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And here it is, the final project, thank you all for watching and I hope your all keeping well and safe. 

“All Things Being Equal” - Pete Kember (Sonic Boom, 2020) 

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500 Word Project Evaluation:

So, upon reflection of my final project for the Moving Image course I can safely say there is a lot to cover when it comes to overall development and progress from its humble beginnings to its final conclusion. To summarise this change, the project itself has somehow gone from starting out as a concept that was to focus on the symbolism and interpretations of different dream types, which then due to circumstances beyond my control involving the recent pandemic that has occurred, transformed into an abstract short film that expresses a narrators own experiences with the virus itself through sections/chapters exploring the abandonment of the outside world, the isolation we are all suffering through and the paranoid filled dreams that feature a metaphor of The Virus chasing him down until he finally accepts the fear of the virus itself and puts forth a positive message to viewers that we shall win this fight against Covid-19. 

At the start of the project I wanted to focus my research on different interpretations of dreams in such studies by writers like Freud and upon other articles surrounding the different ways of finding out what your dreams mean through scientific research into the field of dream symbolism. I also wanted to look into artist and filmmakers like Hans Richter, Dara Derbyshire and Harmony Korine who have used the concept of dreams and collage to impact their own Film, Audio and artistic endeavours. However, through the unpredicted development of my project my attention quickly swung to researching the effects isolation could bring on during this pandemic, vivid dreams and there symbolism of the pandemic, Different films that use certain elements to portray a hiding message as well as looking more into the work of John Smith, Christian Novelli and Jennifer Kent when it came to inspiration for my abstract piece. 

The results of all this work has been the collection of dozens of clips that showcase the reality of this pandemic which has been cut up into three sections. That being the abandonment and gloominess that engulfs our outside world at this current time, the lonely and somewhat haunting existence we are all having to endure during this lockdown and finally how our reality as a whole has almost been turned upside as if to say what we’re living in what feels like a rather surreal and paranoid filled fever dream. All expressed through a collage of dreamy visuals, haunting audio pieces and poetic monologues that is shown through the eyes and thoughts of a poetic Narrator who is seemingly haunted by the physical form of The Virus in his own nightmares. 

Upon reflection of the final product I feel as if I could have improved on some of my editing choices in the mixing of the audio and visuals, time management when it came to putting the piece together and hiring out better equipment before the pandemic occurred. 

However, even when these things have been brought up, I can still happily say that I am proud of what I have created for my final project.

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Covid - 19 Setbacks:

So to avoid completely rambling about the multitude of setbacks that this pandemic has put me through in my Project evaluation I decided to make a full list of the multiple setbacks I have had to endure and overcome when it came to putting this final project together:  

I had to completely scrap my developing idea of a piece based around an abstract collage film of different dream interpretations and the the symbolism behind them, this in turn cost me weeks of redevelopment and planning to change my direction of the project.

I wasn’t able to gather together multiple actors or interviewees to either act out or discuss the dreams that could of been put together for said previous project. as a well as this, I was only able to obtain one other actor for my actual final project, with me having to act out the rest of the film by myself.

I was left stranded in terms of what equipment I could use for this piece due to the fact that the university kit storage system was completely shut down once the lockdown commenced which left me with only a audio recorder, a old vhs camera, my run down digital camera, a keyboard and a guitar to use in terms of creating a project so highly reliant on different forms of recording and other editing softwares i simply do not posses or could access without the resources of the university (I had to use a rubbish bin/wallet combo as a tripod at one point). 

As much as the tutors have done a fantastic job with organising our online meetings and providing us with the help and support we needed (thank you Francis!) It would of been so much better for us to have come face to face with our tutors and be able to discuss and showcase our ideas with them and potentially the rest of our class for further detailed feedback and help, however under the circumstances I would say that my tutor did a brilliant job with what she had at her disposal.

No access whatsoever to the use of University sets or props that could of been provided for filming purposes so the majority of the piece was filmed either in the 4 walls of my own home or in other strange/precarious places that could of been avoided if the lockdown did not happen.

The potential idea of maybe transforming my old project idea into an installation had to also be completely scrapped in favour of a single screen concept.

The cancellation of a Graduation show means there could potentially be less support or access towards my final piece and as a result I have probably lost out on potential clients/work that would of benefited my future in the Filmmaking industry after coming straight out of my university course. 

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Screenshots of the final piece (part two)

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Screenshots of the final piece (part one)

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Well that’s a wrap ladies and gentlemen! All that’s left to do now is gather screenshots of the film and write up a corona virus impact report + 500 word summary, thank you all for stopping by! Stay safe.

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Changes to the font of the text being used to divide the film up into sections as well as added intro text and ending texts.

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Intro being edited together using pieces of news, media and coverage of the pandemic over the last few months. this by any means is not meant to symbolise any kind of political view or stance it’s only a rather intense collage of sounds and audio clips collected in order to give the audience a rather interesting and freighting start to the piece itself.

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Example of the strobe lighting being used in the finale of the Nightmare Sequence

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(CLIFTON)

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Ending editing process which involves less heavy effects on the colour scheme, a relaxed narrator going over us being able to overcome this virus once and for all be uniting in isolation, ‘We’ll Meet Again’ playing blissfully in the background and a beautiful shot of the entirety of an empty Bournemouth beach shot by me from the top of a tree in the nearby hills.

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Editing process of the nightmare sequence was rather easy to say the least as it generally followed the same rules that were provided during the making of the first dream sequence. The differences being obviously in: The use of heavier noise that had been collected and edited since the beginning of this project, to put forth the idea of this being more of a night mare sequence then a dream, Having a faster more Chaotic pace that throughout Strobe lights being used at the end of the climax Now that that’s over and done with it’s time to move on to the final few bits of the editing process which is piecing together the intro and the ending altogether!

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Oh before I forget again! Here’s some more inspiration I have found, and that’s the Metaphor of the monster in the 2012 Australian horror: The Babadook. The concept of The film on the surface is quite simple, A mother is fighting to protect herself and her young son from a monster that has invade there home from a book she found one day in his room. But in reality, when you scratch away at the surface, you find that this film is jam packed full of metaphors and symbolism. To make things simple we shall touch upon the main metaphor that holds this flick together and that is the concept that The Babadook is the imbodiment of the main characters Greif she is still suffering from after the loss of her husband before her son was born. This greif manifests itself more and more until it possess her completely near the end of the film, taking her into a schizophrenic state of denial as she tried to murder her own son. However, he’s able to fight back and help his mother to let go of her grief and focus on keeping herself and her son happy and looked after. For me this film and the idea of the monster being a symbol for something rather important in a film is something that has helped me in terms of figuring out how to portray The Virus itself in my own surreal piece about this pandemic we are currently living in.

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Screen shots of the second half of the Nightmare Chase Sequence (unedited)

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For the second half of the Nightmare Sequence, this was to showcase the narrator finally breaking down after realising that The Virus has finally broken into his safe haven of isolation and was going to infect him completely.

The intentions of this section is to showcase paranoia of The virus finally catching up to the narrator and him accepting the fact that in reality there is nothing to stop this infection other then trying to keep yourself isolated and hoping for the best, this is showcased in the last bit of the scene with him slowly putting on his own mask accepting the fact that The Virus can catch anyone and that wasting your time worrying or panicking over if you may get it will only lead to further depression and paranoia.

Thankfully this scene was pretty easy to film as I was able to use my lampshade in my room as a lightning tool with added cardboard around it to create a cirasciro effect on me, and the camera was propped up on both books and my own chair. Plus acting out this scene was rather easy considering I’m used to acting like I’ve lost my mind from all the times I have acted in the past.

Overall these shots came out rather well and I’m sure they will be rather easy to put together once it comes to finally editing the full nightmare sequence together. Here’s some BTS shots of my room being turned into a filming set.

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Unedited screenshots from the first half of the nightmare chase sequence.

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So for the filming of the last dream/nightmare sequence, I had to split the filming process up into two parts due to the fact that my dad wasn’t comfortable with me filming with Taylor at night around his house which I can whole heartily understand. So for this half i was able to film the chase sequence from the view of The Virus invading the sub conscious home of the narrator by using Taylor’s flat as the location of said chase. The sequence in terms of its point is to fulfil the paranoia the Narrator feels surrounding The Virus itself spreading into his own isolation and infecting him completely with a nightmarish sequence in which The Virus finally breaks in and ultimately infects The Narrator (this will be fully explained in the next post). For the filming itself me and Taylor got the shots down rather quickly in terms of planning and execution from planning all day until night time and then trying to get said shots done quickly and quietly so we didn’t disturb his neighbours downstairs. Now that the first half of the chance has been scratched off, it’s now time to film the last part of this section and the last thing I shall film altogether for this project as a whole. For now here’s some BTS pics of the filming process.