We all met on Tuesday and discussed the one-shot project. Everyone's really happy with the direction and we're due to start filming on Thursday. I hope it all goes well and hopefully Charul can make it along to the filming. We've been keeping in touch by email and MSN so far, but we've still not met face to face. The emails and conversations are saved to document the organisation process. I've got admit it's been a lot more complicated to arrange this than I thought. This is only a tiny recording as well, yet it takes hours of talking to get everything set and ready. The role of each group member is also becoming more clear. While we didn't do this consciously, we've all found our own areas of expertise.

I thought I'd take this chance to write about some of the research I've been doing based on the short clips we'd been shown in seminars and lectures. We didn't get to talk about all of the videos in depth before.

Vivra Sa Vie - Jean Luc Goddard


I haven't seen the rest of the film, so I was unsure of the context of this scene. I've read the plot synopsis on a few websites, which detail that this woman is seeking freedom. She leaves her family and children to become an actress. She falls in to a life of prostitution however. I also found out that the filming of this scene and many others is seen as revolutionary and it broke many barriers at the time. The dancing scene is beautifully filmed, giving her an angelic appearance. She floats around the frame effortlessly, emphasizing her want to be free. I found it interesting how the men in the bar ignored her at first, but that doesn't appear to knock her confidence. She continues to dance in her own world, until they finally look at her. The reaction of the men at the table is shown through her point of view, putting you in her shoes for the only time during that scene. Before then you're an on looker, and she's always the center of attention. She's always in shot, and nearly always central in the frame. It's really effective camera work which up until now I wouldn't notice the skill involved in it.

Freytag's Triangle

I found it really peculiar that someone had come up with a structure for all narratives, almost as though there's a formula to creating a film. This is taken from the book "Technique of Drama" (1863) by Gustav Fretag. I also find it strange how long ago this was written, yet it completely makes sense, and it's still applicable today. You can correlate it to the films of today. It's a very basic way of looking at how stories are created. I can remember in primary school that teachers used to stress how a story needs a "beginning, middle and end" which is true. This is an extension of this concept, explaining what should occur in between the three stages. Of course this doesn't always need to be used, and it isn't true for all films, but it's a useful formula which can help film makers.