Monday 29 June 2009
Friday 27 March 2009
Susuana - AS Media Studies Coursework Evaluation
The coursework for AS media studies was to create an opening of a Thriller film that was up to two minutes long and included titles. Music included in the film had to be from a copyright free source and to prepare for the final film at least one practice film had to be produced.
My Group, made up of, myself, Claudio, Daniel, and Nimrol, created an opening, to a Thriller film, which was eventually called, “Premonition”. “Premonition” is a film about a scientist who kills a person in an experiment and then starts to have disturbing premonitions. Therefore, he creates a machine that sends him back to the past so that he can change things. However every time he tries to change something he has even worse premonitions, but this doesn’t stop him from trying and eventually he kills himself before any of the things he see in his premonitions occurs.
Our “Premonition” develops the forms and conventions of real Thriller openings with the way it is edited. From the thriller openings that we watched as part of our research, and the documentary “Watching”, I saw that the majority were either based on tense tracking of the main character or characters, or a puzzling, or gruesome, thrilling event. For example, we watched “The Shining”, and its opening title sequence was mainly based on the camera tracking the family car up the mountains with haunting music, which set a tone that makes the audience thinks that something is going to happen. Even though there was not a big engaging event I though this sort of title sequence was very effective because it created an atmosphere, which engaged the audience.
“Premonition” uses conventions of a thriller opening because part of it is tracking main the character, it goes further by confusing with other shots which then confuse the audience of what they should be looking out for.
I think that “Premonition” would be made for TV, because it would more likely to come across as a short film with a market similar to “Doctor who” and “Primeval”, hence the fact that I do not think it is suitable for a Hollywood film distribution. Media institutions, which would distribute or film, would be on channels such as Sky Movie, Virgin 1 and Trouble. The film would also be marketed on the channels.
The audience for “Premonition” would be educated, people between the age of 16 and 24. The target audience would be a student at university, white male, lower or middle class and interested in science. The film is mainly dominated by males and therefore attracts males alike. Other people, who would like the film, are people that like intricate shot in film or photographers because most of the shot are complex and significant, and every shot matters. Therefore there would maybe come and watch it for inspiration.
The main character is a well-educated middle class white male, this being so, the audience is not expectant to see him as a killer or a bad person or some one has a difficult life. The victim in the film is a black male; witch on some terms is unconventional and irregular because black males are normally represented as the bad people. Therefore, I think this film is very unconventional.
I have learned a great deal about filming and editing from the process of constructing the film. I have learned how to use a camera, safely and effectively. I have learned how to log and capture, add effects, transitions and slow down and speed up thing on the apple final cut pro. I also learned how to export a soundtrack to a film project. Before this project I was only used Microsoft film maker and wasn’t really knowledgeable about any other film maker but I believe now I’ve almost got to full grips with final cut pro. Also before this project, I have never really known how to handle or work a camera or setup a tripod now its second nature.
I also liked using the blog to record the filming process because it was easy. I started blogging before the project so it was usual to me. When blogging not only could I write what I did so I can never forget it and you see your progress but I could also free express my views about our process and comment on other peoples.
The films were uploaded to Vimeo there anyone could watch it on the internet, which widens are potential audience because it can now be seen worldwide.
From the practice tasks, I learned the importance of the camera movement and angle. With each one we did, we got better and by the time, it came to the final film I knew what worked and what did not.
We knew to use specific shots to create certain meanings. For example, the shot when he walks past the puddle and we see his reflections along with the reflection of the building and the sky, gives the viewers some information but yet everything is not clear therefore creating a mysterious tone. Another shot that was very important was the end shot, because it was important how everything was composed in the shot. There is a similar shot at the beginning of the film, and when it appears at the end of the film, the audience know a little bit more about the character and they are then surprised to see when the camera is panned across, a hostage tied up in the background. When we went to the cinema and our film was shown it had this effect, ad the audience was surprised therefore I think it fulfilled its purpose.
From the practice tasks, I also developed my skills with the soundtrack program. We learned a about how sound is a fundamental factor in a thriller opening because it sets the tone for the rest of the film. The first time we created a sound track was in the second practice film; that soundtrack came together well so when it came to the soundtrack for the thriller it was not to heard. The only thing we found difficult was the timing, which I believe could have been better if we had a bit more time. We added electrical sounds and tried to merge it with the sound of a heartbeat to set a facts pace tone for the film and also introduce the theme of the thriller.
Overall, the whole project taught me a great amount about the conventions of film and the filming process.
If I was given the opportunity to do it again, I would plan very far ahead things like the story, and the location, which were things that we found to be difficult in our thriller, because they kept changing. However, I do not believe it did not show at all in the final piece due to camera work. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have had a concrete story to work on, that was contributed by the whole team.
My Group, made up of, myself, Claudio, Daniel, and Nimrol, created an opening, to a Thriller film, which was eventually called, “Premonition”. “Premonition” is a film about a scientist who kills a person in an experiment and then starts to have disturbing premonitions. Therefore, he creates a machine that sends him back to the past so that he can change things. However every time he tries to change something he has even worse premonitions, but this doesn’t stop him from trying and eventually he kills himself before any of the things he see in his premonitions occurs.
Our “Premonition” develops the forms and conventions of real Thriller openings with the way it is edited. From the thriller openings that we watched as part of our research, and the documentary “Watching”, I saw that the majority were either based on tense tracking of the main character or characters, or a puzzling, or gruesome, thrilling event. For example, we watched “The Shining”, and its opening title sequence was mainly based on the camera tracking the family car up the mountains with haunting music, which set a tone that makes the audience thinks that something is going to happen. Even though there was not a big engaging event I though this sort of title sequence was very effective because it created an atmosphere, which engaged the audience.
“Premonition” uses conventions of a thriller opening because part of it is tracking main the character, it goes further by confusing with other shots which then confuse the audience of what they should be looking out for.
I think that “Premonition” would be made for TV, because it would more likely to come across as a short film with a market similar to “Doctor who” and “Primeval”, hence the fact that I do not think it is suitable for a Hollywood film distribution. Media institutions, which would distribute or film, would be on channels such as Sky Movie, Virgin 1 and Trouble. The film would also be marketed on the channels.
The audience for “Premonition” would be educated, people between the age of 16 and 24. The target audience would be a student at university, white male, lower or middle class and interested in science. The film is mainly dominated by males and therefore attracts males alike. Other people, who would like the film, are people that like intricate shot in film or photographers because most of the shot are complex and significant, and every shot matters. Therefore there would maybe come and watch it for inspiration.
The main character is a well-educated middle class white male, this being so, the audience is not expectant to see him as a killer or a bad person or some one has a difficult life. The victim in the film is a black male; witch on some terms is unconventional and irregular because black males are normally represented as the bad people. Therefore, I think this film is very unconventional.
I have learned a great deal about filming and editing from the process of constructing the film. I have learned how to use a camera, safely and effectively. I have learned how to log and capture, add effects, transitions and slow down and speed up thing on the apple final cut pro. I also learned how to export a soundtrack to a film project. Before this project I was only used Microsoft film maker and wasn’t really knowledgeable about any other film maker but I believe now I’ve almost got to full grips with final cut pro. Also before this project, I have never really known how to handle or work a camera or setup a tripod now its second nature.
I also liked using the blog to record the filming process because it was easy. I started blogging before the project so it was usual to me. When blogging not only could I write what I did so I can never forget it and you see your progress but I could also free express my views about our process and comment on other peoples.
The films were uploaded to Vimeo there anyone could watch it on the internet, which widens are potential audience because it can now be seen worldwide.
From the practice tasks, I learned the importance of the camera movement and angle. With each one we did, we got better and by the time, it came to the final film I knew what worked and what did not.
We knew to use specific shots to create certain meanings. For example, the shot when he walks past the puddle and we see his reflections along with the reflection of the building and the sky, gives the viewers some information but yet everything is not clear therefore creating a mysterious tone. Another shot that was very important was the end shot, because it was important how everything was composed in the shot. There is a similar shot at the beginning of the film, and when it appears at the end of the film, the audience know a little bit more about the character and they are then surprised to see when the camera is panned across, a hostage tied up in the background. When we went to the cinema and our film was shown it had this effect, ad the audience was surprised therefore I think it fulfilled its purpose.
From the practice tasks, I also developed my skills with the soundtrack program. We learned a about how sound is a fundamental factor in a thriller opening because it sets the tone for the rest of the film. The first time we created a sound track was in the second practice film; that soundtrack came together well so when it came to the soundtrack for the thriller it was not to heard. The only thing we found difficult was the timing, which I believe could have been better if we had a bit more time. We added electrical sounds and tried to merge it with the sound of a heartbeat to set a facts pace tone for the film and also introduce the theme of the thriller.
Overall, the whole project taught me a great amount about the conventions of film and the filming process.
If I was given the opportunity to do it again, I would plan very far ahead things like the story, and the location, which were things that we found to be difficult in our thriller, because they kept changing. However, I do not believe it did not show at all in the final piece due to camera work. Nevertheless, I would have liked to have had a concrete story to work on, that was contributed by the whole team.
Thursday 26 March 2009
Evaluation
I believe that our opening uses and develops the use of a “Classic opening” as described by film critic Stanley Kauffmann in the documentary “Watching”. It described openings where setting, occupation and organisation level (high or low power) are all portrayed in the thriller opening. I believe that my groups has integrated this convention well as: we start the opening with medium and long shots of the location, which sets the scene; props such as the character wearing a lab coat and the activities he carries out such as putting wires together etc, show his occupation (although the audience will not be quiet sure if it is actual occupation) and we have a long, low angle tilt shot of the building were the camera tilts up which suggest that he is in the upper levels of the organisation. Also I believe that we used conventions from a real thriller movie “seven”. We used forms from this film such as close ups of the activities carried out by the person were only the hand can be seen and also we used the gruesome images of bodies etc, however we developed it so that these images were distorted as we believed it would cause more curiosity and unease for the audience
Our thriller opener has very little use of however the ones that are used are effective in representing specific social groups. At the end of our sequence we are introduced to our second character only for a brief few seconds and they are tied up. The use of having this character as a young black male could, represent him as a bad youth that would be involved in bad deeds such as violence and crime. At the same time in most films black characters are usually the ones with the big egos and are often used a humour and are most venerable to being the ones that suffer physical abuse. From the opening to our thriller we have represented them as the weaker character. This fits in with a typical film characterisation of “the black character always dies”. Also our main character illustrates a general stereotype of a film scientist where they are usually white in race and male in gender.
I believe that our thriller would be an attractive proposition for British film Production Company’s such as Working Title or a “made for TV” film for British television. This thriller would be distributed to main stream cinemas in Britain such as Vue and Odeon as these are the main means of cinema entertainment in Britain and in terms of TV on main stream TV channels such as BBC, ITV and Channel 4 as these are channels most associated with Britain (and Channel 4 especially with out target audience of youths). I think this because our thriller is set in a typical British inner city college environment (as is city and Islington College). I think this makes it good as a British film as our thriller would provide a thrilling illustration of college life which is different to those of international countries such as the USA as their system of education at 16. They are different as, at 16 you would still be a high school and also there environment is different such as having individual lockers and the social groups are tend in films to be very vague and precise (e.g. jocks , nerds, etc). This would mean that the thriller would be more related to British viewers as it is something they can relate to both directly (having experience college life in the past) and indirectly (thinking about joining college or interaction with college students). On the other hand it still remains a attractive proposition for international audiences at is gives them a insight into the education system and atmospehes (both physically and socially) of the UK which would differ in other countries such as the US.
The target audience for our film will be main streamers and aimed at the younger generations ranging between the ages of 15-25. It would be a attractive to mainstreamers as it is a thrilling film that conveys the thrilling entertainment it is meant to provide, also it is not generalised to any specific race, gender, etc so it is viewable for all people. I believe this as I feel that as our thriller is based on a college it would be something that the target audience can relate to in terms of most people in this age category are either contemplating going to college (aspirers) , are currently in college of have recently left full time education(achievers).
This would be a great audience as it would provide the age groups a opportunity to get into grips with supposed college concepts and to have college life as a thriller may make it more as an attraction as to a different surreal approach to life at college and in some ways an over elaboration of the “evil teacher” which students have experienced. The thriller I feel would be more targeted at lower to middle class family house holds as the college it self is more of a public college and upper class people are often used to a more expensive method of upper education. In terms of gender I believe that it would be suitable for both sexes as it does not have any masculinity such as “action films” with guns and explosions which usually tend to be a favourite with men and at the same time no femininity such as romance etc to appeal to women. This thriller is more of a mind game of how the main character “punishes his victims”.
To attract the audience I believe that an affective method would be to have a main star with a lead role that the target audience would recognise and appreciate as an actor/actress. Also I believe that as this thriller is to be distributed only on the UK scenes a British born star would be more appealing as for the target audience it would be known to them as home grown talent. This star could be one such as Aml Ameens who has been successful in both British television (as a police in ITV’s The Bill) and in British film (kidulthood which was a renowned success for teenage audiences). To advertise this thriller I think that advertisements such as billboards and posters on bus stops would be effective. I think this as for the target audiences age (15-25) the most popular mode of transport would be public transport so by having it advertised out and about on this area would grab the attention of the target audience more affectively. Furthermore to market the thriller to the audience I believe advertisements such as billboards and banners on web sites which would be affective as our target audience are young people who tend to use the internet a lot so having banners would be affective of drawing attention to our thriller and attract the target audience to view it using liks to a website containing other promotional material such as trailers.
Through the production of our thriller opening we I have encountered new technology. Firstly we were introduced to a more professional video camera and the concepts of using it including zooming and focusing shots. The most challenging piece of technology I was faced with was the use of final cut pro when it came to editing out footages to produce our thriller opening, this process included uploading our footage, logging and capturing our footage, putting them in sequence, editing to include effects and producing a sound track. For my final thriller opening the use of final cut pro became easier and easier due to have practice of the use in our preliminary tasks which allowed us to develop the skill. Also the internet opened up further doors of new technology that I have encountered. The use of blogging allowed me to keep a record of what we have done to make references to when looking back to things we still required to perform in order to make a good thriller opening. Further more by being able to release our thriller opening onto our blogs and also on to Vimeo illustrates to growing affect of the internet in our lives and how even amateurs can still put something out there to entertain audiences
I believe that the lessons we learnt from our preliminary task was essential in how affective our final practical task is. From our first task of a card game you can see that our editing was not very good as the scenes did not flow through very well and also unwanted footage was still on it. This was due to us having too much footage of the same thing which was necessary but to a certain extend and because we had so many it was difficult to make it flow through well as we had so many small clips to link together in order to produce the final edit. This taught us that we show have varied shots but ensured that there is enough substance to be affective. Then you can see our progression of skill when it came to our next task (match cut exercise) in this one our footage flowed through a lot better and made more sense, also we managed to include a soundtrack and some effects to make it look more professional. From this we learnt that having the shooting better planned out makes it more efficient and better when it came to filming as we knew what was required.
Our thriller opener has very little use of however the ones that are used are effective in representing specific social groups. At the end of our sequence we are introduced to our second character only for a brief few seconds and they are tied up. The use of having this character as a young black male could, represent him as a bad youth that would be involved in bad deeds such as violence and crime. At the same time in most films black characters are usually the ones with the big egos and are often used a humour and are most venerable to being the ones that suffer physical abuse. From the opening to our thriller we have represented them as the weaker character. This fits in with a typical film characterisation of “the black character always dies”. Also our main character illustrates a general stereotype of a film scientist where they are usually white in race and male in gender.
I believe that our thriller would be an attractive proposition for British film Production Company’s such as Working Title or a “made for TV” film for British television. This thriller would be distributed to main stream cinemas in Britain such as Vue and Odeon as these are the main means of cinema entertainment in Britain and in terms of TV on main stream TV channels such as BBC, ITV and Channel 4 as these are channels most associated with Britain (and Channel 4 especially with out target audience of youths). I think this because our thriller is set in a typical British inner city college environment (as is city and Islington College). I think this makes it good as a British film as our thriller would provide a thrilling illustration of college life which is different to those of international countries such as the USA as their system of education at 16. They are different as, at 16 you would still be a high school and also there environment is different such as having individual lockers and the social groups are tend in films to be very vague and precise (e.g. jocks , nerds, etc). This would mean that the thriller would be more related to British viewers as it is something they can relate to both directly (having experience college life in the past) and indirectly (thinking about joining college or interaction with college students). On the other hand it still remains a attractive proposition for international audiences at is gives them a insight into the education system and atmospehes (both physically and socially) of the UK which would differ in other countries such as the US.
The target audience for our film will be main streamers and aimed at the younger generations ranging between the ages of 15-25. It would be a attractive to mainstreamers as it is a thrilling film that conveys the thrilling entertainment it is meant to provide, also it is not generalised to any specific race, gender, etc so it is viewable for all people. I believe this as I feel that as our thriller is based on a college it would be something that the target audience can relate to in terms of most people in this age category are either contemplating going to college (aspirers) , are currently in college of have recently left full time education(achievers).
This would be a great audience as it would provide the age groups a opportunity to get into grips with supposed college concepts and to have college life as a thriller may make it more as an attraction as to a different surreal approach to life at college and in some ways an over elaboration of the “evil teacher” which students have experienced. The thriller I feel would be more targeted at lower to middle class family house holds as the college it self is more of a public college and upper class people are often used to a more expensive method of upper education. In terms of gender I believe that it would be suitable for both sexes as it does not have any masculinity such as “action films” with guns and explosions which usually tend to be a favourite with men and at the same time no femininity such as romance etc to appeal to women. This thriller is more of a mind game of how the main character “punishes his victims”.
To attract the audience I believe that an affective method would be to have a main star with a lead role that the target audience would recognise and appreciate as an actor/actress. Also I believe that as this thriller is to be distributed only on the UK scenes a British born star would be more appealing as for the target audience it would be known to them as home grown talent. This star could be one such as Aml Ameens who has been successful in both British television (as a police in ITV’s The Bill) and in British film (kidulthood which was a renowned success for teenage audiences). To advertise this thriller I think that advertisements such as billboards and posters on bus stops would be effective. I think this as for the target audiences age (15-25) the most popular mode of transport would be public transport so by having it advertised out and about on this area would grab the attention of the target audience more affectively. Furthermore to market the thriller to the audience I believe advertisements such as billboards and banners on web sites which would be affective as our target audience are young people who tend to use the internet a lot so having banners would be affective of drawing attention to our thriller and attract the target audience to view it using liks to a website containing other promotional material such as trailers.
Through the production of our thriller opening we I have encountered new technology. Firstly we were introduced to a more professional video camera and the concepts of using it including zooming and focusing shots. The most challenging piece of technology I was faced with was the use of final cut pro when it came to editing out footages to produce our thriller opening, this process included uploading our footage, logging and capturing our footage, putting them in sequence, editing to include effects and producing a sound track. For my final thriller opening the use of final cut pro became easier and easier due to have practice of the use in our preliminary tasks which allowed us to develop the skill. Also the internet opened up further doors of new technology that I have encountered. The use of blogging allowed me to keep a record of what we have done to make references to when looking back to things we still required to perform in order to make a good thriller opening. Further more by being able to release our thriller opening onto our blogs and also on to Vimeo illustrates to growing affect of the internet in our lives and how even amateurs can still put something out there to entertain audiences
I believe that the lessons we learnt from our preliminary task was essential in how affective our final practical task is. From our first task of a card game you can see that our editing was not very good as the scenes did not flow through very well and also unwanted footage was still on it. This was due to us having too much footage of the same thing which was necessary but to a certain extend and because we had so many it was difficult to make it flow through well as we had so many small clips to link together in order to produce the final edit. This taught us that we show have varied shots but ensured that there is enough substance to be affective. Then you can see our progression of skill when it came to our next task (match cut exercise) in this one our footage flowed through a lot better and made more sense, also we managed to include a soundtrack and some effects to make it look more professional. From this we learnt that having the shooting better planned out makes it more efficient and better when it came to filming as we knew what was required.
Evaluation
For this task we had to film a two-minute thriller opening. We were given several weeks to make the film and edit it and at the end it was shown in the cinema.
The opening of a film must not answer all the questions and it must leave some doubt in the audience’s minds. Therefore we decided to make something quite enigmatic. It showed me walking inside a building but some of the shots we did were CCTV-style so that it looked more mysterious and stood out more. Straight away the audience would know that something was wrong. There were also many scenes showing electrical equipment and wires before the final shot where the audience sees somebody tied up, unable to move. This was how we ended our opening. For the editing we used Final Cut pro. We also wrote our own soundtrack.
Overall I feel that we succeeded in our task and the film turned out well and looked effective on the big screen.
When deciding what to do for our thriller we thought of real thriller films and their openings to give us an idea of what would work and what wouldn’t. We were also shown a documentary in class about the openings of films. We learned that the most important thing is to build up suspense and leave the audience wondering what will happen next. The documentary taught us that the opening is, arguably, the most important part of the film as it sets the mood and the tone for the rest of the film.
Our film does not challenge the forms and conventions of real media products in any way but instead it uses them. When making the film we used the conventions of a thriller as a guideline for us. The dramatic music and the kidnapping of an innocent victim are very common. Our camera shots were standard as was the way in which we started off with an establishing shot and then did not show the victim until the end of the opening in order to raise questions in the audience’s mind and keep them glued to their seats.
Before we made the real thriller we made two practice films. These were to get us used to working with cameras and introduce us to Final Cut pro. The first film we made was about a game of cards. For most people this was their first filming experience so it was very informative. The next preliminary task was to create a conversation between two people. As we had already had some experience with the equipment, we were now given the challenge of using match cuts and clever editing techniques. We learned that it is usually advisable to do many takes, as there might be a problem that you can’t see which becomes apparent during the editing process. If you watch the three films in order, it is interesting to see how much progress we have made each time.
There are only two actors in the opening scene of our thriller. Both are male so women have not been represented in this opening scene. The victim in the film which we shot is black. However, during the course of the film the murderer will have many different victims, both male and female, of various races and religions. The reason for this is so that our film can appeal to as many people as possible. We do not want to alienate a particular social group by leaving them out as this could lead to a loss of popularity and revenue for our film. The point of the film is not to represent a particular race, group or class but to be an enjoyable and thrilling experience for those who watch it.
We would be looking for a large media institution to distribute our film, such as Universal. We would hope that it could have success worldwide. The reason for thinking this is that there are elements of our film which we feel have followed the conventions of what gives a film commercial success. It features a lot of action and violence rather than focusing on emotional drama or feelings. It could potentially make a lot of money for the distributors if it is turned into a big Hollywood blockbuster rather than a small independent release or even a DVD release only. High concept films with lots of special effects tend to do very well at the box office. To include the special effects that we need we would require a big budget, meaning that a lot of money would have to be invested into the film. Therefore we would have to make a lot back.
The main target audience for our thriller film is middle class teenagers. It would probably appeal more to males than females. This is because it is usually a mainly teenage audience who watches this type of film. As there is a lot of violence it would probably be more attractive to boys than girls. The middle classes tend to go to the cinema a lot but people from any class might enjoy this film. As the film is following the conventions of successful mainstream thrillers we would expect our audience to be made up of mainstream viewers. A typical person who fits into our target audience is 16-year-old Fred. He is a student of media, English language and photography. He shops in Footlocker and loves going to the cinema with his friends. He enjoys thrillers and also horror films.
We are planning to address our audience and promote our film through the right use of advertising, marketing and promotion, as well as trying to appeal to fans of that genre. We would look to use a director working with stars who he has worked with before in films that have succeeded. This would attract fans who enjoyed their previous work together. The work they have done in the past would also be thrillers, so that we could appeal to our correct target audience.
For our advertising we would make trailers and billboards with posters on the sides of buses. The trailer could be shown at the cinema and on television. We would also invest a lot of time in an internet campaign. As our target audience is teenagers, we would know that they have high internet use. Therefore youtube videos and adverts linked to teen sites would be good for us.
From this filming I learned many things about technology which I didn’t previously know. Firstly, I had never used a camera before, so filming was at first a bit tricky. We had a tutorial from the technician which taught us about the cameras and tripods and after that I felt confident to try filming. One thing I learned was the importance of the tripod. Handheld shots tend to come out very blurred and shaky. After the filming we edited using Final Cut pro, which was another new experience for me. I had an idea of how editing was done before but it was very interesting to see it for myself. Another technological thing we used was the internet. We did so in many ways, firstly to record our progress on our blog. We also released our film on video so that others could watch it online. With it being on the internet, this means it could go on youtube and potentially be seen by millions of people.
After we had finished the film it was shown in the cinema to all the AS Media Studies students. This was very useful to us as it showed us the audience reaction. As our target audience were teenagers, this was particularly useful for showing us how successful we were. The comments were very positive and people were impressed with our editing but felt that the plot was a little unclear. Next time we should focus more on this. The main area of weakness was our plot lacking clarity but the main area of strength was our editing. There was one shot in particular where I touched two wires together and then the music changed simultaneously. This was enjoyed by the audience. The soundtrack we created was also effective, as it sounded interesting and upbeat and enabled us to keep the audience’s attention. Overall, I feel that I have learned a great deal from this filming experience.
The opening of a film must not answer all the questions and it must leave some doubt in the audience’s minds. Therefore we decided to make something quite enigmatic. It showed me walking inside a building but some of the shots we did were CCTV-style so that it looked more mysterious and stood out more. Straight away the audience would know that something was wrong. There were also many scenes showing electrical equipment and wires before the final shot where the audience sees somebody tied up, unable to move. This was how we ended our opening. For the editing we used Final Cut pro. We also wrote our own soundtrack.
Overall I feel that we succeeded in our task and the film turned out well and looked effective on the big screen.
When deciding what to do for our thriller we thought of real thriller films and their openings to give us an idea of what would work and what wouldn’t. We were also shown a documentary in class about the openings of films. We learned that the most important thing is to build up suspense and leave the audience wondering what will happen next. The documentary taught us that the opening is, arguably, the most important part of the film as it sets the mood and the tone for the rest of the film.
Our film does not challenge the forms and conventions of real media products in any way but instead it uses them. When making the film we used the conventions of a thriller as a guideline for us. The dramatic music and the kidnapping of an innocent victim are very common. Our camera shots were standard as was the way in which we started off with an establishing shot and then did not show the victim until the end of the opening in order to raise questions in the audience’s mind and keep them glued to their seats.
Before we made the real thriller we made two practice films. These were to get us used to working with cameras and introduce us to Final Cut pro. The first film we made was about a game of cards. For most people this was their first filming experience so it was very informative. The next preliminary task was to create a conversation between two people. As we had already had some experience with the equipment, we were now given the challenge of using match cuts and clever editing techniques. We learned that it is usually advisable to do many takes, as there might be a problem that you can’t see which becomes apparent during the editing process. If you watch the three films in order, it is interesting to see how much progress we have made each time.
There are only two actors in the opening scene of our thriller. Both are male so women have not been represented in this opening scene. The victim in the film which we shot is black. However, during the course of the film the murderer will have many different victims, both male and female, of various races and religions. The reason for this is so that our film can appeal to as many people as possible. We do not want to alienate a particular social group by leaving them out as this could lead to a loss of popularity and revenue for our film. The point of the film is not to represent a particular race, group or class but to be an enjoyable and thrilling experience for those who watch it.
We would be looking for a large media institution to distribute our film, such as Universal. We would hope that it could have success worldwide. The reason for thinking this is that there are elements of our film which we feel have followed the conventions of what gives a film commercial success. It features a lot of action and violence rather than focusing on emotional drama or feelings. It could potentially make a lot of money for the distributors if it is turned into a big Hollywood blockbuster rather than a small independent release or even a DVD release only. High concept films with lots of special effects tend to do very well at the box office. To include the special effects that we need we would require a big budget, meaning that a lot of money would have to be invested into the film. Therefore we would have to make a lot back.
The main target audience for our thriller film is middle class teenagers. It would probably appeal more to males than females. This is because it is usually a mainly teenage audience who watches this type of film. As there is a lot of violence it would probably be more attractive to boys than girls. The middle classes tend to go to the cinema a lot but people from any class might enjoy this film. As the film is following the conventions of successful mainstream thrillers we would expect our audience to be made up of mainstream viewers. A typical person who fits into our target audience is 16-year-old Fred. He is a student of media, English language and photography. He shops in Footlocker and loves going to the cinema with his friends. He enjoys thrillers and also horror films.
We are planning to address our audience and promote our film through the right use of advertising, marketing and promotion, as well as trying to appeal to fans of that genre. We would look to use a director working with stars who he has worked with before in films that have succeeded. This would attract fans who enjoyed their previous work together. The work they have done in the past would also be thrillers, so that we could appeal to our correct target audience.
For our advertising we would make trailers and billboards with posters on the sides of buses. The trailer could be shown at the cinema and on television. We would also invest a lot of time in an internet campaign. As our target audience is teenagers, we would know that they have high internet use. Therefore youtube videos and adverts linked to teen sites would be good for us.
From this filming I learned many things about technology which I didn’t previously know. Firstly, I had never used a camera before, so filming was at first a bit tricky. We had a tutorial from the technician which taught us about the cameras and tripods and after that I felt confident to try filming. One thing I learned was the importance of the tripod. Handheld shots tend to come out very blurred and shaky. After the filming we edited using Final Cut pro, which was another new experience for me. I had an idea of how editing was done before but it was very interesting to see it for myself. Another technological thing we used was the internet. We did so in many ways, firstly to record our progress on our blog. We also released our film on video so that others could watch it online. With it being on the internet, this means it could go on youtube and potentially be seen by millions of people.
After we had finished the film it was shown in the cinema to all the AS Media Studies students. This was very useful to us as it showed us the audience reaction. As our target audience were teenagers, this was particularly useful for showing us how successful we were. The comments were very positive and people were impressed with our editing but felt that the plot was a little unclear. Next time we should focus more on this. The main area of weakness was our plot lacking clarity but the main area of strength was our editing. There was one shot in particular where I touched two wires together and then the music changed simultaneously. This was enjoyed by the audience. The soundtrack we created was also effective, as it sounded interesting and upbeat and enabled us to keep the audience’s attention. Overall, I feel that I have learned a great deal from this filming experience.
Wednesday 25 March 2009
Evaluation
Thriller Practical Evaluation
I think our media practical was successful in filling it’s role as a thriller. Typical themes and conventions of a thriller is that it is fast paced and has some sort of hero’s quest to stop an evil entity. The thriller genre however has many sub genres so this is a broad and basic view of a thriller. My group’s practical however bore this in mind giving our audience a fast pace visual experience from the offset. The BBC documentary on thrillers we had watched earlier in the media course looked at the pro’s and con’s of the two different ways to starting a thriller. The slow seductive approach or instant arousal and for practical reasons as well as theatrical we went for the instant hit. I believe it is hard to discern what sub genre our thriller falls into but that I would say it touches upon the horror thriller genre as horror thrillers often consist of some mental physical or emotional conflict between charters such as the ‘Saw’ series, and depends on the audiences fear. Our thriller opening is not long enough to display all these forms and conventions but the editing of the ‘villain’s’ flash back suggest a mental/psycho element , as well as the actions displayed in it connote some form of torture that will be carried out on the hostage we see being him at the end of it. Also I believe out opening takes influence from the opening of “Seven” through its editing which we viewed in the documentary. Seven’s opening consisted of a lot of cross fades and dissolve that focused on actions as opposed to the characters identity which we definitely incorporated in our open to create suspense/ sense of thrill. Another typical trait of a thriller is the unexpected. We opened the scene with a figure in a dark room looking up towards the camera then it goes into his flash back and ends with the same shot but this time the camera pans to see a gagged hostage behind him. I believe this is effective as the audience has already seen the character alone they assume the flashback to have already been carried out or to be planned but in them seeing the hostage behind our villain they are placed at the start of the tyranny and have a vague idea of the horrors that are about to unfold leaving them with a thirst for more that a further production of the opening would quench.
I think we both abide by the typical social groups that are represented but also challenge them. We only have two characters, the villain (Cloudio) and the hostage myself (Daniel). Cloudio is a young white male blonde hair blue eyes and the hostage is your average black youth. I believe that this sticks to the common representation of whites being more supreme over blacks. I think its challenges common representations however in that blacks are usually the criminals and whites the heroes so the role have been switch although the power balance remains the same. Also I think the same applies to the representation of gender by having the two main characters being male but challenges the typical representation of women being victims or damsels in distress. Also the charters are quiet young which I think creates link to the target audience of 15-25 year olds as it makes both or villain and hostage identify socially with the audience. Hence, I think our thriller would be a Hollywood production, as the thriller is aimed at a mainstream audience. Also the thriller may then go on to be shown on TV.
Some shots in our clip where quite dark and I think this is down to the equipment used. On the small screens of the Digital cameras and through the view finder the shots where a lot lighter than they are when uploaded and this was a bit of hindrance to the effect of our thriller. Also initially allot of groups, including mine, encountered difficulty with uploading the footage onto the computer which made the process of editing slow, giving us less time to try and correct the dark shots. When uploaded we used Final cut pro to edit our footage. I found it’s a relatively easy and straight forward program to use, due to the introduction we had to match at the beginning of the course. I feel that garage band was decent for making the soundtrack it had lots of sound effects that we found useful in the making of our soundtrack.
I felt that the practical went well. I believe that the earlier practice projects helped allot. Our first practice project was to film a card game and I think the skill we learned greatest from that was mise-en-scene as in that project we focused on that aspect from the costume of the main character, a rouge gangster, (pork pie hat, shirt, braces) to the props (alcoholic beverage bottles). In the final project we tried to really tried to link make use of mise-en-scene scene as the original story was a psycho electronics teacher so we intended to use large jump starter crocodile clips as a main icon to our thriller as well of film the main character fiddling with lots of electrical equipment which we did have to a certain degree but not as much as we had initially planned. The second practice project was to film a person entering a room and having a conversation with someone already in the room. My group had fun with this as an initial joke to do a Chinese, dubbed, karate film ended up being what we did. Regardless, the aim was to focus on match cuts and this project helped us to appreciate filming with a view of match cuts in mind ad it make a piece much more interesting. In that project my group aimed to film each shot form a range of different angles but this proved time consuming so when it came to the planning of the final practical we create a rough plan of specific shots we wanted to make match cuts to. The end result looked quiet different to the original storyboard we had but it did keep the same theme. I think making a storyboard made it easy to do this as we had clearly set in out minds what shots needed to be filmed and also the order for the shots in editing. I enjoyed pitching the idea’s we had to the teachers as we got very helpful input back on what worked well and what wouldn’t. I feel comfortable setting up and using a camera although my trouble shooting skills could improve as most time I called for the teacher’s assistance and many times the problem was trivial. I believe our project met the criteria asked of it and I had fun with a good group of fellow students. I enjoyed working on this project as I was able to obtain the key basic skills of media work
I think our media practical was successful in filling it’s role as a thriller. Typical themes and conventions of a thriller is that it is fast paced and has some sort of hero’s quest to stop an evil entity. The thriller genre however has many sub genres so this is a broad and basic view of a thriller. My group’s practical however bore this in mind giving our audience a fast pace visual experience from the offset. The BBC documentary on thrillers we had watched earlier in the media course looked at the pro’s and con’s of the two different ways to starting a thriller. The slow seductive approach or instant arousal and for practical reasons as well as theatrical we went for the instant hit. I believe it is hard to discern what sub genre our thriller falls into but that I would say it touches upon the horror thriller genre as horror thrillers often consist of some mental physical or emotional conflict between charters such as the ‘Saw’ series, and depends on the audiences fear. Our thriller opening is not long enough to display all these forms and conventions but the editing of the ‘villain’s’ flash back suggest a mental/psycho element , as well as the actions displayed in it connote some form of torture that will be carried out on the hostage we see being him at the end of it. Also I believe out opening takes influence from the opening of “Seven” through its editing which we viewed in the documentary. Seven’s opening consisted of a lot of cross fades and dissolve that focused on actions as opposed to the characters identity which we definitely incorporated in our open to create suspense/ sense of thrill. Another typical trait of a thriller is the unexpected. We opened the scene with a figure in a dark room looking up towards the camera then it goes into his flash back and ends with the same shot but this time the camera pans to see a gagged hostage behind him. I believe this is effective as the audience has already seen the character alone they assume the flashback to have already been carried out or to be planned but in them seeing the hostage behind our villain they are placed at the start of the tyranny and have a vague idea of the horrors that are about to unfold leaving them with a thirst for more that a further production of the opening would quench.
I think we both abide by the typical social groups that are represented but also challenge them. We only have two characters, the villain (Cloudio) and the hostage myself (Daniel). Cloudio is a young white male blonde hair blue eyes and the hostage is your average black youth. I believe that this sticks to the common representation of whites being more supreme over blacks. I think its challenges common representations however in that blacks are usually the criminals and whites the heroes so the role have been switch although the power balance remains the same. Also I think the same applies to the representation of gender by having the two main characters being male but challenges the typical representation of women being victims or damsels in distress. Also the charters are quiet young which I think creates link to the target audience of 15-25 year olds as it makes both or villain and hostage identify socially with the audience. Hence, I think our thriller would be a Hollywood production, as the thriller is aimed at a mainstream audience. Also the thriller may then go on to be shown on TV.
Some shots in our clip where quite dark and I think this is down to the equipment used. On the small screens of the Digital cameras and through the view finder the shots where a lot lighter than they are when uploaded and this was a bit of hindrance to the effect of our thriller. Also initially allot of groups, including mine, encountered difficulty with uploading the footage onto the computer which made the process of editing slow, giving us less time to try and correct the dark shots. When uploaded we used Final cut pro to edit our footage. I found it’s a relatively easy and straight forward program to use, due to the introduction we had to match at the beginning of the course. I feel that garage band was decent for making the soundtrack it had lots of sound effects that we found useful in the making of our soundtrack.
I felt that the practical went well. I believe that the earlier practice projects helped allot. Our first practice project was to film a card game and I think the skill we learned greatest from that was mise-en-scene as in that project we focused on that aspect from the costume of the main character, a rouge gangster, (pork pie hat, shirt, braces) to the props (alcoholic beverage bottles). In the final project we tried to really tried to link make use of mise-en-scene scene as the original story was a psycho electronics teacher so we intended to use large jump starter crocodile clips as a main icon to our thriller as well of film the main character fiddling with lots of electrical equipment which we did have to a certain degree but not as much as we had initially planned. The second practice project was to film a person entering a room and having a conversation with someone already in the room. My group had fun with this as an initial joke to do a Chinese, dubbed, karate film ended up being what we did. Regardless, the aim was to focus on match cuts and this project helped us to appreciate filming with a view of match cuts in mind ad it make a piece much more interesting. In that project my group aimed to film each shot form a range of different angles but this proved time consuming so when it came to the planning of the final practical we create a rough plan of specific shots we wanted to make match cuts to. The end result looked quiet different to the original storyboard we had but it did keep the same theme. I think making a storyboard made it easy to do this as we had clearly set in out minds what shots needed to be filmed and also the order for the shots in editing. I enjoyed pitching the idea’s we had to the teachers as we got very helpful input back on what worked well and what wouldn’t. I feel comfortable setting up and using a camera although my trouble shooting skills could improve as most time I called for the teacher’s assistance and many times the problem was trivial. I believe our project met the criteria asked of it and I had fun with a good group of fellow students. I enjoyed working on this project as I was able to obtain the key basic skills of media work
Monday 2 March 2009
Before filming we had to check that it was safe to use the camera as if we broke it thatcould waste money for the college. Therefore we had to have a safety check and sign a risk assessment form to make sure that we knew what we were doing so that everything went smoothly. After a lesson from the technicians we were ready.
What we learned was to improve our steadiness we needed a tripod and about to make sure it was fixed on correctly so that it doisn't drop off the tripod and smash. Also we needed to get the right picture for example if we have too much head space we could lose marks.
Having finished everything we signed a form so that we could check what was learnt and proceeded to film.
What we learned was to improve our steadiness we needed a tripod and about to make sure it was fixed on correctly so that it doisn't drop off the tripod and smash. Also we needed to get the right picture for example if we have too much head space we could lose marks.
Having finished everything we signed a form so that we could check what was learnt and proceeded to film.
dead line week of thriller course work
On Wednesday we found out that out thriller was going to be too short. As when we had put it together in sequence it was only 1 minute. Although we had not included our title’s it was obvious it would no carry through a full minute. When we found this out we where told by out media teacher (Andrew) that we would lose marks if it was this short and an ideal minimum length of the thriller should be a minute and a half. Also we had a problem as some of our shots may have been to dark. But we thought that this would not be a problem as we had taken extra shots in the previous lesson. Me, Daniel and Claudio again went off to shoot clips of Claudio doing activities and also the old shots but in a lighter background. We have over the shoulder shots of him turning the page and making references to texts in Daniels electronics book. We also had close ups of the text he was making reference to. Then we reshot the old shot in exactly the same way were the camera pans up to his face and across to the victim (Daniel). I thought these shots were really good and were effective in creating more suspense and curiosity die to the slow camera movements and the slow following of the text by Claudio. However in the editing suite when we went to log and capture the new footage we found that there was no new footage. This was because when we were filming we had reached the end of the tape, so all the shots we took were not recorded as there was no tape left to record onto. Due to this the shots we took came to nothing as they were not recorded so more time was wasted. So for the remainder of the lesson we started to structure our thriller more by adding in cross fades and effects such as black and white coloring. The majority of this editing was done and we then planned to start the sound track during our own time in media workshops.
On Thursday morning I had lessons so I could not attend the work shop. However because I had lost my ID card and so had to find it and when I did I came back to college with only half an hour of the first half of the lessons left. So instead of going to my lesson for half an hour I went to join Suzie and Claudio instead. During this time they told me they had done a filming of establishing shots. When I joined we continued filming the part we had done before but remembering to rewind the tape. Also as I had my biology book (as I had biology) we filmed more images that was in the book which could be useful in making the thriller a bit ;longer and also to build further tension as the images were all kind of distorted and didn’t resemble anything obvious. I then went back to my lesson which I had missed the first half of.
Then after my evening lesson of tutorial me and Suzie met up again to use the editing suit so that we can get a lot more work done as we thought we should do as much as possible rather than leave it till late. This was a time consuming process as all the computers were in use so we had to wait a good 45 minutes until a computer became available. Eventually a computer did become available and during this time we went through our clips and brushed up on them to make the progression through the film smoother and also to make to look more presentable and professional. Further more we edited more to make the thriller longer by adding slow motion but also to create more lesion due to the slow approach. I had to leave early due to having other planes and responsibilities, but Suzie assured me that she would be fine and that by the time she finishes only the sound track would need to be done.
On Friday I came in to media work shop at lunch time to find Suzie already starting the sound track. Together we came up with the sound track which included wind, heartbeat and electrical sound. We had them in stages with each other with the climax occurring then silence when the title comes up. Our soundtrack is loud and rapid so it will raise heat beats along with the flashes and distorted images with have in our thriller. And at the end it goes quiet which will settle the audience’s nerves but make them remember the opening of our thriller.
On Thursday morning I had lessons so I could not attend the work shop. However because I had lost my ID card and so had to find it and when I did I came back to college with only half an hour of the first half of the lessons left. So instead of going to my lesson for half an hour I went to join Suzie and Claudio instead. During this time they told me they had done a filming of establishing shots. When I joined we continued filming the part we had done before but remembering to rewind the tape. Also as I had my biology book (as I had biology) we filmed more images that was in the book which could be useful in making the thriller a bit ;longer and also to build further tension as the images were all kind of distorted and didn’t resemble anything obvious. I then went back to my lesson which I had missed the first half of.
Then after my evening lesson of tutorial me and Suzie met up again to use the editing suit so that we can get a lot more work done as we thought we should do as much as possible rather than leave it till late. This was a time consuming process as all the computers were in use so we had to wait a good 45 minutes until a computer became available. Eventually a computer did become available and during this time we went through our clips and brushed up on them to make the progression through the film smoother and also to make to look more presentable and professional. Further more we edited more to make the thriller longer by adding slow motion but also to create more lesion due to the slow approach. I had to leave early due to having other planes and responsibilities, but Suzie assured me that she would be fine and that by the time she finishes only the sound track would need to be done.
On Friday I came in to media work shop at lunch time to find Suzie already starting the sound track. Together we came up with the sound track which included wind, heartbeat and electrical sound. We had them in stages with each other with the climax occurring then silence when the title comes up. Our soundtrack is loud and rapid so it will raise heat beats along with the flashes and distorted images with have in our thriller. And at the end it goes quiet which will settle the audience’s nerves but make them remember the opening of our thriller.
Last Week *
Wednesday
On Wednesday, in our 3 hour lesson we worked in the special effects. Before we did that we were going to upload the footage the boys filmed the day before. Went through watched the tape but unfortunately the footage that they had film was not on the tape. When I saw this, I imagined that something must have gone wrong during the filming. We got allot of it done and got everything structure how we wanted it to be. We had put one credit at the begging and the Title at the end. And we figured that we could run some credits on top the film in the very light bits.
The group was satisfied with the structure of the film and thought it was ok to start our soundtrack. It was only when we exported it t make the sound track, we saw that it wasn’t even one minute long! There was frustration but not as much as there would have been if we hadn’t of had many extra clips. We still thought that we need more and panned to do more filming on the next day. I asked my teacher to show us how to add credits so we wouldn’t need to ask another teacher for help later on when they might not be able to.
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Thursday
On Thursday I came to college a couple of hour early and me and Claudio filmed so establishing shots, and also a shot of the lift going up, which was visible from outside the science block. When we got down stairs and I turned on the camera I saw that the tape was full. Then I realised that the reason that the guys filming didn’t come up, it was that they didn’t know that the film was finished and filmed any way, thinking that every thing would record. So I rewind our tape and filmed over things we had done.
Daniel was supposed to join us but he had work to do so he couldn’t. Nimrol lost his ID card, so he had to go somewhere to retrieve it.
Nimrol and arrived when me and Claudio also re-filmed the interior because we were told that it was to dark he had brought his biology book and I filmed some of it.
After Claudio and I did this filming I had to go to tutorial then we went to lunch. Our plan was to get everything logged and captured and then see what we needed then. When we (Me and Nimrol) came back we found that a no computers were free in the edit room so we had to hang around for about forty-five minutes.
Nimrol couldn’t stay long so I was left on my own to add and edit the footage and make it linger. Not all the footage that we had filmed this morning came out clear because of the fact we had filmed over things. But we still had a substantial amount to use at the begging, between the credits. I stayed for around two hours and also managed to add the credits too.
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Friday
On Friday I called Claudio to go to the media computer lab to save us a computer s we didn’t end up in the same situation as we did the day before. He did, and I arrived and managed to finish off the film and made the sound track. The sound track contained heart beats and wind and electronic noises. The sound track was approved by Claudio and also by Nimrol, who join us later. Daniel did not come due to other work. The I was really stressful, and if I had enough time I would have composed music myself because I didn’t find the timing of the sound and the range wide enough to crate an accurate soundtrack. But I tried to fit it as best as I could and only hope that it is long enough.
On Wednesday, in our 3 hour lesson we worked in the special effects. Before we did that we were going to upload the footage the boys filmed the day before. Went through watched the tape but unfortunately the footage that they had film was not on the tape. When I saw this, I imagined that something must have gone wrong during the filming. We got allot of it done and got everything structure how we wanted it to be. We had put one credit at the begging and the Title at the end. And we figured that we could run some credits on top the film in the very light bits.
The group was satisfied with the structure of the film and thought it was ok to start our soundtrack. It was only when we exported it t make the sound track, we saw that it wasn’t even one minute long! There was frustration but not as much as there would have been if we hadn’t of had many extra clips. We still thought that we need more and panned to do more filming on the next day. I asked my teacher to show us how to add credits so we wouldn’t need to ask another teacher for help later on when they might not be able to.
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Thursday
On Thursday I came to college a couple of hour early and me and Claudio filmed so establishing shots, and also a shot of the lift going up, which was visible from outside the science block. When we got down stairs and I turned on the camera I saw that the tape was full. Then I realised that the reason that the guys filming didn’t come up, it was that they didn’t know that the film was finished and filmed any way, thinking that every thing would record. So I rewind our tape and filmed over things we had done.
Daniel was supposed to join us but he had work to do so he couldn’t. Nimrol lost his ID card, so he had to go somewhere to retrieve it.
Nimrol and arrived when me and Claudio also re-filmed the interior because we were told that it was to dark he had brought his biology book and I filmed some of it.
After Claudio and I did this filming I had to go to tutorial then we went to lunch. Our plan was to get everything logged and captured and then see what we needed then. When we (Me and Nimrol) came back we found that a no computers were free in the edit room so we had to hang around for about forty-five minutes.
Nimrol couldn’t stay long so I was left on my own to add and edit the footage and make it linger. Not all the footage that we had filmed this morning came out clear because of the fact we had filmed over things. But we still had a substantial amount to use at the begging, between the credits. I stayed for around two hours and also managed to add the credits too.
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Friday
On Friday I called Claudio to go to the media computer lab to save us a computer s we didn’t end up in the same situation as we did the day before. He did, and I arrived and managed to finish off the film and made the sound track. The sound track contained heart beats and wind and electronic noises. The sound track was approved by Claudio and also by Nimrol, who join us later. Daniel did not come due to other work. The I was really stressful, and if I had enough time I would have composed music myself because I didn’t find the timing of the sound and the range wide enough to crate an accurate soundtrack. But I tried to fit it as best as I could and only hope that it is long enough.
Thursday 26 February 2009
Today we came in at 9 to do more filming and this got us some more footage. we filmed more establishing shots of the college and me in a lab coat from different angles that we can use. The problem is that it is only 1 minute long so far and it needs to be 2. What we have is really good and i think that our footage is great but we will lose marks for the length. Hopefully we can get more done as we have mafe good progress with all the editing.
Tuesday 24 February 2009
23/02/09 sooting and editing + tuesday work shop
On Mondays lesson me, Claudio and Daniel went out with a camera and shot varies close ups of facial features. We did because we wanted to carry on with the sense of a hidden identity and also to create more tension and uncertainty amongst the audience. These shots were quiet successful, so we thought. When we went on to upload the carried on with our editing we found that firstly the clips where to bright comparing it to the actual scene were the lights are dimmed. Also in some of the clips we can c the back ground which does not correspond to the other footages. On the other hand we did have some successful close ups of the eyes and the lips, which I feel will be useful in our final thriller. When we went back to the editing room we got the idea to get more close ups but on objects that relater electronics. Daniel had his electronic book so we had close ups of varies diagrams of circuits, etc. I also had my biology book and so we also used close ups on images of biological features some of which looked very gruesome. After this we carried on with editing by uploading these clips and deciding was to place them in the sequence of shots.
Today we all turned up to the media work shop during sacrificing our lunch break. During this time we made the scenes we have already put together flow fully and added cross fades and effects to make it look more professional and effective. We then stated rearranging certain clips so that they made more sense to the audience.
Today we all turned up to the media work shop during sacrificing our lunch break. During this time we made the scenes we have already put together flow fully and added cross fades and effects to make it look more professional and effective. We then stated rearranging certain clips so that they made more sense to the audience.
This Week
Hey,
Um yesterday I told the crew about my idea and the understood. I also talked to Nimrol and we more and less sorted out our differences. Nimrol, Daniel and Claudio went off to shot the footage of Claudio's eye while I started re-arranging the shots to fit the new story. They took long but they completed the task. When they came back I added the eye footage. Nimrol and Danielhad some science books so and we got some shots fromthem to. All in all it was an successful day and I'm really proud of my boys.
Today I came in early and the rest of the group join me at lunch time. It's not completed but We can all see that its coming together. But I HATE using Apple. Its impossible. Tomorrow We hope to get allot done and the film to its finishing stages.
Um yesterday I told the crew about my idea and the understood. I also talked to Nimrol and we more and less sorted out our differences. Nimrol, Daniel and Claudio went off to shot the footage of Claudio's eye while I started re-arranging the shots to fit the new story. They took long but they completed the task. When they came back I added the eye footage. Nimrol and Danielhad some science books so and we got some shots fromthem to. All in all it was an successful day and I'm really proud of my boys.
Today I came in early and the rest of the group join me at lunch time. It's not completed but We can all see that its coming together. But I HATE using Apple. Its impossible. Tomorrow We hope to get allot done and the film to its finishing stages.
Monday 23 February 2009
So we have finally finished all the filming for the project. Everything went well although there were some difficulties. Such as costume. Little things like if I was wearing a coat one day and not the next came out very badly in the editing which meant we had to re film certain scenes. Also the lighting was hard to get right because as we were filming at different times of the day the lighting was always slightly different. However we are finally happy with what we have and are well on the way to finishing the editing and have started on the soundtrack meaning that this thriller looks like it will be a success.
Tuesday 17 February 2009
Idea Spark
Had an Idea, so I'm going to write it down so I dont forget
We Should Scap the School Idea It doesnt Work
Ive put down the all the clips I can remember and arranged them in away that story make sense. Ok, so the story is about a obsessive scientist that uses his technical equipment to see things in the past.
This is the shot List
End Shot
Crocodile Clips
End Shot (speeded up)
Zoom Flash Transition to Past
Science place through bars /eye/ Pan of electrical buttons (fish eye)
Zoom Flash
Pass/ Reflection in Glass/eye/ Follow of circuit Map (fish eye)
Zoom Flash
Reflection in puddle eye/
Zoom Flash
Entrance CCTV/ eye/
Zoom Flash
Lift CCTV and Push Button/ eye/
Zoom Flash
Walk out and Open Door/eye/Chemicals
Zoom Flash
Laugh/eye/Turn and plug in of thing/Turning of knob
Zoom Flash Back to the Future
Crocodile Clips
(Whole) End Shot
Friday 13 February 2009
This week/ My Major Rant!
I'm afraid that most of this blog is going 80% Rant because this has been a hard and frustrating week.
This week we uploaded all we had on to the compters. After Log and capturing and looking at all the clips i realised there weren't enough to link to gether. We needed more clips to fill in the the gaps of the shot where Claudio comes in. And more clips in the the bit with where Claudio is doing electronic things. Everyone was say take out this andtake out that, but whatthy couldsee is we didnt have enogh to take out in the first place!
I said I would put the clips in order and match them up. Because the est of the team did not know how to edit i sent them to try and film some more shots. I dont think (after about an hour) they got much shots if many done.
I also tried out the music for the film, it was ok I will finish it of when everything is compledted. It has electical sound withinit to go with the theme.
Nimrol is really mmmm getting of my nerves because he actually has not part in this but fixing the tripod. Therefore I cannot understand how it is possible for him to have anything to say in his blog.
Daniel does try do what he can, and Claudio does what you tell him to in filmin and doesn't moan. But Nimol doesn't do nothing the moans his head off. The idea for the film was his and Daniel its like there just counting on me to make it happen and every one gets the same mark. Its not fair!!! *stomps feet*
Any Way because we missed a Monday I think we were given the option tio come in next Monday, in the half term. If so I will come in, Claudio, needs to come in and only one of the other two need to come in. They shouldn't come if they are not going to do any thing but complain.
I'm not sure if it is wise for me to slag of some members of my own team.However I'm sure it happens in the industry, and like them I'm sure we will do the best we can and get through this before i loose my composure.
This week we uploaded all we had on to the compters. After Log and capturing and looking at all the clips i realised there weren't enough to link to gether. We needed more clips to fill in the the gaps of the shot where Claudio comes in. And more clips in the the bit with where Claudio is doing electronic things. Everyone was say take out this andtake out that, but whatthy couldsee is we didnt have enogh to take out in the first place!
I said I would put the clips in order and match them up. Because the est of the team did not know how to edit i sent them to try and film some more shots. I dont think (after about an hour) they got much shots if many done.
I also tried out the music for the film, it was ok I will finish it of when everything is compledted. It has electical sound withinit to go with the theme.
Nimrol is really mmmm getting of my nerves because he actually has not part in this but fixing the tripod. Therefore I cannot understand how it is possible for him to have anything to say in his blog.
Daniel does try do what he can, and Claudio does what you tell him to in filmin and doesn't moan. But Nimol doesn't do nothing the moans his head off. The idea for the film was his and Daniel its like there just counting on me to make it happen and every one gets the same mark. Its not fair!!! *stomps feet*
Any Way because we missed a Monday I think we were given the option tio come in next Monday, in the half term. If so I will come in, Claudio, needs to come in and only one of the other two need to come in. They shouldn't come if they are not going to do any thing but complain.
I'm not sure if it is wise for me to slag of some members of my own team.However I'm sure it happens in the industry, and like them I'm sure we will do the best we can and get through this before i loose my composure.
Monday 9 February 2009
uploading clips
In today’s lesson we went on to uploading our film onto final cut pro carrying on from the previous lesson. Before that we re-shot the entrance of the character into the classroom.
Our uploading was delayed as the first 3 Mac computers we used were not functioning properly so time was wasted, more time was further wasted as the camera, were not connecting properly with the Mac computers so we had to use a video tape adaptor to transfer our files from the tape onto final cut pro. But after all the technical difficulties we managed to upload our clips and have started to put the clips together to form our final thriller opening.
Our uploading was delayed as the first 3 Mac computers we used were not functioning properly so time was wasted, more time was further wasted as the camera, were not connecting properly with the Mac computers so we had to use a video tape adaptor to transfer our files from the tape onto final cut pro. But after all the technical difficulties we managed to upload our clips and have started to put the clips together to form our final thriller opening.
shooting- 04/02/09
In Wednesday’s lesson we again continued our shooting of our thriller. This time we went on to shoot the main character (Claudio) adjusting and putting together some electrical apparatus. So to start off the lesson I had to go down to the physics and chemistry labs to go and get the props we had borrowed in the previous lesson including the lab coat and amp metre.
We were then struck with a difficulty as the class room we had used in the previous lesson for shooting was now in use to we were not able to use the same classroom.
This did cause a dilemma as now we were faced with a sudden change in setting. After some serious thought we concluded that we will have to make do with another classroom but when we want to shoot we had to ensure that the camera focuses on the computer desk and the desk for the electronics equipment as when we filmed in the other class we did not have a shot of the entire classroom. So we went on to shooting using more closer up shots to ensure that the class room change was not identifiable.
But then again we were hit with another problem and that is that when we reveal our hostage we would have to show a larger section of the classroom so that we can fit in the main character and the hostage. For this we had no idea on how to cover it up, so in the end we decided to call it a day and re-shoot the character coming into the classroom for next lesson. We could not do the shot in this lesson as I had not bought the jacket that the character wares in the film. But the re-shoot was justified when we came onto uploading our clips on to final cut pro. This is because when we did record the coming into the class room Claudio did not have a bag on. This would of looked stupid as we did a match cut of when he comes in and it would look obvious and unprofessional if he goes towards the door with a bag and enters without one.
We were then struck with a difficulty as the class room we had used in the previous lesson for shooting was now in use to we were not able to use the same classroom.
This did cause a dilemma as now we were faced with a sudden change in setting. After some serious thought we concluded that we will have to make do with another classroom but when we want to shoot we had to ensure that the camera focuses on the computer desk and the desk for the electronics equipment as when we filmed in the other class we did not have a shot of the entire classroom. So we went on to shooting using more closer up shots to ensure that the class room change was not identifiable.
But then again we were hit with another problem and that is that when we reveal our hostage we would have to show a larger section of the classroom so that we can fit in the main character and the hostage. For this we had no idea on how to cover it up, so in the end we decided to call it a day and re-shoot the character coming into the classroom for next lesson. We could not do the shot in this lesson as I had not bought the jacket that the character wares in the film. But the re-shoot was justified when we came onto uploading our clips on to final cut pro. This is because when we did record the coming into the class room Claudio did not have a bag on. This would of looked stupid as we did a match cut of when he comes in and it would look obvious and unprofessional if he goes towards the door with a bag and enters without one.
Friday 6 February 2009
Filming Day 4
On Wednesday we more or lees completed our filming… Or so we thought. We had to work in the darkroom because the classroom that we were in previously was occupied. But I think that we successfully re-built our set. The filming went ok. We also did the shot of Claudio’s character walking out the lift.After this we went into the media computer lab and uploaded our we uploaded half. We noticed that we needed to redo some stuff.On Monday we must redo the part were Claudio’s character walks into the classroom
Tuesday 3 February 2009
2nd session of filming
On last Wednesday’s lesson we carried on with our shooting of our thriller. From last lesson we left off from when he is about to enter his room. We carried on the filming on Wednesday with a match cut of him entering room. But before any of this happened we spent the first half-an-hour preparing props for out class room scene. Due to the electronics and science labs being in constant use on the times when we have media we where unable to use on of those classes. Instead we had to venture out to find props that will correspond and match out story board and at the same time give the impression that we is a electronics teacher. So instead of going to the rooms we bought the room to us. We did this my taking electronic apparatuses (such as clips and an amp metre) from the physics stock room (with permission) and also a couple of test tubes, conical flasks and a lab coat from the chemistry department. Furthermore me and Daniel went out to the local stores and purchased some different coloured food colouring to use as “chemicals” in the test tubes, etc. after all our preparations were finished, we began with out match cut of Claudio entering the room.
We then went onto taking multiple shots/angels of Claudio walking up to his computer desk and putting on a lab coat. We then took over the shoulder shots of Claudio typing up the report on the computer accompanied by perspective shots and birds eye view shot of this action to build more footage for editing and also to create more tension as at this point Claudio’s identity is still hidden.
After that we took further shots of another teacher (Suzie) asking our central character (Claudio) for the reports. We did this to further familiarise the audience that he is not trespassing and also to show normality in the perspective to other people that could be in the location of the action. We also did multiple shots fro this from the over the shoulder shots of both Claudio and Suzie and other shot types on both sides (inside and outside the class room).
After all these shots we had very little time to shoot the scenes of the character producing something from the electronics and chemistry props. So for this we did only a couple of shots of the same things but in different angles and when we returned the props we notified the certain teacher that we will be requiring the props again.
We did not have a lesson on the 2nd of February due to the weather condition (snow) that the college was closed down so all lessons were cancelled.
We then went onto taking multiple shots/angels of Claudio walking up to his computer desk and putting on a lab coat. We then took over the shoulder shots of Claudio typing up the report on the computer accompanied by perspective shots and birds eye view shot of this action to build more footage for editing and also to create more tension as at this point Claudio’s identity is still hidden.
After that we took further shots of another teacher (Suzie) asking our central character (Claudio) for the reports. We did this to further familiarise the audience that he is not trespassing and also to show normality in the perspective to other people that could be in the location of the action. We also did multiple shots fro this from the over the shoulder shots of both Claudio and Suzie and other shot types on both sides (inside and outside the class room).
After all these shots we had very little time to shoot the scenes of the character producing something from the electronics and chemistry props. So for this we did only a couple of shots of the same things but in different angles and when we returned the props we notified the certain teacher that we will be requiring the props again.
We did not have a lesson on the 2nd of February due to the weather condition (snow) that the college was closed down so all lessons were cancelled.
Filming Day 2
Last Wednesday we continued filming. This time we filmed the second half of the opening. This part was supposed to be located in an electronics room. A electronics room was not available so we used an English room. This wasn't too bad because we only need to film the teachers desk mainly.
The first thing we filmed was the teachers entrance. We filmed this from different angles so that when it comes to editing we would get lost of match cuts.
In the classroom we turned off the lights, the only light was the light coming through the blinds which we closed. We had a spotlight which we put at the desk, and all this created a spooky looking atmosphere.
I think that the team worked well with what we had; Claudio was a very cooperative actor; Nimrol and Daniel were the props management which kept them very busy. The got allot of science equipment to make the room look like a science room and the also did all the heavy lifting.
Unfortunately due to the snow on Monday College was cancelled. Because of this we will have to work harder tomorrow.
The first thing we filmed was the teachers entrance. We filmed this from different angles so that when it comes to editing we would get lost of match cuts.
In the classroom we turned off the lights, the only light was the light coming through the blinds which we closed. We had a spotlight which we put at the desk, and all this created a spooky looking atmosphere.
I think that the team worked well with what we had; Claudio was a very cooperative actor; Nimrol and Daniel were the props management which kept them very busy. The got allot of science equipment to make the room look like a science room and the also did all the heavy lifting.
Unfortunately due to the snow on Monday College was cancelled. Because of this we will have to work harder tomorrow.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
first day- filming
On Monday’s lesson we started our filming for our practical work. We stated our filming with our establishing shot, which was of the college. We used various shot types including extreme long shots, long shots and medium shots of specific features of the college such as the sign and entrance. We did this to ensure we had a range of shots for the opening so that when it came to editing we had enough versions of the beginning to choose from.
We then went on to filming out character (Claudio) going through the barriers of the college into the college premises. In this case we also had different shot types/ angles but mostly close ups as in our plan we agreed that close-ups would be the best way to create curiosity and suspense as the character is not revealed.
Once this part was done we tried out recording our charter through reflections we found such as mirror and a puddle reflection. I found these shots effective as the reflection gave a full images of the character but at the same time due to the light rays made the figure slightly distorted and hence not well identifiable of the features of the character.
After that we went on to doing an over the shoulder shot, hand held shot of our character walking into the college. We then did a medium shot of our character walking through the reception and being greeted by the security guard. I found that this shot was very good as it shows to the audience that the character not trespassing of any sought and is actual a member of the college. I believe that this shot will bring further curiosity as we are filming the character that will make the audience prejudice against him and his motives but then being welcomed by a authorise figure (security guard) shows that he is not in the wrong place.
We then went onto filming our CCTV clips. The beginning of the CCTV showing him walk into the premises was easily produced as we were in range with each other when it came to instructing Claudio to perform. However on the other hand doing the CCTV shot of the lift scene was a lot more difficult and was a lot more time consuming. This was due to the CCTV room and the lift being at locations far apart from each other. This was a problem as it was difficult to communicate to each other on when to start filming and when to act. This problem was then solved due to Suzie’s and Claudio using their mobile phones to communicate with each other, although it did take a couple of takes to do so.
We ended our day of filming by having close ups and medium shots of the character pushing the lift calling button and opening the door to his room. Also we had a hand held, point of view shot of the character walking to the lift.
Our first day of shooting overall went pretty well as we managed to cover our hole scene involving out side the class room scene. also i believe we used a range of shot types and angles which will be essential and beneficial for us when it comes to editing. The only obstacles that were a nuisance were other students getting in the way and making noises, but now this problem will not effect us now we i believe we have finished our outside shooting and our class room scenes will be carried out in a empty class room so there should not be a disruptions.
We then went on to filming out character (Claudio) going through the barriers of the college into the college premises. In this case we also had different shot types/ angles but mostly close ups as in our plan we agreed that close-ups would be the best way to create curiosity and suspense as the character is not revealed.
Once this part was done we tried out recording our charter through reflections we found such as mirror and a puddle reflection. I found these shots effective as the reflection gave a full images of the character but at the same time due to the light rays made the figure slightly distorted and hence not well identifiable of the features of the character.
After that we went on to doing an over the shoulder shot, hand held shot of our character walking into the college. We then did a medium shot of our character walking through the reception and being greeted by the security guard. I found that this shot was very good as it shows to the audience that the character not trespassing of any sought and is actual a member of the college. I believe that this shot will bring further curiosity as we are filming the character that will make the audience prejudice against him and his motives but then being welcomed by a authorise figure (security guard) shows that he is not in the wrong place.
We then went onto filming our CCTV clips. The beginning of the CCTV showing him walk into the premises was easily produced as we were in range with each other when it came to instructing Claudio to perform. However on the other hand doing the CCTV shot of the lift scene was a lot more difficult and was a lot more time consuming. This was due to the CCTV room and the lift being at locations far apart from each other. This was a problem as it was difficult to communicate to each other on when to start filming and when to act. This problem was then solved due to Suzie’s and Claudio using their mobile phones to communicate with each other, although it did take a couple of takes to do so.
We ended our day of filming by having close ups and medium shots of the character pushing the lift calling button and opening the door to his room. Also we had a hand held, point of view shot of the character walking to the lift.
Our first day of shooting overall went pretty well as we managed to cover our hole scene involving out side the class room scene. also i believe we used a range of shot types and angles which will be essential and beneficial for us when it comes to editing. The only obstacles that were a nuisance were other students getting in the way and making noises, but now this problem will not effect us now we i believe we have finished our outside shooting and our class room scenes will be carried out in a empty class room so there should not be a disruptions.
Filming Day 1
Yesterday we started filming our thriller opening. Daniel wasn’t there because he wasn’t feeling well, so it was just me Nimrol and Claudio. Daniel’s absence didn’t affect us to much because Daniel’s character doesn’t come in the end. We took many establishing shots outside our college. In the middle of doing so we then realised that it made sense if we used the centre for applied sciences building next to it. We filmed short shots of the rods around the college and the close ups of the big old clock next to the college so that we cold add to the location and time which the thriller was beginning.Claudio brought in a shirt and couldn’t find any other smart clothes so Nimrol borrowed him his bag and jacket.Surprisingly we don’t see Claudio’s face in any shots so far, due to the may shots we took of his reflection instead of him and also the way the angle of the camera at times, which is pleasing.Film the cctv camera which were in the reception, we filmed when Claudio walks in to the building, and when he walks to the lift. The lift part took very long because the indication had to be given by phone, and Claudio wasn’t to sure what to do and many other problems, but we did it in the end. :) However we haven’t done filming of the lift going up yet. We did some filming with Claudio walking up to classroom but this may not be used. The reason for this is because Daniel was going get us a classroom to use but his teacher said no so our Media teacher is going ask the head of science to allow us to us a lab on Wednesday.Overall I think the filming yesterday went very well because we got a lot done, filmed at many angles and also different types of shot. And we also improved on original ideas that we had. On Wednesday we hope to finish the filming of the entrance and start filming in the classroom :)!
Sunday 25 January 2009
The pitch to the judges
In this Wednesday’s lesson we were given the task to provide a presentation regarding our opening to a thriller. In this presentation we had to include:
· The plot and a story board of the events.
· Shot types/angles.
· Lighting.
· Music.
· Target audience.
· Icons/ props.
· Location.
We spent the 1st half of the lesson preparing our presentation. This activity was beneficial to us as it allowed our groups to delve deeper into our initial plot to construct the basis of our actual plot. Furthermore it allowed us to take into consideration other aspects of the thriller such as shot types and audience so that when we go out to shoot we have enough research to make it effective/ realistic and also to make it appealing to the target audience we had selected.
When we had finished our plan for the presentation, we discussed who will be presenting what aspect of the presentation (which we had written up). I was given the task of presenting the technical aspects of the presentation such as shot types/angles, lighting and music. Daniel was handed the location, and target audience. Suzie presented the introduction to out thriller film (dead-u- cation) and the icons/props and Claudio presented the story board. Then in the second half of the lesson we went on to present our pitch. We were the first group to present our pitch to some of the staff of the media department which included two of the technicians plus out two media teachers.
As a groups we had concluded that the main features to our shot types/ angle would be close ups and over the shoulder shot. We came up with this as we want our main charters identity to be secret so with close ups the audience are never given a full picture of the character identity, but instead flashes of specific facial features of the character. Also with the over the shoulder shots you only ever see the characters back of the head so no identity would be exposed. With these specific shot types we hope to build curiosity amongst the audience and also an element of uncertainty to the purpose of the character. This level of hidden identity will further be emphasised with a slightly dimmer lighting in the shots, this is also to highlight the uncertainty of the characters activities and to somewhat create an instant impression of the character being “bad”. We intend to use a calm soft music in the back ground which will progress to become more and more up beat and sinister until it reaches a high pitch climax when the audience find out the characters incentives.
Our thriller is located in college and in a class room as it correlates to the theme of a psycho teacher. Furthermore the location also correlates with our target audience who we classified as 15-25 year olds. This correlates with them as they would either be in education or at a stage where they have just left education and by having it based about a college would make it more appealing.
Are main icons/props where items that relate to a college atmosphere such as ID – card, science lab coat, etc this are to inform the audience of normality as the props show that he is in the right environment and not in a secret location. The element of the crocodile clips and the reports on the computer highlights the character of being an electronics teacher.
When we had completed our presentation we received positive feed back form 3 of the 4 judges as one (mike) believed that we are telling too much about the story. This comment by mike sparked an argument between the other 3 judges as they believed that the plot was good. In the end it concluded that our plot was well thought of and presented however, that we should focus more to what occurs inside the class room in our thriller.
We took this advice into account and are now thinking of slight justification to our planned thriller. We all thought that we can go on with what we already have but just make the clips shorter to leave more time in the class room.
We then went onto listening to the pitches of the remainder of the groups in our class.
· The plot and a story board of the events.
· Shot types/angles.
· Lighting.
· Music.
· Target audience.
· Icons/ props.
· Location.
We spent the 1st half of the lesson preparing our presentation. This activity was beneficial to us as it allowed our groups to delve deeper into our initial plot to construct the basis of our actual plot. Furthermore it allowed us to take into consideration other aspects of the thriller such as shot types and audience so that when we go out to shoot we have enough research to make it effective/ realistic and also to make it appealing to the target audience we had selected.
When we had finished our plan for the presentation, we discussed who will be presenting what aspect of the presentation (which we had written up). I was given the task of presenting the technical aspects of the presentation such as shot types/angles, lighting and music. Daniel was handed the location, and target audience. Suzie presented the introduction to out thriller film (dead-u- cation) and the icons/props and Claudio presented the story board. Then in the second half of the lesson we went on to present our pitch. We were the first group to present our pitch to some of the staff of the media department which included two of the technicians plus out two media teachers.
As a groups we had concluded that the main features to our shot types/ angle would be close ups and over the shoulder shot. We came up with this as we want our main charters identity to be secret so with close ups the audience are never given a full picture of the character identity, but instead flashes of specific facial features of the character. Also with the over the shoulder shots you only ever see the characters back of the head so no identity would be exposed. With these specific shot types we hope to build curiosity amongst the audience and also an element of uncertainty to the purpose of the character. This level of hidden identity will further be emphasised with a slightly dimmer lighting in the shots, this is also to highlight the uncertainty of the characters activities and to somewhat create an instant impression of the character being “bad”. We intend to use a calm soft music in the back ground which will progress to become more and more up beat and sinister until it reaches a high pitch climax when the audience find out the characters incentives.
Our thriller is located in college and in a class room as it correlates to the theme of a psycho teacher. Furthermore the location also correlates with our target audience who we classified as 15-25 year olds. This correlates with them as they would either be in education or at a stage where they have just left education and by having it based about a college would make it more appealing.
Are main icons/props where items that relate to a college atmosphere such as ID – card, science lab coat, etc this are to inform the audience of normality as the props show that he is in the right environment and not in a secret location. The element of the crocodile clips and the reports on the computer highlights the character of being an electronics teacher.
When we had completed our presentation we received positive feed back form 3 of the 4 judges as one (mike) believed that we are telling too much about the story. This comment by mike sparked an argument between the other 3 judges as they believed that the plot was good. In the end it concluded that our plot was well thought of and presented however, that we should focus more to what occurs inside the class room in our thriller.
We took this advice into account and are now thinking of slight justification to our planned thriller. We all thought that we can go on with what we already have but just make the clips shorter to leave more time in the class room.
We then went onto listening to the pitches of the remainder of the groups in our class.
Saturday 24 January 2009
This week!
On Monday the 17th of January after a long discussion we created our idea for our Thriller Opening. Daniel came up with the name (Dead – U – Cation) but I’m not to sure about that. Anyway, we decoded that the thriller is going to be about a psycho electronics college teacher who experiments with torture methods involving electricity, on students who he does not particularly like. We decided that Claudio was going to the teacher because he looks the oldest; I was going to be the other teacher and Daniel was going to the student that was being held hostage by Claudio.
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The PitchOn Wednesday’s lesson we were today that we had to pitch our film to a panel of media teachers. Our pitch had to include who are target audience is (15 – 25), the locations (Classroom and College), Lighting, and Camera work extra. We also had to draw a rough storyboard. We came up with a production name and we called ourselves Flawless production, I suggested it because its one of my nicknames and because I use it as a name of my YouTube channel. Although the team wasn’t too keen on the fact is was basically named after me, they decided to go along because of the meaning of the word flawless, perfect and faultless, and it sounded professional too. 3 out of 4 of the Media teacher liked our pitch. The advice we took from them is that we should concentrate more on what was going on in the classroom where the hostage was than the walking in of the teacher. Listening to all the other groups pitches were interesting and I felt that it was a good lesson.
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The PitchOn Wednesday’s lesson we were today that we had to pitch our film to a panel of media teachers. Our pitch had to include who are target audience is (15 – 25), the locations (Classroom and College), Lighting, and Camera work extra. We also had to draw a rough storyboard. We came up with a production name and we called ourselves Flawless production, I suggested it because its one of my nicknames and because I use it as a name of my YouTube channel. Although the team wasn’t too keen on the fact is was basically named after me, they decided to go along because of the meaning of the word flawless, perfect and faultless, and it sounded professional too. 3 out of 4 of the Media teacher liked our pitch. The advice we took from them is that we should concentrate more on what was going on in the classroom where the hostage was than the walking in of the teacher. Listening to all the other groups pitches were interesting and I felt that it was a good lesson.
Editing!!
Hopefully this will save because ive be trying to pst all week and it hasnt been woring..On Monday the 12th of January we started to edit our short film clip. We found that the fact that we had taken so many clips at different shot angles was a great advantage to us. The shot types made the extremely small kitchen that we were filming in, look like a private meeting room. We didn’t use many transitions because the many precise shots meant we didn’t need any and the audience can follow the story without them. The only effects I can remember us using are the fading out to black at the end and fading out to black some where in the beginning to link the shit of Daniel opening the door. A teacher also taught us how to slow down tracks. We slowed down the shot were Daniel (punches?) Claudio in the face and when the chewing gum is thrown at the bin to make the viewers concentrate more on these quite good shots which wouldn’t be noticed much because of the quickness they were originally shot in. I am the only one that really knows how to use edit so it was allot of work. I hope the rest of team learn how to do more things so there’s not so much pressure on me when it comes to editing, and it would be useful to them also, just in case I come in late or something.
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On Wednesday the 14th of January, in the fist half of the double lesson, the editing was completed. I added a sound track with the help of suggestions from the team. I found this was quite simple and was happy to do it because I had do music technology as part of Music GCSE and it was more or less the same with the absence of a keyboard. The music was used to add tension ad emphasise action suck as the opening of the door and Claudio’s collision with the wall. In the second half of the lesson we watched some more previous coursework. We watched good ones and bad one and from doing so, we gain ideas of thing to do and things not to do. After that we were put into our groups in order to come up with an Idea. Our group came up with ideas which I felt weren’t good enough and I encouraged that every one would think about and idea for the next time we meet.
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On Wednesday the 14th of January, in the fist half of the double lesson, the editing was completed. I added a sound track with the help of suggestions from the team. I found this was quite simple and was happy to do it because I had do music technology as part of Music GCSE and it was more or less the same with the absence of a keyboard. The music was used to add tension ad emphasise action suck as the opening of the door and Claudio’s collision with the wall. In the second half of the lesson we watched some more previous coursework. We watched good ones and bad one and from doing so, we gain ideas of thing to do and things not to do. After that we were put into our groups in order to come up with an Idea. Our group came up with ideas which I felt weren’t good enough and I encouraged that every one would think about and idea for the next time we meet.
Tuesday 20 January 2009
In yesterday's lesson we focused on our thrillers that we are making. We began by watching what previous students had done. This showed what has worked and what has failed recently. We learned that the best ones involve less happening and contain better shot types and sometimes less dialogue. As this is the opening to a thriller and not the whole film we learned that you should raise a question in the minds of an audience and not attempt to answer all the questions and tie up everything.
After this we planned in our groups what we might do. My group's plan was to make something about a psycho teacher that is killing one of his students. This is not final yet but we will plan more tomorrow.
After this we planned in our groups what we might do. My group's plan was to make something about a psycho teacher that is killing one of his students. This is not final yet but we will plan more tomorrow.
Recently we have been making a practice film in preparation for ouir task of making a thriller. The purpose of this was to familiarise ourselves with the cameras and equipment and practice different shot types and also learn better how to use final cut pro.
Our group decided to make a chinese action clip. We used many match cuts and close ups. We tried the approach of filming the same shot from many angles and then deciding during editing which ones we would use. Although this method was effictive in the end results it was also time consuming during the editing.
After having filmed our clip we needed to edit it using final cut pro. This got some good practice for us. Although the editing was succesful we took a longer time over it than other groups. This practice was good for us to be come more used to final cut pro. After putting everything together we learned how to add a soundtrack which was good. It is important when adding a soundtrack that the music does not drown out the dialogue. Therefore you need to get the volume right.
Overall I am happy how the video turned out and feel more prepared for making the thriller.
Our group decided to make a chinese action clip. We used many match cuts and close ups. We tried the approach of filming the same shot from many angles and then deciding during editing which ones we would use. Although this method was effictive in the end results it was also time consuming during the editing.
After having filmed our clip we needed to edit it using final cut pro. This got some good practice for us. Although the editing was succesful we took a longer time over it than other groups. This practice was good for us to be come more used to final cut pro. After putting everything together we learned how to add a soundtrack which was good. It is important when adding a soundtrack that the music does not drown out the dialogue. Therefore you need to get the volume right.
Overall I am happy how the video turned out and feel more prepared for making the thriller.
Monday 19 January 2009
19/01/09- planning thriller practical
In today’s lesson we stared off by watching the completed practise videos for each group in our class. We were given feed back by our teacher (Tony Fahy) about our clip. we were told that our clip was extremely good and entertaining and that our editing and match cuts fit in well in our sequence. On the other hand he did recommend that we do not use a voice over on our real task as it fits in with the old style Chinese drama we were doing it on, but will not be suitable for a serious thriller.
We then carried on our planning for the actual practical course work, we went thought the ideas that we all came up with in the previous lessons and discussed the good points about them and also the implications such as finding a ideal location. We then concluded that we will have our thriller set in the college with the scene/ story line relating to a college background. Thought the guidance of our teacher we had managed to come up with a plot. Our plot is about a psycho teacher that has held a hostage, we plan to bring suspense by making the teacher seem normal until we conclude the clip with the audience finding out about the hostage.
We then went on to discuss the possible plot we will have in our film and which one of us will play what role and what shot types will be fitting to each of the scenes we are planning to produce. For the final part of the lesson we went around suggested areas of the college to see what effects the location has and whether or not the shot types we planned will be appropriate and effective.
We then carried on our planning for the actual practical course work, we went thought the ideas that we all came up with in the previous lessons and discussed the good points about them and also the implications such as finding a ideal location. We then concluded that we will have our thriller set in the college with the scene/ story line relating to a college background. Thought the guidance of our teacher we had managed to come up with a plot. Our plot is about a psycho teacher that has held a hostage, we plan to bring suspense by making the teacher seem normal until we conclude the clip with the audience finding out about the hostage.
We then went on to discuss the possible plot we will have in our film and which one of us will play what role and what shot types will be fitting to each of the scenes we are planning to produce. For the final part of the lesson we went around suggested areas of the college to see what effects the location has and whether or not the shot types we planned will be appropriate and effective.
14/01/09- begining of our main course work peice
On Wednesday’s lesson on the 14th we started the 1st half of the lesson making the finishing touches to our short clip about the two people divulging into conversation. To improve our film we added cross fades between certain scenes so that the clips flow along together well. Also we edited parts of our match-cut scenes to ensure that they do not look obvious and that the match cut movements are more accurate in the time they occur. Also we added slow motion effects on the scene where one character attacks the other and the gum being spat into the bit to give the scenes a more dramatic effect and also so that the action can be seen clearly as normally they would be fast paced. Furthermore we added background music so that tense and suspense can further be elaborated and also to bring the audience into the mood the film is in. also we used sound effects to emphasize certain aspects of the clip such as the recoil of the character being hit.
In the second half of the lesson we went onto a talk of our core task of creating the opening to a thriller film. We were handed the brief of producing the opening to a thriller up to 2 minutes long including titles. We went on to watch finished production of the practical that was carried out by last years as media classes. The first video we watch was one of a teacher going to her class and being given a “help” sign by a ghost child who is reported missing. I feel that this video was well as an opening as firstly we are introduced to the film with news reports about a missing child so we get a feel of what to expect and then introduced to a new character who we don’t know has any connection. I felt that the various shot types and angles worked extremely well in this film as they showed us her movement to the unknown location as if she is being watch. I especially thought that the low angle shot of her from a wheelie bin was effective as it showed that she is not aware of something and also is not very commonly used in the other films we have watch previously. As the video progresses we see that the location is a school and that she is a teacher, we are illustrated this when the character enters a class room and starts to write on the white board. Another piece of camera work that also grabbed my attention was one where we are shown her writing on the board from behind and then matched cut into a scene where the camera is positioned as if it was behind the white board as the character writes on the board. Also the use of the perspective shot of when the charter turns around as she is disturbed by a noise was another piece of camera shot that caught my eye. This is because the use having it shot hand held and in quick movement illustrated to us that she is unnerved and full of adrenalin. And to finish the film off we see the writing “help” written on the board by a invisible person (ghost), we were explained how this was done by continuously pausing the camera and writing each part of the writing and playing it again and carrying that on until the word was on the board.
The next film we watch was a film were are shown a detective of some sought working on a case. We are then shown a reconstruction of the events on the case thought the imagination or dream of the detective. I thought that when the camera zooms into the detective’s eyes when he closes it and we r shown the reconstruction was very effective as it show us the transition between the real world and his thoughts. Furthermore I believe that the use of flashes in between the thoughts, to evidence bags that relate to the part of the reconstruction of the case was effective in showing us the connection between the detective and the case he is trying to solve.
We then watch another film about a school student being shown as lost in the news but seeing that she is lost in a forest. I found this film very ineffective as the constant use of the child running around gave us no ideas of what is going on and also did not perceive any meaning so we were left confused about what was actually going on. One shot that was well done in this film was one were we are shown the camera behind the charter and also some what hidden behind a tree. This was affective as if gave the impression that she was being watch and followed.
Finally we watched a scene from a real thriller called “what lies beneath” in this scene we follow a female charter through a steamed up bath room, she looks over to the bath tub and we see her reflection and then suddenly a reflection of a deformed person appears. This scene is made more suspenseful due to the slow movement of the character up to the bath tub and also with camera constantly being behind her and being moved in a way that showed to me that she looked like she was being followed. Further more to make the scene even more thrilling we r slowly shown the deformed person but the actual thrilling music comes after in a way that we understand it once we recognise the deformed figure.
For the last 20 minutes of that lesson we started to discuss our own thriller which we have to make and what we were going to base our one about. We had numerous ideas about what we want to do with every one in our group contributing to at least one idea. Overall we had not established the outline to our thriller opening but had all agreed our main purpose would be to use various shot types and angles to crate tension and suspense that we want the audience to feel rather than having a well thought out story line to our opening. We all thought this as from watching the films from the previous year we found that it was not as much of the content that created the thriller but more of the camera styles they used. So to conclude we want a variety of simple but effective camera styles and a scene for the opening were we can shows them to the audience.
In the second half of the lesson we went onto a talk of our core task of creating the opening to a thriller film. We were handed the brief of producing the opening to a thriller up to 2 minutes long including titles. We went on to watch finished production of the practical that was carried out by last years as media classes. The first video we watch was one of a teacher going to her class and being given a “help” sign by a ghost child who is reported missing. I feel that this video was well as an opening as firstly we are introduced to the film with news reports about a missing child so we get a feel of what to expect and then introduced to a new character who we don’t know has any connection. I felt that the various shot types and angles worked extremely well in this film as they showed us her movement to the unknown location as if she is being watch. I especially thought that the low angle shot of her from a wheelie bin was effective as it showed that she is not aware of something and also is not very commonly used in the other films we have watch previously. As the video progresses we see that the location is a school and that she is a teacher, we are illustrated this when the character enters a class room and starts to write on the white board. Another piece of camera work that also grabbed my attention was one where we are shown her writing on the board from behind and then matched cut into a scene where the camera is positioned as if it was behind the white board as the character writes on the board. Also the use of the perspective shot of when the charter turns around as she is disturbed by a noise was another piece of camera shot that caught my eye. This is because the use having it shot hand held and in quick movement illustrated to us that she is unnerved and full of adrenalin. And to finish the film off we see the writing “help” written on the board by a invisible person (ghost), we were explained how this was done by continuously pausing the camera and writing each part of the writing and playing it again and carrying that on until the word was on the board.
The next film we watch was a film were are shown a detective of some sought working on a case. We are then shown a reconstruction of the events on the case thought the imagination or dream of the detective. I thought that when the camera zooms into the detective’s eyes when he closes it and we r shown the reconstruction was very effective as it show us the transition between the real world and his thoughts. Furthermore I believe that the use of flashes in between the thoughts, to evidence bags that relate to the part of the reconstruction of the case was effective in showing us the connection between the detective and the case he is trying to solve.
We then watch another film about a school student being shown as lost in the news but seeing that she is lost in a forest. I found this film very ineffective as the constant use of the child running around gave us no ideas of what is going on and also did not perceive any meaning so we were left confused about what was actually going on. One shot that was well done in this film was one were we are shown the camera behind the charter and also some what hidden behind a tree. This was affective as if gave the impression that she was being watch and followed.
Finally we watched a scene from a real thriller called “what lies beneath” in this scene we follow a female charter through a steamed up bath room, she looks over to the bath tub and we see her reflection and then suddenly a reflection of a deformed person appears. This scene is made more suspenseful due to the slow movement of the character up to the bath tub and also with camera constantly being behind her and being moved in a way that showed to me that she looked like she was being followed. Further more to make the scene even more thrilling we r slowly shown the deformed person but the actual thrilling music comes after in a way that we understand it once we recognise the deformed figure.
For the last 20 minutes of that lesson we started to discuss our own thriller which we have to make and what we were going to base our one about. We had numerous ideas about what we want to do with every one in our group contributing to at least one idea. Overall we had not established the outline to our thriller opening but had all agreed our main purpose would be to use various shot types and angles to crate tension and suspense that we want the audience to feel rather than having a well thought out story line to our opening. We all thought this as from watching the films from the previous year we found that it was not as much of the content that created the thriller but more of the camera styles they used. So to conclude we want a variety of simple but effective camera styles and a scene for the opening were we can shows them to the audience.
Saturday 17 January 2009
Planning for thriller opening
For the lesson of Wednesday the 14th we had a look at a couple of the finished videos that had been uploaded to our blogs and everyone seemed pleased with there pieces. We went on to talk about the main task of creating a thriller opening at looked at some more of last years AS student ones. I was able to see some interesting ideas and shot types from them.
the first video was of a teacher who sees ghostly writing on her board which asks for help. A couple things that worked well was the camera shots and angles. Two that stood out in my mind where one from under a big wheelie bin of her walking and anther where shes writing on the board and it match cuts to us being behind the solid wall looking at her which creates a super natural atmosphere.
Also the editing was good there was a match scene where the teacher is scared and the camera zooms in to her body and shows her rushing adrenaline pumped blood and also the editing of the writing coming yup on the board with no one writing it.
the second film was of a detective on a case a point that i remember liking was in the editing where the detective closes his eyes and imagines what happens and their are cuts form the reconstruction to the evidence bags in his room, i thought that worked well.
We then looked at a scene from what lies beneath and analysed how it create tension. We saw it did so through the slow pace of the woman walking towards the bath, The angle of the camera being over her shoulder as if stalking her and the editing of seeing the ghostly reflection in the bath then the delayed orchestral stab to let the image sink in.
For the last park of the lesson we had to plan for ours and as a group we came up with a few ideas. We all agreed however that our main aim was to make sure we use a variety of shot types and angle to create the atmosphere we desire on 'thrilling' the audience as opposed to just focusing on a fantastic content for the opening as we saw that the first as students video was simple but effective.
the first video was of a teacher who sees ghostly writing on her board which asks for help. A couple things that worked well was the camera shots and angles. Two that stood out in my mind where one from under a big wheelie bin of her walking and anther where shes writing on the board and it match cuts to us being behind the solid wall looking at her which creates a super natural atmosphere.
Also the editing was good there was a match scene where the teacher is scared and the camera zooms in to her body and shows her rushing adrenaline pumped blood and also the editing of the writing coming yup on the board with no one writing it.
the second film was of a detective on a case a point that i remember liking was in the editing where the detective closes his eyes and imagines what happens and their are cuts form the reconstruction to the evidence bags in his room, i thought that worked well.
We then looked at a scene from what lies beneath and analysed how it create tension. We saw it did so through the slow pace of the woman walking towards the bath, The angle of the camera being over her shoulder as if stalking her and the editing of seeing the ghostly reflection in the bath then the delayed orchestral stab to let the image sink in.
For the last park of the lesson we had to plan for ours and as a group we came up with a few ideas. We all agreed however that our main aim was to make sure we use a variety of shot types and angle to create the atmosphere we desire on 'thrilling' the audience as opposed to just focusing on a fantastic content for the opening as we saw that the first as students video was simple but effective.
In lesson of Monday the12th we edited the footage we filmed form the previous lesson. We were a bit m ore familiar with connecting the camera to the PC and getting the footage off t then last lesson. A hindrance to completing the task was that we loaded up all our clips then decided to rename them so to avoid that mistake this time we rename after the loading of every ten clips. This proved quite efficient. It turned out that we had quite a few shots more then all other groups and we put this down to our filming every shot from so many angles.
our shot were good because we made allot of match cuts that all fitted together smoothly. Because we had the most amount of clips to deal with editing took longer for my group. We put a sound track on the clip as well as a couple sound effects and were able to finish editing on time so my group was very pleased with the results.
our shot were good because we made allot of match cuts that all fitted together smoothly. Because we had the most amount of clips to deal with editing took longer for my group. We put a sound track on the clip as well as a couple sound effects and were able to finish editing on time so my group was very pleased with the results.
Match cut tasks
In the lesson of Wednesday the 7Th we returned back to the subject of match cuts. We had looked into this technique in an earlier lesson and i remembered that match cuts are when one shot or action is filmed from several angles and distances then two are more of those clips are used to make the one shot or action. AN example of this in the previous lesson on match cuts was of a man who entered a shop a leaned over a plate to pick up the food off of it. The two shot types that were matched were a mid shot of the man leaning and a close up of his hand taking the food off the plate.
In this lesson however we were given the task of creating a shot list for the following scenario - east London, a man is chain smoking whist on the computer copying some confidential files on to a CD and then posting it in the mail. We were put in pairs for this task, i worked with cloudio. We had a few match cuts of like a mid shot of the man putting a cigarette in his mouth and a close up of the lighter lighting the end of it as well as like an over the shoulder shot of him typing and looking at the computer screen to a close up of what he was typing. My teacher Andrew encouraged us to s try and create a few more which we were able to do although i can not recall them to mind.
We then watch a version that was actually filmed by the city and islington media staff and found some ideas for match cuts we had actually come up with like when the man was walking to post the letter cloudio and I had written a cut of 3 different angles to cover the action and the staffs one did that.
For the second half of the lesson we had the following task - A character opens the door, Walks into the room, Sits down opposite another character and Share a few lines of dialogue.Also the sequence had to include at least one match cut and an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule. I learnt the 18- degree rule is that wen filming u must stick to 180 degrees of the side your filming from because if you shot more den 180 degrees scene will be flip horizontally ie the character on the left will now be on t he right. We planned to do a traditional old Chinese movie with out of sync speak and dialogue typical to the genre, the avenging of ones father etc. We really wanted to succeed in match cuts and shot every shot from multiple angles. We managed to complete the filming and the whole group was satisfied with the work. Cloudio and i played the characters, nirmol was the voice over and susie did the filming.
In this lesson however we were given the task of creating a shot list for the following scenario - east London, a man is chain smoking whist on the computer copying some confidential files on to a CD and then posting it in the mail. We were put in pairs for this task, i worked with cloudio. We had a few match cuts of like a mid shot of the man putting a cigarette in his mouth and a close up of the lighter lighting the end of it as well as like an over the shoulder shot of him typing and looking at the computer screen to a close up of what he was typing. My teacher Andrew encouraged us to s try and create a few more which we were able to do although i can not recall them to mind.
We then watch a version that was actually filmed by the city and islington media staff and found some ideas for match cuts we had actually come up with like when the man was walking to post the letter cloudio and I had written a cut of 3 different angles to cover the action and the staffs one did that.
For the second half of the lesson we had the following task - A character opens the door, Walks into the room, Sits down opposite another character and Share a few lines of dialogue.Also the sequence had to include at least one match cut and an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule. I learnt the 18- degree rule is that wen filming u must stick to 180 degrees of the side your filming from because if you shot more den 180 degrees scene will be flip horizontally ie the character on the left will now be on t he right. We planned to do a traditional old Chinese movie with out of sync speak and dialogue typical to the genre, the avenging of ones father etc. We really wanted to succeed in match cuts and shot every shot from multiple angles. We managed to complete the filming and the whole group was satisfied with the work. Cloudio and i played the characters, nirmol was the voice over and susie did the filming.
Wednesday 14 January 2009
Tuesday 13 January 2009
editing- match cut practical
On Mondays lesson be continued out match cut practical by editing the footage we had captured in the previous lesson. we had to firstly go through the routine procedures including plug in in the video camera and uploading the footage onto the software final cut pro. learning from our last experience on editing we straight away renamed each clip to ensure we are not confused by the scene that we had produced. the editing of this clip went well as our scenes flowed thought pretty well from each scene we had (opening the door to engaging in conversation) further more i belive that our match cutting in out practical was good as we managed to put them together in a way that wen the scene continues into another camera angle the movement of the scenery and characters is almost exact to the clip previous to it.
overall i believe that this practical was a success and that we have met the criteria that the brief has given us.
from this practical i have learnt that producing more footage than is required is essential as when it comes to editing we can sample different camera angles and make a judgement on which one was more effective. also i think that i have a better awareness and understanding of match cut and how to carry it out in a film and the effect it can create to the audience.
overall i believe that this practical was a success and that we have met the criteria that the brief has given us.
from this practical i have learnt that producing more footage than is required is essential as when it comes to editing we can sample different camera angles and make a judgement on which one was more effective. also i think that i have a better awareness and understanding of match cut and how to carry it out in a film and the effect it can create to the audience.
Thriller Preliminary film number 2
On Wednesday 7th we were put into pairs to do a shot list exercise. I was with Oneme. We were given a synopsis which was:East London. 3pm. A man chain-smokes as he sits at his home PC. He copies confidential computer files and Plans to a CD. He packages them and is seen posting the.
Our task was to create a shot list for the sequence of the events using a grid which was provided. Oneme and I worked well together to do the shot list using a range of different shot types and angles.
After we finished were shown the real film version of it, which was made by the city and Islington media staff.
After this we were put into our thriller groups and then were given a brief for our Thriller Preliminary film number 2. The brief said that we had to create film and in it:
A character opens the door, Walks into the room, Sits down opposite another character and Share a few lines of dialogue.
Also the sequence had to include at least one match cut and an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule, were:
For the rest of the first half of the lesson our group was got on to planning what was going to happen and made shot list. In the second half of the lesson we film. Or film had a old chinese film theme. So the voice wereout of sync. Daniel and Claudio were thetwo charaters., Nimrol were the voices and A filmed it all. Our location was in the teachers kitchen. We took many types of shots ant different angles. We finished all the filming and I think that everything went well
Sunday 11 January 2009
07/01/2007- match cut practical
In the first half of the lesson we were given an introduction to match cuts. match cuts are shots that are showing the same sequence of events but in different perspectives (angles and shot types)and when they are put together they still show the same sequence in order that flows through properly. We were then split into twos and given a scenario: setting in east London, a man is chain smoking whist on the computer copying some confidential files on to a CD and then posting it in the mail.
In pairs we had to come up with the sequence of events that would occur using a shot list. In the shot list we had to include match shots which we were introduced to. Once we had done this we were show a version of this activity that was made by the city and Islington media staff. From this clip we had to analyse the match cuts for when they were used. We were explained that match cuts are difficult to do and a good match cut is one were the audience do not notice the change in camera angle and shot type instantly.
After this activity was done we were given a brief into a match cut exercise. This brief was to film a sequence which had to include at leapt one match cut, an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule, were:
• A character opens the door.
• Walks into the room.
• Sits down opposite another character.
• Share a few lines of dialogue.
For the remainder of the first half of the lesson we got on to planning our sequence and what was going to happen. As a group we concluded that our clip will be a comic representation of classic martial arts films. We also agreed the roles that were required with Daniel being one character and Claudio being the other with me doing the voice over for both characters to provide a more comic affect. For the second half of the lesson we went about filming our short clip. We first had to find a location for our film which we located as the staff kitchen for the 3rd floor. We then went onto complete the filming trying to fill in the criteria’s that were required in this practical. I found that doing the same shots in different positions was not difficult but a nuisance as we had to keep on changing the position of the camera, the height of the tri-pod and also we had to ensure that the acting was done in a similar way to the ones previous to make the match cuts more professional. We did manage to finish the filming and I feel that it overall went well as we did manage to include many different shot types and angles in each of our scenes. I feel that now our main cause for concern is how effective our editing will be to make this shot clip successful in fulfilling the criteria.
In pairs we had to come up with the sequence of events that would occur using a shot list. In the shot list we had to include match shots which we were introduced to. Once we had done this we were show a version of this activity that was made by the city and Islington media staff. From this clip we had to analyse the match cuts for when they were used. We were explained that match cuts are difficult to do and a good match cut is one were the audience do not notice the change in camera angle and shot type instantly.
After this activity was done we were given a brief into a match cut exercise. This brief was to film a sequence which had to include at leapt one match cut, an example of reverse shot showing the 180 degree rule, were:
• A character opens the door.
• Walks into the room.
• Sits down opposite another character.
• Share a few lines of dialogue.
For the remainder of the first half of the lesson we got on to planning our sequence and what was going to happen. As a group we concluded that our clip will be a comic representation of classic martial arts films. We also agreed the roles that were required with Daniel being one character and Claudio being the other with me doing the voice over for both characters to provide a more comic affect. For the second half of the lesson we went about filming our short clip. We first had to find a location for our film which we located as the staff kitchen for the 3rd floor. We then went onto complete the filming trying to fill in the criteria’s that were required in this practical. I found that doing the same shots in different positions was not difficult but a nuisance as we had to keep on changing the position of the camera, the height of the tri-pod and also we had to ensure that the acting was done in a similar way to the ones previous to make the match cuts more professional. We did manage to finish the filming and I feel that it overall went well as we did manage to include many different shot types and angles in each of our scenes. I feel that now our main cause for concern is how effective our editing will be to make this shot clip successful in fulfilling the criteria.
Tuesday 6 January 2009
Researching film openings
Hi!
On Monday, in our media lesson some further details of the media coursework that: we had to create a 2 minute thriller title sequence. We watched a documentary called “Watching”, as part of our research on film openings. The documentary was about different film openings.
I found the 30min documentary very useful for our thriller opening because it brought up issues that I did not occur to me before.
I said that there were two ways that I could have a big thing that engages and excited the audience immediately in the opening part r the film or have a long tension building slightly puzzling begging.
The advantages of having a big event happening in the beginning of film is that it makes the audience excited. A director named Jacques Beineix said that the risk of instant big thrilling event in the opening part of the form has risk such as the film not able the big as the rest of the film.
The advantages of having a long tense and uneventful happening in the beginning of film is that the audience becomes tense and anxious of what may happen later on.
The disadvantages of having a long tense and uneventful happening in the beginning of film is that the audience is that audience may want to be thrilled very quickly, and if not they may not want to watch the rest of the movie.
Stanley Kauffmann said that the classic opening as stating of with an establishing shot then slowly zooming in to where the character in question was. He said this was good because it show the tone of the film and also gave way to introduce characters.
Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven was very effective because of the discrete title sequence. Another example of a discrete title sequence was one by Soul Bass, who I was already familiar with him because I do graphic design AS level. I then saw how I could incorporate what I am learning in Graphics because at the moment in Graphics lessons we are studying title sequences by different graphic designers.
It showed a film called "A touch of evil" by Oren Welles. This film had a very thrilling opening. Universal studios spoilt the tension and the effect that the opening of the film was trying to create by adding fun credits and jolly music on top.
It also showed a favourite trick of film noir – starting the movie from the end
The documentary showed the opening to “The Shinning”. The camera following the car makes the camera comes across as the predator and the car the prey. As the footage goes on, the lighting of the scenery and the background becomes sinister. Also the car is becoming more isolated.
Overall it was a very good documentary and i learned allot from it. :). We also watch 2 film openings that the students in the year before. The were very good. The first one had a very big beginning and there was a explosion. The only thing that wasn't good was when the bomb actually exploded because it was fake.The second movie, my friend Travis did the story board, it was slow and tense and was in the style of Seven, it was great. Id like to do something similar to Travis'. :)
On Monday, in our media lesson some further details of the media coursework that: we had to create a 2 minute thriller title sequence. We watched a documentary called “Watching”, as part of our research on film openings. The documentary was about different film openings.
I found the 30min documentary very useful for our thriller opening because it brought up issues that I did not occur to me before.
I said that there were two ways that I could have a big thing that engages and excited the audience immediately in the opening part r the film or have a long tension building slightly puzzling begging.
The advantages of having a big event happening in the beginning of film is that it makes the audience excited. A director named Jacques Beineix said that the risk of instant big thrilling event in the opening part of the form has risk such as the film not able the big as the rest of the film.
The advantages of having a long tense and uneventful happening in the beginning of film is that the audience becomes tense and anxious of what may happen later on.
The disadvantages of having a long tense and uneventful happening in the beginning of film is that the audience is that audience may want to be thrilled very quickly, and if not they may not want to watch the rest of the movie.
Stanley Kauffmann said that the classic opening as stating of with an establishing shot then slowly zooming in to where the character in question was. He said this was good because it show the tone of the film and also gave way to introduce characters.
Kyle Cooper’s title sequence to the film Seven was very effective because of the discrete title sequence. Another example of a discrete title sequence was one by Soul Bass, who I was already familiar with him because I do graphic design AS level. I then saw how I could incorporate what I am learning in Graphics because at the moment in Graphics lessons we are studying title sequences by different graphic designers.
It showed a film called "A touch of evil" by Oren Welles. This film had a very thrilling opening. Universal studios spoilt the tension and the effect that the opening of the film was trying to create by adding fun credits and jolly music on top.
It also showed a favourite trick of film noir – starting the movie from the end
The documentary showed the opening to “The Shinning”. The camera following the car makes the camera comes across as the predator and the car the prey. As the footage goes on, the lighting of the scenery and the background becomes sinister. Also the car is becoming more isolated.
Overall it was a very good documentary and i learned allot from it. :). We also watch 2 film openings that the students in the year before. The were very good. The first one had a very big beginning and there was a explosion. The only thing that wasn't good was when the bomb actually exploded because it was fake.The second movie, my friend Travis did the story board, it was slow and tense and was in the style of Seven, it was great. Id like to do something similar to Travis'. :)
Monday 5 January 2009
I had authorised absence the last week of term hence the lack of a couple blogs. In today's lesson we watched a documentary on the beginnings of films. Its raised the valid argument of whether the audience should be seduced into the action and plot of the film being slowly teased or if it should be a straight up in your face experience instantly grabbing the audience. It was said that 'instant arousal' is advantageous in the sense that it automatically has the audience 'on alert'. However it can be argued that an explosive beginning sets high expectations for the audience after it, and is hard to top later on in the film. The more seductive approach was said to be risky in that the audience may stray when not automatically clinched but that a build up forces the audience to control their thirst for thrill and creates anticipation.
In the documentary it was shown that its is traditional to have an establishing shot that pans the scene then is directed to the character to be introduced as this sets the atmosphere and setting foe the scene.
It also showed how directors did not let credits disturb the mood they where trying to create but rather used it as a part of the opening. An example that stood out to me was the opening to the film 'seven' where they used discreet titles but in a way that added to the pshycotic events we see on scene.
I learnt the technical name for starting the film form its end and working backwards toward the start which is film noir.
The documentary also showed how the camera work in the opening of the shinning helps to create atmosphere. in that it follows the car that's on screen like an eagle in pursuit of its prey suggesting the car is heading to trouble and the fact that what usual is breathtaking scenery is being ignored as we see the the car heading deeper into the dark mountains.
At the end of the lesson we watched the openings of last years as students. The 1st was of a piece called final rush. I liked this one because it relied on a wide range of camera shot to create tension as opposed to fancy editing or dialogue. A camera shot i really thought was unusual and interesting was a pan of the reflection in a building window of the character walking that met up with the actual character. it really stood out to me. The second was of a group who's piece involved some excellent editing. They had an opening like that of seven and doe it justice.An thrilling tense atmosphere was create from the outset wit a slow pan of a graveyard.
In the documentary it was shown that its is traditional to have an establishing shot that pans the scene then is directed to the character to be introduced as this sets the atmosphere and setting foe the scene.
It also showed how directors did not let credits disturb the mood they where trying to create but rather used it as a part of the opening. An example that stood out to me was the opening to the film 'seven' where they used discreet titles but in a way that added to the pshycotic events we see on scene.
I learnt the technical name for starting the film form its end and working backwards toward the start which is film noir.
The documentary also showed how the camera work in the opening of the shinning helps to create atmosphere. in that it follows the car that's on screen like an eagle in pursuit of its prey suggesting the car is heading to trouble and the fact that what usual is breathtaking scenery is being ignored as we see the the car heading deeper into the dark mountains.
At the end of the lesson we watched the openings of last years as students. The 1st was of a piece called final rush. I liked this one because it relied on a wide range of camera shot to create tension as opposed to fancy editing or dialogue. A camera shot i really thought was unusual and interesting was a pan of the reflection in a building window of the character walking that met up with the actual character. it really stood out to me. The second was of a group who's piece involved some excellent editing. They had an opening like that of seven and doe it justice.An thrilling tense atmosphere was create from the outset wit a slow pan of a graveyard.
Today we did some research as part of our thriller project. We watched a documentary on the openings to films. This was to give us an idea of how we wanted the opening of our thriller to be. We can decide whether to have a slow opening which builds up the action gradually or if we would rather go straight into the action being dramatic and action packed. There are arguments for both of these. If you go in slowly it could be suspenseful but it could also be boring. If you have action straight off then it could be exciting but where can you go from there?
the opening sequence needs to raise questions in the mind of the audience. However it needs to be clear as well and not totally confuse them. After watching a good opening the audience should want to see more and know what is coming next. There are different ways to think about opening a film and some films are very well known for their openings. An example of this is se7en which has images of blades straight away which puts the audience in the mood and gives them the mindset that the director wants them to have.
"watching" 05/01/2009
in today's lesson we researched about openings. we did this by watching a documentary about opening of movies, this documentary was called "watching" in his documentary we were shown various openings to movies with different and specific methods of openings. we were shown several opening which ranged from a slow and gradual build up to the excitement, to the opening being very directs and straight to the excitement. we also analysed quotations that were said by leading directors such as Stanley Kauffmann and Orson Welles. when analysing the quotations we interpreted the quotation and also comment on the effect it has to the audience.
i feel that the "slow and seductive " opening would be most effective as it would create the tension and keep the audience wanting to know more and keep them pressed against there seats. i believe this is more effective as i feel the slow build up keeps the scenec more interesting and keeping the audience aware and alert to what is to follow. Although i believe this, i also believe that this method would be the most trickiest to create as there is a high risk that if it is not carried out properly the audience may be left bored and not entertained.
i think that the opening to the film "seven" was the one i found that most stood out amonst the others that we had viewed. i feel that the combination of background music, special effects and mise- en -scene (of razors, needles and photos distorted body features) created a very dramatic and tence atmosphere abound the class (audience). this wass illustrated by the classes scilence and the fact that the majority of us did not break eye contact wit da screen. i feel that the opening to "seven" created the best effect on the audience and i will bare in mind the techniques that were used to create this suspence that i desire in our own practical work.
further more in this documentary there was a part were two different directors were talkin about different effects to beginigs. Jean Jacques Beineix says that with and opening that starts off with excitement there is a risk that the audience are lured into anticipateing even more action, which by having a dramatic opening from the satrt is hard to sustain throughout the film.
also film critic Stanley Kauffmann explains to us the "classic opening" and the affect it has upon the reader. he states that the "classic opening is ideal because from the opening the audience are shown:
i feel that the "slow and seductive " opening would be most effective as it would create the tension and keep the audience wanting to know more and keep them pressed against there seats. i believe this is more effective as i feel the slow build up keeps the scenec more interesting and keeping the audience aware and alert to what is to follow. Although i believe this, i also believe that this method would be the most trickiest to create as there is a high risk that if it is not carried out properly the audience may be left bored and not entertained.
i think that the opening to the film "seven" was the one i found that most stood out amonst the others that we had viewed. i feel that the combination of background music, special effects and mise- en -scene (of razors, needles and photos distorted body features) created a very dramatic and tence atmosphere abound the class (audience). this wass illustrated by the classes scilence and the fact that the majority of us did not break eye contact wit da screen. i feel that the opening to "seven" created the best effect on the audience and i will bare in mind the techniques that were used to create this suspence that i desire in our own practical work.
further more in this documentary there was a part were two different directors were talkin about different effects to beginigs. Jean Jacques Beineix says that with and opening that starts off with excitement there is a risk that the audience are lured into anticipateing even more action, which by having a dramatic opening from the satrt is hard to sustain throughout the film.
also film critic Stanley Kauffmann explains to us the "classic opening" and the affect it has upon the reader. he states that the "classic opening is ideal because from the opening the audience are shown:
- where it is takin place.
- occupation and organisation of the world i.e. if the camera goes higher up the building we assume thay are more improtant and people at the bottom are less.
i found his talk very interesting but feel that the "classic opening" has been used many times befor and feel if the make our own adaptaion it would not be as entertaining to watch as it has been seen many times before.
we next watched the opening sequence to the film "shinning" i found this opening facinating as previously we had watched this wholoe film for research. but this time by watching the documentary i was able to be more analitical about the opening that last time when we just watch it. i found that the use to the camera being above the car and following it created a feeling that the camera was like a prdator and the car was the prey. this was further supporther by the camera not takin notice of the picturesque scenary around.
to finish the lesson we were shown this same media course work done by the year before us. we watched one about a mysterious man with a suitcase walkin into a office building, then leaving the building without the suitcase which blows up the building. i felt that the use a music played the biggest part in creating the tension and suspence and also the use of no dialog and the man not changing his facial expression unnerved me. we also watch one about a phyco inside a church. from this one i could tell that the insparation came from the opening of the fil "seven" as it was layed out and presented in a similar fashion. this opening also created the same effect on the class as "seven did"
this research has broadened my knoledge of how to create suspence and the many techniques that coould be used. also it has giving me more options that can be used in our own opening including shot types, camera angles, camera movment, use of music and use of mise - en - scene.
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