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Week 6 Morpheus Visits (Re-Edited)

Carys Williams: Editor

For the final film our group decided to re-edit our week 5 film ‘Morpheus Visits’ which had a nightmare theme running throughout it. We came to the decision to re-edit the previous week’s film since we were unable to shoot a final film because of the Covid-19 outbreak. This had an effect on us finding actors for our film and we also decided that it was too dangerous to shoot with the risk of us and any actors getting the virus that is going around at the moment. One of the ways that we worked around the social distance regulations that came with the Covid-19 outbreak was by re-editing parts of the final version of the film at different times of the day. For the editing of the final film, I mainly focused on editing the colour grading of each shot in the film. Through editing the colour correction for the final version of ‘Morpheus Visits’ I learnt how to use the ‘curves’ option properly as I needed since the shots were too yellow toned, so I edited them to become cooler toned in post-production. As a group we originally met together and planned out an idea for a film that had a murder mystery vibe which was similar to the board game ‘Cluedo’. The film we planned to create had a strategic monochromatic colour coding technique with each of the characters having one colour to represent them which would’ve been seen on-screen through their clothing. Overall, I am very pleased with the re-edited version of ‘Morpheus Visits’ since I think that the pacing and how the story progresses is much better as it builds up the tension through the changing of different shots compared to the original version. However, I believe that the original version of ‘Morpheus Visits’ has a charm of its own but since we were able to work on this film further as a group, I think that we improved the film a lot.

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Here’s what our nightmares look like. This week we were asked to use dialectical montage to tell a story of our choice.

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Week five Morpheus Visits

Agnieszka Strak: producer 

            Unfortunately, fifth week didn’t bring something new. Only because of my stupidity my group needed to make a decision for me. So, I became a producer again. Well I wasn’t happy because of this but there are also some advantages.

            This time I filled out the Health and Safety form earlier than the first time. Thanks to that I saved myself unnecessary stress and unwanted mistakes. Although I did it few weeks before, a big help was example form. I can’t understand why booking equipment is so complicated.

            All I needed to do was that what I did in the second week, fill out the Health and Safety form, book equipment and the editing room. I was disappointed a little bit because I didn’t have a possibility to try something new, but I am also glad, this time I knew what I am doing and what is the most important I didn’t make the same mistakes which I did 3 weeks ago. Because of this this week seemed for me quite easy and it wasn’t too exhausting.   

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Week five Morpheus Visits

Paulina Kowalewska: Sound design, make up artist and editor

Moving on to the fifth week, the difficulty level rose too. Dialectical montage. It was the first time I heard about it, nonetheless I liked the idea. I came up with a simple idea, a person crying in the night club’s toilet stall and the second video would be of the other people having the best time of their life. From there I could think of the reasoning and ameliorate the story. Jess on the other hand had a better plan, where we could become creative and make something really good, so I agreed to discard my idea. Film about nightmares, based on Jess’s own experiences. We got excited, sharing our culture’s beliefs about the dreams and taking inspiration from other productions we came up with a rough draft. I decided to try the sound, because music was my best friend since I was a child and went to musical school. On the day of filming I decided to become a makeup artist too, because we needed one and I have some basic skills. It turned out to be a challenge thanks to lights we used and lack of experience on my side. Within the week we also borrowed some props, puppets, skulls, etc. Jess made herself some cut outs that looked like spooky monsters too. Using that and the lights we were able to create a lot of good shots. Looking for audios for a horror film on the internet can be really difficult, as I learnt when I came to the editing suite to add sounds to already edited picture. It took me some time to find decent material. Rest of the group helped me with every step, so that everybody could be satisfied. That movie required the most work of all the productions we did.

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Week five Morpheus Visits

Dorottya Kovacs: Director and Editor

This week our task was to do a montage and create meaning with different images. As always, we sat down together and started brainstorming our ideas. Jess had a really interesting idea about nightmares, so we decided to choose her story.

I was really excited because I finally got to try the role of the director and especially because this is a horror film and it is one of my favourite genres. I think the director plays one of the most important parts. I have seen how important those decisions are that the director has to make. That’s why at first, I was a little scared of making decisions alone, but my groupmates helped me a lot with advice. Before shooting I had a meeting with the cinematographer and we made the storyboard, the shot list and I made the shooting schedule. I think we did a great job preparing for filming. During the semester I have learned that it is really important to be well prepared and this way we can be organised on the day of shooting and won’t get lost. For the montage we collected some props that matched the theme of the film and we also used red plastic to create the illusion that we are in hell. I wanted to use props that symbolize death and darkness. We also used make-up to make the character’s eyes look tired and we made it stronger after each nightmare to show an unsettling image.

As for directing my idea was that the camera goes from wide shot to extreme close-up until we can only see the character’s eyes in the end. We get closer to her after each nightmare and each nightmare is getting faster and more intense. We were able to achieve this by editing therefore we put a lot of emphasis on editing both the picture and sound. Although we received the feedback that the editing wasn’t intense enough and it was quite confusing which I agree with as we didn’t set up an order between the different shots of the props. Apart from this, I am quite proud how this film turned out that’s why we chose it to be one of our final films and re-edited it to create a meaningful order of the shots.

All in all, I’m glad that I could try directing as I have learned a lot and I gained a lot of confidence in directing.

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Week five Morpheus visits

Carys Williams: cinematographer and Editor 

This week’s set task was to create a montage style film that was based upon juxtaposition. For our film we decided to go with a concept that was related to the horror/thriller genre with the theme of a person experiencing a series of bad nightmares. I was the Cinematographer for this week’s film which is the role I personally enjoyed the most throughout this module. It has become clearer to me through this module that I mostly enjoy being the Cinematographer as it allows me to express my ideas creatively through the visuals of film. While taking the role of being the Cinematographer I completed tasks such as, creating and coming up with ideas for storyboards and bringing the storyboards to life through being the camerawoman for the film. These storyboards that I created along with the Director (Dorottya Kovács) included different shot types and brief descriptions of what I planned to do with each shot. Creating these storyboards helped me immensely on the day of filming as I knew exactly what I was doing because of the sketches I had previously drawn. The process of creating the storyboard went a lot quicker than I initially anticipated as the Director and I had a good idea on how we both wanted to shoot the film. Through creating this film while being the Cinematographer, I learnt how to build tension through different shot types such as close-ups and bird’s-eye view shots. For example, when editing I placed a close-up of the actress’ face to be after a medium close-up that was from the same angle. This was one of the ideas I had while creating the storyboard with the Director since I thought that this type of shot change would add drama to the film. One of the ways in which I experimented creatively when creating this week’s film was through the angles of the shots, for example, the bird’s-eye view shot of the actress’ face as she was falling asleep. I believe that this kind of shot makes viewers feel more connected with the storyline as this shot in particular is an intimate shot since you are seeing the actress from an unusual point of view. This kind of shot also helped to display the make-up that was put on the actress’ face to show how the nightmares were tormenting her physically as well as in her dreams. One of the elements that I really liked about this film is the lighting, especially the parts that are seen within the nightmares where the shadows of either a person or the puppets are seen against the red-lit wall. If I was to create this film again, I would change the pacing of how fast the storyline progressed and focus more on the colour correction of the film. Consequently, I really enjoyed the process and all of the stages that came with creating this film. I think that this week’s film allowed me to experiment more with shot types and lighting which are two elements that I would really like to focus on within filmmaking in the future.

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Week five Morpheus visits

Jess Scott: writer, actor. Puppeteer, and editor

The focus for this week was the use of montage. This was my favourite week by far as it was the first time we made a more personal film. When watching some examples of dialectical montage, I was reminded of the nightmares I have when falling asleep. These are often in the form of images flashing quickly (much like in montage). It was also a chance to recreate a shot from Black Narcissus, 1947 that I really loved; an extreme close up of Sister Ruth as she becomes completely mad. From this came the story line of a person being driven bad by their nightmares. When assigning roles, I asked about directing, but as the story came from personal experiences it made more sense for me to write the screenplay.

Another reason I really enjoyed this week is that it was the first time we used props from the department. It was really fun going through all the props and finding things we’d all seen in nightmares. I also made shadow puppets in the shapes of demons (based on my own nightmares). It was fun making props and meant we were not limited by what was solely available in the department. They also created a really nice effect in the film, especially when used with red light. When searching for props and developing the story I also took inspiration from folklore. In polish lore it is the winged god Morpheus that visits you at night to bring your dreams/nightmares, as well as visions of the future. This became the centre for the story line, and inspiration for some of the images. For example the banshee and recurring skull are omens of death. Compared to the last time I acted, in week 2, I felt a lot more comfortable this time. While I’d prefer to stay behind the camera I think working on a film I am passionate about helps make any role more exciting. I’m gradually becoming more confident in all aspects of filmmaking.

We had originally planned to use some stock footage alongside our own, however when it came to editing we found bringing in other material would ruin the ‘aesthetic’ and almost made it feel less authentic. While editing we tried to consider the emotion and pace of each cut, increasing the pace as the film progressed. Our goal was to create as intense an experience for the audience as we could. I am proud of the effect we managed to achieve. The main feedback was that there weren’t obvious connections between the images. While we had tried to categorise them I think more planning in preproduction would help create a clearer meaning. This is definitely a film I’d like to develop further in the future as there were some ideas that weren’t able to be explored. One thing I’d definitely like to add is the possible ending where they ‘remove’ their eyes to make the images stop (using pigs eyes and practical effects).

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Week 4 Soundscape

Paulina Kowalewska: Cinematographer and Editor

I was really excited for this week’s topic. The sound in films is something so important, that we should always pay attention to it as much as we pay attention to the cinematography. You could get really creative in this challenge, think of something smart, yet surprising. Coming up with the story was not easy, especially because the bar was high. I had this idea about a person coming on holiday to the Aberystwyth, when there is a terrible wind and rain, but he is so stubborn that he will finally have his vacation that he doesn’t care and behaves like the weather is beautiful and sunny, and we hear sounds of the calm sea.  My group liked the idea, so we went with it. Cinematographer was the role I was afraid of the most, but with help of the girls I was confident enough to claim this position. I had a lot of ideas for the shots, and the film already in my head, so doing the storyboard was a pure pleasure. Naturally, I messed up at the beginning, because I did check if everything was in the camera case, but the absence of microphone cables did not seem weird to me. I used tascam a couple of weeks ago, so I forgot we needed a second SD card for it too. We wanted to use different audio for the film, so it was not that big of a problem, however, sounds of the steps, or conversation could be useful. The sun appeared to be an issue too, as I could not see the LCD screen properly. As it turned out some of the shots were not in focus, but not much and the worst part was, we did not see that there were our reflections in the sunglasses. But on the other side, we had a lot of time to do the shots, so we even got additional ones. I was proud of my shots, but alas I am still angry at myself because of the cables and SD card. While editing we asked our lecturer for help with the reflections, and he did what he could. Overall, I am really proud of this. I learned a lot too, especially about being a cinematographer. 

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Here we focused on sound design to show emotion, give a sense of place, and tell the story.

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Week 4 Soundscape

Jess Scott: Director and editing

This week was all about using sound design to help tell the story, and not relying on picture. I was really excited about this film and the chance to do something less realistic. As a group we really liked the idea of juxtaposing the setting with the sound. I think it is important that the whole group likes the concept of the film as it ensures everyone is engaged in the production. This is also the week I got the chance to direct. I really enjoyed being able to make creative choices and have a larger impact on the film. The first step was to meet up with the cinematographer (Paulina) and we went through the screenplay and really thought about how our choice of shots reflected the story progression. Although the focus was on the sound design, I didn’t want to neglect the other aspects of the film. One thing that I think we’d been scared of as a group is using close ups, so when deciding what shots to use I didn’t want to shy away from extreme close ups and using a variety of shots. I really enjoyed this part of the process and will hopefully get a chance to try the role of cinematographer later in the year.

I really loved directing the film and being on set. Despite constantly running from actor to camera and back again, I had loads of energy. It was also really fun to shoot on location. I think my favourite part of the role was working with the actor. I found it exciting when they understood my directions and I could see the story coming together. One problem when editing and reviewing the footage was that the sunglasses showed the reflection of the crew. This made some shots unusable. However they were used to represent the characters mentality (wears them to pretend its summer, throws them away when he is defeated) so we had to use them. This is something to learn from. One trick I found while directing was that creating a copy of the shot list on my phone was really useful. It meant I could tick of completed shots/scenes and was a lot easier to handle and refer to quickly especially at it was windy and wet. I could also include photos of the story board so everything is all in one place. While working on a past project I found I hardly referred to the storyboard as it was too fiddly to get out and wrestle with sheets of paper all the time (particularly because I was also doing sound). I will definitely do this again.

The main feedback was that the costumes did not match the motivation of the character. If he is determined to have a summer seaside holiday, he should wear summer clothes. I was wary of doing this as it was very cold and wet, also as the script meant they had to walk bare foot on the cold pebbles I didn’t want to ask too much of the actor, especially as they were a friend volunteering. We also got some criticism on the sound design as it sounded like a generic summer soundtrack, I think spending more time on the soundtrack and using sounds one or two at a time instead of all at once would have created more atmosphere and sounded more professional. Overall, I’m really proud of this film and feel like I’ve learnt from it.

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Week 4 Soundscape

Agnieszka Strak: writer

            This time I had the role of writer. This job was fun for me and it is something I believe I was good at. I always wanted to make my own script, but I had feeling that my ideas were too excessive. I knew that I need to consider my group and our possibilities.

            I wanted the script to direct funny film wherein I refer to everyday problems. Finally, I came up with an idea about a man who is going on longed for break. Unfortunately, his job doesn’t let forget about yourself.

My plan was also showed how amazing and beautiful Aberystwyth is, so I am happy that we were filming by the sea.

            In hindsight I regret a bit that I didn’t make something more spectacular. My script was too predictable. I had so many possibilities and ideas, but I didn’t present them. But I also know that this script was my first one and as a beginner I gained experience from it.

            My group made a really excellent job. They realized my idea and they did it surprisingly well. I was shocked that they created all what I had imagined. After 4 weeks we became a well integrated team.

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Week 4 Soundscape

Dorottya Kovacs: Sound design and editing

The fourth week was about sound design. Our task was to make a film that focuses on the sound to tell the story not primarily on the picture. I think this was a great exercise because I have realised that the sound is just as important as the picture. Our idea was that a person is going on holiday, but the weather is not really suitable for that, but he doesn’t give up and stays there to enjoy his well-earned vacation despite the bed weather.

This week I decided to do the sound. I was curious how sound works as I never did that before. Although I was really excited about this role, I think I could have performed better and do more preparation because this week sound was the most important part of the film. Unfortunately, I made a couple of mistakes. When we picked up the equipment I forgot to check if it was the cable of the microphone in the bag and the SD card in the Tascam. That’s why we couldn’t use the natural sound from the location, and we were shooting on seafront far from university. Luckily it was not a big problem because we agreed on using only sound effects in the whole sequence as it would describe the story better.

As a result, I didn’t have much to do during filming. Nonetheless, I had a lot more to do while we were editing. I was looking for sound effects on the internet one by one and added them to the sequence. At first, I was a bit confused in what order I want to add them in order to make a noticeable contrast between the sounds of nice and stormy weather. We received the critique that it felt like we used only one sound effect. I think we used too much of them at the same time and they got mixed. Now I would rather use less of them and much different effects so that the change of the weather could be more noticeable.

Overall, I think the story was a good idea but with a little bit more focus on mise-en-scéne and perfecting the sound we could have made a better job. I would definitely try sound again as I learned a lot from this experience.

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Week 4 Soundscape

Carys Williams: Producer

For this week’s film we had to create a film that fitted with the topic ‘soundscape’ which allowed us to focus on how the sound and visuals of film can both compliment and contradict each other. This week’s film was an exercise that gave us the opportunity to properly understand the importance of sound within film. This is evidently seen in our group’s film for this week as the visuals display a different story to the sound within the film. For this film I took up the role of being the Producer which is something I had not tried before. Through this experience I learnt about what kind of information needs to be filled out to complete a Risk Assessment form and how to overlook the production of a film. Initially, I believed that the Risk Assessment form would be easy to fill out, but I found that the amount of information that I needed to collect was more than I thought. The specific type of information that was required was also more difficult than I thought since this week’s film was filmed on the beach, however, the Risk Assessment examples that were posted onto blackboard helped me immensely in understanding what information I needed to fill out. The kind of information I had to fill out on the Risk Assessment form included where we will be filming and the certain risks factors that come with filming by the sea, for example. I also overlooked the production of the film when we were shooting this week’s film. I have learnt the importance of the Producer’s role within filmmaking through being one for this week’s film. Unfortunately, I fell ill halfway through the production of this film, so I had to leave university and go home early which meant that I was unable to participate in the editing process for this film. I was upset that I wasn’t able to take part in the editing process for this film, however, I was there for the Monday which is when we shot the film. Consequently, I am happy with the concept of this week’s film especially the elements where the sound clearly replicated the beach on a warm and sunny day which contradicted what was displayed on-screen within the film. The sound of seagulls and the waves really helped to emphasise this point.

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Week 3 Persona

Paulina Kowalewska: Producer, actor and editor

Week three’s exercise seemed quite easy at first. Just a replication. It started for me pretty early, because as a producer I had to fill out the Health & Safety form. It was more difficult than it appeared to be, but the example forms we have on blackboard helped me. I had to think of every possible thing that could occur and cause some difficulties with shooting and the camera. Luckily, we were shooting in the Parry Williams building, so we did not even have to relocate the equipment, which reduced the risk of camera getting damaged. The only thing that was worth mentioning was the lightning stuff, which we were using the first time. It could get really hot and burn someone or surrounding objects. That is why we had to take all the precautions we could, using gloves and be careful. When I showed up it turned out we had problems with finding the second actor, so I decided to devote and attempt a decent performance. It went well, and I think we had some of the best shots of all the groups. I was really proud of myself and my group while editing. I did all of the rough editing being really attentive to the details, like the number of seconds the shots lasted, and the continuity. I learned how to change colour pitches and how to make subtitles. I think it was our best film so far? 

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Our third task was to replicate a scene from Persona, 1966. To see the original scene follow the link: https://vimeo.com/36796980

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Week 3 Persona

Carys Williams: Director, Editor and Lighting

 For week 3, we had to complete the task of recreating a scene from the Swedish drama, Persona (1966). When creating this film, I took the role of being Director and I also controlled the lighting. I initially believed that this film would have some simple aspects to the creating process since we only had to replicate an already made film. However, while planning and shooting our version of Persona, I soon found out that coordinating where the camera, actors and lights are in relation to each other was a difficult task. We decided not to recreate each clip exactly from the original version of Persona as the ending of the scene we were given to complete made some group members uncomfortable. This gave us an opportunity to personalise our film as we added a plot-twist at the end of the film, making the whole sequence turn out to be a dream. While planning for this film Jess (scriptwriter) and I had discussions on how to execute the ending of the film in order to make sure that our groups version of the film was perfect. One of the problems that we encountered as a group was that we did not have a second actress, however, one of the group members took up that role. Overall, I am very pleased with how our version of Persona turned out as I think that the lighting and the way in which the film was edited to create emotion was really good. I also believe that through this experience of shooting and creating our version of Persona, I was able to figure out and experiment with different lighting techniques. This was also the first time I was able to experiment with the choreography of where the actors walk and how it looks on-screen. As a director one of the biggest challenges when creating this week’s film was figuring out the staging of the actors and lighting in each shot. This was especially difficult in the scene where one of the actresses turns into frame on the left side of the screen and the other actress becomes a silhouette as she walks closer to the camera. This obstacle was overcome by careful planning and observing where the lights should be in relation to the actors on the day of filming. I believe the staging of the characters, the pull focus and the way the lighting replicated the original film allows our film to portray a powerful message of hurt and anger. If we were to create this film again, I would like to focus more on the costume and set design of the film as I believe that we could portray the story and the difference between the characters better through different choices of mise-en-scene. I personally believe that this week’s film is the best film we have created in this term so far. I believe that the atmosphere created in our film gives an eerie vibe that will allow viewers to focus on the performance and lighting techniques through the ways that we created this film as a group.

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Week 3 Persona

Jess Scott: writer, the original director

Week three we were given a clip from the film Persona, 1966 and were asked to replicate it.  This task was particularly exciting because it allowed us to use lighting for the first time. Or initial idea for the film was to parody the original clip by swapping the roles and treating the clip like a dream the characters are now describing and acting out. I created a storyboard, using the original clip as reference, but drew the characters in the opposite positions. This was really useful to understand how the scene needs to be lit. I was really excited to direct this. The amount of restraints of the task helped make planning easier and would give more control when filming. It was convenient I was going home the weekend before as my dad is a nurse and we could get an old nurse pinafore and fob watch to use in the film. This became inconvenient when storms flooded the trainlines across the country meaning I couldn’t get back in time to direct the film. A phone call with the cinematographer very quickly led to the realisation I hadn’t communicated properly what I had planned, and they didn’t understand. So, we rewrote it together and they took over as director. We managed to keep the same concept by adding a scene at the end declaring it to have been a strange nightmare. I mirrored the beginning of the sequence, flipping the roles (as initially intended). Although I missed production, I really enjoyed planning and going through the material in such detail (taking screenshots, working out timings etc).