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.
Tuesday 27 January 2009
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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