I don’t know if it was just me but after watching all the obstructions I didn’t feel ethically bound to number two or even to the whole film. After reading some other thoughts on the IMDB forum  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0354575/board it seemed to me as if this film was just another piece of fiction that Von Trier and Leth had plotted from the start. The power was never in Von Trier’s hands it was just played out that way to the audience to believe. Don’t get me wrong I enjoyed the concept, it could almost spawn a whole new genre,for instance I’d like to see Spielberg make Jurassic Park without any CGI, or we could even incorporate it into our own pieces this year or will it be hard enough? we will see.

Thinking about how to show my work has been difficult I dont want to just stick to the “norm” with the shots i have the film is obviously gunna be avant guarde, then I rememberd work from people like  Sergei Eisenstein and Dziga Vertov and the idea of juxtopostion cinema.

“Sergei Eisenstein is an important individual within the world of editing because he developed “The Film Sense” with fast editing and juxtaposition. The school of thought at the time was that shots complemented each other. If you show a person walking then the next shot should help continue the action. Eisenstein developed the idea of juxtaposition. Juxtaposition is the process of showing one thing and another which are unrelated and through combining the two they create a new meaning. Imagine that you are creating a documentary about the night life of students in a pub. You have two shots, A which is a shaker being filled to create a cocktail and shot B is someone dancing. If both shots are juxtaposed then it leads us to believe that although the two shots were unrelated in time and space the student whom we see after the shaker has had his head filled with alcohol which is why he’s behaving that way.”  http://www.main-vision.com/richard/montage.shtml

Ivan the terrible by Sergei Eisenstein showing off his style and pace of editing http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0076219/

Vertoz most famous piece was “man with a movie camera” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0019760/

it threw out convention with its non-narrative approach and the shots he used were pretty much un-seen before he tried to create a movie “without secnario” and using “international language”. these films when first watched to the media savy eye of today seem dull and slow but the film has shaped the way we look at film now having a massive influence on documentary film makers and looking back i think if its an influence that I can incorperate into my film it would be a great start to this module and a stepping stone to better things.

 

This will be the final idea I have decided to make my power artefact on the power of inanimate objects and what effect they have on our lives, the film will be challenging the audience to take a close look at objects that they take for granted and hopefully make you think after what we have in our society that we dont even continplate that in other societies dont have. I have filmed some of the shots already and put them to avid.

After looking at Paul Smith’s work I thought of the “Power of the image vs the power of the artist” where does photography being manipulated become art and how it is done. Advertisements are one of the biggest users of photo manipulation and the use of Photoshop. My idea would be to take some images with a meaning behind them then manipulate them in Photoshop to give another meaning maybe by taking two images and making them one, or maybe i could make some mock adverts myself of items that I use every day  

The Milgram expertements link nicley to the artefact I WANTED to make because it looked at the the way we react differently to orders from people who look like they are in charge, I also liked looking at the Stansford experiment and wonderd why there was no film already based on the experiment because I thought the contect lends itself perfectly to the screen. Talking of my piece (kind of wasn’t but oh well) after talking to Nick I have decided to give up on the police idea and choose something a bit simpler. This means back to drawing board of ideas. hmmm

I have been stuck for ideas for ages now on what to finally do for my power artifact and I think  I have it now! Thinking back to my idea on a family torn apart because of the Iraq war felt like too much to convey in 3 mins and i could think of a way to get around that fact so I scraped it. Looking back through my work I saw the words “power” and “authority”, this got me thinking about police authority, how would someone react in the same situation to the same person but they were wearing a police uniform in one of them. I thought the film could start with a man/woman getting up and getting dressed then leaving the house and not far from there house some kids could be fighting, doing graffiti etc the man/woman would stop what they were doing because they were wearing police uniform the film would fade to black then fade or rewinds back to the person getting up, then gets ready again but this time no uniform they would walk out of there house and the same thing would be happening but this time they would take no notice of the person.

“The uniform of police officers has been found to have a profound psychological impact on those who view it. Research has suggested that even slight alterations to the style of the uniforms will change how citizens perceive the officer. ” http://www.icons.org.uk/theicons/collection/the-bobby/features/changing-uniform

 

 

I would draw inspiration from films like “Sliding Doors” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120148/ ”Run Lola Run” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0130827/ and for the getting ready scenes the shots from “Shaun of the Dead I think are stunning in there own right. http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=IhBGFqldAvk the brushing the teeth flushing the toilet shots.

Researching where to get a good uniform from has lead me down a few corridors, I know a support police officer in the area he is also a film maker and I helped him on one of his productions so maybe he could help me locate some, there is also a website I’ve found that hire them out (not sure of the cost yet) http://www.hireapolicecar.co.uk/index.htm but maybe for this “unpolished” version a cheap one from a costume shop would surfice.

 

Charles Freger:

“Rarely is the face tightly framed since the focus is on capturing an individual with his or her uniform on, even if it is nothing more than a swimming cap. And here, Charles Fréger provides a key to understanding this game of appearances. His interest in uniforms is somewhat surprising: doesn’t the term evoke order, discipline, absence of fantasy, and erasure of personality?” http://www.charlesfreger.com/

Charles Freger photographed people in uniform to challenge the viewer to think about what unified them and whatthey represented with their clothes this is what i would want to come across in my film the idea that we can be looked at in totally different way just down to what we wear.

I’m going to start with Little Otik, the film i thought was very well made blending stop motion and live action seamlessly even though the film is based on a Czech fairy tail the story is aged old. My first reaction to the film was “what the hell is this!?” but then watching it again and again, then looking on imdb http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0228687/ I thought that the film was a piece of art the world of Otik doesnt seem to surreal and the power of the baby and the want for a baby in this film is a reflection on life. A very post modern view on parenthood.

Direct Cinema was the notion that a documentary should be shot usin dramatic logic or informing people with image this concept I didnt really understand until the sene in “Crisis : Behind a Presidential Commitment” http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0263238/ where Kennedy walks through the crowd then up the steps and gives a speech this hit home what the point to direct cinema was about, it conveyed the importance of this one man in pictures than any words could have. But there is restrictions a direct cinema film needs dramatic logic and not every filmaker could capture that on say a milk man doing his rounds.