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Film is my bread and butter...

So I have broken it down into 2 sections. Social media (a mix of freelance and personal projects) and Corporate work (professional and acadmeic works).

Portmanteau Film Reveiws and Essay

Monty Python’ The Meaning of Life - (1983)Watching the meaning of life, despite being a 107-minute-long fever dream, it feels more relevant than ever before with references to gender identity, obsessive consumerism and huge divide in wealth religion and everything in between.Against the grain of a typical portmanteau, the meaning of life is self-referential and unafraid of breaking the fourth wall with narration and voiceover becoming a constant theme as well as parallel narratives of characters viewing the film for themselves. But while somewhat insane the inclusion of talking fish in a restaurant tank gave the piece a much-needed glue as they acted as not only comedic relief but also as the everyman. By acknowledging the audacity of the subsequent sagas, it gave the piece a grounding to reality and a constant relatability between chaos.

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Accuracy In Documentary Filmmaking:

When creating a documentary or factual program, accuracy is at the center of the process. A piece of non-fiction media relies on building trust with the audience and spreading misinformation can damage the integrity of the filmmaker and film.One key element of creating factual programming is an intense amount of research, while bias and a lack of objectivity can equally skew the balance of the piece of media, ensuring statements, statistics and everything presented as fact is correct and is the simplest and most important part of creating an accurate piece of media. In situations such as the infamous 1987 Michael Fish weather forecast, he states “A woman rang the BBC and said she heard there's a hurricane

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Treatment - Tendencies Music Video

Tendencies – Worm Immortality Team Music VideoNed Connors Max Stafford Seb TipleaThe Tendencies music video will aim to be a visualisation of the track by ‘Worm Immortality Team’ with techniques such as stop motion and keying to create surreal looking graphics and effects, this will help achieve the aim of targeting an indie audience as the DIY style compliments both the budget and resources available. The project will be of a video montage style with a general theme of losing control however becoming more free to express.

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Treatment - Tendencies Music Video

Tendencies – Worm Immortality Team Music VideoNed Connors Max Stafford Seb TipleaThe Tendencies music video will aim to be a visualisation of the track by ‘Worm Immortality Team’ with techniques such as stop motion and keying to create surreal looking graphics and effects, this will help achieve the aim of targeting an indie audience as the DIY style compliments both the budget and resources available. The project will be of a video montage style with a general theme of losing control however becoming more free to express.Video MP4Music Video PromoDuration 2:30 – 3:00 minutesStyle Bright colours and natural light, indie, simple effects, DIY look parts of stop motion Performance and Lip-sync.Narrative structure Non Linear / Montage.Target audience:
Youth indie music scene.TECHNICALMulti Camera ( 2x Sony RX10 )Props (table and food) Expendable objectsStudio/ location
Garden of production crew members (controlled) Bedroom (controlled) city centre (open to public)RESOURCESHuman 3 Production Crew (camera op, director and producer) + talentTime Final deadline of 10th June 2022Costumes and props Outfit for talent, Table and food for destruction, various implements to aid in destructionBudget Transport and props £10 - £20.Health and safety See Risk assessmentRATIONALEPromotion of the artist, to help build an audience for the client and put eyes on the music

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Accuracy In Documentary Filmmaking:

When creating a documentary or factual program, accuracy is at the center of the process. A piece of non-fiction media relies on building trust with the audience and spreading misinformation can damage the integrity of the filmmaker and film.One key element of creating factual programming is an intense amount of research, while bias and a lack of objectivity can equally skew the balance of the piece of media, ensuring statements, statistics and everything presented as fact is correct and is the simplest and most important part of creating an accurate piece of media. In situations such as the infamous 1987 Michael Fish weather forecast, he states “A woman rang the BBC and said she heard there's a hurricane on the way, well if you're watching, don’t worry there isn’t”. Less than 24 hours later wind speeds of over 120mph were recorded in the southeast of England. While comedic at first the incident may have indirectly assisted in the 18 storm related deaths as it failed to prepare people for the adverse conditions. Ensuring a documentary piece is factual is an objective task and can be overlooked not only through malice but neglect of attention to detail. The aforementioned case was as a result of the presenter being a late substitute for the original meteorologist and a breakdown of communication.When creating a documentary piece, it is also crucial to consider balance. A balanced documentary will present both sides of an argument, event or viewpoint in an objective and unbiased manner. An example of unbiased documentary is the BBC News. As the public service broadcaster for the UK, The BBC has a duty of care to present information, represent and allow the diverse audience of the UK to form its own opinions based on fact. News sources range on levels of bias and perspective with Papers such as the Daily Mail having notoriously right-wing perspectives feeding a more conservative readership. Achieving true neutrality is a near impossible task as all originations have an agenda; public service broadcasters tend to lean towards the opinions of the leading party, as being a government funded body means they are incentivized to be favorable in the hope of further support and funding. However, the effect of this can vary from country to country as governmental power of the broadcasters can vary, with the BBC and the US’ PBS having a more liberal approach despite in the UK, this being contrary to the current run of prime ministers.Bias can however be a useful tool when the filmmaker desires to push an idea, movement or ideology, A great example of this is the 2013 Sea World documentary ‘Blackfish’. The director Cowperthwaite has a clear goal of provoking outrage and conversation about the mistreatment of animals in the resort. While her storytelling is one sided and lacks objectivity, an argument can be made that this approach makes the film ever more compelling. Stronger opinions promote stronger action and with the goal creating outrage to spark change within the organization, a more balanced film would create a luke warm reaction.Objectivity is a crucial aspect of insuring the true representation of a subject. Objectivity requires a complete and impartial outlook on a subject that is devoid of personal or emotional connection. When creating a journalistic piece, the creator must set aside prior experiences and influences to avoid looking for stereotypes and present the story rather than hunting for a certain opinion.When a film is labeled as a documentary, there is an expectation for the program to be trustworthy and while biopics and dramatizations can blur the lines between based on and a recount of events an expectation of thorough research is a crucial part of documentary film making.Kinver, M. (2007) UK | Magazine | the wrong man, BBC News. BBC. Available at: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/7042220.stm (Accessed: November 15, 2022).

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Monty Python’ The Meaning of Life - (1983)Watching the meaning of life, despite being a 107-minute-long fever dream, it feels more relevant than ever before with references to gender identity, obsessive consumerism and huge divide in wealth religion and everything in between.Against the grain of a typical portmanteau, the meaning of life is self-referential and unafraid of breaking the fourth wall with narration and voiceover becoming a constant theme as well as parallel narratives of characters viewing the film for themselves. But while somewhat insane the inclusion of talking fish in a restaurant tank gave the piece a much-needed glue as they acted as not only comedic relief but also as the everyman. By acknowledging the audacity of the subsequent sagas, it gave the piece a grounding to reality and a constant relatability between chaos.The self-aware nature of the piece provides a unique opportunity for the film itself to become the framing device, feeding into this idea of a hunt for meaning where the characters within the screen are asking at what point the title becomes relevant. And to look beyond the constant asking of meaning is the inherent meaning. The goal of the film is not to outline how we should live our lives or find some philosophical broader meaning. It's to poke fun at our constant need for a purpose and to except that the world is filled with tragedy and conflict and idiocy, and we will never know why. The deeper meaning is an acceptance of what is and how we are to deal with it. For me the finest example of this is the restraunt where only conversations are served. A weird and yet delightful scene where 2 patrons struggle to have an educated conversation yet enjoy themselves anyway, this provides us with the first opportunity where the meaning of life is discussed within the narrative and the full weight of this interaction is only revealed in the fleeting moments of the film. They were in heaven. Not even beyond the grave in the perfect utopia can we understand ourselves.Despite the incredibly profound and yet somehow unsubstantial revelations there is no escaping the 2 hours of nonces you must sit through first. The film is undeniably funny, and its wit is charming and never feels harsh in its mockery, but aspects do feel overdone. The film is subject to excessive nudity and feels a little less than tastefully done by modern standards and that combined with musical numbers that drag on a little too long and an opening that seems to never receives the full context; aspects of the film leave you bored or confused and wanting to click away.That being said, I do believe the film is still worth a watch, even if just to appreciate the forward-thinking views and opinions of the Monty Python collective, and despite the film being 40 years old next year it still rings true on so many levels, a sketch on the catholic outlook on the sacrality of life could not be written better now, and as we have seen the US go back on its views of abortion over the past year, it goes to show we have not solved our problems. In fact, we are making them worse.The House - (2022)The House is a trilogy of 30-minute-long animated features based in a somehow ceaseless house. The stories are each created by different animation teams and directors yet written by one creator following the house through time. This distinction creates 3 very different worlds that still carry similar ideas and philosophies to each other.The first story, set in what appears to be a medieval period, in which a poor family is scraping together a living but withheld from contentment by their judgmental relatives. When an opportunity to receive an exquisite new manner provided by an allusive architect for nothing but their promise of inhabitance arises, they cease the opportunity with both hands. The sudden shift to a living of excellency corrupts the adults while the children see beyond the materialistic drive and seek comfort instead. The creative direction this takes is both beautiful and yet equally unsettling. Characters are designed with tiny beady eyes and little mouths, alongside cotton skin blushed red creating a disturbing veining effect, the simplicity in the range of motion of the faces provides a glazed look all the characters adding to the allure of the houses seemingly mind controlling ability. And as our victims slowly fall into their consumeristic trap, the passage of time is represented beautifully not only in the breakdown of characters and physical changes to the house but the growth of their baby daughter; born at the start of the film we see little change to her appearance but instead her development of communication. From silence to squeals to first words. Each change feels striking, and the absence of parenthood feels even more gut wrenching. The section ends with the children being orphaned as their parents become transformed into part of the house, the mother becoming a curtain and the father a chair. The ending is heavily foreshadowed yet still feels surprising although never explicitly revealing the true intentions of the architect, it does give a clue to his meaning behind his generosity, a dystopian furniture collector of some kind?The second story brings the film to the present day where a rat is attempting to flip the house into a luxury residence. The film uses several establishing shots that seem to break away from the miniature animations with the opening of the second section appearing as a photo real street, whether it was a traditional shot or an incredibly detailed miniature, the choice to include such naturalistic shots within a film with a talking rat as the protagonist helps link the surrealist characters and dystopian landscapes to reality; a necessity when dealing with giant beetles as tenants. This second story continues to explore our human desires to climb social ladders at the cost of our true needs. A rat is a pest itself and watching it fight vermin in a human way is oxymoronic. And part of the charm of this film is its open-ended nature, conclusions can be drawn condemning humans as pests, or the film continued theme of rejection of needs for social climb.The final part continues to amplify the messages of the prior sections. Based in a dystopian future a feline character now owns the bedraggled house and has the goal of funding renovations with the money provided by her 2 lodgers. The two lodgers are left unable to pay due to the obvious limitations of the flooded world around them and it seems only a matter of time before the house itself goes under. The main difference in the final film is that it ends with an optimistic finish. The landlord is forced to abandon the project as the seas inevitably rise but with the help of a wandering traveler, the house is released from its foundations and converted into a ship. The ending is a double-edged sword, as while it is the first time a character feels free, they still never leave the house behind, a possible reference to the original building ensuring that it must be lived in.The House is an incredibly creative perspective on materialism and social construct and powerful use of animation to create stories impossible to tell with traditional live action techniques. The opening section could be much further developed into a feature all by itself as the 30-minute run time makes the world building feel rushed and the 30-minute section felt like scratching the surface of the horror story. This may largely be due to the project converting from a short series to a feature length, mid project, and while I do feel this is a much more appropriate setup for the narrative due to its interlaced messaging, I wish with this change they could have altered the runtime of the sections to build upon the setup they started with.The House may not be the most gripping of films, but its subtle messaging and incredible levels of both narrative and cinematic detail create an anthology that will leave you pondering its messaging and speculating on its narratives for days to come.What is Portmanteau?A Portmanteau film is a collection of short stories collated on a theme and exhibited as one final product. The word portmanteau is synonymous with the combination of things as it is a phrase used to describe the merging of multiple words into one with a new meaning; examples include Brunch (breakfast and lunch) and telethon (television and marathon). The goal of a portmanteau is exactly that: to take individual situations and weave them into a greater meaning.The genre is niche and often left out of the blockbuster circle as the unconventional nature of the style is so drastically breaking down the traditional viewing experience. Moving away from the traditional singular narrative can be significantly less immersive as the shifts in narrative focus scene or characters are often jarring, but in turn it allows the filmmaker to explore one theme from many perspectives.Portmanteaus revolve around having a framing device, An aspect of continuity between sections. This may be as simple as the scenery or set or as complex as underlying values running between characters. Netflix original ‘The House’ (2022) is a perfect example of both these links. Throughout the 3 parts many different characters live in the house with the story developing around this constant, however, the themes of materialism, greed and the effects on our mental health are equally prevalent. The combination of such detail in theme allows the directors to emphasize their beliefs repeatedly through new scenarios situations and storylines. Portmanteau lends itself to films that want to cover ideologies from multiple perspectives and the collation of outcomes can build a powerful message.Portmanteaus also offer an opportunity for smaller stories to be included on the big screen. Short films are a style often left out of cinema as their defining characteristic is equally their fatal flaw. Visiting the cinema for anything shorter than 30 minutes is inconvenient and uneconomical, however, by providing an opportunity for a collaboration of works a new creative avenue can be explored where shorter films can be exhibited to a broader audience. Experimenting with run time can be an impactful tool when deciding how much section should be waited Wild Tales (2014) has huge variations in its sections lengths while The House gives equal 30-minute weighting. The introduction of new technical aspects creates a new dimension open for creativity; In ‘Monty Pythons: The meaning of Life’ (1983) multiple other stories are opened just to act as the anchor between sections, creating a fourth wall breaking meta affair.Monty Pythons inclusion of sketch comedy into the portmanteau genre was a key part in the styles move away from horror. Alfred Hitchcock was notorious for his portmanteau horror films and as the short film style lends itself to the dark suspenseful hits of fear, it took pioneers and industry leaders to break away from this sub-genre. Monty Python is the perfect example of converting a TV format into the big screen, taking the troops TV sketches into feature lengths. The Troop started by taking a singular narrative and breaking it down into individual sub plot sketches (as seen in The Holy Grail 1975 and Life of Brian 1979) and finally a full comedic true portmanteau in 1983 with their final film The Meaning Of life.The portmanteau style has seen a resurgence in popularity in recent years with films such as 2018s The Ballard of Buster Scruggs and although predominately a western in its aesthetic, the film stays a comedy first in its opening narratives moving towards drama through its duration. On the other hand, The House (2022) is predominantly horror through its opening sections architypes but ends a black comedy. Deveopment in the space has had limited change in the last 40 years as due to its unconventional nature the style is underexposed and there for underdeveloped.Portmanteau films are often easily adapted to and from TV series due to their segmented nature and many projects that began as TV series have been converted into feature films or vice versa. These decisions are often motivated by trends and the needs of streaming services and publishers rather than what is best for the art. However, this has led to shows like Black Mirror where the key anthological elements are akin to those of portmanteau but allow greater depth as the plethora of episodes is greater and the time for development is greater.Portmanteau is a genre that has great potential and yet always seems to sit within the bounds of comedy and horror and while these two genres do spread to both sides of the spectrum, they are inherently quite similar in their uses for creating tension and feeling. A gap exists for other genres and mixing of styles to create a broader choice of content within the space.Portmanteau (2022) Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portmanteau (Accessed: November 2, 2022).Gunner, J. (no date) 100 portmanteau examples of creative combined words, Example Articles & Resources. YOURDICTIONARY. Available at: https://examples.yourdictionary.com/100-portmanteau-examples-of-creative-combined-words.html (Accessed: November 2, 2022).Hitchcock fiction anthologies (no date) Hitchcock fiction anthologies - The Alfred Hitchcock Wiki. Available at: https://the.hitchcock.zone/wiki/Hitchcockfictionanthologies (Accessed: November 2, 2022).

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