Group discussion...

Yesterday we had another talk about our plans, and we came up with a couple of ideas for our film opening, such as having the first shot fade in from black and have diegetic sound (e.g. sound of cars driving past/police sirens?/etc.) playing for a bit before any image is seen on the screen. This will make the audience wonder why these noises are being heard and who is hearing them.
An example of this can be seen in the start of this clip from the film 'Sin City';


When I was searching for another example of diegetic sound being used before the first shot is shown on screen, I remembered the opening credits of 'Monty Python; The Holy Grail' and how the humour of it is enhanced by the sound, although it is non-diegetic it will still help us to understand different ways in which sound can be used to create a feeling in the audience members.

We also decided that we'll be meeting up over the christmas holidays to plan every shot, make our storyboard and sort out everything about our film, that way we will be ready to start filming as soon as we get back to school in the new year.

'Crash'

Watched the film 'Crash' in lesson yesterday and really enjoyed it. It was very sad and quite tragic to me but I loved everything about the way it had been produced, it seemed very simple and to the point which was very effective. Probably more effective than if they had used loads of complex editing techniques etc. It was a great film and I really enjoyed watching it (also, the voice over on the opening credits was very effective).

Our original idea...

Here is a video of what we had edited so far of our original darkroom footage (most of it is just us playing around with different effects and colour balances to see what looked good);




The first part I quite liked as the camera slowly focuses on the man going through the door, which gave it quite an eerie effect but all of the shots in the dark room are very grainy due to the limited light that we had in there. This part is also very long and there is not much too it. The viewer can't really see what the man is doing anyway because it is so dark, and the pan shot from the pictures of the girls to the man when he drops the beaker is not smooth at all which makes the whole thing look very unprofessional. The audience would be bored by this part because notmuch is happening and we want our film opening to be much more fast paced.

The next section starts with the shot of the man walking past a house and the camera is very shaky at the start of this bit which also looks very unprofessional (we tried to eradicate the camera shake on iMovie but it did not work as well as we hoped). This is also where we tried out the 'Day To Night' effect which made everything look slightly blue which we wouldn't have used if we continued with this film. Again this shot is very long which means tension is lost, and there is no dramatic build up.

There is then a over the shoulder shot of Charlotte leaving the house which is slightly wonky which again makes it look unprofessional and the lighting is not very good here either, everything is dark. The only thing we liked about this particular shot was the fact that we'd managed to edit it so that it was all muted apart from the loud door slam!

There is then a shot of Charlotte leaving the house and the man following her and we edited in another shot from another angle of this which breaks it all up a bit, stopping it from being one long shot again but it is still not fast-paced enough to be an effective film opening to me.

The next shot is my favourite part of it all because it is the most effective of all the footage we had. It is a point of view shot of Charlotte being followed by the man. I like this bit because it seems believable and I like the framing effect we put over it to make it seem as though he is focusing on his victim. To break this part up we added in a couple of shots from a different angle but it looks very jumpy because we hadn't put the same framing effect on those shots.

That is as far as we got with editing our footage before we decided that it was not working well as a film opening. It had too much of a storyline to be a 2 minute opening and we did not have enough different shots/camera angles to make it an interesting and intriguing opening.
We have now decided that we want to film something much more edgy and fast-paced in order to make it more interesting.
Myself and Aimie found a great location in the woods (in Forty Hall) with lots of tall eerie trees and a path that is covered by trees where we could film our person waking up after having all there weird dreams (or possibly flashbacks of the night before; character's involvement in drugs, prostitution, etc?). I thought we could have a shot panning across the sleeping body of the chracter at the start without showing the location, and then close up of the face twitching in their sleep then add in loads of flashing, really fast clips of dreams/flashbacks the character is having etc. before they suddenly wake up startled then zoom out to show where they are etc.
These are just initial ideas and we need to develop them, but the fast flashing images would be almost in the style of the opening credits of 'Se7en' and we are also looking at loads of film openings to get ideas. Here are some that I was looking at;

This clip of Trainspotting is good because it includes lots of different random shots and I love the effect where the man is falling over in two different situations and then the shot of him laying on the floor could be very useful to us in our filming...


This is an AS media piece that is only good for the location and for some of the effects they used. (the dialogue and storyline isn't very good at all!) Love the delay/blur effect they used when the boy gets up from being concussed and I also really liked the tilts up to the tree tops.



This piece really made me laugh! The idea has definately been taken from the film 'Rock N Rolla' (one of my absolute favourite films, see below) but I loved the way they freezed the footage abruptly to introduce each person and I liked the 3 different shots on one screen (possibly use for dream sequence in our film?) Also loved the shot from a car right at the end and the way they showed a date in the corner of the screen making the viewer want to continue watching.

Pulp Fiction...

Watched 'Pulp Fiction' for the first time the other night and was once again blown away by Tarantino's style of directing/producing (even acting!).
Loved the way the opening went straight into action without giving the viewer any background information/establishing shot. The viewer is thrown into the plot with no clue about what is going on, who these two people are, their significance in the story, the setting, the exact time period, etc.
This fits in with what we want to do for our film opening, as it is very random and intrigues the audience as they want answers to the questions that this opening scene provokes. Here is a clip of the first few minutes of the film;
(I also like the opening credits, as they are simple but effective. Great track playing over the top of them as well - even if Black Eyed Peas did ruin the song later on...)

Continuity Editing...

Here is a short clip about continuity editing;

Change of plan...

In yesterday's lesson, our group had a discussion about whether or not we had enough footage to produce a decent film opening - following the criteria - and we eventually came to the conclusion that the footage we had taken and the content was not sufficient enough to produce a film that we would be happy with and that would fulfill the criteria.
Although we will be starting from scratch, all of the research we have done so far will still be relevant because we can take the essential elements of this research and apply them to the conventions of the genre we choose.
We will most likely be still doing a thriller film opening but we have also had some ideas about doing a spoof/comedy. Both have their benefits and faults; for example, a thriller would be easier to make in the sense of keeping it simple and just having good camera angles and shot composition, whereas a spoof/comedy could be fun to make and potentially interesting if we get it right, but it would be really easy for us to find it all hilarious in the moment, but then watching it back it may be really not funny at all.
We are going to research previous years A2 media films before deciding on anything, but I am leaning towards doing another thriller film opening.
We had a few vague ideas, such as - after looking at the opening of the film 'Donnie Darko' - filming something very obscure in order to intrigue the viewer.

For example, we discussed having footage of somebody sleeping and showing quick flashes of bad dreams they are having mixed with flashs of close-ups of their face flinching and then at the end it zooms out as they wake up and they're in an odd place, such as a field, a car park, etc.
These are just very early ideas and we will continue to brainstorm more ideas.

Garageband...

Here is a video on how to use Garageband, this will be really helpful to us when we begin to add sound to our film.

'New Moon'

Went to see the second film in the Twilight Saga on monday night called 'New Moon'. I really enjoyed it and thought it was such an improvement on the first one. I later found out that 'New Moon' had a different director than the one from the previous film. There seemed to be such a huge difference between the two films, not just because of the content but because of the editing techniques, etc.

This film was a lot more fast-paced in terms of editing than the first one which made the film more enjoyable (this could be put down to the fact that more action occurs in the second book than the first one, not because of the change in director) For example, when showing the character's flashbacks or if a character has just realised something, a few very short shots of things would flash up on the screen in quick succession in order to show the audience that character's thought path (fast-paced editing).

I also particular liked the shot of Jacob's character jumping over the camera as he turns into a wolf. The effects they used in order to create the visuals of these wolves are probably the same/similar to those used in the film '300 (see my last post). It can be seen in this advert at about 1:33;

I loved the film but I still prefer the books, even if they are badly written, I love the story line (apart from the very end which is awfully written) and I'm looking forward to seeing how the producers/directors manage to get the next book from paper to screen.

Editing Our Film...

In wednesday's lesson we continued to play around on iMovie with our films to see what did/did not look good. I found the different video effects we could put onto our footage and one of them was Day To Night which we thought might solve our problem about the footage being to light in the outdoors scenes but it made everything look blue so we'll have to keep changing around the colour settings etc. to see if we can make it work.

There was also a setting which put a blurry black, circular frame around the shot so we added this to the section where the stalker is following a victim because it emphasized the fact that it was a point of view shot and made it stand out as different from the rest of our footage.

'300' wolf - How they did it...

In the film '300' there is a famous scene with a quite realistic looking wolf in it and I wanted to know how they managed to create such an impressive representation of a real wolf and I found this article on the website www.popularmechanics.com.

(To see the clip of the wolf scene in '300', click here)

The New Normal

A WOLF IN DIGITAL CLOTHING

In today's movie making, the creative work that takes place on a computer can be as important as what goes on in front of the camera. In the big-screen adaptation of Frank Miller's historical graphic novel 300 (above), the future Spartan King Leonidas fends off a wolf. On set, visual-effects supervisor Chris Watts tried using a robotic wolf (top) for the scene, but it was eventually covered up by a computer-generated version of the animal (shown midrender, below).

Digital effects such as 300's virtual wolf are remarkable not because they are groundbreaking — the use of computer-generated imagery (CGI) in cinema dates back to the 2D pixel-vision of a robotic Yul Brynner in 1973's Westworld — but because this technology is now a standard part of the moviemaking toolkit. The impact of digital technology on Hollywood has been gradual but all-encompassing. Today, a movie can be shot, edited and distributed — from camera to theater and beyond — without involving a single frame of film. The transformation is at least as sweeping as the introduction of sound or color in the early 20th century, and it is changing both the business and the art form of cinema. Cinematographers, long resistant to digital image recording, are starting to embrace the use of digital cameras, shooting clean-looking footage that's easier to manipulate than film. Commonly available software allows small special effects shops such as Hybride to render entire virtual worlds and blend them seamlessly with live-action shots. Scenes that would have required elaborate sets 25 years ago can now be shot against a blue or green screen, and the setting can be filled in later — and then tweaked until the director is satisfied.

Special Effects...

On sunday I was watching the film '300' again, and I loved the way they had mixed real footage with incredibly impressive special effects. I'm not sure how they did it but I really like the effect it had on the entire feel of the film. Everything is made to look very dark and moody, and it makes you feel very disconnected from the film but in a good way, because it makes you want to understand more about what is going on in the film. It intrigued me and I would love to know more about how the producers created that effect.
An editing technique that I noticed throughout the film was the use of slow motion in order to build up tension when something momentous is going to happen. For example, in this clip the main character is seen going towards his opponents at normal speed and just as he goes to kill them, the clip is slowed right down so that the audience is eagerly anticipating the kill. This is exaggerated even more for his final killing of the clip and the sound (both diegetic and non-diegetic) builds on the tension even more.
The use of high/low angle shots also came into the film a lot in order to establish the status of the characters. For example, in this second clip, the shots of the character Xerxes are all taken from slightly below him (character of Leonidas is seen to be looking up at him) in order to suggest his superiority.

Beginning To Edit Our Film...

Today we watched our footage again and then began to edit it.
As the footage we filmed outside is very light, we tried to make it much darker/more dull by changing the contrast, brightness, saturation and balance on the clips. This worked because it meant the clouds and blue sky were no longer visible, although everything that was white in the footage became much brighter but I liked the effect this had, it made it seem abnormal which reflects the story of the film - something out of the ordinary.
We also played around with these settings in the dark room scenes and tinted them so they were more red which made it look much more scary than the original piece of footage.
We then began to select the clips of film that we definately wanted to use and then started to slice them up and mix them around to see what they looked like in different orders, etc.
We muted most of our footage too, to get rid of the sound of wind and our directions to each other, but we edited some parts so that we kept some of the noise - such as the sound of the door closing when Charlotte walks out of her front door and the creak of the door as Sarah's dad walks into the dark room.
After doing a small piece of editing we all went away feeling slightly happier about what we had and how we could develop it into something much more impressive.

Now we have to take the pictures of his victims again so that we can film the pan of the dark room/credits again with more visible pictures of us. After that we are finished filming and it will all be editing from then on.

Watching Our Footage...

Yesterday we uploaded our filming so far onto the computer and watching all of our footage to see if we had enough to work with when we begin to edit.
We were a bit disappointed with some of the footage, mainly because of the lighting.
We are going to try and edit it by changing the contrast/adding a red tint to see if that will improve the quality of our footage, if not we will be filming parts of it again.
The problem we had with the footage we got on the first day of filming was that it was sunny at the start and dark towards the end of the day. We will try to edit this too but if it doesn't work out we will have to redo that part of our filming.

Watching 'Se7en'...

In yesterday's lesson we watched the film 'Se7en'. Directed by David Fincher, starring Brad Pitt, Morgan Freeman and Kevin Spacey this thriller definitely gave us the shock of our lives!!

I loved the storyline and thought it was incredibly effective, but only due to the effects the producers used with the camera shots, sound and general mise-en-scene of the film.

(I have already written one post about the opening credits of the film and how much of an impact they have on the audience)

For example, when the first murder is discovered and the two detectives (Brad Pitt and Morgan Freeman) go to investigate the death, the non-diegetic sound adds so much dramatic tension to the scene that without it, the audience would not have been very scared at all.

The lighting in this scene also builds on the dramatic tension as it is very dark in the room and the only light they have is the light from their torches. The way they keep flashing the torches around means that the audience only really gets to see tiny parts of the scene for a very short amounts of time which makes the audience want to see the whole thing, they are waiting in anticipation to see the full horrific image of what has really happened.

Right at the end of this scene one of the detectives lifts up the victim's head to reveal a close up of his face and his white eyes wide open with the torch light shining in his face.

The fact that the audience has not yet been shown the whole picture up until that moment means that it shocks them to be shown such a horrifying image at a moment when they least expect it.

Clever methods such as this are used throughout the film in order to scare the audience and another example of this is when the murderer kills his third victim; sloth. The audience is led to believe that the victim has been dead for a whole year and whilst the viewer is still reeling from the close up shot of a years worth of pictures of the victim on the bed, another close up shot appears of the supposedly dead man's face and he suddenly gasps for air and dust pours out of his mouth.

Our entire class jumped about 10 feet into the air and were still recovering ten minutes later! I couldn't believe how much it made me jump because in thriller/horror films, it is generally quite easy to tell when something out of the ordinary is going to happen because of the build up of scary music but in this scene I had absolutely no idea that was going to happen! This was probably because there was no music behind it, just the detectives talking over what seemed to be a corpse. This proved to be another clever way of catching the audience when they least expect it.

I think the film is very clever and the story line seems quite unique, but I wasn't completely persuaded by the ending. I thought it was very predictable that he would have killed Brad Pitt's wife and it seemed to be a bit of a tame way to end the film when you compare the ending to the graphic images shown nearer the beginning.

On the other hand, I can see how the ending could be more terrifying in some ways, because the audience doesn't get shown any horrific images, it's all implied so your imagination is left to run wild.

In those last few minutes of the film where the two detectives are driving John Doe to the location, I found myself getting really angry with the killers character for the obvious reasons but also because of what he says about why he kills these people. His character completely contradicts himself with his values/morals.

He thinks he's doing the world a favour by killing these people and that he has been called by God to carry out this awful killing spree but by doing so isn't he breaking one of the ten commandments himself?! The smug grin on his face really got to me as well and I felt myself empathize with Brad Pitt's character as he clearly wants to make him realise what a hypocrite he is.

Another interesting point about this car scene is the metal grid that seperates the killer from the detectives. When there is a shot of Brad Pitt or the killer, the grid covers their face. When there is a shot of Morgan Freeman there is no grid over his face. This is to represent the part the two characters play in the seven deadly sins murders and also to show Morgan Freeman's innocence in it all.

When the time came for Brad Pitt to find out his wife had been killed, as an audience member I responded to what was going on by hating the killer even more because he told Brad Pitt about his unborn baby and then went on to enjoy the fact that he had no idea that his wife had been pregnant.

The complete anguish on Brad Pitt's face leaves the audience feeling quite unsatisfied with the fact that he shot the killer, although they know that it had to be done. (Pitt's thoughts are confirmed by the extremely short flash of a picture of his wife just before he shoots).

I loved the effect that Morgan Freeman's voice over right at the end had on the audience too.

The techniques the producers/directors used were clearly very effective if they left me feeling so angry that the murderer only got killed, it didn't seem like justice to me and this is probably the desired effect on the audience that the producers were looking for.

Another significant part of the scene for our group in particular was when the detectives go into the murderer's flat and find his darkroom. We will be refering back to this scene for inspiration for our film opening.

Such a clever film with a great storyline, but I don't think I'll be rushing to watch it again any time soon...I'll wait till the nightmares subside hahaa!!

Our second day of filming...

Last night we went to the old darkroom of our school and filmed the rest of the shots we needed for our film opening.
We had previously taken lots of photos of some of our friends that look like they've been taken by the stalker and we got them printed off and stuck them up on the walls of the darkroom with notes around them, such as the names, birthdays and occupations of the people in the photos. We hoped this would add to the scariness of the stalker's character.
After we had set up the room properly we began to film the shots that were drawn on our storyboard.
The first shot was of Sarah's Dad (stalker) opening the door to the darkroom (no light) and then turning on the light and letting the door shut behind him. As there was a red light bulb outside the darkroom door, this had a good effect because the shot had the door and the stalker in it, with the red light right in the corner. The fact that the door was really old and creaky also added to the fear factor.
We then did a shot from the inside of the darkroom of Sarah's Dad walking into the room and turning on the light, looking at the wall of photos and then walking past the camera. We had to do this many times because we were using a phone light to show him walking in before he actually turned the lights on. This caused a bit of a problem because the light kept on going off, but we were hoping it will just add to the effect.

Our next shot was going to be a close up of the wall of photos and we experimented with using the red light from my phone's camera as a spotlight to run over all the photos during the shot, but in the end we decided to do a close up shot of one of the sets of photos, then Sarah's Dad dropped something on the floor and I panned the camera round really quickly to show him picking it up off the floor and developing a picture of Charlotte. This was an over the shoulder shot.

We had already hung up two pictures of me and Aimee gagged and one of Charlotte walking down road. He then replaces the normal picture of Charlotte with one of her gagged and then he puts a normal picture of Sarah up as though she is his next victim. We told him to look at the picture of sarah for a little longer to show that he is looking forward to it.

Also, on the pictures of us our names were written on them so we thought we'd use that as our credits, so I did a pan shot going from the

other side of the room just to show the surroundings and then to show our names as a close up shot.

All we need to do now is look at our footage and see whether or not it will be good enough for our final film.

Sound

Today we had a lesson on different types of sound and how they can effect a piece of film and how the audience responds to that piece of film.
For example, we analysed the diegetic and non-diegetic sound in the film 'Jaws' within the scene where a character called Alex is eaten by the shark;

Use Of Diegetic Sound...

• kids laughing and playing implies a happy environment. Their laughter creates dramatic tension because the audience is aware of the fact that the scene won't be happy for much longer. The three different pieces of dialogue taking place in the scene have the effect of making the beach seem very busy.
• dog barking - maybe a hint to danger?
• sound of water splashing could also be a warning of what is to come - the frantic splashing of people trying to get away from the shark?
• music from the radio is giving the audience a false sense of normality in the scene.
• a little boy playing and innocently singing in the sand builds tension - upsets the audience that he would have to be involved in such a horrific event.

Use of Non-Diegetic Sound...

• scary music score.
• no background noise when the victim is shown on the lilo by himself to show his isolation from the rest of the beach.
• when the shark is about to attack the tempo of the music increases and is reminiscent of a heartbeat - this guides the audience's reactions.
• crescendo in the music also builds the tension.
• right at the end the music is being played quietly over the sound of the waves moving back and forth - creates an odd calm ending to a horrifying scene.

The fact that the crescendo in the music builds and builds and builds up to the point where the shark finally attacks makes it less scary for me personally when compared to the scene in the film 'Psycho' where the music does not build up to a climax, it just comes straight in as soon as the murderer attacks so you cannot predict when it's going to happen so it makes you jump more.

When applying this research to our work, I think I would rather use sound in the way it is used in 'Psycho', instead of using the methods from 'Jaws' for our film opening because I thought it was more effective in the way it made people jump.

For example, when we film in the dark room, one of our shots will be of the stalker dropping something on the floor and the camera quickly swivels round to face him which I think could make people jump if we used the right sound.

Schedule for Darkroom Filming...

We've decided that we'll probably begin filming in the darkroom this thursday, depending on Sarah's Dad's availability. The photography teachers have given us permission to use the old dark room whenever we need to, as long as we let them know.

First Day of Filming...

Over the half term we were given all the equipment to begin filming our film opening.
We began by filming an establishing shot of the house and Sarah's dad walking past the camera and down the alleyway next to the house we were filming in. We got him to walk down the alley from three different directions so that we would have more options when we start editing the shots.
We then filmed Charlotte walking out of the front door from far away so that the stalker can still be seen watching her from the alley. We had to film a shot from behind Charlotte as she was walking out of the front door otherwise we wouldn't have anything to fill in between him walking down the alley to him standing and watching her leave her house.
We also did a shot of her leaving the house out of the top window of the house just to experiment with angles and to give us more variety in our editing.


Then we did the point of view shot of the stalker following Charlotte down another alleyway after she leaves her house. We had to do this a few times in order to perfect it but it's difficult to know whether or not it will work when we cannot watch it whilst filming.

Our last shot was of Charlotte walking past the camera with the stalker following her. (We had also previously filmed a point of view shot of the stalker's hand grabbing Charlotte's shoulder).
All of us were really pleased with how the first day of filming went but also slightly concerned about the weather and how it would effect the continuity of our film opening, as the sun kept coming out and disappearing all the time, so we may have to do some more filming of the same shots.

Developing Our Ideas...

After having further discussions about our film opening, we decided to do the title sequence in the old dark room at school so that the stalker could be filmed hanging up pictures of his past victims and his next victims. We thought the red light would create a very eerie effect (low key lighting).

We decided not to do the shots of the victim getting ready to go out because the dark room shots would take up too much time and we thought that shots of the outside of her house with the stalker next to it would be more effective.

Initial ideas for our film opening...

Here are just a few ideas that we jotted down as a group right at the start of our film making process;

• Graveyard scenes of children happily playing (high key lighting, nice music) then stumbling upon/realising they're in a graveyard (low key lighting, dark music). Possibly point of view shot of someone watching from the bushes?
• If we have the opening sequence inside a victim's room we could have an extreme close up eye-line shot of girl (victim) doing her make-up, then transition to stalker's eyes watching her, then back to the girl?
• Make-up could be a way of doing the title sequence?
• We could use Sarah's house/road and her Dad could play the part of the stalker?
• Charlotte could be the victim, or possibly the twins?
• Point of view shot of the stalker following the victim, noise of something crunching underfoot makes the victim turn around and the camera moves quickly away as if hiding from her?
• Darkroom possible location? Perhaps the stalker takes pictures of his victims beforehand and after the killing? (Possible idea for title sequence)
• Use of alleys?

Not all of these ideas will be used but this was just a quick brainstorm that we did very early on in the process of making our film opening.

An example of someone being chased by a point of view shot (at 1:19);

OCR Report

G321 Report (OCR Media Conference 2009)

View more documents from rikhudson.

Marking Criteria

G321 Marking Criteria

View more presentations from jfoster10.

Skins Presentation

As a group we had to choose a scene from a TV drama and analyse the mise-en-scene in that scene. We chose to analyse a clip from Skins and focus on the characters' sexuality. We split the different aspects up between each of us and I was focusing on lighting and props. We analysed the camera angles together.
Here is a link to the clip we analysed... >> Skins Clip <<

Skins Presentation

View more presentations from sarahisaacs1992.

AS Media

This is a presentation that includes all the key words/terminology that we need to have learnt by the end of half term.

Introducing AS Media

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

Jaws Shot Analysis

This is a slide show that will help me with my analytical skills. It goes through each shot and gives detailed analysis of everything in that shot.

Jaws Shot By Shot - Part 1

View more documents from The Cottesloe School.

Research for Our Film Opening...

As a group we've been discussing some ideas of what we could do for our 2 minute film opening. So far the main idea is to base it on a man who has an obsession with a young girl; a stalker thriller. We've even had some ideas of different camera shots/effects/locations/props/etc.
For example, shots of the girl getting ready to go out and meet friends; extreme close up of her eyes whilst she's applying mascara, then fade into an extreme close up of stalker's eyes, then back to hers. Also, after she leaves her house; point of view shot from stalker's perspective following her down the street, she hears something snap under his feet behind her, as she turns around the camera ducks to hide behind a bush/tree/etc.
These are just very early ideas but we now have to do lots of research into previous stalker thriller films in order to get our 2 minute film accurate. One example is 'One Hour Photo' directed by Mark Romanek and starring Robin Williams in a very unusual role in comparison to his other work (...Mrs. Doubtfire!!).
He plays a lonely man who has an obsession with an apparently perfect family. He begins to take pictures of them and eventually exposes them as not so perfect by terrorising them.
The trailer for the film sums it up;



Although this film does not involve a man stalking a young girl, it contains themes that we would need to include in our film, which is why it is helpful for us to research such films.

Test Audience

Test audiences are vital in any film making process - Pretty Woman is a good example of this.
So yesterday we watched each group's Preliminary Exercise so that we could give constructive criticism to each other. The feedback for our's was that we hadn't taken enough shots (no shot of Charlotte sitting down onto the chair) and that we hadn't edited one part correctly (the clip of Charlotte walking past the camera is too long, we should have cut it shorter to fit in with the next clip). We will take note of these things and use them when we are filming our 2 minute film opening.
Other than that, our group (and all the other groups) have successfully used the 180 degree rule, shot-reverse-shot and match on action in our Preliminary Tasks.

Storyboard

This is just one section of our storyboard for our Preliminary Exercise. We planned out each shot like this in order to make it easier on the day of filming.

Editing the Preliminary Exercise...

In wednesday's lesson we began by watching as the final group filmed their preliminary exercise. As they had seen everyone else's mistakes/success', they were able to get theirs done quite quickly, leaving us all plenty of time to begin editing our own preliminary tasks.
We managed to get the start of our's completed but we were faced with a problem straight away; we hadn't filmed a shot of Charlotte as she was sitting down onto the chair. Therefore we had to use another clip in between her walking in and her beginning the conversation, otherwise there would have been a noticeable jump in between shots.
Eventually we decided to put the close up of Sarah's face in between Charlotte walking past the door and charlotte sitting down. This was the smoothest way we could edit it so we finished it at that and finally got it done.

Title Sequences

I've just read through the webpage that is mentioned in my previous post and it presents some interesting ideas. I found it particularly interesting that on their website the most commonly searched opening sequences are those that belong to the "darker" films, such as se7en, etc. I think it's true that most opening credits for those darker films -psychological thrillers, etc. - usually have more of an effect on the audience than the opening credits of a comedy/light-hearted film.
For example, the opening credits for Juno have been produced using incredible effects but as it goes on for a long time, it loses it's effect and the audience are not concerned with what's going on in the credits because they know they won't have to concentrate hard throughout the film to be able to understand what's happening. Whereas in a film like Se7en, the audience needs to focus for the duration of the film, including in the opening sequence, in order to keep up with the storyline.

Title Sequences

Next lesson we will be looking at title sequences and their significance, so here is some of my research into different title sequences;


The opening sequence for Panic Room didn't really build up any dramatic tension whilst I was watching it and it didn't really make me want to continue watching it. This might be because it didn't hint to anything about the story, other than where it was set. Although I thought the credits were done in a clever way.

>> WATCHMEN
<< I couldn't embed this video (click on the link) of the opening sequence from the film Watchmen, but I wanted to post it on my blog because I really like the effects they've used on the opening credits. Unlike Panic Room, the opening sequence gives the audience an idea of what the film is going to be about. It shows a timeline of the success'and failures of a certain group of characters. I enjoyed watching the credits and it was not boring as it established the characters' background stories and set the scene for the rest of the film. My favourite effect on it was the way it showed people having their picture taken and then in slow motion you saw the action that was occuring (at first the audience thinks it's just a snapshot). Perhaps some of the aspects of this type of opening sequence could be used in our groups film opening.

(Here is a link to a website that we are using to understand the importance of an effective title sequence)

'Zombieland'

Saw the film 'Zombieland' last night at the cinema. It was directed by Ruben Fleischer and it's a horror comedy. I went into it thinking it was just going to be a rip off of Shaun of the Dead - nothing beats Simon Pegg and Nick Frost - but by the end of the film, I was convinced that it was a completely different style of "ZomCom".
It was a very surreal film but I really liked the way it had been produced. As the story goes on, the main character narrates to the audience the rules of survival in 'Zombieland' and as he does so they appear on the screen and they move along with his movements or the action that is going on in the film.
For example, in one scene the four survivors go into a shop and begin to smash everything up and compeltely ruin it. As they are leaving, one of the lights is swinging from the ceiling and the words 'Rule #32: ENJOY THE LITTLE THINGS' come up in line with the light and they swing with the light.
I really liked this effect because it happened throughout the film and it helped me as an audience member to get inside the mind of the characters and the way they had to think in order to survive.
Another effective aspect of the production of the film was the music and lighting used together in order to build up dramatic tension and to inform the viewer that something bad is going to happen. For example, when they go into the shop checking for any zombies, the lighting is very dark, making it mysterious and extremely tense.
Also, the gory parts of the film were much more realistic than those in Shaun of the Dead which shows how much editing technology must have progressed since 2004.
Not as funny as Shaun of the Dead, but a great film all the same, watch it!

Our Script...

This is our group's script for the preliminary exercise;

Charlotte: Wanna be startin' something?
Sarah: You gotta be startin' something.
Charlotte: It's too high to get over.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
Charlotte: Too low to get under.
Sarah: Yeah, yeah.
Charlotte: You're stuck in the middle.
Sarah: And the pain is thunder.

Other Groups' Preliminary Tasks

In yesterday's lesson, we were observing the other groups as they filmed the different shots for their prelim. tasks. It was interesting to see the different ideas they came up with as they were filming and getting into the mindset of being behind a camera. Each group was thinking very carefully about how the shots would be seen by the audience and this prompted them to change their ideas slightly in some cases.
Some of the groups added in extra shots to enhance their film. For example, one group had a phone call in their script so they included a close up shot of the phone's screen as it was ringing.
Another two groups did a pan shot of one of their characters walking in and the last group did two point of view shots where they positioned the camera in place of both characters.
It was good to watch all this going on because it helped us to understand the range of different things we could do whilst filming.

180 Degree Rule Research

The 180° rule is a basic guideline in film making that states that two characters (or other elements) in the same scene should always have the same left/right relationship to each other. If the camera passes over the imaginary axis connecting the two subjects, it is called crossing the line. The new shot, from the opposite side, is known as a reverse angle.
(http://www.wikipedia.org/)

Filming Our Preliminary Exercise

On Friday, our group was first up to film our prelim. task using the 180 degree rule. Myself and Aimie were directing it and Charlotte and Sarah were acting in it, although we all contributed ideas for every aspect of it. (We've got to get used to using phrases like 'cut', 'take 2', etc. because it makes it a lot easier to edit later, but we kept forgetting which take we were on, so next time we will be making notes as we go along.)
We started off with a two shot directly in front/in the centre of the tables that Charlotte and Sarah were sitting at. This shot helps the audience know where the girls are sitting in the room and all the other shots must match up with that, otherwise the viewer is left confused.
For example, when we did the next two camera angles (over the shoulder shots of both Charlotte and Sarah) we had to pace out the distance between the camera and the table to make sure that when we moved the camera to the other side, Sarah and Charlotte's eyeline's would match up and the angle would be the same.
We also did a long shot of Charlotte storming past the door, then angrily bursting through the door when she realises Sarah is in the room (because our script was the lyrics to Michael Jackson's song, 'Wanna be starting something'). We then thought it would be a good idea to have a close up shot of Charlotte's face appearing at the door but when we tried to do this the lighting wasn't right and the shadows stopped us from being able to see her face properly and we couldn't even pull down the blinds of turn the lights of because that would ruin the continuity of the shots.
Instead, we got a close up of Sarah's face looking terrified when she notices charlotte coming through the door.
We also changed our storyboard slightly to fit our new ideas e.g. the close ups, etc.
Now we have to edit what we've got and we can do this as soon as all the other groups have finished filming theirs.

Preliminary Exercise Preparation

In yesterdays lesson we were preparing in our groups for the filming of the prelim exercise. Our group discussed who would be "acting" in it, what they would say and how we might edit it. We decided that we might want to use song lyrics as our script but we still haven't decided what song, although we have a few hilarious ideas...! Sarah and Charlotte are going to star in our prelim exercise and myself and Aimie are going to direct the exercise.

'The Prestige' Camera Shots

The first shot pans across a row of birds in cages, but it isn't a very smooth shot so perhaps it was done with a hand-held camera or a steadicam. (There is no establishing shot at the start, so the audience doesn't know where they are). Then there is a close up of Michael Cain reaching into one of the cages and just as he's about to pick up the bird, the shot changes to a cutaway shot that goes straight through one of the cages looking down through the whole row of cages, adding perspective.

Then there is a midshot of first Michael Cain, then the little girl. The camera then suddenly changes to a track/dolly shot of an audience in a theatre, followed by a longshot of the magician on stage. Both these shots are then brought together by showing a wide shot of the audience, stage and magician; this keeps the audience understanding the spatial relationships between characters.

There is then a shot of Christian Bale running down some stairs and the camera tilts down on a fixed axis to emphasize his urgency. The audience then sees a close up of the blind stagehand (flashing lights and shadows on this man's face create an eerie effect) and the next shot is a reaction shot (noddy shot) of Christian Bale after seeing the man's face.

The camera then goes back to Michael Cain and the little girl using an over the shoulder shot from behind the girl.

Lastly, the audience sees a point of view shot from Christian Bale's view as he watches Hugh Jackman's character get shut into the glass cage of water. There is a low angle shot looking up at the door of the cage banging shut. This low angle shot makes the cage seem bigger and more threatening.

Trip to the cinema...

Went and saw 'Inglourious Basterds' last night at the cinema. It was written and directed by Quentin Tarantino and was possibly one of the best films about WW2 that I've ever seen. It's interesting how a certain amount of humour can be brought into a film about such a horrific event. I really enjoyed the film - although it felt like it was going on for ages! - because there were a few different stories running through it the whole time and then finally right at the end it all came together in an ending which leaves the audience feeling as though justice has been served and sufficient revenge has been received.

Although, Tarantino still manages to produce the film in a way that makes you leave the cinema feeling slightly uncomfortable. Even though the film is done in quite a comical way, you can't help but think about the reality behind it all. As all the individual stories within the film began to come together, it became clear that situations similar to those in the film would have actually happened in the war. Crazy!

Excellent film. I'd definately recommend it!!

Genre Research

So I've just been researching Thriller on wikipedia and apparently there are lots and lots of different variations of Thriller within itself, so if we chose to do a thriller we'd have plenty of ideas to choose from. Here's a few of them;

Action thriller: In which the work often features a race against the clock, contains lots of violence, and an obvious antagonist. These films usually contain large amounts of guns, explosions, and large elaborate set pieces for the action to take place. These films often have elements of mystery films and crime films but these elements take a backseat to action. Notable examples are the James Bond films, The Transporter, and the Jason Bourne novels and films.

Psychological thriller: In which (until the often violent resolution) the conflict between the main characters is mental and emotional, rather than physical. The Alfred Hitchcock filmsSuspicion, Shadow of a Doubt, and Strangers on a Train and David Lynch's bizarre and influential Blue Velvet are notable examples of the type, as is The Talented Mr. Ripley byPatricia Highsmith (who also wrote Strangers) and The Good Son starring Elijah Wood and Macaulay Culkin.

Drama thriller: In which the story consists of the elements of a thriller and drama film. These films are usually slower paced and involves a great deal of character development along with plot twists. Examples include The Illusionist, The Interpreter and The Prestige.

...and the list goes on! Making a thriller as a class would probably be the simplest option for us to go with, but it could also be difficult because we'll be going up against so many other openings that come under the thriller category. A Chick Flick has the potential to be good but there's a huge chance that it could end up becoming really bland.

Action would never work...although maybe if we try and do Action it could turn into Comedy...?!

I think our choices are either thriller or comedy, because the other genres seem almost impossible to work with.

My Chosen Film Opening.

I chose to use the opening of the film 'The Prestige' because it's one of my favourite films and when I first saw the opening of it, I was instantly captured by the story. The audience is shown a variety of characters straight away, with no explanation as to how they relate to one another. For example, Michael Cane's character and the little girl seem to have no relation to Hugh Jackman and Christian Bale's characters. This is just one technique used in order to draw the audience into the film.

Another element that builds dramatic tension is the contrast between the two different events occuring. The audience sees one successful trick, a very light-hearted, simple trick done by an older man to entertain a child. The audience are also shown a trick being done on a much larger scale, with much panic and confusion, as it cannot be sure whether the man claiming to be part of the trick is telling the truth or not. (Another minor detail which creates an impact on the audience is the short time of silence when the magician falls under the stage. This too builds the dramatic tension.)

The fact that the audience does not get shown whether or not the magician survives or if he completes his trick plays a huge part in the attraction of this film. The opening also causes the audience to ask many questions (such as why does the magician need blind stage-hands?). All of these aspects of the opening together, culminate in a very compelling opening to a great film, making the viewer desperate to know what's really going on with the strange mix of characters and situations.