rain rain rain

pen and watercolours are my favorite tools of destruction

Fred Mortagne

Fred Mortagne is a French film maker that makes skateboarding videos. As well does he make skateboard videos he creates 'gimmick' videos, which serve no purpose but are very cleverly shot and edited. Mortagne has an amazing editing style, he can make clips that are very smooth flowing, as well as making something look glitchy, I think his style is very effective.

In this first video he takes the idea that skateboarders are always moving, then takes that idea and flips it on its head, by making the objects move towards the skateboarder the video is given a new edge, taking the norm and reversing it. I also think the editing style reflects this, the editing is very choppy and looks very effective.




This next video is shot by Fred Mortagne and is a video of American band called Schwervon! The song its self is very distorted but the filming style and editing reflect this very well, the film is very distorted and feels disjointed and slightly creepy, Mortagne captures this very well in his film, he has a great way of portraying feelings and emotions through shots, without the aid of narration. This is something i would like to emulate.

Chill Magazine Advert

This short film is for a French skateboard magazine called 'Chill' and the film is made by a French skateboard videographer Fred Mortagne. The film follows a skateboarder through the streets of Paris and the way the film is shot presents a story, as the skateboarder moves from one scene to another. The film has a 'fly on the wall' style but is more simple. The motion graphics that appear on the floor give the film a slight edge, its like the graphics are doing the narration for the film, but in a very simplified way, i like the way this is done. I would like to portray my ideas about my film in this way. Trying to find a way to narrate and tell my story in an unconventional way, that way my film has an edge and looks different to other skateboard documentaries.

Fly On The Wall Documentaries

The film 'Don't Look Back' by D.A. Pennebaker, is one of the greatest 'fly on the wall' documentaries ever made. The film follows singer Bob Dylan as he tours England in 1967. The film has no narration, no interviews with any characters, just simply follows Dylan around London on his encounters. The film captures some epic moments, like Dylan's interview with 'Time' magazine when a heated argument breaks out, the film also captures a moment when a waiter working where Dylan is staying tries to attack him.
The film has a very raw and real feeling, no shots looked faked, or made up. The way the film just follows the characters gives the viewer the feeling of being in the room with the characters.
Fly on the wall style gives a natural feeling to documentaries, which is something i would like to show, for example i think a film is more believable if you can make up your own mind about the story rather than being told what your seeing is real.

Badly Drawn Roy

Badly Drawn Roy is a parody of the standard documentary style. A style which is not based on props and actors but has a narrator telling the story, and conducting interviews with his subjects. The point of this style of documenting is for the viewer to see the film makers subject from an outside view, but as they watch the film the viewer is brought in to feel like they know the subjects as they see them in every day life and learn how they feel and think. The only draw back from this style of filming is the content can be very biased, as the film maker is trying to make a point about his subject he also has the control to choose the footage that the viewer see's, so the film maker can controls what the viewer sees, so then the viewer gets the film makers views and opinions from the film.
Badly Drawn Roy is taking the rules and conventions for standard documentaries, but given his film an edge, by have the subject of his story a cartoon. Which comes across as a ludicrous idea, but the way the film is shot makes the story almost feel believable by the way the actors show their emotions in a way people do in standard documentaries.
Badly Drawn Roy has given me ideas to think outside the box when it comes to documentary film making, the idea of trying to come up with something different to the norm but still convey my ideas a thoughts.

Epicly Later'd

Epicly Later'd is a documentary produced by VICE magazine, and is a documentary that talks about and follows the lives of famous professional skateboarders. The filming style is very raw, uses lots of stock footage of the skateboarders past as well as new footage, and has lots of interview sections.
I really like the way the show is shot, each video is about 5 mins long and if each video is split up into parts.
The idea behind the documentary is that the viewer gets to see what these professional skateboarders are really like, as the main target audience is skateboarders this is something that would interest them a great deal as the only time these skateboarders are seen is in skateboarding videos and magazines, so through this documentary it gives an insight for the viewer, which makes an interesting watch

Anton Corbijn

Anton Corbijn is one of my favorite directors, his most famous film to date is "Control" The film that depicts the life of Joy Division singer Ian Curtis. The film Control is filmed all in black and white which gives the deep and dark feeling as well as being shot in Manchester, the film paints a picture of Manchester in the 1980's, using amazing landscape shots the streets look amazingly beautiful in an ironic way. I am fascinated the way Corbijn can make a bleak street look deep and meaningful, I think that each shot in Control could be used as a photography picture, i think this is helped by the fact that Corbijn has been a professional photographer for over 20 years.
The films style is something i would like to emulate, showing my story with beautiful looking shots that show the surroundings and the characters with a nice blend.

Corbijn Interview + Control footage (Joy Division) subtitled



New Official Control Trailer [Anton Corbijn]