Wednesday 20 February 2008
Bibliography
Books
Bright S, (2005) Art Photography Now, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London
Sigismondi F, (2005) Immune, Gestalten Verlag,
Websites
http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/11380.html
http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm
www.floriasigismondi.com
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=48248436
www.Wikipedia.org
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Memories-of-a-city-insti
www.youtube.com
Bright S, (2005) Art Photography Now, Thames and Hudson Ltd, London
Sigismondi F, (2005) Immune, Gestalten Verlag,
Websites
http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/11380.html
http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm
www.floriasigismondi.com
http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=48248436
www.Wikipedia.org
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Memories-of-a-city-insti
www.youtube.com
Evaluation
I worked in a group with Holly Crossley and Sarah Vo to create a video with slightly disturbing qualities, blurring the boundaries between dream and reality. We wanted a to achieve a certain sense of ambiguity and mystery within our video, to allow the audience to make their own interpretations. This engages the audience a lot more, as seen in the case of Eraserhead’s many different interpretations for example. The main concentration for the video was surrealism and creating an unsettling atmosphere. We wanted focus on connotations of isolation, seclusion, detachment, separation, loneliness and emptiness.
We were able to find the perfect location for our video through researching on websites such as secret Leeds and Flickr. West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, now known as High Royds. On a personal level this location interested my greatly, having studied the Sociology of mental illness previously. I researched further into the history of the site and was extremely interested to discover John, a security guard at Liberty Park, who had worked there for 30 years. John was happy to share his memories of High Royds with us and he spoke fondly of it, which surprised me as I assumed a job like this would be quite upsetting at times.
As a group of three we were able to work very closely together easily collaborating ideas and contributing evenly to the video. Organisation was a struggle at times but I am very happy with the outcome of our video. If I was to repeat this module I would have attempted to explore High Royds more thoroughly, unfortunately this was impossible without permission to be on the site. If this had been achievable our footage would have been more varied. We also may have been able to hint at where the child is as this is not entirely clear in our video. However I do like the mystery this generates. Also if we had more time we would liked to have presented a contrasting environment within the film, the moors for example to really emphasize the feeling of confinement and overruling power associated with the hospital.
The storyboard created was quite limited and not particularly detailed. This was because we chose not to have an obvious linear narrative. We also did not have a complete in-depth overview of the location and therefore did not know what to expect until it came to filming on the day. However I do not consider this a weakness as we did have some initial general ideas that provided a basis to expand on whilst on location.
After arriving at our location with all our filming equipment it quickly became apparent that it would be unfeasible to use a tripod. This was due to our strict time constraints, as we did not receive permission to be on the premises, and the fact that it could not be easily moved around the uneven ground. This forced us into handholding the camera to film. However I believe this decision worked very much to our advantage. We considered more interesting camera angles and frames to shoot. Within some of the clips we were able to achieve a jerky quality to the video, due to the camera being handheld, which related back to the research into the White Stripes video for Blue Orchid and aided our aim to create a surreal and unsettling mood to the video.
The decision was made not to use stop frame. This was because we had limited time at the location. We also came to the conclusion that it would not fit in to the overall style of our video. We felt jump cuts and possibly still frames would be more effective in creating psychotic connotations.
I feel Gregory Crewdson affected the mise en scene of our film greatly. His extremely effective use of lighting and colour are fundamental in creating his scenes. Considering the ideal lighting for our film was essential. We filmed using daylight on quite a bright day. This produced a lovely contrast between the bright sunshine and the darkness of the rooms. It also revealed the pale monochromatic shades of the walls and floors, which helped connote a sense of emptiness, loneliness and gave it a more impersonal and neglected feel.
The straight lines of the corridors, doors and windows contrast well with the girl’s flowing dress, the roundness of her mask and her marbles.
The child wearing a gas mask provides a troubling image. Gas masks are associated with war, violence and dark times. It also offers connotations of hidden identity, isolation and seclusion. The child is trapped, unable to breathe. Perhaps she is in an environment that is toxic to her health, trying to protect herself. This relates back to my interest in the Sociology of mental health and historical debates over how people with mental illnesses are treated and the environment in which they are exposed to within hospitals. The choice to use a gas mask was also heavily influenced by Floria Sigismondi and how she used them to create a surreal fantasy dream-like state.
We chose Sarah to be the girl in our video because she is quite petite and could pass as childlike. She wore a white dress to connote innocence, purity and clarity, which would contrast with the scene in which she appeared and also the atmosphere we were trying to create.
Various editing techniques were used throughout our video. We used jump cuts to create rapid and jerky movement between frames. This was inspired by Floria Sigismondi’s White Stripes video. It can be seen in the scene on the stairs with the blanket. It gives the impression of repetition and connotations of insanity. We also changed the speed in quite a lot of our clips, speeding up and slowing down. The emphasized the girls movements and helped to create the creepy and surreal atmosphere we were after. There is a particular scene that I love in which the girl is standing at the end of the corridor, the shot is very wide and she is barely visible. We slowed the clip down so much that you can’t clearly tell whether she is moving or not. It almost looks as though it could be a still frame. Then she begins to skip towards the camera. This is quite unexpected and strange, creating an unsettling mood.
A lot of the shots are full body, long shots and wide shots. These seemed to work best as they emphasized connotations of loneliness and emptiness. Also having the girl walking in and out of the frame created similar connotations.
We did use some close ups and extreme close up shots. The intention of these shots was to shock the audience. For example in the beginning we are introduced to girl for quite a while. We have establishing shots of the building then we move to close ups of the girl’s feet. As the shots become wider we see the back of the girl is a dark room and as she slowly turns round her mask is visible against the bright window. We also used close ups of the mask to startle the audience.
Another effective clip is the scene with the girl and the marbles. We reversed the footage and found the movements became strange and surreal. Playing with the marbles relates to the idea of childlike innocence and purity. I love the low angle we used for this. I think it is very effective in generating an unusual overall image.
Layers were used again to connote repetition and insanity. It gives the impression the girl wanders round the same places again and again perhaps unaware of what she is doing.
We used cross fades and fades in and out so our video flowed smoothly. However these techniques were not used on all our clips, as we wanted a rough erratic feel to effectively achieve the troubling images we needed.
The soundtrack chosen was An Ending (Ascent) by Brian Eno. This was also featured in the film 28 Days Later. We chose this music as it is quite slow, soft and calm, which we thought would contrast well with the disturbing subject matter and create quite a surreal mood. This idea was inspired by the use of music in Eraserhead. The music is quite dramatic and eerie which will fulfil our need to create surrealism within the video. We were able to comfortably fit all the clips we wanted into the time frame of the track. We needed a track with no lyrics, firstly so as not to distract from the visuals and atmosphere of the film and secondly to flow smoothly with our voiceover.
A voiceover has provided our video with an underlying narrative. It has no particular structure or order to it, it merely hints at a story behind the images. We wrote a script for the voiceover, which drew upon some experiences that John had shared with us from his memories of working at High Royds Hospital. His stories were so engaging that we decided they should be part of the video. It became another aim of our video to get across feelings patients might have had whilst living in this hospital. Our decision to use a child’s voice (Sarah’s cousin) was an attempt to engage the audience emotionally. We have provided them with a character to relate to and care for. One line of the script ‘they give me sweets everyday but they don’t taste nice’ was included as a drug reference to patients being forced full of drugs. There are also references to being trapped and enable to escape, deaths within the hospital and treatment of the patients.
The fact that we recorded the voice over the phone I think adds an interesting impact to the sound. The voice is slightly muffled and distorted adding to the unsettling mood of the video.
After experimenting with the sound we decided to layer original sounds picked up from High Royds together with the music and voiceover. These subtle noises worked well with the music making them appear slightly creepy.
Due to the style and subject matter of the video I believe in an external context it could be placed within an art gallery as an installation as it has an arty feel to it. It could possibly be featured in a film festival as a short horror film. More commercially it could be seen as a music video however I think this might detract from the meaning of the video.
I thoroughly enjoyed this module and feel I have gained valuable experiences from it. Most importantly it has introduced me to the world of Video art and artists, as I have never studied this before and therefore was not familiar with it. I will now consider researching video artists as part of my other modules. Also I have discovered Floria Sigismondi who will continue to inspire me across all of my photography work and encourage me to continue with film outside of modules. Gregory Crewdson has highlighted the importance of spending a lot of time creating the perfect image, something I will consider in future. The skills I have learnt from editing video I believe will help me in the future to edit photographs in a series, considering which photographs work well together. This also works vice versa as my photography skills have helped inform my video skills in terms of framing, camera angles and composition.
We were able to find the perfect location for our video through researching on websites such as secret Leeds and Flickr. West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, now known as High Royds. On a personal level this location interested my greatly, having studied the Sociology of mental illness previously. I researched further into the history of the site and was extremely interested to discover John, a security guard at Liberty Park, who had worked there for 30 years. John was happy to share his memories of High Royds with us and he spoke fondly of it, which surprised me as I assumed a job like this would be quite upsetting at times.
As a group of three we were able to work very closely together easily collaborating ideas and contributing evenly to the video. Organisation was a struggle at times but I am very happy with the outcome of our video. If I was to repeat this module I would have attempted to explore High Royds more thoroughly, unfortunately this was impossible without permission to be on the site. If this had been achievable our footage would have been more varied. We also may have been able to hint at where the child is as this is not entirely clear in our video. However I do like the mystery this generates. Also if we had more time we would liked to have presented a contrasting environment within the film, the moors for example to really emphasize the feeling of confinement and overruling power associated with the hospital.
The storyboard created was quite limited and not particularly detailed. This was because we chose not to have an obvious linear narrative. We also did not have a complete in-depth overview of the location and therefore did not know what to expect until it came to filming on the day. However I do not consider this a weakness as we did have some initial general ideas that provided a basis to expand on whilst on location.
After arriving at our location with all our filming equipment it quickly became apparent that it would be unfeasible to use a tripod. This was due to our strict time constraints, as we did not receive permission to be on the premises, and the fact that it could not be easily moved around the uneven ground. This forced us into handholding the camera to film. However I believe this decision worked very much to our advantage. We considered more interesting camera angles and frames to shoot. Within some of the clips we were able to achieve a jerky quality to the video, due to the camera being handheld, which related back to the research into the White Stripes video for Blue Orchid and aided our aim to create a surreal and unsettling mood to the video.
The decision was made not to use stop frame. This was because we had limited time at the location. We also came to the conclusion that it would not fit in to the overall style of our video. We felt jump cuts and possibly still frames would be more effective in creating psychotic connotations.
I feel Gregory Crewdson affected the mise en scene of our film greatly. His extremely effective use of lighting and colour are fundamental in creating his scenes. Considering the ideal lighting for our film was essential. We filmed using daylight on quite a bright day. This produced a lovely contrast between the bright sunshine and the darkness of the rooms. It also revealed the pale monochromatic shades of the walls and floors, which helped connote a sense of emptiness, loneliness and gave it a more impersonal and neglected feel.
The straight lines of the corridors, doors and windows contrast well with the girl’s flowing dress, the roundness of her mask and her marbles.
The child wearing a gas mask provides a troubling image. Gas masks are associated with war, violence and dark times. It also offers connotations of hidden identity, isolation and seclusion. The child is trapped, unable to breathe. Perhaps she is in an environment that is toxic to her health, trying to protect herself. This relates back to my interest in the Sociology of mental health and historical debates over how people with mental illnesses are treated and the environment in which they are exposed to within hospitals. The choice to use a gas mask was also heavily influenced by Floria Sigismondi and how she used them to create a surreal fantasy dream-like state.
We chose Sarah to be the girl in our video because she is quite petite and could pass as childlike. She wore a white dress to connote innocence, purity and clarity, which would contrast with the scene in which she appeared and also the atmosphere we were trying to create.
Various editing techniques were used throughout our video. We used jump cuts to create rapid and jerky movement between frames. This was inspired by Floria Sigismondi’s White Stripes video. It can be seen in the scene on the stairs with the blanket. It gives the impression of repetition and connotations of insanity. We also changed the speed in quite a lot of our clips, speeding up and slowing down. The emphasized the girls movements and helped to create the creepy and surreal atmosphere we were after. There is a particular scene that I love in which the girl is standing at the end of the corridor, the shot is very wide and she is barely visible. We slowed the clip down so much that you can’t clearly tell whether she is moving or not. It almost looks as though it could be a still frame. Then she begins to skip towards the camera. This is quite unexpected and strange, creating an unsettling mood.
A lot of the shots are full body, long shots and wide shots. These seemed to work best as they emphasized connotations of loneliness and emptiness. Also having the girl walking in and out of the frame created similar connotations.
We did use some close ups and extreme close up shots. The intention of these shots was to shock the audience. For example in the beginning we are introduced to girl for quite a while. We have establishing shots of the building then we move to close ups of the girl’s feet. As the shots become wider we see the back of the girl is a dark room and as she slowly turns round her mask is visible against the bright window. We also used close ups of the mask to startle the audience.
Another effective clip is the scene with the girl and the marbles. We reversed the footage and found the movements became strange and surreal. Playing with the marbles relates to the idea of childlike innocence and purity. I love the low angle we used for this. I think it is very effective in generating an unusual overall image.
Layers were used again to connote repetition and insanity. It gives the impression the girl wanders round the same places again and again perhaps unaware of what she is doing.
We used cross fades and fades in and out so our video flowed smoothly. However these techniques were not used on all our clips, as we wanted a rough erratic feel to effectively achieve the troubling images we needed.
The soundtrack chosen was An Ending (Ascent) by Brian Eno. This was also featured in the film 28 Days Later. We chose this music as it is quite slow, soft and calm, which we thought would contrast well with the disturbing subject matter and create quite a surreal mood. This idea was inspired by the use of music in Eraserhead. The music is quite dramatic and eerie which will fulfil our need to create surrealism within the video. We were able to comfortably fit all the clips we wanted into the time frame of the track. We needed a track with no lyrics, firstly so as not to distract from the visuals and atmosphere of the film and secondly to flow smoothly with our voiceover.
A voiceover has provided our video with an underlying narrative. It has no particular structure or order to it, it merely hints at a story behind the images. We wrote a script for the voiceover, which drew upon some experiences that John had shared with us from his memories of working at High Royds Hospital. His stories were so engaging that we decided they should be part of the video. It became another aim of our video to get across feelings patients might have had whilst living in this hospital. Our decision to use a child’s voice (Sarah’s cousin) was an attempt to engage the audience emotionally. We have provided them with a character to relate to and care for. One line of the script ‘they give me sweets everyday but they don’t taste nice’ was included as a drug reference to patients being forced full of drugs. There are also references to being trapped and enable to escape, deaths within the hospital and treatment of the patients.
The fact that we recorded the voice over the phone I think adds an interesting impact to the sound. The voice is slightly muffled and distorted adding to the unsettling mood of the video.
After experimenting with the sound we decided to layer original sounds picked up from High Royds together with the music and voiceover. These subtle noises worked well with the music making them appear slightly creepy.
Due to the style and subject matter of the video I believe in an external context it could be placed within an art gallery as an installation as it has an arty feel to it. It could possibly be featured in a film festival as a short horror film. More commercially it could be seen as a music video however I think this might detract from the meaning of the video.
I thoroughly enjoyed this module and feel I have gained valuable experiences from it. Most importantly it has introduced me to the world of Video art and artists, as I have never studied this before and therefore was not familiar with it. I will now consider researching video artists as part of my other modules. Also I have discovered Floria Sigismondi who will continue to inspire me across all of my photography work and encourage me to continue with film outside of modules. Gregory Crewdson has highlighted the importance of spending a lot of time creating the perfect image, something I will consider in future. The skills I have learnt from editing video I believe will help me in the future to edit photographs in a series, considering which photographs work well together. This also works vice versa as my photography skills have helped inform my video skills in terms of framing, camera angles and composition.
Tuesday 19 February 2008
Editing
These are some Final Cut notes that i have selected which refer to tools we used during the editing process.
This is a screen grab from towards the end of our editing process. At this point the voice over has not been added so you can only see two layers of sound; the soundtrack and noises recorded at the location.
We used a variety of techniques whilst editing such as;
Fade ins
Cross fades
Fade to white
Jump cut
Dissolve
Opacity
Layering
This is a screen grab from towards the end of our editing process. At this point the voice over has not been added so you can only see two layers of sound; the soundtrack and noises recorded at the location.
We used a variety of techniques whilst editing such as;
Fade ins
Cross fades
Fade to white
Jump cut
Dissolve
Opacity
Layering
Film Stills and Photographs
A collection of film stills and location shots i took at High Royds.
Some of these photos i actually took before we started filming which helped us to decide upon what types of shots we wanted to capture. We were able to carefully consider camera angles, framing and composition.
Music and Sound
Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent)
From the 28 days later soundtrack.
Ignore the video, i couldn't find the actual scene the music is featured in but you can get an idea of the track.
We chose it firstly because it has no lyrics and therefore will not distract from the visuals. We wanted the music to be instrumental and add an eerie quality to the video. It is slow and simple yet dramatic and will hopefully complement the scenes in our video.
Another reason why we chose a track with no lyrics was because we intend to use a voiceover throughout the video.
Voiceover
We have chosen to use the voices of Sarah's cousins, Nicola and Lucy who are both younger than 7. We felt this would give the video more of an emotional impact. It is more personal and therefore the audience can connect to the character. We all wrote a script for the girls to read which will consist of memories and experiences of living in a mental hospital. We collected some of these memories from John, a security guard at Liberty Park who worked at High Royds for 30years.
From the 28 days later soundtrack.
Ignore the video, i couldn't find the actual scene the music is featured in but you can get an idea of the track.
We chose it firstly because it has no lyrics and therefore will not distract from the visuals. We wanted the music to be instrumental and add an eerie quality to the video. It is slow and simple yet dramatic and will hopefully complement the scenes in our video.
Another reason why we chose a track with no lyrics was because we intend to use a voiceover throughout the video.
Voiceover
We have chosen to use the voices of Sarah's cousins, Nicola and Lucy who are both younger than 7. We felt this would give the video more of an emotional impact. It is more personal and therefore the audience can connect to the character. We all wrote a script for the girls to read which will consist of memories and experiences of living in a mental hospital. We collected some of these memories from John, a security guard at Liberty Park who worked at High Royds for 30years.
Production Diary
Video production diary
Week one
Our group began to brainstorm ideas for a new and exciting piece of video art. To start off we thought of ideas of what we would all like to achieve within the film. We then came to the conclusion of basing our short film on the themes of sadness and isolation. We wanted to make a piece of video which the audience could empathize with which would be moving and engaging. Then from looking and researching on the internet we came across High Royds mental lunatic asylum which is currently derelict. Therefore it gave connotations of emptiness, abandonment and neglect which were concepts that would perfectly match our desired approach.
Week two
In week two we began to think about visiting this derelict building to find out whether it was safe, suitable and stable to film within the premises. A few days later we returned with filming equipment, props and a good outlook on filming. Whilst filming we had limited time so setting up would be difficult because we didn’t really have permission to be there. After filming all we could in that particular building we set off to explore the main building. However unfortunately we got chased by contractors and we were forced to leave the premises due to it being private property, but luckily we had plenty of footage to work with.
Week three
Week three consisted of editing our film. We first started off by choosing as a group, clips that we liked and started to assemble these clips into a roughly ordered sequence. This made the process of editing a lot easier. We made a mental-paper-edit which aided us in choosing the appropriate and best footage. We needed to fulfill every team members visual ideas. We did this by discussing each clip carefully and abandoning the unwanted footage. Once we had chosen the footage we began to experiment with the order, effects and sound of the short film before layering our sound track and voice over.
Week one
Our group began to brainstorm ideas for a new and exciting piece of video art. To start off we thought of ideas of what we would all like to achieve within the film. We then came to the conclusion of basing our short film on the themes of sadness and isolation. We wanted to make a piece of video which the audience could empathize with which would be moving and engaging. Then from looking and researching on the internet we came across High Royds mental lunatic asylum which is currently derelict. Therefore it gave connotations of emptiness, abandonment and neglect which were concepts that would perfectly match our desired approach.
Week two
In week two we began to think about visiting this derelict building to find out whether it was safe, suitable and stable to film within the premises. A few days later we returned with filming equipment, props and a good outlook on filming. Whilst filming we had limited time so setting up would be difficult because we didn’t really have permission to be there. After filming all we could in that particular building we set off to explore the main building. However unfortunately we got chased by contractors and we were forced to leave the premises due to it being private property, but luckily we had plenty of footage to work with.
Week three
Week three consisted of editing our film. We first started off by choosing as a group, clips that we liked and started to assemble these clips into a roughly ordered sequence. This made the process of editing a lot easier. We made a mental-paper-edit which aided us in choosing the appropriate and best footage. We needed to fulfill every team members visual ideas. We did this by discussing each clip carefully and abandoning the unwanted footage. Once we had chosen the footage we began to experiment with the order, effects and sound of the short film before layering our sound track and voice over.
Treatment
In a group of 3, we plan to create a 5 minute video piece of unsettling, chilling,and possibly disturbing video art.
After researching into interesting locations on Secret Leeds and Flickr for inspiration, we came across a closed down mental asylum called High Royds in Menston. We researched this further and came across some chilling photographs others had taken in the building, and decided this may be an ideal location for filming. Therefore we plan to visit the location prior to filming to ensure it is suitable.
We also discovered that a security guard from Liberty Park (our halls) had worked at High Royds for 12 years, patrolling, looking after patients and such. We spent time talking to John about his time there and decided that it would be interesting to have a voice over our video, either him or even a small child talking about incidents and happenings that he had witnessed. We also intend to have a piece of music playing over the footage, a piece that isn't well known so it doesn't become some kind of "music video" , but music that may be distressing to the audience, that may show contrast to the visuals.
We plan to do further research into music videos, artists etc for inspiration before visiting the location and creating a story board.
After researching into interesting locations on Secret Leeds and Flickr for inspiration, we came across a closed down mental asylum called High Royds in Menston. We researched this further and came across some chilling photographs others had taken in the building, and decided this may be an ideal location for filming. Therefore we plan to visit the location prior to filming to ensure it is suitable.
We also discovered that a security guard from Liberty Park (our halls) had worked at High Royds for 12 years, patrolling, looking after patients and such. We spent time talking to John about his time there and decided that it would be interesting to have a voice over our video, either him or even a small child talking about incidents and happenings that he had witnessed. We also intend to have a piece of music playing over the footage, a piece that isn't well known so it doesn't become some kind of "music video" , but music that may be distressing to the audience, that may show contrast to the visuals.
We plan to do further research into music videos, artists etc for inspiration before visiting the location and creating a story board.
Monday 18 February 2008
Stop Frame
Sia - Breathe Me
Stop motion (or frame-by-frame) animation is a general term for an animation technique which makes a physically manipulated object appear to move. The object is moved by extremely small amounts between individually photographed frames, creating the illusion of movement when the series of frames are played as a continuous sequence. Clay figures are often used in stop motion animations, known as claymation, for their ease of repositioning. Software applications such as Stop Motion Pro, istopmotion and monkeyjam have made the technique popular among young filmmakers.
Stop motion, requires a camera, using either motion picture film or some kind of digital image capturing system, that can expose single frames. It works by shooting a single frame of an object, then moving the object slightly, then shooting another frame. When the film runs continuously in a film projector, or other video playback system, the illusion of fluid motion is created and the objects appear to move by themselves.
(www.wikipedia.org)
This technique is used very effectively in Sia's Beathe Me video, with the use of still Polaroids to make sequence appear to move. We have considered experimenting with this technique within our video.
Sunday 17 February 2008
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
Trailer - One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Due to the choice of location and my interest in the Sociology of Mental Illness it felt natural to discuss One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest.
Randle Patrick McMurphy (Jack Nicholson), a recidivist criminal serving a short prison term on a work farm for statutory rape, is transferred to a mental institution due to his apparently deranged behavior. This is a deliberate gambit by McMurphy in the belief that he'll now be able to serve out the rest of his sentence in relative comfort and ease.
His needling of Nurse Ratched is initially just for kicks, but his sense of injustice at their treatment leads him into a battle for the hearts and minds of the patients. What he finds out only later is that Ratched has the power to keep him there indefinitely.
McMurphy goes about living in the institution, and creates a society among several of the patients, which has a large impact on the structure of the institution. His relationships with the other patients in the ward develops into a society where thoughts and opinions grow and interfere with the flow of the institution's rules and regulations, and friction is made between the authorities and the patients.
(wikipedia.org)
(http://www.directessays.com/viewpaper/11380.html)
This film challenges views of mental illness at the time held by the public and portrayed in the media. It addresses the stigma forced upon people suffering from these illnesses and the unjust treatment they receive within Mental institutions. It shows how patients can become institutionalized and therefore left unable to function in the real world, resulting in a fear to leave the hospital. It shows how extreme power is exerted over patients.
This is a scene in which Jack Nicholson''s character is receiving Electro-shock therapy. The clip is very disturbing and hard to watch. It has been considered one of the major contributions to the discrediting of electro-shock therapy and led to it being considered one of the most controversial treatments in psychiatry.
(http://www.electroboy.com/electroshocktherapy.htm)
(wikipedia.org)
Wednesday 13 February 2008
Location - West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
The location we have chosen to film our video is in the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum, which is now known as High Royds Hospital. We found this location by researching on websites such as Secret Leeds and Flickr. Also we discovered John, a security guard at Liberty Park (our student halls) worked there for 30 years and was happy to chat to us about his memories and experiences.
It also seemed a perfect location after discovering the Horror film Asylum was filmed there, along with a couple of television series.
The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum was opened in 1888 and closed in 2003. Although there is building work going on some of the buildings are still accessible.
The history of this hospital interested me greatly as i have previously studied the Sociology of mental health.
Article from the Yorkshire Evening Post.
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Memories-of-a-city-institution.1313987.jp
Memories of a city institution
New book reveals inner secrets of life in the building which was once the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
by Vicki Robinson Health Reporter
ITS huge Victorian facade was a forbidding presence looming large on the horizon of a picturesque Yorkshire village.
And for those fortunate enough never to step through the doors of High Royds hospital in Menston, its inner workings always remained a mystery.
But now the secrets of the former West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum have finally been revealed in a book marking its 115 year history.
High Royds was one of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of its kind still functioning when it shut its doors for the final time on February 25, 2003.
However, Splendid Isolation by local historian Andrew Bannister, pictured below right, tells how in the late 19th century High Royds was at the very forefront of "modern" mental health treatment.
Opening in 1888, it was the first dedicated institution for people "afflicted by madness". Previously most had been confined to asylums like London's Bethlem Hospital – from which the term Bedlam sprang – where patients would literally be kept in chains.
Admissions
High Royds was built at the foot of Rombalds Moor, the 300-acre site having been bought by the West Riding Justices from Mr Ascough Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, for around £18,000.
Built in solid stone at a cost of £350,000, no expense was spared to make a very grand impression.
Architects drafted in a huge turreted structure, the centrepiece of which was the 129-foot tower and its four-dial clock – which can still be seen across the Wharfedale landscape.
Among the facilities were laundries, drying rooms, a bakery, a fire engine house, mortuary and staff accommodation. Gas was piped from the works at Yeadon and the water supply was secured by the hospital's own spring-fed reservoir.
The first buildings were designed to accommodate 840 patients with plans for another 600. Wards were designated according to the cruel labelling of the day: the able-bodied; imbeciles; idiots; dangerous lunatics and the mentally convalescent.
People from all walks of life were admitted to the asylum and a list of patients in 1891 reveals the occupations. Whilst the majority were labourers (45), or those with no occupation (17), there were many other jobs represented, including six mechanics, four miners, four quarrymen, three woollen spinners, three warp dressers, three tailors, three schoolmasters and six clerks. Among the single recorded admissions were a journalist; landed proprietor; professor of music; policeman; pawnbroker; and solicitor.
The only exercise for the most serious cases – those known for extreme violence – was a walk around a yard known as the "bullring".
But life could be equally grim for the lesser cases, too.
The discharge rate in the early years was only 30 per cent of the annual admissions and death rates were as high as 15 per cent a year.
The patients were often buried in unmarked graves, with 900 of them in a mass unmarked grave in Guiseley cemetery.
By 1905, the hospital had come up with its own solution – acquiring its own graveyard next to the railway line. This melancholy place is still the final resting ground of 2,858 pauper lunatics.
Four separate farms were constructed around the site to enable High Royds to become something of a self-sufficient community. The hospital even had its own shire horses to help plough the fields and dairy products came from a flock of Ayrshire heifers.
War
Attitudes to mental illness, were, thankfully, to change over the years and in 1923, the Pauper Lunatic Asylum was renamed the West Riding Mental Hospital at Menston.
Conditions for patients were improving, too, and each ward now had a pet canary, a piano and the male wards also had billiard tables.
In 1924, wireless sets were installed and the hospital got its first cinematograph and in the 1930s, electric light was installed to the whole building.
By 1936, occupational therapy had come into being and many patients were for the first time considered voluntary.
When war broke out in 1939, High Royds played an important role. A six-hutted emergency hospital opened to deal with 450 sick and wounded. In 1940, the first convoy of soldiers from France arrived and the facility was also used to provide short-term accommodation for refugees.
During the war, convulsant therapy using drugs had been replaced by electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), which was widely used, particularly in patients with depressive illnesses.
Important, too, was the new range of drugs like chlorpromazine and other anti-depressants.
In 1961, attitudes to mental hospitals had irrevocably changed.
The then Minister of Health, Enoch Powell described a desire to see scaling down of the huge Victorian institutions – "isolated, majestic, brooded over by the gigantic watertower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable out of the country."
Financial pressures were to play a part too, as the Government realised how costly psychiatric hospitals were to run on such a grand scale.
On January 1, 1963, the changes began – with the hospital being renamed again, this time as High Royds. Modernisation got underway and specialist units were built for children and the elderly and patient overcrowding began to reduce.
It was the 1970s, though, which probably saw the most change with the emergence of care in the community, day centres, sheltered housing schemes and local psychiatric nursing. In the 1990s it was finally decided to close High Royds and replace the hospital with smaller, locally-based facilities.
In 1996, Aire Court was built at Middleton, south Leeds, as a community unit. Millside Community Unit in Leeds and Towngate House Community Unit in Guiseley soon followed, along with Millfield House in Yeadon.
High Royds was in a definite state of decline and featured in a series of YEP articles which declared a "crisis in mental health care".
Leisure
Responding to sustained criticism the then Leeds Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust launched a £50m plan to build nine new mental health facilities across the city.
By 2003, all of those had opened and High Royds was languishing empty.
And there it still remains, although soon it may be unrecognisable as a former lunatic asylum – planning permission has been granted and work is underway on a major residential and leisure complex.
The main part of the asylum, including the famous clock, is now a listed building and will remain.
It also seemed a perfect location after discovering the Horror film Asylum was filmed there, along with a couple of television series.
The West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum was opened in 1888 and closed in 2003. Although there is building work going on some of the buildings are still accessible.
The history of this hospital interested me greatly as i have previously studied the Sociology of mental health.
Article from the Yorkshire Evening Post.
http://www.yorkshireeveningpost.co.uk/news/Memories-of-a-city-institution.1313987.jp
Memories of a city institution
New book reveals inner secrets of life in the building which was once the West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum
by Vicki Robinson Health Reporter
ITS huge Victorian facade was a forbidding presence looming large on the horizon of a picturesque Yorkshire village.
And for those fortunate enough never to step through the doors of High Royds hospital in Menston, its inner workings always remained a mystery.
But now the secrets of the former West Riding Pauper Lunatic Asylum have finally been revealed in a book marking its 115 year history.
High Royds was one of the last remaining psychiatric hospitals of its kind still functioning when it shut its doors for the final time on February 25, 2003.
However, Splendid Isolation by local historian Andrew Bannister, pictured below right, tells how in the late 19th century High Royds was at the very forefront of "modern" mental health treatment.
Opening in 1888, it was the first dedicated institution for people "afflicted by madness". Previously most had been confined to asylums like London's Bethlem Hospital – from which the term Bedlam sprang – where patients would literally be kept in chains.
Admissions
High Royds was built at the foot of Rombalds Moor, the 300-acre site having been bought by the West Riding Justices from Mr Ascough Fawkes, of Farnley Hall, for around £18,000.
Built in solid stone at a cost of £350,000, no expense was spared to make a very grand impression.
Architects drafted in a huge turreted structure, the centrepiece of which was the 129-foot tower and its four-dial clock – which can still be seen across the Wharfedale landscape.
Among the facilities were laundries, drying rooms, a bakery, a fire engine house, mortuary and staff accommodation. Gas was piped from the works at Yeadon and the water supply was secured by the hospital's own spring-fed reservoir.
The first buildings were designed to accommodate 840 patients with plans for another 600. Wards were designated according to the cruel labelling of the day: the able-bodied; imbeciles; idiots; dangerous lunatics and the mentally convalescent.
People from all walks of life were admitted to the asylum and a list of patients in 1891 reveals the occupations. Whilst the majority were labourers (45), or those with no occupation (17), there were many other jobs represented, including six mechanics, four miners, four quarrymen, three woollen spinners, three warp dressers, three tailors, three schoolmasters and six clerks. Among the single recorded admissions were a journalist; landed proprietor; professor of music; policeman; pawnbroker; and solicitor.
The only exercise for the most serious cases – those known for extreme violence – was a walk around a yard known as the "bullring".
But life could be equally grim for the lesser cases, too.
The discharge rate in the early years was only 30 per cent of the annual admissions and death rates were as high as 15 per cent a year.
The patients were often buried in unmarked graves, with 900 of them in a mass unmarked grave in Guiseley cemetery.
By 1905, the hospital had come up with its own solution – acquiring its own graveyard next to the railway line. This melancholy place is still the final resting ground of 2,858 pauper lunatics.
Four separate farms were constructed around the site to enable High Royds to become something of a self-sufficient community. The hospital even had its own shire horses to help plough the fields and dairy products came from a flock of Ayrshire heifers.
War
Attitudes to mental illness, were, thankfully, to change over the years and in 1923, the Pauper Lunatic Asylum was renamed the West Riding Mental Hospital at Menston.
Conditions for patients were improving, too, and each ward now had a pet canary, a piano and the male wards also had billiard tables.
In 1924, wireless sets were installed and the hospital got its first cinematograph and in the 1930s, electric light was installed to the whole building.
By 1936, occupational therapy had come into being and many patients were for the first time considered voluntary.
When war broke out in 1939, High Royds played an important role. A six-hutted emergency hospital opened to deal with 450 sick and wounded. In 1940, the first convoy of soldiers from France arrived and the facility was also used to provide short-term accommodation for refugees.
During the war, convulsant therapy using drugs had been replaced by electro-convulsive therapy (ECT), which was widely used, particularly in patients with depressive illnesses.
Important, too, was the new range of drugs like chlorpromazine and other anti-depressants.
In 1961, attitudes to mental hospitals had irrevocably changed.
The then Minister of Health, Enoch Powell described a desire to see scaling down of the huge Victorian institutions – "isolated, majestic, brooded over by the gigantic watertower and chimney combined, rising unmistakable out of the country."
Financial pressures were to play a part too, as the Government realised how costly psychiatric hospitals were to run on such a grand scale.
On January 1, 1963, the changes began – with the hospital being renamed again, this time as High Royds. Modernisation got underway and specialist units were built for children and the elderly and patient overcrowding began to reduce.
It was the 1970s, though, which probably saw the most change with the emergence of care in the community, day centres, sheltered housing schemes and local psychiatric nursing. In the 1990s it was finally decided to close High Royds and replace the hospital with smaller, locally-based facilities.
In 1996, Aire Court was built at Middleton, south Leeds, as a community unit. Millside Community Unit in Leeds and Towngate House Community Unit in Guiseley soon followed, along with Millfield House in Yeadon.
High Royds was in a definite state of decline and featured in a series of YEP articles which declared a "crisis in mental health care".
Leisure
Responding to sustained criticism the then Leeds Community and Mental Health Services NHS Trust launched a £50m plan to build nine new mental health facilities across the city.
By 2003, all of those had opened and High Royds was languishing empty.
And there it still remains, although soon it may be unrecognisable as a former lunatic asylum – planning permission has been granted and work is underway on a major residential and leisure complex.
The main part of the asylum, including the famous clock, is now a listed building and will remain.
Wednesday 6 February 2008
Gregory Crewdson
Gregory Crewdson is an American photographer who is best known for his work in American middle class suburbs. Crewdson describes his influences as mainly film based and therefore his photographs are staged. He has crew of roughly 60 people who work for him to set up scenes for his photographs. His shots on location can take months of planning with huge amounts of production, taking two or three days to produce a single image.
His images are surreal and often have a narrative behind them.
'I'm very interested in the uncanny and a way of looking to find something mysterious or terrible within everyday life. For better or for worse, a lot of my newer pictures seem less dark. The uncanniness is less explicit and more poetic in feel.'
(Crewdson cited in Bright 2005: 80)
This quote sums up Crewdson's work for me. Although some of the photos seem disturbing they do have an element of beauty about them. I believe the way he uses light has a lot to do with this.
The photo above is .The focus of the photo is primarily the woman. The room in which she is in seems to be submerged in water. The reflections in the water make it look like she could be floating. The woman is white and lifeless, making her look dead. Her skin has a transparent quality which is reflected in her clothing. She looks delicate. We wonder how long she has been there. Why she is lying in water? The lighting is quite bright which contrasts with the subject matter. The sun seems to be shinning in through the windows yet the light in the room appears cold. All these features give the photo a slightly eerie feeling. The photo above could easily be a scene from a horror film.
Gregory Crewdson's images are especially relevant to this Video module as they are basically film stills. They have a sense of mystery and surrealism present. They raise questions and seem to present underlying meanings. These are all things we are aiming for in our video.
Friday 1 February 2008
Eraserhead
Eraserhead is a 1970s horror film by David Lynch. Lynch himself describes the film as a "dream of dark and troubling things." From the video you can see that it is completely surreal and I would describe it as the closet thing to a nightmare. It does not seem to have a linear plot and there have been many different interpretations of the film.
Eraserhead is considered a difficult film to understand and is open to various interpretations. For example, the review at DVD Verdict offers at least three interpretations.[3] The story does not have a strictly linear plot, it is punctuated with fantasy/dream sequences of differing lengths, and the boundary between these sequences and the primary narrative strand is often blurred. Many have interpreted it as a visual-sound experience rather than a narrative or story, a film that is more about conveying a very specific and powerful mood and atmosphere. In an interview on the cleaned and remastered edition of the film (2006), Lynch said he has yet to read an interpretation of the film that is the same as his own.
(wikipedia.org)
There is a specific scene, included in this video, which shows a woman singing 'In Heaven'. The song is happy yet when it is played in this slightly strange, dark situation it becomes eerie and really adds to the disturbing feel of the film.
Eraserhead has a very powerful atmosphere and feel to it. This is what we are trying to create in our video. There will not be a narrative, we are attempting to blur the boundaries of dream and reality.
Wednesday 23 January 2008
Floria Sigismondi
Floria Sigismondi is a photographer and film maker. This is a description of her work from her website. www.floriasigismondi.com
With motion, sound, lighting, wardrobe, and elaborate settings to ensconce her, Floria's video work is characterized by the kind of theatrical and dramatic imagery found in the great tragedies of Italian opera or Greek mythology. Floria's penchant for entropic underworlds inhabited by tortured souls and omnipotent beings arise from her self-described "scandalous" subconscious. These nebulous realms are revealed to her in dreams or in the meditative state of fatigued delirium that occurs while hovering between sleep and wakefulness. Her seemingly aberrant creations have attracted the talents of David Bowie, Marilyn Manson, The Cure, Fiona Apple, Living Things, White Stripes, Interpol, Sigur Ros, Tricky, Plant/Page, and Sheryl Crow.
(http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=48248436)
She is well known for her music videos. The video above is for Sigur Ros. What is interesting about this video is in the beginning it appears very normal, yet when the singing starts we see something very surreal. It even becomes slightly disturbing in some parts. Despite this the video is beautiful, from the colours to the composition. Floria Sigismondi is the main influence for this project and will inspire us all to attempt to merge surrealism and beauty.
This is the White Stripes video for Blue Orchid also directed by Floria Sigismondi.I like the editing in this video. Some of it has been speeded up, making the movements look strange. The speed adds a manic and chaotic feel to the video. The editing is also quite jerky and random. This along with the fact that it is in black and white reminds me of a silent movie.
I will be considering using similar editing techniques. Speeding up and slowing down could really add to the surrealism we are trying to achieve in our video.
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