Author: jona-tristan.koehring

Since my last entry about Drive I (re)watched some films that fit the same category. (Fight Club, Nightcrawler, American Psycho and Blade Runner 2049) At first these films don’t really have a lot in common. Except that they deal with men confronted with isolation and emasculation and the simple fact that when people watch them, they think: „this is literally me!“ Even though they are neither Get-away Drivers, sociopaths filming crime scenes, killers or replicants in a dystopian cyberpunk world. I think the fact why people associate with these characters on such a deep level, is that they have experienced similar feelings and situations. They have been the outcast, never learned to really talk or even feel trough their emotions, and society doesn’t want them to or doesn’t even allow it all. That’s why all these characters are on quest for meaning. We all are. The only difference is that these characters really break conventions to actually achieve it. People might not associate with the ways these characters search for meaning but they definitely associate with the need for it. I think it is very important that these „literally me“ films and characters exist, because they are a rare example of media that deal with male emotional struggles. These films show people that they are not alone and that others feel the same way. 

Drive is a 2011 neo noir – arthouse – action film by Nicolas Winding Refn and one of the best films I have ever seen. This Impulse contains spoilers for the film so if you haven’t watched I highly recommend to do so. 

Film Summary: The unnamed protagonist Driver is a stunt driver who works as a getaway driver at night. He meets his neighbor, Irene, and her son and they become close. But things take a dangerous turn when he gets involved in a heist that goes wrong. To protect Irene and her son from the criminals involved, he has to navigate through a world of violence and betrayal, putting his own life at risk to keep them safe

Driver: „You know the story about the scorpion and the frog? Your friend Nino didn’t make it across the river.” 

From Drivers point of view it becomes obvious that he thinks of himself of the Scorpion. This also implies that everything bad he has done previously is just his nature. Even though the action of killing someone comes rather easy to him the consequences that come out of it show that killing is not his nature and that the scorpion is probably not him himself but sitting on his back preparing to sting him.

Goslings character starts out as someone who is in total control of everything indicated by the perfect escape from the police in the opening scene of the film. However when Irene and her son enter his life he slowly learns that he is not in control of everything especially not his own emotions and feelings. 

As Gosling himself put it Driver is a character who has seen to many films and became a captive in his own head. And you got to give it to him. There is just something about Ryan Gosling playing the detached loner longing for meaning. I have never seen an actor portraying that feeling of loneliness and being a captive of  his own feelings as well as Ryan Gosling does it. Blade Runner 2049, some parts of La La Land or Drive are perfect of examples of this. 

In Drive there is grave difference from the in-control, emotionally disconnected person executing the perfect get-away to someone who is violently shaking while smashing in someone’s Hand and shoving a bullet down his throat. Driver can’t escape his life. The only scene where he briefly escapes it and pulls Irene aside to kiss her before violently smashing the hitmen’s head in is borderline reality. The way the camera and the lighting work in this scene it can be assumed that the kiss only plays out in Drivers head and the frustration about not being able to live with Irene leads to his overreaction of kicking the hitman even though he is long dead resulting in Irene realizing what he actually is. 

But does this really make him the scorpion. I would argue that the scorpion is on his back, also implied by his jacket he is wearing throughout the film. This could be in form of Bernie which would make a lot of sense. Since Driver let’s himself be stabbed by Bernie in the end before killing him.

 I would however argue that Driver is his own Scorpion. He is never in control and so caught up in his own imagination of himself that he doesn’t realize that he barely ever takes a conscious decision before the point of already being involved with people whose hands are actually dirty compared to his hands which are only a little dirty. He only starts to take control to save Irenes life sacrificing their future of being together.

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0780504/

Virtual production, as seen in The Mandalorian, could probably be a revolution in filmmaking by combining real-time computer visuals with live-action filming. As opposed to conventional green screen methods, which call for performers to stand in front of a blank green backdrop, virtual production makes use of projection systems or LED panels to show high-definition digital surroundings in real time. Actors can engage with their environment more naturally with this immersive technique, which improves performances and minimizes the amount of post-production work required.

The capacity of virtual production to give actors and filmmakers instant visual input is one of its main advantages over green screen production. In The Mandalorian, performers were able to respond and perform more naturally since they could see the computerized sets and creatures on the LED screens surrounding them. On set, this real-time communication encourages a collaborative atmosphere where innovative decisions may be made quickly, expediting the production process and saving money and time.

Furthermore, virtual production gives you more freedom and control over how your movie turns out. Real-time experimentation with lighting configurations, camera angles, and visual effects allows directors to maintain the film’s stylistic consistency throughout production.Virtual production produces more visually attractive and engaging content by fusing real-world sets with virtual ones. This technique captivates viewers and expands the possibilities of cinematic storytelling.

When I was at home over the holidays my grandparents and I went to the Steinhorster Bruch which is a huge protecting breeding area for birds with multiple small lakes and Forrests. I just bought the Sony a7IV and the 200-600 G so it was time to test these out. My goal for the trip was to more actively focus filmmaking instead of photography. That is something I always struggled with so I wanted to address this. The problem is when I go out with the goal to just shoot videos or pictures it is very easy for me to just do that. But when it comes to hybrid shooting I usually end up being hyper focused on one thing (usually photography) and completely neglecting the other. So I often end up with the perfect images but not a singular video. So that’s why I wanted to actively try to both. But it proved to be kinda hard. In situation where there is only one thing possible, for example a bird flying by my brain seems to value photos a lot more and automatically tries to just shoot pictures. With actively addressing that issue I got somewhat an even ratio, however I really have to actively try to not take photos. I’ll try again on my next trips and hopefully achieve a flow state in both categories without thinking about it too much. 

Anyway here are some pictures from the trip: 

Before settling on these two I watched a lot of videos on how to expose S-Log 3. Since we film Hannis Documentary on the weekend I thought it was a good idea to freshen up on this topic. Those two videos were very thorough on the topic. Good bye to the days of always exposing up to +1.7. The videos were very detailed on when to overexpose and when to expose for skin tones and when to use which metering mode and when and to what extend to use the zebra and of course when to use (which is basically always) use false colour. A lot of the Information was of course familiar but there were bits and pieces that were new. After that I also freshened up on when to use which focus speeds for smooth transitions for each PAL Framerate. After that I checked up on the best codec settings for the camera, before getting inspiration on possible Custom Button layouts. I have to say, people make interesting choices when it comes to custom button layouts. But since preferences seem to very different some of those layouts were straight up lunacy for me, but whatever works for people I guess. Whenever I watch videos like this I always learn new things but also there is often stuff missing that I know. Maybe sometime I will start my own YouTube tutorial series with a specific focus on wildlife. Time will tell.

Since for my nature documentary / conservation film the protagonist will be the focus point of the film I choose to take a look at how hook the audience in classic documentaries where the character and their story is basically the only possibility to keep the audience interested. 

The first major point here is an intro that hooks the audience. He uses mystery to make people wanna know more. He uses some of the strongest statements and strongest visuals in the beginning. He furthermore says that for documentaries is to staying true to your subject matter without trying to make the film or story something that is isn’t. For the middle part he advises to focus on the history and the current conflict of the subject. He also emphasizes to show and not tell and to trust the audience. There has to be one main message, a red line running trough the film. For the ending he recommends to show a revelation of either the protagonist or the a revelation for the audience. 

Personally I think there are many takeaways from this video and the way the maker of this video does tell his stories is very similar to the way I wanna tell mine. There is a lot to learn, also in his other videos which all show important aspects of how to hook your audience

I watched this because of the title. I deemed it pretty interesting since my film will center around the protagonist or scientist and their motivation and not on for example the wildlife. I thought maybe the video will explore exactly that. However I was disappointed. The Videomaker instead tries to make a documentary with only stock footage which is the opposite of what I want to do. He also explored what makes a documentary good. This is were it got interesting again. He concluded that narrative, visuals, good, foly music and narration are important. Which is not really news. The final product was a an okay trailer for a documentary. The use of foly however was quite interesting and leveled up everything by a lot. I will definitely keep this in mind for my film to not forget about the importance of good sound. The rest of the video was rather useless.

Since I finally have a possible project for my master thesis I thought this to be a good point in time  to think about a structure for the written part, so I know what to research and where to start.  

In the following I will write down the possible chapter and briefly address why I think them important and what they will contain. 

Theoretical Part:  

The importance of our oceans  

This chapter will discuss why the ocean is so important to our existence as humans. Since the thesis will strongly focus on arctic oceans this chapter will possibly also discuss specifics of the importance of especially arctic oceans 

The ocean in the Anthropocene 

This chapter will focus on the current state of our oceans and to what extent humans are  

responsible for it’s current developments. This chapter will also delve deeper in regard to  

state of arctic oceans.  

Noise pollution in the ocean  

This chapter will discuss the dramatic effects noise pollution has on our oceans, especially the arctic.  

Conservation film  

This chapter will discuss what a conservation film is. 

History of conservation films 

This chapter will discuss the history of conservation films, its milestones and developments.  

Impact of conservation films  

This chapter will discuss how effective conservation films actually are and what can be achieved with them.  

How to create an impact with conservation films  

This chapter will deal with all the opportunities to create impact. This chapter will basically function as the bridge between the theoretical part and the methodology. This chapter will explore all possibilities to create impact or an emotional connection with the audience that   

the thesis will explore in the following parts. For example story, colour grading, sound and actually being relevant for the time the film is produced in. Or in other words hitting the Zeitgeist.  

Methodology:  

The second part or the theis will deal with the question on how to actually hit the zeitgeist and create an impactful film. After that is done the rest of this part will follow the structure of making a conservation film and will talk about how these findings where implemented and moreover how other factors like colour grading can be used to further strengthen the the emotional impact the film has on the audience.  

Before I delve into the method of how I want to find out what the zeitgeist is and will be in the years to come,  

I want to adress that my methodology is not yet final and I first want to talk to my professor and you if that really makes sense for this project.  

But first I should probably explain what this methodology that I am thinking about actually is.  

I am currently enrolled in the course Sustainability Transitions at NTNU and the main goal of the course basically is to predict the future. In the course we use the ViP model analyze a current situation deconstruct it, find patterns and try to predict societal transformations to ultimately introduce theories and methods for sustainability transitions. In my case I would use this model to see what will be important for future auciences. The whole process however is very philosophical and very ambivalent and leaves a lot of room for interpretation. Thats why I am not sure if it’s a good fit for the thesis. Nevertheless I find this approach really interesting and I think it could yield very interesting results.  

Pre Production  

All the subchapters in this part will inccoporate findings from the methodology  

Idea 

Research  

Storytelling  

Production  

Lighting  

Soundrecording  

Angels  

Post production  

Editing  

Color Grading  

Marketing  

Film Festivals  

Social Media  

For all prodcution related chapters I will most likely add more chapters in the proecess.