Eulogy for Things Left Unsaid by Rob Chiu

Eulogy for Things Left Unsaid is a short film created by Rob Chiu. It was released in 2008 as part of a project called Twenty 120 in which twenty different directors each created a film 120 seconds in length. In the piece Chiu explores the emotional journey we go through during different stages in our lives and the very human struggle to accept the progression of time.

The concept around the piece is memories and regrets. It explores childhood and how our perspective of things change as we grow older; as children we are unaware of what the future holds for us and as we grow up and become adults we are faced with choices that inevitably shape our future. Later in life when we look back we often find ourselves burdened with regrets about the decisions we made, the opportunities we missed, the things we never did or said, and we can't help wondering "what if" and thinking about how things might have been different.

The piece also deals with loss and how nothing lasts forever in life - even our memories, which blur and fade with time. When we lose someone we love they are reduced to memories. In our lives we all have to come to accept that nothing is forever and we can't stop time from progressing, or go back to the past, but our memories are the only connection we have to it. Memories aren't always a blessing, but a curse also; because of how they can make us feel.

The craft with which this film was created is what makes it such an effective, moving piece. Throughout the piece the voice-over reads a poetic 'eulogy' that narrates the visual aspect. The cinematography used is exquisite, with the scenes of nature encompassing the films subject of change and life's cycle. It has a summery, dream-like quality that gives you the feeling you really are witnessing someone's memories, and the emotive music adds to the poignancy of the film.

Chapter 5 - Experimental Video

Work in progress, will update with full idea.

My Experimental Video idea is based around modern life and it's unrelenting pace. It is inspired by the film Koyaanisqatsi and the idea that human beings have lost touch with nature and forgotten it's importance in everything.

In my film there will be a collection of shots in different locations with the juxtaposition of nature and rural surroundings against an urban environment. The technique I am going to use in my film is time lapse photography - where the film is sped up or slowed down to emphasise the movement and life over a period of time.

I will be filming around where I live (countryside) and in a more urban environment (Brighton , Crawley and the M24 dual carriage way), incorporating scenes of traffic and people with shots of natural landscape and the environment. I originally had the intention of filming the busy scenes in London but have had second thoughts as the locations I wanted to film may have needed permission and it was too much of a task.

Chapter 3 - Narrative and non-narrative structures

When making a video or film, the artist has to consider whether the piece needs a narrative structure. If a film doesn't have a clear-cut storyline structure (beginning, middle and end) then this often makes for a non-narrative piece of work.

In 'The Girl Chewing Gum' by John Smith, the audience is required to watch the film from beginning to end to fully understand it. This is because at the beginning of the film the audience is quick to assume that the voiceover is that of a director controlling the scene that is being filmed. However, around the middle part of the film it becomes apparent that things are not what we assumed - while the man continues to tell the audience what's going to happen next, his description of the scene doesn't quite fit with what we are actually seeing. This forms the middle of the story and keeps the audiences' attention towards the end as the viewer. To the end of the film, the narrator reveals where he is and that he is not really controlling or predicting the happenings on the street like we thought he was. Therefore there is a clear ending to the piece and a reaction from the audience.

In comparison, MUTO by Blu does not have a clear storyline to the piece and is more 'abstract'. This makes it a non-narrative in structure. I found it quite confusing at first as I didn't really understand it's meaning - there didn't seem to be much point to it and the grafitti animation itself was quite wierd. Because of this, the audience is likely to interpret the piece and it's meaning in different ways. Even though there is not an obvious storyline to it, I still think there is a concept behind the piece. It seems to have been inspired by the circle of life and evolution and this suggests there is a kind of narration to the film.

Experimental Videos don't need a clear structure or storyline in order to work and be seen as a whole piece. A non-narrative film could be made the way it is because the artist has the intention of it's audience looking deeper into the film to find the meaning. They might want the audience to use their imaginations, or take away their own interpretion of the piece, instead of using an obvious storyline or overal meaning that requires little guess work from the audience.

Chapter 2 - Use of technolgy and techniques

In looking back to the technogly of just 20 years ago and now to the present, it is easy to see just how far technolgy has advanced. From the the internet to gaming consoles to flat screen televisions, technolgy has evolved and devoloped to an extent that it is now a massive part of our every day lives and we have come to rely on it for a large amount of our daily tasks. Even today, technolgy is improving and being updated to new levels at an incredible speed.

For instance, if you were to compare Andy Huang's 'Doll Face' to John Smith's 'The Girl Chewing Gum' they are quite literally a world apart in terms of the technolgy and graphics used. Doll Face is almost completely animated and would have needed advanced graphic-based programs to create the animation. Girl Chewing Gum, however, is a black and white film that was made with a old-fashioned video camera and would have been faily simple to create.

Editing has also come on in leaps and bounds alongside technogly - we now rely heavily on computers and editing software programs when making a piece of film. The Girl Chewing Gum as a piece does not have much editing whatsoever and any that was done would have been very basic - whereas Doll Face has been very heavily edited because of the craft involved. When The Girl Chewing Gum was originally made, the technolgy used was thought of as 'state of the art'. Compare it to nowadays and it seems incredibly basic.

Review of MUTO - by Blu

MUTO by Blu is another short film that uses stop frame animation to create a moving image. In this instance it involves the artist painting graffiti on walls in an urban environment. The artist painstakingly painted each movement the characters made, taking hundreds or perhaps thousands of pictures of each slight movement and then put them together to make it animated.

The main concept of this piece is the cycle and recycle of life. I got this impression because at the start of the film there is a monster with lots of legs that eventually turns into a man with arms, a head and eyes. Throughout the film the man is evolving and changing, with him often turning into something else, essentially being 'reborn'. Several times he actually emerges from another persons body or apart of his body turns into another creature; I feel this represents birth. The concept of life being recycled is represented through the ever-changing being consuming the thing before it and growing bigger. Towards the end it is a cocoon that then turns into a man with the wings of a butterfly which embodies evolution and change. It then ends with the man spitting out ants that scurry to a big human head and devour it until it's just a skull which represents the end of life, death.

This is a heavily crafted piece that would have required a large amount of time and patience on behalf of the artist and makes it a pretty amazing spectacle to watch.

Review of The Girl Chewing Gum - by John Smith

'The Girl Chewing Gum' is a short video that was created in 1976 and directed by John Smith. The black and white film is about 10 minutes long and takes place on a busy London Street. The main concept behind the video is the influence of media on people and society during the 70's and the message is as valid today as it was then.

Throughout the film there is a voice over directing what is about to happen in the street that gives the audience the impression that it is the voice of a director making orders. Within seconds of him making a statement, a person or car would pass by the frame in the exact way he had just described it would.

For the first three quarters of the film, the audience is lead to assume the man's voice is that of a directors as he seems to have the knowledge of what is going to happen next and his tone is orderly. This gives the audience a false sense of belief that is eventually dispelled when towards the end of the film the narrator reveals that he is 15 miles away in a field unable to see what is going on in the street we have been observing. It turns out that the street had been filmed and the audio of the man's voice was then added to the video after the footage was taken.

John Smith successfully manipulates the audience by making it seem that the man is making an order or predicting what was to happen next. This brings up the question of is everything we see or read in the media real or are we being manipulated to believe or think how they want us to? The director is trying to put across just how easy it is to manipulate the way we interpret things and it is often influenced by others.

What the audience comes away with at the end of watching 'The Girl Chewing Gum' is the realisation that in jumping to the conclusion that the voice-over man was in control or predicting the future they were tricked. My view is that the overall concept of this film is our perception of reality and how we interpret what we're told. It's not just how or what the media tells us, but what we make of it.

Review of Koyaanisquatis

(work in progress)