M100 ZERO | PROJECT

ZERO PROJECT

Final Submission for Zero Project

After having a  class screening of  our pre-submitted Zero Projects, I was able to gather the thoughts and opinions of my peers and tutors. In regards to how they viewed my work and how they would improve it from a time perspective and additionally from a narrative standpoint. Below is the version of my zero project, which was viewed by my peers  and tutors. One of my peers made a suggestion that it would be better for my subject to remain in one location, rather than multiple places within the allocated 3 minutes we had been given. This was because she believed it would eradicate any confusion surrounding my subject and also make the narrative of the piece more clearer for audiences, especially if they only have the chance to watch it once.  This notion was sub-sequentially  echoed by one of my tutors, which made me deliberate about this point long and hard.

Following the Screening, I took on board what had been said about my piece and acted accordingly. I decided to focus on my subject, solely in the comfort of his beloved car. I wanted to Sell the narrative of a man, who would go the extra mile to make sure his most precious possession was treated like royalty. He Fed her (Petrol) and groomed her when she needed some tender loving care. (Fixing the broken window). The subject demonstrated frustration at others who did not appreciate his precious possession (Arguing with his Mum over the car).

It was very captivating to analyse the extents that my subject actually went to, in order to maintain the beauty of his car. During filming we spent hours upon hours in his car. It was like his own private utopia from which he operates.

 

My penultimate edit Zero Project (3 minutes 50 seconds)

After collating almost 2 to 3 hours worth of footage, the toughest challenge was always going to present itself during the editing process of this assignment. Having to compress all the footage into a 3 minute piece was a challenge which honestly tested me. I had to assess which scenes would have the most relevance within the piece. More importantly from a visual standpoint, I avoided using repetitive shots, which was the biggest difference between the preliminary edit of 14 minutes to the final edit of 3 minutes.

Furthermore I tried as much as possible to tell a story with the visual shots i acquired, rather than the spoken narrative which came directly from the subjects mouth. One way I accomplished this during editing, was to mute the sound of each clip. This was so i could concentrate solely on telling a story with what i saw, rather than what i heard.

Overall the experience i gained from this process has taught me that as a film maker, i don’t always have to go and chase a story or manipulate a scenario. I can just let it come to me and let life organically run its course.

This is my Preliminary Edit of my Zero Project (14 minutes)

As a filmaker, director and script writer, I have always had the licence to create or manipulate a real life situation or brought a formulated scenario into reality. This project required us to create a documentary, however the stipulations  dictated that we find a subject, but after finding the subject, we cannot control what the subject does or says. We must however give them prior information into what we’re doing. Following this, we must point the camera at the subject and just record record record.

Whilst Filming the subject, there were numerous occasions where the subject tried to converse with me. At the beginning of the shoot there was some awkwardness from the subject because of the camera which was on him, however as time elapsed, the subject became more comfortable.

Furthermore, after watching other submissions for the zero project, A few of them were filmed with the GH4 hosting  one of the larger lenses. This allowed them to capture crisp footage for their projects, however  i believe some of them lacked a varying range of shots, which could have really propelled their projects. Although i may have not had the opportunity to use the exact lenses and camera they used, I believe i told an intelligent story with the range of shots that i managed to capture.

This process again has revealed to me that telling a visual story doesn’t always have to be formulated or designed to look a certain way. If you are able to observe real life situations at large, you will realise that those situations would have made quality visuals if they were captured. Untampered Reality creates visual gold, If you observe long enough.