MEDI 316 Audio Visual Presentation
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Tutor feedback
I have received some feedback from my tutor regarding the final film. Here is some of the main feedback given:
- The thing about this piece that I really like is it is dense and layered as a work and repays multiple viewings.
- You set yourself a hard task taking on such an esoteric concept and trying to convey it using a film with so much darkness in but it works on the level of poetic filmmaking.
- My slight feeling at the presentation was that the Cave concept wasnt sufficiently clear but on looking again i think it works fine.
I will be discussing tutor and audience feedback further in my critical evaluation, reflecting on the visual impact and success of my film.
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These are the shots I have especially been focusing on with the brightness and contrast filter. Having these shots darker is a stronger representation of the cave, but does hide the facial expressions of the prisoners. However, with the flashes of color and lighting, we still get a sense of the images overwhelming and fixating them. After presenting my two edits during the final presentation, the audience felt that the darker images worked more effectively than the brighter images of the faces.
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Here is the edit I will be showing in the final presentation. The final edit is nearly complete. I’m currently experimenting with brightness and contrast to see how the different levels of brightness visually impact the film. I want to capture the atmosphere of the cave as much as possible, whilst reducing image noise but also making aspects of the image clearer to viewers. The sections within the film I am particularly focusing on are the shadow scenes and side shots of the prisoner’s faces.
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This is the soundtrack I have chosen for my final piece Plato’s Shadow. This track was produced earlier in the project as a test audio edit in Macpod. Since then I have used it with each test edit and feel that it works effectively in conveying the mysterious and atmospheric confines of Plato’s Cave. The track is very similar to the sound work of David Lynch, whose pieces create tension and entice and unsettle the audience.
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I am now in the process of editing my final piece. Having incorporated new elements since the previous shoot, like sounds of the objects and shots of the projector, I hope the film will have become a stronger reflection on and illustration of Plato’s cave within a contemporary context.
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Plato’s shadow: next shoot
Having conducted two test shoots of Plato’s shadow and identified its effectiveness and significance in conveying Plato’s theory, I am now going to use this idea for my final shoot.
I have looked through the latest edit and highlighted key aspects which need to be improved and added:
- Restrict head movements of prisoners: during some shots prisoners look far over to the side
- Include extra character to release prisoner from chains
- Close up shot of freed prisoner revealing facial expressions as he notices the projector and the new surroundings behind him
- Close up shots of prisoner faces: eyes fixed and focused on image and shadows.
- Close up shots of projector, light flashing from projector, before we see the window and outside world
- Create sounds from the objects, making the shadows appear life like to the prisoners
- Characters carrying objects speak, voices are distorted to prisoners
- Panning shot around back of room from escaped prisoner’s point of view, revealing projector, surroundings, prisoner trying to adjust to light and new reality
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My latest edit, Plato’s Shadow. I’m particular pleased with this shoot and edit because of how strongly it reflects Plato’s theory, in particularly the use of shadows as the only reality the prisoners have ever known. The objects appear to overwhelm the prisoners as they try to work out what each of them are. As one prisoner is released from his chains he is then faced with the light from the window, revealed as the blinds are opened. He now has to come to terms with this new reality away from the shadows.
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Here are some screenshots from my latest shoot and edit, Plato’s Shadow. For this test shoot I added the chains onto the prisoners, used some everyday objects to create further shadows and included a window shot to reference the outside world.
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Here is the shot list for Plato’s Shadow. The main emphasis of these shots is on the shadows of the prisoners and the objects, alongside the prisoner’s surroundings (the projector, light from room window).
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There is a real significance to the projected images. The cave is the space the prisoners are trapped within, while the landscape refers to the outside world they have been isolated from. The framing of the shadows and projected images gives the illusion that the prisoners are physically in the space. The prisoners will become so familiar and attached to these spaces that the released prisoner will take time to focus and reajust their perceptions in the new reality of the projector and window light.
