Metamorphosis Evaluation
At the start of the project I was unsure where I was going to take the project however I knew I wanted to play around with latex to change someone into some form of monster. I feel this would link into the idea of metamorphosis. I struggled to come up with more of an idea than just playing about with latex, then while experimenting with ways to distort a face I found out using some black fabric to create a veil had a creepy vibe. I also experimented with some black ink in water and dripping it on my hands, these clips ended up feeling religious and almost like lady Macbeth from Shakespeare.
As part of research we were told to watch Un Chein Andalou, Entr’acte, Ballet Mecanique and Voyage Dans La Lune. They are all experimental film pieces from the early 1900’s and I really liked the highly experimental and disjointed story line they pretty much all had. I knew I wanted to make mine very experimental too and play about with different techniques such as slow motion. As part of a mini group research project we were given a film to watch and research into together, I was given the film L’age D’or, this was a French film from 1931 by Salvador Dali and Luis Bunuel. I really enjoyed this film as there was a definite story line that I could somewhat easily follow even though it was all in French. I don’t think I will take this further for my own film as Id prefer to have mine a lot more open to interpretation than an actual story.
I looked into the film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari from 1920, this movie was said to be the first real horror movie. I really enjoy this movie as the ending of the film leaves you wondering what exactly was real and what wasn’t I like the idea of leaving the viewer confused as to what happened. Dr Caligari was a big inspiration to Tim Burton, who happens to be one of my favourite film directors. You can see close relations to Dr Caligari in a few of Burtons films such as Edward scissor hands.
After researching into films I had a few more ideas of what I could film from my own movie. The whole purpose of my film was to make the viewer feel uncomfortable and curious as the storyline of the movie is not clear. I found editing the movie enjoyable as I could get clips exactly how I wanted them. I chose to change my whole movie into black and white so that it removed any harsh colours of skin etc. so that it wasn’t distracting to what was actually happening. I also liked that the scenes I used ink ended up looking more like blood and it made it have an even more disturbed sense to it. I am happy with the music that I chose in the end for my film, I chose to find the music once I was happy with how the editing had gone as I wanted the music to fit the film not the other way around. I found a slightly hypnotic piece of music that had creepy yet calm tones to it. I felt this fit the movie well and helped bring the piece together. The title of my movie is Les Yeux, which means The Eyes in French, it was suggested by a tutor as I was struggling to come up with what it could be, I feel this fits my movie well as I was heavily inspired by the old French experimental films and the eye is something that features all throughout the film.
Overall I am happy with the final outcome of my film as during critiques people have always had the reaction of it being creepy but they like it, exactly what I wanted my film to do. However, if I had more time I feel that I would try make more clips to fill out the story, or even have an actual storyline to it but with a similar disjointedness as Un Chein Andalou where you’re left thinking about what you just watched.
Maeve Dawson Art 