well as the steps of their feet and the music that accompanies each.. ah, good times they were, good times). Hopefully we can all work out a time we're free this week to get this show on the road.. the sooner we can knock off smaller stuff like Lenny, the more energy we'll have to concentrate on other, more pertinent stuff.

'the art of ventriloquism'

So today's lecture moved onto the technical aspects of filmmaking. I can tell we are gonna be in for a long haul when it comes to learning the ropes with all of the gear we are expected to make use of this year. No more puncing around with mini-DV decks! Naturally I predict many a teary tantrum on my part, but we'll cross that bridge when we come to it shall we.


In sum:
-Music can serve a variety of purposes in narrative, not the least common of which can be to act as a transition between shots.
-Sounds can be superficial (imaginary) or filmed on location (wild sounds)
-Silence can speak volumes (we watched a bit of footage from a movie where a rape scene was omitted and instead a clip of some wartime soldiers was inserted, whilst the characters continued to discuss the events - thus we were left to imagine what had happened, evoking a deeper sense of pathos than if we had just seen what these characters were speaking of)
-Dialogue is a key form of synch sound
-Music and sound-effects are known as non-diegetic
-You must choose wisely the location from which you record sounds
-Soundscapes provide good grounds for experimentation, particularly in reference to point of view (take Hitchcock's Rear Window, while Jeff is lying in bed)

Will write more once the readings are done, and will possibly comment on some more Hitchcockian use of sounds.