ashley cooper ib

8/9/2019 Ashley Cooper IB

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Og:tT:#Film cover sheet: production portfolioSubrnit to: ModeratorSchool number:

Arrival date: 20 Oct / 20 Oct

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' Wf ile legib, u.sing hlac'k nk atul relain Q cop)! of lhis form.' Contplele one copy ofthis-rm.for eqch cunclieletle.Sub.iect: Film Level: f-IioherCandidate name: Asrlr-V C-@C andidate session number:

Ilu nd boo k of proce tl r re s 2 009O International Baccalaurcate C)rganization, 2008

rechnotogy rr",.ftNkL C'u ho 'W @ ' Sou$1t2ttu{Details of productionProduction title:Principal role: (cilcle one role only'DirectorWliterSor.rnd designer /recordist/rnixer

Datc of'production:Wf 'q - FF,'qCandidate's contribution to film production:l'ou ntcyn,ish lo ntenlion such issues us onctl,tic'al, echniuil.

For completion by the candidatec' re utve, cot t t ut tut ic ctt i o n/f ecm nv o r k,

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lnternational Baccalaureate 6/FPPHCS (page 3)Scho o I no,,'", ..,.'Q I/. t|....... 1..$. t.For completion by the moderator D E 'l'otal

For completion by the senior moderator

For completion by the candidateI confirm that I have intbmred everyone who has been involved in the production of this tlm that it maybe used by the IB for assessment, educational, training and/or promotional purposes in relation to thetB's activities or those related activities of r.vhich it approves. I have also infonned thenr that they andthc school may be identified on the flm and that, becausc of the nature of the rnatcrial, it rvill not bcpossible for the IB to later relnove identifiers.I contrm that all roduction of this tlm took part in it on this understandng.Candidate's si

Ha ncl boo k of proce d ures 2 009Cc) lnternati onal Bacca la ureate Organization, 200 8

fta"lln tlrc u4likel, erenl hci ctn inelivicluul 's ohjection 1o lhi.s stulemenl would huve pretented thesttccessfulxcontpletion of tlis contponent csf the com'se, the c:ctnclidale rncry, .re fornr ts1I r claintexclusive copt'ight ancl so allow lhat indivicluql o toke parl in the protluction.If lhis i. fhe c'qse, pleuse /i.crs.s i.first .u,ilh your teqcher oncl nole lhe nalm'e o.f the inclividuul'.sr e s ett ct i o ns h el o'r'.

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ASHLEY COOPER003258-034

DOUBLE I GLTMPSECOMMENTARY


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DOUBLE I GLIMPSE - FILM coMMENTARYIn the process of producing our group's film for our final IB production, I took on the role of thecinematographer. I chose this role as, out of the five, it is the one I am most familiar with and allowsme to convey my creativity through film. I find it easy to quickly envision a given narrative and caneffectively apply a unique style of filming to a given concept. I feel this became apparent duringboth the creation of the filming and our hnal product.Dosble Glimpse is a 'slice of life' film targete d at amid-range audience (15-40 years old), and aimsto reveal a journey of a man suffering from social anxiety and a fear of being watched, with specificreference to covert surveillance within the city of Hong Kong. Ironically, he video blogs histhoughts to his own personal camera, and documents his discoveries accordingly' However, he isunaware that he is not only being watched from the outside, but is in fact being watched within hisroom where he feels most safe. He later hnds this out at the end when he is presented with anunknown DVD appearing that contains the footage from inside his room - which forces him toescape from his solace.The director and I had a shared vision for this film, as we wanted to produce a contemporary filmthat addressed the social implications of coverl surveillance, whilst showcasing moderntechnologies involving film, and following meetings with our teachers, they suggested to addressthe topics of video blogging and the YouTube generation of today. However, all the while, I gavemy narrative suggestions to primarily help further my vision cinema-graphically, instead ofinhabiting a writers role. I found it imperative to contribute and be involved early on in order tofurther my understanding in the overall concept, resulting in a more accurate cinemagrphicinterpretation.

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During the process of pre-production, I met up with the director and assisted her in devising asimple narrative for our film. This process was helpful as it allowed me to also envision theprouction before we even started filming, and let me put forth ideas early in the process' We foundit easier to construct a narrative as we were taught the conventions of short films, and shownplentiful examples from the Chacun Son Cinema DVD within classes - a DVD dedicated to shortfilms. ,.f| f---,--.. . ' ,f .. ' : .' '.As our film was based upon conte-potty isiues in siriety, circulating around themes and ideas oftechnology, I decided to use the house-style from the tv show 24 as a major influengupon myfilming technique. This is because through its techniques such as quick navigational;*fots panningacross the screen, maneuvering between characters faces, as well as concealing any production of a,complete shots'1, it really places the audience.into the action of the narrative. This contributed tothe cinematic journey I'm trying to ceate. ,,I Complete Shot - A complete shot is when we see a whole character within a shot, frotn waste or feet up, instead ofconcentrating on half the character by only fihning a poftion or half of their face for example.

To the right is notes from oursession v'ith our teachers -valuable feedback in v,hich wetook and added to our film inorder to increase the qual4, ofon'fnal product.


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The shots drectlt above are screen prints ft'ontan episode of24, and shov' the close-trp'incontplete actors faces - atechniqtre I lming, and is disPlaYabove'and t t'To the right is a section of the script thatcoincides u,ith the action on screen, explaininghoyt to create the shot.I also discovered Danen Aronofsky'scontemporary approach in the 1998 filmpi, which similarly follows one mans obsession and anxiety whilst being surrounded by technology.our production elements, such as cay)era shots,in adding to the technologicalthee, which iso used techniques or ramping uy'and down theg of time. This is another technique I was keen touse, as this was a 'slice of life' short film, which meant that ithad to effectively show enough plot and events in sevenminutes for the audience to understand, Ramping up the speedalso gives the effect that the film is being fast forwarded orcontrolled by someone else, which is a similar technique usedin the 2005 Michael Haneke f/rm 'Cache'(Hdden)'

To the teft are shots taken ft.ottr cache (Hidden) dn'ing one of the forwarding of the tapesce,es.'Belott are screen shots taken front Double Glintpse dm"ing the rantpittg Ltp scenes.One v,as faken f"om lhe openit'rg nroifog", which was ramped Ltp to set the scene and styleof otu'fi!m, the other from a nxonlage of the character vorking'

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Through my f,rlming, I really wanted to express the juxtaposition between the cameras following orwatching him, and the camera he used to video blog his thoughts. By applying intense chaoticcamer.a novement to the shots watching him from extreme distances (much like 24), the mise enscene not only immediately began to resemble that of CCTV cameras, but also directly fulfrlled myobjective of placing the audience in an uncomfoftable voyeuristic position. This technique wasdominantly influenced by Pi. \

ln the above shots to the left are screenshots taken florn Pl, showing the observant cameras that sit statically at a distancealways watching him. Similarly from the screenshots taken rom Double Glitttpse on the right, it's evident that I becameinspied by this"style of fihn - s again, it contributes rnassively into placing our audience into a voyeuristic position.As you can also see in the screenshots taken from Double Glimpse, I insisted to the director that weedit and generate a timecode to be placed into the ftame, as it makes it more realistic andacknowledgeable. There was also a contrast blinking effect on the CCTV shots too, as it made theshots even more distinctively recognizable when creating video interference.

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Similarly, we were also heavily influenced by the idea of using voiceovers (as used in Pl) in ourfilm to not only develop and push the narrative forward, but to also create the enigmatic characterwe were afteL, as voiceovers insinuate a hidden identity. So as a result, I decided to film and create alot of montages in which the voiceover could accompany, so it comes across as if the voices were inhis head, as well as disclosing part of his identity.EE!,i'j E El EWEhE hldrgE -- (d

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In this mornent in the fin, Edrnund (our actor) is talking throughout whilst shots of hirn within the city are being shown. Thetmelines above and the edited script with screenshots above can see evidence of this.,,/

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I was very keen to be filming different montages that would accompany the voiceover, but for mytrailer, I decided not to use any voiceover as I felt we had already used enough in the main feature,and instead decided to use the voiceover script and disguise it within the timecode generators in allthe shots. (Seen Below)

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However, the director was always keen to conclude the voiceover by cutting back to static shotsbetween Edmund and his handheld camera, where he is in fact speaking into it. So I decided tochallenge pi b convention, in that instead of never breaking the 4th wall with direct mode of address,I chose to include talking head shots and close up shots, as I drew direct influence having seen theDr. Who series where they often include this technique to allow the audience to establish thecharacter, as well as initiate a relationship with the him. These sequences were a reflection of theshort film entitled "Movie Night" by ZhangYimou, as he too uses close up shots to expose andreveal a character effectivelY.

Above are shots from both Dr. who (left) and Double Glimpse (right). These talking head shots became immediatelyidentifiable in the film as they are the oity ttrott with direct rno" oi udress throughout - contributing to that juxtapositionbetween both the talking hea shots, and oyeuristic shots that place the audience in an awkward position'Because these shots were massively identifiable, and broke that 4lh wall into the audience, I felt itbecame a very signihcant trademark for our piece. I decided to only use one talking head shot in mytrailer, which i used at the end, because it followed the typical trailer convention of only giving asmall insight into what the film is about as a whole.

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Unlike most conventional movies, the director and I didn't want to tell the audience what to think ofthis character through close up shots, i.e. evoke sympat from the audience for him' Ultimately,we wanted to produce a film that relied largely on the audience creating their own interpretation'Having been inspired by directors Deepa Metha and Michael Haneke, I wanted to follow theirconvention in not constructing a film based on genre, but by basing it upon meaning and messagesthat they want you to acknowledge from the film. Being tied down to a genre means you must stickto specific rules within that geffe, whereas breaking from that convention allows more freedom inwhat and how you are trying to convey yo message. In this f,rlm we wanted to suggest the idea of,is it right that covert surveillance invades the privacy of an innocent public through excessivemonitoring? ' - but of course, how the audience interpreted the film, is entirely up to them'Throughout the production, we created our narrative with a specific soundtrack in mind, which hadbecome largely influenced by the 1998 German film: Run Lola Run, Pi and Requiem For A Dream 'All of these hlms shared the use of electronic music, generated by keyboards and computers -which is ultimately how I went about composing the music for the film. The electronic music wecreated became essential as it re-enforced our theme on technology, as well as our contemporaryapproach. By having designed the sound - I already knew the way my shots would become edited,and therefore enhanced my overall view and concept for the film. Due to the tempos of the music,and pace of the hlm, I had already strongly requested we took an 'MTV' editing style, and cut a lotof our shots in time with the music.For my trailer I had decided to create a juxtaposition from the film and create one with very slowpace. It is accompanied by one of the tracks from the film, and is just ambient noise with a synth,whilst the screen runs through a series of cut clips from the film. The mood created from the traileris very mysterious, and evokes curiosity, which will ultimately make the audience want to watch thefilm. I felt if I had copied the beginning of my film for the trailer, there would have been no elementof surprise and the audience may lose interest.However, I do not feel there is a lot I would like to change within this piece, as I feel it is very muchsimilar to that of our original ideas and narrative, and successfully conveys a simple narrative in ashorl time. The cinematography was experimental, and because of this - it was aestheticallyappealing and different to others. I am pleased we were able to use an original soundtrack for ourpiece.Furthermore, because there were only 2 people in our team, we managed to escape any conflict thatwould otherwise arise in a latger group. V/e worked well together, and because we had a conciseand focus idea (of which we both contributed to), we were pleased with out outcome and managedto include both our ideas sufficiently - henceforth avoiding conflict.I feel our film successfully follows the conventions of a short film, in that it was simple andeffective, and succeeds in entertaining and engaging the audience into a well-focused narrative,with the assistance of aesthetic cinematography and an interesting plot'Ashley CooperWORD COUNT: 1735

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