Project Evaluation (Task 1 &2) 1000 words

Sense of Space

This first project on sound was something that provided me with a bit of a learning curve; I has not before had much focus on sound which accompanied an image, let a lone producing a clip if sound alone. The ideas process started of quite slow in my opinion, trying to come up with an idea which conveyed a sense of space proved to be quite a challenge. My partner then had the idea of trying to achieve a sense of being inside someones head as they attempt to block out the world around them. He described the feeling of being on a train journey, and becoming absorbed in a book; how the more you read into it the more able you are to block out the sounds that are around you. It was pointed out that a sound project attempting to convey emotions and feelings may be quite a challenge, but we believed that it was something we would like to attempt.

Technically, it did provide quite a challenge. Connors role of sound recordist meant trying to collect specific sounds from the station, in order to create an effective atmospheric track on which to base the rest of our project. A lot of the footage collected contained a lot of background sound which we thought would be too distracting for the listener, it took quite a few attempts in order to correct this problem, though we did manage to isolate the audio needed to create an effective atmospheric track. The mono track, including the page-turning and the speech were the most challenging features if our soundtrack; it was vitally important that these were isolated sounds with as little background noise as possible, we booked out a room in the library in order to do this, although we still found that there was some unwanted noise. This would need to be fixed in the editing process.

When it came to editing, which was my designated role, I found it quite difficult to match up the sounds we recorded in order to create a good pace. We also needed to make sure that it was possible for our audience to understand what we were trying to convey. Getting the sound levels correct so that everything was heard and decipherable was probably the biggest challenge in the editing process as all the sounds we had contrasted quite a lot with each other i.e the sound of the train, peoples voices, Connors voice and other general sound effects. After the first group crit, it was much easier knowing that people were able to understand the sort of narrative we were going for, and getting feedback on the sound levels helped us to improve when we went back to edit. 

Overall, there are certain aspects of our sound piece which I am pleased with; the atmosphere that it managed to create and I think we really challenged ourselves with trying to portray feelings and thoughts, which I believe we succeeded with to an extent.

Experimental film

From my point of view, our experimental film task went through a massive development stage; our 'spark' word began at confessions; my original influence being that of Tracey Emin's piece of work entitled 'everyone i've ever slept with' or 'Tent'. It was originally going to be a literal interpretation of this piece of work, exploring the idea of confessional art, and personal relationships. We also thought to look at how our lives would be different without these people. However, all of our developments from these turned out to be too literal, and we found it difficult to move away from this is a productive way, Moving on from the idea of confessions and secrets, we landed on the word 'Sin', originally planning to explore all 7, we ultimately decided to focus on just on; pride. We carried this on to look at why this is considered a sin, how it applied to everyday life through the fashion industry and how it effects our confidence and body image. 
Filming this provided me with a bit of a learning curve; it was vitally important to get the camera angle and lighting right when filming the drawing scene, I did a lot of reading into how to do this because I had a specific vision of how this should look. There was also the issue of the burning, this whole procedure had to be moved outside, creating a different background to where the pictures were being drawn. I don't think this is a distinctive mistake though, not something which draws a lot of focus. 

Pride - Final Edit

Pride- Experimental Film from Katherine Muldowney on Vimeo.

Presentation

Further project development

Our project idea has developed quite a lot at this stage; the entire storyboard previously drafted has been scrapped, and we've decided to take the project in a new direction. The original plan we had proved to be a lot more time-consuming than was going to be possible, and there was no direction or message in what we were trying to say. Therefor, we have decided to stay with the word 'sin' but focus more on just the one (Pride) rather than all seven, as this proved to be rather unrealistic to achieve considering the tight deadline.
We've decided to take the word 'Pride' and explore it as a sin and how it can apply to modern society, especially the fashion industry, concentrating on the negative effect that it can have on body image and self-confidence. 
The shots we have filmed so far are stylistically influenced by Hollis Frampton's Nostalgia (1971) the burning of the photographs inspired a similar image in our film; the meaning of this being that the images being drawn and burnt represent the destructive nature of pride and vanity that exists in modern society today.

From this point, we plan to use archived footage to demonstrate our message; clips which illustrate the extent of pride and vanity which are ever-present and which we are exposed to everyday. 

Speed drawing tutorial

Our film incorporates a speed-drawing sequence, something which provided quite a barrier in the production of our film. It was incredibly important to get the camera angle, lighting and various other factors exactly right in order to achieve the effect we were after. I found this tutorial, from the reputable site devientart.com, to be very helpful in setting up the camera and lighting.

Speed Drawing Tutorial, how to Film/Edit/Upload 

• by 8DFineArt, Feb 7, 2012, 2:27:33 PM
• Journals / Personal

Some tips and tricks how to make a speed drawing video.
If you have additional tips or if you find mistakes in this guide please let me know, thank you.
(please excuse my bad english.)


1. Drawing and Filming:
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Drawing and Light source:

 Set up the place where you draw comfortable, the light should come from top(preferred) or left side of the drawing if you are right-handed. That way the area you are drawing on is not covered by the shadow of your hand. The arm of the drawing hand should show in the direction of the lightsource to make a shadow only under your arm. Shadows can cause huge brightness flickering in the time lapse.

 I fix the single sheet of paper or canvas of my drawing on the table or easel or wherever to prevent the drawing from jumping around in the time lapse video. Try to make the video smooth.

 Daylight as the only lightsource can cause flickering in the timelapse video. Especially on clouded or rainy days
The drawing should be lighted consistently.

Camera:

 It's good to set up the video camera on a stable tripod so it won't shake the view in the video. Very good are sidewards extendable tripods to position the camera over the drawing.

 The camera should be on the side of the lightsource (from left side if you are righthanded) and as vertical as possible to the drawing. So you don't film the back of your hand hiding the drawing and (especially with graphite) the drawing doesn't reflect the light in a bad way.

 Try to find a camera position where you don't cover your drawing with your shoulder or head.

 Some digital video cameras have a special feature: "Time Lapse Recording" (!) That is great for filming speed paintings. It economizes the editing in a great way and provides very small footage data compared to real time recording. Saves many hours of editing! One picture every 3 or 5 seconds works nice.
If you want to buy a new camera please make sure it has this special time lapse recording feature.

 Make a little test filming to see if you have a good drawing position and camera view.

 I use a cable as a power supply for my camera instead accucells. That way the camera can maintain its position quite exact for many days. Taking the camera of the tripod and changing accucells would change the view each time. I leave the camera turned on for the whole day and enjoy the mini time lapse preview of the last drawing session when taking a break 

2. Editing: 
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 The video should not be to long, it's better people watch your video twice than not watching it even to the end or have to fast-forward. It's good for the video if it shows fast progress. I recommend 2-3 minutes for the length of a speed painting video.

 It's not easy to pic the right music for a speed drawing or painting. It's good if it matches the theme of the drawing somehow.

Short film review #1 Hollis Frampton's "Nostalgia"

Hollis Frampton’s Nostalgia, is a playful examination of sound and vision, past and future, memory and temporality, perception and imagination. The movie consists of static shots of photographs burning on a stove with a voice-over narration explaining the photographs. The artistic “tension” of the movie is between the inconsistency of the images and the sound—the voice-over is one photograph ahead of the image on screen.

Thus, Hollis Frampton’s (nostalgia) creates a distorted temporality of inconsistency between sound and vision, past and present. Nevertheless, the timing difference between sound and vision remains consistent throughout the film, i.e. the sound always remains exactly one photograph ahead of the image, and the voice-over pauses overlap with the images of the burned photograph. This consistency creates a false sense of rhythm and precision, a dynamic feeling that may hide the discrepancies between sound and image at first. For Hollis Frampton, Nostalgia is mostly about words and the kind of relationship words can have to images.

Having viewed several excerpts from Frampton's other short films, including Poetic Justice (1972) and Zorn's Lemma (1970), it is clear that the structure and elements are typical of his style, however, the structure of Nostalgia is even more minimalist, and development in the pattern is largely unidentifiable.  

In a similar fashion, at the end of the film, the voice-over refers to the visual senses as he is inviting the audience to observe a photograph (which, because of the sound-image distortion does not appear on screen): “Here it is. Look at it. Do you see what I see?”

Thus, sound and vision provide a sort of thematic framework for Hollis Frampton’s Nostalgia. A second opposition in Nostalgia is between the stillness of the photographs and the moving temporality of the film itself.

Rough Draft/Beginnings of a storyboard

Further Idea development

Having gone through many different stages in the planning/ideas process of this project, I think it's safe to say we have agreed on one final word/idea with which we plan to base of short piece on. Our original starting point/word has developed from confessions, to lies, to secrets and finally, sins. All slightly different, yet you can see how one has influenced the next as they all sort of link in with each other. 

This word brought us the idea of looking at the 7 deadly sins (a classification of vices that has been used since early Christian times to educate and instruct Christians concerning a fallen humanity's tendency to sin). The sins are usually given as Sloth, Gluttony, Lust, Greed, Envy, Wrath, and Vanity (or pride). 

Our idea is to look at the connotations of these words, and how they are relevant in society today. For example;

Lust- The promiscuity of a generation, sex as a commodity, the porn industry ect. 

Envy- Competition of wealth, not being happy with what we have, treating inappropriate subjects as competitive (looks, love, possessions) ect.

Gluttony- Having more to eat than we need, obesity epidemic, wasting food, all the while there is starvation in the third world ect.

Wrath- Murder, war, "one-upmanship" which is ever-present in our society ect.

Sloth- The benefits state, unwillingness to work,unwillingness to help others ect.

Greed- Never being satisfied, politicians/footballers salaries, always wanting more ect. 

Vanity- The fashion industry, 'Selfie' generation, social networking sites, fad diets ect.

AnnaCoral. DeviantArt.Com 7 Deadly sins (2008)

In terms of visuals, we intend to use archived footage including social media, magazines, newspaper articles and photographs, which all support and relate to the 7 deadly sins. While amongst this, portraying the sins themselves through colour and acts which are relative.  

Presenting Ideas

Having presented my initial idea to the rest of the group, and am encouraged to stay on the subject of secrets and confessions, relating in particular to the relationships we have with others. However, though I originally planned to use Tracey Emin's work as quite a literal and direct inspiration, I have now decided to use the inspiration I have found in this piece of work, and take it in my own direction.  As mentioned before, I will be exploring the idea of secrets/confessions, and how they have an impact on both ourselves and those around us who we care about. After some consideration and further planning, I have decided to keep the piece pretty simple; it focuses on the kind of secrets that we keep from those we love, and why we have them despite how much they will effect our relationships. For example; infidelity, drug use, financial worries, sexuality, teenage pregnancy ect. and how they can worsen the situation the longer they are kept to ourselves.

Task #2 Experimental Film

On the first introduction to this task, my initial idea was to go along with exactly what the brief said; pick a word/object and work from there as a starting point. My first thoughts were to pick a part/s of the human body, and explore these and their connotations for the duration of the film. I thought of focusing on skin, lips, hair, eyes, and then even more specific; the creases and folds of the skin, birth marks, freckles, wrinkles. I imagine all of these would provided a starting point with plenty of potential to develop. My mind then started to look at this backwards; thinking of different emotions, thoughts and feelings to convey, before pinpointing a specific word or object. For example, from what I gather, experimental film can be heavily influenced by art; either one's own or the work of others. One artist I have always found completely bizarre, yet incredibly interesting and meaningful, was that of British artist Tracey Emin. Often described as a 'consummate storyteller' Emin's work engages the viewer with her candid exploration of universal emotions. Well-known for her confessional art, Tracey Emin uses personal details from her life in order to engage the viewer with her expressions of universal emotions. 

This concept of 'confessional art' is something that is providing a real pinpoint for me in beginning this project; taking something personal and making it impersonal by showing and sharing to the world, through an exploration of our shared understanding of universal emotions. A particular piece of Emin's work, "Everyone I have ever slept with" is one which my mind has focused on. Often mistaken as "Everyone I've ever had sex with", this piece presents to us all of the intimate relationships that Emin had had up until the point it was made. I see it as a very raw and personal piece; the names appliquéd on the inside of the tent are those of family members, children, friends and lovers. It implies to us the different types of relationships, and the intense feelings which can be tied to those relationships, whether it be love, lust, sorrow, anger or pain.

This piece of art, along with many other of Emin's work, has inspired me to explore the concept of 'confessional art'. This could either be literally tied to "The tent" as I have many ideas which could relate to the piece at this point, or it could be a starting point to develop into a whole new concept. 

Sense Of Space Audio- Reading on the Train

Editing

The editing process of this piece did not come without it's setbacks; being the designated sound editor of this project, it was my job to find my way around the Pro Tools software in order to edit our piece together. Having never used any type of specific editing software, I found this to be quite difficult, especially seeing as my past experiences have had little to do with the technical aspects of film-making, so I saw this as a huge learning curve for myself.
Despite being overwhelmed by all the different options and controls, the layout of the software seemed pretty straightforward and importing the audio files proved to be easy enough. The difficulties came when navigating the software, and learning about how to do each different edit that I wanted to apply to our piece. The main thing I needed to put across in our piece, was that the atmospheric and ambient sounds (the platform, train, people ect.) were supposed to fade out and the dialogue (the person reading the text) was to slowly become louder and more distinguishable. This meant learning how to use the volume levels in such a way as to put across this concept; between myself and my partner, we have so far managed to get the hang of playing with the volume levels in order to achieve the desired sound, now that we have done this, the piece is beginning to come together.

Now that we have both of these important ambient tracks down, it was then a matter of layering all of the other tracks that we had to accompany the reading of the text; Connor had recorded various sounds that relate to the passage he is reading e.g the sound of bacon cooking, the clinking of cutlery, and other general noises. I had to incorporate these into the audio in a way so that the listener would know which part of the piece that they were supposed to relate to. So, we had these gradually fade in a long with the speech; the sounds are supposed to add a sense of space to the listener in regards to what is being read from the page.
With my limited understanding of the software, I didn't want to over-complicate the piece with various different and complicated edits. I don't think it was necessary anyway, as the piece if more about getting the timings of the sounds right, rather than manipulating what is being heard. I think the edit we have so far still needs some work, but we are well on our way with what we are trying to achieve.

Group Crit 1

The rough work we had to present in our informal crit was very minimal, we had our most basic sounds and our initial idea. This, along with some technical problems, meant that we had a very little to present at this point. The feedback we received was that our idea and concept was a little vague and hard to understand; not a lot of people understood exactly what we were trying to achieve. We needed to identify the flaws in our idea in order to make it clearer to our audience. Our piece at the moment was only a few raw sound files, unedited and out of order, despite this, it was still important that there was some basic idea of our intentions. We had to completely re-think how we were going to be putting across our piece to make sure that what we wanted to put across was achieved. 

Suggested improvements

A few changes were suggested in order to make our piece a lot more identifiable in terms of what we were trying to achieve. It was first suggested that rather than have a verbal description throughout our piece, describing the thoughts and feelings of the subject, that we have him reading an extract from a book to help illustrate the feeling of drowning out the outside world. This would give our piece more direction, which I think was definitely required given the fact that a lot of people didn't quite understand the concept of our piece. Another suggestion given in order to improve our piece, was to incorporate and layer additional sounds which relate to the piece if text which is being read. This would further enhance the effect of drowning out the outside world and becoming engrossed in the story so much that the sounds you can imagine, are drowning out what is around you.

From this point, we plan to re-approach our project with these things in mind. Hopefully they will give our piece extra depth and understanding. 

First Recording Sessions

Many of the basic atmospheric sounds were recorded by my parter, as his main role in the project was to be the sound recordist. Though we completed some of the more detailed sounds together as a group. We wanted to find a place which provided as little background noise as possible for when we recorded our mono tracks, we decided on booking out a meeting space at the library, which proved to be a good place to capture the sound we needed with as little disruption as possible. 

When recording the sounds of the book pages, we were rather specific with the type of sound we wanted to get, which actually came down to the type of paper we used. We tried with a few different books, and decided on the extra thin paper normally used in older story books, this produced the clean and crisp sound that we desired. 

We also recorded some dialogue, not included in our initial plan, to potentially use within our sound piece. We soon realised we needed to included more and more sounds to create the depth of sound desired for our piece, something we intend to tackle in future sessions. 

Recording Plan/Schedule

Our initial plan at the moment is for Connor to collect the majority of the atmospheric/ambient sounds on his commute to and from the university each day, building up a mixture of footage including train engines, wheel on tracks, conversations, station announcements and other general sounds one would expect to hear at a train station. We then plan to collect our more detailed and specific sounds, the turning of the book pages for example. We would then edit this together to create our final piece in relation to our original idea.

Shooting Locations

Train station (int/ext)

Train platform 

Inside the train 

Adsetts Centre 

Equipment list 

Zoom audio recorder

Boom mic 

Meat Factory Ear Worms- Sound analysis

I found this piece quite interesting, it functions on a primary level as a documentary, recounting Rishie Beirne's experiences in one of Ireland's meat factory's. As it uses a first person account it fits the conventions of the documentary, in that we are hearing 'from the horse's mouth' so to speak. However what makes this documentary and radio documentary in general more interesting in my opinion is the carefully considered use of sound the anchor the meaning conveyed by the word of the subject. 

One example of this is at the very beginning, when the narrator talks about his first time walking into the meat factory. The recordings of the grinding of gears, the occasional cry of a cow, and the racket of the workers, lands you right beside him during his first experience of the slaughter house. When it then breaks away into a piece of music that could b considered relaxing, it is clearly outlining the main theme of the documentary. Music can take you anywhere and in particular, it can help you to deal with less that pleasant surroundings. This theme is then carried through. The idea of him escaping into his 'internal stereo' to relieve the monotony and unpleasantness of his work.

The music and sound effects work in partner ship and then in turn with the narration to create this detailed picture of life as a worker in the meat factories. By fading from music to ambient sounds the documentary anchors the meanings of the narrators words. It is mirroring what he is describin, which in turn makes for a more powerful piece of work. 

Personally I really enjoyed this piece. It was interesting and gave a very detailed picture with out being gory or shocking which it could so easily have been. There are many sounds of a slaughter house that could have been used to make it more gory and vivid. However it is effective enough and clever enough in it's use of sound to not have to resort to this.

In my opinion what makes this piece so effective is the effective marrying of, narration, music and sound effects.

In the foreground is the narration, the main story telling tool. This is a simple first person account of his life in the meat factories, and disentangling it from the other sounds in the piece it is clear that it is not nearly as effective on its own.

Sound Project Ideas

Sense Of Space

Movement Stillness Natural Time of day Quiet Relaxed Crowd Leisure Mood Tone Otherness Solitude 

For this brief, my partner Connor and I have chosen to create a sound piece based around the idea of how one immerses themselves into an activity, in this case, into reading a book. Our plan was to record the various ambient sounds that one might hear whilst reading a book, on a train in this example; the sound of the engine, peoples conversations, service announcements ext. and create the effect of one cancelling out these everyday sounds as they become engrossed within the text they are reading. As the piece goes on, these ambient sounds draw quieter and, slowly, all we begin to hear is the sound of the pages turning, and the readers steady breath. We hope to emulate the content concentration that comes from being immersed in a good book, and becoming slowly unaware of your sense of space. 

In terms of location, a lot of our sounds will be captured at the train station, as well as actually on the train. Layered upon this, we plan to capture some isolated sounds (e.g the sound of pages turning, the exaggerated breathing ect.)to create the sense of immersion into ones own space and thoughts. 

Film Sound research

As many students and amateur filmmakers do, I often underestimated the power and importance of sound with in a film. It is a common misconception to think that sound is there to simply accompany the images that we see on screen, when really sound- comprised of dialogue, music and sound-effects- can be as complex and sophisticated as as the visuals that we see on screen, and require just as much attention to detail. This page I've read through on filmsound.org explains a simple introduction to the relationship between sound and image.

Though we might think of film as an essentially visual experience, we really cannot afford to underestimate the importance of film sound. A meaningful sound track is often as complicated as the  image on the screen. The entire sound track is comprised of three essential ingredients:   the human voice sound effects music These three tracks must be mixed and balanced so as to produce the necessary emphases which in turn create desired effects. Topics which essentially refer to the three previously mentioned tracks are discussed below. They include dialogue, synchronous and asynchronous sound, and music.    THE HUMAN VOICE: dialogue Dialogue authenticates the speaker as an individual or a real person rather than the imaginary creation of a story teller. As is the case with stage drama, dialogue serves to tell the story and  expresses feelings and motivations of characters as well. Often with film characterization the audience perceives little or no difference between the character and the actor. Thus, for example: Humphrey Bogart is Sam Spade; film personality and life personality seem to merge. Perhaps this is the case because the very texture of a performer's voice supplies an element of character.   When voice texture fits the performer's physiognomy and gestures, a whole and very realistic persona emerges. The viewer sees not an actor working at his craft, but another human being struggling with life. It is interesting to note that how dialogue is used and the very amount of dialogue used varies widely among films. For example: In the film 2001 little dialogue was evident, and most of what was used was banal. In this way the filmmaker was able to portray the “inadequacy of human  esponses when compared with the magnificent technology created by man] and the visual beauties of the universe.”[2]    The comedy, Bringing Up Baby, on the other hand, presents practically non-stop dialogue delivered at break-neck speed. This use of dialogue underscores not only the dizzy quality of the character played by Katharine Hepburn, but also the absurd duality of the film itself and thus its humor. The audience is bounced from gag to gag and conversation to conversation; there is no time for audience reflection. The audience is caught up in a whirlwind of activity in simply managing to follow the plot. This film presents pure escapism - largely due to its frenetic dialogue.     SOUND EFFECTS: synchronous and asynchronous sounds Synchronous sounds are those sounds which are synchronized or matched with what is viewed. For example: If the film portrays a character playing the piano, the sounds of the piano are projected.  Synchronous sounds contribute to the realism of film and also help to create a particular atmosphere. For example:The “click” of a door being opened may simply serve to convince the audience that the image portrayed is real, and the audience-may only subconsciously note the expected sound. However, if the “click” of an opening door is part of an ominous action such as a burglary, the sound mixer may call attention to the “click” with an increase in volume; this helps to  engage the audience in a moment of suspense.   Asynchronous sound effects are not matched with a visible source of the sound on screen. Such sounds are included so as to provide an appropriate emotional nuance, and they may also add to the realism of the film. For example: A film maker might  opt to include the background sound of an ambulance's siren while the foreground sound and image portrays an arguing couple. The asynchronous ambulance siren underscores the psychic injury incurred in the argument; at the same time the noise of the siren adds to the realism of the film by acknowledging the film's (avowed) city setting.       MUSIC: background music Background music is used to add emotion and rhythm to a film. Usually not meant to be noticeable, it often provides a tone or an emotional attitude toward the story and/or the characters  epicted. In addition, background music often foreshadows a change in mood. For example, dissonant music may be used in film to indicate an approaching (but not yet visible) menace or disaster.  Background music may aid viewer understanding by linking scenes. For example, a particular musical theme  associated with an individual character or situation may be repeated at various points in a film in order to remind the audience of salient motifs or ideas.   Film sound is comprised of conventions and innovations. We have come to expect an acceleration of music during car chases and creaky doors in horror films. Yet, it is important to note as well that sound is often brilliantly conceived. The effects of sound are often largely subtle and often are noted by only our subconscious minds. Yet, it behooves us to foster an awareness of film sound as well as film space so as to truly appreciate a twentieth century art form, the modern film.   (Thomas Sobochack and Vivian Sobochack, An Introduction to Film,  p.177.)

Short film analysis

Short film analysis- ‘Gasman’ by Lynne Ramsay 

Made in 1997, “Gasman” was Ramsay’s third short film, and often regarded as the one that earned her the most recognition and credibility. Set in the late 70’s, the focus of ‘Gasman’ is on the themes of adultery and deceit, with the father of a working-class Scottish family leading a double-life with his mistress and their two children together. The 15-minute short raises many complex and controversial themes, including; sibling rivalry, lack of education, economic struggle, social disenfranchisement and alienation. The issue of economic deprivation is brought to the foreground in the opening scene with the lighting and mise-en-scene of the house showcasing this. The grim, grey lighting gives the house an almost decrepit feel and represents the harsh situation that the family are in. Character codes also hint at the family’s financial strain as the family talk to each other in an abrupt, aggressive fashion; however this could be due to the mother’s knowledge of her husband’s affair. Close-up shots of the father smoking and drinking also adds to the strain the family are feeling as the father is obviously nervous, he also exhales in these shots showing the struggle he is facing, either due to the families economic hardship or because he has two families to provide for, although at this point in the film the man’s other family is not known. 

Having studied the work of Lynne Ramsay previously, it is fairly easy to identify reoccurring themes and stylistic techniques in her films (both shorts and feature length). In regards to subject matter, Ramsay often tackles the issues of social class, grief, guilt and death. Her film style heavily conveys these themes, often described as a ‘gritty, realistic visual style that demands attention’. It is this inspired combination of her vigilant, sensuous style with her often raw subject matter thats allows her to create a powerful and enigmatic atmosphere in her films.

In terms of research and development, Ramsay often draws from her own experiences of growing up in a working-class environment, watching and remembering how children deal with the tough, brutality of the world with honesty and innocence. Social realism is supposed to be an accurate representation of real-life, therefore the location and setting of the film had to reflect the the theme of economic struggle. The rough, industrial landscape of the Scottish town, along with the colours and tones of the of the settings have all been carefully selected in order to tie in with the films subject matter. 

Techniques used by Ramsay in this film (and often used throughout others) includes the minimal use of dialogue. Ramsay’s films often rely on the visual aspects to carry the story along; she prefers to show rather than tell, and the small amount of dialogue provides nothing to the progression of the narrative, I find this incredibly interesting, as a majority of films rely heavily on scripted dialogue to drive the story forward. Another technique I find interesting is Ramsay’s use of sound (other than dialogue), the music and other sounds she uses tend to relate and tell us something about the narrative or gives indication of the mood or atmosphere. For example; the christmas songs used in the party scene seem to provide a juxtaposition of the thoughts and feelings of the characters, the upbeat and familiar tunes go in opposite to the jealousy of the one daughter for example, the anxiety and worry of the father, the unsettled appearance of the ‘other’ daughter, and the indifference of the two sons. 

Like much of her other work, I really liked and appreciated Lynne Ramsay’s ‘Gasman’. The stylistic and thematic elements of her work are unlike any other, and the fact that they are recurrent across many of her works indicates it is something she feels very strongly and/or closely about.I find her abilities in visual storytelling very admirable, as without dialogue I normally find it very easy to become confused by what the narrative is trying to tell me, but with 'Gasman' there is no need for a lot of empty dialogue, as the narrative is mainly displayed by 'showing' rather than 'telling'.