Test Shoots 

On Monday night, Brendan and I headed over to our two most important locations (the backyard and the telephone booth) to suss out the space and practice possible framing. I call these locations our most important because they belong to the scenes that will take the most time to shoot AND they’re the most integral to the overall piece.

Seeing the locations in person opened up a Pandora’s Box of new ideas and has morphed the Dinner Scene into something that is quite different and special… Basically, we found an old stereo in the Gazebo of the backyard and added a dance scene – what is a visual film without a dance scene anyway? The Gazebo itself is pretty rundown and ugly, but hopefully with a few fairy lights and the addition of a new table, it turns up well on screen.

As for the telephone box, we realised that it looks most striking when the lights from the Milk Bar behind it are switched on (Photo 4) – unluckily enough for us, they close at 8:30pm so we’ll have to see if we can either have our scene finished in time or ask them to leave them on a little while longer… I also love the way that the light from inside the booth creates a reflection on the surrounding glass. This will work well with the implementation of our purple-covered LED lights.

Overwhelmed: A Tale of Pre-Production Woes 

Filming at night is proving to be the most challenging idea I’ve ever had. When writing the script for Mary In The ‘Burbs, I was under the assumption that Melbourne council’s had plotted streetlights all over the skate ramps, parks and bus shelters… apparently not. Upon driving around town at night in an effort to scout locations, I noticed that all the places that I had wanted to feature were completely shielded in darkness, providing no light with which to shoot a scene. This has forced me to rearrange a few scenes slightly and consult with Brendan on ways to possibly illuminate the various spaces.

The Park/Dinner Scene will now be shot in the backyard of an extremely suburban house. I didn’t want to lose the randomness of this scene and so I thought that it would be quaint if Mary was strolling along a street, whereupon she stops as she hears classical background music in some distance. She peeps in the hole of a metal gate and opens it to find Mr. Mime enjoying a lavish soiree by himself, under the shelter of a lemon tree. Having a space such as this for a scene which requires a lot of props and different lighting is furthermore a bonus for us because we can fully control the set without having to worry about being out in public.

The telephone booth that I found is so far my favourite location. The booth itself provides an eery fluorescent light that casts shadows against the Milk Bar behind it. Brendan is confident in using this space and we’ve discussed various possibilities that the haze of purple cellophane can cast upon it. There’s also much space around the booth to conceal our LED lights and an aesthetically pleasing house to the left of it, which has fuchsia flowers growing out the front. Since Mary In The ‘Burbs is not so much a film but a collection of four scenarios, Brendan also thought that it would be a good idea to begin and end every scene in a wide-shot of the surroundings as a way to glue them altogether and create some consistency.

Now I just have to find a Skate Park, or a substitute for one since none of them are lit up at night – WHAT IF THE KIDS WANT TO SKATE PAST 6PM!? (Side note: Also seriously stressed about the weather conditions because it has been raining every night.)

Pitch Session Feedback 

I’ve learnt numerous times in this course that the pitch of a film is crucial – your idea may not be ‘great’ but if you present it well and sell yourself, there’s a good chance that the powers that be may buy into you. Luckily, our studio pitch session was casual… two hours of really wonderful ideas.

Robin Plunkett, who taught me last year in the ‘Translating Observation’ studio, had some helpful pointers for my project – Mary In The ‘Burbs. He began by stating, “If weird things happen to weird people, are those things truly weird or are they normal?” This of course was in relation to my protagonist’s costume: an ode to the Virgin Madonna. I’ve always been fascinated by the holy figure and through out every film I’ve made, I’ve tried to piece her into the story somehow. It wasn’t until this semester that my vision was able to become a reality because the circumstances of my project finally allowed it. I understand where Robin is coming from though – as an audience, we’re not likely to be taken on a wild ride if the character in question is already wild herself. Robin confirmed what I already knew. The explicit Virgin Mary costume had to go. This being said, I’m still a firm believer in having the protagonist dress up in a strange attire of some sort. She will wear a contemporary Virgin Mary costume – a modern reincarnation of the traditional white robe and blue veil. This will assist in ensuring that the film contains a unique aesthetic… one in which nothing has to properly make sense.

Robin also raised a point that I hadn’t thought of before – the fact that my film isn’t totally free of narrative constraints. Each of my four scenes do follow a story but it is only free of a concrete ‘narrative’ because I have invited the audience to view only a fragment of it. For example, the Telephone Booth Scene has no beginning, only a middle and a supposed end. The audience don’t know what they’re witnessing or why and that’s what makes it exciting – only offering them a few minutes of each scenario without any context.

The Initiative Post 

I have been thinking a great deal about Jean Epstein’s concept of Photogenie. This idea is of course used to outline any subject (things, beings, souls) whose moral character is enhanced by filmic reproduction. Moreover, photogenie describes a transformation of the ordinary into something dramatic, provoking, and ultimately ‘cinematic.’

My favourite film is Peter Weir’s classic Australian gothic tale, Picnic at Hanging Rock (1975) and it is here that Epstein’s theory can be employed. The film, which offers a poetic telling of the ‘nature versus nurture’ dichotomy, is pregnant with shots of the harsh Australian bushland, namely, that of Hanging Rock itself. Torn between the confines of their despotic, middle-class education and the enticing freedom of Hanging Rock’s many crevices, the students of Ms. Appleyard’s College slowly begin to surrender to the latter in a telling piece about releasing one’s inhibitions.

Through Weir’s gaze, the audience sees the Rock – this large and obstructive thing – as a symbol of power. Its secret passageways are morphed into the hands of a seductive man, who compels the little students to strip themselves of their Victorian stockings and boots, running wild and free as though reverted back to a primitive state. This is a result of Weir’s agency, his will to bring this Rock to life and provide it with human characteristics. It has been transformed in such a way that is both creative and revelatory. The rock is no longer just a rock, it is the Rock. It has temperaments, habits and most significantly a soul.

I suppose that I am intrigued by this film theory because I wish to implement it into my own film-making. Perhaps this empty telephone booth at night is not just a telephone booth but something more? I’m excited by the notion of inanimate objects having a purpose beyond their physical usefulness.

Final Project Concept 

For my final project, I want to focus on art direction. In previous studios, I’ve always felt constrained by narrative structure and so through art directing, I will be free enough to compose shots that are visually stimulating and enticing to watch without having to worry about certain restrictions.

To execute this, I will be exploring the possibilities of an Australian landscape – settings such as a Telstra telephone booth, Milk Bar, suburban park and bus station, which I listed in class during the writing exercise – with the addition of something odd or out of place. This could be a character or a prop that does not belong amidst the scenery. This moves to reiterate the notion that only the aesthetics in my piece are important. Coherence is not my prime concern but nonetheless, the placement of the shots will provide various degrees of meaning.

My first scene will be filmed at a telephone booth in an empty suburban street. Through a quick-succession of close-ups, a girl will open the Yellow Pages, sift through them, find a page, wipe her finger down the paper in search for a number, point to the number, rip the page out and stab the buttons on the dial. On the other end, we hear an audience applaud and game-show music ensue. A booming voice on the other end speaks –

Host: And welcome back! For the grand prize, what is your answer?

Girl: *answers*

Host: You win! Thanks for playing! Until next time!

She answers with something out of context that I haven’t thought of yet but the point is that the sound design here has lifted an otherwise simple setting into something more. As well as this, she will be dressed up in an unexplained costume (a Virgin Mary?) that may be because she just attended a costume party or perhaps it’s part of her part-time job.

Brendan and I have worked in a team before and he’s fantastic at implementing my ideas. We’re both intrigued by the work of David Lynch and so Brendan would like to play around with dramatic lighting to further elevate this scene into something extraordinary. We’ve discussed theatrical coloured lighting and spotlights that could be made using LEDs and cellophane.

Twin Peaks: Fire Walk With Me dir. David Lynch (1992)

I’ve also found this fantastic article that embodies the beauty that emanates from Australian culture. I love the 1980s (despite not having been alive then, thanks mum) and it upsets me to think that I feel nostalgic for a time that I never got to personally experience even though it feels like I did… This is probably due to having grown up in a quintessential wog household in Yarraville where much of the buildings haven’t changed since the early 70s – namely, my grandmother’s house which is in the hub of the district.

The images in this article will also be used for inspiration material.

Photographing the Last of the Milk Bars

In-Class Exercise – The ‘Expertise’ Video 

The creation for this 30 second video firstly began with recording the audio. I’m not a fan of operating sound equipment (most likely due to the fact that I don’t know how to properly use it) so I wanted to see just how clear ‘unnoticeable’ sounds could be documented. These were things such as lighting a cigarette and hearing the burn of the paper as it was inhaled, the sound of the butt dropping to the floor and then being stamped on/extinguished as well as fingernails tapping rhythmically on a metal bannister… Yes, all extremely wanky tones but in my defence, I’ve been in a deep hole of French new-wave discoveries and was blinded by Rohmer, Chabrol and Truffaut.

In the next class, Brendan and I framed a few close-up shots and a nice silhouette composition to pair with the previously recorded audio. On this little shoot, we did try to sync our audio with the visuals so that we’d have perfect harmony between them but it was a hideously windy day and the courtyard was way too busy for any sense of clarity to be achieved through sound recording. The executive decision was made to just use the previously recorded audio, even though it wouldn’t coincide. This obviously proved to be true as is witnessed below, but Brendan and I tried to cut it in a way that made it seem intentional and experimental.

On a last note – I hate the camera we used. What is it again? The Sony EX3? Whenever I’ve used it for outside shoots the images always come out ultra grainy even if I’ve checked the diopter multiple times to ensure that I’m receiving the images clearly in the first place. And then of course the exposure etc. is corrected to the best of mine and my crew’s ability. This graininess has mostly occurred for me when the sunlight is extra harsh or when grey light permeates the sky. This can also be lamented upon below – specifically with the shot of the girl’s hand tapping on the pole. Her hand appears out-of-focus and ‘fuzzy’ and overall, it isn’t an enticing watch.

1B Exercise – ‘Abstract’ Image

I wasn’t in class to complete this exercise so instead, I chose to film it in my own time and on my iPhone for the sake of convenience. I feel like this worked to my advantage since there are certain limitations to filming whilst in class – the predominate issue being that all of the visuals end up looking the same… shots of surrounding buildings, pedestrians, RMIT hallways etc. Personally, I like the aesthetics and creative possibilities that a rough suburban landscape can provide, so I captured various images from Footscray.

As I filmed the shots featured in the video below, I was consciously thinking about the way that I would string them together, which is when I remembered the voice memo that I secretly recorded of this boy named Patrick. Basically, I was in Footscray at a deserted park when this boy asked to borrow my lighter. What ensued was an hour conversation (i.e. him talking non-stop and me just “yeah-ing” out of uncomfortable awkwardness) about his troubles. I’ve never seen him again and nor do I even know his surname.

The visuals in this piece seem to blend into the dismalness of Patrick’s words, which I’ve chosen to overlap in an audio-montage to replicate the way that I was hearing them when he first approached me – choosing to tune into the ‘saucy’ sections only. The images haven’t been retouched, ensuring that the finished product thus far appears to be a work in progress… much like Patrick himself.

I’m not sure why, perhaps it was the glare from my phone case, but in the shot of the neon-green crossing light, the symbol of the man has been replicated downwards, creating an interestingly unintended effect. It then abruptly cuts off, obviously changing from ‘Walk’ to ‘Stop,’ which appealed to me because it reiterates how quickly things can begin and end, especially in the life of someone like Patrick who has a lot of concerns to sift through and deal with.