As part of my preparation for Assignment 4, I read the relevant parts of Michael Rabiger’s very comprehensive book, DIRECTING – the Documentary. The book is a 535 page tome that covers all aspects of documentary film making, from understanding yourself and why you would want to make a documentary, the evolution of documentaries and… Continue reading Directing – the Documentary – Michael Rabiger
Lars von Trier’s ‘Dancer in the Dark’ is a strange mix of drama and musical at the same time, that seems to be filmed almost as if it were a documentary. Some reviewers have also classified the genre as crime, whereas others have gone for ‘horror’. I think the film is all of the above.… Continue reading Dancer in the Dark – Lars von Trier
When I visited the EYE Film Institute of the Netherlands in Amsterdam, I bought a book called ‘Cinematography – Robby Muller’ that was compiled by Linda van Deursen and Marietta de Vries. It has turned out to be one of the most inspiring and informative books I have read to date. Rather bizarrely, the… Continue reading Cinematography – Robby Muller
During this course I have read a significant number of books, or parts thereof, to support my studies. As the course draws to an end for me, I thought it may be valuable to reflect on some of these books and how they have helped me. In preparation for Assignment 4, I read Amy Delouise’s… Continue reading Real People on Camera – Amy Delouise
I’ve received very positive feedback from my tutor on Assignment 2 and am encouraged by the report. The report is attached: Ashley Lauryssen 2 – Tutor report The main correction I needed to address, as a result of the feedback, was the transition between Joe walking in the corridor and then eating in the storeroom. For… Continue reading Assignment 2 – Tutor Feedback and Final Version
I’ve received feedback from my tutor on Assignment 3 and am encouraged by the report which is positive and provides a critical review. The report is attached: Ashley Lauryssen 3 The revised version of the assignment is below: I was pleased that the tutor acknowledged some the shots that I worked particularly hard at to get… Continue reading Assignment 3 – Tutor Feedback and Final Version
For this assignment I have chosen to cover the wheat harvest in the Moselle Valley, Germany. I was fortunate enough to get the agreement of one of the local farmers to film him and his family during the wheat harvest which takes place over a period of about five to seven days at the beginning… Continue reading Assignment 4 – Constructing a narrative
Example of overlapping or repeating action In ‘Don’t Look Now’, Donald Sutherland goes into one of the churches that he is working in. He goes up onto a suspended platform to examine some mosaic repairs. While on the platform a ceiling beam breaks and falls onto the platform and in the process breaking some of… Continue reading Project 17: Contracted and Expanded Time
For this exercise I chose Alejandro González Iñárritu’s ‘Babel’ because it has four stories that run through the film. Each of these stories are related to each other, however the order in which each story is told is not linear which makes some of the scenes confusing. At the end of the film, the sequence… Continue reading Project 17: Time
As I work my way through Part 4 of the course, Assignment 4 looms at the end. The big challenge for this assignment is finding a topic for the documentary that: Has enough visual material to be interesting Has enough of a story to keep the audience attention In addition, whatever topic is chosen, it… Continue reading Planning Assignment 4
