Initial contact, Brief, guidelines and preproduction for Unit 32 Promotional Video

Contact with Client

For my promotional video I will be working for a client and the chosen client that I will be promoting is card and table top game designer Benjamin Wright. As a friend my first contact with him of what he would like promoting was done using the messenger system on Facebook.

From initial response I now know that the client is looking for an external training video with possible marketing elements. After this message I was sent another shedding more light on what my client may want in his promotional film in the way of an example video showing that there has been prior thought on his part which is very helpful.

Having had a look on what he would like I sent out a form for him to construct a brief for my work he responded and this is the brief:

Contact Details

Benjamin Wright

• Designer

Email: cthonic.games@gmail.com
Phone Number: - Kept logged in my phone
Website: http//cthonic.150m.com

Budget Consideration

Free
- Client's notes: "Current sales can't justify much more and the format is sufficiently simple that the biggest obstacle to do-it-myself is equipment."

Purpose and Audience

The purpose of the promotional video is to be an instructional gameplay video highlighting features and gameplay mechanics aimed at a general public audience with formatting familiar to those that also play similar card games. The objective of this video would be to reach out and relay information on how the game is set up and played to prospective and new customers.

Duration of Video

Over five minutes

Video Description

A multi-part video covering the following topics, each for no more than a couple of minutes:

• Overview and available products
• Setting up a game
• Gameplay - Start Phase
• Gameplay - Main Phase
• Gameplay - End Phase
• Gameplay - Winning and Losing

Location - Top down view of a table as a table top playing area.

Examples given by Client:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HGnwIlCn0EQ

This example video includes voice over included to be incorporated into card game information films. It includes stills and Titles which I was influenced by in creating my product

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=up2yC2Odncw
This Example video has a live table top capture where a top down angle is used to showcase the game they review.

Both provide instruction on playing the game, but at greater length than I would prefer. A shorter, punchier approach is more what I have in mind. The visual aspect, showing what happens and when, is more important than explaining in depth as that is already covered in written materials, and some familiarity with similar games can be assumed in the target audience.


Pre Production

Discussion between I and the Client so that we are on the same page with what is needed.

Production Process

Studio work desired to have the control over images.

Post Production

• Voice over narration to explain key elements of the game and to narrate the game play.
• Royalty Free Music

File delivery - Web file format

Deadline - Anytime over the next 6 months

Preproduction test shots

After some discussion and viewing the examples given by the client I set on taking some test shots that would highlight my ideas of portraying what the client wanted. I explored various ways of capturing the cards as the major element of the product and looked into each of the parts of the video he would like covering. I set up the camera on a tripod and recorded at an angle a wooden table with the cards arranged in example situations positives were a lot was captured the negative is that cards toward the horizon became distorted and hard to read. The test shots helped out in establishing a way that the cards should be shown (more vertically) and justified it by saying the 2D feel would fit the aesthetic of a card game. Some of these test shots I incorporated in to the final product liking the movement and its amateur "You can play this anywhere!" feel. Feedback from this was positive and I was to focus on the clarity of the cards on screen which led to my taking of stills.

Preproduction/Production Stills

Created in my own bedroom I created a selection of stills documenting the physical cards to be used in the production. I did this by clearing out my laptop space and setting up my camera and office style lamp to light and capture a white flat work surface to not distract from the cards. I used these in cutaways but originally wished for them to be used in highlighting greater details of the cards. Here are example shots from my set up.

Contact over the course of Production

Here is print screened evidence of contact with my client over the course of production. There were other times over the course on consecutive saturdays through the month of february where informal and formal discussions were had.

Evaluation for Unit 11

Psychoanalytical Film Project 

Evaluation Unit 11

For Unit 11 we were tasked with researching and evaluating different psychoanalytical theories and how they are applied in the media of film. We looked into theories by Freud, Lacan and Mulvey, each of which have elements of each other in especially Mulvey. After looking how they are represented in mainstream films through their subtext, mese-en-scene or technical aspects like lighting we then had to create our own short film. In our film we had to focus on one psychoanalytical theory so I did mine on Freuds Id, Ego and Super Ego. I looked into the three theories and generated an idea for each of them before settling in order to see what I could represent best with my own skills and limitations. After the Idea of a man who is challenged by two other versions of himself in a house I knew that I could represent this well. The evidence of this is shown in my finished film product.

My idea of how I wanted to represent the three layers of consciousness was to use three levels of a house with a basement being the impulsive thoughts of the Id the ground floor being the wary Ego who is the floor which is accessed so therefore has the interaction with the outside and then the upstairs to be the realm of the Super Ego that rules above all holding high not only opinions of the other two states but also the morals that it imposes on the ego pulling the mind to rigidity and formality at the same time the Id demands the ego with its impulsive wants but the Ego is built upon the Id and a mind that cannot keep the Id in check will become pulled into impulsively and closed in upon its self. In my actual developing of the project however the space that I could acquire for filming did not have a basement but instead an attic making me still able to use the three floors in my creation. I also expanded my Idea basis included the realm of the outside which is another pulling force of the Ego as arguably it is the Ego that must face the pressures of outside and usually it is an outside cause or stimulus that would cause a break in a seemingly healthy mind. The three storied house comes from drawing inspiration from Psycho (1960 Alfred Hitchcock) in the Bates family home and from Fight Club (1999 David Fincher) where in the house in Paper Street has levels which representations of the Id Ego and Super Ego dwell.

The start of my film has an establishing shot of the outside of a house with the symbolic representation of the house being the home in which we inhabit so too with my film it is where the characters mind lives in all its elements and the door being the barrier which is only crossed by the camera and audience and the Ego. The camera zooms in on the door to which the shot becomes a close up on the letter box as it opens which leads into darkness but like a crack in the wall lets us peek into this world; which is what cinema is about seeing from one darkness into another, a created space. The opening works well in establishing that the house is where the action will be taken placed and its use is justified in giving the audience a place to apply their mind to. The next few shots have the use of camera looking up towards the highest level giving the space power through its low angles. this inspiration for the upstairs shots which represent the Super Ego were taken from a clip from Last Year at Marienbad (1961 Alain Resnais) where there is narration over the cameras sweeping pans, tilts and movement around statues in a garden, thus giving them a sense of personification, telling of their story and that as entities they are alive. I applied what I saw in this to give the upstairs a feeling of impressive power and a personality of its own mixing in some point of view shots of my Ego character to show in another way of him actively looking up towards the Super Ego for structure and guidance. The Booming voice over of the super Ego gives it is severity and power whilst the layered effect of a whispered track (created by adding reverb to the reversed form then flipping back for the ghostly effect) gives it an ethereal tone which is meant to lead the audience to believe that this entity does not exist wholly after trying to construct it into existence. The slight contradiction in representation of the Super Ego could be interpreted as showing further fracture of the subjects mind as it fades away or loses its power yet I intended for its presents to add a polysemic layer to the piece gifting the Super Ego a religious or if not god like property to it. How this has turned out in reflection is very well from my development stage where editing was a lot harder with only the response of the Ego but with the added layers of the nondiegetic voice over and calm if not spiritual music in the background gives the piece not only its deeper meaning but clears up its purpose to the audience. The voice tells the Ego what it must do within rules which it has also relayed it is an application of the Super Ego ruling over the Ego. A note on the dialogue between the Ego and Super Ego is that all we know of the Ego is he has "Failed" before and must go outside which I would hope infer that the Ego has fallen to the pressures of outside influence and has become fractured in his mind. We also hear at the end of the talking the rewarding side of the Super Ego which when tasks are performed within the rules there is a carrot instead of the stick giving the self a feeling of accomplishment.

After this first part the Ego character is shown in his decent of the stairs, through a series of hand held shots. It is key that this transition be shown as part of my application of the psychoanalytical theory as it has my Ego character shift in levels to go to that of the lower floor, the floor of the Id. After tracking the Ego to the start of the kitchen we see a change of miss-en-scene becoming more cluttered , busy and disorganised as the first sign of the Id. Technically I have chosen to film separate takes so that I can have my actor play both versions of him self and planned each of the dialogues to  The camera angle is now at eye level between the Ego and Id having them face each other as he faces another element of him self. The characteristics of the Id are applied to my personification of the Id through its impulsive consuming of stuffs (specifically drink and cake), not caring because it doesn't effect him and breaking rules with no regard to them or breaking them when he wants a reaction.There are a list of 10 house rules in the background of mese-en-scene which are used as the rules that have been told by the Super Ego and likely placed by the Ego to dictate and remind of how to act. This is a religious subtext taken from Christianity's Ten Commandments and linked to representing the theory of the Id, Ego and Super Ego by many people who have mental problems find the structure in organised religion to be appealing and can function again to these rules, the most extreme of these becoming so reliant and rigid to these rules they become overly conservative and dangerous to those who challenge them. In my representation the rules are there but also there is the pull of the Id on which the Ego is faced with. The framing of my hand held shots in these show good use of the rule of thirds keeping my actors in the middle for most of it. I visually play with the positioning in a point of view shot of the Id coming off the kitchen counter and coming in line with the Ego's gesture towards the door. The reveal of the door  and mentioning the rules is to have the consistent build up to explore the mysterious outside as well as to add some movement to what I felt was becoming too static. The next big shot which causes some jarring to the audience and is used to show the oddness and fear that the Ego has over the outside in the shot where there is a close up on his face with door in the background out of focus, the focus switches and we dip to black in transition.

I used a flash back in my film to show one of the events outside that might have damaged the characters mind. Out side was bright and windy when recorded but I added more ambient wind to make the audience see that the outside feels oppressive to him. There is a series of quick cuts edited to the walk along the gravel I created this through a few takes of the same journey from different angles. The walk then appears more natural my matching the bobbing of the camera and the sound of the crunching gravel underfoot. To achieve this i went through the clips frame by frame as I felt it important that the audience is not removed from the narrative here, saving that for the edit of the shot reverse shot. The wind the camera captured in its audio signal during these takes stopped me being able to sample of the gravel and create a clear walk so instead that was what gave me the idea to build upon it. The overall effect of keeping the wind in rather than use foley or acquire a sound of a website was not destroying of the film but did give it a more amateur low quality feel, none of this effects the clarity of my messages and application of psychoanalytical theory. A solution to any future problems of wind I could use a guard with the camera or when using an external microphone. There is manipulation of time and view whilst Ego views the outside influence to show that misinterpretation could cause damage to a damaged mind with the more close up exaggerated faces. The fade back inside with the Ego ending with "It's terrible!" is a reverse on Plato's Cave in which a person released from the cave to experience the outside world comes back and says how great it was, rather he (Ego) returns to warn that it is a terrible place.

When showing the rules again I bring back the motif I had for the Super Ego to show that it is his influence is there. The bringing back of this should link to the audiences memory of the film so far and hopefully get them to think more in depth. I then twist it into a descending audio sound as the Ego defends into frustration. The jump cuts employed during the editing of the Egos breakdown further shows that our main character is broken by the disjointed cuts and loud noise I edited from a piece of music slowed down periodically to be more grating. The Id had provoked the Ego into losing his temper which breaks a rule and brings the Ego to much more in line with the Id's philosophy. This caused the Ego to tentatively take what he didn't want or ask for by so letting him choose to be like the Id. The acting shows more of a "why not" attitude in the Ego so that is why he takes the juice triggering the wrath of the Super Ego. The Super Ego returns but with a lamenting sounding music track accompanying as he is quite severe after he has been "betrayed" it includes two shots of the Super Ego. The first long tracking shot running throughout the house up towards the realm of the Super Ego very loosely inspired by The Evil Dead (1981 Sam Raimi) after a discussion with the my actor during filming which I used. The second descending shot was inspired by Vertigo (1958 Alfred Hitchcock) on the stairs looking down but backwards looking up. The music ends after the defiant "No!" sounded by the Ego which I hope for many people will feel torn as to weather this is a triumph of feeing from rules or a swap to future chaos. I do not explore what happens further but instead taking two shots carefully cut and edited together of the Ego facing the Id through panning of a tripod. I recorded this shot with two separate pans of the camera stopping slightly more than the centre with the first giving me some overlap in the clips. I then in editing had the two shots placed one after another and went frame by frame to find the closest one to cut on to make the pan join smoothly. This was not exact and the two shots had slightly different colouring and framing; with subtle use of colour correction and a slight zoom with repositioning on the second clip, I had the shot that you see in the final product. This was a good use of editing and I decided to have the same actor face each other as a coming together go both parts of his characters subconscious where as before they were separated by shot reverse shot. I could have improved the shot by being aware of reflections (such as the one in the microwave), lighting and the ambient audio. I could have improved the edit by even more carefully editing the colour and therefore improving the visual transition between shots. The rules are now ripped up by the Id in a symbolic gesture to the audience that these rules will not contain him any more. With a fade out to a tilting shot of the house exterior we saw at the start I bring in an ominous note before the pavement is reached and it cuts to black. This edit was to give the audience a foreboding sense that just as the shot decedents into darkness so too may the psyche of the character.



Have You Been Outside B from Luke Heritage on Vimeo.
ghost

Unit 31 Edit Decision List

Edit Decision List

An EDL is used to help organise and log your decisions in editing. It can be useful for solo editors but is mainly used for when multiple editors or the director would like to see what decisions are going into the edit. For example you could be coming on to a shift where it is your job to cut together the final film and by following this list you keep it to the desired track of the production. Here is my EDL for the second scene in my exploration into the Id Ego and Super Ego.

I list the name of the file its in and out points on a shortened SMPTE code (minutes, seconds and frames) and a brief description of its visual, audio and FX properties.

Lacan Theory

Lacan's Psychoanalysis Theory Analysis

Jaques Lacan is a french psychoanalyst who created a couple of theories one Mirror theory and another named Lack. Lacan's mirror theory is that during our infant stage we recognise our own reflected image as our ideal self. When applied to film this is becomes the screen where our minds view these images as the ideal and reflect that on to our selves. The camera becomes king when this occurs and what it captures will influence its audience. This can become problematic of course when it becomes obsessive or oppressive where by people follow too much what they have seen on the screen. Lighter versions would be fashion choices used such as a modern film with the lead female character wearing pink boots, there is likely to be a rise in pink boot sales especially is the character is likeable and the camera records a close up of the item. Also moral and personal traits are carried over through the mirror stage theory in where heroic characteristics of the modern wave of comic book heroes make young people want to take on the world, again there is a negative that the mirror stage can be seen to be applied to young adult movies which perpetuate the "standard" high school and college experience where the aggressive inconsiderate qualities of those in power are what is expected and so is desired as the perfect form. These qualities can be applied to films previously mentioned and out of genre specific films as any film that incorporates slowed desirable camera movements overtly explored in Kenneth Anger's experimental films of the 1950's can have the mirror stage applied to it. It doesn't fit for all as you could say that horror films or documentary films of poverty do not show things that are desirable and are things to be avoided or fearful of. So for it to happen there needs to be desire and Lacan says:

Desire is neither the appetite for satisfaction, nor the demand for love, but the differ- ence that results from the subtraction of the first from the second. 

The mirror stage runs a lot on the fact that what is shown in the mirror or the screen when applied to film is desirable. Where does this desire come from? well one way it can arise from the human mind's Lack. Lacan's lack theory is that our minds are constantly lacking in something like a puzzle missing the final few pieces ore a hole filled cheese. The mind is driven forward by the need to fill this lack but whilst like a child tries to put everything in its mouth not everything will fit the holes in our mind and if something does it won't always, so the human is always forced to keep on searching. This can become problematic if something which momentarily filled a persons lack has to be furthered leading to addiction or the other way in which an idea of something fills this lack and instead leads to obsession. This can be seen in two of the films that I studied earlier in Vertigo directed by Hitchcock the character Scottie is trying to fill apart of him that can only be filled by this constructed ideal woman who doesn't exist so he has to keep reconstructing her. In Grizzly man in a documentary style film by Werner Herzog we have a real life example explored in Timothy Treadwell searching for an existence with Grizzly Bears which leads to obsession with the bears. The lack can be explored within any film that has a searching driven plot from the coming of age type film where by completing some form of enlightenment or task fills them mentally allowing them to be a complete adult to a film exploring revenge of a loved ones death. Whether trying to fulfil the lack from loosing a piece of them selves or acquiring it for completion the element of Lack for that drive is still there. The films where this can not be so readily applied are experimental or surreal films where there may have been explicit focus on different theories or in plot driven films where the story is not sufficiently deep enough to analyse  sufficiently.

From

Grizzly Man - Lacan Lack

Lacan Applied to Grizzly Man

In 2005 Dir. Werner Herzog made Grizzly Man a documentary film about Timothy Treadwell a man who was mentally unstable who sought peace by living around bears for a long period of months each year for thirteen years before his death in 2003. The film makes use of actual footage taken by Treadwell over his last few summers and interviews and opinions of not only the director him self but also those who were around him in life. This film can have the theory of Lack by Lacan which explores the way in which peoples minds are always incomplete with a piece missing and the drive we experience is the want to fill that hole in us.

As a documentary there wasn't much in the way of scenes but there were a few topics in which Lacan's theory of lack can be applied to Treadwell's story and how it was portrayed in the documentary. How he came involved with bears is one of the things to look at as there is a thing said by him that says before he met the bears he was an alcoholic. This happens in the film at a point where Werner points out that Treadwell started revealing more about himself in his footage. To apply this to Lacan we can say that to be drinking he was trying to fill the empty piece of his mind with alcohol. We then can infer that by becoming attached to the bears that his hole was not filled right or had changed. Unlike most people though his pursuit of the bear's life, safety and then lifestyle was furthered by having larger holes than most.

We can look into it more again when you hear his journey portrayed through the films documentary how he went from trying to help people understand the bears as his thankfulness to the bear race for giving him purpose. You could also say that it filled the hole that he wanted forgiveness from the human race as he was an alcoholic with no purpose but now he had one he was the human bear ambassador with decent amount of charisma by setting up a bear campaigning group. Technically edited at each of these points we are given cut aways to Werner and others to fill in our gap of information, we want to know why Treadwell did this. As the film goes on we as the audience can start to infer using the Lacan's Lack theory that he did this as his lack changed to wanting to be a bear rather than humanity thinking being abandoned and frustrated by humans that his salvation would be his destiny.

The film Grizzly Man has an exploration of a man who was lacking in something in his personality and thanks to the editing of his tale we get to experience it and with knowledge of Lack we get a more in-depth perspective too.

Mulvey Theory analysis

Laura Mulvey's Theory

Laura Mulvey is a feminist who applied psychoanalytical theories to film as a political weapon against female suppression , taking inspiration from both Freud and Lacan to create her theory of the male gaze.

Mulvey looks at the elements of film and applies the ideas that film fascinates us and how the mainstream of cinema had become dominated by men and male characters whilst making female characters less deep and more passive. Mulvey then preposed a theory that can be applied to film and media called the Male Gaze in her 1975 Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema. It explores the fact that in cinema we view through the perspective of the camera and that viewing is pleasurable. If the camera is directed by that of predominantly heterosexual males then the outcome would be that the gaze of the camera is a Male Gaze. This becomes a potential problem where in this view women are portrayed as passive and sexual whilst men are cast as the ones with choice and are the star then this reflects on audiences. Audiences who watch these films will then aspire to the portrayal with women focusing on their appearance and men on their choice and dominance to the point where it is not only accepted but expected. This can apply to what state of mind the individual has when it gazes upon the world and their ideas of masculinity and femininity.

Freudian Scopophillia theory is the theory that looking is pleasurable (Sigmund Freud 1905). To have the camera as the point of view for which the audience views we start to associate that with being pleasurable. To have the image be that of passive women with close ups and pans splitting her into a commodity we are positively rewarded from seeing these images and would indulge more into our repressed perversions. The way in which this can be seen as a problematic theory if its is used too much is how it can effect the minds of the audience by changing there morals.

"Although the film is really being shown, is there to be seen, conditions of screening and narrative conventions give the spectator an illusion of looking in on a private world. Among other things, the position of the spectators in the cinema is blatantly one of repression of their exhibitionism and projection of the repressed desire on to the performer."

How it can be applied to film is to that of heterosexual male dominated productions, a lot more considered the "norm" from the start of hollywood and the increase of rich male investors through until sometime after Mulvey released her theory. It helps when she said that she would use it as a political weapon as people of her generation fought to bring rights to other peoples but it doesn't mean that the theory is fully out of use using more modern examples. In some cases the "Gaze" has just changed from it being a male one to that of a female one or a queer identity gaze. This can be seen in advertising and mainstream films in a joking almost over gaze to try and absolve the previous transgression of the male gaze but doesn't work as there is no apology and the examples of this, a mostly negative thing, is still outweighed by the examples of male gaze in movies today. Movies be male directors like Michael Bay's Transformer's franchise fetishise its female characters. More insidiously you could say that a new generation of male dominated teens are brought into this by "Teen/College" films like the American Pie franchise. Most may think Mulvey an outdated theory to apply but it can still be utilised to some extent today.

Freud Theory: Id Ego and Super Ego

Freud Psychoanalysis

The psychoanalysis theory of the Id, Ego and Super Ego was created by Freud to explain a way that the human psyche can rise. Through various layers of our mind we can see how are brain developed.

The Id is the first layer of our mind formed or is said to have always existed as it is part of the brains formation to have its basic drives be they aggressive when not met and in the search for all forms of self pleasure. From the sexual to the physical and mental, the Id's drive in wants become needs and so the body will function under this power. After a while in growth and development the mind begins to learn how to interact and control the id to some extent in regards to the outside world. This forms our consciousness Ego where the most of are visible self resides. From interaction from the outside world by dominating figures like parents we learn to self rule and criticise and a Super Ego is formed to rule, punish and reward actions of the ego. The ego is the most vulnerable as it is in balance by but has to balance the super ego, id and the outside world.

How this can be applied to film is interesting as Freud has split the mind and its characteristics and handily this can be applied to situations and character in film. In films where there are trios of characters you can almost guarantee that this theory can be applied. In giving one character a child like determination or fierce anger when things  don't go their way you have a character based on the Id. A character who is the everyman or the protagonist who has depth and realism to it is usually the Ego especially if the character has to look after another or be wary of them. Then the colder calculated character who is usually lawful or at least has a strict set of morals that it follows becomes that of the Super Ego. What it can also be used in films for is for psychological movies that explore one characters mind crisis like in TheMachinist and Fight Club where it has a split in character and the situation fills in the uncharacterised part of the theory.

Its limits begin when you start to spread the theory too thinly as whilst you don't necessarily need lots of depth to hint at this theory, if there are too many characters or over arching plots a good almost every theory becomes lost.

In films that use this or more when it is unintentionally used we get to know more about the director of the film's life. This could be seen as the authors dream especially if you subscribe to the auteur theory this will give away the artist mind and could hint at their inner turmoil.

Freud said "An Artist is... an introvert, not far removed from neurosis. He is oppressed by excessively powerful instinctual needs. He desires to win honour, power, wealth, and the love of women; but he lacks the means for achieving these satisfactions. Consequently, like any other unsatisfied man, he turns away from reality and transfers all his interest, and his libido too, to the wishful constructions of his life of phantasy"

With this you could say any personalised story made into film can be open to application of this theory.