Evaluation

Evaluation

The idea behind our experiemental film and sound piece was that it was all influenced by the steelworks and that industry and its history but with a modern take on things, this was due to Nyle's background in steel and how he worked in a factory in Rotherham producing steel; so it was a project that was close to his heart. The sound piece features many clips of metal hitting metal and other sounds you would hear in the steelworks, but then it is edited together in such a way that it creates a dubstep piece, there are wobbles and drops in it. For the film aspect of the piece we decided to do something the audience wouldn't be expecting and something that would contrast and compliment the sound and the theme of the piece as a whole. We enlisted a dancer who could do a variety of skills from ballet to angle grinding so we used these things completely to our advantage and filmed a lot in the time we had with her.

We intended the audience to be a wide ranging group, because the piece overlaps history with modern aspects of society like the dubstep sounds and also the graffiti on the walls. The old meets the new just as the delicate meets the dangerous in our film. The history of the piece would attract an older audience as maybe they can relate to the history of the film as Nyle did, and then the younger audience members are drawn in by the danger and excitement of the fire and sparks created by the angle grinder along with music they are more used to hearing and can associate with.

I believe the finished piece of work is good and fits the brief of being an experimental piece of film and sound. As a member of the audience I would be impressed by the ability to bring the old and new together in a way that wasn't too intrusive and didn't look wrong, it worked really well together. I think the dubstep element of the sound piece was an unexpected twist when first hearing it and really adds to the other sounds and works well alongside the metal noises. The dubstep is repetitive and loud at points which is something that mirrors the machinery of the steelworks and the repetitive nature of the job. The machinery was loud and scary almost, and very often dangerous and caused fatal accidents; that along with the materials that the workers were using meant that the job was not easy. We wanted the audience to understand some history behind the piece to so as well as imitating the danger the workers faced by using the fire and angle grinder with the dancer there are images of old steelworks and some of the important people behind its progression such as  Henry Bessemer that flash onto the screen throughout the final film. We did this in the footage that is playing in the background to Laura dancing as well along with royalty free clips of fire and sparks that were edited together to match the beat. Some weaknesses with the piece i think are possibly the words that flash up on the screen, in my opinion it doesn't really comply with the aesthetic of the film and almost takes away from the complexity of it by forcing the audience to read them, they know what the film is about so the writing isn't necessarily needed for the audience to relate to the film. Also it is a low-fi piece of work in general but some parts are very dark so the audience may have trouble seeing parts. The repetitive nature of the steelworks influenced the way the film was edited but some people may not like the fact that some clips are repeated over and over and that also means there is a lack of long shots in the piece as it wouldn't really flow with the pace of the soundtrack. I think the audience will really appreciate the role of Laura in the film and see it as a really interesting part of the film and something that is different to what other people would of considered doing in theirs. Laura is very competent as well at what she does and this shows in the film, and I think we have done her justice in showing her abilities in the film as it really was amaxing to work with her and film her. 

Although I wasn't there for when Nyle thought of the original idea for the piece and already had a developed piece of sound, I worked with him to develop it fully and we changed parts according to what we both thought worked the best. It was edited together on Logic Pro 9. The sounds are that of banging on metal and some are recorded in an actually steelworks, in magna which is an old foundry in Rotherham that Nyle has connections with. As well as that there are composed sounds and musical parts that are inspired by the steelworks. The operatic sounds were added in later after another reworks of it and we decided that it would work well with the dancer and almost give the effect of there being a spirit of the steelworks, a soul to it that tied together all the history and echoed the camaraderie in them between the workers because although it was a hard job and it was dangerous it meant that the men who worked there formed strong bonds with each other. I learnt a lot about sound editing while reworking the piece with Nyle, how to mute certain parts if they are not needed and how he had distinguished between tracks by using different colours. This was so as not to confuse them and made it easier to work with the programme. The tracks were overlapped so that different parts could be played over each other to create a song rather than just a continuous track where each sound faded into the next, what was created was a song instead. The sound works so well with the theme of the work and I am really pleases with the finished piece. We edited another piece of just old clips of steelworks and clips of fire and sparks and other historic images that related to the steelworks to play in the background to when Laura was dancing. We edited another piece of just old clips of steelworks and clips of fire and sparks and other historic images that related to the steelworks to play in the background to when Laura was dancing. We were originally intending to have these images playing behind her taking up the whole wall space and were going to work with a green screen but a lack of experience and time meant we scrapped that idea and just had the images playing on two laptops instead. These were operated by two guys from our course who we enlisted to help and be in the background of the film anyway, serving as workers who would just be doing repetitive movements like banging something against metal. Instead we used them to hold the laptops, we didn't want it to look like they weren't meant to be there but we also didn't want them to distract from what the audience should be focusing on which is Laura. They were dressed in black so they blended into the background but their faces were specifically not hidden. Some issues we had were to do with the fire and the fact that the light could go out when we were outside and the fact that Laura was stood in hardly anything freezing, if I were to do this project differently I would probably plan things like practicalities much better but we did succeed in getting all the footage we needed on the day which i think was down to good planning on our part. Laura responded well to the instructions we were giving her and did exactly what we asked which made filming a lot easier. A problem I think was lighting in the film. The room we used was dark anyway and we didnt turn the lights on, so i think that the two small torches we used weren't really enough. Also we filmed Laura in front of a mirror; although the piece is experimental and it turned out pretty decent because of the lack of lighting, I do think we should have filmed more with her in front of just a black wall and then used some proper lighting equipment. We used candles to light Laura too but there were on the floor and therefore only covered a certain amount of her especially when she stood up. Editing the piece together was good because we had already made the short collection of clips that would feature in the final film too. We had a lot of footage and had really long takes so we had enough to choose from but editing it so it was really short clips and repeating it was tedious. We used markers in the sound track to sync the footage with the sounds as best we could because the sound doesn't follow a normal beat so we had to figure that out manually. We were going to use the clips in a way that showed a lot more of what was going on by playing them for longer and using fades between them but in the end we chose to do really quick cuts to follow the pace of the music.

In relation to my original project, Jordan dropping out of the course was a nightmare and caused a lot of problems. We were set to go and do some more recording and then think about planning for the film when I found out he wasn't continuing with the course. Meeting Nyle in the corridor and finding out his partner had left too and that he had changed groups  was a great opportunity to pick things up again and almost start a fresh.

I have learnt a lot about sound in this project as Nyle has taught me about Logic Pro. It was a lot easier for him to do the sound piece as he has an extensive background and career in it so working with someone that had that experience was great. We also got to use a Go-Pro camera which was something I hadn't even considered using but produced some really good footage from Laura's point of view and gave a great view of the sparks especially. Another learning curve was actually working to a schedule and a professional; we only had Laura for four hours so it was key that we planned and made sure we got all the footage we needed.

Considering Nyle and I started work together late on compared to everyone else I believe we worked well together on the project. I am regretful that I didn't get more of a chance to work on the sound but it was already a really good idea so there wasn't much I could do to make any massive changes. Also, I was ill a lot this semester which hindered my contribution to the project. Overall I am pleases with our outcome and really like the film and sound as separate pieces and as one whole project that works well together.