I think the edit before is quite a useful tool in conveying we are now leaving this world and entering into the bizarre world that is the unconcious psyche. It was the best we could achieve on our limited mixing linear capabilities anyway. The key to the success on the transition is the blurred edges I feel. Originally I imagined a simple fade to white with the caption and previous voice anchoring the fact it was a dream but the transition helps. Overall I am quite pleased with the dream sequence.

A main componant of the sequence that makes it work is the music used. Incidently it’s ‘Midnight in Moscow’ by Kenny Ball and his Jazzmen from some CD I picked up in a budget bin. That’s me nearer to my 1000 words anyway! It’s about the right tonic of surreal horns and a little backing guitar that adds a smidge of comical charm. It was also fortunate that Mr Kenny Ball put a natural break in his musical piece just the right time, a long horn blast about forty seconds from the end, giving us fourty seconds of soundrtack for approximatly a fourty second dream sequence. It’s perfect! It ends at exactly the right time, adding to the feeling that the dream is tight sequence and if I see Kenny Ball I’ll buy him a drink.

All in all I’m quite happy with the choice of music. The other contenders from my budget buy were a pscyodelic Status Quo song about Matchstick men and the theme from Z cars. This was my number two choice and was held back by a milertary type drum beat. I thought the Status Quo one was a little too serious. Matchstick men - a serious topic in anyone’s book. Sorry, I’m rambling.

The first image was a cut from a scenario in the script. Originally there was to be a man with weird face paint on saying the word ‘I have hands, not leaves’ then he’d turn his hands over and they would have leaves on them. However after filming several takes of this it clearly wasn’t funny. That’s why it’s cut out basically. It was a strange thought and I decided to pursue it to see if it would work but everyone’s reaction to it in the edit suite wasn’t positive at all, we had to trim it as we were clearly in danger of going over the time limit and the ‘unnessarily surreal’ caption was in the way of the leaves anyway. In it’s current form it works a lot better and proves that the exercise wasn’t a complete waste as it is quite a surreal sight watching a man with felt tip marker on his face prance around after revealing his face.
I like it better that way, myself.

I’m not sure what to put about the tin of shaving foam and the trainer. It seemed like a good idea while writing it! Unnessesarily surreal it is as there’s just no need for it! People were surprised this was actually scripted and called me mad. I really couldn’t argue back.

Now to one of the most memerable images in the piece, the blue thing infront of the lens. I love it and it proves that the best moments sometimes come about by chance. What is there to say about it? But without a blue face starring at us the dream wouldn’t be as good.

The pigeon scenario could have been a bit better I think. Perhaps we should have had a closer shot, but most of all it is spoiled by the throw. It’s a bit too high so the pigoens have ample time to react rather than the more spontaneous reaction I anticipated (more practice required).

Another element that has mutated from it’s script form is the upsidedown witch. Originally she was going to curse the thing that is gravity but, again this was unfunny. It would have also interfered with the soundtrack which was a minor consideration but a considration all the same. The main reason for cutting it was the complete utter lack of any comic reaction it, but I kept the image in as a quick attack on the audiences senses.

By far the most surreal element of it is me jumping into rubbish. This is the one that has raised the questionable and strange reaction. Again I’m not sure what to write about it as looking for logic in these situations is completly stupid.

I could have easily though up more bizarre things to do that throw a trainer at a tin of shaving foam and a toilet roll at a pidgoen but I was thinking in terms of the resource of time. I was aware of this issue and the fact we couldn’t afford to spent a great deal of it pursuing abstract madness.

The second visit to the fashion policeman is where technically it go down the toilet a bit. First is the instence with the dreaded incontinuity of white balance. I know J’s a bit gutted about this but he’s making no excuses. It was a terrible mistake but we make mistakes don’t we all. I actually feel I could have done more about it in the edit suite and escecially the bleached heavy legs thing taken from across the road. Here a slight alteration in the black balance wouldn’t have been a bad idea. It was rotton raw material to work with but I think we could have done a bit better with it. I did actually try and compensate for this by using the colour tint thing on the mixer but it came out a strange kind of purple.

This is inconsistant between the shots that are interspersed with a completly different (properly) white balanced view of someone pulling up their trousers. This is due to us editing over the old one in order to erase the previous scene (waking up) in which I stood around for a bit after the music had ended. This meant that the two were visually different and in terms of sound too, which is a good thing as the next bit of diologue is way too quiet.

I quite like the element of ‘cinema interior’ we used. The composition of the shot has been in my mind for quite a while, the hare’s ears silohetted against the silver screen / wall. It turns out to be quite a pleasing image in my opinion but perhaps I’m pleased easily. I quite like the flicker in the film as it makes it look more genuine and I think the clip ends with a women being on the left side of the frame, which is quite a nice position as the ears are on the right.
A fade to black for a much needed passage of time indicator after the tortoise / ninja turtle struggles past. We may cut a bit sharply when the hare leaves the building but this is due to time constraints and it’s there long enough to see he goes out so I don’t think there’s a problem there.

So to the ending. All in all the ending seems a bit like an anticimax. I think this is partly due to us having to cut out the second encouter with the witch, which originally blocked hare on his way. With this in place there would have been more of a dramatic conclusion rather than one of those fireworks that just fizzles out. But it had to be sacraficed for the good of the whole as it was the most expendable of all the sequences as cutting out the special effect thing or the dream was pretty unthinkable.

more, please

fuck this, let's look at porn