Continued Installation

Linking images, found objects with times and dates and with people from the date is crutial to my crime scene investigation to continue to create my narrative around what I find and see at the site.

Creating Characters

As part of creating my narratives I have been creating characters in my head from what I am seeing around the site.

Couples have arguments or domestics seem to interest me the most.

Initial Installation

I have started to make my own crime scene investigation wall at home with the items I have found on site along with a site map and photos of suspects. I have also started to get props together for my installation as for evidence bags and boxes. I have purposely put a TV and video player in the shot as I would like to have my own footage playing for my installation.

The lighting is also a really important for this as it needs to look like an investigation is taking place.

Stalked - Script Writing

To help me become my own crime scene investigator I have started to read Stalked by Brian Freeman. This is a Thriller which follows a detective character as he works a murder case. By starting to read crime scene investigation books it is helping me to create ideas and stories of my own. Below is a blurb.

taut, atmospheric and gripping thriller with on-going detective character Jonathan Stride working a murder case thats very close to home...Lieutenant Jonnny Stride knows his partner Maggie is in trouble when she reports a deadly crime on a bitter winter night. Maggie's obviously hiding a terrible secret, but she isn't the only one. A seductive young woman has disappeared, leaving behind a trail of lurid fantasies and a cryptic message. With his ex-cop girlfriend Serena, Stride uncovers a sordid web of violence and voyeurism someone is determined to keep secret. As they hunt for a killer, a predator with a vicious past is hunting them. Every step they take is bringing them closer to a showdown, amid howling winds and blinding snow -- where survival is measured in seconds...and crimes can be buried for ever.

Script writing is something that I would like to start to do next and creating characters for my story.

Memento

Memento (Christopher Nolan) begins with the ultimate act of revenge when Leonard (Guy Pearce) kills Teddy, the story then back tracks through time to reveal when Leonard (Guy Pearce) kills Teddy, the story then back tracks through time to reveal the reasons why. This film has a clever narrative, which keeps the audience guessing throughout, making it an instant classic. Narrative structures are very important to a film because this is the way the story is told. It had to be used in an effective way to make the audience understand what is happening and make it interesting to watch. Memento does this perfectly with an unusual narrative structure. I have chose to analyse the first 15 minutes of the film, which shows the relationship between the two of the main characters and tries to show the confusion and betrayal which Leonard feels.

Memento comes under the genre Thriller, and is an old-fashioned ‘film-noir’ type mystery. Memento is not just a typical thriller however as it comes under the hybrid genre of psychological thriller, this is achieved by the story being told in forward flashed of events that are to come. I really like these flash photographs used in film to make it seem like the character has suddenly remembered something else, making the viewers imagination run. This was of unravelling the story adds to the films psychological story line as you are constantly restricted to what the main character (Leonard) knows, discovering information as the film goes on, which means the audience are kept guessing. This restriction throughout represents Leonard’s short-term memory loss.

Within the first minute of the film, the iconography used lets you know you are watching a thriller, as for the close up shot of the gun Leonard is holding. The general mise-en-scene also emphasises that it is a thriller as for the dilapidated setting and scruffy suits worn, The clothes worn make Leonard a stock character what he is wearing is typical to the genre of thrillers. The way he is acting makes him seem like a police officer and he is also dressed smartly as if he’s undercover. The image of Leonard is similar to that of how Brad Pitts character is dressed in the thriller Seven. This is again another visual response which helps define the Genre.

The themes that come up in the opening 15 minutes sequence relate to the films psychological side, as for the isolation of the main character Leonard that is shown with the use of monochrome shots of him alone in his room. There is also a voice over where is meant to be Leonard talking to himself, which is another link to indicate that it is a physiological thriller because we usually associate people who talk to themselves as mentally unstable. The monochrome shots also represent Leonard’s disjointed life and loss of memory as they show his life in a different way; he can only remember things from before his accident so the black and white shots represent things that are missing in his life, such as his deceased wife. The theme of vulnerability also plays a big role in the film because of Leonard’s condition people are able to take advantage of him and he wont remember.

The narrative is established within the first minute of the film, as we see a Polaroid picture developing. This is because the film is chronologically presented backwards so the film begins where it should end and works its way towards the beginning. I like that the whole point of the film is that you are not meant to understand every little thing the first time you watch it, but work things out for your self, and interpret what you see for your own story.

The film starts where is should end, and we see a shooting so this means the disruption of the film starts straight away with no equilibrium at the outset. Many thriller and horror films start off straight away with their disruption to get the audience attention and to keep them on the edge of their seats with an unexpected narrative. If we were to watch the film from the end back to the beginning in the ‘correct chronological order’ we would understand that that Leonard is trying to repair the disruption buy finding the man who killed his wife.

Leonard’s character matches the narrative flow perfectly. As an audience we never know what is fully going on until the end because of the backwards narrative, which also mirrors Leonard’s personality, as he never knows what’s going on either because of his memory loss condition which means he has to use his initiative, as do we whilst watching.

Propp stated that there are Seven main character types; the villain, the donor, the helper, the princess (and father), the dispatcher, the hero and the false her. It is hard go establish the Heroes and Villains and other characters watching the first 15 minutes sequence because of the uncertainty of which characters are good and which are bad. At the start of the film we see Leonard killing Teddy and we don’t know why, which makes him a villain. Then we find out that this is because he thinks Teddy is the man that killed his wife, which would make Teddy a villain as well. All the characters we meet within the sequence are ambiguous and at the end of the film it is your own decision to decide who is innocent and who is guilty. This is something I find very interesting as a viewer, and would like to create some confusion within my own work, to allow the viewer to decide the story for themselves.

The film has two separate, parallel storylines. The main one shit in colour is chronologically backwards. The other shot in monochrome helps the audience to understand what is happening in the colour shots. The monochrome also illustrates a time distinction to what is happening in the colour storyline. This non-linear narrative is emphasised with the use of repetitive shots, which have no real linear link between them. The director does this throughout so that you don’t forget what was just happening in the colour storyline. This non linear narrative is emphasised with the use of repetitive shots, which have no real linear links between them, The director does this throughout so that you don’t forget what was just happening as it is being told backwards, this is to keep the audience captivated to find out what is going to happen next to help you understand what is going on fully.

These different aspects are all very important for me when I come to make my own final films and will help me when storyboarding. I need to keep in mind the narrative structure, as it is very important to engage the audience by making it interesting and elusive.

Mapping

I have continued to observe the site and collect found objects, and have started to make mappings of where I find each object to help with creating a narrative and start to make a story around each item.

Disorientated Narrative

To help me try to create narratives and storyboard, I have started looking at my found objects and begun creating stories from my imagination. These include murders, accidents and people going missing. I have started to experiment with filming and photography to create interesting narratives. I like films where the narrative is non-linear such as Crash, 11:14 and Memento.

I have watched re-watched Memento to try help me understand how this non-linear narrative is put together. I have started to analyse the opening scene like I did with scream, but instead looking at the unusual narrative structure.

I have started to put together footage and photos I have taken at my site to start creating my own non linear narrative, which makes you think and wonder what is going on, but also allow the viewer to fantasise and create stories for themselves.

Crime scene

As I have been visiting the site back and forth I have been returning to the beach more and more. I think this is a good place to start creating a narrative for a crime scene investigation. I have started to collect found objects from around the site and many have been found on the beach. When walking around this area, my imagination runs wild and stories began to form from each object I find. From where they have come from, to who's it was originally and how it ended up there.

Sasco Cards

'One of the many Sasco cards (filing cards assembled into a chart) from 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Arthur C Clarke called Kubrick 'the Sasco Kid' in reference to his fondness for Sasco cards. The cards were used by the special effects department to plan filming and include details such as the direction models should be moved in. Together with the special effects reports and mat shot folders they reveal how the special effects were achieved. The colleciton includes; scripts; artworks; special effect records; and letters for example, from Arthur C Clarke.'

This story boarding technique will be a useful reference to try and peice together my found objects and create them into narratives.

Happy Birthday to me!

For my birthday I asked for the essential alfred Hitchcock collection as I had never seen Rear window before and wanted to watch it plus the others.

'The hero of Alfred Hitchcock's "Rear Window" is trapped in a wheelchair, and we're trapped, too - trapped inside his point of view, inside his lack of freedom and his limited options. When he passes his long days and nights by shamelessly maintaining a secret watch on his neighbors, we share his obsession. It's wrong, we know, to spy on others, but after all, aren't we always voyeurs when we go to the movies? Here's a film about a man who does on the screen what we do in the audience - look through a lens at the private lives of strangers...

This ties in nicely with my voyeuristic research I have compiled so far.

SCREAM - Analysis of camera, lighting and sound

Visual Analysis

The film I have decided to look at for my initial analysis is Scream. (Wes Craven 1996) I picked this film because it is one of my favourite, and one of the most famous horror films made in recent years. This is hugely down to its original script, interesting plot and excellent acting. I decided to choose this horror film for its opening voyeuristic scene. I also like the fact that scream plays with intertextuality to bring older more unbelievable horrors such as Nightmare on Elm street and Halloween into the story turning this modern day horror into a more realistic cinema experience. These types of cross layers are types narratives, which I would like to bring to my own crime narrative.

I am concentrating on the opening sequence because this is when the main character is being stalked and watched from outside the house. I am going to focus on the camera, lighting, sound and general mise-en-scene features and how they affect the film.

The opening shot is a close up of a ringing telephone as the camera pans up to Casey (Drew Barrymore) Reaching down to answer. A mysterious mans voice, which is now iconic of horror films, speaks to the blonde. Wes craven sets the scene by showing that the girl is alone in the big secluded house. The shot cuts to outside, there is total silence accept for the chirping of crickets which emphasises the girls isolation. The camera then pans down to an empty swing, still moving slightly; this creates suspense, as the audience doesn’t know who is outside.

The house inside is lighted bright in complete contrast to the darkness outside, this is the same contrast between the evil outside and the innocent blonde girl, who one stared in E.T. The darkness also adds to her vulnerability. Back inside the house, a shot of popcorn being made adds to the scenario with loud popping noises to make you jump. The phone goes again; this is the third phone call within the space of 1 minute and 10 seconds. A tracking shot follows Casey around a kitchen island to pick up the phone, the same mans voice speaks. Casey starts chatting to the man on the phone, and become flirtatious, close up shots of Casey are used to show the conversation becoming more intimate. These close up shots are clever in seducing the viewer into feeling emotionally involved with the character; this is a technique Craven uses throughout the film especially later on with the main character Sidney (Neve Campbell).

Mise-en-scene is used to direct the audience to possible sinister events to come. Craven uses iconography of a knife to make the audience feel worried, when Casey pulls a big kitchen knife out of its block and talks about the film Halloween to the killer. This makes the audience worried as they anticipate the events to come. Another tracking shot follows Casey from behind, down a dark hallway, into the living room obstructing part of the view. This obstruction is a technique that I have tried within my own surveillance filming as its makes the audience wonder what is going on. The use of the colour blue is very strong in the next scene, from the TV screen and the swimming pool outside. The colour blue is usually associated with calmness. Soon after Casey walks into the blue lighting, the disruption begins and you realise that the caller wants more than a conversation. He asks Casey for her name, and when she asks why, he says because he wants to know who he is looking at. The camera suddenly zooms into Casey’s worried expression and some quiet percussion music begins, and starts to get louder. A dog can also be heard barking outside, which makes you think someone is outside. Low-key lighting is used on the close up of Casey to highlight terror in her face. This gets the audiences attention and music makes you feel on edge. Casey looks out to window to see if she can see anyone, Craven then cuts to a POV shot which pans across the garden through the window stopping in intervals, in a jerky movement. This suddenly makes the scene feel realistic, as if you are in Casey’s position seeing exactly what she sees. Movement of the camera plays a big part in horror/ crime films as the more erratic the camera becomes, the more tense and jumpy you feel. This is something I need to take into consideration when filming, as it is tricky to get right. The use of lighting also helps create this tense atmosphere because the POV shot looking outside is very dark, which makes it hard to see. The audience also know that it is usually dark whenever a killer appears in horror films, so this makes you concentrate on the screen harder, so that when the killer comes into shot you get a bigger scare.

The next shot cuts to a close up of Casey’s hand locking the door as she hangs up on the man. This makes the audience feel reassured for a moment. The next shot shows the popcorn, which has expanded and looks like it is about to catch on fire, making the audience worried, as a fire looks inevitable. The shot cuts back to the dark hallway where the phone rings again before she can get back to the kitchen. She answers but doesn’t want to talk to him so hangs up quickly. The camera tracks backwards, into the kitchen where the phone goes again. The call this times gets nasty you know someone is definitely watching her. An extreme close up shot is used to empathise this, and you can see that Casey is petrified. A tracking shot quickly follows Casey down the hallway as she runs to lock the doors. The non-dietetic tense background music becomes apparent when you know the killer is near. Another erratic POV shot looking out the door window is used to seem like Casey’s eyes looking for the man. Casey is still on the phone to the man and tells him she is about to call the police. He tells her that they would never make it in time because they are in the middle of no where, which empathises the remoteness to make the audience feel alone and scared, just like she does. The lighting has become very dark as the man terrorises the girl on the phone. She is becoming more hysterical and doesn’t know what to do. Craven uses sound cleverly to scare the audience, as for the high pitch noise of the phone at unexpected moments and the doorbell being rung as if it’s a game of knock down ginger, making it all seem like a sick joke to the audience.

Casey screams to the man that her boyfriend (Steve) will back soon so her better leave, the music is becoming more intense then he mentions her boyfriends name and the music stops and the camera pans into her worried face. The audience should start to eel like there on a roller coaster of emotions with the music going up and down making it tense and jumpy. The killer tells Casey to look outside, and more POV shots are used to show Steve tied up outside. You still haven’t seen what the killer looks like yet so the whole time Craven is building suspense with the music, lighting and clever camera shots. Steve gets killed by a device, which splits him in half, and close up shots show Steve’s intestines ripped out.

The costume and setting are crucial to the film as they define the genre as Horror and give the film interest and suspense. Casey’s house is mentioned by the killer as being miles from any other house, which makes her feel cut off from help. The ghost face Halloween costume is also part of the iconography, as we see it reoccur throughout the film. These visual short hands tell the audience that it is a horror film. The first time we see the killer is after Steve had been killed and the killer breaks into the house. A POV shot slowly walks backwards as we see Casey heading for a side door. There is no music at this point until the masked killer runs past at the other side of the house. A quick blast of high-pitched music is used to scare you. Casey makes it outside, making the audience think she is safe. This is then empathised with a shot of her parent’s car in the distance. As she tries to get away, an extreme close up shot showing the mask properly, appears at the window. Casey screams which makes the audience jump. Casey runs towards her parent’s car, which has got closer. At this point the audience are on the edge of their seats screaming at the screen, hoping Casey gets away. A shot of her parent’s car drives past her without her being noticed. The killer then jumps through a window and pounces onto Casey. As they both get up a slow motion shot is used and the music becomes faster and higher pitched until the climax at the stabbing. This background music is parallel because we expect to hear this scary music before a killing takes place. Cast falls to the ground screaming in pain as the camera focuses on the blood she is losing.

Craven teases the audience when Casey goes to pull off the killers mask before he finished her off, because before you can see who the killer is, the camera pans away so you can’t identify him. This makes the viewer want to carry on watching to find out who the killer is and why these two seemingly innocent teenagers have been brutally murdered.

I really enjoyed analysis this opening scene to screen as I have never completely focused on a small section of film before and watched it time and time again to really concentrate on the camera, lighting and sound. This is going to help me greatly for things to concentrate on when making my own films. I also really like the surveillance/ voyeuristic qualities to this opening scene.

My Evidence Wall

I have started to put together my own evidence wall of found objects from the site. I am going to carry on collecting items over the next few weeks and start to form narratives and story board from my imagination. I would like to create a linked narrative where different objects link to different characters who link together. I like the Idea of combining Reality and Fantasy, from the fantasy on screen to the reality off screen.

Mike Nelson - Creating a story from objects.

Coral Reef is a labyrinth of 15 small rooms, created in 2000. It has dingy corridors between the rooms, mostly in a state of disrepair, conjuring up the impression of people having moved in, made them their temporary home, left very little impression on the space other than one or two belongings left behind and then moved on leaving very little to recognise the fact that they were there at all.

You get to wander around the rooms as an observer and really do feel like you’re outside of their world, looking in on a snapshot of their life. You get hints of each story from props and found objects – enough to know that there is a story to tell, but not enough to make any real sense of what it could be. It creates an impression of the story but nothing more.

I love that just by observing these lone objects you start to create stories in your head and piece different segments together to create a narrative.

Here is what the Tate have to say about it:

“To enter Mike Nelson’s The Coral Reef is to enter a parallel world. Rooms, doors, passageways, all bear traces of habitation and decay. Different, often conflicting, ideologies or belief systems are presented through these traces. The implied occupants of Nelson’s world appear to be detached from the political and economic centre, left to exist at the margins of globalised, capitalist society. The work’s title alludes to this collection of complex, fragile belief systems that form an obscured layer – a coral reef – beneath the ‘ocean surface’ of prevailing orthodoxies.”

ONEDOTZERO

Last week I went to the ONEDOTZERO-ADVENTURES in motion festival 2010 at the BFI at the south bank.

This was a continued exploration of ondotzero's fascination with the city via an eclectic series of filimic responses to urban environments and fast paced city living. As we accelerate towards becoming nations of super cities, this years selection presents and questions utopian desires, bringing a sense of adventure, hope and positivity about our shared future world.

Initial found objects

Mosaic Investigation Wall

I would like to create my own Forensics investigtion wall with all the items that I find on site. A combination of notes, drawings, photos, maps, and objects in evidence bags, are pinned to the wall, with strings linking some of them to specific dates.

Sophie Calle

Sophie Calle is an artist who I have been looking at in detail, as she is fascinated by the interface between our public lives and our private selves. This has led her to investigate patterns of behaviour using techniques akin to those of a private investigator, a psychologist, or a forensic scientist. All skills which I am also learning.

Calle's very first work involved following strangers around Paris. Calle had been abroad for a number of years and the idea behind this surveillance was initially an attempt to reacquaint herself with the city. However, she soon discovered that observing the behaviour and actions of these strangers provided information with which to construct their identities.

Having found the address book of one Pierre D, Calle photocopied the contents before returning it to its owner. Calle then visited and interviewed the people listed, in order to build up a profile of its owner from their descriptions and anecdotes. The results were published in Liberation. At around the same time Calle herself became the willing subject of such investigations. In 1981 at Calle's request, her mother hired a private detective to follow her daughter, photograph her in secret and record her every movement. It was, in Calle's words, an attempt 'to provide photographic evidence of my own existence'.

Peeping Tom

MUST GO SEE THIS WHEN RE RE-RELEASED 19TH NOVEMBER...

The 1960 film which scandalised British critics and all but ended the career of director Michael Powell has been digitally restored for a 50th anniversary release at cinemas and on Blu-ray.

Over the years Peeping Tom has had its reputation was gradually restored with enthusiastic supporters such as Martin Scorsese and is now regarded as a classic of the era.

An unsettling exploration of voyeurism and violence, it is the story of a disturbed photographer (Karl Heinz Boehm) who films women before murdering them in order to study their reactions to death.

Although tame by today’s standards, the film still has a creepy power, placing the audience in the position of the killer.

It is also an interesting study in psychology as the motives of the killer are firlmy rooted in his troubled upbringing by a cruel psychologist father (intriguingly played by Powell himself).

It came out the same year as Psycho and has often been compared with Alfred Hitchcock’s landmark film.

Both deal with a disturbed protagonist, feature groundbreaking depictions of violence and make the audience complicit voyeurs to the onscreen action.

The UK press were scandalised by both films, but whereas the US success of Psycho ensured a swift reappraisal and enormous financial success, Powell’s film effectively ended his career.

Elements of the media had harboured suspicions about the innovative films of Powell and his partner Emeric Pressburger, and with Peeping Tom they had a field day, denouncing it as perverted and sick.

Fifty years on the film has been digitally restored for release on Blu-ray and will also get a theatrical run at selected UK cinemas.

Forensic Photography

Why is The Scene Photographed?

The crime scene is photographed to minimise the risk of conflicting statements and - if there is a corpse at the scene - it too will be photographed post mortem so that a record of how the body was found, what position it was found in, and the nature of its mortal injuries can be documented for later inspection.

In many cases photographic evidence is very important for both the prosecution and defence counsels. It is also used as a means of displaying the nature of a crime scene to officers of an investigative team who were not able to attend. The means in which crime scenes are photographed are such that the most intricate of details can be recorded for future reference. There are many different types of lens, camera and indeed light that can be used for this procedure and even night vision photography is used in certain scenarios.Advances in modern technology have also meant that a crime scene can not only be photographed but also recorded as video to represent an accurate depiction of what was happening at the time; this can be useful in criminal proceedings and subsequent court cases.

How Forensic Photography is Used

A forensic photographer will often use numbered indicators, which are also height indicators and these are placed next to pieces of evidence before they are photographed. This is used to portray height, distance and radius especially if the crime scene is outside or in a very enclosed space. These numbered markers are also used to cross reference the evidence against any reports made and often find themselves known as 'exhibits' in subsequent court proceedings.Crime scene photographs are also used - not only as a means of evidence - but also as a blueprint for reconstructing a scene or event at a later stage. These reconstructive events can be used as a means of jogging the memories of passers-by who may have been witness to an event or saw a perpetrator without realising they had.

Photography is also used to catalogue the series of events, which occur from the time a corpse is found - and removed from a crime scene - and taken for autopsy. The autopsy itself is photographed so that all relevant details as to the procedure can be recorded and that all visible wounds are catalogued. All photographs or video taken at a crime scene are indelibly time and date stamped.

Creating a Narrative...

For my next piece of research I want to take a step back from stalking, and look at survelliance in a different way. I want to start to create a narrative from the site. From the people I watch, to the items I find, to the things I see. This analysis will give me a better insight into site and the unexpected moments happening all around. I want to start looking into forensics to create a story. This type of surveillance will allow be to get away from creating a cheesy stalker film which I am over conscious about.

Private eye.

As I couldnt do filming at my site due to weather conditions, I decided to continue practicing my surveillance skills, and stalking without getting caught. I like that part of the view is obstructed so that it looks like a secret camera.

Celebrity and the Public Gaze

Forensics

Forensics and Survelieance go hand in hand. I am now interested in looking at forensic evidence as its embeded in the landscape and has a story to tell. I am going to to use surveillance in a different way to try and create a story from what I find on site.

Questions I want to ask myself: who's surveying and who's being surveyed ?

Unexpected.

I have been concentrating on using photography to capture images of people unexpectedly, in a surveillance/ stalker way. I like this paparazzi style photography as you get immediate reactions and its not staged. Unexpected moments are usually the best to capture.

Unexpected

Getting Caught

Vodka and Red Shoes

Stalking Katy Perry

Becoming Paparazzi.... For one night I became a real life pap. It was all staged but none the less it was fun. I got some great shots of 'Katy Perry', chasing her through soho and into a cab. It was a real stalker feeling. People were watching and staring, as I shouting 'KATY... KATY' down the streets.

(My First) Stop Motion Stalking

Stop motion (also known as stop action or frame-by-frame) is an animation technique to make a physically manipulated object appear to move on its own. The object is moved in small increments between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames is played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion for their ease of repositioning. Motion animation using clay is called clay animation or clay-mation.

When creating a stalker / cctv style footage stop motion works really well as it almost feels like a chase. The split seconds missed in between each frame add to the suspense. I would like to recreate this at night, with lighting, and try and instal some motion sensored lights to my chosen area of the site. However I need to be careful not to start making a cheesy horror film.

Fluorescent Lights

I am interested in looking at Fluorescent lighting as part of my project, and seeing if I can connect them to motion sensors as a starting point to making something.

I like that when these lights are film in slow motion you are able to capture their flickering qualities.

CCTV and Split Screen

Ideas for how to record and show my stalking/ voyeur footage:

I like the way that 4 different angles are being relayed at the same time, which empathissis the 'being watched' feeling

I then went back to the site and recorded all the CCTV cameras I could find and mapped them on an ariel view of the site.

Theis split screen idea made me re-watch Requiem for a Dream as this also does a similar thing with split screens and photography and stop motion.

'Aronofsky uses montages of extremely short shots throughout the film (sometimes termed a hip hop montage). While an average 100-minute film has 600 to 700 cuts,Requiem features more than 2,000. Split-screen is used extensively, along with extremely tight closeups.Long tracking shots (including those shot with an apparatus strapping a camera to an actor, called the Snorricam) and time-lapse photography are also prominent stylistic devices.'

I