Blackmagic Cinema Camera and pitching ideas

The Blackmagic Cinema Camera and music video pitch

The Blackmagic cinema camera is a very interesting camera to use, It can shoot 2.5k RAW footage and comes with many lens mounting systems including EF (cannon) passive MFT mount (has no electronic connection to lens) or the PL mount (professional cinema lens mount) the camera that SIT has has the EF mount so any cannon lens' will fit onto it.

The menus on the Blackmagic are very simple to use as it is all touchscreen and very well laid out in clear sub-menus.

Lend changing is the same as changing on a DSLR... I want to plan the shoot to minimise lens changing. preferably I want to use a Zoom lens that has a nice DOF, a 17-50mm or 24-105mm.

I would very much like to use this camera for my music video and shoot in 2.5k RAW files. I want to do extensive colour grading in post so this is my first choice over the Sony X200. However I need to be very prepared as the 120GB SSD card can only hold 15min of footage... this means I have to work really hard to capture exactly what I need and be extra prepared in pre-production. I may also bring a laptop to ingest the footage midway.so it will give me 30min of shooting time for one day which is plenty of footage about 10:1 ratio of rushes.

hear is my pitch for the music video...

Artist: Joanna

Song: Waiting for you

Song length: 03:35

Concept: Performance based music video with a simple narrative.

Theme: music being a central theme bringing people together. The interaction between musicians while playing a song.

Performance shots: Shots focused around a grand piano musicians interacting happy and having a good time playing. Shots of musicians face’s to display emotion and their love of music. Artistic shots of hammers inside the grand piano.

Narrative story: Band members arriving at the studio one by one and interacting together and eventually play together for the final chorus.

Colour scheme:

When talking about the song ‘Waiting for You’ The artist specifically mentioned yellow as a color that came to mind when thinking of the song. This colour will be present throughout the song by means of a scarf or accessory that is bright yellow. Key Musician/s on screen must have some accessory that is yellow. I.e. an umbrella, tie, shoes, scarf, guitar etc.

Set design: Black sheets with yellow squares of paper displayed in random patterns and bright lights. Make the artist stand out not to draw focus away.

Location ideas:

Queens park rose garden

Queens park band rotunda

SIT sound studio/grand piano

Church

New Holloywood & Frightening films

Two examples of scenes from films that were frighting when I was a child.

Spaceballs 1987 - Monsters in this were frighting when I was 5 years.

The Matrix 1999 - The scene where neo is captured by Mr. Anderson and injected with a data worm.

  

Two recent examples of films that disturbed me are:

The last king of Scotland: Scenes of grotesque violence disturbed me:

Once were warriors: Intense domestic violence scenes.

New Hollywood



The Beginnings
During the Golden Age of Hollywood (1930 – 1960), most film directors worked for one of the major studios

Little Fugitive (1953) By Ray Ashley, Morris Engel & Ruth Orkin

New York New Wave

Lionel Rogosin made On the Bowery (1956) – Neorealist view of New York that has a mixture of documentary and scripted footage.

Robert Frank made Pull My Daisy (1959)

John Cassavetes made Shadows (1959) – Contains improvised dialogue and a narrative with interracial romance.

Shirley Clarke made The Connection (1961) – A mixture of cinema verite and French New Wave. Her films depict drug addicts, sex workers and different races mixing together.

New Hollywood

A new generation of young filmmakers emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s 

Alfie

Georgy Girl 

Blow Up 

The success of these films showed that American audiences were open to films with more explicit content and different narrative structures. 

Bonnie and Clyde 1967

Eventually, actor Warren Beatty read the script and decided to produce it and hired Arthur Penn to direct. The film was funded by Warner Brothers. 

Jack Warner disliked the rough cut and gave the film a limited release. The film also received bad reviews. 

The film however was well received in England. Beatty managed to get Warner Brothers to re-release the film and it became a success and was nominated for Academy Awards. 

Notable at the time for it’s depiction of sex and violence.

The Graduate 1967

Director Mike Nichols won Oscar and film received multiple nominations Soundtrack consists of songs by Simon & Garfunkel Introduced the world to Dustin Hoffman Benjamin Braddock (Hoffman) has just finished college and is unsure of what to do with his future, when he becomes sexually involved with a friend of his parents… Mrs Robinson.

Fritz the Cat 1971

Far from the traditional child-targeted animated films.

Ralph Bakshi believed that with all the changes in society and the new social power and economic freedom of the young people, it was time to take adult animation seriously.

Taking the comic strip character created by Robert Crumb, he made what became the first X-rated American cartoon.

Fritz lives an alternative lifestyle among students in New York who experiment with free love, drugs and rock n roll.

Music Video Pitching

Music Video Pitching

Key things I learnt while doing practice pitches in class...

1. Know what you want to do...
2. Be prepared.
3. Be extra prepared.
4. Pay special attention to wardrobe and set design.
5. Have ideas on colour pallet, shot types.
6. Know if what you want is narrative/performance/concept based or a mixture.
7. be clear and to the point.

My song choices are.

Waiting for you - Joanna

Run - Joanna

What I learnt about Joanna to help me with my pitch:

She has a vague idea about what she wants, but really hasn't formed her identity yet. She loves music and is Christian, and is a casual person.

Her Image is music focused that sort of focus on some issues to make people think.

Brand... doesn't have one but if she did it would revolve around music.

As an initial Idea I would like to do some kind of performance based video, either filmed in a studio there would be some kind of narrative of perhaps the band turning up at another venue and they being to play together.

Location Ideas are to film it at a SITsound studio and/or a local church stage maybe she is involved with.

She mentioned the colour yellow when talking about the song waiting for you. Maybe I could get a yellow scarf that could be a part of the film that is seen throughout the film, other set/wardrobe colors could help make this yellow scarf stand out.

Cinéma vérité and Direct Direct Cinema

Cinéma vérité and Direct Direct Cinema.

From 1930 - 1940, films were shot on 35-millimetre film meant that cameras and recorders became much larger and heavier, reducing portability and the ability to record spontaneous action.

—By the end of the 1950s, several technological advances came together, including better 16-millimetre film stock, lenses for shooting with natural light and especially smaller, lighter (and sometimes integrated) sound recorders.

—By 1962, camera operators were able to hand-hold or rest cameras on their shoulders allowing mobile shooting with minimal interference.

—These new cameras and recorders enabled an entirely different style of shooting documentary film. For the first time, film-makers were able simply to follow their subjects around as they went about their business – or to take cameras into public spaces without causing huge disruption. These tools revitalised the documentary form in the 1960s and 1970s.

Cinema Verite

To obtain truth from the subject, the presence of the film-maker must be acknowledged or even discussed. The principal method is participation between film-maker and subject, often through interviews. Commentary is vital, whether in voice-over or through on-screen presence. The audience is free to identify with the film-maker’s or the subject’s position and point of view. The film-maker is a ‘fly in the soup’, intervening to get a response.

Direct Cinema

To obtain truth from the subject, the film-maker should be as unobtrusive as possible.

The principal method is observation of subjects behaving within their environment.

Commentary is minimal or absent so that subjects can speak for themselves.

The audience members should forget the film-makers and feel as if they’re in the room 

with the subjects. The film-maker is a ‘fly on the wall’, watching but practically invisible.

Ethics
Documentary film makers have a responsibility towards their human subjects—
Audience expects that film makers treat people with respect and represent them honestly
on camera. —Difficulties can occur around films that depict vulnerable participants, such as children or the mentally ill.

—Moral questions are raised in regards to exploiting subject in the name of entertainment.

Documentary revival - 2000s

Blending Real and Unreal...

Reality T.V. shows - so many
Found Footage - Cloverfeild 2008

Mockumentaries - This is spinal tap 1984

An example of Cinema Verite would be the Act of Killing by Joshua Oppenheimer

An example of Direct Cinema would be the Mirror directed by Jafar Panahi.

Music video research

Music Video Research

Probably my favorite music video is this demonstration of sound on matter, the shots are incredible the use of slow-motion make this production visually stunning.  

Things I have observed watching music videos that make them stand out from other editing techniques are:

The timing of the cuts within a montage follow the rhythm of the music to make it more effective. This is something I want to include into my music video.

The getting artists to act along with a music that is played at double speed and filming at 50fps on a 25fps time base so the mouth syncs with the lyrics but all other motion is half speed when played back at 25fps.

Location choice, choosing locations to suit the mood of the song.

Mood lighting that matches the emotion of the song.

La Jetee Review

La Jetee 1962 - Chris Marker

La Jetee is a film made by Chris Marker It is made completely out of Photographs (except one short clip of film) La Jetee has a narration to describe the story enhanced with music and black and white still images. Overall the photography is visually appealing with carefully lit subjects that enhance the mood of the film. However the film is very slow and the story is very dull. This technique could be used if the story was more gripping and the narration was more intonated.

Film Strengths: Aesthetic photographs.

Film Weaknesses: Storyline too complex and abstract, narration unemotional, music dull.

A film that inspired Chris Marker was Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo

Films that have been inspired by La Jetee; Deja Vu, The Matrix, The Butterfly Effect, 12 monkeys.

Annimation 1965-1970

Russia

Andrei Khrjanovsky
There Lived Kozyavin 1966
The Glass Harmonica 1969 - first animated film to be banned in Russia

Japan

Toei Doga
Cyborg 009 - manga comic similar to Asro boy.


Hiroshi Sasagawa
Speed Racer - originally Mach GO GO GO.

USA/Japan

Jules Bass
Mad Monster Party 1967 - produced by MOM

USA

Disney
The Jungle Book 1967 - animation based on filmed performances of voce actors

Belguim

Belevision Studios

Asterix The Gual 1967 - created without the consent or knowledge of authors.

Croatia

Ziatko Grgic

Professor Balthazar 1967 - 52 episodes

Pavao Stalter & Branko Ranitovic

Masque of the Red Death 1969

Canada

Eva Szasz

Cosmic Zoom 1968 - similar to book powers of 10

Ryan Larkin

Walking 1969

UK/USA

Terry Gilliam

Storytime 1968

UK

Oliver Postgate & Peter Firman

The Clangers 1969

George Dunning

Yellow Submarine 1968

Italy

Osvaldo Cavandoli

The Line 1969 - 90 episodes

USA

Marv Newland

Bambi Meets Godzilla 1969