I have decided that the only way to safely bak up my work is to produce 2 discs per “segment” of the piece. !x dvd, and 1x avi. This is because everything I do is stored on an external drive as a primary store. I have also sent email to Andy to find out what i can about whether i can show work on the large screen at Wilsons in the final show. In the meantime I will endeavour to watch some of my film on the projector in the studio.
I am having a nightmare reproducing the original layered piece in FCP4.5 as the rather rough original (in FCP6) has certain qualities in the placing of the layers that I want to retain but, for some reason i am not able to figure it out. The only way to judge the result of the layering is to watch it as moving image, which means hours of rendering before you can watch it. I’m nearly there but it isn’t good enough. I dont want to succumb to compromise for the sake of progressing. A false economy.
I am starting to build my piece. I have begun to re-produce my layered segment in FCP4.5 and things are looking ok. I have a concern, however, that one can never truly reproduce an idea exactly and already there are differences that I cant figure out. I’m waiting to see if it is a case of six of one and half a dozen of the other. This segment will become part of the skeleton of the finished piece, which will be linear. I would like to see a suggestion of narrative to the running footage, but without securing a fixed story to it. In other words, i would like some semblence of a story, but one with no script. The images, when seen through, will create a rich taste of the interior world of boxing, and by this I possibly mean hidden or simply, applied, allowing viewers to watch with impunity! Whether you like boxing or not, the visual aspects are a treat, and the integrity of the boxers in action, i believe, unique. With the use of the crowd footage, one is allowed to see through the cliched violence of the sport and to learn about hidden levels of human nature and psychological endurance and resilience.
I’m becoming quite excited about my final piece. I’m fairly certain I have a realistic image of what it will look like. Having made a simple decision about wanting it projected on a large screen, things have been slotting into place. I do however have my work cut out for me. I need to see if I can produce a story-board as there will be a linear structure to the visuals as they appear. I am reverting to FCP 4.5 and may be introducing some still photos, but that should be the extent of the media required. I envisage some changes as I progress but am confident that the integrity of the idea will remain.
This decision has come after my experimentation with the crowd footage in previous posts and the fact that I had been looking at them as independant pieces of film. I have a tendency to be pleased with a piece of edited film and then move on to something “new”. I believe the pieces I have been working on can be seen together as a whole without detracting from or corrupting eachother.
I am trying to arrange some tutorials with IT. I am keen to finally learn how to back things up properly as I am producing many film “sketches” and my computer and hard drive are running at critical mass.
Along with this, I feel I need to run through my ideas for a piece of film for the final show with someone (Tim Harrison hopefully) and create a plan of action for being able to see it through. I have been going over my notes from Andys talk on the final unit and am not sure I will be able to work in the ways he suggested. I do need to work in small stages, but how to create the parameters I dont know.
I want big screen, slick quality, smoothe movement, crisp audio and peoples attention.
I am becoming increasingly frustrated at the rate at which situations deteriorate at college. What seems entirely possible, and fully sanctioned one minute, is out of reach or denied the next. I have been trying to engross myself in editing over the last month by using the college facilities, mainly because of the increased storage space on the school macs, but also to use the updated softwares, multiple screens etc. I am constantly coming up against brick walls. Had I continued with my work at home on inferior equipment, I would have travelled further with my pieces and discovered more, but not been able to store them. The college seems to be in too much dissaray to provide for the students and I am tired of complaining and making requests that are ignored. The piece I would like to produce as a culmination of everything I have learned through this project is looking like a non-starter.
I believe also that I am a bit of a handful and probably do myself no favours by blowing so much hot air.
I think I’ve been a student too long.
Somehow I managed to achieve 69% for my PGPD essay. Now that is a relief.
This is the audio piece from my earlier post with a manipulation of its visuals.
I like the multiple moving images layered in this way as you kind of know whats going on, but are unable to see the specifics. Much like the audience on view. One would usually have people at ringside who are attached either to the boxers in the ring or who are there in an official capacity, or are boxing stalwarts getting their fix. Whomever they may be, one will tend to see them only occassionally engrossing themselves in the action in front of them, mostly they appear fairly non-plussed by the whole affair..
After posting this piece of film in black and white, I went back to look at it in colour again and found it to have a quality of its own that I had been oblivious to originally. The rich colours are a source of constant debate for me but for the first time I think they work in this sketch… The next piece is audio only, although I do like the fact that one has a black box, or void to “look” at while listening. The audio consists of multiple layering of slowed clips from a round of boxing. I am searching for the animal or primal sounds that are hidden within the multiple voices. I suspect that Scorsese (or Schoonmaker) resorted to actual animal sounds on their Raging Bull slo-mos (Lions?), but I think everything you need is in the human voice, you just have to dig around! I will post this audio piece with a visual so as to compare….
I have spent my time scanning through the amassed footage and extracting in segments in a fairly random way. by this I dont mean to say that I am acting without criteria. i am looking for the peripheral language. As my work has progressed I have become more convinced that the root of my interest is to be found in the wider context of what is essentially the subject matter. Like a stone dropped into a still pool of water, the stone, although the central focus of the act, is a swift movement, a brief occurence, but the effect or consequence is the rippling of the water, a slow and gradual movement that possibly says more about the act that is at the core than the act itself.I am equipped with “reels” of digital footage to play with but am realising the restrictions of this standard of media and am realising that I am limited by the fact that it is all shot with very basic equipment and therefore I feel that the quality of image will always be restrictive.with the speed at which movement occurs within the boxing ring, it is impossible to manipulate and slow the footage without huge deterioration in quality. This leads me to believe that using a process of visual abstraction is necessary to relieve the cumbersome or clumsy aspects of the footage under these conditions. I have always tried to retain a very representational language in the work, but to be able to underline the beauty of movement while using slo-mo, for example, beyond a certain point, might possibly require a complete change in the equipment and softwares currently being employed.At this stage I believe this would be too time consuming and is innapropriate for the stage I am at within the course (using HD cameras, advanced Final Cut applications, higher frame rates, After Effects etc).
I have looked at the editing work of Thelma Schoonmaker in Raging Bull, which I believe to be the definitive boxing film. Everything from the framing to the staging and effects provide an exact break down of what it is to be a boxer in combat. The greatest fight is with yourself. It is also a dangerous film for me as I am working with many parallels to achieve my visual pieces. The use of black and white to detract from the distraction of the vibrant colours used in boxing for the boxers attire, the breaking down of movement using slow-mo and the use of audio, also slowed, and the power of silence.
My fight has been postponed. I am a frustrated man.
I have been formulating a regime of editing. My head is in digital-mode and I am finding it hard to verbalise my ideas. The solution to this is to upload edits as sketches onto this blog, and to see how this communicates. So here goes…
This first piece is a small portion of a project of manipulation of crowd footage. The faces in the crowd as they react, or not, to what is before them. Certainly from this specific footage, one can wonder if the audience holds any interest in the spectacle.
