Semester Assignment: The Life and Death of a Projectionist

During the semester, a module of our degree was focused on developing our skill in cinematography. We were eventually tasked to make a short three minute film utilizing the techniques and approaches we had developed of the course of the semester:

A Fiction or Documentary Film Project. This small group project focuses on lighting and camera will involve the effective planning and acquisition of film. Students will be required to demonstrate an understanding of technical and aesthetic considerations in image acquisition and visual story telling appropriate to level.

We wanted to showcase a number of cinematic styles, including the visual contrast between formats, connected by an overarching theme. Our film is based upon the changing landscape of cinema; the movement, the mechanics and even the interests of the audience, all as they are perceived through the view point of a projectionist. Take a look: 

[Here is a YouTube Link as the embedding image quality is less than desirable.] 

Just some points of information:

• The bulk of the footage was shot on a Sony Z5. For the second 'internal feature' we used a Braun Nizo S80 Super 8 Camera. 
• Our primary locations were Belfast City Centre, The Queen's Film Theatre and Malham Cove. 
• It was edited on Avid Media Composer 6.0 with the Magic Bullet editing suite. 
• Our male actor is reading his own poem, you can find a link to his stuff here. 
• We made substantial changes from our initial draft which was centred around a different theme and included other internal features (including a Twitter based horror titled 'Trender') the change was mainly due to time restrictions. 
• Our key influences when writing, directing and editing Goddard, Malick and Fellini. 

Hope you enjoy, as always feedback is welcomed. 

The Image Loft's Halloween Recommendations

Happy Halloween! I may have left it to the last minute, but here are ten of the Image Loft's favourite alternative horror films. There are certainly a lot more obscure lists out there, but if you want something a little different from the usual humdrum in the cinema, and have seen the classics, here are a few well worth checking out to get you in the spirit. 

1. Vampyr

Carl Theodor Dreyer 

1932

Dreyer's hazy, dreamlike tale of the Occult and a tormented village utilizes some astonishing camera work and effects to create a truly unique atmosphere. Shadows come to life, skeleton doctors and perhaps the best out of body experience ever shot. I had the fortune of seeing this over the summer with a live ambient soundtrack, the result was one of the best cinematic experiences I've had this year.  

2. Cat People

Jacques Tourneur 

1942 

Often credited with the worlds first jump scare, Jacques Tourneur and Val Lewton's movie is much more than an early low budget shocker. It is a frank study of female sexuality and jealousy. Cat People tells the story of a young Serbian woman, Irena, who believes herself to be a descendant of a race of people who turn into cats when sexually aroused. With some genuinely terrifying moments (see the photo to the left) and tortured protagonists, this is an unnerving and sophisticated symbolic chiller has an emotional core to it as well.

3. Fiend Without a Face

Arthur Crabtree

1958

Invisible atomic monsters attack a U.S. Armed Forces base and the local residents. The quest for knowledge is a theme often touched upon in the horror genre, dating back to Frankenstein and before, but here it has never been dealt with more direct. The fiend without a face is our own strive to grow becoming an animated monster that feeds on our memories and itellect. Some terrific, brain stomping effects and a particulary memorable sound effect, Fiend Without a Face remains a sci-fi tinged classic. 

 4. The Innocents

Jack Layton

1961

Based on Henry Jame's novel The Turn of the Screw and adapted for the screen by Truman Capote, this masterpiece of tension, setting and Freud. Deborah Kerr is fantastic as the sex starved Governess who believes two ghosts are manipulating the children in her care. The powerful high key lighting creates a prolonged intensity and the sound design is unparalleled, but the star of the show is in it's child performances by Martin Stephens (The Village of the Damned) and Pamela Franklin who create some of the most haunting scenes you'll see. It remains one of Britain's best horror films.  

5. Kuroneko

Kaneto Shindo

1968 

Often overlooked compared to Shindo's previous film; Onibaba, but that is a disservice to this minor classic. A Poetic horror fable from Japan. An evil spirit is praying on the hearts of Samurai and a war hero is dispatched to destroy it, but upon arrival he realises that it will not be as simple. Beautifully photographed with unsettling other-worldly sets dripping with atmosphere. The first half scares give way to a more complex film about love, revenge and family but it remains one of the highlights I've seen this year.

6. Hour of the Wolf

(Vargtimmen)

Ingmar Bergman

1968

Although much of Bergman's canon can be associated with the horror genre; the dreams of Borg in Wild Strawberries, the images of death in The Seventh Seal or the 'Spider God' of Through a Glass Darkly, it is with this film that he pushed closer to out right terror. A tortured artist recounts his fears and dreams to his wife on an isolated island while he is regularly approached by the rich landowners to come visit, eventually leading to the most horrific dinner party ever. Bergman truly gives himself to his fears both sexually and artistically here, making the film feel almost like an homage to the master. Fascinating and intense, this is one of my favourites.

7. House

(Hausu)

 Nobuhiko Obayashi

1977

Although the recent Criterion release has allowed Obayashi's surreal exploration of teenage lift to gain new life, it still remains largely unknown by most. Outrageous, twisted, whacky... how to describe Houuuuuuse is virtually impossible, it simply must be seen to be believed. It may not be the Halloween film to keep you up at night with the lights on, but with a group of friends and some drinks you'll be sure to have a terrific night.

Trailer Link

8. The Vanishing 

(Spoorloos)

 George Sluizer

1988

To call George Sluizer's 1988 European thriller a horror film may seem like a bit of a reach, but I'm indulging for a reason. It follows a mans obsessive three year search to discover the fate of his girlfriend who disappeared from a parking lot in the middle of the day. Her abductor is no ordinary psycho, a mild mannered family man and professor, The Vanishing is a slow, but engaging psychological thriller that does away with genre conventions to pose questions about the human condition; Does truth mean closure? And at what cost? Do we all harbor darker thoughts? However it is the films finale that lands it firmly on this list. To give away anything would be an injustice. For me, it is easily one of the most upsetting and unforgettable of images committed to celluloid. 

9. The Prophecy

Gregory Widen

1995

Big in scale, but short on budget Widen's tale of Angels, tortured 'priest detectives' and all out heavenly war is the stuff of total nonsense, but also the perfect Halloween treat. Christopher Walken delivers in spades as the angel Gabriel, perched on roof tops and sounding his trumpet (literally) to produce some giggles and Viggo Mortensen's appearance as Lucifer is all to brief but stays in the mind long after, for all the right reasons. It's not short on atmosphere either, with a tremendous sense of background scale, Prophecy earns it's cult following.

10. INLAND EMPIRE

David Lynch

2006

For many, Lynch's most recent feature is one of the most impenetrable movies ever made. A three hour long odyssey of surreal insanity; queue talking rabbits, creepy neighbours, Polish sex workers and of course the Locomotion. Starring Laura Dern, in one of this decades great performances, she is an actress who has just been cast as the star of a new remake of a cursed Polish film, or has she? Maybe she is just the product of an imagination of a girl who is hypnotized into believing she is someone else making a movie about herself...(?) You can understand the frustration of many. But for all it's twists, Lynch underscores his film with moments of absolute horror. Virtually indescribable, Lynch has an understanding of the individual's subconscious and peeling back the layers, he discovers the most disturbing of images. 

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So there you have it, a briefly compiled list of some alternate titles to get you into the Halloween spirit. Have a good night folk, and I'll leave you with this to get your movie themed costumes rolling:

Guernica - Of War and Art

For University we were tasked with writing a short essay on a number of subjects relating to Picasso and Modern Art, here are my thoughts on the film Guernica by Resnais based on the artists painting of the bombing.

Youtube link

In 1937, the ancient Basque town Guernica was bombed extensively by German Luftwaffe as an experiment to determine the effects of combining explosive and incendiary bombs, as well as an attempt by the nationalists, under Franco, to demoralize the republicans in the Basque area. Composed of fragments and compartmentalized images from Picasso’s early art work, eventually building to his ‘Guernica’ piece, and accompanied by Paul Éluard impassioned ode to the human spirit against the atrocities of war read by María Casarès, Resnais’s utilizes a variety of cinematic techniques such as rapid editing and overlays to integrate the visual qualities of cubism, but also reflect the film’s historical context and message.      

The film opens with a photograph of post-bombing Guernica with Picasso’s portrait of a family superimposed on top, immediately informing us that this is a study of art against the backdrop of historical tragedy. Resnais accompanies Éluard’s verse on the persecuted people of Guernica with the early portraits of Picasso, not only reinforcing the film’s message, but creating a link between art and history. Here Resnais’ emphasizes their exhaustion through years of hardship by draining the colour from the paintings and presenting them with slow, laborious pans. In perhaps the films most direct sequence, a series of portraits are riddled with bullet holes (superimposed) literally bringing the destruction to the art itself. Resnais’ direction evolves to express the chaos well as the change in Picasso’s style. The camera moves more violently with intense zooms, the editing is more rapid and the background images become more cluttered and unstructured. 

As both war and art progress, so does Resnais. Singling out individual subjects in each painting he frames them in darkness, his lighting more direct, a response to Picasso’s heavier more defined visuals and illustrating the growing strain on Guernica. To depict the terror and destruction of the bombing, Picasso painted it in the cubist style fracturing the image through lines enhancing the ultimate dehumanization of the victims. Therefore Resnais replicates the style in cinematic form through rapid editing and harsh pans. He also attempts to fracture the image by using extreme close-ups such as the jagged tongues of those slain in the raid, distorting the image thus brutalizing the action and furthering the link between art and history. 

Guernica is a film that, perhaps unavoidably, intertwines history and art. Resnais utilizes the films structure with shifting editing styles and framing to emphasize not only Picasso’s shift from traditional art to cubism, but also to show the absolute destruction of the last of the ancient worlds through a dehumanizing and cruel war. The film’s final image is that of Picasso’s ‘Man with a Lamb’ statue, a biblical recalling of the good Shepard, here it is a testament to the artist himself, who’s painting brought the plight of the Spanish people to the world’s attention. Firmly concluding the film’s double meaning, but more so it is a solemn plea for the survival of the human spirit against a long and painful suffering.