While on a night out me and other members of the group got
talking to someone and it turned out that they knew Ed Cartledge who I will be
interviewing in a couple of weeks. He showed us a documentary starring him and
his David Bowie tribute act ‘Bowie Contingent’
The Film:
The film is only 4 minutes long and literally shows a snapshot of the build up to a Bowie Contingent gig in Sheffield. It takes us from one of the band members trying to drum up a crowd in the streets through to standing ovation at the end of the gig but without showing us a single song which is due to copyright reasons. The fact you don't see a performance or hear a single song though I think is what makes this film good and more intriguing.
It is also a good example of how you create a beginning, middle and end in a short film. At the beginning you have the conflict which is they need to make another £500 after the costs and this requires trying to get enough people in. In the middle you have the rehearsals and getting ready to go on stage and the ending is the singer stepping up to the mic - which is the point you think it has finished because then the credits come up as it's faded to black but then it comes back in again and you see the crowd on their feet applauding so you know it has finished.
Also like a good story it has the ups and downs needed to create emotional engagement, it starts with a negative - you see a man who says he is almost in tears thinking about how much money they could lose and then at the end the same man is getting a standing ovation for the audience.
I like how you know the whole story without seeing the whole story because you don't hear them sing a single word or play a single note but we know it was a success by the audiences reaction at the end. If they had been able to show the group actually playing you would have still come to the same conclusion but it would have had less of the mystery. By not seeing them play it felt more intriguing and that you would now want to go and see them for yourself and that's what a good documentary should do - leave you wanting to more know more about something.
I also liked how it kept you guessing
The film is only 4 minutes long and literally shows a snapshot of the build up to a Bowie Contingent gig in Sheffield. It takes us from one of the band members trying to drum up a crowd in the streets through to standing ovation at the end of the gig but without showing us a single song which is due to copyright reasons. The fact you don't see a performance or hear a single song though I think is what makes this film good and more intriguing.
It is also a good example of how you create a beginning, middle and end in a short film. At the beginning you have the conflict which is they need to make another £500 after the costs and this requires trying to get enough people in. In the middle you have the rehearsals and getting ready to go on stage and the ending is the singer stepping up to the mic - which is the point you think it has finished because then the credits come up as it's faded to black but then it comes back in again and you see the crowd on their feet applauding so you know it has finished.
Also like a good story it has the ups and downs needed to create emotional engagement, it starts with a negative - you see a man who says he is almost in tears thinking about how much money they could lose and then at the end the same man is getting a standing ovation for the audience.
I like how you know the whole story without seeing the whole story because you don't hear them sing a single word or play a single note but we know it was a success by the audiences reaction at the end. If they had been able to show the group actually playing you would have still come to the same conclusion but it would have had less of the mystery. By not seeing them play it felt more intriguing and that you would now want to go and see them for yourself and that's what a good documentary should do - leave you wanting to more know more about something.
I also liked how it kept you guessing
The use of black and white, for me, was a good choice as it helps with
the mood the black and white give off a sense of mystery and holding
something back and that is what the film does – it holds back from showing the
actual performance and then you see the end where everyone is cheering so all
that time in-between is a mystery to the audience of the film.
Also it's not obvious at the beginning of the film what is actually going on and what it's about, the information is drip fed to us - you see a man talking about how much money he has potentially lost, then he's handing out leaflets for his performance, he then tells us there's other people around the country that do the same as he does but are not as good so by this point you know they are a group of some sort and then he casually drops in the word Ziggy which gives it away and when he's getting ready you see the eye-liner which again is another hint. I thought it was clever the way the film maker did this to keep us in the dark and going back to the use of black and white I think all these elements helped keep the mystery going through-out by holding all these different things back from us.
Also it's not obvious at the beginning of the film what is actually going on and what it's about, the information is drip fed to us - you see a man talking about how much money he has potentially lost, then he's handing out leaflets for his performance, he then tells us there's other people around the country that do the same as he does but are not as good so by this point you know they are a group of some sort and then he casually drops in the word Ziggy which gives it away and when he's getting ready you see the eye-liner which again is another hint. I thought it was clever the way the film maker did this to keep us in the dark and going back to the use of black and white I think all these elements helped keep the mystery going through-out by holding all these different things back from us.
The Contributors thoughts:
While we were watching it he said to us that he didn’t
really like it at first as I think he felt it made them look a bit amateurish
as you couldn’t actually hear them sing (due to copyright laws) so people
watching the documentary wouldn’t be able to see if they were actually any good
or not. As the last shot came up though he said this is the shot that changed
his mind.
It looked as though the film was going to end just before he started singing as it faded to black but then in faded a shot of the crowd on their feet cheering and clapping. He said this one shot transformed it from possibly making them look a bit silly to making them look good.
I think to him this shot did the group justice as it was validation to the audience watching the documentary that the group were good and not just a cheesy imitation. I thought this was really interesting when he pointed this out and it made me see the power of one shot and how one shot alone can completely change the meaning of something or how people feel towards it.
It looked as though the film was going to end just before he started singing as it faded to black but then in faded a shot of the crowd on their feet cheering and clapping. He said this one shot transformed it from possibly making them look a bit silly to making them look good.
I think to him this shot did the group justice as it was validation to the audience watching the documentary that the group were good and not just a cheesy imitation. I thought this was really interesting when he pointed this out and it made me see the power of one shot and how one shot alone can completely change the meaning of something or how people feel towards it.
My Thoughts:
This also made me think about my film and how I want it to
be portrayed by the audience but also the people in it. I’ve always said I don’t
want it to be an appeal and I also want it to be about the human struggles and sacrifices
as well as just focusing on the animals. For me the people are the most
important part of this refuge because without them it wouldn’t be there and it wouldn’t
survive and many of the animals might not be alive today.
This is what I want people to see when there are watching it, it’s not just about showing the terrible conditions of the cages and the problems that some of the animals have but also the dedication of the people there, especially Pam who has given her life to it, and that they are doing the best they can with what little money they have.
For me I think this film will be a balancing act of negatives and positives, there needs to be the sadness to stir up audience emotions and feeling but there needs to be the good things too to give them hope. You have to take them on an emotional journey because without ups and downs it will become stale and people will lose interest.
This is what I want people to see when there are watching it, it’s not just about showing the terrible conditions of the cages and the problems that some of the animals have but also the dedication of the people there, especially Pam who has given her life to it, and that they are doing the best they can with what little money they have.
For me I think this film will be a balancing act of negatives and positives, there needs to be the sadness to stir up audience emotions and feeling but there needs to be the good things too to give them hope. You have to take them on an emotional journey because without ups and downs it will become stale and people will lose interest.
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