Video
One Minute Film Project
By Michelle Dee
Thought processes for one minute film project.
Assignment Brief:
You are required to produce a video, exactly 60 seconds long. The film must have a narrative – it has to tell a story – with a beginning, middle and an end – however simple.
Early ideas:
Initially I was stuck for ideas and struggled to come up with anything definite then I hit upon the idea of doing a variation of the usual health awareness public information films. I wanted to incorporate the idea of a sequence of reverse smoking. This would hopefully prove a powerful image and convey my message. I wrote out a rough storyboard and planned filming location. On further investigation I hit upon a number of continuity issues with regard to the reversed footage. This idea has been put away for the time being. The second idea was based on a larger film idea where I hope to do a narrative of some aspects of Hull’s local music history in anecdotal form using a selection of chosen posters and flyers and other memorabilia to tell a story. I would use the one minute boundaries to experiment with the dropping posters and other items in and out of shot to create different effects. Again this idea will be taken further at a later date.
Idea for Winter Chill:
My most recent idea involved a very simple narrative that played upon the idea of place, person and time incorporating a brief example of the zoetrope idea. I constructed a rough series of shot ideas and a storyboard, then explored idea further till I had something close to a coherent sequence.
Outline of actions in film
Person 1goes to Red Gallery arrives to see someone inside working.
Person 1gets the person inside’s attention but waits for them to find keys to open door.
Whilst outside of Red Gallery person 1 sees same figure approaching from outside the building.
Person 1looks back to door sees lights out and no person inside, looks back to street clearly identifies person on street was the person inside building. Continuous sequence of looking backwards and forwards from doorway to street as fear and bewilderment grips protagonist. Within that series figure that is now on street is seen first behind door of gallery then behind metal grille then not again (zoetrope effect) Audience is hopefully left feeling unnerved by same person seemingly being in two places at same time and wondering at earlier interaction by the two characters. Did it really take place, if so how? Who was mysterious echo of the real character and with final sequence I also hope to ask the question who is behind bars, the viewer the person 1 or the mysterious character inside?
Filming Schedule:
Outline of predetermined shot selections.
(For ease of understanding I have used person 1 and for the character inside gallery person 2)
Shot 1.
Person 2 visible through metal grill and doorway working at desk with light on, Person 1 walks through shot to doorway.
Shot 2.
Person 1 p.ov. shot, behind camera as person 2 appears at door then exits shot stage right.
Shot 3.
Still shot of person 2 inside doorway.
Shot4.
Still shot of person 2 behind metal grill.
Shot 5.
Person 2 walking on street then arriving at Gallery and stopping outside of door, person 1 out of shot.
Shot 6.
Person 1 arriving at gallery from opposite direction.
Shot 7.
Face on reaction shot from Person one with repeated head turning.
Shot 8.
Face on reaction shots with series of close ups on person 1.
I found that more shots were needed to convey the position of characters in the scene than initially thought and added more accordingly. I found the idea of thinking about the film out of chronological sequence challenging and constant questions were asked regarding continuity issues. Was this light on? Does the grill need to be on or not? Does the character have the bag he had in the earlier shot etc? In all, I shot just over eleven minutes of footage (many sequences were repeated in order to be able to make judgements on the best ones to use in the finished edit)
The whole filming process including setting up shots and coping with weather conditions took just under three hours. All shots were done with the camera on a tripod to limit shaky footage and all footage was filmed by me where possible except when I was actually in shot. All decisions about the shots were taken by me. Due to the snow and time constraints, considerations had to be made on the order in which sequences were shot.
I made a decision to use a backing track of suitable eerie music to match the mood of the piece this called Spectral Jazz loop sourced from sound archives from another project I was involved in a few years ago with WAM (Women Arts Media) The sound track was in cda format so I had to discover how to convert to an mp3 in order to use it in Premiere Pro. By using a backing track I was able to avoid the problems we had of hearing voices when the camera was outside the door and the voice was inside due to the fact it was inaudible from outside. I am relatively happy with the finished piece, the ending needs work the effect I was trying to create the tension didn’t really happen. I think this was due to the cuts towards the end needed to be sharper and more frequent. I also think some experimentation was needed to learn how best to convey the position of person 1 and where she was looking. Perhaps shots face on from the left of the exterior of the gallery would have worked better.
I have been unable to place film on my website www.michelledee.wordpress.com
However there is a link to it on Facebook in the Blog entry: Script for Winter Chill
Script – Winter Chill
Written By
Michelle Dee
Contact: Details withheld for security purposes.
Title Screen: Winter Chill By Michelle Dee
Fade In:
1) Ext: Red Gallery Hull
Michelle enters stage right and walks to Red Gallery entrance.
Dip to Black:
2) Ext:
She sees the light on inside and looks to where the proprietor is sat working at the desk. Banging on the metal grille covering the entrance she motions to Andrew. Andrew comes to the door from the left, tries to open the door, indicates it is locked and exits to the right to look for the keys.
Cross Dissolve:
Michelle is stood outside Gallery doorway looking in. To her left something catches her eye and she turns to look at it.
A figure is coming down the road towards her. It is Andrew.
Michelle looks again as Andrew gets closer then looks back at the door.
The light is out. The place looks empty.
Michelle looks once again at Andrew nearing her.
Andrew waves a friendly greeting.
Michelle looks back to the doorway there she sees a ghostly vision of Andrew frozen with an eerie blue pallor standing behind the bars of the metal grill.
She looks briefly away once more and when she looks back Andrew is in the same position but this time behind the door of the darkened Gallery.
The vision of Andrew vanishes and she is left facing the empty gallery.
She looks to where Andrew has nearly reached her position repeatedly with a steadily growing incredulous look on her face.
We see a close up of her eyes widening with fear.
Cross dissolve:
End credits: Starring Michelle Dee and Andrew Quinn
End Credits: End Filmed on location at Red Gallery
Filming Schedule
Outline of predetermined shot selections.
(For ease of understanding I have called protagonist person 1 and character inside gallery person 2)
Shot 1.
Person 2 visible through metal grill and doorway working at desk with light on, Person 1 walks through shot to doorway.
Shot 2.
Person 1 p.ov. shot, behind camera as person 2 appears at door then exits shot stage right.
Shot 3.
Still shot of person 2 inside doorway.
Shot4.
Still shot of person 2 behind metal grill.
Shot 5.
Person 2 walking on street then arriving at Gallery and stopping outside of door, person 1 out of shot.
Shot 6.
Person 1 arriving at gallery from opposite direction.
Shot 7.
Face on reaction shot from Person one with repeated head turning.
Shot 8.
Face on reaction shots with series of close ups on person 1.
Preparation for three minute doc.
Proposal
I have chosen the Truelove heads situated on a metal post about ten metres from the river bank. Having visited the area a number of times and seen the structure I always wanted to find out more about them. I had a few ideas about them:
Obviously a love story
Possibly they were married
Possibly there was a connection to the slave trade (the heads looked vaguely African)
I also thought they were old at least 100 yrs or more.
I toyed with the idea they might have been used to tie up ships I could imagine mooring ropes around them.
Recently there was a story on bbc about the life in this part of town. It focussed on ships carrying passengers to the new world.
Speaking to the artist Tom Hackett about his use of heads in his latest art installation I found out about the Hull Time Based Arts commission. On hearing this news I was dismayed I really wanted them to be archaic rather than a contemporary work.
Going down to the riverside to take some initial photos and footage I am faced with the following issues:
Distance between subject and camera filming is difficult.
Lighting outside
Placing the work in its environment.
How much of the history to include how to depict this. Separate images?
Copyrights of those images.
Having done some research I have found entries about the work on the museum site and the artist’s blog. So I have some background on the piece but I now need to decide the best way to tell the story.
I’d like to film in the museum and also do a brief bit to camera with someone who was involved in the commission. And contact the artist himself to see if I can gain anymore new information.
I need to write a script to go with the footage. This to be done in conjunction when choosing the shots to go in the finished piece.
Filming in the museum issues.
Craft and Media Technologies – Three Minute Film
Brief:
The Assignment brief was as follows: In small groups produce a 3 minute mockumentary video film with a narrative and a beginning, middle and end. Early on I chose to look into the possibility of doing a film based on the Truelove Heads art work by the sculptor Stefan Gec.
First step was to come up with a written and visual proposal to illustrate and identify both the setting and sculpture. I took still photos and live narrated video footage using a basic digital camera and included them in a detailed written proposal. In the proposal I set out possible locations for filming a rough filming schedule and sites for further research. I spoke with a number of people including other artists and I found out the piece was commissioned by Time Based Arts in 2002. This revelation dulled my enthusiasm the fact it was a relatively recent piece and not a relic of a bygone age begged me to question the relevance of a film about a piece that was less than a decade old. I persevered with the research and uncovered history behind why the sculpture was made and why it is thus situated.
Research Materials:
Websites:
http://www.hullcc.gov.uk/museumcollections/collections/storydetail.php?irn=196&master=425
Stefan Gec’s Blog (no longer online or moved)
Hull History Centre – Truelove Logbook (microfiche) Location Maps by Hollar
Print – Manchester Guardian Archives
Texts – Whales and Whaling :the Arctic Fishery by Arthur G. Credland
Hull Maritime Museum – stills of artefacts from the 19th Century exhibition.
Hull City Library – Paul Clayton Whaling & Sailing Songs
Plus various other materials sourced from Hull Archives including copy of print of Truelove ship and reproductions of crew reports and records of whaling relics during the Truelove’s service as a whaling vessel.
Early on I went out with Ahmad to capture some footage of the heads and some location shots to place the sculpture in relation to the city. This process was less than succesful although some of this footage has found its way into the final edit. It was very difficult to try and get across ideas of what I wanted, I felt I had to delegate to some degree to avoid doing the whole thing myself and learning about the group work process. I don’t know if I have succeeded in gaining this essential group work knowledge, I suspect not.
Looking for an angle for the film, a way in both for the film maker and the audience, I toyed with the idea of having the rough footage in the piece. The fact that almost by chance I had a narrative already suggested this path to me.
The puzzle of what the piece was, the questions it posed, the questions I asked myself and the eventual discovery of the information about the piece on a badly situated plaque.
There seemed to be a need for a protagonist for the audience to focus on sympathize with, so now as a group we looked at the possibility to filming a character acting out the discovery of the heads and then the journey to uncover the story behind them. No fixed decisions were made and the project flipped around from idea to idea. I suggested their might be some way we could make the story “fun and funky” using some time reversal effects suggesting that our protagonist goes back in time to when the Inuit couple first arrived in Hull. This idea was greeted with big thumbs down from the group and I resigned it to the waste bin.
With time pressing and still only loose ideas for direction, what the audience would actually see on screen and more importantly what the actual story was I contacted the Hull History Centre to get permission to film our research process. Permission granted, Anila and Vicky filmed me at various times in various locations in and around the Hull History Centre using an XM2 fixed on a tripod and hand held. As we uncovered more and more materials and information we were presented with different options as to the focus of the documentary. Was it the sculpture and artist, the Inuit couple, or was it the Truelove itself? We learned that the ship wasn’t just any old ship but a ship with a remarkable past: it was known as the most famous whaling ship of the period due to it having American Civil War connections, the longest service history, and an unusual design enabling it to withstand the cold crush of the Arctic Ice packs. I personally enjoyed this period of discovery, the fact that the ship was “famous” piqued my enthusiasm once more and set to rest my previous misgivings.
We filmed with prior permission researching texts documents and using microfiche records of the ship’s logbook. With the possibility of having members of the public in the film Video Release Forms were located online and duly printed off in order to cover us legally.
As the filming day progressed this section of the film took shape in our minds. Firm decisions were made about having setting shots about showing the protagonist going into the History centre from different angles in order to be able to present a comprehensive series of images on screen. So there were front on shots, back shots, side shots, and location setting shots from outside.
It became clear that to tell the whole story of the ship’s service history we would lose the focus on the bronze heads on the River Hull so we decided to narrate the story of the couple and how they came to be on the Truelove and brought to Hull. From the various research materials and notes I went away and wrote a rough version of the script. After writing the script I consulted with Anila and Vicky about whether they felt it worked, (Ahmad took no further part in creating the film) whether changes needed to be made and whether any questions arose from it. There did. During the script writing process there had been no mention of “whaling” the fact that the issue of whaling is a sensitive and often politically charged subject and may result in an audience turning off, perhaps thinking we were glorifying what is seen by many as a barbaric practice. Because the film’s focus was on the couple and not fishing practices of the era and we didn’t purposefully mislead the viewer we decided that the script worked without including the specific term “whaling”
The second consideration was the idea of including sections of commentary illustrating the protagonist’s journey verbal prompts to aid the audience to follow what was on screen such as, “At the newly opened History centre in Hull…etc”
(These considerations can be seen at the bottom of the script)
Contacting the curator at Hull Maritime Museum I discussed with him some of the conflicting reports I had uncovered namely that Captain Parker had witnessed the European whalers bringing suffering upon the Inuit settlements as they lay anchored of Greenland’s shores. He knew of know such reports and advised I looked once again to Arthur Credland’s writing.
We gained permission from the Maritime Museum to photograph artefacts from the Truelove in particular the display of the Eskimaux Exhibition of 1848 and the casts of the couple and Parker. Anila and Victoria proceeded to take stills of the displays etc for inclusion in the film.
With footage and stills done we turned to recording the script in the college studios using Adobe Soundbooth. By dividing the script into paragraphs and smaller sections it was recorded in one afternoon. During the recording process we came up against issues around wording some sentences written down didn’t work when spoken. Some words and order of words were changed to help the sections flow. In order to keep a uniform quality to the voice the narrator stayed in the same place the whole time. Moving around changing position and distance of mouth from mic results in the narration sounding as if it was done at different times sometimes almost as if a different person is speaking.
Transferring the footage and images to Premiere Pro we began editing the footage choosing what shots to use and how to tell our story. I think the first part of the film works reasonably well, but when it gets to the inserted stills and the fact on some there is a black background and on others not the film stops being cohesive and becomes a series of still images telling a story. I found this frustrating and realized then that I should have cast my net farther and gathered more footage. I hunted through google to find some other images to include, including another map from the time and a rather disturbing shot of an Eskimo girl.
Early on it had been suggested that I use some music to add colour to the piece and I duly found a version of the classic shanty Shenandoah. The original tells the story of how an Ameri-Canadian trader carries of an Indian maiden after feeding firewater to her uncooperative father who is the chieftain of Shenandoah. I chose this piece because it loosely echoed the personal journey our heroine Uckaluk made.
There were issues around the marrying of the two softwares, Soundbooth and Premiere pro, one kept crashing the other, so sections of the track were cut from the whole and then faded to overlap the narrator’s voice to lend a sense of continuity.
Other problems arose when trying to locate pieces of footage, or rather when Premiere Pro tried to locate footage to open the session. In future projects all footage and images and audio should be saved in the same place.
The editing continued with Anila and Victoria taking a leading role and making editorial decisions and decisions over cuts and transitions. The hardest thing during this process was trying to persuade the others the difference between cutting the footage rather than reducing it to the transition point. This is still clearly a problem because, our finished film although within the three mins envelope, has a minute of blank screen at the end, after the credits. This is due to the music track being reduced to fit the end credits but not cut. There is also another issue over the sound the volume has to be turned right up in order to hear the narration however recording levels were set correctly initially so this volume issue remains a mystery. Viewing the film on my blog I find that some of the images appear pixillated where as before they were not this remains a problem also.
-There was a viewpoint that identifying the problem and including in the report was tantamount to correcting the error and then re-uploading the film.-
All in all I am reasonably happy with the fact we finished the film to some standard, at times there were concerns over whether it would ever be finished. The group issue is difficult I had wanted to speak with the course leader about this before it got to what felt like an irrevocable position. As it is a majority decision was made to upload the film without including Ahmad’s name in the credits. Hindsight suggests that his name should have been included no matter how small his input in the overall project.
I have since found this online and various other references to the artwork the ship etc.
http://www.thisisyourmail.co.uk/posts/your_say/view/43828-public-art-a-good-thing-
Plus a progress report from Arts Council Yorkshire listing the work in its annual record of works commissioned.
True Love Documentary (Draft Script)By Michelle Dee
To be spoken by Michelle except for the words of Uckaluk highlighted in italics below
Somewhat hidden amongst the timbers jutting out of the brown silt of the River Hull stands a poignant reminder of a bygone age. Where once proud, sailing ships embarked on fishing voyages hunting in the treacherous icy waters of the Artic Circle perimeter, we now find two curious bronze heads looking out onto the Humber Estuary. The True Love was such a ship, not just any ship but a ship with a history that spanned a century, an ocean, and three continents.
During the voyage of 1847 to the fishing grounds on the western coast of Greenland, John Parker, Captain of the True Love for seventeen years, was approached by one of the native Eskimo people. Uckaluk was a young Inuit girl of fifteen living in the Nyatlick settlement South of the Cumberland Straits (pinpoint this down) who had recently lost her mother, she had also lost all her worldly possessions too. They had been buried along with her mother’s body according to traditional practice.
The Eskimos had come accustomed to the British seafarers, having began trading seal furs and oils for firearms and medicines with Danish sailors in previous years. The young girl living in filthy destitute conditions and near to starvation begged Captain Parker to take her to England. It is reported in the Manchester Guardian of 1848 that the desperate girl uttered the following words:
“Uckaluck no father no mother, Captain Parker be her Father”
So moved was John Parker to highlight the Inuit’s plight that he agreed to take Uckaluk and another, Memiadluka 17 year old male betrothed to her according to Inuit marital custom when she was an infant. The night before they set sail for England, the two were married by Captain John Parker on board the True Love.
The Truelove then left the Eastern shores of Greenland sailed south through the Davis Straits out into the North Atlantic sea eventually returning home to the English port of Hull on the Humber Estuary. The Captain set about immediately organising public events where the young couple were the main attraction. He It could be argued that these kinds of people exhibits were exploitative and degrading, going against the Inuit’s human rights, but Parker felt it was his moral duty to raise awareness of the terrible conditions the Inuits were enduring, because their homeland lay within the boundaries of the British Empire.
There are three plaster casts that were made during the two years that the “live” exhibition toured the North of England, the first two are that of Memiadluk and his wife Uckaluk – it is noted in the poem The Esquimaux from the maritime collection The Sea Cabinet by Catriona O’Reilly that the young Eskimo girl found the experience quite distressing and had tears in her eyes during the casting process. The third head cast is that of Captain John Parker, this token gesture perhaps helped to alleviate the fearful again suggesting that his heart was in the right place in the undertaking.
The Eskimo visitors’ story does not have a happy ending.
In the spring of 1849 the Truelove and Captain Parker set sail as promised to return the young couple to their home in Nyatlick. Sadly as they neared the Orkney Islands there was an outbreak of measles on board, the sickness became a disaster and Uckaluk perished.
It is not known what became of her partner Memiadluk, but the bronze heads created by the artist Stefan Gec in 2002 stand as memorial to their lives, testament to their courage, and as a permanent reminder of their tragic visit to British shores.
End:
Issues arising from draft script
Decisions have to be made regarding where the music is to come in how much and also on the position of stills….and whether you want any narration breaking up the story such as
“We journeyed to the newly opened History Centre in Hull and came upon various books and maritime records that helped to piece together the True Love’s long and illustrious career….etc”
“Whilst visiting the maritime museum we discovered many artefacts relating to the Truelove…the Eskimaux etc…”
Nowhere have I mentioned whaling, do you think I can get away with not mentioning the word whaling? Should there be an issue around the whaling angle? Yes it is barbaric I personally find it very disturbing and condemn countries that still carry on the practice…but then it was normality nay essential to life…oil for lights heating etc…what do you think?
