The Showroom

The arts organisation I have chosen to look at for section D of Unit 1 of the Arts Award is The Showroom. The Showroom is an independent cinema in Sheffield city center, which not only shows both mainstream and independent films, but also runs many film clubs and other special sessions. It is also attached to the Workstation, described on its website as "Sheffield's leading business centre for Creative and Digital Industries."

The BFI Film Academy which I went to took place in The Showroom, and is just one example of one of the many film events they host here. It is also the reason why I have been to The Showroom so much recently, and have been able to learn more about the cinema as well as the opportunities and events it provides. One of these opportunities are the many film clubs, which are:

• Young Cinema - a Saturday film club for children and families which shows both new and classic releases, as well as before the film providing activities such as creating characters and making music for silent films. 
• Early Doors - a film club on Thursday mornings for people over 55, showing new releases with coffee and cake. Each film is also presented with an introduction.
• Kino Bambino! - a Monday morning screening of new releases for parents with babies less than a year old. The screenings have lower sound levels and a comfortable atmosphere, as well as complimentary hot drink afterwards.
• KicStart - A film club held every month for children with autism and their families. It's described as a low sensory experience, the film not needing subtitles and with reduced sound, the house lights on low and people welcome to move about. It also has a quiet room available during the duration of the film. 
• Film Studies - a programme every Wednesday with film screenings and discussions led by Film lecturers from Sheffield Hallam University. A new topic of studies is picked per term, a term lasting eight weeks. The current term of film studies is: 'Ridley Scott: Back Down to Earth with the Boy from South Shields'.

The Showroom also has a Stage on Screen programme, where they show live and pre-recorded theatre, ballet and opera, regular film quiz nights, as well as film seasons, such as the upcoming LGBT History Month screenings and hosting the Japan Foundation Touring Film Programme 2016.

The Showroom also has several loyalty and membership schemes. Their main one is a standard membership, where you get £1 discount on each film you see, as well as collecting 10 points for each pound you spend, collect enough points and you can get a free cinema ticket. Another new scheme is 'My Showroom', a free loyalty scheme where you collect points for each purchase you make. A scheme I have found out about and will get involved with is their InterActive scheme, a free membership for 15 - 18 year olds where you can get tickets for £4.50 across The Showroom's entire programme of films, as well as the scheme hosting some special screenings for InterActive members, the next one of these an "uniquely immersive cinema event" with a quiz, free coffee and doughnuts and a live band all before a screening of 'Groundhog Day'.

Another thing I found out about whilst spending time at The Showroom is their involvement with the documentary film festival, Doc/Fest. This is an annual festival that takes place in Sheffield, and is one of the worlds leading and the UK's premiere documentary film festival. The festival also has many opportunities for people wanting to work in the world of film, as any filmmaker can submit their documentary to the festival, the website saying that Doc/Fest is "dedicated to new talent and voices". Anyone can also submit ideas for sessions, and apply for the 'Meetmarket', a marketplace full of executives, distributors, commissioners, funders, advisers and buyers, creating an amazing opportunity for film makers to pitch their ideas and network.

For me, personally, I will be looking into participating in the Youth Jury, and also looking at volunteering opportunities. The Youth Jury is a free programme which allows five young people aged 18 - 22 access to industry insiders both in London and in the festival, and gives the successful applicants way into seeing how the documentary industry works, as well as providing many more opportunities. At the end of Doc/Fest, the Youth Jury also picks their own winning film, and award it a prize. This to me sounds like an amazing opportunity, and something I'd like to be a part of. I would also like to look into volunteering, as the Youth Jury is hard to get into, and gain some experience being part of a film festival.

The Showroom is a fantastic arts organisation, as it is much more than just a cinema, and I look forward to taking advantage of the opportunities it offers.

My Edit - The Finished Products

Here are my two finished edits:

I like the way the first one turned out. I think I successfully created a sinister atmosphere, giving the intended meaning of this scene. If I were to do this again, when filming I would try and get shots with less people at the start, to introduce the idea of this character being isolated. I would also film at a different time of day, as the white sky doesn't help as most of the footage looks bright and white, which makes the scene seem less sinister as it is taking place in broad daylight. However, I am happy with the edit I created with what I had. If I had more time, I would also make more cuts towards the end, to build up tension even more, especially right at the end of the scene.

I'm also happy with how the second edit turned out. I think for what footage I had, I did well with. If I was going to film it again, I would shoot some longer, still shots as it was hard to edit the film to focus on the setting when the camera was moving because of me walking. The times I did stand still to film, I moved on too quickly, meaning some of my shots in this edit are too short to exactly fit to the music, making it flow less. The sort of scene I filmed here is mainly establishing shots, and is something that would be used at the start of the film to establish the time period and location. This means that there isn't much emotional reaction that can be had by an audience by this scene, especially as there are no present characters. Next time, I would introduce a character and show their reaction to this place in order to gain a greater response from an audience.

My Edit - The Editing Process

I first did the horror edit. To create meaning in this edit, I:

• I chose a piece of music called 'measured paces' by Kevin MacLeod. This music matches with my intentions for the meaning as it is simplistic yet sinister, the simple piano chords adding to the footage instead of distracting from it.
• I edited my clips to the music, making the edit on a beat. I did this to make the music and the footage flow better as one, and seem less jarring. 
• I chose to include shots which seemed more enclosed and less open, to create a sense of claustrophobia, and give the idea that there is no escape.
• As the clip goes on, I make the shots shorter, speeding up the cuts. This was to disorientate the audience, and the footage moves from one place to the next, adding confusion and making the audience unsure of their surroundings in this first person view of the graveyard.
• I chose the faster moving shots where I am walking at a faster pace, which I intended to make it look like I was being chased, increasing the sense of threat when I get to the mysterious and closed off mausoleum at the end of the scene.
• I included the shots of my shoes to introduce a character to the audience, and as it is a a character in this situation, this builds tension as the audience sympathises and fears for the character.
• I also used filters to change the colour temperature to make them more cold, and also changed the brightness to make the shots darker. This is because I filmed in the day, and the shots were bright and full of warmer colours, which doesn't create fear. The colder colours make the audience more wary and feel less comfortable, changing the brightness to make the shots darker makes the setting more sinister, as it is dark and creates a greater fear in the audience of the unknown.

Editing the sinister and creepy scene

My second edit was more of the landscape, and I intended for it to be sad, atmospheric and have a feeling of melancholy.

• When editing, I made cuts longer, and chose shots with less movement.
• The music I used was "Pepper's Theme", also by Kevin MacLeod. This piano music is a lot slower and sadder, and like the last edit I cut on the piano notes to make the cuts less jarring and flow with the music.
• I used shots of more open space to make the focus on the large landscapes, and decrease any claustrophobia to make the edit more relaxing to watch.
• I didn't include any shots of me or my feet walking as in the previous edit to make the focus of the scene the surroundings and eliminate any tension created by the presence of a character.
• Whilst I still had shots from the graveyard, I edited them to use the parts of the shot that focused more on the forest surroundings than the graves themselves.
• I didn't use any effects or filters, as I filmed the footage around sunset, making the lighting warm and the sky full of colour, adding to my film as it makes the settings more beautiful and relaxing to watch, building the atmosphere.
• I also used more cuts of streets and busy places to reduce the feeling of solitude, making the film more melancholy as the camera is alone in these busy places rather than a character in an isolating place.
• I also edited a journey of going into the cemetery and then leaving it, reducing tension as the camera leaves a place that could possibly be threatening to go back to society at the end, making the audience less tense about what could happen next.

• 

  Editing the melancholy scene which focused on landscape and setting

   

Leadership - Evaluation and Reflection

After finishing our short film and getting the chance to see it on the big screen last Saturday, I can say that overall I am very happy about our finished product.
I think everyone in our group worked together when making the film, and on the day of the shoot we were very efficient and worked well as a team. We all helped each other in making the film as good as it could be, everyone making suggestions on how to film at some point in the day, and all of us working together to manage our actors.

On the day of the edit, I as the editor had a stressful day but a rewarding one. I was helped by the producer of the film in the process, who had talked to the rest of our crew so I could create an edit we were all happy with. When showing the finished film to our group, their positive reactions to the editing was encouraging, and I'm glad that I could put together our footage into a film we were all happy with.

Over making the film I have definitely developed and improved as an editor, as not only have I physically edited a film, but during the shoot I did jobs I didn't know an editor would have, such as making a log of each shot. I also improved my leadership skills through my eagerness to get all of the footage we would need for the edit to be successful, as I knew that we couldn't fix everything in the edit.

Feedback from my group:

"Isy really helped in the planning and organisation prior to the shoot, ensuring we had everything we needed. This thoroughness helped when it came to editing." - Amelia, the producer.

"Isy was always really organised, and knew what to do in the edit, as I'm really pleased with how the script looked on the screen." - Kirstie, who wrote the screenplay

"To say she wasn't an experienced editor, I think the edit for our film is what we all wanted it to be, so I was impressed." - Andy, the director

Overall, I am very happy in the way I have developed as an editor, and I'm also pleased with how we worked as a team to overcome challenges during the shoot and the edit.

Star Wars: The Force Awakens

This weekend, I finally saw 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens'. I'm familiar with the Star Wars franchise, like most people, as I saw some of the films and played the video games when I was younger. Over the Christmas holidays, I had a marathon of all six films, as I had never seen every film before all the way through and in the release order, starting with the original trilogy. After familiarising myself with the lore of the series, I thought it was finally time to see the newest installment.

I went with my friend, who is a big fan of the original Star Wars trilogy and who had already seen the film. His verdict was that it was good, but not as good as what he'd heard it was, as the film has been highly acclaimed by many Star Wars fans, unlike the prequel trilogy that came out around fifteen years ago. Although the film has been out for almost a month now, the cinema was still relatively full, which created an excited atmosphere and built my anticipation for the film.

The film itself is about Finn, an ex-Stormtrooper who after his first battle decides to run away, and Rey, a scavenger from an sparse planet. They're brought together by BB8, a droid that holds an important map for the resistance, a team fighting against the First Order, a surfaced version of the Dark Side lead by Kylo Ren and General Hux. In their adventures they are joined by rebellion fighter pilot Poe, as well as characters from the original trilogy such as Han Solo, Chewbacca and Princess (now General) Leia.

I loved this film. I thought it was one of the most charming and enjoyable blockbusters I've seen for a long time, as well as including all the things about Star Wars that made it great. The audience also seemed to enjoy it, laughing at the jokes and quips between characters, and I heard a cheer when Han Solo's ship, the Millennium Falcon, is first seen. When I came out of the cinema, my friend said that their opinion of the film had gotten better seeing it a second time, as first he expected a different film, but now he knew what was going to happen he'd found a new appreciation for it. As I had heard spoilers on social media about the film, I wasn't as suprised about some of the plot points, but I don't think this changed my enjoyment of the film.

Overall, I really enjoyed seeing 'Star Wars: The Force Awakens', and it has stuck in my mind for the past few days, as well as making a bit more of a true Star Wars fan out of me.

My Edit - Planning

For the final part of unit 1 part B of my Arts Award, I will be editing some footage I have shot in two different ways to create different meanings.

I have been around a graveyard and park close to where I live, and filmed myself walking around. I plan to edit this footage in two different ways: first, a creepy edit using techniques often used in horror films such as quick cuts and more ominous shots, and secondly, an atmospheric and almost sad view of the graveyard, using longer, sweeping shots.

I plan to use music in my two edits to further enhance the intended meaning and genre.

Amy

Over the Christmas holidays, I also went to see another film at The Showroom cinema. As a part of their 'Best of 2015' showings, I went to see Asif Kapadia's 'Amy', a documentary about the singer Amy Winehouse. I had heard her music before, and knew a bit about her life and death due to the extensive media coverage, and so wanted to know more, especially because I knew the film had done very well both commercially and critically. I also knew there had been a negative response about the film from her family, and this made me more curious to see what the film was like.

The documentary follows the life of Amy Winehouse and her rise to fame, as well as her battles with substance addiction. The film starts with video footage of her at fourteen, singing happy birthday at a friends party, singing with a jazz orchestra at sixteen, and then doing her first gigs at eighteen. It follows the making of her first and second albums, and how a lot of the songs she wrote were true stories about her life, as well as her battles with bulimia and self harm, ultimately leading up to her death.

An interesting thing I thought about the film was the way the documentary was made. It is an observatory documentary, though at some points it starts to become a poetic documentary, the words of her songs appearing on the screen, more recent footage of places setting the scene for older stories and the fact that all the interviews are only audio - none of the interviews done exclusively for the film include any visual footage. I thought this method of documentary making was very effective, especially as the audio alone made so we only got her friends and families voices, and no body language or facial expressions, which could make the interviews more reliable, or possibly less as we don't have these things.

To me, although the documentary dealt with a tragic and upsetting story, it was never very sentimental. There was very little to emotionally manipulate the audience, which in a way made it more effective, as it wasn't setting out to make an audience cry, but to tell them a true story. Although portraying her father and ex husband negatively, Kapadia uses stories from her friends, family and doctors to do this, making this negative representation seem more reliable.

To me, 'Amy' was a very interesting documentary. After the film ended and the titles rolled, the whole of the audience sat in silence until the very end, and I was part of this, not quite knowing what to do or say. I went to go see it with my mother, who was also effected by it, one thing I remember her saying was that she couldn't quite believe her parents reactions to the mental illness and eating disorders she had during her childhood. I was glad I went to see it, and I would definitely recommend it, as both a portrayal of the effects of depression and substance dependency, but also as a representation of how the media can be toxic, and negatively effect people's lives in horrible ways.