Monday started off a little unusually with some confusion about the timetable. It eventually turned out to be the course leader for the Contemporary Theatre Practice course giving us a rather extensive account of what it is that her faculty are actually doing, followed by the news that we were to film them doing it.
When she asked for feedback regarding the content, I have to confess I blurted out my honest and heartfelt irritation, verging on contempt, for the whole discipline. With the benefit of moderation and hindsight, I realised I had allowed myself to speak from the heart without properly engaging the head (not something I am particularly prone to, with good reason!). After an emailed apology for disrespect, I feel it is now incumbent upon me to provide a clearer and more objective critique.
It seems to me that the majority of CTP is akin to the story of the Emperor's New Clothes. When the story was put around that only the wise could truly see the wonder of this new cloth, nobody wished to be thought unwise and so everyone claimed to be able to see the non-existent cloth. It took the unaffected honesty of a small child to smash these pretensions to pieces.
Similarly with CTP we are in the situation where the only the "properly cultured" can appreciate the wonder of the contemporary performance. Nobody - certainly within a certain social class - wishes to be considered uncultured and therefore everyone claims to be able to see the "deep and meaningful truths" underlying contemporary performance. I do my best at all times to keep my feet firmly on the ground, and it is my considered opinion that there is as little insight, art and profound truth in contemporary performance as there was cloth round the proverbial Emperor's buttocks.
Let me back up that bold statement. When I see something and think to myself "I couldn't do that" I acknowledge there is talent there. For example I see a drawing by Galina, a painting by Charlotte, when I hear a piano played by Phil, Benoit or Graeme I know there is clear talent on display. When I consider a Van Gogh, a Mozart, a Tolkien, a Tim Burton or a Milton I can only stand back in amazement and appreciation. But when I see something else and think "I could do that just as well, if not better - and I haven't even been properly trained" I strongly question whether any particular talent is on display.
For example, last Thursday, in my work at the Citizens' Theatre, I had to usher (and therefore to watch) the Reid-Kerr acting students in a rendition of Romeo and Juliet. I spent most of the performance thinking: "I could take almost any part in this production and do it better." My conclusion? There was little talent to be seen.
Turning to the contemporary performances highlighted by Debbie on her DVD of the global best, I have to say the same. Perhaps there is talent involved. I didn't see it. All I saw pointed me to the deduction that an exhibitionist psyche and pretentions to grandeur is really all that is required.
Let us suppose for a moment that I was to stand on a public stage, holding a huge piece of cheese in one hand and a large dead mouse in the other, and was to spend twenty minutes shouting over and over "I will not be trapped". Now I conceived this piece in about twenty seconds and yet I do not see how that would be distinguishable from any other performance I saw. Perhaps I would get bonus points for taking off all my clothes and - who knows - maybe slitting my wrists for a bit of variation. Please note that the fact that I wouldn't do this (especially the nudity and self-mutilation) does not mean that I couldn't do it.
In conclusion, CTP seems to me to be on a par with the very worst forms of abstract modern art. These pieces that are nothing but a black dot in the middle of a blank canvas, or a Maroon strip painted over a Red one. The mantra "Art is whatever you make it." (the wooliest definition conceivable) has been subverted until the only criteria for this particularly obscure strand of art is that it is something not seen before. It is no surprise that students have resorted to blood-letting. They are desperate: anything, anything that hasn't been done before, that is shocking, controversial, avant-garde. The next logical step would be a live castration, amputation or even a suicide. After all, an audience who are only interested in seeing something "new" will find that even the voyeuristic excitement of watching self-mutilation will fade away after a while.
Occasionally - very very occasionally - there may be a performance which throws up an unusual or intriguing image, which can be incorporated into a film or stage play in which it is made sense of. But I reckon most of the time CTP involves people dressing up like pillocks and bouncing around thinking they are the cat's pyjamas.
So. Enough regarding CTP and my critique of it. On to the rest of the week.
Monday afternoon was a class with Barbara: our first proper one. We looked at TV schedules again, particularly focussing on drama and the different audiences that watch different channels at different times. We also looked again at promoting our pitched ideas with a two sentence blurb for the TV magazines.
Tuesday morning was cancelled, and I enjoyed the extra hour in bed. Tuesday afternoon was a class with Richard, looking at Conflict and Tension and how they can be best used in a screenplay. We heard that several of our scripts will be taken forward for Production this term and next term. This is, of course, very exciting, and I've been working on redrafting my script, trying to make the best use of the feedback I received.
On Wednesday morning I attended a seminar hosted by an amalgamation of six college Media courses. Only myself and Gilly from DFTV 3 were there from RSAMD, but I found it to be quite a helpful event. We had Ewen Angus, head Commissioning Editor for BBC Scotland talking to us, followed by Harry Bell from Tern TV and someone else from a smaller indie production company whose name I forget (Demas production os something). They covered the same sort of ground as we have been looking at with Adam in Content Origination. The key thing Ewen Angus was highlighting was the need for a relationship between producer and commisioner. They will not give a budget to someone they do not know, so it is best, he said, to approach him informally with any ideas, so he can engage you with dialogue, rather than coming with a fully formed pitch. However he said other Commissioners work differently. Harry Bell spoke passionately and at length, but the key note he kept returning to was that we should all be watching TV as much as we can. I find this a little difficult for myself as I often find myself without time to cook food, let alone to sit down to watch telly. Half an hour a day is my maximum I can squeeze in, and its usually just a round of "Being Human", "Film 2009", "QI", "Doctor Who" episodes I missed first time round and the odd documentary. So I'll do my best!
Wednesday afternoon was a TV class, looking at advertising. We watched a documentary, which while not rivetting, helped me to gain an more of an appreciation for the art of the advert. I think some of the interviewed individuals were understandably a little harsh in their judgement of the advertising scene today. I consider it to still throw up quite a lot of half decent adverts.
Thursday was a day without classes, which I spent redraftign scripts and working on a project I am hoping to pitch as a TPA/DFTV collaboration. I have pretty much given up on my group now. Nobody responds to emails. Ever! So I am considering finding folk from both DFTV and TPA who might be interested, poaching them from their groups (after all none of the groups seem to be productive) and setting up my own new group. This could be seen as mutinous but I prefer the term innovative.
Friday started with a screening of King Kong (see my other blog) followed by an introduction to the Mobile/Web Module. Not much to say on that one yet. The afternoon's class with Abigail was mercifully brief as we were suffering a severe information overload concerning the duties of the Lead, Associate, Executive, Co-, Assistant and Line Producers. It all seems strangely theoretical and divorced from reality, not least because Abigail indicated that if we graduated looking to eventually become a Lead Producer, we'd be lucky to be taken on as a Runner.
I have now uploaded Fire and Ice. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lO4TFOddxsc) I am quite pleased with the result. It's not perfect I know, but I suspect my lack of perfectionism is a character flaw I shall bear with me to the grave. I lack the patience, you see. Nevertheless, I am not at all displeased with it.
Friday 27 February 2009
Saturday 21 February 2009
Week Beginning 16/2
Monday was a break from classes, and I was involved in directing Fire and Ice (or is it Ice and Fire...) a 90 second film that allows us to experiment with lights as well as giving us practice in production logistics and editing. With three different camera kits booked out by the class, there was a real feeling of productivity this weekend, and hopefully we are now turning a significant corner in the course and are slowly beginning to produce one film after another.
What did I learn from this shoot?
Tuesday was an early start when the kit had to be booked back in for 8.30, and Paul and myself went off to edit our various projects. It is great to have our own footage to be able to experiment with in the DTU.
Also at lunch, I went to Gaelic class with Phil. I quite enjoyed it. So if you hear Phil and myself talking in "Dwarvish" as John referred to it, we are practising saying "Does Charlotte have a cat?" and such like in Gaelic.
Tuesday afternoon was Screenwriting. We all were reading out our screenplays and getting feedback from all the class immediately. This would definitely have been better broken up by a break, as we were really beginning to wilt by the end of it. It was very useful, though to hear feedback on our scripts and see the way different people had tackled the premise.
Wednesday morning was a Technical class, getting more practise in the 3-point lighting set up. Useful and helpful class.
Wednesday afternoon was our first class in TV and Society, developing on from the old TV class. We watched a documentary on the waning moral standards of TV upon which I have commented more extensively in a Moodle forum.
Thursday morning was a lecture on the transition from silent to sound. I'm fairly sure we watched a documentary and had some sort of discussion afterwards, but the details are slipping my mind. We certainly noted that by 1930 sound design had been born with All Quiet on the Western Front.
Friday was a screening of That's Entertainment, a documentary charting the rise of the MGM musical. I have to confess I still have an aversion to the "classical" musical, with vast numbers of people bouncing about singing rather irritating songs on a giant stage, usually with an enormous staircase to be seen. I appreciate the pull they have for some people, but I think that for myself a black and white musical would have to be something very outstanding before I would appreciate it. The generic, indeed formulaic, production line treatment which they often received means that little stands out from them except the vast numbers of extras and the - admittedly often mega-charismatic - stars. With the colour revolution, it seems to me the musical finally came of age, but even here I would not be interested in the stage-bound "show-stopping number". In Singing in the Rain, the part I liked least was the Broadway Melody, which is closest in form to the traditional musical form. There are musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Show Boat and Singing in the Rain which rise above the rest, and stars like Judy Garland and Gene Kelly are incredibly watchable, but the classic musical is not a genre in which I have any great interest.
Having said that, I am quite fond of some of the more recent musicals, such as Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge.
The afternoon was a dreary Production class with Abigail's unfeasible number of PowerPoint slides. I have yet to learn anything in this strand of the course, and I fear that this module is being aimed a little too low. We watched a remarkably boring low-budget feature film called Big Things. We were asked to hand in a three-hundred word summary of all the elements that went into making this production. I shall save my biting comments on the artistic merits of this film for that report.
In addition to all that this week, I have been continuing to edit Fire and Ice and have also managed to watch my way through three quarters of an episode of Generation Kill. It's not my thing, but I can certainly appreciate the high production values. I have also had a minor cold, and hopefully I am over that. Oranges are truly marvellous creations.
What did I learn from this shoot?
- Lights take a huge amount of time to set up.
- It is almost impossible to book a room in the Academy
- It is a bit of a challenge to light someone standing in a corner.
- Back focus has to be rigorously checked and rechecked.
- Polaroids do not catch fire unless you have a small incendiary bomb or equivalent.
- It is important before moving location to triple check that you have everything you need.
- Log sheets are invaluable: a lot more so than a clapper board.
- Getting eye lines right is very important.
- Using "proper" actors is a huge advantage
Tuesday was an early start when the kit had to be booked back in for 8.30, and Paul and myself went off to edit our various projects. It is great to have our own footage to be able to experiment with in the DTU.
Also at lunch, I went to Gaelic class with Phil. I quite enjoyed it. So if you hear Phil and myself talking in "Dwarvish" as John referred to it, we are practising saying "Does Charlotte have a cat?" and such like in Gaelic.
Tuesday afternoon was Screenwriting. We all were reading out our screenplays and getting feedback from all the class immediately. This would definitely have been better broken up by a break, as we were really beginning to wilt by the end of it. It was very useful, though to hear feedback on our scripts and see the way different people had tackled the premise.
Wednesday morning was a Technical class, getting more practise in the 3-point lighting set up. Useful and helpful class.
Wednesday afternoon was our first class in TV and Society, developing on from the old TV class. We watched a documentary on the waning moral standards of TV upon which I have commented more extensively in a Moodle forum.
Thursday morning was a lecture on the transition from silent to sound. I'm fairly sure we watched a documentary and had some sort of discussion afterwards, but the details are slipping my mind. We certainly noted that by 1930 sound design had been born with All Quiet on the Western Front.
Friday was a screening of That's Entertainment, a documentary charting the rise of the MGM musical. I have to confess I still have an aversion to the "classical" musical, with vast numbers of people bouncing about singing rather irritating songs on a giant stage, usually with an enormous staircase to be seen. I appreciate the pull they have for some people, but I think that for myself a black and white musical would have to be something very outstanding before I would appreciate it. The generic, indeed formulaic, production line treatment which they often received means that little stands out from them except the vast numbers of extras and the - admittedly often mega-charismatic - stars. With the colour revolution, it seems to me the musical finally came of age, but even here I would not be interested in the stage-bound "show-stopping number". In Singing in the Rain, the part I liked least was the Broadway Melody, which is closest in form to the traditional musical form. There are musicals like The Wizard of Oz, Show Boat and Singing in the Rain which rise above the rest, and stars like Judy Garland and Gene Kelly are incredibly watchable, but the classic musical is not a genre in which I have any great interest.
Having said that, I am quite fond of some of the more recent musicals, such as Phantom of the Opera and Moulin Rouge.
The afternoon was a dreary Production class with Abigail's unfeasible number of PowerPoint slides. I have yet to learn anything in this strand of the course, and I fear that this module is being aimed a little too low. We watched a remarkably boring low-budget feature film called Big Things. We were asked to hand in a three-hundred word summary of all the elements that went into making this production. I shall save my biting comments on the artistic merits of this film for that report.
In addition to all that this week, I have been continuing to edit Fire and Ice and have also managed to watch my way through three quarters of an episode of Generation Kill. It's not my thing, but I can certainly appreciate the high production values. I have also had a minor cold, and hopefully I am over that. Oranges are truly marvellous creations.
Friday 13 February 2009
Week Beginning 9/2
After being away in Arbroath for a weekend conference/holiday, staying up late and waking early, I was remarkably tired on Monday. Nevertheless, I had a grand day.
We had a long overdue editing class, first learning how to export to DVD and then spending the afternoon practising the basics of assembling Final Cut, using some footage shot by the 4th years. It's amazingly satisfying to assemble clips in some semblance of a story: choosing out the best shots and the best performances is hugely entertaining. I doubt I have the excessive perfectionism and endless patience required for first class editing, but I enjoy giving it a bash now and again.
Tuesday was Scriptwriting: looking at Visual Storytelling. This is something that does not come naturally to me. I enjoy words: the structure and the poetry of language has a beauty of its own. For that reason, I think I find the notion that silent cinema is in some sense superior to dialogue rather hard to swallow. I can see the need to avoid exposition, and also "filler dialogue". Some of the old Doctor Who episodes I would watch when I was in school (and these were pretty much all the videos we had) were full of pointless scenes, where characters would blether about how they were locked in the cell and couldn't get out. Good fun to watch from my perspective, though even then I knew they served for no reason than to spin the episode out to its full 25 minutes.
So in a compromise, I will avoid dialogue where it serves no useful purpose, or where it could be told more dramatically using pictures. But I will not abandon meaningful dialogue if I think it is beautiful, or powerful or poetic, even it is possible to contrive a way in which it could be presented visually. (So there's the gauntlet laid down and no doubt the time shall come when I will eat my words, quite literally, but until then, that's what I think.)
Wednesday was a Production Meeting. I have grave doubts about my group's ability to pull anything off. The group seems to find most of its direction from David and Lanni from DFTV3 and myself. And we are really struggling to find something that draws us together in a collaborative project. I can see TPA folk helping out at an individual level in the Production Design of a film. I can see us helping them in providing video footage projected as part of a set. But I find it difficult to see any project that would involve the dozen or so people in our group. So far the mood of the group seems to be swinging towards Power Rangers: the Musical, a half hour live stage show with film footage projected as a backdrop, where the aforementioned rangers do battle with a giant otter which is destroying London. I have to confess to some mild misgivings on this project...
Wednesday afternoon was a short discussion on whether sound ruined cinema. The class seemed fairly unanimous that it did not. I put forward the view that sound, like colour or more recently CGI technology is another tool in the film-makers bag. Used well it can be the crucial ingredient in a film. Used badly, it can of course, destroy it. It also was largely responsible, in my opinion, for moving cinema from an art-form to a storytellers medium. I think this is a good thing as I am primarily interested in a good story, not in a good piece of art.
Thursday was a quick tutorial on our group assesment, followed by a meeting where we hammered out our summative statement on the anvil of Microsoft Word. I confess I am glad to see the back of that task. I found it rather tedious. (Sorry Andy!)
Friday was a screening of Singin' in the Rain. (See other blog.) This was followed by a mass book out of kit, where we were responsible for taking out all three cameras and pretty much emptying the kit room. I have a shoot on Monday and am really looking forward to it. (Given that optimistic attitude, I know something's going to go belly-up!)
We had a long overdue editing class, first learning how to export to DVD and then spending the afternoon practising the basics of assembling Final Cut, using some footage shot by the 4th years. It's amazingly satisfying to assemble clips in some semblance of a story: choosing out the best shots and the best performances is hugely entertaining. I doubt I have the excessive perfectionism and endless patience required for first class editing, but I enjoy giving it a bash now and again.
Tuesday was Scriptwriting: looking at Visual Storytelling. This is something that does not come naturally to me. I enjoy words: the structure and the poetry of language has a beauty of its own. For that reason, I think I find the notion that silent cinema is in some sense superior to dialogue rather hard to swallow. I can see the need to avoid exposition, and also "filler dialogue". Some of the old Doctor Who episodes I would watch when I was in school (and these were pretty much all the videos we had) were full of pointless scenes, where characters would blether about how they were locked in the cell and couldn't get out. Good fun to watch from my perspective, though even then I knew they served for no reason than to spin the episode out to its full 25 minutes.
So in a compromise, I will avoid dialogue where it serves no useful purpose, or where it could be told more dramatically using pictures. But I will not abandon meaningful dialogue if I think it is beautiful, or powerful or poetic, even it is possible to contrive a way in which it could be presented visually. (So there's the gauntlet laid down and no doubt the time shall come when I will eat my words, quite literally, but until then, that's what I think.)
Wednesday was a Production Meeting. I have grave doubts about my group's ability to pull anything off. The group seems to find most of its direction from David and Lanni from DFTV3 and myself. And we are really struggling to find something that draws us together in a collaborative project. I can see TPA folk helping out at an individual level in the Production Design of a film. I can see us helping them in providing video footage projected as part of a set. But I find it difficult to see any project that would involve the dozen or so people in our group. So far the mood of the group seems to be swinging towards Power Rangers: the Musical, a half hour live stage show with film footage projected as a backdrop, where the aforementioned rangers do battle with a giant otter which is destroying London. I have to confess to some mild misgivings on this project...
Wednesday afternoon was a short discussion on whether sound ruined cinema. The class seemed fairly unanimous that it did not. I put forward the view that sound, like colour or more recently CGI technology is another tool in the film-makers bag. Used well it can be the crucial ingredient in a film. Used badly, it can of course, destroy it. It also was largely responsible, in my opinion, for moving cinema from an art-form to a storytellers medium. I think this is a good thing as I am primarily interested in a good story, not in a good piece of art.
Thursday was a quick tutorial on our group assesment, followed by a meeting where we hammered out our summative statement on the anvil of Microsoft Word. I confess I am glad to see the back of that task. I found it rather tedious. (Sorry Andy!)
Friday was a screening of Singin' in the Rain. (See other blog.) This was followed by a mass book out of kit, where we were responsible for taking out all three cameras and pretty much emptying the kit room. I have a shoot on Monday and am really looking forward to it. (Given that optimistic attitude, I know something's going to go belly-up!)
Monday 9 February 2009
WB 2/2
We started the week with a meeting with Kim and Barbara: producers. I'm quite interested in how the module will develop with them, though I anticipate that my antipathy toward soaps will cause me some problems. Especially as I'm now hearing we have to dip in and out of various soaps and watch several episodes of Coronation Street. Sounds like torture!
Monday afternoon was a class on Sound - further revision, and again I didn't feel I was learning a great deal. But hopefully the stuff that I have learnt, I have now learnt quite well.
Tuesday was a class on Screenwriting, where I got feedback on my 3 minute short. I had been quite pleased with it, but Richard hadn't been! He said the concept was too big for the time slot and I can appreciate where he is coming from. But trying to find an idea small enough for three minutes and big enough to capture my interest is not easy. It doesn't help that Richard has failed to provide us with a good example of a three minute short which follows the narrative pattern we are looking for. In fact there are only two short films which stand out for me as being really memorable and quite special: Un Cheval (which, being merely a gag, would not satisfy Richard) and Divine, which ran for over ten minutes, and equally would not satisfy the criteria. We got started on writing outlines for a second attempt at a three minute film.
Wednesday was a class in TV, thinking about the differences between high-budget TV drama and the repackaged mainstream of remakes and sequels coming from Hollywood. While I still think there would be - for me - something far more exciting about making Pirates of the Carribean 8 than making an edgy, gritty urban, boundary-pushing TV drama, I can very much appreciate what Andy is saying, and with the blurring lines between film and drama there will certainly be plenty of opportunities to experience both disciplines. I think, in particular, the long-form story arcs of the TV series might suit my imagination better than a feature film, where everything has to be very finite.
Thursday was a lecture in the development of cinema, looking at the influence of DW Griffeth, Cecil B de Mille and other early directors. We also glanced at German Expressionism. I am glad to hear that we will be returning to look at this in greater detail later, as production design, especially in fantasy films, is one of the most memorable and breathtaking elements of a film. One of the last films I watched (Titus) I gave a top rating to, almost entirely on account of the production design. So the more I know about this aspect of film-making, and the more I can appreciate what has been done in the past, the better equipped I will be for making films in the future.
Friday was a screening of Sunrise, followed by another Sound class, where we attempted our most advanced set-up yet: a multi-camera shoot of a two person interview. It all seemed a little tacked together, but I suppose sound without much attention to camera is no less a problem than camera with barely any attention to sound.
At the weekend I was away to a church retreat, which I had feared would be something of a Wierdo's Convention. In the end, it probably was, but I found I got on better with most of the wierdos than I anticipated. Probably says quite a lot about me...
Wed
Monday afternoon was a class on Sound - further revision, and again I didn't feel I was learning a great deal. But hopefully the stuff that I have learnt, I have now learnt quite well.
Tuesday was a class on Screenwriting, where I got feedback on my 3 minute short. I had been quite pleased with it, but Richard hadn't been! He said the concept was too big for the time slot and I can appreciate where he is coming from. But trying to find an idea small enough for three minutes and big enough to capture my interest is not easy. It doesn't help that Richard has failed to provide us with a good example of a three minute short which follows the narrative pattern we are looking for. In fact there are only two short films which stand out for me as being really memorable and quite special: Un Cheval (which, being merely a gag, would not satisfy Richard) and Divine, which ran for over ten minutes, and equally would not satisfy the criteria. We got started on writing outlines for a second attempt at a three minute film.
Wednesday was a class in TV, thinking about the differences between high-budget TV drama and the repackaged mainstream of remakes and sequels coming from Hollywood. While I still think there would be - for me - something far more exciting about making Pirates of the Carribean 8 than making an edgy, gritty urban, boundary-pushing TV drama, I can very much appreciate what Andy is saying, and with the blurring lines between film and drama there will certainly be plenty of opportunities to experience both disciplines. I think, in particular, the long-form story arcs of the TV series might suit my imagination better than a feature film, where everything has to be very finite.
Thursday was a lecture in the development of cinema, looking at the influence of DW Griffeth, Cecil B de Mille and other early directors. We also glanced at German Expressionism. I am glad to hear that we will be returning to look at this in greater detail later, as production design, especially in fantasy films, is one of the most memorable and breathtaking elements of a film. One of the last films I watched (Titus) I gave a top rating to, almost entirely on account of the production design. So the more I know about this aspect of film-making, and the more I can appreciate what has been done in the past, the better equipped I will be for making films in the future.
Friday was a screening of Sunrise, followed by another Sound class, where we attempted our most advanced set-up yet: a multi-camera shoot of a two person interview. It all seemed a little tacked together, but I suppose sound without much attention to camera is no less a problem than camera with barely any attention to sound.
At the weekend I was away to a church retreat, which I had feared would be something of a Wierdo's Convention. In the end, it probably was, but I found I got on better with most of the wierdos than I anticipated. Probably says quite a lot about me...
Wed
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