Reflection 21/3/13 Planning and Finalizing Soviet Montage

   After having solidified the plot for my soviet montage film, my film group (Alwin, Max and I) proceeded in pre-production. As the director for this film, I contemplated on possible actors for the role before contacting and negotiating with them. I also completed shot plans for the dates that we would be filming to increase our efficiency.

 As a communicator in the IB learner profile, I consulted Ms Wong for feedback and advice on our story. Our group had come up with exploring conflicted family dynamics through the juxtaposition of two brothers, one who succeeds academically and socially and the other who is a loner and does not do well at school; however, the plot twist comes at the end when it is revealed that the parents brutally beat the smart child before planting a kiss on the other child's forehead.
  Ms Wong said that she enjoyed the idea and the plot twist but demanded more clarity and conviction in the ending. Whereas I had aimed for an ambiguous ending for the audience's own interpretation, Ms Wong said that there are two types of ambiguity: one a deliberate decision made by the director to achieve a desired effect, and the other where the director lacks direction and employs ambiguity as a cover up. I thought that this piece of advice was very fair and discussed with my group members what we were trying to show through this film in order to come up with a strong ending.

5/3/13 Experimenting with the Kuleshov Effect

   After getting into groups of three, our team (Max, Alwin and I) discussed possible scenarios before setting out to film. We decided to have a constant shot of Alwin smiling, then juxtaposing this shot with the butt of a cleaner wiping the floor, a cute animal, and a seductive Russian teacher. We also decided to use a Soviet-esque font (Mona Lisa Solid Std) to portray "Efecto Kuleshov", and searched online for appropriate Russian music. I decided to choose "Valse Sentimentale" by Tchaikovsky as I felt that this enhanced the film's originality while rendering it more Soviet like.

   We also played with some of the video filters on Final Cut Pro before exporting our experiment. We used desaturate to render the film black and white, before adding a "Vignette" effect to create a 20th century, nostalgic timbre. After screening our Kuleshov experiments, Ms Wong gave us feedback on how montage editing is not only about the juxtaposition of images to create meaning; we must also remember to maintain elements of continuity (e.g eyeline match and pacing) and this is extremely important to a successful montage.