Visual/Aesthetic Research/Character Research: Andy Warhol Eats Burger

I just watched Andy Warhol eating a burger for about three minutes. I wonder what it is about certain people that evokes this enthralment in certain others; many others. Interestingly, I found the conclusive minute or so, where Warhol is literally sitting, doing nothing, even more riveting.

This is what I would like to capture in my central character (although I am presuming I will be unsuccessful) - that one person can command such focus in an audience, simply by being.

Visual/Aesthetic Research: Gabriel Bruce - Sleep Paralysis

Visual/Aesthetic/Style Research/Sound Research: Gerhard Richter Painting

• Looking at the possible use of subtitles and how they work well in this film - having the words spread out for the audience to read themselves gives their sentiment more impact
• Visually looking at the black and white shots in this trailer for inspiration
• I like the feel that the music creates with the feel of the film

Visual/Aesthetic Research: Les Vampires - The Deadly Ring/La Bague Qui Tue (1915)

LOCATION/SETTING

Outside

- A long road

- Quite deserted, dirty and derelict but still austere looking

The Hospital Corridor

- Lots of line and symmetry - uniform pattern and rows

- Reflective floors, light from windows, footsteps echoing

-Eerily bright, dream-like

The Empty Room

- Blank walls, as under-furnished as possible

- windows are not exactly desirable but they wouldn't be the end of the world

GRAPHICS

- Minimal, bold
- Most likely black and white

GENRE

Surrealism

- break the 180° rule, mess with continuity, match on action etc

- jump between actual events and the character's perception of reality

- quite a lot of extreme close up shots, particularly to start with to disorientate the audience

-

Gore

- Artistic gore but fairly extreme in short bursts, hopefully to simultaneously enthral, disturb and revolt the audience

Pyschological

- This will primarily come from the narrative and character and with the disorientating surrealist nature, this should be furthered

NARRATIVE

- A patient in a mental hospital, very little actual plot
- Showing the contrast between their perception and reality
- Some scenes in therapy, some flashbacks or imagined events, some scenes around the hospital, some just outside it
(refer to script)

SOUND

- A lot of exaggerated and distorted sounds

- Random sounds, completely out of context to show the disturbance of the characters mind

Music

- Contrapuntal melancholy piano music with fast scenes and scenes of violence

- More tense music with strings for.. tenser scenes

- All instrumental, classical music

TONE & STYLE

Tone

Black and white, grainy and old looking; 60s/70s, quite minimal with bold lines, the light to make up a lot of the visual, preferably natural light so this is down to chance, but anything that looks good really.

I like the idea of some parts of the dialogue in another language, most likely french as I've taken some inspiration from black and white French art house films and I think the language works well with the look of it, also simply because I think the actual presence of subtitles can add to the nature of it. I'd like every shot to look like a beautiful black and white photograph in its own right.

Aesthetic

1964 The Addams Family (TV Series)

Artist and filmmaker Gunter Brus

Selbstbemalung/Selbstverstümmelung:

Gunter Brus with Kurt Kren

1964 - 8-64 Ana:

Sound Research: Ludovico Einaudi - Dietro Casa

What I've Learned: 03/10/12

Before beginning media studies, I already had some knowledge of editing software from using iMovie at home but had never used final cut pro X before so most of the layout and shortcuts were a novelty. But simply from very roughly editing a 40 second preliminary task, the basis of these was picked up.
The gargantuan library of effects, titles, transitions.. (on and on) were all new to me as well - in trying to find a suitable combination of effects that would achieve the look I was aiming for, I discovered that aged film adds an antique colour tint and so would not work with black and white, or I thought I'd discovered this until I realised that if you add black and white to a clip after aged film, the effects have a sort of layering system, by which the last effect added is "in charge", if you like. To summarise that completely unnecessary waffle that no one's going to read, I ended up with a clip that was both aged, and black... and white, when added in that order ('black and white' being one collective thing). This all became irrelevant as I decided I did not like the hybrid effect I had created.
I then thought film grain would be the thing for me and it was, other than the infuriating vertical black lines that inexplicably appear every now and then and fluctuate erratically about the screen.

Eventually, after much strife, I chose the effect strife. It wasn't quite what I wanted, which is when I learnt that you can adjust the effects of an effect (see left).

Visual/Aesthetic Research/Character Research: Wednesday Addams

Visual/Aesthetic Research: Marie Laforet 1968, 1967

Survey Statistics Analysis

Age
My target age group is primarily teenagers and young adults, encompassing the age range 15-24, with the majority in the 15-18 range. However, when asked their mental age in terms of film watching, the vast majority of participants placed themselves in the 19-24 range.

Film and TV Watching


Almost all participants said they watched 2 hours of TV a day or less and none said that they watch more than 4. Whereas most said they attend the cinema relatively frequently. Nearly half of the people surveyed said they normally watch films online, with a quarter watching on DVD. Roughly 2/3 of the people who were asked how often they watch film trailers online answered either frequently or very frequently 

Genre
The 4 winners of most appealing genre give us a complex hybrid thriller of psychological/disturbing/surreal/violent/gory - excellent. 




The more hollywood style options given were the most popular among participants when asked which of the examples of thriller they had previously enjoyed.
The bottom 5 options (A Clockwork Orange, The Shining, Donnie Darko, We Need To Talk About Kevin, The Lovely Bones) are more the type of film I think I'd like to make.





My target audience is people who are fascinated by serial killers.

Preliminary Task: Arriving For An Interview

Qualitative Audience Research

TARGET AUDIENCE SUMMARY
The vast majority of my audience will be 15-18s and more broadly, 15-24. However, I feel age is utterly irrelevant here. People who are into film - go to the cinema fairly frequently, watch new films at home and have a good interest range when it comes to genre. Specifically, those who are more inclined towards psychological thrillers, disturbing film - surrealism, violence, gore; people with morbid fascinations.