Week 18. 2nd March to 6th

WEEK 18

Supervisor meeting 03/03/2020

Key points about my last submission and todo.

• Discussed having a role model for my writing style.

• My sentences are possibly too long, make them shorter, think of two lines as a good guide to work to, for example one of my sentences was over 80 words long.

• Direct quotes should ideally be linked into the discussion, have a conversation with your quotes, but at this stage they are just notes and they may not even be in your final work. So, carry on with this for now but you may well not use them later.

• For example, you say flashbacks represent history and memory and so you would back this up by referencing say 12 scholars who basically say the same thing. Common practice to list a large number of references but later when you make your own arguments you may only reference a few scholars.

• Don’t worry about giving the plot away when analysing a film, you should describe what the film is trying to do, in film analysis by starting basically from the end of the film and approach the analysis backwards. Your role isn’t to just give a film synopsis, try to find a balance between the review and the analysis. Give spoilers, in my Oldboy analysis it would have been OK to explain the 15 years in the cell and the connection to the opening scene.

• The final section in my analysis of Oldboy was a good example of what a film analysis should look like, so there aren’t many corrections in that section. Best part of the film’s analysis.

• Generalising I should try to do this more often rather than making definitive statements without backing them up, for example I stated that flashforwards are rarely used in comparison to flashbacks.

• Look at how to select films for analysis, at the moment they are films containing flashbacks and usually by Independents (Auteur Directors) rather than Hollywood productions. Have a plan to confine the selection of films, the case studies in the final versions of the chapter. Best case studies?

• Check out Little Women (New version) which has flashbacks and flashforwards that do not use the conventions in entering or leaving a flashback other than by a colour grading change.

• Use my personal experience of cinematography to explain the shot, through choice of lens etc. in the match cuts in Oldboy are they all done in camera or are they digital? Prime Lens or Zoom Lens?

• To say, I think, is OK but do not use it too often, need to back up my personal statements with references, to be more scholarly.

• Word count think about the next stage, for example if you are aiming for an academic route you should think about a 50:50 balance.

• Film Festivals and Conferences, no funding for going to Film Festivals or Exhibitions but attending conferences for example, Film Philosophy, Screen Studies Conference in Glasgow and BAFTSS at St Andrews. So, I usually attend BCS (British Cinematographers Society) and BVE shows, these maybe still relevant for my research.

• Look at and sign up for some relevant mailing lists? Setup specific folders before adding them otherwise my inbox will fill up.

Actions

Six monthly review is due soon. Provisionally with both Supervisors in April.

1. Look again at my original proposal and see what has changed and update this.
2. Create a provisional chapter list.
3. Speculative timeline for each stage, work backwards from year 3, leaving plenty of time for the practice element.
4. Agree a word count, a balance between the practice and the written element based on what you are planning to do next with the PhD. Based on my MA I submitted a 50:50 written Vs practical. That’s about 40,000 words, I was thinking about writing c50,000 words?
5. Look at some example PhD thesis online.
6. Write about the reasons, choices and how you planned your current filming as this will feed into your thesis.
7. Possibly set, agree a word count limit with a +/- 10% for future submissions? I was thinking 2,000 words is a good size, 4K to 5K per month?

Writing for submission

Completed writing up the films Anna (2019) and Casablanca (1942) film analysis for the chapter on flashbacks and then uploading as new Journal Entries on my phsjournal.co.uk blog.

Filming

Panasonic GH4

Started filming the Horror short film REM (2020) with a group from the Lancaster University Film Production Society. First time using the Panasonic Lumix GH4. Took an age to setup the camera as to how I like to film. Hidden menus and a few camera faults had to be overcome but the footage looks great.