Skateistan: To Live And Skate Kabul by Orlando Von Einsiedel

Skateistan follows a group of young skaters in Afghanistan who run a chartity that operates against the backdrop of war and poverty. The Skateistan charity project is the worlds first co-educational skateboarding school.

The reason I like this documentary and have chosen to write about it is mainly because of how it tackles the issue its focused on. Normally what I think would be a stereotypical documentary of how the war affects the people of Afghanistan would follow a more generic style for the topic it is tackling. I like that it focuses on the issue through skating, its a very unusual thing for a charity to be run through skating, and the fact that Orlando Von Einsiedel plays on this, makes it a very interesting piece.

It conveys the message across though nonetheless, and powerfully too. Some of the vox pops are moving and upsetting. It is beautifully filmed, the colours work well, the landscape shots are appealing but express the poverty of Afghanistan also. The electronic beats go well with the skater theme.

http://vimeo.com/15841377

Pockets by James Lees

This documentary was filmed on the streets of London, and the complete production took 1 month. It entails people showing what is in their pockets, trinkets and objects that are important to them, or show a bit about themselves or what they do.

I like the style of this documentary, because it isn't just interviewing people of what are in their pockets, the way it is put together is a lot more creative. It has the camera set up for a specific close up shot which shows the object and the hand of the person holding it. This is cut up with some of the subjects speaking about their object. Its a nice way to do the documentary, rather than the 'standard' documentary style.

I think that documentary's done in this style are a lot more interesting, I like the creative approach. Obviously some documentary's need a lot of talking because they need to convey information that can't all be explained through imagery. But for a nice simple idea like Pockets, the creative style works well, and I'll take that on board when thinking of ideas for our documentary in Liverpool.

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xerafy_pockets-by-james-lees_shortfilms

Sound List

The sounds we need to collect are mainly the everyday things were showing:

Light switch

Kettle switch

Match being struck

tap being turned on

water

phone being picked up

money spinning

paper folding

Atmos tracks.

Shot List

Close Ups

Everyday things such as turning on lights, kettle, picking up the phone etc.

Ice, Water, Flowers

Smoking a ciggarette

oragami shirt


Mid Shots

Lifting weights, candle, flowers.


Wide Angle

Sky (for timelapse)

Oragami man burning

Contacts Sheet

Zach Atherton-Collins

No. 07780008150

Email: zach1993@live.co.uk


Jordan Jones

No. 07557733802

Email: jonesy0550@msn.com


Owen Feltham

No. 07803174480

Email: owen_feltham@gmx.co.uk

Proposal

Me and my group are going to make a short experimental film based on the word Fragility. Originally we were going to base it on the word 'Life' but thought it was too open. What we propose to do is to show is how things in life weaken and eventually fizzle out.

We shall show this in a number of shots such as flowers then dead flowers etc. then in the edit tying them kind of shots in with shots of everyday life, turning on a light, picking up a phone etc. By doing this we are hoping to show how things do fade away in life, how fragile things are

Hauschka by Jeff Desom

http://vimeo.com/3186143

I really enjoyed this piece, simply because of the visual style and pace of the whole video. I think its kind of ironic because the music is so calm and the pace so slow but it shows a piano falling from the sky which obviously in reality would cause panic.

I think it is visually beautiful and it is an excellent choice of music. I also find it very clever how hes made the film.

Yet again this has opened up my mind to experimental film, this may be abstract but it is obviously not just thrown together in the edit.

Fisticuffs by Miranda Pennell

I liked this experimental video mainly because it opened my mind to what experimental could be. At first I thought experimental films were just all abstract and generally just off-the-wall but after watching this short film I realised there can be a lot more to it than that.

I enjoyed the quirky humour of it and it was obvious how planned and well organised the shoot was. Because all the fights were so well choreographed, it made me realise that some experimental films such as that could not just be shot willy nilly and put together in the edit, but needed to be organised to perfection.

http://flamin.filmlondon.org.uk/showcase/assets/showcase_items/fisticuffs