GW: TYPES OF ACTING RESEARCH

I did some research and made notes on different acting styles. From working with some non-actors I felt that this would help me guide them to better performances. Also I am in talks with a couple of friends who are actors. On top of all of this i will be acting in the piece too so any help to get through this convincingly will help. The whole idea is that the finished video pieces have a real naturalistic style.

The System
This style of acting can be seen as the root of pretty much all modern acting. The System, sometimes referred to as “classical acting”, was developed in the early 20th Century by Konstantin Stanislavski, one of the most acclaimed actors and theatre directors of his day. His aim was to take the knowledge the most elite actors he had worked with had acquired by trial and error over a lifetime in the theatre and break it down into a methodology that could be taught to students. That way, students could quickly become consistently excellent performers without having to spend decades learning their craft. Before Stanislavski, actor training had mostly focused on vocal and physical training. Stanislavski’s revolutionary idea was to help actors develop their inner life so they could produce more grounded, realistic performances. He wanted actors to really feel the emotions their characters were feeling each time they gave a performance. “Every person who is really an artist desires to create inside of himself another, deeper, more interesting life than the one that actually surrounds him.” – Konstantin Stanislavski Students of the System are required to become proficient at studying and understanding scripts, so they have a clear idea of the emotions their characters are feeling at any given moment. They then need to be able to consistently summon up those same emotions in themselves on demand. The System therefore has a heavy focus on script analysis and techniques for stimulating the actor’s emotions. Although the System was first created with regard to the theatre, it became popular with early film stars as the subtler, more nuanced performances it produced were ideal for the close-up acting required on camera. It is still used by some modern stage, film and TV actors, although has mostly been superseded by more modern equivalents, such as the Method. Famous practitioners of the System include Sir Alec Guinness, Orson Welles and Basil Rathbone. 

Michael Chekhov “Real inspired acting is never DOING, it is always HAPPENING” – Michael Chekhov Michael Chekhov was a Russian-American actor and director (and nephew of the famous playwright Anton Chekhov) who studied under Stanislavski before going on to devise his own approach to acting. Chekhov’s techniques also focused on actors creating a rich inner life for their characters, but relied more on imagination than using real experiences. Chekhov’s approach relies heavily on developing the physical side of a performance, moving away from Stanislavski’s more restrained “real” style towards something bigger and more demonstrative. While the Chekhov technique is still concerned with achieving emotional truth, it relies on the cumulative life experiences of the actor to fuel their imagination, rather than recalling specific experiences to generate each specific emotion. Considered by some to be a less subtle approach to acting than the System and other modern methods, Chekhov’s techniques were still highly popular within the mid-20th century, used by actors such as Marilyn Monroe, Yul Brynner and Clint Eastwood. It is now more commonly used by stage actors than on screen as its more demonstrative style suits certain types of theatre acting.

The Method
 Devised by Lee Strasberg, the Method was initially based on Stanislavski’s System, offering a more advanced, modern expansion on Stanislavski’s techniques. As TV and film were increasingly becoming the main media for professional actors, an approach to acting that worked particularly well for the requirements of these media was essential. The Method’s enduring popularity is in large part down to its versatility, allowing actors to produce exceptional performances both in theatre and on film. Like the System, the Method puts a lot of emphasis on developing an actor’s ability to really feel the emotions they are required to portray. By refining and building upon Stanislavski’s ideas, Strasberg was able to come up with advanced techniques that actors could use to reliably produce real emotions with a depth and nuance unmatched by other acting techniques. Strasberg devised many innovative techniques, such as affective memory, sense memory and substitution so that any actor, with sufficient training and effort could learn how to produce elite-level performances. The Method also teaches key practices such as speaking out and private moment, which help actors take their skills effectively into a professional performance context. This is particularly important for professional actors as it means they can deliver the goods on stage or in front of a camera, not just in a classroom! “Work for the actor lies essentially in two areas: the ability to consistently create reality and the ability to express that reality.” – Lee Strasberg Method acting continues to be taught and used by actors all over the world, including some of the best-known names in the industry, such as Robert De Niro, Meryl Streep and Leonardo DiCaprio.

Stella Adler
Another student of Stanislavski’s System, Stella Adler was also involved with Lee Strasberg’s Group Theatre where she learned about the Method and took on board many of its core ideas. However, like Chekhov, Adler preferred to focus on using the imagination, rather than real experiences, feeling that this was sufficient to produce realistic performances. Adler’s teaching requires students to put a lot of time into developing the physical and vocal side of their performance, producing actors who are often very proficient at creating realistic body language and strong vocal performances. As with the Method, she also taught her students to develop the link between their senses and their emotions, understanding that senses like smell and hearing have a strong, instinctive connection to our emotions. “Acting is in everything but the words.” – Stella Adler Well-known adherents to Stella Adler’s school of acting include Marlon Brando, Salma Hayek and Warren Beatty.

Meisner Technique
A student of Lee Strasberg, Sanford Meisner, produced his own variation on the Method. The Meisner Technique has a very strong emphasis on improvisation and works on a basis of focusing your attention firmly onto the person you are acting with. The idea is that, by carefully paying attention to your acting partners real behaviour, you can react truthfully to them. This means that you are, in a sense, not acting, but simply reacting honestly to your co-star. “Don’t be an actor. Be a human being who works off what exists under imaginary circumstances.“ – Sanford Meisner The one downside with this approach is that it means you are highly reliant on your co-stars in order to be able to give a good performance. Unlike the Method or the System, where your inspiration comes from within, the Meisner Technique requires you to take your inspiration from other actors. This can lead to very naturalistic, truthful performances when two or more highly skilled actors are working together, but can also lead to less reliable results than other approaches when working with less adept co-stars. Because the Meisner Technique relies so much on improvisation to create a good performance, it is perhaps most suitable for the theatre where there is often more time for a lengthy rehearsal process. Famous students of the Meisner Technique include Grace Kelly, Gregory Peck and Peter Falk.

Theater Games
“Everyone can improvise. Anyone who wishes to can play in the theater and learn to become stageworthy.” – Viola Spolin Devised by American actress and director Viola Spolin, the “Theater Games” [sic] is a series of improvisation games designed to help actors develop their improv skills for use primarily in theatre acting. Spolin taught actors as young as six with her approach, which emphasises fun, creativity and adaptability. The games involve concepts such as speaking in gibberish, acting like various animals and incorporating emotions suggested by onlookers into a performance. Perhaps unsurprisingly, this approach is highly popular for actors wishing to develop their comedic performance skills. Building on Spolin’s ideas, her son, Paul Sills, was one of the founders of legendary The Second City improvisational comedy group which has produced such notable talents as Bill Murray, Tina Fey and John Candy.

Practical Aesthetics
The creation of celebrated playwright David Mamet and the actor William H. Macy, practical aesthetics takes inspiration from the work of Stanislavski, Meisner and the ideas of ancient Stoic philosopher Epictetus. This approach breaks the acting process for any scene down into finding answers to four fundamental questions: “Literal” – what, in the most basic terms, is happening in the scene? “Want” – what does the character want the other character/s they are interacting with to say or do? “Essential action” – what key action is the character trying to achieve in the scene? “As if” – what situation from the actor’s own life can they relate the situation to, to help them find the appropriate emotional response? Practical aesthetics can be seen as a more externalised approach to acting than techniques derived from the System. Although the “As if” approach is also used in Method acting, practical aesthetics is otherwise much more focused on characters’ wants and actions, rather than attempting to create a realistic inner life for the character. Adherents of practical aesthetics are William H. Mac (unsurprisingly!) and Rose Byrne amongst others.

GW: FEEDBACK FROM THE BIG CRIT

At the Big Crit I showed a pretty complete version of the faux local regional news feature I will be having in the installation. The reaction was interesting and some were pretty sucked in by it, some utterly dumbfounded and others who knew the intentions put it under the microscope pointing out it's many flaws. The reaction was definitely mixed to put it mildly. The feedback was obviously clouded by the fact that this was one piece which will sit within a suite of elements that all work together as a whole to create meaning and describing this is obviously not as good as demonstrating it. The other works are being developed but are not ready for this crit. The critique and screening produced some answers and a lots of questions but as always lots of food for thought. Below is the piece that I screened to the group.

TV NEWS CUT BEST from Jon Saward on Vimeo.


See the main comments below and my feelings towards how I can use them to move forward.

What is the intention of the piece? Stronger call to action?
I feel this would be clear once all of the elements are curated in the installation in a room or single space. It is hard to tell from the one piece.

It needs to take us in more at the beginning. It has a comedic layer and seems a little "spoofy". Spinal Tap flavour. Is this intentional?
These two are linked. The piece starts with a title card to let the audience drink in the wording on the screen and for that feel of authenticity but this could be stronger. I feel the unintentional spoof quality also detracts a little from the authenticity of the piece. This was not intentional however I do want the TV news piece to be slightly flawed and 98-99% right to create the sense of uncanny and set doubts in the viewers minds. The balance is possibly about 90% right and this is making it look not real enough, although a few viewers seemed to be taken in. I need to dial down the spoofy TV News reporter at the start and play this straighter. I feel the script is working though.

The professor looks scripted. What is the in-between? Does it matter that it may be seen by viewers as a spoof?
Spoof claims again and on repeated viewings the Professor does seem to be acting and he was indeed an actor. This is a very fine line to tread as often media commentators from fields are used a lot and a degree of performance does come in if they are used to being on camera and are briefed/coached by the crew so they get exactly what they need and quickly. I know this as I did a little work in TV news. There is valid comment here though and perhaps a re-shoot would get to the in-between or at least closer to realism. This does hol up as the non-performer (my mum) in the piece no-one had issues with as she had that natural quality and lack of performance.

In the club or in the know? Should audiences get the "in" joke? How much do you allow the viewer to be in the know?
I always feel an in-joke or being in the know should be a privileged thing not for everyone and the flip side to this is that it creates discussion and argument which is what I am after. If everyone gets it then this does not happen. It should also be earned by picking up the clues. The use of the surnames of famous hoaxers or illusionists, the date of Ben's disappearance 1st April and photos that are a little uncanny valley. There will be more such clues within the other elements to the installation.

The photos need more work to seem real. A little too uncanny valley. Less pictures as main man looks too similar in them all.
I agree wholeheartedly with all of this and there are definite areas to develop here. I am not a photoshop expert and all of the photos used to graft onto originals of Ben Wright (played by a friends son) were taken at the same time and could be more different. I will look at making these more believable as some are OK but I do like the fact that they are not 100% right. However as with the whole piece I wanted it 98-99% right to create the sense of uncanny and set doubts in the viewers minds. The balance is once again possibly about 90% right and this is making it them look quite real enough. Another tactic is to use less photos and possibly incorporate other images and footage without Ben in it and/or to not leave them on screen for so long or zoom in to focus on them as this shows the flaws more closely.

Link more the fictional characters with real historical ones? For instance highly influential Silent Spring book by Rachel Carson.
There could be links to other real people around at the time and this is a fair comment. However the main purpose of the piece as mentioned earlier is to quickly and effectively set-up the story get the audience up to speed and get a lot of the exposition done. It does this really effectively in my opinion and serves this purpose well. I will look at the script again and possibly see about adding more real historical characters.

Is the work historically and factually correct? Is this important? Fact checking.
The facts about global warming are corrects and the fictional events all fall on the right dates. I have been very careful to do this as although the piece is based around a fictional narrative and characters the facts, figures stats and real historical figures I want to be bang on. I have a very close friend who is the head of UK's Greenpeace climate control campaign (Ben Stewart) and he will be double checking the facts for me.

Possibly needs more on the "what if" factor and where we are now.
I agree that this needs to be in the final piece but this is just the set up. This will be covered in other elements of the installation and I will make sure that it is.

Humour can be a good vehicle for triggering emotion and creating memories of what is happening.
This is a great statement and whilst I agree it depends on the type of humour. I do not want the spoof style humour of Spinal Tap but I do want t more knowing humour and getting the "in joke" and realising the artifice of the piece for what it is. I will need to be careful to not have the whole piece dismissed as fake though. But humour can be used to help remember moments, facts and to make points.

How will the piece work in a gallery? Is it stand alone? Consider presentation in the gallery.
The piece will not be a stand alone and will work with other elements such as a doco, artefacts, web-site, blog and even possibly performance when the cast will simply be in and around the whole MA exhibition in character to see how people react to them if at all. The exact presentation I need to develop but there will definitely be a display case with ephemera in it and a screen or possibly two for the TV News piece and the doco. There may also be computers with the blog/website on them.


WHAT NEXT?
As well as developing all of the above I need to show it to different audiences who do not know the project, are not as critical of the work aesthetically in a art critique environment and to get their feedback. I will look to re-shoot and try out different elements in the TV News package too.

CLIO BARNARD: THE ARBOR & THE SELFISH GIANT

Clio Barnard is a filmmaker with only two full length films behind here but her creativity and ingenuity. She comes from the theatre back ground and this shows with her ability to get strong performance out of her cast. Her ability to get under the skin of her topic, empathise and find an inner beauty in the everyday and harshness of the environments and characters in which her work is set been something that I greatly admire. Her films have a message but it is a subtle slow burning one handled with care and empathy. She never forces the message and ideologies of her films down your throat and always leaves plenty of time for the audience to find their own path through them.

In my work I can be a little heavy handed where hers is deft and often light of touch and often subversive. She manages to get naturalistic performances out of her actors that at times claw at you with their awkward realism and at others have a raw power and energy that leaves you floored. I am looking to try and get this rawness in my Global Warmning installation piece especially from the documentaries which I want to feel as raw, edgy and at times awkward as her work. I decided to look again at the documentary The Arbor (2010) and her first feature film The Selfish Giant(2013)

The Selfish Giant (2013)
At Canne's in 2013 Clio Barnard's film The Selfish Giant was described as "hauntingly perfect" and "jaggedly moving" by critics as it premieres in the Director's Fortnight section of the film festival, with the director herself hailed as a significant new voice in British cinema. She comes from a tradition of filmmakers working around the fringes of society and the marginalised and is proud to cite Alan Clarke, Penny Woolcock, Ken Loach, Lynne Ramsay and Andrea Arnold as inspirations and influences.

The Selfish Giant is much less formally experimental than The Arbor, at least superficially. Itn her own words she "wanted to make a feature film with a very clear narrative and to not question the filmmaking form as The Arbor did. It tells the story of two boys, Arbor and Swifty, who are drawn into "scrapping" – collecting scrap metal with horse and cart, in the loose employ of a charismatic, shady and enigmatic figure known ironically as Kitten, the story's "selfish giant". It follows their ups and downs, trials and tribulations at the fringes of society that does not want them and for the large part of it they can see no place within.

The naming of Arbor is a nod to her previous film: the idea for The Selfish Giant came from Barnard's encountering a young lad at a school workshop while making the documentary. Through him, Barnard learned about the culture of keeping horses and trading in scrap metal on some of the city's estates – a tradition originating in, though not confined to, the settled traveller community.

The film has a gritty feel but bubbling underneath the surface is a fairytale-like, Wilde-influenced narrative the film contains a passionate political subtext. The setting of the film is a post-industrial landscape of looming pylons, barely functioning estates and gloomy semi-rural wastelands where the spectre of unemployment and poverty glowers over the children. However where Ken Loach would have shot these straight Barnard finds a bleak beauty in them. They are not the mist swept dales and moors of classical literature but they capture this same poetic quality. Electricity pylons and expansed of desolate waste lane on the edge of towns have never looked more moody and beautiful. The BFI's Jonathan Romney describes it as an "essay in lyrical realism belongs in a very familiar British tradition that connects such films as Kes (1969), Ratcatcher (1999), Sweet Sixteen (2002) and Fish Tank (2009) – depictions of the immediate conditions of social deprivation from the point of view of children and teenagers." This is an interesting list of works especially for me as it just about nails all of my favourite British films and directors.

Barnard has stated that there was a strong social-realist imperative behind the film: "This economy is declining and there are not many opportunities for these boys and I guess I find that upsetting. The 'selfish giant' of my film is a selfish ideology. I liked Glenda Jackson's speech [in the House of Commons after the death of Lady Thatcher] when she said that under Thatcher selfishness and greed had become virtues. The film is about what got lost. And what we need to value and hold on to. It's a fable about that as much as about an intimate and loving friendship and about loss." Barnard is not afraid to wear her politics on her sleeve as I mentioned earlier but it is the characters, narrative and performances that drive the film and story not the politics.

One of the most striking things about the film is the performances Barnard draws from her two young stars, who were cast after holding auditions in local schools. Conner Chapman, the 13-year-old who plays Arbor, is from Bradford's Buttershaw estate and Shaun Thomas, 15, lives on the Holm Wood estate; the latter is a veteran of scrapping himself. They bring an edge, passion and raw energy to the film never overplaying and there is a definite chemistry between them on screen. Conner especially is a continually ball of pent up energy, frustration and angst and lights up the screen.



The Arbor (2010)

The Arbor” is a mesmerizing and beautiful documentary fusing narrative and documentary on the tragic playwright Andrea Dunbar. It’s cinematography is stunning very cinematic in places and it also uses scenes from Dunbars’ own semi-autobiographical plays to help tell passages of her story. These are performed by actors on a stage set in the middle of a green on the estate she is so intrinsically linked to and the current residents watch on as the scenes play out adding another dynamic to the piece.

The technique that really inspired me however was the use of frank and honest recorded audio to get a real intimacy and honesty from the subjects largely her emotionally scarred daughters. What Barnard then does though is to employ actors to lip synch to this dialogue and also use some beautiful cinematography. Whilst not wishing to replicate this recording lots of audio only first and then creating the visuals around it was also employed to great effect in “The Possibilities are endless”. Perhaps employing it creates a truth to the documentary whilst at the same time allowing for interpretations and a poetic quality through the visuals to accompany it. This is a definite way forward for me for my piece "Poetic Love" where my Grandma has said she does not really want to have filmed interviews but is happy and more comfortable recording audio interviews and I feel she will be more frank and open with these more conversational interviews with me.

However a technique is just that unless it serves a purpose and with further research I found some enlightening interviews with Clio Barnard and agree with her sentiments. She states “Cameras change the relationship between interviewer and interviewee. I think the interviews were intimate because there was no camera, no lights… I want the technique to raise questions about the relationship between fiction and documentary – to acknowledge that documentaries, more often than not, have the same narrative structure as fiction. I want the audience to be aware that they are watching material that has been mediated. It is a distancing technique, a form of direct address. I think that it is important to be reminded of this, particularly when the subject matter is so emotive.”

Barnards Influence on my Work

I find Barnards films fascinating and especially her playfulness with representation and thoughts on the "truth" and "authenticity" In the clip below Barnard describes some of her working methods and the notion of authenticity and truth in documentary and feature film making. This is something that I strive to do in my work.

http://www.bfi.org.uk/news-opinion/news-bfi/video/video-clio-barnard-selfish-giant

Barnard candidly lets us into her thoughts on this issue saying "My work is probably borne out of thinking about representation itself and thinking about why their is this desire to close the gap between what is real and what is represented. I do not believe in this idea of documentaries ability to tell the truth and I do not believe in any real idea of authenticity in a style of filmmaking, no matter what the subject matter is. Thats what The Arbor in some ways was exploring it was a critique in some ways of social realism, direct cinema and verbatim theatre."

• Working with real people form those locations to get a feel for them and their stories and to help create a realism for the performers.
• Finding real people form those locations to be the performers. Make sure they have the character somewhere within them.
• There is beauty in even the bleakest landscape. I love the work of Loach but there is no reason why social realist cinema cannot have some beauty too.
• It is fine to play with truth and authenticity and film form to use these to the benefit of the material.
• The political element of work can be woven within fabric of the film, characters and narrative the film but it is best as nothing more than a sub-text working between the lines and not being them.

GW: TV NEWS POST PRODUCTION

The post production of the TV News package was basically editing together of all of the elements that I had created and making a few motion graphics elements too. the idea was to execute the script idea but also to make sure that the mood, tone, emotion and feel felt right and authentic. As mentioned earlier TV news is a good vehicle for fast story telling as that is exactly what TV news packages/stories do. So length was important and the piece certainly needed to be no longer than three and a half minutes. The aim was to make it feel 99% right and do a lot of the background exposition and storytelling. The "borrowing" of the BBC logo also added the authenticity and kudos to the piece i desired.

In terms of the structure I followed my initial script to the letter and the structure was the following. I chose the most naturalistic looking talking heads from the reporter and the interviewees first as well as VO from the reporter and built the structure first making sure the narrative flowed. I then had to decide which GV's to use on the interviews and whereto put my created archive footage and photographs. I also recorded the created web-site being used on screen and was short of some book cover shots so quickly mocked some up in photoshop.

With this all in place the news package just needed the graphics to be added.

TV VT headers
These are primarily used when VT's were dropped into the shows but now that these are digital they are not used any-more. However they are something that audiences do not normally see and add a lot of authenticity to the news broadcast VT in my opinion and the BBC logo enhances this being a channel the audience are aware of with a generally good and trustworthy reputation. They also give the audience time to digest other information, dates, VT title, BBC logo etc. An added bonus with the HD clock that I sources online was the tone that kicks in at 20 secs, 10 secs, and 5, 4 and 3 seconds. It creates a little jolt in viewers when it appears and catches them off guard.

To create this I managed to source a clock online and then added the correct text to it exactly as original VT headers do. This was some technical details and a date as well as a title of the piece introducing the word Global Warmning. The date is set to 2/4/2015. The aim for this was for it to be the day after ben Wright appeared which would have been 40 years to the day he disappeared and started blogging again. That date would have been April 1st, April fools day. The font used was Gill Sans exactly the font used by the BBC. I also need to create my own BBC logo using the right font and squares in photoshop which I then imported into the editing software alongside the VT header.

The Lower Thirds

These are a TV convention for allowing characters to be introduced on screen with their names given and details about them. I wanted to use them for exactly this purpose and they also add kudos to the people speaking and eliminate an introduction to be needed from the reporter. I decided early on to use the BBC Look East news programme and in photoshop created the graphics to the exact spec of the original ones that they use. These fade on and off the screen at the start of each person first appearing on screen. As I have mentioned elsewhere the surnames of all of the people in the package are either famous illusionists or behind huge famous hoaxes. Copperfield and Blaine the famous illusionists and one of the men (Santilli) behind the famous hoax alien autopsy video tape. This goes along with Wright and Griffiths the surnames of the girls behind the fake Cottingley fairies hoax who are the surnames of Ben and Joseph who are mentioned elsewhere in the package.

GW PRODUCTION: CREATING THE ARCHIVAL FOOTAGE

Alongside the archival photos of Ben Wright and the Global Warmning movement I wanted to add some moving image footage of the time to bring Ben Wright to life a little. This could then be added to the TV News package to show off ben some more to the audience.

Planning and Pre-production.
To try and super-impose his head on existing archive footage would be too complicated so I decided to shoot some original footage and then try and age it. I needed to source a period or older looking location and costume and props chair and book too see below.

Production
The main issue with this was that it had to be done at the same time as the photos so I only had about 10 minutes to do it with  Tom my actor. I sourced some period looking costume trousers, jacket and shirt from the late 60's early 70s and used my front room as a location which does have an older feel if not exactly 100% period authenticity. I also found an old chair and a book for Ben to be reading.

I also wanted to get across the fact that he was quiet and shy unlike Joseph Griffiths his partner in setting up the movement. Whilst I did not want him to be studious I concocted a scene where someone unseen catches him reading and proceeds to annoy him ending in him waving them away slightly amused/annoyed. In keeping with the era I wanted to make the footage feel like it was shot hand-held on an old standard or super 8 camera. Time would not allow me to actually do it this way (although a have a couple of Super 8 camera) so I shot it loose and hand held with a fixed focus and loose on a DSLR. The lighting was natural throughout.

TOM EDIT SUPER 8 FX DEMO from Jon Saward on Vimeo.

Post Production
The post production was where the look all came together. The process is outlined below.

• I edited a couple of the clips together in Adobe Premiere Pro to create a 20 second mini movie. I wanted the cuts to be jumpy as though the film was edited in camera in two short bursts. 
• Once this was done the process was to add some film grain to the clip to give it an older feel. I tried some effects from software packages, to add noise and grain and hairs on the film BUT these looked too processed. 
• So I found some old super 8 footage online of a clear super 8 leader running through a projector with no image but just the noise, grain and dust on the film. I added this on top of the footage of Tom and it gave it that old feel and even the power of the light changed and it added this change to the clip of Tom. It is easy to overdo these effects and restraint was needed to not go over the top.
• I also experimented with colour. Old super 8 film has a highly saturated colour and I wanted to add this to feel to the clip. After lots of experimentation a mixture of playing with the contrast and brightness, changing the colour balance of the red and green shadows and some red channel blur got the effect I was after. 
• Finally I made the screen image ration 4:3 as it would have been back when it was supposed to have been shot.

I was pretty pleased with the effects and seeing Ben "in action" did bring his character to life and also capture a little of his personality. The effects do come pretty close to replicating super 8 footage from my original shots although the best way obviously would have been to have shot on Super 8.

GW PRODUCTION: CREATING THE ARCHIVAL PHOTOS

Once the shooting was done I also needed to create the fake archival assets to use in the piece of Ben Wright. As he never existed this involved finding an actor of the right age look and feel for a young Ben wright and then creating assets that could have actually been around since the late 1960's documenting him and the Global Warmning movement. These will be added to the news piece for a sense of authenticity and may also be used in the installation as ephemera from the time. The photoshop work is a little outside of my comfort zone and I wanted to outsource it but colleagues I approached were too busy to meet the big crit deadline but did say they may be able to help for the actual installation. However they did show me some tips and tools and effects to bolster my moderate knowledge and also I used them as sounding boards to prepare for the shoots to get these right.

Photo-Shoot of Actor for Archive Composite Photos

Shoot of the actor playing Ben Wright in a multitude of positions and lighting to match the figures in the sourced photos to be doctored. For this I was really restricted for time and only had my actor for half an hour as they are really busy. Due to a timing clash before they went away for the summer. I really liked the look of a friend's son Tom Amos and thought he was ideal so decided to try and work with it. The initial aim was to get him over to a real photo studio I have access to In Ipswich and shoot them there but time would not allow so I set up a makeshift studio in my house. Lights, white sheet tripod and camera. The white background was a necessity to aid the cutting out of the heads to replace the heads on the archive photos I had sourced.
The photos were of head and shoulders only as I wanted to keep the period dress of the original photos as sourcing costumes would be time consuming and expensive. The shoot went fast but OK I shot photos in a multitude of positions trying to capture the posture, lighting and mood and tone of the original characters in the original photographs. the lighting was the main issue due to the space that I had backlighting was an issue.

Photoshopping the elements together to create the fake archive photos.

Once I had created the new photograph of Toms head (Playing Ben) I needed to then get them into photoshop and composite them with the originals. The before and after of this time consuming process is demonstrated in the images below. 

• Firstly the original sourced archive photos were imported into photoshop.
• This photo was then duplicated so there were two copies of it in 2 different layers.
• Next the right corresponding photo of Tom was imported and the head only cut out from the background using the lasso tool. This was also scaled to try and get the pixelation similar to the original photos and of a similar scale.
• This cut out head was then placed like the jam in the sandwich between the two identical original archive photos in photoshop. 
• The cut out head was then scaled and positioned over the original head.
• The cut out head was desaturated to make it black and white and the brightness and contrast tweaked to make it closer to the original.
• In order to reveal it the top archive photo was then rubbed out in the head area using the eraser tool to reveal the image of Tom underneath.
• The image then could be re-sized and tweaked using the free-transform tool.
• Any background images where the heads did not overlap could be tidies up using the clone tool or  a mixture of this and the paint or blur tools. Zooming in on the image to see the pixels made this easier.
• Finally the added new head could be blurred a little if necessary to look closer to the original.

I chose the above image as an example. It is not 100% there but I had a lot of these to do before the big crit deadline so I got as close as time would allow. It is a hugely time consuming and skilled job which I am a little under-qualified for. Some of the images I created work better than others and are all Ok if you do not look too close. This is something that I will need to develop to get to the 98-99% realism I am after for the TV News piece and I am looking to hopefully draw on the experience of colleagues to help achieve this.

NOTE:
Some of the images needed text to be replaced on banners and this was even trickier to get to work. This also included the Newspaper headline I am really unhappy with as it was a very difficult job. The same process as above was used with a few new tools used to try and create these.

• Use the clone tool to go over the existing writing on the sign with the texture from the original photo.
• Use the font tool to write the new slogan for the banner.
• Use the transform tool to skew the perspective and scale to try and match the original photo.
• Pixelate and blur the new text to try and match the pixelation and blur of the original photo.

GW: FAKE TV NEWS PRODUCTION FILMING

The creation of the TV news piece involved several elements and shoots to create it. As mentioned in the planning these were considered and thought out for their reality to a "real" news piece. Due to availability and time these were carried out at different times over a week or so prior to editing. This post is a culmination of all of the different shoots that I undertook. I have outlined the production elements below with comments on the creation of them.

News reporter PTC at the location of Ben Wrights "suicide"?
Cast Glen White a close friend and radio DJ as well as a one time stand up comedian who has the regional TV news feel about him. he is a work colleague and happy to help out. We filmed at Aldebburgh as it was a close location. It had the right feel, not touristy, bleak and I liked the stones on the beach. The weather was right too in terms of being overcast but the beach was very windy and this necessitated having the dougal wind-gag on the microphone and close to Glen in shot. There was a wardrobe issue as I had asked Glen to bring a shirt but he forgot so we made do with the one he was wearing and added the sports jacket I brought and a tie from the selection I brought that went best with the ensemble.

Due to conditions and wind noise a walk and talk proved too difficult so we opened on a mid shot for the into and then used a tighter more of a MS-MCU for the outro and a slight change of camera position. As with TV news presenters they get to directly address the audience straight down the lens. These were filmed using a boat as a wind-break that was just out of shot to facilitate good audio recording. I then proceeded to get plenty of GV's for possible use in the piece of the following. Sea variety of shot sizes, lifebelt and signage, Aldeburgh landscapes of sea and beach, flags to show the wind and signage of Aldeburgh.
The kit was a DSLR with TASCAM sound recording unit, tri-pod and all necessary leads. The footage was shot in HD.

News reporter recorded Voice Over VO of the script.
This was done using a voice booth where I work as Suffolk New College for authenticity. It was recorded using Adobe Audition in stereo wav format from the script. This is how it is generally done in industry with the VO added when the footage gets back to the studio editing suite if the reporter is available to do it. A variety of tones, pacing and inflections were tried out as well as tweaks to the script to make it flow better. Glen obviously provided the VO.

Interview with a professor of climatology to verify the importance of Ben Wright and the Global Warmning movements research and, ideas and predictions. Adds integrity to story.
The professor is played by Michael Brown who was a jobbing actor before he started teaching at Suffolk New College. He had the right look and temperament as well as gravitas I felt the part needed and played the part well. Looking back I should perhaps have done more takes as in places he performed a tiny bit too much. This would be fine in a fiction film but when aiming for reality it is not as natural as usual interviewees on TV news although sometimes they are practiced TV interviewees and there is this degree of performance or polish to their performances.
This was filmed in a mini set at the college that I wanted to look like a professors office. I was restricted for where I could shoot and not make it look lime a classroom. So I kept the shot tight and made more authentic with some books on the subject, pictures on the wall and a screensaver on the computer screen. The lighting I wanted to be cold and clinical so i used some CTB gels over the lights to make the light a little bit bluer. Clothing was smart casual with a soft jacket from a wardrobe selection brought in by the actor.
The shot was a loose MCU to allow space for the lower thirds and he is looking just off camera to the interviewer as is the protocol in TV news and documentary IV's. I also shot plenty of GV's of the scene of Michael looking at statistical data on graph, reading and working on his desk, CU of him studying and also cutaways of the books on his desk for use in the package.

Interview with a past "friend/girlfriend" who was also involved with the Global Warmning movement about the fact that he may be back.
The actress for this needed to be in their late 60's as they were a friend of Ben Wrights from back in the late 60's and former member of the Global Warmning movement who knew them from university. I did not want to overplay that they may have been romantically involved but I did want to suggest it from her tone and the old photographs of them together.  I used my mum to play this part and not being an actress needed to read the lines from just off camera. This worked well and were only as a prompt but as she was not an actress the IV has a sense of the raw and unpolished and un-performative about it.
I wanted this to feel natural so set it in a home environment but someone who had obviously moved on from these days but remembered them fondly. I used some momento's from the room itself but I had managed to source an old picture of Cambridge university that I added to the background. I wanted the colours to be warm so used some CTO gels to give it a more orangey and that feel. The shot is a traditional MCU and the actress is looking just off screen the opposite way to the professor. I also shot lots of GV's of her pouring over a photo album and sorting it out looking at old photos. I did not have any of my created photos to add into the album at this stage so I shot the CU's of the Global Warmning images of her and Ben at a later date using the same lighting set up but in a different location.

The shoots went well and although short to shoot but the set up took time and they were a good half day each preparing, set decorating and setting up the equipment for. they were also filmed in multiple locations so travelling time was an issue. However I feel that I have some good footage to use. One of the issues is getting it right but not being too crafted. TV news is a sausage factory and it shoots happen fast and the shots and format is very formulaic. Yes they can look good but they are not often great in terms of cinematography. Bizarrely I had to not be too creative too keep the authenticity.

GW IDEAS: THE KID STAYS IN THE PICTURE (2002)

Starting to develop my Global Warmning multi strand narrative installation I wanted to-revisit some texts that really inspired me. One of these was the incredibly subjective The Kid Stays in the Picture a documentary Nanette Burstein & Brett Morgan. (2002). The film is an award winning documentary based on the autobiography of the infamous Paramount studio head Robert Evans.

The obvious “talking head” documentary is side-stepped using only a voice over from the great raconteur Evans’ himself throughout. This is accompanied visually by clever use of a range of archive materials from digitally layered and superimposed moving photos and film clips and news footage as well as stylistic newly shot footage from the locations mentioned. It is also very playful with the idea of objectivity and subjectivity from the very start.



Reviewing the film Maitland McDonagh sums it up thus “The result is a snazzy kick that's never less than hugely entertaining and should in no way be mistaken for an unbiased account. But then, Evans is the quintessential Hollywood character, and what's more Hollywood than crafting your own legend”. This is summed up by Evans’ quote “There are three sides to every story: your side, my side, and the truth. And no one is lying. Memories shared serve each differently”. Morgan himself in interview also defended the subjectivity of the film and it being only Evans’ side of the story by dubbing it “cinema mythologica”.

The film was an influence for all of the above. I love the shameless subjectiveness as the whole story is purely from Evans viewpoint and perspective and is shameless about this. It is almost as though you have pulled up a chair next to him in a bar and he is telling you the story. Who cares if the facts are not all objective and Evans I am sure bends and stretches these. As I am working on a docu-drama whilst the facts will be true the delivery and perspective of them for my characters is fictional so this will be a liberating technique employed to some degree here.

The other technique I like that apart from a couple of archive interview clips you never see Evans. Clever use of the images mentioned earlier and especially animation of old photographs are a real triumph. I like the idea of creating a falsehood of footage from my fictional characters and I can draw on the techniques employed here. The not actually seeing the subject of the documentary is also really interesting and for the is he or isn't he IV style docu-drama it may be good to not actually see the subject as he is now also. It will leave a lot more to the audiences imagination and keep the mystery of my character too. Lots of food for thought and possible ideas and techniques to develop in my own work.

GW: PRE-PRODUCTION AND RESEARCH FOR TV NEWS

To prepare for the creation of the fake regional TV news element of the installation I undertook plenty of research then development to create some pre-production. This is an overview of the work I undertook and will continue to develop.

Researching TV News: Style codes and conventions.

The Script: Develop in the style of regional news.

Mise-En-Scene: Props, location, costume, actors (typage) lighting etc.

The Cinematography: Shots that are used.

The Sound: Sound effects and music?

Editing and effects: Pace, rhythm, titles, lower thirds graphics use of archive.

GW: FOUND OBJECTS, ARTEFACTS AND EPHEMERA

I want to use objects within my piece to try and convince the audience that what they are seeing in the video elements of the installation are true. Whilst I believe that the documentary and news elements can be made to convince the audience an audience I think that physical objects working in tandem with the video will be an ever better way of trying to construct my piece. Also all too often these are created  as set dressing or as action props within film. I will need to create some of them anyway to use in archive stills in the pieces I am creating so why not devise and make even more and make them part of the installation.

This idea also plays on "Found Object" art. The Tate website describes it as "Found objects (sometimes referred to by the French term for found object ‘objet trouvé’) may be put on a shelf and treated as works of art in themselves, as well as providing inspiration for the artist. The sculptor Henry Moore for example collected bones and flints which he seems to have treated as natural sculptures as well as sources for his own work. Found objects can also be modified by the artist and presented as art, either more or less intact as in the dada and surrealist artist Marcel Duchamp’s readymades, or as part of an assemblage. Extensive use of found objects was made by dada, surrealist and pop artists, and by later artists such as Carl Andre, Tony Cragg, Bill Woodrow, Damien Hirst, Sarah Lucas and Michael Landy among many others."

So there is a tradition of using found objects as art and those visiting a gallery may be aware of such pieces and artists as those mentioned. My spin here though is that they will be sold to the audience as found art (possibly roughed up and distressed) as a collection of artefacts in and almost museum like way. BUT they will actually be created pieces of work that help to develop evolve and corroborate the video pieces.

I have a close friend Simon Wild who is a graphic designer and illustrator and I have been discussing this with him. He has started doing just and creating what he calls "Graphic Props" and is looking to turn it into a career. He is really keen to collaborate and create some artefacts and ephemera from the late 1960's and early 1970's. Here are some of the other pieces of work he has created to build a portfolio to try and get his foot in the door. I am keen to not just let him create the piece but also to learn from him and help him with the process to add to my skillset.

The part of this aspect to the installation would be part of the world and story I am constructing so need to fit into the narrative, enhance it, reinforce it and be interesting. I see these as being displayed alongside the video work and complementing it. People could look at the artefacts and still listen to the video playing and two elements would play off and reference each other making up the whole.

Here is a long list of what Global Warmning movement artefacts it would be good to make for the piece.

• Posters of marches or events.
• Newspaper headlines.
• Flyers/handbills.
• Police, MI5 letters about following Joe.
• Threatening letters (fossil fuel giants & govt)
• Banners from protests.
• Badges from movement.

On top of this it has also inspired me to look to create some of the following too.

• Photos (May look to do myself with photographer friends) Uni, friends, protesting.
• Old film cans and film
• Old audio tapes.