I want my film to be a mixed bag, I've got a basic plot together now and keep coming up with little sequences I want to film, all the filming will be done back home in Wales as after watching through the Röyksopp video again I have decided on an overall post-apocalyptic theme. Most sequences involve props and all of them rely on the reliability of my friends who will be acting in it and the money needed to travel back and forth. People have put their houses on the market to make the films they are passionate about though so this can and will be done! On to the skating feature films anyway. These are all normal films with a plot and so on rather than exclusively skate films because of my knowledge of them isn't too good.
Paranoid Park
This is directed by the brilliant Gus Van Sant, Christopher Doyle was the cinematographer. The film is about a young boy who is dealing with a lot of guilt so the theme of the film is quite dark, like Sant's other film "Elephant" the dialogue and pacing of the film is very slow and focuses more on conveying feeling by image and sound than telling a story. A lot of the skating segments are filmed on Super 8mm film, I think this was a good idea and I can see why it was done. Filming skate footage is something done by a lot of young people, people without much money and therefore it was often done on Super 8mm (DSLR cameras are definitely a game changer). I believe this was put into the film to give us a feeling of nostalgia and to show that the film associates with the "rawness" of skating. It also showed one of the protagonists only positive thing left in his guilt-ridden life.
Still from "Paranoid Park"
Still from "Paranoid Park"
The second one in particular I find beautiful, it would be interesting myself to use an older piece of technology and see what effects I could achieve with it, it would mix the footage up more which is definitely what I want from the final cut.
Lords of Dogtown
This film is a big step away from the previous, it is certainly not an arthouse film and has some more well known faces in it. This is an interesting film to look at for me actually because it is all about the birth of skateboarding and therefore there's a lot of flatland skateboarding being filmed in it which in my longboard sequences is essentially what I will be doing. I've never really enjoyed the grade much on this film, it's smart and I can see why they did it but I just don't like to look at it for too long I usually prefer flatter looking film, then again I am a big Wes Anderson fan so there's always an exception.
Still from "Lords of Dogtown"
Still from "Lords of Dogtown"
Still from "Lords of Dogtown"
The first shot was a very quick track following the skater which stops at the perfect time to catch his legs as the subject, it's interesting because the skateboard is cut off but it's actually still a good shot because all the motion and skill is shown and more focus is on the skater than his tool. The second two are definitely giving me ideas and making me think of steep hill locations, the shot is a tracking shot where I would like to assume the camera man is another skater (if not the vehicle is definitely moving), the subject moves from left to write always in frames sometimes dangerously close. Fast moving shots like this definitely create excitement for the viewer.
Ken Park
This film was written by the great Harmony Korine and directed by Larry Clark and Ed Lachman. With these names there is no doubt that it is an extremely provocative and controversial film. The film on the whole has such a strange colour to it, to me has vibrant colours to it sort of like one of Gregg Araki's earlier films but it still looks flat and washed out. It makes you feel dissociated and uncomfortable (as if the film needed the help).
Still from "Ken Park"
Still from "Ken Park"
The first shot is from the opening of the film where a young boy arrives at the skatepark to film himself committing suicide, the shot shown is static probably on a raised platform slightly looking down at the scene. I like the shot because it's long and doesn't move and therefore doesn't distract you from the seriousness of the situation and shows all the skaters arriving to look at the boy. It's a good technique to have a still shot when you want to make sure the image is being taken in by the viewer. The second shot is the same boy on his way to the park, the shot is tracked and it just makes me realize the importance of getting a smooth tracking shot when filming fast skating because it is the difference to a professional feel that sucks you into the film more rather than shaky amateur footage.
Zdzisław Beksiński
Zdzisław Beksiński is not a skate film, he was in fact an amazing Polish painter, he was also a photographer and sculpter but here I am going to focus on his paintings. He is my favourite painter and I would love something in my film to even closely resemble his incredible work. He is very eclectic in his paintings, they range from strange portraits to huge desolate landscapes. But in most of the man's art certain themes remain; decomposition, and of course his definitive post-apocalpytic look. Many of his works are unsettling in a similar way to H. R. Giger's work.
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
.jpg)
I chose the work which conveys the theme I will be trying to achieve in my film. I don't want my film to feel as serious as these pieces but I do want a feeling of no hope and bleakness for the first segment. The painting of the car is the most inspirational for me out of these as I want a scene that includes an old rusted out car, hopefully using the magic of film making I can achieve something similar. I really love how a lot of these have a disturbing image as their subject with a huge desolate landscape behind that offers no hope of shelter, this is a look I would definitely like to be shown in my film and I will try my best to achieve it.
I hope you enjoyed this entry, next I will go through the equipment I have to film with and the music I am in the process of deciding to film to.
No comments:
Post a Comment