Experimental Shooting

War Story - Aardman
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0098620/

"This short animated piece uses a real interview as its soundtrack. Bill Perry relates stories about his youth, his tilted house, and adventures during WWII in Bristol, England during the blitz.
Claymation
Uses interviews as source material, this one from genuine ww2 soldier
canted angles reflect sinking house






Who's Hungry
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8srEvrF90-s
black and white 2D animation from animator David Ochs.
“Who’s Hungry” is a modern spin on the Brothers Grimm’s “Hansel and Gretel”.
Ochs' freshman animation, won class award 
Uses 'Turkey in the straw' as emotional motif - seeming slightly unnerving at beginning but horrible by end. 








Colour Bleed
https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1878888/

silent, uses music for mood and  colour to create empathy - protagonist stands out among grey bg
so we understand grey hand is her individuality dying











OPERATOR
https://www.operatorshortfilm.com/

"The script is based on a real 999 call. When Caroline first listened to it, she was completely blown away by how terrifying it was. It became clear straightaway that the story would make a powerful film, and that we could really bring to the audience's attention what an amazing job the operators do, remaining calm and composed in such stressful situations.

The film was funded through Kickstarter and was shot over two days in London."

begins with mentioning fire, then other jobs before focus begins on operator
close ups on face increase sense of urgency.
lack of cuts create anxiety and feeling of helplessness to help empathise with protagonist
sudden silence is very powerful, immediately followed by another call shows this urgency and fear is commonplace


PENCIL FACE

"A young girl is playing on some waste ground when she finds a pencil with a face. Whatever she draws with the pencil becomes real. Just an ordinary day." -  https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1352842/

repetitive music immediately begins unease
close up on pencil's face very creepy
uses cgi to show influenced thoughts
repeated shots of pencil face imply danger

BUT YOU DIDN'T

 "Based on the anonymous poem of the same name, often attributed to Merrill Glass. It's said that the author was widowed and died of old age. When her daughter was organizing her remains, she discovered this poem her mother had written to her father back then, titled 'But You Didn't'." But You Didn't is directed by up-and-coming filmmaker John Wikstrom, who also edited the short.


Clips match words, with repeated words for effect
Begins with focus on husband, then turning to daughter when he's gone
matches colours when comparing them




RUBBER JOHNNY

presented in infra red
starts on out of focus close-up, very startling and confusing
handheld camera gets shaky matching johnny's mood
everything stops when sedated
flashing lights jarring in darkness
very surreal
music interrupted with light
cocaine makes video more eratic mixes paces and fast to slow cuts as well as obscured and face on angles - feels hard to understand or pin down
combines the fear with small bits of humour, keeping audiences guessing on their toes





SOVIET MONTAGE
Montage is a serious tool used by filmmakers.

Following 1917 revolution film stock was low so filmmakers used old footage to experiment with editing. Found that people respond to shot differently depending on the shots that surround it.

Kuleshov Experiment (see right)https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gGl3LJ7vHc

Lev Kulsehov created a film that showed a shot of a single man intercut with other images. Found that images surrounding shot of man influenced how audiences thought the man was feeling - despite it being the same shot.

Lenin saw the films potential as propaganda.




Dziga Vertov & Sergei Eisenstein 

• combining and contrasting images to convey ideas
• explored how rhythm/pace of editing & use of music can stir emotion

Eisenstein & Vertov considered continuity bourgeois for faking reality and preferred Marxist diaclectic about conflict of ideals. Eisenstein wanted to stir emotions and inspire revolution. 

Eisenstein

Montage theorist, wrote 'Filmform' looking at ideals, including how the duration of shots affect audience reactions.

Used 'intellectual montage', matching and contrasting images such as cows being slaughtered & troops being killed in his 1925 Strike (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jWiDciPuSW4 warning, graphic content!)

Also vertical montage, exploring how elements of the image, such as composition and actor movement work with the soundtrack. 

Eisenstein's 5 types of montage:

Metric

Edit follows specific number of frames, based solely on time, cutting irregardless of the action in the Rhythmic

Cutting in time to a soundtrack, useful for keeping pace.

Tonal

Uses emotional meaning of a shot, not just manipulating length of cuts or rhythm.

Overtonal

Accumulation of aboce to synthesise effects for a more complicated and abstract effect.

Intellectual

Combines shots from outside film to synthesise meaning

Vertov

Vertov used montage to try an draw attention to the film-making.

Man With A Movie Camera (1926) is a city-symphony, covering different 'day-in-a-life events.

Uses partial shots of an object, close-ups, low and high angles, patterns and shapes to build sense of time & place. 

Modern Montage

In the 1980's, Geoffrey Reggio's 'Kayaanisqatsi' used a lot of Vertov's ideals but for different reasons. Using time-lapse and slow-motion, Reggio showed modern life as a nightmare, contrasting shots of people on an escalator with sausages being squeezed out of a machine. 

The three-way standoff from The Good, The Bad and The Ugly uses ideas from soviet monatage: dramatic cuts from wide to close-up & extreme close-ups, cutting between close-ups and accelerating editing to Moricone's classic score.

The title sequence of punk sci-fi 'Repo Man' uses rhythmic montage where shots of map sections are precisely edited to an Iggy Pop sountrack, cutting on every bar and beat.