Lines of Enquiry

Closer to the Unit X deadline, the group and I were able to gain a better grasp on our idea regardless of the group decision to go with a more simplistic approach to our concept of the Underworld. Being conveyed purely through visual imagery, we want to creative an urban illusion that was a representation of our concept of what the underworld holds. Despite the decision to remove elements linking to the underworld to our imagery, our final idea will be a still and atmospheric depiction in which we want to display themes of endlessness and a sense of entrapment which we want conveyed through the emotions of the ghostly figures which we will have enter in and out of our industrial imagery.

Photo which was used as inspiration

As a group we wanted everyone to be able to play on their strengths as creatives, therefore myself and other filmmakers focused on the cinematic element of our piece, photographers on the imagery and the animators on the ghost effects. Proving successful, our group were able to focus on our own individual strengths which we thought was vital in the success of our final piece. Originally, Giselle's involvement was high, but with the focus then on the theme of the underworld the groups decision lead to a lack of involvement with the narrative of Giselle, leaving little to relate to the actual Giselle narrative which I feel should have had a much bigger involvement in the final product. Due to this I felt as if our jobs as filmmakers had been reduced, therefore leaving less creative control as I would have preferred in our hands. However, the creative control we do have is something we are intrigued in making it work, therefore we created the concept that each ghost figure that appears on the screen connotes a different emotion all whilst ultimately creating a bleak and cold atmosphere.

Background image for our Unit X final piece

Preparation for our exhibition so far has involved several days of individual and group work in which we were all able to successfully product work which matched the imagery we wanted to create for our project. The photographers were able to present a folder of images of industrial and urban areas of Manchester, allowing us to practice on the images with the ghost animation in order to find what image would be more preferable. For this myself and the filmmaking group members were in control of filming the ghost imagery which involved every member of the group pacing back and forth past the camera, in whom we each made try and convey a different emotion each time they crossed. Although proving tedious we wanted the advantage of having enough footage to select between in order to create the best visual experience. This process was finished as the animation students were then able to create a white glow with transparency on each figure, creating the illusion of a paranormal figure.

However, the creative control we do have is something we are intrigued in making it work, therefore we created the concept that each ghost figure that appears on the screen connotes a different emotion all whilst ultimately creating a bleak and cold atmosphere. Another process in creating the desired illusion is through our manipulation of sound. Our concept is to have a atmospheric drone layered with an altered static noise. In relation to the idea of trapped souls in the underworld I have suggested that beneath the static white noise there should be the echoes of wailing woman keeping in the theme of broken-hearted woman trapped in the underworld from Giselle. Although it's relation isn't vast I still feel it's important to have Giselle's narrative still come through in our piece.


Luckily our groups progress has been substantial which has created enough space for us pay attention and focus on the perfecting of our exhibition project. Due to a limited space for our exhibition my group so far has been able to adjust our piece to the fitted area with the intention of creating a dark area in which we will be able to project our footage onto, whilst being able to fill the space with the atmospheric sound design. As of now I feel as if our project is proving quite successful, and with effort made to the details of our exhibition I think we will be able to produce something intriguing.