Contextual Research - Rocks That Bleed (2015)

Rocks That Bleed (2015)

Contextual Research - Short Film

Rocks That Bleed is a drama short film, written and directed by Bertie Gilbert. It follows two brothers, Joe and Sid, who meet again after a year and a half of separation. It is immediately apparent that the two men are very different, Joe being a sociable extrovert, enjoying women and football; whereas Sid, an introverted artist, seems to spend more time alone in his apartment. Inevitably, the two face conflict over contrasting ideas and lifestyles – possibly including Sid’s hinted homosexuality. As time goes on, it becomes clear that the brothers have reconciled to spend their last days on earth together, as the earth is destroyed by a solar flare.

Present

Past

One thing I find particularly interesting in this film is the use of colour. Red is frequently used when the brothers spend their final day in the apartment, symbolising the increasing heat of the approaching sun. This is an interesting technique of including the sense of imminent danger, as the audience is never shown, nor told, what the brothers are waiting for – also creating a contrast between the present and past scenes.  

As well as connoting danger, the red colour, also connects to the central image of the film, “Rocks That Bleed”, which Joe questions Sid about. This perhaps is a metaphor for the brothers, who when they first meet in the apartment share small, meaningless dialogue, but to close the film, Sid says to Joe:

“Right, just under an hour left, let’s not waste it.

I have a question, Just one question see I’m a little out of the loop, and if your answer resembles anything to do with the word “fine”, then you can fuck off.

My question is… How are you?”

By the end of the film, therefore, the brothers have cracked through each other’s rock to reveal the human beneath, united through inevitable tragedy. The red also highlighting the blood between the brothers, but also a strong love. 

This simple, yet effective stylistic decision is something I hope to incorporate in my own film, as not only is it visually appealing, but it also can be used to enhance story and character - as seen in this film. I have also tried to detail this in my writing:

My story begins at night, before either character or the audience knows what is going to take place -
suggesting that something sinister may be about to take place.

By the end of the story, the mood has changed as Adam and Eve have shed light not only on their situation, but on each other and have grown closer despite meeting as strangers in the darkness.
The morning light now coming in reflects the idea of hope, and the pair beginning a new day.

 I would also like to look more into colour, and the different connotations which can be associated with them, in order to develop my film's visual design.

The scenes in the film are all quite long, with long shot lengths and simple transitions. This is effective as it allows the story to be told cleverly through what is happening in the scene, rather than explicitly told through dialogue. The long shots mean that the film does not feel rushed to create the typical action take on the end of the world, but instead focuses on the simpler but more emotional and poignant storyline on the effects of the brother's relationship before the end of the world.

The camera tracks Joe, clearly showing that this is his party -
demonstrating his popularity among his peers.

The longer shots also allows the audience to follow the characters and show well choreographed movements, especially the party scene where all the different people are moving within the scene but the camera is following Joe.  This is effective in demonstrating the difference between the pair, as we can see Joe socialising with all of his guests as a host, while his brother throws up on the floor in the back garden.

These long shots are also useful for establishing setting and scene, which is how I would like to open my two-minute scene. A slow cutting rate in opening my film would create a deathly atmosphere – suited to my narrative, focusing around the isolation of a dead body. However, in the edit I would also like to explore cutting rhythms, and perhaps change this at different points to reflect different sections of the story. For example, starting off slowly to establish the scene, building to a quicker rhythm when Adam and Eve argue, then slowing back down to a resolution.

Story-Telling Unit: Script Surgery

SCRIPT SURGERY

(Monday 24th October)

Following my script tutorial with Simon, I have made the following changes to my script and story:

•  Deleted any unnecessary detail in stage directions – i.e. only write about what you can picture in your frame, not what you want the audience to think / assume (more concise, saves room for extra material within the 10 pages.

Weighty paragraph with unnecessary information, the audience can be left
to work out what she is assuming.

Cut down considerably, less to be confused with, more straight to the point.

•    The ending – although my previous ending finished on a cliff-hanger, it seemed to be underwhelming. Instead of this quick and simple ending, I now have more of a twist as it is revealed that the body isn’t actually a corpse. All 3 characters walk away unharmed, making the story more about my main characters and leaving them both in a sense of dark irony.

Old End

New End

Story-Telling Unit: Editing Workshop

WORKSHOP 3

(Friday 21st October)

In our final editing workshop, we looked more closely into different shortcuts, including the Slip and Slide tools.

A slip edit changes the timing, but not the length of a clip.  The footage will roll forward or backwards in the clips current duration.  In this way, it doesn’t affect the other clips in the Sequence like a Ripple Edit does.

The slide edit actually slides a clip up or down within your timeline. Like slip, it doesn’t affect the other clips in sequence.

Putting these tools and everything we've learned over the past few weeks, this is my trailer for Zero to Hero.

The Final Edit:

Contextual Studies: Sound

SOUND

(Thursday 20th November)

“When words fail, music speaks.”

Hans Christian Andersen

Sound is a vital tool in all moving image story-telling, functioning to provide the audience with:

• An aural narrative (dialogue, voicerover)
• Ambience (mood, atmosphere, sfx)
• Emotional or intellectual resonance (music, soundtrack)

These uses of sound can be broken into categories of diegetic (can be heard by characters within the scene), or non-diegetic (cannot be heard). As seen in this clip, for example:

·         Diegetic sfx of alarms, phone, smashing glass – heighten drama, affecting the audience’s perception of the scene

·         Non-diegetic soundtrack (except in scenes with Moriarty) is used externally to its source,  connecting the scenes and enhancing the action by  creating a sting with the on-screen action

·         Ambience of road / city sounds - completes a realistic scene, simulating reality

·         Dialogue between characters / scenes is extended across locations, showing the scale of the problem and the power of the culprit

Story-Telling Unit: Camera Workshop / Location Shoot

WORKSHOP 4
(Wednesday 19th October)

Today we had our first shoot on location at the studios, in which we created a simple short film in groups of 3-4. The main point of the shoot was not so much focused on story-telling (though clearly that is always important), but more on teamwork. Despite a slightly challenging start, Callum, Sonia and I worked well as a team – with Sonia starring, Callum as Director of Photography and me as Director / Sound Operator.

The Final Edit:

Story-Telling Unit: Idea Development

IDEA DEVELOPMENT

(Monday 17th October)

After still struggling to formulate a solid story, Simon and I discussed several different ideas and directions my story could follow in my tutorial:

This has inspired me to rethink my story, after seemingly looking too far into making it "clever" and ultimately reaching a Dead End (pun not intended). Preparing to write my script this week for our tutorials on Monday, I have come up with a rough storyline:

• Two strangers (male and female) meet after discovering a dead body in a car park (possibly a class divide? completely contrasting personalities/lifestyles) attempts to call the police but no signal.
• The female instantly assumes the male has murdered the unidentified man (stand-off dynamic) and ultimately refuses to get any help as she doesn't want him to run.
• Knowing that he is in danger of investigation when police arrive, the man suggests that they both run but the female is disgusted (conflict).
• When blue flashing lights appear on the main road outside, the female goes to guide them in.
• She returns to see the man escaping, but doesn't go to stop him - leaving him to slip away into the early morning.

I have therefore got rid of the idea of an assassin, and instead left this as a mystery for the audience to think about themselves, but focused more on the conflict between the two personalities of the living characters in the story. However, I have kept the idea of a confined space, as not only does this keep things simple production-wise, but also enhances the idea of a stand-off.

Story-Telling Unit: Editing Workshop

WORKSHOP 2

(Friday 14th October)

Today's workshop focused more on the art of storytelling in a drama sense, as opposed to last week's more documentary style project. This therefore meant that we had to consider new aspects of our editing including audio dialogue, matching action to different shots and keeping the pace of our scene.

As part of this process, Fergus introduced us to several shortcut tools in Premiere:

• Track Select Tool - Selects all clips on one track for simple selection
• Ripple Edit Tool - A tool used to shorten / lengthen a clip without affecting other clips
• Rolling Edit Tool - Used to change a clip's in and out points without changing the sequence length
• Razor Tool - Used to split clips precisely

My Finished Edit: