As the video we as a group are to produce will have to use sound in some way, we settled on the incorporation of sound as a narrative device. If the character is experiencing a moment of joy, or an instance of sorrow - the sound heard will communicate the story being told by the visuals, to make the story all the more powerful.
The following is a list of not-yet-final, but conceivable -and probable - elements of sound, or music in our case, that we would use - once we hit the editing room, of course, with a few particular scenes -using the step outline as a reference - that sound would work well in:
1. The main character is walking down the street towards people, while he looks down at his phone with his headphones in.
As this will be the beginning of the video, we will need to capture the audience's imagination, and to reel them in; invite them in for a cup of tea, if you will.
This scene will consist of the aforementioned description, but shot from the character's POV (Point of view). The character's headphones will be visible, as he looks down at his phone as he walks the street, and the music used here will suggest the sound is coming from his headphones. The music for this scene is used as a double-entendre. Our character is an individual "disconnected" from his own reality because of his handheld device; the music will be upbeat and happy to draw in the audience, and in these moments, once the audience is drawn in, they would realise the music is used to to ironic perfection, as he is seen to infuriate people by having a disregard for anything but his phone - by bumping into everyone brave enough to stay in his path.
Currently the music in contention to be used for this specific scene are: Katy Perry's "Firework" and Nicki Minaj's "Starships" as they evoke positive feelings. The irony for all those people he hurt...
"Firework" :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGJuMBdaqIw
Starships: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeIJmciN8mo
7. He takes his phone to be repaired - he is told it will take a while
This scene will be after his life support machine comes crashing down and everything isn't Katy Perry bubblegum pop anymore. He is at the car repair shop, sad and broken - just like his phone. His world isn't the same at this point; he is in a place he has not been before. The music used here will be sad, and suggest a state of disequilibrium the character finds himself in.
At the moment, the songs that are battling one another for a place in this scene are PortisHead's "Roads" and Radiohead's "Exit Music" due to their sorrowful appeal. Someone please pass me a tissue...
"Roads": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WQYsGWh_vpE
"Exit Music": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RByvzmmEFiQ
17. He turns away to the door and walks out - connected
This scene will end the video and bring the character to the end of his journey of self-discovery that life without his phone could only bring about to him. He has gone from relying on his phone for everything, to being depressed without his phone, to coming to the realisation that he is now more aware and happier to have gone through this lesson, that the destruction of a small phone brought.
In this scene, he is at the car repair shop once again and his phone is repaired ready to be collected. He reaches the repairman who has his arm outstretched for him with the phone ready to take. He looks at the repair man, with a look that hints to "keep it" - and walks outside with a smile. The music used here will try to bring forth a feeling of the character's journey having come full circle, and "Lights" by Ellie Goulding seems perfect to end things on a positive and upbeat mood.
"Lights": http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0NKUpo_xKyQ
These are just a few of the sounds to be used within the video, and the topic of ambient sound for when the character, for example, is travelling on public transport has not yet been breached.
It is not to early, we feel, to begin to envision and discuss other facets of our video at the stage we're at.
The early bird always gets the worm...
Ceysun Dixon KU ID: K1326851
Saturday, 28 December 2013
Pre-Production: Location scouting
As previously mentioned before, the most endeavouring aspect of the video project - currently holding up production, no less - would be the acquisition of something which rings simplicity, yet emotes worry: the car repair shop; the logistical headache which has levied proceedings to a halt.
We have examined the possibility of jumping ahead into principal photography despite the cul-de-sac which inhibits our passage going forward, with the hope that during filming, we would secure the repair shop before the end of filming. The consensus within our camp remained however: that would be an unwise decision, filled with undeniable folly.
The aim is to commence and end shooting within 3, or perhaps 4 days; and that is certainly a viable conquest with the plans that are detailed in the step outlines for the project.
With the strategy to use the Christmas period to film, and a few days before this post, I went shopping, not for the Boxing Day sales, but for potential locations to film at. The main character for the video, who will be played by me, is a young, working professional in London, who is to attend meetings and engages with his fellow colleagues, not to mention all the commuting he has to do living in London. And so, the location must match our character's description and also tell our audience this story about who he is and what he does, as sound will certainly have a hard time doing such a thing for us.
I thought about a place, an area, a street which would be quite busy and full of people: I traveled to Oxford Street first, and noted - despite the bustling atmosphere - that the location could be of use, to stage our video.
I then traveled to King's Cross as I know the area to be very busy and also as it is intimately close to the London Underground, where some scenes will be shot.
Lastly, I made the trip to Vauxhall to explore the area more intricately, to find out any secrets that are hidden from the view of the majority - myself included - who use this area solely as a passageway. I walked aimlessly in the parts of Vauxhall, driven only by determined legs and youthful fascination of discovery: and I did make a discovery, which certainly would not have been discovered otherwise: Vauxhall is a credible possibility to stage the scenes that "Disconnected" calls for with its transport link, its closeness to a wealth of corporate buildings and its particular look and feel that would resonate, I feel, with what the video is really about and the epitome of a volition to resorting to the Atlantean of allegory.
To put it in simper terms, what Vauxhall embodies and suggests about itself: a haven for the materialistic consumer, who works towards the necessity of the unneeded physical desires thrust upon them, by the power of corporate hegemony and the advertisers that do their dirty work for them.
I hope that was simple enough.
Ceysun Dixon KU ID: K1326851
We have examined the possibility of jumping ahead into principal photography despite the cul-de-sac which inhibits our passage going forward, with the hope that during filming, we would secure the repair shop before the end of filming. The consensus within our camp remained however: that would be an unwise decision, filled with undeniable folly.
The aim is to commence and end shooting within 3, or perhaps 4 days; and that is certainly a viable conquest with the plans that are detailed in the step outlines for the project.
With the strategy to use the Christmas period to film, and a few days before this post, I went shopping, not for the Boxing Day sales, but for potential locations to film at. The main character for the video, who will be played by me, is a young, working professional in London, who is to attend meetings and engages with his fellow colleagues, not to mention all the commuting he has to do living in London. And so, the location must match our character's description and also tell our audience this story about who he is and what he does, as sound will certainly have a hard time doing such a thing for us.
I thought about a place, an area, a street which would be quite busy and full of people: I traveled to Oxford Street first, and noted - despite the bustling atmosphere - that the location could be of use, to stage our video.
I then traveled to King's Cross as I know the area to be very busy and also as it is intimately close to the London Underground, where some scenes will be shot.
Lastly, I made the trip to Vauxhall to explore the area more intricately, to find out any secrets that are hidden from the view of the majority - myself included - who use this area solely as a passageway. I walked aimlessly in the parts of Vauxhall, driven only by determined legs and youthful fascination of discovery: and I did make a discovery, which certainly would not have been discovered otherwise: Vauxhall is a credible possibility to stage the scenes that "Disconnected" calls for with its transport link, its closeness to a wealth of corporate buildings and its particular look and feel that would resonate, I feel, with what the video is really about and the epitome of a volition to resorting to the Atlantean of allegory.
To put it in simper terms, what Vauxhall embodies and suggests about itself: a haven for the materialistic consumer, who works towards the necessity of the unneeded physical desires thrust upon them, by the power of corporate hegemony and the advertisers that do their dirty work for them.
I hope that was simple enough.
Ceysun Dixon KU ID: K1326851
Saturday, 21 December 2013
Pre-Production: Preparing to film
Having targeted the Christmas period as the optimal time for
principal photography to commence; as a group, we are behind where we should
be, yet still on schedule.
There are a few areas that we have not stressed enough
emphasis on, to initiate the green light that the project begs for; and to be
therapeutic here, the use of the word "we" in the previous sentence
is being kind, on not only my other two collaborators, but on myself.
Our project is ambitiously bold, however it is bold for a
reason: the capabilities we a a collective yield is frightening, yet we can
frighten no one or make others understand what we can do, and that is purely
down to the mentality of the group.
The main issues of contentions that are preventing the start
of filming, are the finding of suitable locations and the inclination to take
the foot off the peddle even when we're ahead. Sure, we have until 24/3/14 to
complete the project which is a long time away, but in reality, it's a stone's
throw away when you factor in life commitments and responsibilities, not to
mention academic obligations - and also the social obligations which for reasons known only to those who excessively indulge, will take greater importance than the academic one, I know it, this will
be the biggest detriment to this project - by far.
As a result, we are behind of where we should be, yet still
on schedule. With this in mind, I have been engaged with a contact to secure
arguably the toughest location the project demands: the car repair shop. Once
this is secured, I believe the project can be green lit. I am on the verge of
securing a meeting with the manager of the repair shop in question, and once I
do, I am targeting the end of December to commence principal photography for
the whole video, with the aim to finish before the new academic term begins on
6/1/14: that is the plan.
The arrangement, in regards to other locations, is to use
London as a backdrop; the tube, a busy street such as Oxford Street, a house:
these do not require prior consent from any authority to use these locations,
and such, I am confident about the straightforwardness for shooting the video
in other locations.
As we have all completed our step outlines, we have started
to create a final and executive step outline using the strongest elements from
our respective ideas for the project,
which will be used as the blueprint for the filming of the video going
forward.
We are behind where we should be, yet still on schedule.
Ceysun Dixon KU ID: K1326851
Pre-Production: Weapons of choice
Just before the end of the academic term which led to the Christmas period I find myself writing in, it was imperative for the video project that we booked out the equipment on the last week of term, which would turn all our theorising and hypothesising for the video, into something that we could make real throughout the festive period.
Only one problem.
I was supposed to meet the manager of the FASS Loans Room on a Monday or Tuesday, as I wanted to book out the camera for as long as I could - "long" being 28 days - but because of life and its habit of springing out of nowhere to cause pandemonium - I had forgot.
Only one problem.
I was told the manager would only be in on these days, and as I am not bound by an academic schedule for Wednesdays, I could not justify making the 2 hour trip one way to University to make up for life's indiscretions for a camera that Wednesday. And so, I put my fellow collaborator, Gendrick, on the task most first years would be afraid to do: ask, with my words of encouragement inspiring his confidence with his chances, ringing in his ears: "Go in there, smile, request, listen, and take", he rose to the occasion.
Only one problem.
He failed. He was told it was not possible to grant our "special circumstance" and they would only allow him to book out the camera for 3 days -
Only one problem.
The staff at the FASS Loans Room have not met someone with such monstrous persuasion and charm before, and the next day, I entered the the Loans Room, armed only with mouth.
Only one problem.
There was no problem. I booked out not only the camera, but a tripod and even a microphone to record sound with. For how long, do I hear you ask? 3 and a half weeks. Yes. For first years, that is unheard of, but the mantra of "Go in there, smile, request, listen, and take" works pragmatically and not theoretically, Gendrick.
With a day before the end of the academic term, we cut it precariously close with booking out the equipment, but we have our weapons of choice now.
We're ready to do battle with the beast that is the video project...
Ceysun Dixon KU ID: K1326851
Tuesday, 3 December 2013
Pre-production: Step Outline
This here is my version of the step outline, which in no way represents the sequence of events that is to be filmed:
1. The main character is walking down the street towards people, while he looks down at his phone with his headphones in.
2. He bumps into people who appear incensed, as he continues oblivious to what he just caused.
3. He crosses the road, and doesn't bother to look both ways as a car nearly collides into him.
4. A homeless person who he usually passes every morning, calls for him to put some money into his collection hat - he continues blind.
5. He bumps into a lamp post and drops his phone - it smashes hard into the ground, breaking.
6. He frantically rushes over to it, and tries to get it working; he fails.
7. He takes his broken phone to be repaired - he is told it will take a while.
8. He goes home and turns on his computer; however, his internet connection is not working - he is in disbelief.
9. He begins his day again walking down the same street and everyone else seems to on their phone as he passes them.
10. As he gets his information from his phone, he is forced to speak to someone, but fails to do so without conviction.
11. He locates a map to help him get to his destination and struggles to use it properly - holding it upside down.
12. He then forgets he needs to contact someone important and is forced to go to the Post Office to write a letter. He writes the letter in slang making it unreadable and addresses the letter incorrectly.
13. He looks ruffled and shattered: it dawns on him the hole he dug himself into unknowingly.
14. He begins his day again, and walks a little reassured down the street than the last time. He repeats the same events as the last two times; although he is not pitch perfect, he's improved and looks comfortable than before.
15. He begins his day again with a smile walking down the street. He expertly handles the same events that came before convincingly. He stands at a crossing with people on their phones and looks bemused. The light turns green and he is the first to cross the road.
16. He makes his way to the repair shop. The repairman sees him and picks up the phone to hand it to him. He thinks briefly, looks the man in the eyes and says "keep it".
17. He turns away to the door and walks out - connected.
As mentioned this is in no way final. Once all members of the group have completed their own versions of a step outline, it is the intention to merge all the best stuff from each others' outline, into a final and awesome step outline.
Ceysun Dixon: K1326851
1. The main character is walking down the street towards people, while he looks down at his phone with his headphones in.
2. He bumps into people who appear incensed, as he continues oblivious to what he just caused.
3. He crosses the road, and doesn't bother to look both ways as a car nearly collides into him.
4. A homeless person who he usually passes every morning, calls for him to put some money into his collection hat - he continues blind.
5. He bumps into a lamp post and drops his phone - it smashes hard into the ground, breaking.
6. He frantically rushes over to it, and tries to get it working; he fails.
7. He takes his broken phone to be repaired - he is told it will take a while.
8. He goes home and turns on his computer; however, his internet connection is not working - he is in disbelief.
9. He begins his day again walking down the same street and everyone else seems to on their phone as he passes them.
10. As he gets his information from his phone, he is forced to speak to someone, but fails to do so without conviction.
11. He locates a map to help him get to his destination and struggles to use it properly - holding it upside down.
12. He then forgets he needs to contact someone important and is forced to go to the Post Office to write a letter. He writes the letter in slang making it unreadable and addresses the letter incorrectly.
13. He looks ruffled and shattered: it dawns on him the hole he dug himself into unknowingly.
14. He begins his day again, and walks a little reassured down the street than the last time. He repeats the same events as the last two times; although he is not pitch perfect, he's improved and looks comfortable than before.
15. He begins his day again with a smile walking down the street. He expertly handles the same events that came before convincingly. He stands at a crossing with people on their phones and looks bemused. The light turns green and he is the first to cross the road.
16. He makes his way to the repair shop. The repairman sees him and picks up the phone to hand it to him. He thinks briefly, looks the man in the eyes and says "keep it".
17. He turns away to the door and walks out - connected.
As mentioned this is in no way final. Once all members of the group have completed their own versions of a step outline, it is the intention to merge all the best stuff from each others' outline, into a final and awesome step outline.
Ceysun Dixon: K1326851
Pre-Production: Preparing to film
The plan within the group is to take advantage of the month's break at Christmas, to begin and cease production on the group project, as the month allows us to be unbounded by our academic schedules and allows us much flexibility.
With this in mind, me and group partner Gendrick met up on Friday 29th 2013, last week, after the morning that is Maria's passionate weekly seminar and sat to discuss and put into place logistics for the "free" month in December we would be filming in.
We started the discussion with our respective visions for the video narrative, with the emphasis that we both wanted an auteur-like innovation that would make our video, unique and spectacular, and also, somewhat challenging, to push ourselves to make something we would be really proud of.
Bearing in mind of the use of sound is to be implemented, we thought to begin the video, we would have me - who is to play the main character as this point - walking down the street, but the camera would be attached to my head to give the narrative and audience a POV shot of me on my smartphone, as I try to walk and avoid people moving along the street. With the POV shot, you would be able to see headphones coming out of my smartphone and into my ears; this will give us our sound element - for the beginning at the very least.
To paint a contrast of who the character believes he is, to what people perceive him as and what he does not realise he is doing, the music blaring from his headphones will be an up-beat type of song: think Katy Perry. While the music is blaring, the character will in essence be "Disconnected" from the reality of his selfish actions as he bumps into people due to a lack of care to those around him as he peers sporadically up from his smartphone as he walks down the street. People around him will be infuriated by him, but the music will give the impression that he does not notice this - or even cares.
Then throughout the video, the sound will reflect what happens in that specific moment on screen. For instance, the character is to spend a majority without his smartphone - something that makes him happy. The moments he does not have his phone - he will be unhappy and sad music will play to reflect this. Another example of this: he is to at one point get his phone back. For the character, this will be a moment of sorrowful joy - the sound at this juncture, will be sequential as the character's face changes to reflect his mood; so as his face contours to represents what this means to him, little elements of sound would be in sync with the change of expression: think Tom & Jerry.
With the logistics of the video, we pinpointed aspects of the project which would be difficult to put into place; namely locations. Depending on what we can secure, there is a scene which requires the character to take his broken deceive to be fixed. To make our video appealing to a wide audience we felt we would add subtle elements of comedy into the video, and we felt it would be funny for the character to take his device to a car repair shop, or a hospital for it to be fixed. However, if we were not to secure either of the two, we thought we could dress up a room in white and have someone wheel the phone in. We would then cut to the outside of a real hospital, to show that my character had just been to a hospital to resuscitate his phone. We have also discussed contingencies for the logistics around the project, as you can see.
As our other collaborator San, could not be there, we then reached out to her by phone and filled her in; ending the discussion.
The next step we decided was to create a step outline for the video, to make what we had just discussed in the meeting, a reality, and raring to go.
Ceysun Dixon: K1326851
With this in mind, me and group partner Gendrick met up on Friday 29th 2013, last week, after the morning that is Maria's passionate weekly seminar and sat to discuss and put into place logistics for the "free" month in December we would be filming in.
We started the discussion with our respective visions for the video narrative, with the emphasis that we both wanted an auteur-like innovation that would make our video, unique and spectacular, and also, somewhat challenging, to push ourselves to make something we would be really proud of.
Bearing in mind of the use of sound is to be implemented, we thought to begin the video, we would have me - who is to play the main character as this point - walking down the street, but the camera would be attached to my head to give the narrative and audience a POV shot of me on my smartphone, as I try to walk and avoid people moving along the street. With the POV shot, you would be able to see headphones coming out of my smartphone and into my ears; this will give us our sound element - for the beginning at the very least.
To paint a contrast of who the character believes he is, to what people perceive him as and what he does not realise he is doing, the music blaring from his headphones will be an up-beat type of song: think Katy Perry. While the music is blaring, the character will in essence be "Disconnected" from the reality of his selfish actions as he bumps into people due to a lack of care to those around him as he peers sporadically up from his smartphone as he walks down the street. People around him will be infuriated by him, but the music will give the impression that he does not notice this - or even cares.
Then throughout the video, the sound will reflect what happens in that specific moment on screen. For instance, the character is to spend a majority without his smartphone - something that makes him happy. The moments he does not have his phone - he will be unhappy and sad music will play to reflect this. Another example of this: he is to at one point get his phone back. For the character, this will be a moment of sorrowful joy - the sound at this juncture, will be sequential as the character's face changes to reflect his mood; so as his face contours to represents what this means to him, little elements of sound would be in sync with the change of expression: think Tom & Jerry.
With the logistics of the video, we pinpointed aspects of the project which would be difficult to put into place; namely locations. Depending on what we can secure, there is a scene which requires the character to take his broken deceive to be fixed. To make our video appealing to a wide audience we felt we would add subtle elements of comedy into the video, and we felt it would be funny for the character to take his device to a car repair shop, or a hospital for it to be fixed. However, if we were not to secure either of the two, we thought we could dress up a room in white and have someone wheel the phone in. We would then cut to the outside of a real hospital, to show that my character had just been to a hospital to resuscitate his phone. We have also discussed contingencies for the logistics around the project, as you can see.
As our other collaborator San, could not be there, we then reached out to her by phone and filled her in; ending the discussion.
The next step we decided was to create a step outline for the video, to make what we had just discussed in the meeting, a reality, and raring to go.
Ceysun Dixon: K1326851
Sunday, 17 November 2013
Presenting our group idea
In a twist of irony, making my way to present our idea, I lost the original storyboard on public transport.
As our video for the project is called: "Disconnected", I was disconnected from reality thanks to my smartphone and lost something important: poetic justice, you say?
That's a question for Kendrick Lamar.
Getting over the painful loss of the storyboard which had taken hours to complete, it was game face time for the presentation.
We had discussed that I would present the idea to the spectrum that is the Friday morning seminar class; at the right moments I would pass over to my fellow group members to elaborate what I had stated to the rest of the class.
This approach worked well, and the idea was effectively communicated to the everyone I feel, and especially to Maria.
But unfortunately, when I was presenting, I noticed I had about 30% of the class's attention.
But, it happens.
Onto the next chapter of the on-going saga that is the group video project, then...
Ceysun Dixon K1326851
Coming up with our group's idea
Coming up with an idea, an original one for the video project was not as hard as it seemed at first. There is immeasurable inspiration around us, and the idea literally hit us in the face; well almost.
From time to time walking down the street we are faced with those who have an entitlement to disregarding humankind for their smartphones and other handheld devices; and from my time perusing down the street, I narrowly escape serious injury not only to face, but to my perception of how mankind has become: careless. Not only to those who have to jump out the way for a rushing technophile, but to themselves.
What would happen if the technology we as a species have become so reliant upon, were not to exist anymore? Would we continue to frequent the streets and try to live our lives as best as we could, or would we as a society crumble without our handheld devices: this was the inspiration around the project.
With the newer generation being brought up on technology, there is a fear that they would negate basic skills such as interpersonal communication and be illiterate, with a reliance of trusting technology and becoming complacent as a result.
This thought did not sit well within my group; after all, did we not, at one point, hunt for our food with spheres?
Our video is to show society - and to those who can't live without their technology - nothing is to be feared, if the unthinkable were to happen: life goes on and we can adapt to anything.
We will do this by focusing the narrative on the main character who is indulged with his smartphone, but would perhaps by divine intervention, have his device broken and would be told he would not have it for a few days - he would have to survive without his device after becoming so indebted to it. He will struggle at first, but would come to the conclusion, in the end, he does not need to be so reliant on technology.
This is our idea and message to society...
Ceysun Dixon K1326851
From time to time walking down the street we are faced with those who have an entitlement to disregarding humankind for their smartphones and other handheld devices; and from my time perusing down the street, I narrowly escape serious injury not only to face, but to my perception of how mankind has become: careless. Not only to those who have to jump out the way for a rushing technophile, but to themselves.
What would happen if the technology we as a species have become so reliant upon, were not to exist anymore? Would we continue to frequent the streets and try to live our lives as best as we could, or would we as a society crumble without our handheld devices: this was the inspiration around the project.
With the newer generation being brought up on technology, there is a fear that they would negate basic skills such as interpersonal communication and be illiterate, with a reliance of trusting technology and becoming complacent as a result.
This thought did not sit well within my group; after all, did we not, at one point, hunt for our food with spheres?
Our video is to show society - and to those who can't live without their technology - nothing is to be feared, if the unthinkable were to happen: life goes on and we can adapt to anything.
We will do this by focusing the narrative on the main character who is indulged with his smartphone, but would perhaps by divine intervention, have his device broken and would be told he would not have it for a few days - he would have to survive without his device after becoming so indebted to it. He will struggle at first, but would come to the conclusion, in the end, he does not need to be so reliant on technology.
This is our idea and message to society...
Ceysun Dixon K1326851
Friday, 1 November 2013
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