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!)