Critcal evaluation of the finished experimental piece 'The Raven'

In the end I am quite happy with how this piece turned out. I think that it fits the brief and that we made a good attempt at an experimental film. This is not to say however that there are not faults with it.

First the actual content of the film. I feel the films most striking feature is the use of lighting in the scenes where the Character Lewelyn, the voice in side Ben's head, is lit by lights with red and blue filter. The brief, being one that asked for experimental gave us free range to try different lighting structure and colours more than we would have been able to in a standard drama or documentary that would simply ask for three point lighting. We looked for different ways to create meaning in this piece and the lighting is a key example of this. In film conventions it is widely accepted that s character who is dimly lit or in the shadows is either hiding or 'in the dark' or ignorant of something. Similarly a well lit character is usually accepted as a knowledgeable, powerful or a good person. Here we have subverted this slightly. The well lit character of Lewelyn is obviously the opposite of a good person, therefore a polar opposite of what Ben is perceived or sees himself to be. So here we wanted to experiment by lighting Llewelyn well where as Ben is darker and duller. This then symbolises that Ben is receding, into the Darkness whereas Lewelyn is coming into the light. Therefore the message conveyed is that Ben and Lewelyn are in a sort of competition for control and as Lewelyn becomes brighter Ben becomes Darker. This is reinforced by when Ben takes the tablet Lewelyn recedes into the darkness showing that for a short time he is being pushed back into the darkness and quietened down. This however is only temporary. What this also does is anchor that Lewelyn is a fixture of Ben's imagination.
One of the other major experimental elements to this piece is the editing techniques we decided to employ. One of the standout effects is the ‘bad TV’ which creates the effect of a TV with a bad signal. As well as this we used the sound of static over the top of any dialogue. This was in order to convey the message that whatever Ben was saying was being impaired or was weak. The signal was interfered and weak therefore the same can be said for the character of Ben. One thing I really enjoyed with this brief was the ability to experiment so much with the use of editing and lighting it meant we were able to tell a story in a different manner. Instead of it being said explicitly the story is hinted at through our use of lighting, after effects and sound design. Personally I found this incredibly interesting. The chance to experiment in this way was something that had previously not been something I had had much interest in. However now I have a whole new appreciation for this discipline and the scope that it has. There is so much that you can do with it and not be hindered by any of the ‘normal’ filmic conventions.
Another point on our editing is the pace, I think that we achieved a pace that was driven enough to keep the audience’s attention but was not quick enough as to be off putting. We did use flash cutting but it was sparsely but this was in order to create a sense of drama and tension. Conveying to the audience the element of the film where Lewelyn is taking over Ben’s body. Again we were given free rain to do this due to the experimental brief.
The Sound design is also something that makes the piece strong. My favourite element in this is the Bird song. The conations of bird song are of peaceful mornings, and of nature’s beauty. Here it has been manipulated into something grotesque which moves along the story. By going against the cultural connotations of bird song and createing a garbled mess that when linked to the images created a strong message. The idea of trying to block something out but in effect making it worse. It also creates this feeling that Lewelyn is getting angrier. In general the sound is well put together and thought out in my opinion
In General I am very pleased with the outcome of this project; I feel it is a well rounded piece that fits the brief. It tells a story but does not rely on narrative conventions. Instead it uses light, editing, and sound to tell its story. Recounting something with out the need for explicit story telling.
I think the main thing I have taken away from this project is a new appreciation for experimental film and filmmaking. Before I am ashamed to admit I was a little sceptical but taking on the research necessary has made all traces of this scepticism vanish. I now have a wide understanding of Experimental film as a ‘genre’ or category. In addition I feel that this project has shown me a different approach to filmmaking. And in particular story telling. Before I had mainly seen narrative in terms of the familiar theories and conventions. Now I see and understand how to create a strong structure that does not reply on implicit dialogue of conventional narrative conventions.

In terms of my practice on this project, I feel I worked well in terms of the group and in terms of my role as producer director. I made sure we were organised and managed to get all our filming done in the given time frames. I feel I acted in a professional manner with regards t timetabling and organisation. In terms of directing, Stephen and my self tended to both shared the directing and the camera work on set. In heinsight although it doesn’t fir our designated role, it worked well, as we were both able to give our spontaneous ideas that gave us extra footage to work with in the edit suite. This was experimental this was no bad thing and we ended up with about 2 hours of footage over all. Although this lead to a monumental organisational task during the capture it meant we were not restricted in anyway by lack f footage. So overall I feel this was a well managed production.
In conclusion, we were all very pleased with this piece and although the brief at the beginning mat have given us a little bit of a headache in terms of ideas, we came up with many and I feel we executed our final idea, in a well rounded and competent manner. Displaying our skills and knowledge of both the medium of experimental film and the equipment used.