The day of presentation… DUN DUN DUN

This is the simulation of the walkthrough of Bunker 143.

Documentation

Do pardon the low quality of the clips as I had limited space on my Vimeo account to upload this video I placed together.
In this video, it will show u the brief thought processes that went by, setting up of the installation, feedback wrap up session with the class (00:53 to 09:40 mark) and the cleaning up process!

 

Oh, by the way, you can fast for

Concept

And why did we name our installation Bunker 143? Stay tuned. 😉

Reference Images

Post apocalyptic scenario

Escape room setting

Narrative and Characters

And the narrative kind of explains why we named our installation ‘Bunker 143.’ Because “143” simply represents the number of letters in each word of the phrase, “I (1) Love (4) You (3).”
The deaths of each of the members were the result of love. Dad loves the child so he risked his life to go back to take the blanket. He dies from the virus due to his risk. The mother kills her child because she loves her child and does not want to see the child die in pain and misery from the virus. Mother kills herself from heartache and guilt.

How did we PRESENT our idea into reality?

1) CCTV Video used are footages taken by each member of our group at different locations to cover more ground.
We followed a standard procedure whereby we took footages of scenes where surveillance cameras would be located, panning like how a CCTV would; recording scenes where the area seemed empty, barren and lack of humanity to show the post apocalyptic situation the family faced previously.

The CCTV footages pans on empty areas, and it gives a feeling as though something is going to pop out at you. Like the video game, Five Nights at Freddy’s >>

Multiple screens were playing on a several laptops in different parts of the room, with one master projection against the wall.

Afterwards, the videos were changed to black and white, blue cellophane paper against the projector to was used to create an eerie, distant and cold vibe; as compared to the red we rejected as looked straight of a horror movie which was not the intended feeling we wanted to evoke.
In addition, the projection on the wall creates space in a confined indoor area as it shows the vast outside world.

2)Props used are mainly from nostalgic object we had as a children. It kind of sets the time period as to when was the family in the bunker. This way, we do not tell the audiences directly which time period we are in, but show them.

3) QR codes – Audio Diary Logs

The speech in each audio log was designed in such a way that the audience could start with any QR codes they scan and still be able to piece the story together. The sequence does not matter.

Audio Diary Log 1

Intro – “February 28, it’s been 2 weeks since my family and I entered this bunker. Both of them are holding up well, they seem okay with this arrangement. Everything will be well soon… right?”

Audio Diary Log 2

“April 17, The room seems smaller than ever, there are too many things in this bunker. Why did my dumb husband bring so many things? Do we really need the old snow-globe? It reminds me of our honeymoon in Paris from way back. *Sigh…*”

Audio Diary Log 3

“May 30, she looks so happy, playing with her dolls. her toys are all over the place and it’s been getting in the way, but she’s happy so I’ll bear with it. She keeps asking for her blanket, but she still seems to be having fun playing board games with me and drawing. I’ve been cleaning up after her non stop but if it keeps her happy I’ll do it. I can’t wait for the day we can get out and she can live properly again.

Audio Diary Log 4

“August 26, We have enough food for another 6 months, if the virus doesn’t clear up by then then what will we do. I tried telling him but he kept saying it was fine, that we would be ok. But what if we aren’t? Why can’t he see that we’re in trouble, why does he never, ever understand. If he cares so much for the child why can’t be understand that having enough food is better for her than having all these toys. I don’t know how to do this anymore, he isn’t taking this seriously. ”

Audio Diary Log 5

“Oh no oh no. . . .he went back to get her blanket. She wouldnt stop crying… He said that it will be okay and that nothing bad will happen. FOR GOD”S SAKE THERE IS AN EPIDEMIC OUT THERE and he. isn’t. back…its been 3 hours… oh no oh no… if something happens…. He is back he is back!!!”

Audio Diary Log 6

“…He died today.” *long pause* “How could he leave us just like that? Just for that stupid blanket. I-I can’t take this. I need to lie down.”

Audio Diary Log 7

She keeps sneezing recently, and she looks so pale and skinny. back before he died she kept going near him, I’m sure she’s caught it. she looks sicker every day, I can’t watch this again

Audio Diary Log 8

*sighs, soft crying, then thumps onto the floor*

4) Use of Sound. The master soundtrack that was constantly on loop is a combination of cricket sounds I recorded when downstairs my house at night, and the whirring noise from Gabrielle’s computer fan. Safe to say that the two sounds matched really well together and so much so, the whirring of the fan sound seeps into your mind and disappears subconsciously as the cricket sound dominates the track. We wanted to have a mix of unsettling mechanical noises and sounds that adds to the sense of isolation in this bunker.

5) Used of Glow in the Dark paint to emulate the presence of blood. Allows the audience to ponder what exactly happened on that area. Especially when Audio Diary Log 8’s QR code is situated there.


Personal Reflection
Personally I think our team pulled this project off really well and everything was pretty cohesive as a whole.
Despite having some changes here and there as we had consultations with Ru Yi and on our own, I think this project managed to come together really well as the final outcome was even better than what we imagined in our heads!
And most importantly, I think the audiences liked our work considering that they were able to question themselves regarding their own memories of the items, and were able to piece the story together. The use of an immersive space and sound really put the audiences into another setting.
What I felt could have been done better was the use of glow in the dark paint. Because of logistic and location issues, we were not able to use fake blood for the scene where the mother committed suicide as it would be hard to clean off and we would probably get scolded by the management. Hence, the use of glow in the dark paint on white paper scattered on the floor was quite an eyesore, and even misleading as one of the audiences asked me if that was pee on pee pad..

BUT NONETHELESS…

We have finally come to the end of Foundation 4D II Final Project!! Yay!

It was  great pleasure to work with Gabrielle, Yu Lin and Yit Ling in this project! Not only because they are such great people, they are also important team players in this project! And we are very proud to say that we did not spend a single dollar on this project 🙂 !

Thank you Ruyi for your guidance! I have learnt a lot in these 2 semesters from you, and 4D lessons has always been something I look forward to. 🙂

CHEERIO~ See you guys around in Year 2 Sem 1 ;D

<3 Seng Yi Ling

 

Our Group Proposal

Main Idea:

Our idea for this narrative site specific location is a set up in a post apocalyptic abandoned Singaporean bunker. The premise is that the room once belonged to a family of 3, and was abandoned after an unseen environmental calamity. The audience’s role will be to explore the space and slowly see what happened to the previous occupant, contemplate their place in the world, and possibly how to get out of the confined space.

The focus of the set will be on lights, sounds, and interaction.

Themes:

    • Existentialism (Feeling like a small person in a big world)
      • We want the audience to question who they are in the world and make them feel ‘small’, by showing them how people can just get up and disappear, leaving behind everything they value, and thus making them question if anything they do really matters if they can be wiped off the earth so easily.
    • Memories
    • Change (Isolation, loss)
      • In our hectic world, we are only able to slow down and think only when everything we know is gone. No distractions and no one around. This is when we are truly ourselves.
      • Forces the audience to slow down and think about themselves once all people/distractions are not in their immediate surroundings

Planned location:

  • ADM print room on second floor
  • One of the crit rooms
  • A small room

Lights:

  • Use of projection with video documentations of previous occupants, different portraits in black and white grain (Surveillance type)
  • Galaxy projection
    • Painting on transparency like in the project “Stellar”
    • To create another dimension within the same space. It also makes the room look futuristic which fits our post apocalyptic bunker set
    • It also gives the feel of floating away from your current reality into one of contemplation and reflection
  • Putting coloured transparency or cellophane paper against flashlights to create a coloured lightbox effect.

Sounds:

  • Futuristic sounds (Soft siren whine, radio noise, fan whirring)
  • An omnipresent narrator narrating in an ASMR style
    • ASMR as it can be comforting when tranquil, but as well as discomforting when you’re in a crisis
    • Undecided whether it will all be the same voice or different person to each object

Interaction:

  • Mirrors/reflective surfaces, seeing your reflected self everywhere
    • You are only with yourself.
    • Emphasizing the feel of isolation and the audiences’ place as a human being in a world larger than they thought before. In the room, there are no people, only the items they left behind and ghost images of the audience themselves.
  • Tangible items strewn around them that can be picked up
    • Triggers a unanimous, nostalgic emotional memory in audiences
    • E.g. A worn-out doll, old music box, plane ticket etc.
    • At the same time, the narrator will be narrating a memory associated with each of the items around the audience

References:

  • Stan Brakhage “Stellar” – Inspired to steer our light logistics according to his methods as well as to obtain the galaxy feeling which is crucial for our theme, so as to evoke a sense of loneliness and isolation in a vast space.
  • Black Mirror (Mirror/ reflective surfaces), our theme is similar in exploring memories and loneliness.Methodology:
  • Audience is brought into a dark room and made to lie down on some mats (childcare type)
  • They open their eyes, facing the ceiling projection of the slowly shifting galaxies
    • Story is that since civilisation (people around you) is gone, it’s easier to pay attention to the environment around you with no rush.
  • Around them are objects belonging to others, but most likely will trigger some sense of nostalgia and own memories to come forth. It makes you think of your own life. Your existence.
  • The narrator will be giving some history behind each of the object under the guise of the previous owner, prompting the audience to consider what the object means to them
  • The whole experience in own space is subjective. It is for you to explore your own existentialism and existence.

Really hope that our installation will be really awesome!! SO EXCITED!! 😀
Stay tuned to our documentation post soon!!! ;D

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling

Appropriation, Re-appropriation and Re-contextualization

Allie Mc Burroughs by Evans Walker in 1933.
Levine re-appropriates masculine works of Evans Walker in 1981.
Mandiberg re-contextualizes Levine‘s work in 2002, in a way that the work was so many times replicated to economical reasons. Even to the point of printing out the certification; the limited edition work has loses its value.

Its not about the image anymore. It is about the meaning behind the work of that era it was created.


When we share, everyone wins

Creative Commons is an online platform which is open to sharing, remixing and reinterpreting your work. Makes the creative more creative.

Your work is not a finished product. It acts as a chain. People respond to your work.

So when is it ethical and non-ethical?
Crediting your work? Ask for permission from the original creator?

Like DJ remixes, their works is based off other’s work. There ain’t no single author anymore.

Without attributing the song to the original? Copying without making any changes? Is that considered as a ripoff?

EVERYTHING IS A REMIX
Even the iconic movie series: Star Wars is a remix from films such as Yomjibo, The Searches , The Good the Bad and the Ugly, Empire of Dreams, Metropolis, Silent Running etc. etc.

Creation require Influence, without the creating of Star Wars, there would be lesser influence on the films we have today…

Creativity doesn’t come from Magic. It comes from Copying. You can reference artists’ works without shame!


Q: Describe a future form of postproduction art that does not exist today but that you can imagine twenty years from now.
My Answer: Though this may seem extremely far fetched and crazy, I would like to think that in 20 years from now, remixing would be more tangible. Where there is a giant table like Iron Man does and the search box where the machine can sense what kind of content you want to create: Showing up related searches which are relevant to your thoughts and ideas. And when you obtain these ideas and original art works, the source will be permanently linked to your track/film/images. It is rather invasive but, hey… sharing is caring right. #CreativeCommonslol
But like what my classmates shared, you can only imagine the future forms if you know the medium used in the future. Anything is possible.

Hui Min and I had a discussion regarding Creative Commons’ sharing platform and how willing are we to share our works with others. She is rather open about sharing her work to inspire someone, and she thinks it is quite an honor for her if she manages to do so! 🙂 Whereas for me, I am rather concerned about sharing my work (Which may be inspire from other sources as well. nothing is original anymore.) on this site as I feel that there is no control on the World Wide Web. I have no idea who would be using my work or how they are going to use it. It is like throwing my child into the vast universe for them to dissect. It bothers me. However, if it is within a closed community for sharing, I would be more willing.


Vidding
Remix and Mash up

The choice of the song transforms the character of Spock in Kandy Fong’s fan video of Spock in Star Trek using VCR.

Tan Pin Pin sliced 40 years of NDP footages into 7 minutes with varying background music. The political message how has NDP footage changed from the 60s till now. The style of performance, has a very North Korean vibe: Structured move. Despite the change in presidency, the ethics and idea of promoting racial harmony is the same. She doesn’t show blatantly her statement of her view of the government on her film. Using national day footage, she is not creating new work but she is mocking a conscious choice in what to include in her footage, thus creating a new meaning to her work.

Omer Fast cuts the clip of new anchor’s words from NEWS to words that he need to form a political message that the media doesn’t tell you everything. Reusing old footage would be more impactful than if he were to create new footage. The CNN anchors always look very impassive and reassuring to the viewers. By cutting the footage like these, the anchors looks more emotional and vulnerable.

Jonathan McIngosh‘s Buffy VS Edward. Why did he remix his works and used Buffy with Edward to talk about Feminism? Most people think that Edward is a charming romantic male character, but he is in fact… a stalker. By using Buffy, the feminism message is emphasized as in Twilight, Edward is this dominant male figure and Buffy diminishes that in McIngosh’s film.


Conclusion

What makes a good or bad remix?
Good remixes has a purpose and intention. The message is clear in the remix works. Otherwise it’ll just a cut duplicate of the original work. It is not necessary about the Medium. It is what you want to say.

Why do the artists appropriate existing works?
Old footages has context that is more relatable. There is direct immediacy. There is a adding on of the artist’s message onto the original meaning of the film. There is no need for introduction to be for one to be assimilated to the film. Remixes need no introduction as they are using existing content that is familiar to the masses. It can also act as a form of critiquing the ideology. The artist is the philosopher.

5 elements of Cinema

  1. Sound
  2. The Medium of Film
  3. Site, Space
  4. Audience
  5. Screen

There is always a template. A 3 act structure in a story. However in Expanded Cinema, the audience in this expanded cinema gets rid of the structure, the spoon feeding of the story and they finds out the ending themselves. The audience would be more active rather than passive.

Doug Aitken
Doug Aitken (b. 1968) has created a body of work that explores the evolving ways people experience memory and narrative and relate to fast-paced urban environments.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUfn1X2i_cM

Chapters of Black Mirror

  1. Departure
  2. Losing Baggage
  3. Tropical Conspiracy
  4. New Condition

The location at which the installation and performance art is held on a vessel in an open sea.

Main actress and other performers performs live on screen with 3 screens around her. The story goes in a way the actress travels from one point to the other.

The character is on an unexplained journey from one place to the other via plane, car and on foot. The character only interacts with herself as she leads a life of a journey alone.

Why use a vessel in an open sea?? Boat cause maybe it is a mode of transport. Maybe a metaphorical mean of isolation? Like a lonesome boat in vast sea. Hence, location as to where the installation is held is important. In addition, the artists statement of her works are important as the audience of that country he presents to may not get the context as it is not relevant to them.

Making reference to an old film which the song is constantly played throughout is ‘Only have eyes for you’.

Why he uses that song? It is a very old popular song. And covers of this song by others makes this popular. Spectators will find familiarity when they drive past that video screening

History of Avant Garde film

1920s have limited resources and cameras were not easily accessible unless you have resources and money. Whereas, 1960s is a period of change. Feminist movement, Cold war, Technology is on the rise, cameras are more easily available.

Ruyi showed us a couple of clips and asks us for the emotions we felt through watching these clips. And as usual, since the emotion is subjective to each film, everyone had different thoughts and feelings for each clip.

Ralph Steiner

 

For this clip, there was a mixture of emotions for me. It was soothing and at the same time uncomfortable.

I believe the artist was intending to match the movement of the gears to the music or vice versa, and many of the time where I felt was soothing was when the gears or mechanism fit perfectly with the music. (The OCD in me is acting up)

However, I felt uncomfortable at times because the mechanism and music don’t go well together. IT IS OFF BEAT. Or when the note is prolonged, I’d expect a ‘clunk’ sound but it did not give me that satisfaction. ( The OCD in me is acting up again)

Hans Richter

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b972EQOOEoY

Visuals can be music as well, even without music. In our heads we would have created a sound that goes with the moving images. We see music.

Stan Brakhage
“Film is like poetry rather than visual arts.” – Stan Brakhage

Brakhage uses material experiment in his films where each film is like mark making. The film strip acts as a canvas and not medium for story telling.

Multiple Screens Experiments

With the use of multiple screens, audience is immersed and bathed in your work in that space; or even overwhelmed by the information provided given if that is the artists intention.

Omer Fast

What you will look when you walk around the story. The authority of the story is question. Different modes of story and reconstruction of the Journalism whether the recounting of stories are reliable.

Left side of the screen doesn’t match with the soldier’s story. It makes you question Omer Fast as well as the Soldier’s account.

The message Omer Fast may be trying to express is that what the media shows to you can be very deceiving. Actors casted, exposes the lies . It is a take to mocking journalism as the abrupt cuts of the videos, locations of scenes and audio is all fake and post edited to how Omer Fast wants it to be.

Other than sexism, the female figure on the right is not using any word in her singing. She is evoking sounds that expresses what she is feeling inside. The male figure on the left has words to express himself and he does it with ease, and with a live audience listening to him. Women are not suppose to perform live infront of an audience as it is against societal norms of where she comes from.

Hello! This assignment 2 Image Sequencing: Time and POV comes in 2 parts!

Part 1: Parallel Storytelling

Write and film two scenes with content that will intercut meaningfully and provoke audience to see a connection.

Intercut, cutaway and POV can be added to create a new narrative

For part 1, my group (Yu Qing, Hui Min and Yit Ling) and I came up with a story unanimously in our group we named it as ‘ Curry Murder ‘ and filmed it together! After filming the scenes, we each sieved out the good and bad takes for each scene and shared amongst each other before we parted ways (not totally) and moved on to part 2!


Part 2: Additional Voice Over

Working with part 1, we each individually have to write and record and alternative voice-over(VO) track from different POV/narrative voice. Whereby we can include additional shots for our intended edit (Cutaway and POV shots). We are also required to rework our script to at least 1 out of these POV below.

  1. 3rd person POV (Objective/Limited/Omniscient?)
  2. 1st person (Interior Monologue)
  3. Narrative Voice (stream of consciousness/Epistolary Voice)

Methodology

Working on Part 2 on my own now, I thought I should narrow down on what my next steps should be before I proceed with my individual quest into Part 2.

Sequence of Events to complete part 2

  1. Settle on the parallel storytelling scenes and order.
  2. Choose which POV to use. And reason why.
  3. Choose which scenes do I want to include Voice Overs.
  4. DIY Foley sounds
  5. Adobe Premier Pro edit.

Choosing the POV

Narrative Voice: The narrative voice is the teller’s voice.

1st person POV: Narrator uses ‘I’ in every moment as seen through the character’s eyes. The narrator is the character.

3rd person (Limited): The narrator only knows the thoughts and feelings of one character. Much like a stalker, know what the character feels and think, addresses others as ‘they’ ‘him’ and ‘she’.

3rd person (Omniscient): The thoughts and feelings of multiple characters can be shared through a God like POV

3rd person (Objective): Employs a narrator who tells a story without describing any character’s thoughts, opinions, or feelings; instead, it gives an objective, unbiased point of view. Often the narrator is self-dehumanized in order to make the narrative more neutral.

I decided to do the brainstorming part on paper and write out the script I want to use as narration.

Parallel Sequence

Creating my own Sounds.

Because we were tasked to create our own sounds, I did some research as to how to replicate the sound using different methods. And watching clips on people rendering Foley Art was really inspiring.

I am really awestruck by what goes behind the cameras. Because it is something we don’t take much notice of, this reinforces how good the Foley artists are in their jobs to the point the sounds created are seamless. In addition, the same sounds can be created using cheap and alternative materials. Like hooves of a horse walking can be made using toilet plungers stuffed with cloth, instead of recording a live horse walking in the pace you want.

Sounds I recreated using the art of Foley and Dubbing

I was not able to borrow a Zoom Mic from the school as they were all booked, hence I improvised with whatever I had! 😀

I used my trusty phone recorder and hid in the Sauna cause I needed a sound proof environment to do my recordings. And no, I did not turn the lights in the Sauna on because my laptop may die in the heat… Oh yea, AND SO WOULD I.

Couple arguing fade in and out: Recorded my own voice and used Adobe Premier Pro Audio editing effects such as tuning the Pitch.

Cutting Body scene: Squishing a wet towel

Cutting carrot and potato sounds: Scratching the tissue box

Feet shuffling sound: Rubbing waxy side of tissue box with water.

Keeping body scene (Hand in bag + Box): Rubbing plastic bag and hitting the box.

Using Adobe Premier Pro, I arranged the different types of Audio clips and Video Clips neatly and accordingly to have an easier viewing and editing experience.


FINAL PRODUCT

And here I present to you, the final product of Assignment 2!

Film Title: Love Served in a Bowl

Theme: You can have your lover’s body, but not necessarily her heart.

Set-up: In a married couple’s home

Credits:

Yu Qing – Wife

Jeff- Husband

BGM used: By Night – Sophie Hutchings


Thanks for reading till the end of my post!!

And I am very thankful for being able to work with such lovely group mates and cast! \^.^/

Cheers,

Seng Yi Ling.

FIELDTRIP DAY~

On the 28 Feb 2017, our 4D class went on a field trip to Art Science Museum to take note of the use of space/screens/sounds/experiential storytelling, that can serve as inspirations to the Final Project! 😀

In this fieldtrip, I was floored by how much interactivity is involved in the exhibits. Especially the Future World and Into the Wild exhibits as audiences of all ages are welcomed to participate.

I took a vlog to document my trip as I find that pictures themselves cannot convey the experience as well as a video. So do forgive me if the video seems really informal and non-professional as my objective was to document the experience, and not to shoot it in a cinematic film like project ^^

Along the way, I also made some annotations in the video to document my learning points and what I felt could be incorporated into the final project, ENJOY!

Stay tuned to my second post for the fieldtrips!! 😀

TATA FOR NOW~ 🙂

“Films are 50% visuals and 50% sound. Sometimes sound even overplays the visual.” – David Lynch

Not all the sounds we hear in cinemas are real..

Ruyi played sounds of a church bell, broken glass, rain and thunderstorm and asked us to think of an emotional memory and response. And some of the responses are gathered are grandfather clock, broken relationships, and foreboding.

Same sound interpreted differently by different people.

Ruyi told us to try making sounds from different objects and think of what sounds it resembles as sounds create emotional memories.

Psychoacoustic – Making sounds that trigger psychological response

David Lynch is famous for his industrial sound, creating suspense. In the above scene for Mulholland Drive, there were no sound in the diner, but more sounds were heard when they went out . In the diner it was much quieter, but creates a strange odd feeling to it. The silence during the 70 seconds of the guy telling his story makes you so absorbed in his story. Silence is also a type of sounds. It creates suspense, tension, gives an impression of impending doom and makes the audience hold their breath.

Walter Scott Murch is the father of sound acting of Hollywood. He creates sound for Apocalypse Now, The God father etc.

Disparate contrasting sound with the image creates a sense of irony as well as a form of mixed feelings. Like opera sounds over the image of war, it makes the scene look like a celebration of war.

Putting different sound the same image, creates multiple responses. A sound is a tool, it sets the tone and feel to the scene. The psychoacoustic response is different.


Three Types of sound

  1. Non – Diegetic (Environmental Sound)
  2. Diegetic (Sounds the Character can hear)
  3. Sound Perspective

Non – Diegetic (Environmental Sound)

Sound whose source is neither visible on the screen nor has been implied to be present in the action: 

  • narrator’s commentary
  • sound effects which is added for the dramatic effect
  • mood music

Non-diegetic sound is represented as coming from the a source outside story space. 

Non- diegetic sounds…

  • Indicate a historical period
  • Heighten ambiguity or diminish it (Lynch’s Mulholland Drive, Ocean’s Eleven)
  • Starts or soothes.

Coming to America (Environmental sounds: Neighbor’s rude screams, dogs howling, cars revving, lives rustling, sirens – City Environment of America) It gives the environment of where the character lives in, a rude neighborhood in America.

Twin Peaks (Simple technique of sound technique on reversing the sound creates ambiguity and tension)

Ocean’s Eleven (Playful music plays when Police asked him what will he do when he is released from prison, suggests his intentions is not to turn over a new leaf but stage another robbery again. It makes the audience guess instead of telling them everything.)


Diegetic Sound (Sounds the characters can hear)

Sound whose source is visible on the screen or whose source is implied to be present by the action of the film: 

  • voices of characters 
  • sounds made by objects in the story 
  • music represented as coming from instruments in the story space ( = source music)

Diegetic sound is any sound presented as originated from source within the film’s world 

Se7en (Jazz music and subway sounds and tremours, dog barking and real estate agent knock.)

The God Father (The rumbling sound of the train approaching 3X between intervals. Sound of train approaching increases each time. The initial train rumbling shows the character that he is an unwilling heir, but the increase in sounds explains the state of mind of the character when he decides to kill.)

Diegtic sounds can provide Sound bridge (Bridging one scene to another). Camera on someone who is not typing on the keyboard can creates proximity between two charcters . Sound also introduces characters, using theme songs.

Sound Perspective

A sound’s position in space as perceived by the viewer given by volume, timbre, and pitch. It shows us who and what is their present narrative.

An example of a clip with no sound perspective is this clip from Phantom of The Opera

In this opening scene of the film Touch of Evil, sound perspective is used when the camera frame the goats you hear the goats, clicking of high heels, the growing volume of the ticking master when the camera is closing towards him.

 

 

 

 

 

For this class assignment, I watched this film with Kam Yit Ling! :D,

Last Year at Marienbad (1961)

Chronological order of the movie: Very inconsistent and irregular.

Q: Do you think the way this film is told works best for your story (in regard to the Alter Ego Assignment 1) ? How would you re-tell the story?

Yit Ling –  Flashbacks of the relationship between Emily and Alexy can be incorporated. Whereby Emily constantly shows affection to Alexy, would help in the story line of my film to build the history between them, so that the viewers can be more engaged in their relationship.

Yi Ling –  Flashbacks of the relationship between my grandmother and I can be added into the film as we reminisce about my childhood. I think the characters in my film in this case ought to be realistic with the age when it comes to flashback. Like when the flashback scene comes on, a child version of me and a younger version of my grandmother ought to be there.

Q: What makes this narrative (Last Year at Marienbad) work?

– The story centrals around Frank’s point of view about the female protagonist. Hence, it entwines the past, present and future of their relationship together.

– Metaphorical interpretations of their hallucinations/ potential conscience brings about depth of the characters and their inner struggles.

Q: Does this non-linear narrative work for other films

-Sci-fi, Fantasy and Thriller films would go very well with this form of narrative, such as The Time Traveller’s Wife,

Interstellar

Alice Through the Looking Glass.


What we like about this film?

– The cinematography is amazing. Everything seems aligned perfectly.

-We liked how they connect one of the hallucination/past memory with the present scene with the same dialogue, but different scenario. For instance when Frank was counting in the room with the female protagonist as he try to incur memory out from her in the past, the scene changed into the ball room scene where the female protagonist’s husband was counting the cards.

-Flashing of the 1 second scene whereby the female protagonist is holding her shoe, when she is in fact in the bar tells us that she might have remembered something about the past she can’t recall.

– The multiple reflections of the female protagonist in the mirror can be interpreted as her different selves in the past, present and future.

– The triangle arrangement of her own reflection can symbolize loss and confusion of her current situation, as well as the past she don’t recall.

Doubts about this film we had:

– We do not understand the purpose of having the freeze moments, whereby only one person moves. The movements are focus and exaggerated.

– We do not understand why they kept repeating the dialogue over and over again in different scenes.

– Frank always used past tense to talk to the female protagonist, so we had this illusion that Frank can travel through time. However , if it is really the truth, why would Frank lose to the female protagonist’s husband in the gambling game? Is he a psychopath who is trying to enforce certain ideas onto the female protagonist, or is he trying to mold her into the memory he believes in??

 

Alter Ego Assignment 1


Script/Plan

“When you were younger…”

Themes:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Characters: Me (Current) + Grandmother

Reason to meet: Granddaughter visits grandmother.

Place for them to meet: Grandmother’s living room.

Incident to set up/respond to: Granddaughter reminisces about her past. She recalled her grandmother used to comb her hair as she sat on that couch when she was little.

Scene set –up: After taking a bath, Yiling walks to the living room to get her comb. Yiling sees Grandma sitting on the couch resting and this reminded her of the old times.

Dialogue:

(To be confirmed because not certain if grandmother can remember the script. If not will just improvise on the spot to get a more realistic and documentary type of an actual dialogue between me and my grandmother.)

Y – Yi Ling; G – Grandmother

(The dialogue will be in dialect)

Y : Ah ma, comb my hair for me?

G : aiyo so big already still want ah ma to comb hair for you ah?

Y : *while G was combing Y hair* Ah ma do you still remember how was I like as a child?

G : Aiyo last time when you were a little girl………(talks in detail about my naughty incidents as a child for maybe 40 seconds)……….and now you’re so big girl already. Wah time passes so fast…

Y: Ah ma, you do know that even though I was so naughty to you last time, I love you a lot right? Even now so.

G: Aiyo, I know hahahaha.


Explanation

The above is the dialogue I had initially wanted to carry out between my Grandmother and me. I had the idea to have an intimate conversation with my grandmother by talking about my past, which her expressions and her memories of me would bring her character out better. Be that as it may, much improvisation had to be carried out to head in the direction that I wanted instead of following the script I had planned out word for word.

Through this dialogue, there is a tight relation between both characters: My Grandmother and Myself.

I felt deeply that this dialogued recorded cannot be replicated or reproduced by anyone except for the both of us. Stories may vary when asking a different person who shares the same memory, but this story only makes sense when told by my grandmother and questions imposed by me.


In Depth Character Profiling (Updated)

ah-maajpg

My grandmother’s whole life is dedicated to taking care of the house and providing a home for her children, as well as practically taking me under her wing ever since I was born because my parents had to go to work. Her love language is more of ‘Acts of Service’ rather than ‘Words of Affirmation’. Hence, towards the end she replies my expression of love towards her with a mild chiding tone and shy chuckle.

me

My character in this dialogue is more of a reminiscing and a questioning one. Unlike my grandmother who is always at home and hardly steps out of her house, I am constantly on the move with time. My childhood is something I cannot revisit, and it will only be a fragmented piece of memory. Hence, this conversation with my grandmother about my past, adds another perspective on the same memory I had. In addition, it feels heart-warming to hear from my grandmother’s perspective of her memory of my childhood self.


Methodology

I added some clips between the dialogue footage not only to spice up the stagnant one-frame-middle shot, but to set the scene of where the dialogue was set up.

slide2

Such as my grandma’s HDB Flat scene, clock ticking (in my grandmother’s house), the swaying Bougainvillea flowers planted by my Granddad before he passed on (appears when Grandma and I were talking about him) and the ‘Block 321 Clementi Ave 5’, which is the neighborhood area of where my grandma stays at.

In addition, the clips are included to provide visual aid instead of having the viewers to just imagine something they might have never seen before.

slide1

Such as the process of her preparing food for me and the food that I loved to eat as a kid, exactly as the way how she prepares them.

For this part, I was inspired by a certain scene in The Virgin Suicide, where Trip and Lux were in the auditorium:

I liked the idea of how the narration in the lecture are in sync with the actions between Lux and Trip. For instance, at the 0:13 mark when the narration in the lecture says, “One high pressure and one low, coming into contact with another.”; and that is when Lux and Trip’s elbows touched. Hence, I was inspired by that scene and I added to the food scenes when the food my grandma listed out appears onscreen simultaneously.

Something that I have observed when I was adding subtitles to the video, is that how the subtitling was done really sets the atmosphere of the dialogue and film as well. While editing, I was pondering between translating the conversation for what it means in formal English, or should I translate it for what it is: Informal and light hearted conversation between a grandchild and a grandmother. As you can see, I went for the latter.

I included ‘Using Motifs to express Themes’ a couple of times in this project.

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Clock Ticking footage and the Block Number 321 footage to express my theme:

  • You cannot go back to the past, so live in the present.
  • Treasure the ones around you while you can.

Both motif involves numbers. The clock showing that time is never stopping as much as we reminisce, and that ‘321’ is a form of counting down to the days we have left.


Difficulties faced

  1. Staging the dialogue according to the script was not easy at all because my grandmother character was MY ACTUAL GRANDMOTHER and directing her character to memorize the script was not plausible, so I tried to direct her in a way that our conversation is headed in that direction I wanted. Hence, the final product was more of a documentation of my daily conversation with her and I really liked it because: One, it was on a real account; Two, it was hardly staged because I just told my grandmother to talk to me as per normal and Three, I got to know some new things about how my grandmother sees me as a kid.
  2. I had a lot of extra footage, and cutting it down to grasp the main essence and the part about expressing my characters through the dialogue was not easy. Because I found that many parts were critical and I had to give up quite a handful of precious dialogue that would emphasize on my grandmother’s character. Thus, abrupt cuts were seen.
  3. I started to use Adobe Premier Pro for the first time to fully edit a video and it was quite stressful because I had a mental image of how I would want the video to look, but I was not able to achieve it because I wasn’t familiar with the software. But I believe with more practice and video tutorials online, I think I would be better than I was this time. 🙂