11/06/2019

The TV in my exhibit was playing up yesterday. It was surprising to see because to my knowledge, it hasn't happened up until now. I simply just turned the TV on and off and plugged the pen drive back in. That fixed it.

Bex's advice for writing this dissertation to not edit it until you have finished the draft. That's when you do tweaking.

For writing up about the findings to be included in my dissertation, I went downstairs to collect the feedback book, which has even more feedback since I last looked at the exercise book. I then had the pages of the feedback book scanned in order to transcribe it.

I had scanned almost all of the pages in A3, then cropped them on Photoshop and exported into JPEGs.

Transcribed
‘The story isn’t really any different whether colour or black and white. However, I prefer the black and white because its easier on the eyes as there are many, many colours in the other version.’

‘Some nice use of primary colours to pop out in colour scene gets lost in b/w version.’

‘Little difference in impact otherwise. However, sound/no sound contrast very interesting too’

My reaction to the feedback above

This really tells me the preference of a random person. But it does tell how a person has sincerely interpreted the lack of colour, as well as preferred black in white for this project.

I myself have no preference on colour or black and white for this project because I like both, making me neutral on the preference of colour or black and white in this case.

The next piece of feedback tells me how a person who prefers it with colour has interpreted my project to what effect. I do agree that the things that do pop out in colour, don't do so in black and white.

The next piece of feedback further continues diverse views on the impact of lack of colour in film. However, Whether their view on sound in this project means the sound stands out in this short film or that this person believed that the use of sound is intended for one version and not for the other. If it is this case, I didn’t intend for that because if sound was used twice, it would be disorientating and full of echo.

Transcribed
‘The lack of colour gives the film a quaint feeling, like the two characters are all flat exit in the story. It feels more personal, get also less real.'

My reaction to the feedback above
The idea of the lack of colour being less real makes sense because one of the ways that I do associate the use of black and white is with surrealism. The use of black and white in surrealism like in David Lynch films (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man) is potentially something that I could had investigated as part of my research and influences for this project.

Transcribed
‘The colour version seems more energetic / vibrant (the rainbow bonds on the characters arms help in form the audience of her character and they are lost in the b/w version).’

‘The b/w version seems to suit the more serious scenes more (may be due to my internal bias of b/w = serious / historical, colour = lighthearted / lively)’

‘I like both for different reasons. I like the b/w because it adds a sense of timelessness. But I like the colour version. Incuses the characterization.’

‘Colour – posters back up Zara, making other more emphatically outcast. B/W – stronger on mood, atmosphere.’

My reactions to the feedback above
I do agree with the view that the rainbow bonds on the female character's clothing does make the colour version more vibrant, which is something you don't get from viewing it in black and white.

The person who believed that the black and white version suits the most serious parts of the dramatic sequence is not wrong. It tells what that persona contextually associates black and white and colour with. It has made me think about the use of colour and black and white that I have reviewed in Natural Born Killers, in which black and white is applied for how the character internally viewed the world around them.

Again, there continues to be diverse preferences on colour or black and white. In this case, this person prefers both, not one version or neither. This person's views also give me more different ways on how colour and black and white is interpreted from viewing this dramatic sequence. How colour applies to characterization is an interesting aspect that I had not considered beforehand.

I do not know how the poster add or remove something to the female character in either version of the dramatic sequence. However, I do agree that the lack of colour provides a stronger visual mood and atmosphere.

Overall reaction
It has given me diverse views on how people who have seen this project at the exhibition have interpreted the lack of colour or with the colours remaining. It has made me think of things and connections to my influences that I did not consider when creating this project. There was also a mix of opinions on my work that I agreed and disagreed on. However, there was no specific feedback that part of me was expecting and what was expecting was how the lack of colour contributed or took away in telling a story, but rather the context. In hindsight, making the research question clearer on that point may had given me that feedback from the public.

I had scanned the first page in A4, but because of the size of the exercise book, it trimmed off the bottom quarter of the page, which made it miss out some feedback in the scan. I scanned the page again (but in A3 this time like the others) and enlarged to a JPEG on Photoshop (also like the others).

Blogs used in dissertation (note to keep track for appendices)
2, 3, 4, 6-9, 11-16

Current progress with dissertation

Title

Context of Colourisation

Research Question

My research question for this project is what is the impact of removing colour from an original dramatic sequence, which will be filmed on a phone, and how will it affect the accuracy of its interpretation? The research question has gone through development and changes.

Originally, I read some research journals concerning my field of study and brainstormed some potential research questions from there. What initially influenced my research question was from reading an issue of Cinema Journal, which in one article talks about a 1939-1940 film that was later colourised, Twenty-Four Variations on an Original Theme. Their process at the time was to duplicate the frames onto colour film stock, using an optical printer.

I came up research questions like how does colour help improve a film's narrative? How does colour help a film to be more engaging than black and white? What are the benefits of using split screen in a film? What are the benefits of colourising a film? How can colour effect a film? How can films in colour better at storytelling than films in black and white? How colour in film affects emotions from the audience?

In the end, it all came down to the research question that is mentioned at the start of this section. It was developed after consulting with a peer tutor.

Aims, Objectives, & Context

It became my intention to film a short dramatic sequence to show the effectiveness of black and white and colour by using separate versions of themselves through split screen. As the research progressed, split screen became less and less relevant as an aspect of my project, but it was something I did explore by researching and experimenting with. I believed showing both black and white and colour version of a scene would tell us the pros and cons of each other. What worked and didn't work in the sequence with black and white? What worked and didn't work in the sequence with colour?

In the steps, techniques, and methodologies that I had utilised along the way were those like developing a storyboard to visually how what I had in mind for the dramatic sequence and converting that into a short film script, I had recorded down on paper to organise and pin down what components that were needed to be filled before going ahead with the project, searched through many primary and secondary sources that are relative to the subject, in order to find influences that may yet be of some use to my project or connected to my research question.

I intended to use my own phone to film the dramatic sequence, upload raw footage from filming into my weekly blog, explore and experiment with different types of split screen, blending two pieces of footage together that was intended as one in the storyboard, export two video files with different colour grading, in order to produce colour and black and white versions.

I also intended to make use of active documentation, get the test footage aligned and scaled proportionally when both colour and black and white versions are in one video, and complete the editing on DaVinci Resolve.

I believe this project develops my skills and understanding of post-production, especially when it comes to the psychology of colour grading and seeing what people think of a story when colour grading is applied.

How this project has been useful in developing my skills and in what profession in the film and television industries is post-production. This project is an aid to help me understand how people interpret black and white moving images against colour moving images, and this would give me a better understanding when applying colour grading by getting some idea how common audiences will interpret and whether colour or black and white would help communicate the story to them better or worse.

Context of Project (influences)

It started off by looking at Cinema Journal and finding out about process of colourising film back in the middle of the twentieth century, which involved duplicating the frames onto colour film stock, and using an optical printer. Clearly, things are a lot easier these days with digital technology and are a lot different. Even though it is not directly similar to my research subject, it is somewhat updated and modified to suit my needs and the present day. It is also the main influence and inspiration behind the idea for my research project.

I had discovered that in the 1940’s, cinematography techniques were developed to make black and white cinema still relevant and turning it into an art form. This ideas about the importance of visual storytelling was essential when considering the camera angles and storyboarding for my dramatic sequence.

In fact, I had discovered that despite the intensity and seriousness you get from black and white, colour manages to express complex emotions that cannot be expressed through black and white. This influenced me to realise that colour was just as important to storytelling in film as black and white.

I had searched through the history of cinema in terms of the use of colour and black and white, which gave me context on why and how black and white and colour film had been used in the past century. There were many facts around the history that caught my attention like black and white in the mid-20^th century was used for serious drama as well as low-budget film productions, whereas colour was used for more expensive productions. Nowadays, black and white is used in cinema for flashback scenes or to support a historical tone.

Changing colour in a film usually means that the story is going in a different direction or the filmmakers want to push a different idea on the audiences.

Alcihe Guy-Blache was an historical figure that was ahead of her time that stood out when looking through cinema history concerning black and white and colour. Guy-Blache’s innovations with colour were achieved at the turn of the century and historians tried to overturn her work. The level of influence she has on this research project is that she is a practioner that used in colour in film, in the past, and how it has been used in the past. How Guy-Balche had done was by painting right on the celluloid through stencilling.

Planning

I started planning by typing it up rather than by hand because on paper you cannot change or omit words like you can on a computer. The initial plan was to do research over two weeks, scriptwriting and storyboarding done over one week, camera and post-production test over one week, casting the dramatic sequence done in one week, filming done in one week, post-production done in one week, rendering the sequence done in one week, and submitting the sequence in the other week.

Development (pre-production, post-production)

The things that I realised that were needed to start pre-production for the dramatic sequence was sorting out a dialogue script, a general screenplay, and storyboarding. I was capable of completing these components to an extent by the fourth week. I read through the SIT ethics guide to make sure and to keep in mind potential parameters when making this dramatic sequence, but found nothing out of the ordinary compared to what is usually needed, which is release forms for the actors and location consent forms for the filming locations.

Findings / Conclusion

‘The story isn’t really any different whether colour or black and white. However, I prefer the black and white because its easier on the eyes as there are many, many colours in the other version.’

This really tells me the preference of a random person. But it does tell how a person has sincerely interpreted the lack of colour, as well as preferred black in white for this project.

I myself have no preference on colour or black and white for this project because I like both, making me neutral on the preference of colour or black and white in this case.

‘Some nice use of primary colours to pop out in colour scene gets lost in b/w version.’

This piece of feedback tells me how a person who prefers it with colour has interpreted my project to what effect. I do agree that the things that do pop out in colour, don't do so in black and white.

‘Little difference in impact otherwise. However, sound/no sound contrast very interesting too’.

This piece of feedback further continues diverse views on the impact of lack of colour in film. However, whether their view on sound in this project means the sound stands out in this short film or that this person believed that the use of sound is intended for one version and not for the other. If it is in this case, I didn’t intend for that because if sound was used twice, it would be disorientating and full of echo.

‘The lack of colour gives the film a quaint feeling, like the two characters are all flat exit in the story. It feels more personal, get also less real.'

The idea of the lack of colour being less real makes sense because one of the ways that I do associate the use of black and white is with surrealism. The use of black and white in surrealism like in David Lynch films (Eraserhead, The Elephant Man) is potentially something that I could had investigated as part of my research and influences for this project.

‘The colour version seems more energetic / vibrant (the rainbow bonds on the characters arms help in form the audience of her character and they are lost in the b/w version).’

I do agree with the view that the rainbow bonds on the female character's clothing does make the colour version more vibrant, which is something you don't get from viewing it in black and white.

‘The b/w version seems to suit the more serious scenes more (may be due to my internal bias of b/w = serious / historical, colour = lighthearted / lively)’

The person who believed that the black and white version suits the most serious parts of the dramatic sequence is not wrong. It tells what that persona contextually associates black and white and colour with. It has made me think about the use of colour and black and white that I have reviewed in Natural Born Killers, in which black and white is applied for how the character internally viewed the world around them.

‘I like both for different reasons. I like the b/w because it adds a sense of timelessness. But I like the colour version. Incuses the characterization.’

Again, there continues to be diverse preferences on colour or black and white. In this case, this person prefers both, not one version or neither. This person's views also give me more different ways on how colour and black and white is interpreted from viewing this dramatic sequence. How colour applies to characterization is an interesting aspect that I had not considered beforehand.

‘Colour – posters back up Zara, making other more emphatically outcast. B/W – stronger on mood, atmosphere.’

I do not know how the poster add or remove something to the female character in either version of the dramatic sequence. However, I do agree that the lack of colour provides a stronger visual mood and atmosphere.

My overall reaction and conclusion to the results from my exercise book is that it has given me diverse views on how people who have seen this project at the exhibition have interpreted the lack of colour or with the colours remaining, in which it does answer my research question, but with variables. It has made me think of things and connections to my influences that I did not consider when creating this project. There was also a mix of opinions on my work that I agreed and disagreed on.

However, there was no specific feedback that part of me was expecting and what was expecting was how the lack of colour contributed or took away in telling a story, but rather the context. In hindsight, making the research question clearer on that point may had given me that feedback from the public.

APA References

Bazin, A. (2005). What is cinema?: volume 1. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Hamsher, J., Murphy, D., Townsend, C., Vossler, R., & Stone, O. (1994). Natural born killers [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Brothers.

Infoplease. (n.d.). Movies and Film: The Aesthetics of Black and White and Color. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.infoplease.com/features/movies-tv-and-music/movies-and-film-aesthetics-black-and-white-and-color

Powers, J. (2018). A DIY Come-on: A History of Optical Printing in Advant-Garde Cinema. Cinema Journal, 57(4), 77-78.

12/06/2019

My flat, Andy and one of his friends went along to see the work on display at the FAVA exhibition. He quite liked my work and he actually preferred the black and white version of my dramatic sequence because made the scene more serious and sinister. He also thought the colour version was very colourful. However, his favorite work in the exhibition was Corrie's digital artwork.

He will be coming back to visit the exhibition later in the week to record proper feedback in the exercise book.

13/06/2019

I tried to get some progress done with my dissertation so that there will be less stress for tomorrow, but I had mental block. I reckon because it's been a hectic day of submitting my cinematography showreel and I haven't had much sleep.

I have been thinking through what effective strategy I could apply in order to get my dissertation done in time; One, I could continue as I am. Meticulously going through all my blog entries and write it all out, then trim a lot of it down to keep it at 2,000 words, which could take more time than I can afford right now.

Two, I could make notes of what the blog entries states and summarised them, including summarising the sections I have managed to get done already. I calculated that six sections need to be filled to consistently get the word count down to 2,000. After the aims, objectives, and context section, I have 1500 words to fit in and divided that by six you get 250 words. With this option, I will need to narrow down most of the dissertation components down to 250 words each.

I believe the second option is much more achievable towards the deadline than the first option. It's potentially not something Bex is looking for, but at least it would be a completed submission.

Current progress with dissertation

Development (pre-production, post-production)

There were setbacks when trying to do camera tests. Setbacks like my flatmate not being well enough to help out and the weather being too wet to do the camera tests in the first place. The camera tests were intended to test out camera angles that I produced in storyboarding and see if it is possible to bring them to life. The only camera angle I could test out that time without needing others to help out and going into the rain was a panning wide shot from the balcony outside my flat.

I generated an additional shot to my storyboards, which was to have the character move forward from very close to the camera (black frame).

Context of Project (influences)

Alice Guy-Blache was an historical figure that was ahead of her time that stood out when looking through cinema history concerning black and white and colour. Guy-Blache’s innovations with colour were achieved at the turn of the century and historians had tried to overturn her work. The level of influence she has on this research project is that she is a practitioner that used in colour in film, in the past, and it shows me how it has been used in the past.

APA References

Biography.com (2014). Alice guy-blaché biography. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.biography.com/people/alice-guy-blach%C3%A9-37846

V is for Vintage (2013). Alice guy, cinema pioneer. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://visforvintage.net/2013/09/11/alice-guy-pioneer-film-director/

14/06/2019

Here we are at last. I decided to just go ahead as before and not worry about the summarising idea. I really underestimated the time it would take to complete this, so today was really demanding and hard to get everything completed for my dissertation, and have it ready for submission.

It was tough narrowing down to 2,000 words and so my dissertation may read as inconsistent because I couldn't include everything into the body of the dissertation, unlike the appendices. I didn't end up having the time or brain power to properly proof read it (so I have missed out some stuff) or have it sent to Studiosity.

It was exhausting to get the dissertation done, but I gotta say, it's the longest Word document (40 pages) I've had to submit for a course of study.

Submitted dissertation

Title

Context of Colourisation

Research Question

I came up research questions like how does colour help improve a film's narrative? How does colour help a film to be more engaging than black and white? What are the benefits of colourising a film?

In the end, it all came down to the research question that is mentioned at the start of this section. It was developed after consulting with a peer tutor.

Aims, Objectives, & Context

Context of Project

The 1994 feature film by Oliver Stone, Natural Born Killers was interesting to see while doing this project, and it made me realise how there actually is a film that has been done before, that uses colour and black and white in a similar fashion that I had in my mind.

The film made me question the purpose of this film’s use of colour and black and white, but part of me felt that it used black and white to tell the story in a different tone or context, which was exactly what I am aiming for with this research project.

Planning

The initial plan was to do research over two weeks, scriptwriting and storyboarding done over one week, camera and post-production test over one week, casting the dramatic sequence done in one week, filming done in one week, post-production done in one week, rendering the sequence done in one week, and submitting the sequence in the other week.

Eventually well into the project and after a few modification, the timeline was again modified where I aimed to compress a lot of the work like getting a template of my colour vs black and white layout done in one week, and completing split screen tests, getting in contact with the accommodation officer, organise risk management forms, casting, and revising the script based on the storyboard. Expecting to leave the post-production to get done over the mid-term break.

Methodology and Analysis

I applied active documentation to my project by typing up regular blog posts on my progress concerning my research project, which was a big help when putting together this dissertation. I also added images and videos to support points that I make in my blog posts, including having raw footage of my filming tests on my blog, which I succeeded to do so.

Exhibition

I did what I could with my involvement in putting together the second year (film / animation / visual arts) student exhibition. I volunteered to help out with advertising the exhibition and managed to communicate any concerns or thoughts to the rest of the class through Discord, although it was a new tool for me to use, unlike most of the class.

My job in advertising the exhibition was mainly distributing the posters around the campuses and student apartments. I managed to email permission from the accommodation officer to go ahead and put them up in the student apartments.

I did the best I could with disturbing the posters, but I really should had got someone with access to the student apartment on Sprey Street, but I did not think of this solution at the time.

It was an interesting learning experience sanding down and painting my podiums for my exhibit, as well as help put together the exhibition itself.

I would say the exhibition itself went along and I received feedback and praise I would had not imagine receiving at the start of doing this paper. However, there have been technical issues with the TVs over the course of the exhibition and I tried to do my part by turning them off at night.

Development

I experimented with figuring out the appropriate colouring for the colour version of my dramatic sequence on DaVinci Resolve. Red and blue were good starting points for colours because red meaning the anger and intensity of the sequence and blue meaning the depressing resolution that is to come. Giving red to the shadows and dark parts and blue to the offset resulted in imagery that is more blue than red.

I got to a point with my research where I had spent too much time on it and not enough on the technical side of the project, so I had to restrain myself from doing further research, especially since I had been recording information that would not likely have any influence on my completed project.

When I did more filming tests, natural lighting inferred with the shots to an overexposed level. I presented the results and got feedback from the class on how to resolve the issue in a critique.

Organising to film at my flat was getting messy, so I went for a compromise. The compromise was to film in one of the classrooms on campuses and get other film students to act in it, but I had to keep in mind that the filming had to be scheduled around the students’ classes. I did however get a finialed script and prop list done.

Findings / Conclusion

My overall reaction and conclusion to the public reaction to my project is that it has given me diverse views on how people who have seen this project at the exhibition have interpreted the lack of colour or with the colours remaining, in which it does answer my research question, but with variables. It has made me think of things and connections to my influences that I did not consider when creating this project. There was also a mix of opinions on my work that I agreed and disagreed on.

APA References

Bazin, A. (2005). What is cinema?: volume 1. Los Angeles, CA: University of California Press.

Biography.com (2014). Alice guy-blaché biography. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.biography.com/people/alice-guy-blach%C3%A9-37846

Hamsher, J., Murphy, D., Townsend, C., Vossler, R., & Stone, O. (1994). Natural born killers [Motion picture]. United States: Warner Brothers.

Infoplease. (n.d.). Movies and film: the aesthetics of black and white and color. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://www.infoplease.com/features/movies-tv-and-music/movies-and-film-aesthetics-black-and-white-and-color

Powers, J. (2018). A DIY Come-on: A History of Optical Printing in Advant-Garde Cinema. Cinema Journal, 57(4), 77-78.

V is for Vintage (2013). Alice guy, cinema pioneer. Retrieved March 10, 2019, from https://visforvintage.net/2013/09/11/alice-guy-pioneer-film-director/

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Jerry Westaway Screen Arts

Research - Week 18